Marvel's Kulan Gath, The Ancient Despot As an NPC For Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition

 Bringing Kulan Gath—the ancient, world-conquering sorcerer from classic pulp and comic fantasy—into The Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition requires building him as a high-tier, existential threat. Because Cepheus 2E uses a 2D6 + Skill + Characteristic DM mechanic, a high-level sorcerer's power comes from a massive intellect, devastating Eldritch spells, and his signature magic item.

Here is the complete NPC profile for Kulan Gath, optimized for the grit and high stakes of Cepheus 2E.

Kulan Gath, The Ancient Despot

Referee Note: Kulan Gath is best used as a campaign villain rather than a standard combat encounter. He values dominion, flesh-warping transformations, and restoring his ancient empire above simple destruction.

Characteristics & Vitals

• STR: 5 (-1)

• DEX: 7 (+0)

• END: 8 (+0)

• INT: 13 (+2)

• EDU: 15 (+3)

• SOC: 11 (+1) (As an ancient noble/emperor)

• Stamina: 25

• Lifeblood: 15

Core Skills

• Sorcery (Eldritch)-5

• Sorcery (Arcane)-3

• Knowledge (History/Occult)-4

• Deception-3

• Leadership-3

• Melee (Blades)-1

• Willpower-4

Talents

• Iron Will: +2 DM to any saving throw or task roll to resist psychic assault, mental manipulation, or rival sorcery.

• Eldritch Mastery: When rolled on the Magical Mishap table, Kulan Gath may roll twice and choose the less severe result.

Combat & Sorcery

Kulan Gath despises direct physical confrontation. He relies on charmed thralls, summoned abominations, and long-range magical devastation. If forced into close combat, he defends himself with a ceremonial dagger or a sacrificial sword.

• Sacrificial Dagger: Melee (Blades), Damage: 1D6-1

• Sorcerous Blast: Sorcery (Eldritch), Range: Medium, Damage: 3D6 (ignores mundane armor)

Signature Spells Known

Spell	School	Effect / Cepheus 2E Mechanics
Flesh to Beast	Eldritch	Target must make an END check (Difficulty: Formidable 10+) or be twisted into a horrific, compliant mutant beast under Gath's control.
Summon Fiend	Eldritch	Automatically summons 1D3 minor Eldritch horrors or 1 major demon to fight on his behalf.
Chains of Hadth	Arcane	Forms glowing bands of energy around up to 3 targets. Requires a STR check (Difficulty: Difficult 8+) each round to break free.
Eldritch Shield	Arcane	Creates a shimmering barrier that absorbs up to 15 points of incoming physical or energy damage before dissipating.

The Amulet of Kulan Gath (Legendary Artifact)

Kulan Gath’s true terrifying trait is his functional immortality, anchored to his ancient golden amulet.

• Possession Mechanic: If Kulan Gath’s physical body is slain, his lifeforce instantly retreats into the amulet. Anyone who touches or wears the amulet must make an immediate INT or Willpower check vs. Kulan Gath's Sorcery skill (Effect 8+).

• The Overwrite: On a failure, the wearer is instantly possessed. Over the course of 1D6 days, their physical body warps and transforms into the physical likeness of Kulan Gath himself, restoring his original stats, skills, and memories.

• Destroying the Artifact: The amulet cannot be broken by mundane weapons. It can only be destroyed by dropping it into the heart of a magical nexus, dissolving it in the blood of a pure-hearted god, or hitting it with a high-tech energy weapon (if running a Sword & Planet crossover game) dealing over 40 damage in a single strike.

Robert E. Howard's Conan From "The Tower of the Elephant" and "Rogues in the House" AS NPC For Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition

 In Robert E. Howard’s original stories—specifically "The Tower of the Elephant" and "Rogues in the House"—Conan’s time as a thief in the cities of Zamora and Corinthia features a distinct version of the character. He isn't yet the seasoned general or king; he is a raw, hot-blooded, powerful teenager (around 17–18 years old) navigating the decadent, civilized "Maul" of Arenjun.

He lacks the refined street-smarts of a master rogue, but he completely makes up for it with peerless, cat-like barbarian reflexes, unmatched climbing ability, and an instinctual hatred for magic.

The following build details Conan during his Thieving Phase tailored specifically for the 2d6 OGL mechanics of The Sword of Cepheus (2nd Edition).

Gary Nord 2007 artwork 

Character Profile: Conan of Cimmeria (The Thief)

Age: 18

Species: Human

Career History: Barbarian (1 Term), Thief (1 Term)

Characteristics

Attribute	Score	Modifier	Notes
STR (Strength)	11	+2	Massive, muscular frame; devastating melee damage.
DEX (Dexterity)	10	+1	Cat-like, pantherish speed and climbing ability.
END (Endurance)	10	+1	Hardened by a brutal childhood in Cimmeria.
INT (Intelligence)	7	+0	Shrewd and observant, but unfamiliar with complex civilization.
EDU (Education)	4	-1	Illiterate at this stage; relies entirely on street wisdom.
SOC (Social Status)	3	-1	An outlander and a common rogue living in the slums.

• Stamina: 21 (END 10 + STR 11)

• Lifeblood: 10 (Equal to END)

---

Skills

In Sword of Cepheus 2e, skills are tight and impactful. Conan’s skill list reflects his survival instincts from his homeland layered over his new urban thievery.

• Athletics-2 (Running, leaping, and scaling sheer walls like the Tower of the Elephant)

• Combat (Blades)-2 (Wielding broadswords, hunting knives, and cutlasses with lethal force)

• Stealth-2 (Moving silently in the shadows of the Maul)

• Survival-1 (Tracking, hunting, and enduring elements)

• Recon-1 (Danger sense, spotting traps, noticing ambushes)

• Streetwise-1 (Navigating fences, taverns, and city scum)

• Carouse-0 (Spending every single piece of stolen silver on wine and women immediately)

---

Character Traits (2e Selection)

Under the 2nd Edition rules, characters earn Traits to specialize their capabilities. For a 2-term young Conan, the following two traits represent his iconic Howardian strengths:

Cat-like Reflexes

Conan possesses the uncanny agility of a mountain panther.

Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to all Dexterity checks involving balance, dodging, or leaping. When determining initiative, you may roll twice and take the better result.

Barbaric Will

A fierce, unpolluted mind that actively rejects and resists the unnatural pull of sorcery.

Benefit: You gain a +2 DM to all saving throws or task checks made to resist psychic attacks, sorcerous illusions, or mind-controlling spells.

---

Equipment & Combat Stats

At this stage in his life, Conan travels light. He despises heavy armor because it restricts the silent, fluid movements he relies on for survival.

• Armor: Leather Jerkin or Loincloth (Armor 1). Note: He often strips entirely naked or down to a loincloth when executing a major heist to ensure maximum silence.

• Primary Weapon: Broadsword (Damage: $3d6 + 2$ from STR modifier).

• Secondary Weapon: Hunting Knife / Dagger (Damage: $1d6 + 2$, easily concealed, can be thrown).

• Gear: Sturdy hemp rope, grappling hook, a pouch containing a few stolen silver coins (if he hasn't drank them away yet).

---

Playing "Thief-Phase" Conan in Cepheus 2e

When roleplaying or running this version of Conan as an NPC, keep these core behaviors in mind to stay true to Howard's writing:

1. The Overconfident Outsider: He openly mocks civilized thieves. In The Tower of the Elephant, he laughs at the "master thieves" of Zamora because they are too afraid to climb a tower. He relies on raw muscle and daring over intricate tools.

2. The "Spendthrift" Economy: Conan should almost never have money on his character sheet between adventures. He is driven by a cycle of: Get a massive hoard of gold $\rightarrow$ spend it all in a magnificent week of drinking and carousing $\rightarrow$ wake up broke $\rightarrow$ plot a new heist.

3. Instinctive Magic Hatred: He does not look at a sorcerer and think "what an interesting magical encounter." He looks at a sorcerer with visceral disgust and attempts to put a blade through them before they can finish chanting.

Appendix N - The Remeberance of Robert E. Howard & Set the Elder God of Kull of Atlantis

 So a couple of days ago this piece of Robert E. Howard inspired artwork.. Now its been many years since I've been down to Cross Plains Texas. And over the last couple of days Robert E.Howard's life & literature has played on my mind. 

Artwork by Mark Wheatley used without permission 
Go visit Mark Wheatley's gallery here. You won't be sorry.

Now Robert E. Howard's Conan is the usually the literatery character that folks bring up. Conan is the solid barbarian. But for me its gotta be King Kull & the Thuria stories.
These stories are so important to the Cthulhu mythos & even the Marvel universe they never get mentioned in OSR or old school circles according to the HP Lovecraft wiki; "Thuria is a fictional supercontinent created by Robert E. Howard. It first appeared in "The Shadow Kingdom" (Weird Tales in August, 1929), the first of his King Kull stories and, according to Lin Carter, both one of the first three stories contributing to the Cthulhu Mythos and written by others than H.P. Lovecraft" 


 
Thuria is more then the Kull though it marks the real meat & patatoes of the appearance of the Cthulhu mythos in Robert E. Howard's Thuria tales. King Kull himself was far more successful then Conan but who is he?! According to the wiki entry on Kull of Atlantis; "Kull of Atlantis or Kull the Conqueror is a fictional character created by writer Robert E. Howard.  Kull was born in pre-cataclysmic Atlantis c. 100,000 BC, depicted as inhabited at the time by barbarian tribes. East of Atlantis lay the ancient continent of Thuria, of which the northwest portion is divided among several civilized kingdoms. The most powerful among these was Valusia; others included Commoria, Grondar, Kamelia, Thule, and Verulia." 


Kull of Atlantis  first published appearance was "The Shadow Kingdom" by Robert E. Howard  in Weird Tales (August, 1929). In later Kull of Atlantis stories one of the most dangerous if not the most dangerous foes are the serpent people. According to the H.P. Lovecraft wiki on the creation of the serpent people; "The serpent people were invented separately, but almost simultaneously by Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith; H. P. Lovecraft, Lin Carter, and John R. Fultz have all expanded the information. Richard L. Tierney added the goat-spawn and shoggoths in "The Temple of The Abomination" by Howard and Tierney." 
For my money the Bronze age Marvel version of serpent people are the depiction that comes to mind from the pages of Kull the Conqueror series.


But the iconic cover of  issue #1 in 1971 still resonates with me. The tagline still rings in my mind; 
"A King Comes Riding!" – Before there was Conan - before many-towered Atlantis sank - there was King Kull! Robert E. Howard's first great barbarian hero - never before in comic-book form! " 
Kull was a thinking man's king & able to deal with many of his threats with common sense as well as violence. But there are vast differences between Robert E. Howard's Kull of Atlantis & Marvel's Kull the Conqueror of the 616 universe. Seriouly go read up on that here. 

But it was Valusia the empire of the serpent people & their gods Set as well as Yig. That's right Yig is separate from the great serpent set. Valusia is the land of serpents and the great empire of the serpentmen. Many of the changes of the serpent men came from the pen of Lin Carter; "

In the Mythos works of Lin Carter related to Hyperborea, Shuggon is the ancient continent of the Mesozoic serpent people destroyed in a cataclysm c.65 million B.C.E. which caused the surviving serpent people to migrate to Elder Valusia and aided the extinction of the dinosaurs. Shuggon is named in the Necronomicon but goes unnamed in most other texts. May be the same as Altuas or Altuan." After all its not like Robert E. Howard wrote about Set setting up parameters of his serpent god except in the most general terms in Kull, Conan, El Borak, & throughout his works right?! 
Well, yes & no. Yes he wrote about the great serpent in the one place that all of his readers except his die hard fans forget to look in his poetry. Robert E. Howard was as prolific a poet as H.P. Lovecraft & Clark Ashton Smith. So in addition to the man serpents & other wonderful serpentine creations Robert E. Howard  also wrote the poem' Serpent' which is public domain;
"I am the symbol of Creation and Destruction
I am the beginning and the end.
With my tail in my mouth
I am the Circle of Eternity.
Wisdom is in my eyes
And the dusk of wisdom lurks amid my coils.
My track circles the world
And I loop my coils around the Universe.
My head waves among the stars
And the nations fall prostrate before me.
Coiled, head upright, I am the spirit of the sea.
The world-shaking dinosaur was my henchman
And the flying dragons were my footmen.
The ancients knew me.
They reared shrines and altars
And I taught them dim, dusky wisdom.
I coiled in the ruins of Troy and Babylon
And on the forgotten streets of Nineveh.
The Norse called me Midgaard and built their galleys
Like a sea-serpent.
The Egyptians and the Indians called me Ysis
And the Phoenecians Baal.
I am the sea that girdles the world.
I am the first and I shall be the last.
I am the Serpent of the Ages."
Serpent
by Robert Ervin Howard

Conan film 1982 

There will be more Robert E. Howard blog posts coming up this week! 

High Tech Mysticism & High Caliber Adventure - Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars By Jason Vey & Timothy Brannan - The Vampires of Carl Kolchak & Appendix N Seventies TV & Literarture

 

If there are two book ends to Seventies Dungeons & Dragons its gotta be the Seventies  Kolchak series of films & television series. Oh sure you'll hear the Nineties dungeon masters talk about the X Files television show by Chris Carter. But without Kolchak you'd never have had X Files end of story. The older I'm getting the more I understand  wire service reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin). Strike that, growing up I wanted to be Carl Kolchak. Originally the book was written by Jeff Rice under the title 'The Kolchak Papers' it was optioned into the 'The Night Stalker';  "

ABC approached Rice with an offer to option The Kolchak Papers, which was adapted eventually by Richard Matheson into a television movie, The Night Stalker. It was produced by Dan Curtis and directed by John Llewellyn Moxey. Darren McGavin played the role of Carl. The cast also included Carol Lynley, Simon Oakland, Ralph Meeker, Claude Akins, Charles McGraw, Kent Smith, Stanley Adams, Elisha Cook Jr., Larry Linville, Jordan Rhodes, and Barry Atwater as the vampire Janos Skorzen" 

The director Dan Curtis back in '04 went into the backstory of The Night Strangler. But Dan Kurtis was so much more then simply Kolchak. Mr.Curtis was pretty much unsung 60's & 70's vampire horror royalty because this was the gentleman responsible for Dark Shadows the TV show. 



Now I can already hear the manure from the OSR from here. What the Hell does this have to with original Dungeons & Dragons because it all comes from Hammer horror films. And yes it does but the vampires from Original Dungeons & Dragons Monsters & Treasure book volume two are slightly different; "VAMPIRES: These monsters are properly of the "Undead" class rather than Lycanthropes. If they are exposed to direct rays of sunlight, immersed in running water, or impaled through the heart with a wooden stake they are killed; otherwise they can be hit only as Spectres, but such hits do not kill them but only force them to assume gaseous form if they lose all hit points. Vampires drain two life energy levels as do Spectres when they hit an opponent in combat. They regenerate during combat as do Trolls, but they do so immediately upon being hit at the rate of three hit points per turn. Vampires can command help by calling to them from 10 to 100 rats or bats or from 3 to 18 wolves. They can polymorph themselves into either a huge bat or into a gaseous form, doing either at will. They Charm men-types merely by looking into their eyes (treat as a Charm Person spell with a minus 2 for the object's saving throw against magic). Vampires cannot abide the smell of garlic, the face of a mirror, or the sight of cross. They will fall back from these if strongly presented. They must always return to a coffin whose bottom is covered with soil from their native land during the daylight hours. Men-types killed by Vampires become Vampires under the control of the one who made them." 
Oh so what! There's no connection here to Kolchak or Tolkien are you nuts? Well what if I told you that there are vampires similar to the ones in Kolchak right in Tolkein you can find that information thanks in part to the Men of the West video series here. 

But what about Conan?! Robert E. Howard's barbarian adventurer comes face to face with Princess Akivasha. The Pharaoh Tuthamon the Great's eldest daughter and the immortal Stygian vampire princess who existed more than 10,000 years ago before the birth of Conan from Robert E. Howard, "The Hour of the Dragon". Her first appearance at The Hour of the Dragon from Weird Tales (1935-1936). She plays a major role in CM2 Conan Against the Darkness By Ken Rolston. 

The question that always plagued me is the following, 'Did the Stygians survive into the present day' or Did the Stygians survive into Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane era in the deepest parts of unexplored Africa. Solomon Kane's 'Hills of the Dead' was first published in Weird Tales, August 1930. May it was because at the time I devoured anything Conan or Solmon Kane. But it seemed to me that these vampires in 'Hills of the Dead' were hold overs from ancient ages past. And did Kane kill every last vampire?! I think not these creatures were survivors. These undead creatures were hold overs from another era. And they seemed to be very much in charge of an entire ancient kingdom. 

All of this ties deeply into the fact that between Kane & Kolchak the book end of this series of inspirations at least for me is 1979 Toby Hooper's Steven King TV mini series  Salem's Lot. 

The real innovation when it comes to Hooper's vampires is the fact that he treats them like a disease. An undead  disease that takes out Salem's Lot's residence one after another. Now this entire plot could be used for an original Dungeons & Dragons game adhoc. Or if we go the Lamentations of the Flame Princess route & why not. Then there's a very nice little OSR book by James Mishler games called Vampires of the Olden Lands. Has the entire spectrum of the vampire as plague covered. 
 Now we've covered Salem's Lot extensively on this blog going back ages. But Kolchak's follow up 'The Night Straggler'   to the Night Stalker has some very interesting connotations. 'The Night Strangler' has an alchemy compondent to it that translates well as an LoFP adventure element. 
This adventure angle could be used as a hook for a Weird Tales style LoFP adveture or as a come along for a party into a campaign. 

Here's how I would actually use these vampires for LoFP, I link this totally back around to Robert E. Howard's 'Hour of the Dragon' which you can read here. Then grab Jason Vey's Age of Conan hack for original Dungeons & Dragon available here. 

I have to mention that Richard Matheson is intimiately tied into Kolchak & he did the book 'Iam Legend'; 'He is best known as the author of I Am Legend, a 1954 science fiction horror novel that has been adapted for the screen three times, the first of which, The Last Man on Earth, was co-scripted by him and starred Vincent Price. (The other two adaptations are The Omega Man with Charlton Heston and I Am Legend with Will Smith.)' These films were used as destinations for planar gates over the years in classic Gamma World & original Dungeons & Dragons. 
Imagine a group of Lamenations of the Flame Princess adventurers suddenly landing on one of the worlds of Richard Matheson's vampire plague?!

But what does all of this mean to the Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg players & their PC's?! Plenty.. These vampires are each servants of Chaos in no uncertain terms. These undead are almost complete chaotic  serving murderous parodies of themselves. But the Dark Shadow TV version of these are quite the opposite in many ways. The OSR library blog by David Baymiller has an awesome write up & optional PC OSR write up the for the Dark Shadows vampires here. 

OSR Serpents of the Earth For Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea

 

Art by Mark Brooks: Conan

No. Encountered: 1 (2d6)
Alignment: Choatic  Evil
Size: L
Movement: 20 (swim 30)
Dexterity: 15
Armour Class: 7
Hit Dice: 3
Attack Rate: 1 bite
Damage: 1d6 bite,  claw 1d4/ claw 1d4 
Saving Throw: 15
Morale: 9
Experience Points: 40
Treasure Class: P
Serpents of the Earth are the semi demonic projeny of lamia & serpent men who once ruled & guard the sacred temples of Yig. Serpents of the Earth can  Climb (10:12), Hide (8:12), and Move Silently (9:12). The Serpents of the Earth are often found in the company of demonic lamia priestesses of Yig in the darkest corners of Hyperborea. They are  often in the company of the red species of Manaconda whom they share clutch & nest space with. Both species are highly chaotic & very dangerous found near the most sacred temples of Yig. Serpents of the Earth can be called with a twisted version of the Summon Monster Spell requiring the Wizard swear fedility to Yig. 

Inspired by Cross Planes Blog Manaconda entry. 

The Tightening Coils of the Cobra Crown From Conan's Gods, Demigods, & Heroes Mythology

So a while back I was working on DM Steve's Godbound Campaign & I was supposed to be getting paid for it. Steve ran into some fianiancial difficulties & I totally get that. Since that's the case I'm continuing to work on it but I'm gonna use this material for my own games.

When it comes to settling into Kuntz & Ward's Dieties, Demigods, & Heroes especially the Conan mythos section. Its ineresting looking at this book after a couple of months & then stumbling upon the Cobra Crown entry;
"COBRA CROWN A mind control device able to work on 1-1000 beings at once. The wearer cannot be surprised and can read minds at any distance."We're not talking about the Serpent Crown here from the Marvel  Submariner comic books but the Cobra Crown.  Who created the Cobra Crown?


 According to Marvel Fandom.com entry on the crown;

"The Cobra Crown was created by L. Sprague de Champ and Lin Carter as part of the novel, Conan the Buccaneer, and was later adapted to the Marvel Universe by Roy Thomas and John Buscema as part of the Savage Sword of Conan magazine series."

The Cobra Crown was created by Set back before the time of the Serpent men. But Set has always been problematic at best in the Robert E.Howard & Marvel Conan comic books & magazines. There's always been this connection between Yig Father of Serpents & Conan's Set. These two entities have almost always been two faces of the same serpent deitic coin. Hell, even Kuntz & Ward's Dieties, Demigods, & Heroes explains it this way; "SET The God of darkness and the Lord of Shadows. This being is wholly dedicated to evil. Take the information from the Egyptian section for his powers"

Let's see the Egyptian god stats in Kuntz & Ward's Dieties, Demigods, & Heroes;"SET GOD OF EVIL AND THE NIGHT Armor Class — 4 Magic Ability: (See Below) Move: 18" Fighter Ability: 17th Level Hit Points: 275 Psionic Ability: Class 6 Set is a scaled humanoid with the head of a fierce jackal. He is totally dedicated to the spreading of evil and has attributes to match. He can change any being's alignment from neutral and lawful to evil (saving throw applicable) these changed beings becoming Minions of Set. He can shapechange, make all light turn to darkness, and call on 2-200 Minions of Set. He enters battle with a Javelin of Darkness. This night black shaft has a plus 4 hitting ability and does 9-90 points of damage. There is a 5% chance that Set is watching when a being does a highly evil act (judge's option) and if he is he will give the being 2-20 Minions of Set with no strings attached being confident that the being will only do evil with them. MINIONS OF SET Armor Class — 2 Magic Ability: (See Below) Move: 12" Fighter Ability: 10th Level Hit Points: 25 Psionic Ability: Class 6 Minions are able to transform themselves into giant snakes. They also fight as 10th level lords. They appear in plate armor and use a broadsword. They are fully intelligent and often act as gobetween for Set and man. These beings never check morale."

There's a lot to unpack here Set has been a thorn in mankind's side since we first crawled out of caves! This isn't your normal Great Old One & Set  could well be an aspect of Yig given its nature. "The Curse of Yig" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop in which Yig, "The Father of Serpents", is first introduced.Native Americans in Lovecraft's story, Yig is regarded as "bad medicine". According to Lovecraft's story, Yig is also alluded to in western American folklore: he is identified with the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatl, and may be a prototype for that god and other serpentine gods worldwide. Some authors identify him as the Stygian serpent god Set from Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, and also with the Great Serpent worshiped by the Serpent Men of Valusia from Howard's Kull stories."

Now if we look at the Cobra Crown from  Jason Vey's original Dungeons & Dragons hacks he did of Conan under his nom de plume of Grey Elf.  Then the crown is a very lethal artifact from the age beyond even King Kull.



Basically the Cobra Crown survives the storming of Heaven in Godbound & begins to set up serpent cult cells & covens as its passed from owner to owner. The artifact not only creates initiates, priests, etc. it corrupts them bringing them under the will of Set.
This is the perfect opportunity to pull out Rafael Chandler's Obscene Serpent Ritual  or as one observer wrote "This is a write-up of a serpent cult, suitable for old-school D&D-alikes. It details the cult's aims, goddess, holy quests, and the like. But there are six options at every turn: six different goddesses, six different sacred sites, six different divine blessings, so you don't get just one cult, you get many potential cults. Provided you follow the instructions ("Roll the dice. See what happens.") you will have a totally adult secretive, violent, creepy, Obscene Serpent Religion in your fantasy game."


Still not enough well then what about using a modern super hero or Pulp villain group after the Cobra Crown? How about Light City Foes Cobra by  'A pay what you want' book of serpent themed villains perfect for a low level D&D or OSR pulp game.



Basically Set/Yig  survives as a parasite god on the Earth of a Godbound prime material plane. Its been using its influence as a god to rebuild its cult's bases across the globe as well as space time. His mate Yidhra helps to emass  his influence in several sub cults & the cobra crown's influence continues to spread. The evil of the Great Old One can be encapsulated in the children of Ayi'ig. These are the dragons of Amazing Adventures! rpg Manual of Monsters, these dragons are spread throughout the California, Texas, Mexican, & South American regions of North & South America. 

Now the next question is are the towers of set going up in your home games? The minions of set might be seen among the local cult posing as regular members just waiting for adventurers & the trouble that they bring. There are several reasons for this: 

1. The cult of Set/Yig is still techinically in a position of vulnerablity & might become unseated quite easily until the full influence of the Old One comes to bare. 
2. The cult has been in operation since the time of Conan's Hyborian age & have access to all sorts of twisted magics. Their influence should not be under estimated. 
3. Minions of Set are only one group of enforcers of the cult of Set, he has many more. There are many options to use from the AD&D first edition Monster Manual, The Fiend Folio or the Monster Manual II any of these monsters should work with out modification 
4. Custom magicks, minor items,etc. for the cult should reflect the serpent motif but the cult could appear more of a conspiracy then simply as yet another cult to strip for treasure. 
5. Horror is their tactics & M.O. they excel at it. 
6. The cult will cause chaos when & where it needs to be the most effective. Even the gods hesistate around this type of cult. 
7. Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos can be very useful here. Moral & ethical corruption are areas that these cults use to expand their operations with campaigns. 
8. Cults in both ancient & modern settings may have access to the advanced & weird technologies of Valusia
9. Several options for dragons, serpents, and other very dangerous servants of such a cult should be on the table for a DM
10. The cult could operate right out in plain site such as store front church or other fringe religion within a campaign.