Caurngogurgoth An OSR Lovecraftian Adventure Encounter Setting For Your Old School Campaigns

May the merciful gods, if indeed there be such, guard those hours when no power of the will, or drug that the cunning of man devises, can keep me from the chasm of sleep. Death is merciful, for there is no return therefrom, but with him who has come back out of the nethermost chambers of night, haggard and knowing, peace rests nevermore. Fool that I was to plunge with such unsanctioned frensy into mysteries no man was meant to penetrate; fool or god that he was - my only friend, who led me and went before me, and who in the end passed into terrors which may yet be mine!
Hypnos HP Lovecraft 1922

There are places where the passing of the wars of alien gods has left its mark, places where adventurers and wizards long to find the secrets of ancient wars & magicks to shake the heavens. Many times all they find is insanity and depravity instead. Welcome to Caurngogurgoth world of the ancient damned and a place where the tides of chaos lap against the shores of hyperspace creating ripples across various planes & other dimensions. There is even a reflection of Caurngogurgoth in the outer darkness but cracks in the threshold allow all manner of monsters into this dead world.



Photo from the explorer John Fowler

One of  battle between chaos & law was fought over seven billon years ago on this barren world upon which  the silent spaces echo of battle still ring across the ages. The stillness of the air can be cut with a knife & very little life exists here but psychically and spiritually the place is rife with astral parasites, haunts, and other weird other planar life forms slothed off by the passing of the Great Old Ones still exist here. Many more are drawn here by the hyper spacial eddies and other planar meta currents that wreath this world in other dimensional space. It makes passage to Caurngogurgoth a very dangerous and difficult prospect at best but still adventurers come.
Here the very air rang with the alien din of battle between forces beyond the pale of man. The churned with the power of change and chaos until it the changes exhausted themselves. Alien warriors, wizards, & the corpses of a thousand species who battled in their master's names are preserved and fossilized by the black forces and magicks that were released here. They might telepathically be communicated with and some wizards consult these things for weird insides or more.



Those communicating with these beings must save vs. death or be overwhelmed by the vast alien mind which might try to take over the mere mortal vessel trying to communicate with it. Those who fail will have their head explode in a shower of gore.The desert scavengers will drag the corpse away and the bones will be reduced down to essential minerals for use as nesting material by the local wild life. Wizards and others come to Caurngogurgoth to divine the secrets of the ancient wars, battles, and conflicts between the fallen angels, Lovecraftian entities, and other alien powers of Law & Chaos. Some of these have yet to be or have taken place billions of years ago in the cycles of time. For every eight hours spend on the alien world there is a 20% chance of losing or gaining 1d30 days. Many times Caurngogurgoth comes into alignment with the elemental planes & many entities use these points to come to the world and bask in the pseudo magical energies of the place. They will also take advantage of any exotics they come across to use as slaves or fodder.


Many adventurers and wizards come to Caurngogurgoth for 'the Rh'oschatho' or the battle fields of law &  chaos. These places are mile after mile of alien petroglyphs which recount the battles and often have forbidden magicks worked into them. PC's studying them must make a Wisdom roll or be struck dumb & deaf for 1d20 days. They will become prey for the myriad of weird life forms that call the planet home. There is also the Eha-kihothacl which are the rotting corpses of giant space gods, Lovecraftian entities, fallen angels of law and the Lovecraftian demons of chaos. Many of these entities  are still quasi alive as they rot under the alien sun and often tribes or wizards partake of this flesh to gain forbidden insights or magical power.


1d20 Random Encounters On
Caurngogurgoth

1.  Desert Brain Mole scrapping through the course and fossilized remains of an alien warrior; but the fresh psychic energies have brought it to the surface. 
2. A band of 1d10  fire newt warriors on desert striders looking for slaves and artifacts, in 1d20 days they shall return to the plane of fire and use bands of brass enchanted so that humans can survive there. They shall be sold as pets or mere work fodder. 
3. A procession of alien ghostly clerics moving through the desert toward the fossilized corpse of one of their gods. They will attack anyone who disturbs their perpetual march of worship. They are not even remotely human under their robes. 
4. Flock of 1d20 gargoyles who are looking for fresh meat on their way to roost in the corpse of a giant six hundred foot warrior god thing. 
5. A field of desert violet fungus growing on the corpse of a fallen angel billions of years old, the field has been formed from his impact upon the world. 
6. A flock of six ghasts who wrapped in robes and lead by an evil wizard of 4th level are on their way to sacrificial rock to do rites of worship. 
7. A lava spawn ground for fire toads has sprung up in the lips of a god's rotting skull, there will be 1d20 of the beasts spawning whist three or four bull males stand guard over the proceedings. They will also produce 1d3 elemental pellets worth 6,000 gold pieces each to an alchemist. The bulls will attack anyone coming within 100 feet of the orgy. 
8. A pair of intelligent devours spawned from the rotting brain and skull of some alien god's thoughts of hunger. They will attack anyone they come across. 
9. A magnesium spirit created and gated in by the winds of change blowing through a nearby god thing's heart. 
10. 1d6 imps on a mission from an alien wizard arguing over who shall take the organ from an alien god thing and risk the local cult's ire. They are being stalked by an alien hunter aligned with law. They will attack adventurers for the sheer sport of it. 
11. Leucrotta family on the hunt for fresh meat or they will settle for the rotting god corpse meat. 
12. Alien lich and its procession of 6th level black clerics on the pilgrimage trail to their god's rotting foul corpse. They will kill anyone who tries to stop or delay them. 
13. Fire lizard clan on the hunt for fresh meat for their day, these are fast moving alien Komodo dragon style hunters who prey on the local alien mammals. 
14. Berserk alien warriors who have partaken of the alien flesh of their god thing and now violently wander about attacking anyone they come across to feed on their flesh. There are ten of these nameless warriors. There is a 10% chance of  one them having a super science relic of some type. 
15. Pack of 1d20 desert ogres on the hunt led by their ogre magi alien wizard master. They want fresh meat but their master is interested in relics and will question anyone he runs across. 
16. Desert Purple worm attack! There will be two worms driven to attack anyone they come across. 
17. Two twenty foot alien ghost warriors striding into battles long gone who will attack anyone they run across. They will vanish if a word of  Law is used against them. 
18. Two salamander warriors sliding across the desert sands who have been summoned as a part of a rite to burn the corpse of a god thing by an evil alien priest. They're quite excited by the prospect and speak in riddles about the prospect. 
19. The spectre of an alien wizard haunts this place and once more wanders about to attack anyone it across. The gods cursed this fool for meddling in their affairs. Nearby are the remains of his temple laboratory. 
20. Sixteen alien wights going to feed on the corpse spirit of a fallen warrior god of law. They are dangerous and ever so hungry for life force.  They're mound temple is nearby where they have been buried. They exist on the negative plane and can take on the illusionary appearance of alien warriors they had in life if they are aware of PC's. For a short time they may welcome PC's but the illusion will drop at a moment's notice when their hunger gets to them.
    The Eha-kihothacl
    
    
    
    
    
    Eha-kihothacl is the alien god flesh of the giant rotting and fossilized corpses that dot the landscape of Caurngogurgoth. Anyone eating or partaking of this stuff must save vs death or poison, they will spend 1d20 hours on a spiritual journey into alien zones of the astral where they will be schooled and have visions of the entity from whom they have partaken of the flesh. They will go up two levels of their chosen class but there are dire consequences for these actions. First there will be aura of the unnatural about them and small animals or people of less then a hit dice will flee from them. There is a 80% chance of gaining a mutation if the entity was of chaos. If the entity was of law then the PC will sink into a deep dark depression for 1d20 days and may become suicidal because of the cosmic revelations.  There is also a 20% if the PC is aligned with chaos they may have cannibalistic tendencies of their own race brought on by the eating of this alien flesh.
    
    
    There are several ways to reach Caurngogurgoth including several magic items including cubic gates, wands of teleportation keyed to the location and even several spells from Space Age Sorcery
    There is no truth that the black galleons of the Moon Things stop here; those rumors were recently put to rest with the passing of the wizard Ro.