New OSR Lovecraftian Monster Race -The N'naclleph For Your Old School Campaigns

"One was a snarling, murderous, cat-headed monster, with retracted lips revealing formidable fangs, and eyes that glared intolerable hatred from beneath ferine brows. This creature had the claws and wings of a griffin, and seemed as if it were poised in readiness to swoop down on the city of Vyones, like a harpy on its prey."

Clark Ashton Smith, The Maker Of Gargoyles
Photo by Pipolchap

There have always been monsters stalking fringes of reality, monsters of tooth, claw, & anti spirit that have always hunted the human soul. These horrors usually are at the beck & call of the other gods or the Great Old Ones but some packs of these monsters stalk between the spaces of the night. These monsters hunt the wastelands & wildernesses of 'Old Earth' killing where & when they want to. They come to the lonely places & fringe ruins for the souls of fortune hunters & fools as these are their favorite prey.
These creatures are formed from the reflected mockery of human dreams violence  & the evil intelligence of murder filtered through the lens of the Outer Darkness. The process is a natural one with strange essences forming into these vicious life forms. They create their own bodies  that draw the cast off dust of a million planets to form the lean forms of insanity & hate. Down through the other dimensional angles they come to Old Earth drawn down the routes of old magick. They come to hunt the flesh & souls of men but these are monsters whose very existence mocks life. They are immune to the sleep, charm,& mind affecting spells.
They hunt at night galloping on the air & taking on prey much bigger then themselves. These mad alien bastard creations hunt in packs of 1d6 individuals attracted to areas of corruption & black magick. They have a deep & abiding connection with the negative material plane through which they also have an association with death. They attack with a fang hold which drains 2 points of Constitution per round. But this is only the beginning of these horror's hold of depravity on their victims. 


Wounds created by these horrors are infectious with a 60% of turning gangrene if their not treated magically because of the alien fungus & rime left behind by the bite of these monsters. Since they are only partially material in our universe +1 or better weapons are needed to hurt them.  The N'naclleph leave behind a horrid form of russet mold in the wake of their passing. The stuff seems to live in symbiosis with the rock like alien flesh of these monsters.
These horrors are sacred to the Great Old One Rhan-Tegoth, Thamogorgos, & Aforgomon. Anyone slain by packs of these horrors have their souls divided among these entities to supped upon for eternity. 

These horrors when summoned by simple summon monster rite often rage & howl for the souls of mortals. They are angry creatures who hate mortal life with an undying passion and often will eat the souls of summoner or wizard then going on sprees of insanity, murder, & mayhem leaving behind the sign of Koth in blood & gore  as a warning of their passing. The N'naclleph have been found on 'Old Earth', the asteroid fields, the far side of Mercury, & many of the worldlets around Jupiter. There is a standing bounty of 30,000 gold pieces for the head any black wizard who summons these horrid things with proof of such a summoning.

The N'naclleph
No Encountered :1d8
Alignment: Chaotic Evil 

Size: M 

Movement: 30 (fly 50) 

Dexterity 14 

Armor Class: 4 

Hit Dice:5 

No Attacks: 3 Claw/Claw/ Bite

Damage: 1d4/1d4/1d6

Saving throw: 16 

Morale: 12 

Experience:200 

Treasure: C 

Specials: 

Surprises on 4 in 6 chance because PC's believe its a statue 

+1 or better to hit 

Immune to sleep,charm, & most mind affecting spells 

 Bite  drains 2 points of Constitution per round. Wounds created by these horrors are infectious with a 60% of turning gangrene if their not treated magically because of the alien fungus & rime left behind by the bite of these monsters.
PC's have a 40% chance of contracting russet mold on their possessions or equipment after engaging the N'naclleph in melee.

Like a worm-fretted visage from the tomb,
The moon unswathes her hollow, shrunken head,
Launching such light as foulders on the dead
From pallid skies more death-like than the gloom.
Under her beams the breasted lands assume
Dead hues, and charnel shapes unceremented;
And shadows that towering sepulchers might shed
Move livid as the shadows on dials of doom.
On hills like tumuli, and waters mute,
A whiteness steals as of a world made still
When reptant Death at last rears absolute—
An earth now frozen by malefice of eyes
Aeonian dooms and realm-deep rigors fill—
The gaze of that Medusa of the skies

The Medusa of the Skies  (1912)  by Clark Ashton Smith

1D20 Random Vicious Gargoyle Encounter Table For Your Old School Campaigns

The souls of the worshipers that make bargains with the powers of Chaos become trapped within the Outer Darkness. These souls attract a myriad of particles of stone, dirt, dust, and worse in the darkness between worlds this becomes a pseudo living body for the monster. Minds, former lives, personality including individuality are finally scrubbed clean by the ever changing forces of chaos & mutation. These beings become trapped within living stone like flesh that becomes a prison of living Hell for centuries. Black wizards, sorcerers, etc. of the lowest orders  call them into the world of the living.They serve the will of their masters longing to rip into the flesh of trespassers, & adventurers. There are thousands of these beings floating around the orbit of Saturn & Jupiter awaiting the beckoned call of the Great Old Ones & many gods of evil intent.

"One was a snarling, murderous, cat-headed monster, with retracted lips revealing formidable fangs, and eyes that glared intolerable hatred from beneath ferine brows. This creature had the claws and wings of a griffin, and seemed as if it were poised in readiness to swoop down on the city of Vyones, like a harpy on its prey."

Clark Ashton Smith, The Maker Of Gargoyles

 These monsters are summoned by a simple 'Monster summoning' rite but the caster must have an absolute command of these raving beasts for they are of the lowest intelligence. But they have an incredible cunning that only top apex predators have.
They must be commanded to guard a particular area or territory for they are violent and fickle creatures at best. At worst they are raving psychotic monsters of most terrible aspect. They eat what they can catch and haunt ruins, dungeons, and other places of black occult activity.
Many black magick cults promise immortality in exchange for the souls of their members, which they grant after a twisted fashion. These souls are given over to demonic horrors that weave bodies of stone like flesh and dust around the newly created monsters. These monsters vent their violent & angry tempers on the world of living with a vengeance.

"Then, as he still gazed irresolutely at the group before him, and its vague reflection in the glass beyond, there came a thunderous crash, and the panes of the window with their pictured scene were shattered inward in a score of fragments. Ere the litter of falling glass had reached the tavern floor, a swart and monstrous form flew into the room, with a beating of heavy vans that caused the tapers to flare troublously, and the shadows to dance like a sabbat of misshapen devils. The thing hovered for a moment, and seemed to tower in a great darkness higher than the ceiling above the heads of Reynard and the others as they turned toward it. They saw the malignant burning of its eyes, like coals in the depth of Tartarean pits, and the curling of its hateful lips on the bared teeth that were longer and sharper than serpent-fangs."
Clark Ashton Smith The Maker of Gargoyles

All entries inspired by Clark Ashton Smith's The Maker of Gargoyle story.

From the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Characters Coloring Book (1983)

     These monsters gain a +1 to their damage in melee due to the violence that warps & colours their perceptions. They hate & fear priests and clerics of religions of order which they will attack on sight being reminded of their inhumanity & depravity.

 1D20 Random Vicious Gargoyle Encounter Table 

1. Garusai - A gargoyle that once served a black magician and picked up 1d4 black magic spells of first level. This monster delights in taking out warriors and fighters whenever it can. It has a small stash of magic items that it will use to bargain with for its freedom from its dark god master. It loves to carve its name into its victims after a kill. 
2. Brarus Otrus - A former gladiator and black wizard who was done in by her husband but now has become a monster of the nether darkness, she takes her vengeance out on all living beings and has a yen for the lower intestines of her victims. She can read  Latin and Hyperborean, she loves to recite black poems as rips apart her victims. 
3. Htrrus Thal - The former black wizard of a coven who became the sacrifice to his own dark god. This left the soul of the wizard a hollow and terrible thing that was scrubbed clean by the forces of darkness. Now it longs to hurt & maime any it comes across often keeping and eating its victims hearts. 
4. Arusi No - The soul of a boy given the form and violence of a monster through the means of black magick. This vicious monster longs for its own innocence but takes its anger at its fate on any it comes across with vicious and dangerous claws. 
5.  Trysu Frus - This former fat man and killer for a dangerous black cult is now the guardian and assassin for several black occult groups that rely on its talents to clean up their messes. This gargoyle has twelve minor treasure caches scattered across the country and its looking for a black wizard to break its condition and free its soul. Until then it vicious kills send chills up the spines of locals and its name is used to frighten children. 
6. Brus Tri Rursu - A former prince of power who was given over to the talons of a black god. This gargoyle loves to torment and hunt the rich as well as stupid for pay of black cults. It hunts on the wing and leaves 'presents' of dead animals and pets for its victims. 
7. Aruro The Wanderer was once an explorer from another world that pissed off a black wizard of the darkness who feasted on the fool's soul. Now it passes its time reciting poetry and hunting the enemies of the wizard that created it. 
8. Orus Rex - The king predator is a former king's hunter that slept with the king's wife and maid servant. His privates & brains were given over to a cult of black wizards and this mighty hunter was the result. He loves to hunt lovers, cheating husbands and black witches. Orus has a forty percent magick resistance created by his dark masters who nightly blast him with the blackest curses. 
9. Boicyal has become the avatar of the Dark Ones to a local cult of 1d6 Lovecraftian cultists lead by a dark wizard of 4th level. This gargoyle has come to relish its position of murderer and assassin to its master. A violent and yet silent soul, this being's eyes betray its thoughts of wanton chaos and depravity.
10. Thrus The Myriad is a collection of souls knitted into its current hideous form that serves 1d6 black cabals of wizards. This thing loves gems and to collect the eyes of wizards so that it can stare into the black abyss of the final rewards after it makes a kill.  It has 1d6 souls stores in bottles along its hide out. 
11. Bris Thal - A former princess who willingly walked into the darkness and embrace of her gods. She has served many masters and has collected hundreds of treasures in her time. She has become a power broker to several black cabals whom she pits against one another to match her price. She is a power broker and information seller flitting from world to world on her black wings. She retains the vicious and violent nature that she had in life. 
12. Rue rie Rex - The king of the dungeon has become the head of a cult of gargoyles who raid other black cults for their treasures. He will work as a mercenary for any black cults who may meet his price. His gargoyles are highly cunning and have high chance of casing their own clients for a raid. 
13. The Blood Soaked Warrior is a gargoyle who serves the blood handed cult and has for centuries. He has no proper name is actually an extension of his dark master's will but there are those in his clutch who whisper he was once a prince who was wronged. As the centuries dawn he might have become more self aware and then seek the dead world where his legendary legacy awaits.  
14.  The black priestess Kell is a gargoyle in a long line of warriors who serve a small goddess who carries out an agenda of guarding dungeons and treasures. She has a string of clients 
15.  Gru's Rell a former psycho killer who was punished by being made into a perfect instrument of vengeance of a black cabal of sorcerers. He now carries out the wishes of his black hearted masters will relish and longs for the time when their entrails will decorate his claws. He moves from world to world carrying out a streak of violence as a gesture to his black god. 
16. Resu Thurs - Created on a Thursday in the month of the black goddess this gargoyle has obsession with  time and kills each Thursday so that he can add another cat's eye gem to his thousand and three collection marking his kills. He is convinced that his freedom will be granted when he collects one million kills. 
17. 'A rrus The Black Mother' a former queen who was given the form of a black gargoyle warrior to wreck vengeance on her enemies. Her form was merged with her warrior husband's to make a better murderer. Her violence has claimed the lives of many and she guards the most precious of her cult's treasures. 
18. True' Val The Cat Headed - A warrior gargoyle who was the head of a black cleric cat cult whose body was warped into its current form to guard the cult that he founded. He guards all of the holy of unholies of his former cult now. Able to cast 1d4 second level black magic spells this hunter is without peer and collects the ears of Elves which he hates with an incredible violence. 
19. Rrus Rerllei A former cult of Cthulhu priestess who was given over to the vengeance of a cult of Hastur.  This priestess now guards her former rival's cult members but she has a mind of her own and has murdered twelve cult members over the centuries and secreted away two treasure boxes.  When her curse comes true her current employers will find themselves as sacrifices for her dark god. 
20.  Areus The Undying is a former priest who turned himself into a gargoyle to save his black cult from twelve warriors of Law. His sacrifice proved his cult with their much needed sacrifices and he was granted immortality. He will regenerate wounds as a troll and has the abilities of a priest of darkness. Very few live to find out these secrets as he guards a Lovecrafian relic of dangerous aspect. He is vicious, violent, and a dangerous hunter of souls. 
    
    

1d20 Random Gargoyle Encounter Table For Your Old School Campaigns

Created from the warped remains of souls that have finally submitted to the powers of Chaos and evil. They're former existences, lives, minds, and more have been finally scrubbed clean by the ever changing forces of eternal change and mutation. Gargoyles are monsters who are at once pathetic and incredibly dangerous, they're bodies wracked in a cold prison of unchanging stone like flesh. They're alien consciousness is locked within the frame of unholy flesh. Alien energies feed the thing but its talons long to rip apart the flesh of men. These beings serve a myriad powers from the Outer Darkness including the Great Old Ones and are often at the beckoned call of black wizards and occultists of the lowest orders. They will stand motionless for days, months or weeks unless called to action by trespassers or adventurers who cross their paths.


These monsters once summoned by a simple summon monster spell must be carefully commanded to guard a particular area or territory for they are violent and fickle creatures at best. At worst they are raving psychotic monsters of most terrible aspect. They eat what they can catch and haunt ruins, dungeons, and other places of black occult activity.

"One was a snarling, murderous, cat-headed monster, with retracted lips revealing formidable fangs, and eyes that glared intolerable hatred from beneath ferine brows. This creature had the claws and wings of a griffin, and seemed as if it were poised in readiness to swoop down on the city of Vyones, like a harpy on its prey."

Clark Ashton Smith, The Maker Of Gargoyles

It is known that there are some cults of dark aspect who promise their members immortality by duping these fools into rites of black magick that transfer their souls into the demonic hands beyond the grave to be transformed into these black monsters of myth and legend. These beings are raving killers of horrid aspect that vent their horror and violence upon their prey.

"Its companion was a horned satyr, with the vans of some great bat such as might roam the nether caverns, with sharp, clenching talons, and a look of Satanically brooding lust, as if it were gloating above the helpless object of its unclean desire."

Clark Ashton Smith, The Maker Of Gargoyles

1d20 Random Gargoyle Encounter Table
For Adventure Encounters

1. Kinyakrn having fought the warriors of the colony worlds this being was promised immortality and an eternity of blood shed,violence, and malevolence. It has come to this place to over see its charge as its soul roils in chaos and violence waiting to be unleashed. This bastard gains a +2 on damage as little bits of chaotic energy leak from under its claws.
2. Losortha was once the concubine of a black occultist and wizard, the mind and body has been cleansed leaving only the monster of black violence behind. Its claws now ache to rip into the soft flesh of man and serve her dark masters. She has a special hatred for wizards and keeps a fist sized ruby near her perch that reminds her of her old master's heart.
3. Lot-inOllolha was once the product of a cult's breeding program and his own death came as a terrible shock to him. Now locked in immortal flesh of a gargoyle he longs for the moments of violence and murder when he is released back into life. He loves to serve his dark masters and his every action may result in explosions of violence and horror.
4. Aurliggghan there are no words to describe the freedom that this existence gives once this servant of darkness broke from his alien master's yoke. Now the moments in eternity of bloodshed and murder satisfy those little pangs of insanity. This gargoyle has a small treasure of 1d6 trophies its taken from adventurers. It wonders if its dark masters may call upon it again.
5. Boicyal has become the avatar of the Dark Ones to a local cult of 1d6 Lovecraftian cultists lead by a dark wizard of 4th level. This gargoyle has come to relish its position of murderer and assassin to its master. A violent and yet silent soul, this being's eyes betray its thoughts of wanton chaos and depravity.
6. Chorlama was once a princess who was sacrificed to the dark gods and gave into her own base nature. Now she is a creature of chaos who flits from world  to world on her wings driven by her dark masters. She has served kings, princes, princesses, priests and black clerics all. Some have died on her claws and others have rewarded her for her service but this gargoyle has a few agendas of her own. She has become an information broker among the cults of chaos and has an agenda of a cult of her own on her mind. But this creature is prone to violence and lashes out at the world.
7. E'ephu was a monster from the beginning and has taken on the mantle of assassin and guardian to numerous cults over the eons. Now he has become a dark avenging angel who destroys those who take the treasures of his dungeon home.
8. Phusothal is a former black cleric whose gods rewarded him with the body of a gargoyle and whose mind snapped and fractured under the yoke of his change. Now he is a stalker of the wasteland murdering those who come across domain and scattering their organs to his masters.
9. Rllotlot watches over a black altar of the Old Ones and comes to life to end that of those who would violate his charge and take the treasures that adorn this place of black worship. He worships their ever changing aspects as he can't partake of any more blessed sacraments of chaos himself. He has two magic swords to deal with very troublesome violators.
10. Uggghothak was a wizard of the blackest aspect whose service must continue throughout the eons. His masters refuse to let him die and he spends his days in quiet observation of the blackness of the darkness of the Outer Realms. That is until he is needed, he still knows a bit of magick and has three minor spell books hidden nearby.
11. Charitulldrorm was once known as the blue wanderer a murderer of such lethal cunning and dangerous aspect that mothers would frighten their children with his name and death was no release. This being was brought back by his black demonic master to serve again. It retains its murderous impulses and has a +2 collection of daggers and tools of murder serving the local cult of Lovecraftian worshipers of horror.
12. Doba The Wise is a gargoyle of ancient aspect whose survived thousands of years and is the veteran of three chaos wars. It has come home to its ancient roosting site to contemplate the long years of eternal Chaos and now seeks a great treasure to guard. Its masters watch through its eyes and it comes to bless the local cult as it takes victims as it will with powerful +1 horned claws.
13. Dulazgug is the product of a diseased mind of a god warped around the soul of an ancient mad man whose now the guardian of a debased treasure down in the dungeon where this bastard has come to call home. A very violent and dangerous beast who loathes humans.
14. Ethai was the product of a cult of dark druids who sacrificed her to the gods and had her transformed into this beast. Now she stalks the dungeons seeking out the next victim to take to her dark masters in blood and torment. She has a small garden of poisons that she uses to coat her claws with.
15. Ethardringl has lichen and dangerous fungus growing on its hide, there are 1d4 small violet fungus upon its body and it sings praises to its masters as it claws and rakes its victims.
16. Faegori is the muscle for a  gang of Lovecraftian assassins who use dangerous rites and creatures to carry out their contracts. This gargoyle has two dungeons that it shifts between and uses its contacts to seek out sacrifices for its dark masters.
17. Goldr has flecks of gold in its hide, the result of a treasure melting and splattering this monster. He retains a small occult aura around him from his blessings by his gods who saw fit to make him a deadly combatant. This gargoyle carries a strain of the Red Death upon his claws and often uses his ability to pass on the curse of this supernatural disease.
18. Guaurorcalor was once the head of a kingdom's infrastructure but served two masters, in the end he was taken by his Outer World gods and turned into this beast of a monster. He now dwells in the ruins and dungeons in the underworld howling his 'praises' to his unholy gods. Once per new moon this being is able to curse a victim and take their souls as fodder for his Lovecraftian masters.
19. Koririr this being is an amalgam of two lovers who pledged their souls to the demons and gods of the Outer Darkness. They have become locked in one being as a merged murderous soul that seeks out lovers and ends their lives with violence. That is when it is not serving a cult and its dark head. This being is more then slightly tortured and insane. It loves gems and jewels, it has a small cache of these baubles that it plays with. It also loves the color of eyes and has a small collection of those as well.
20. Barogbab is the cursed head of a small rival cult who has come to serve his dark masters as muscle to a local wizard and watches over a small coven's meeting hole. This gargoyle loathes itself and takes its frustrations out on victims in dangerous ways carving weird designs into their flesh with its +1 claws.