Originial Dungeons & Dragons Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes - Of Lovecraftian Shadows - Facets of Tsathoggua

" He was very squat and pot-bellied, his head was more like a monstrous toad than a deity, and his whole body was covered with an imitation of short fur, giving somehow a vague sensation of both the bat and the sloth. His sleepy lids were half-lowered over his globular eyes; and the tip of a queer tongue issued from his fat mouth"
"The Tale of Satampra Zeiros", Clark Ashton Smith 

This blog entry is going to pick right up from here on the blog.  On page forty nine of 'Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes' By Kuntz & Ward which  has stats for TSATHOGGUS. How does this version of the Clark Ashton Smith Lovecraftian diety differ from the usual depictions? According to Gods Demi Gods & Heroes; "TSATHOGGUS Armor Class — 4 Magic Ability: (See Below) Move: 12" Fighter Ability: 10th Level Hit Points: 275 Tsathoggus is a diety with a frog's head and a man's body. It has 7 eyes and the power to animate its statues in any of its temples. This God is very fond of human sacrifices and will animate a statue in a temple at any opportunity to get one. He drains energy levels at the rate of 3 per turn no saving throw applicable."

Now looking at the Wiki entry on TASTHOGGUS; "Tsathoggua/Zhothaqquah is described as an Old One, a god-like being from the pantheon. He was introduced in Smith's short story "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros", written in 1929 and published in the November 1931 issue of Weird Tales.^[2] His first appearance in print, however, was in Robert E. Howard's story "The Children of the Night", written in 1930 and published in the April-May 1931 issue of Weird Tales. His next appearance in print was in H. P. Lovecraft's story "The Whisperer in Darkness", written in 1930 and published in the August 1931 issue of Weird Tales." He's mentioned right up front but we really get a complete description  in Smith's "The Seven Geases" (1933), Tsathoggua is described again:

"In that secret cave in the bowels of Voormithadreth . . . abides from eldermost eons the god Tsathoggua. You shall know Tsathoggua by his great girth and his batlike furriness and the look of a sleepy black toad which he has eternally. He will rise not from his place, even in the ravening of hunger, but will wait in divine slothfulness for the sacrifice." 

For a Lovecraftian god of  "divine slothfulness" Tsathoggua it's OD&D depiction is very active and highly aggresive in his hunger. This marks the difference in my mind of this Lovecraftian diety in Gods,Demi-Gods, and Heroes.  This is because of H.P. Lovecraft & Clark Ashton Smith's descriptions of this diety are completely different. According to the Tsathoggua's wiki entry; "

Robert M. Price notes that "Lovecraft's Tsathoggua and Smith's differ at practically every point". Lovecraft, dropping Smith's bat and sloth comparisons, refers to the entity in "The Whisperer in Darkness" as the "amorphous, toad-like god-creature mentioned in the Pnakotic Manuscripts and the Necronomicon and the Commoriom myth-cycle preserved by the Atlantean high-priest Klarkash-Ton"^[4] (the priest's name was Lovecraft's nickname for Tsathoggua's creator, Clark Ashton Smith)."

 I believe that 'Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes' entry on Tsathogua is following the Lovecraftian style of the god. This allows for the more aggresive Hyborian version of this Lovecraftian god. Our own player's group of PC's encountering Tsathogua was harrowing to say the least. We stumbled upon a temple of Tsasthogua filled with treasure and of course our own PC's helped themselves to the riches. When the statues of Tsathoggua animated we had a complete TPK.