OSR Commentary On Clark Ashton Smith's Clark Ashton Smith's White Sybil, The (1932)

" Tortha, the poet, with strange austral songs in his heart, and the umber of high and heavy suns on his face, had come back to his native city of Cerngoth, in Mhu Thulan, by the Hyperborean sea. Far had he wandered in the quest of that alien beauty which had fled always before him like the horizon. Beyond Commoriom of the white, numberless spires, and beyond the marsh-grown jungles to the south of Cornmoriom, he had floated on nameless rivers, and had crossed the half-legendary realm of Tscho Vulpanomi, upon whose diamond-sanded, ruby-graveled shore an ignescent ocean was said to beat forever with fiery spume."

"He had beheld many marvels, and things incredible to relate: the uncouthly carven gods of the South, to whom blood was spilt on sun-approaching towers; the plumes of the huusim, which were many yards in length and were colored like pure flame; the mailed monsters of the austral swamps; the proud argosies of Mu and Antillia, which moved by enchantment, without oar or sail; the fuming peaks that were shaken perpetually by the struggles of imprisoned demons. But, walking at noon on the streets of Cerngoth, he met a stranger marvel than these. Idly, with no expectation of other than homely things, he beheld the White Sybil of Polarion."
We're going to pick this right up from here on the blog Clark Ashton Smith's White Sybil, The (1932) is one of the most important tales of the Hyperborea Cycle because it shows us an avitar of the death, and destruction of  the Hyperborean Age. Tortha, the poet is exactly the type of bardic character whose come across the influence of a Lovecraftian and deadly entity that will come to mark the end of an era. Tortha's pursuit of the White Sybil of Polorian is the pursuit of madness and insanity almost at his own destruction. This entity will come to mark the coming of the White Worm later on and the end of the Hyborean era. Tortha is a perfect bardic NPC before or during his pursuit. Because of the fact that he's seen and been around so many marvels of the Hyperborean age PC's could seek him out in his current condition or in the ages before his pursuit to gain his wisdom. 
For Stormbringer rpg parties of adventurers Toritha is a perfect off beat NPC that could offer to guide the PC's to some of the marvels he's seen on CAS's  Hyperborea. 

For the Hyperborea rpg itself he's a great NPC to impart some piece of forgotten lore or bit of mythos about this once great kingdom now lost too the ice. And Tortha represents the madness that one finds in the pursuit of Lovecraftian horrors. And make no mistake that the White Sybil is exactly that an avitar of the White Worm made from the souls of the descarded citizens of a thousands lands of the ice.