OSR Commentary On Clark Ashton Smith’s The Dark Eidolon & Castles & Crusades rpg Campaigning.

 Thasaidon, lord of seven hells

Wherein the single Serpent dwells,
With volumes drawn from pit to pit
Through fire and darkness infinite ”
Thasaidon, sun of nether skies,
Thine ancient evil never dies,
For aye thy somber fulgors flame
On sunken worlds that have no name,
Man's heart enthrones thee, still supreme,
Though the false sorcerers blaspheme.
--The Song of Xeethra

 

"On Zothique, the last continent on Earth, the sun no longer shone with the whiteness of its prime, but was dim and tarnished as if with a vapor of blood. New stars without number had declared themselves in the heavens, and the shadows of the infinite had fallen closer. And out of the shadows, the older gods had returned to man: the gods forgotten since Hyperborea, since Mu and Poseidonis, bearing other names but the same attributes. And the elder demons had also returned, battening on the fumes of evil sacrifice, and fostering again the primordial sorceries."

Cover page spread of Clark Ashton Smith's The Dark Eidolon as it appeared in Weird Tales January 1935. Illustration by Clark Ashton Smith.

Clark Aston Smith's 'The Dark Eidolon ' is a Sword & Sorcery classic story & it has deep implications for OSR play. This session report picks right up from here on the blog.. So let's get the history of this story outta of the way from the story's wiki entry; "According to Emperor of Dreams: A Clark Ashton Smith Bibliography (1978) by Donald Sidney-Fryer, "The Dark Eidolon" was first published in the January  1935 issue of  Weird Tales. It was included in the books  Out of Space and Time (1944), The Spell of Seven (1965) edited by  L. Sprague de Camp, and  Zothique (1970)."
The PC's find themselves within the ruins of Xylac and it's devil haunted buildings. The party is working on behalf of a rich patron who is actually the cousin of Prince Zotulla. 
The party went deep into the wasteland of Zothique where the city of Xylac was. There's not much of the city above ground and that which is actually is haunted by the damned and the devils of  Thasaidon, lord of seven hells. Immediately as the party descended into the depths of the dungeons of the Xylac. They came face to face with the lemures of  Thasaidon. There were literally hundreds of the damned waiting to devour the party of adventurers. 

So the party ran! That's right they took off down another side hall blocking the way with blessed waters that they had bought last game. 
They then blocked the way with a line of lime and blessed salt! This was only a temporary speed bump at best. 

They came across a giant seal of Thasaidon marked the next passage. The party's necromancer paid homage to the prince of the seven hells. This held the giant rat things that were waiting at bay. 

The party found several pieces of treasure that had been left as an offering. They weren't stupid enough to take them. 
The adventurers were able to get to the next level and they ran straight into the undead damned that are left to their own devices serving the lord of the seven hells. These undead NPC's were able to tell the PC's were the artifact they were searching for. 

The lower level were giant halls and deep catacombs for the dead. There were several altars were for other gods and goddesses. But these have been converted to worship of  the lord of damnation. 
The party wanted too not offend Thasaidon because of the fact the party has had interaction with him before. They saw what happened when his curse came down on a city splitting it in half with one half being swallowed into Hell. 
The party found several hidden doors that led to the next level below the city where the older dead were interned. 
The party ran into a devil feasting on the bones of one of the members of the royal family. The party decided to parley with the fiend. We decided to end here. 

"The Dark Eidolon" was originally published in the January 1935 issue of  Weird Tales.