They Are Not As Noble As They Seem - Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Adventurer, Conqueror, King, and Original Dungeons & Dragons

 "What you get is a clear and focused restatement of the Basic D&D rules focused on what those rules do best: survival horror. But unlike the high fantasy safari of Dungeons & Dragons, LotFP Weird Fantasy concentrates on desperate treasure hunters hailing from a grimy replica of our own planet in the Renaissance/early modern period, where magic is a dreadful aberration and ne'er-do-wells who rob tombs and chance brushes with unknown horrors are shunned." 
John Q.Public Amazon Review 2019 Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg 

There was a time right around 2015 or so when Lamentations of The Flame Princess became a bit too main stream for my taste. LoFP has gone back into it's 'game whose name we can't talk about status' and that's fine with me. Reading further into John Q Public's December 2019 review; "Each place where Weird Fantasy differs from Mentzer's Basic D&D really doubles down on the game's weird survival horror vision. Characters have 3 Alignments as in Basic—Neutral, Law, and Chaos—but it represents your character's role in a cosmic conflict regardless of their moral outlook. Certain classes are polarized by Alignment: Clerics must be Lawful, and Magic-Users and Elves must be Chaotic. Furthermore, the rules otherwise treat Elves as inhuman monsters, making them vulnerable to holy water and certain spells cast by Clerics." 

Call me old fashioned but Elves in my mind for Weird Fantasy should absolutely alien. And other OSR games such as Adventurer, Conqueror, King's Secrets of the Nethercity takes the Elven/Chaos connection even further. We get an Elven empire that subcombed to the terrors of Chaos with  the ancient elven empire coming  to life with the Elven Cultist, Elven Hierophant, Elven Warlord, and Elven Wizard.

And this picks up steam with Rpg Pundit's Lion & Dragon where the Elves are an ancient malevolent force of nature from the time of the Pagan gods. Giving the Elves of traditional D&D fame a Fairy like malevolence is right in line with many of the legends and Fairy tale mythological connections. There's always been something very weird and dangerous about the Elven race of original Dungeons & Dragons fame. 'The too perfect, we're better at everything, and we're almost but not quite perfect' vibe of the Elven race. Elves literally are the 'other' to humanity and perhaps were an early precursor to us. And there for dangerous. 

And this goes back to 1974's Original Dungeons & Dragons supplement Greyhawk. If we look at the Wiki entry on the Greyhawk Supplement; "Greyhawk instead focused on new game rules that had been developed by Gygax and Kuntz during long hours of home play. The 68-page supplement also introduced new character classes (thief and paladin),^[4][5] as well as new combat rules, spells, monsters, and treasures.^[4] Greyhawk included new rules on weapon damage varying by weapon. The supplement added new treasure and magic items, and new spells, including 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells. The supplement also included a section on monsters, introducing the lizard men, beholders, displacer beasts, blink dogs, carrion crawlers, and many others". We really start to see the foundation of original Dungeons & Dragons forming from Gygax's and Kuntz's home campaigns. But there's something weirdly alien about the world setting that original Dungeons & Dragons was forming. And this isn't a bad thing just very alien. 
And among those alien monsters and races were the Elves. 

Now recently we started plugging back into these themes of alieness, the other, the outsider, and more into several other OSR games. The Elven mercenaries & sell swords who are far more problematic then thier worth. The image of Elric of Melibone by Michael Moorcock immediately springs to mind here. 

Demon haunted Elven communities & ancient cities on some long forgotten coast of Europe or Greenland immediately springs to mind here. Ancient Elven legendary sword masters and dragon riders now only myth and legend are told in whispers. Tales of children snatched and raised as one of thier own whose ears are pointed by long exposure to strange radiations and forbidden magics are told around camp fires. 
All of these were told when the Ice were coming down from the top of the world to claim thier lands and the cities of Man were being crushed beneath the coming ice walls. 

Lamentations of the Cosmic Enforcers - Home Brew OSR Superheroes Campaign Report

 Anyhow work has had me in fits today. And I'm going to be taking a vacation from behind the screen to once again playing in front of it. I'm going to be playing a supernatural investigator slash sorcerous hero in DM Steve's Vigilante City campaign. What does this have to do with Lamentations of the Flame Princess  rpg?! Well quite a bit actually. 

In the burnt out ruins of a rebuild New York under human control after an alien invasion. Some sixteen year old has gotten a hold of a summoning scroll that was going to be aucutioned off for charity. Needless to say the thackless sixteen year old summoned something that ate not only him & the entire block. 
Now it's up to our group of contract heroes to go in & access the situation. The Regulators has been an ongoing campaign with Steve's group for months using an old super hero rpg propped up using Bloat Games Vigilante City  rpg books. 
The campaign has been based partially on Cosmic Enforcer rpg campaign world. Cosmic Enforcers was a 1995 super-hero tabletop role-playing game. It had an interesting mix of superhumans and gritty sci-fi.Various Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg adventures have bled through as background with several of the major NPC villains being demons & refugees from LoFP's Carcosa. The thing that ate this particular block of New York City real estate isn't something my magician hero has ever encountered! 

This game has been playing out like 'The Boys' meets Lovecraft in a back alleyway. I'm coming into this as a contract hero whose back up from Florida on a bounty to recover the relic. That relic was the summon spell scroll in a jeweled case worth about 50,000. mega dollars. Apparently DM Steve 'borrowed' the idea of doing this mix from my facebook from David Okum from wayback when Bloat Games Vigilante City  rpg books. The other thing that he borrowed from James Raggi III is the idea that anyone can die at anytime. Monsters in this campaign have come straight outta of the Random Esoteric Creature Generator for Classic Fantasy Rpgs & Their Modern Simulacra.

From what I understand this has been a brutal campaign. 

CE's version of New York is controlled by mega corporations & criminal gangs. The streets have been rife with otherworldly drugs & crime. And there's a thriving occult underground based on many of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess  rpg adventures such as 'Better Then Any Man' and many others. Several of the alien races, criminals, etc all come straight outta  of Bloat Games Scorched. 

Wish me luck my time with the regulators might be very short indeed! 

Toothsome Delights - - Lamentations of the Flame Princess & White Box : Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game by Seattle Hill Games - OSR Ghoulish Campaign Commentary

 

"The madness and monstrosity lay in the figures in the foreground- for Pickman's morbid art was pre-eminently one of demoniac portraiture. These figures were seldom completely human, but often approached humanity in varying degree. Most of the bodies, while roughly bipedal, had a forward slumping, and a vaguely canine cast. The texture of the majority was a kind of unpleasant rubberiness." Pickman's model H.P. Lovecraft

Alright let's pick up right from here on the blog. This blog entry picks right up from where we last left off including the idea that Lovecraftian ghouls are not only a viable PC & NPC race but that they have impact within a LoFP campaign. And this brought back the reality of Vacant Assembly Ritual issue #1. 

And VAT issue#1 has ton of great stuff for using Lovecraftian ghouls with, 'The Ghoul Market: Beneath a defiled chapel, the scavengers of the dead emerge from their tunnels to barter with the living and the damned. PCs bold enough to do business here can emerge with powerful magic, but what will they leave behind?'
Our own PC's left behind the bodies of a rival group of NPC adventurers. But it was the use of the skinsmiths that are at the market that offer resurrections that have some very unexpected consquences. 
And this goes back to Vespero the Antiquarian who sells his wears and backs the Ghoul market himself. 

And if you'll recall last blog entry we went deep into Gregorius21778: Beneath Unhallowed Ground which is part of the Ghoul Market's source material. And Beneath Unhallowed Ground is great to connect with Raggi's Death, Frost, Doom. 

Could the undead within DFD actually be suffering from 'ghoul fever' & transistioning from human remains into feral ghouls?! The answer to this is yes and then some Vacant Assembly Ritual issue #1 also has Greycandle Manor & this adventure location can be reworked into DFD with a deeper connection through it's occult inhabitant in the basement. 

Ghouls within White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game have many of the traditional D&D ghoul traits with some familar tropes: "Armor Class: 6 [13] Hit Dice: 2 Attacks: Claw Special: See below Move: 9 HDE/XP: 3/60 Ghouls are pack-hunting undead, corpse eaters. They are immune, like most undead, to charms and sleep spells. The most dangerous feature of these horrid, cunning creatures is their paralyzing touch: any hit from a ghoul requires a saving throw or the victim becomes paralyzed for 3d6 turns." These ghouls have that Elven connection with Elves being immune to their paralyzing touch. So this follows the old school way that Ghouls are depicted but how they can be used in your games is up to you.  In my own games LoFP Lovecraftian ghouls follow Three Toad Stool The Vagrant PC class. 

Nest of Vipers - Lamentations of the Flame Princess & White Box : Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game by Seattle Hill Games - OSR Campaign Commentary

 It takes a certain style of indivdual to be a DM & keep OSR campaigns going. It takes time, energy, & a bit of mania to keep players interested enough. Lately we've been trying to get a Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg campaign off the ground. Not that there isn't enough interest in such a campaign but between work shedules, family commitments, etc. it's been a bit of a bear. 

So a friend & myself started to speculate what could be done with the idea of picking up after a Dark Ages period has pasted & the dungeon is now ruins. The Vancian or ritual magick has left a stain on the land & ruins. And this put me in the mind of  White Box : Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game.  by Seattle Hill Games. 

Take the wizard's tower adventure trope & turn it on it's ear. The wizard's tower is long gone by the 1400's century but it's foundations are a toxic waste pit on the land. Monsters & things slither out from the very depths of this place. 

Giant Slugs, the remains of ancient warriors (past adventurers), yellow mold, etc. all add to the mystery of the wizard's dungeons or ruins. And yes, I know that Raggi's 'Tower of the Star Gazer' does an excellent job of pimping the wizard's tower adventure trope. 

This is different because we're sliding in a dungeon or set of ruins long after the fact. The remains of the past creeping in on the PC's in the middle of the wilderness. 

One idea here is that Worgs are actually incharge of the area. Their packs have long served the magus's family & are a legacy of ancient times. The orcs & goblins  are long gone.  

Worgs however are highly intelligent and as evil as it gets. According to White Box Fantastic Medival Adventure game's stats: Worgs - Armor Class: 6 [13] Hit Dice: 4 Attacks: Bite Special: None Move: 18 HDE/XP: 4/120 Worgs are large, intelligent, and evil wolves of chaos. They are sometimes ridden by orcs. They may have supernatural origins.

Yeah these definitely have supernatural origins and it give the impression that the orcs & goblins are still there. And that there's treasure left fueling the constant stream of food erm adventurers. The worgs continue to worship the ancient powers of Chaos that was left there. 

Add in perhaps D100 Minor Magical Items by 3 toad stools with a Lamentations twist or two for 'treasure' and you're almost ready to go. 

But what about the dungeon itself?! Sigh the ruins need to be drawn out a bit and since time is at a premium today Gregorius21778: Beneath Unhallowed Ground is a perfect little set of ruins to drop in here as the 'dungeon'. 

The worgs are actually working for another cult as well offering their services as guardians & lookouts. They scratch out minor maps that a nearby cult can read and they have an empathic connection to the worgs. Gregorius21778: Beneath Unhallowed Ground is a minialist dungeon perfect for the DM on the fly and could act as a stepping stone into a greater part of the LoFP campaign such as LoFP Death, Frost, Doom, or the ever hated around my table 'Womb Cult' By Andrew Marrington.  Last time we did Womb Cult there was a TPK of six people as the cult tore into them & the dice didn't go the player's way. 

Cults on the Edges of the Map - OSR Commentary - Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing in the 1900's through the 1930's

Of our relation to all creation we can never know anything whatsoever. All is immensity and chaos. But, since all this knowledge of our limitations cannot possibly be of any value to us, it is better to ignore it in our daily conduct of life.

H. P. Lovecraft

 There's a fairly serious void in the Swords & Wizardry rpg market for 'Eldritch Horror' or at least it  was the thought that ran through what's left of my head. Then I remembered 'Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing' From Raven God Games. If you want to set a 1920's style Halloween one shot. This is the OSR rules set to use. 

 'Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing'is right in line White Box Gothic from Gallant Knight Games. Why because it adds the Gothic horror in spades with an OSR Swords & Wizardry twist or two. 

The late 1900's through the 1930's were really the last golden ages of exploration on Earth. The last places where the Earth's darkest places were finally revealed. And these are the last edges of the map where the Lovecraftian cults might exist. For White Box Swords & Wizardry this is a perfect time to squeeze in a mini game with OSR overtones. Indianna Jones & Call of Cthulhu style PC's whose exploits cover the gamut of occult & supernatural happenings. 

With world wars, market crashes, & more make such a campaign very dynamic. Especially if we use the dreaded Clerical Lich as a part of the cult of the Lovecraftian horrors or even the dread cult of Cthulhu itself. Check the stats from White Box Gothic; 
"Clerical Liche Armor Class: 1 [18] Hit Dice: 12 - 18 Attacks: By weapon (1d6) Special: See Below Move: 12 HDE/XP: 15/2,900, 16/3,200, 17/3,500, 18/3,800, 19/4,100, 20/4,400, 21/4,700 While the vast majority of liches have mastered the arcane arts of the Magic-User in rare cases, some of them devote themselves to the service of a malign god or goddess with such zeal that they rises as powerful and terrible 42 Eric Fabiaschi (Order #34172416) masters of corrupted divine magic. These are known as Clerical Liches. They are able to cast spells as a 10th level Cleric. In addition, they have also mastered the spells of a Magic-User, though to a lesser degree than traditional liches. A clerical liche can memorize and cast spells as a MagicUser with a level equal to half their normal hit dice, rounded down. This means that a liche with 14 or 15 hit dice would memorize and cast spells as a 7th level Magic-User and as a 10th level Cleric. Clerical liches cannot paralyze with either their touch or aura, but can Turn Undead as a Chaotic Cleric of 9th level, as described in Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox."
With a clerical liche as the head of cell of a Lovecraftian cult then the PC's are going to have their hands full! What many people don't realize is the global reach of the Cult of Cthulhu. 

If we take a look at Ken Kelly's 'OLDSKULL LIBRARY - The Shadow over Innsmouth' then we've got an excellent prop to get the PC's involved in a campaign why? Because Ken Kelly's OLDSKULL LIBRARY - The Shadow over Innsmouth treats the HP Lovecraft story an rpg prop ;  "a confessional journal created by Robert Martin Olmstead, who disappeared some years after revelations that he experienced in exploring the seaside fishing and gold refining town of Innsmouth. Instead of treating Olmstead’s writings as fiction, I have created a series of artworks which crystallize the events, locales, thoughts, and nightmares experienced by Olmstead and later his brother and his “bride”." 

 Ken Kelly's 'OLDSKULL LIBRARY - The Shadow over Innsmouth' is a great way to bring in Innsmouth into a Lovecraftian campaign. Especially when such a campaign takes place within a 1920's or 1930's in New England. And this New England connection could lead to Raven Games 'The Eldritch Inquirer #1' 's Return of The Wind Walker. 

This campaign's  'Return of The Wind Walker' could plug into some of the Lovecraftian adventure elements present within  'OLDSKULL LIBRARY - The Shadow over Innsmouth'. 

Eventually such a Lovecraftian campaign could lead to other horrors including pathways even into Lamentations of the Flame Princess's Rpg Mark Hess's Colony of Death. Within this campaign is a Mi Go connection in the mountains of Maryland. The Mi Go also have connections to the cult of Cthulhu. And this could lead even further down the Lovecraftian rabbit hole.

Witch cults are a clear part of the Lovecraftian landscape. And as we've seen in H.P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witchhouse they have their own links into the Cult of Cthulhu. So what is my own point here?! That the world wide cult of Cthulhu has its tentacles in many,many, areas of the pre modern world. And that these areas can be just around the corner of civilization. 

Review & Commentary On 'The Chaos Cults: Bubonica' By Andrew Marrington For Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg & Other B/X OSR Rpg Campaigns

 "Hidden away from prying eyes, the faithful of the Righteous Plague gather in their unholy places. They call on him by name, and entreat him to send his diseases and blights to their foes. They call on him by name, and beg to be reprieved from his epidemics. They call on him by name, and plead to be spared from the ravages of the plagues he bestows. They call on him by name..." 
  Chaos Cults: Bubonica By Andrew Marrington For Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg By Andrew Marrington was another of those spur of the moment purchases last night at about five A.M. Why?! Well because of the fact that coming up we've got a Cyberpunk style world & my players are familar with the usual suspects of Chaos gods. So time to change thing up a bit. 

The Chaos Cults: Bubonica By Andrew Marrington For Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg clocks in at twenty four pages of chaos inducing disease ridden Chaos. That's chaos with a capital 'C' because this lord of disease is one that Old Hammer players will be instantly familar with. And if there was ever a repulsive god for the fantasy ages it's this one; "Bubonica is a God of Plague, Disease, and Pestilence. He torments mortals with his corrupting creations, defacing their physical forms with pustules and sores, leaving pain, sickness and death. He blights beasts and plants too, destroying crops and livestock, fathering famines. From his personal plane, he creates sicknesses and sends them forth to the worlds of mortals, waging war on the creations of Law by blighting them and twisting their forms, perfection giving away to decay, life to death, stasis to Chaos" 

For Lamentations & other B/X engine powered games  Bubonica hits the high or low notes in this case. This demented uncle of disease ridden filth is waiting to take on the Earth. He's one of those delightful Chaos gods who just waits on the world to come his way. And Bubonica hits the higher notes with minions that we haven't seen before. Minions such as the Locust Men; "Locustman AC 4, HD 2* (9 hp), Att 1 weapon (damage as per weapon) or 1 jump (1d4) or 1 spit, MV 60’ (20’) or Fly 180’ (60’) , SV As Fighter 2, ML 8, AL Chaotic, XP 25, # Appearing 1d4 (2d4), Treasure D • Jump: Locustmen can jump up to 60’ then fly away rather than make an attack. Alternatively, they can jump into an enemy, moving up to 60’ to do 1d4 damage (roll to hit as usual). • Spit: 10’ range. The locustman rolls to hit against AC 9 irrespective of the armour worn by the target. If the locustman hits, the target must make a save vs death or be covered in stinking spittle, which makes them so violently ill that they cannot act for 1 turn. Until the spittle is washed off, those who come within 5’ of the victim must make a save vs death or vomit violently. • Insectoid: Locustmen resemble giant, human-sized and shaped insects. They can pass through insect swarms without being attacked or otherwise suffering any ill effect. • Poison Immunity: Locustmen are immune to poison."

Here's what you get with 'The Chaos Cults: Bubonica' By Andrew Marrington?! You get the cult vectors in the form of plague zombies, plague rats, and chaos demonic entities. All of them are ready to be unleashed on your campaign! And how can this be unleashed on your world?! Easy the first level summoning spell can let that disease ridden god's entity into reality. 

There's more then a few cults  within  'The Chaos Cults: Bubonica'  just waiting to take on your adventurers. And even within B/X Dungeons & Dragons healing magic that won't help. And  there's a ton of danger & chaos that comes across in spades especially undercover; "The Untouched The Untouched have made a terrible deal with Bubonica to spare their own lives (and perhaps those of their loved ones). In exchange for their preservation from Bubonica’s plagues and diseases, they worship the God of Plagues by sacrificing their city to his vile concoctions. The Untouched do everything they can do to clandestinely facilitate the spread of plague in their community. The souls of those who perish to the illness are sometimes so unfortunate as to find themselves on Bubonica’s plane in the afterlife, doomed to suffer there for all eternity. When the plague has finally run its course, the Untouched are among the final citizens still alive." 

The untouched are only one of the hands & fingers of Bubonica. He's also expanding his business with cults like the Midwives. The Midwives are the silent horror waiting in the wings; "The Midwives are women who attend the childbeds of the highborn, who may even have stumbled onto the worship of Bubonica through the innocent search for white magic to assist them in their profession. Bubonica blesses their hands with the ability to deliver healthy babies in exchange for infecting the mothers they tend with childbed fever." This is subtle and horrid just the thing to spark the interest of players at the table top with outrage. To round everything out the gifts & spells of Bubonica are insidious and very dangerous as well. 
And there's an adventure location that demands the attention of adventurers witin  The Chaos Cults: Bubonica By Andrew Marrington. And this   comes in the form of  a sewer location lair ripe for the slimes and oozes as well as the rats all under the direct purview of Bubonica himself. And this is all waiting in twenty four pages. 

'The Chaos Cults: Bubonica' By Andrew Marrington For Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg & Other B/X OSR Rpg Campaigns  Is Available Right Here 

Review & Commentary On 'The Lamentable Companion' By Andrew Marrington For The Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg From Grimm Aramil Publishing

 Returning to the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg  hasn't been on our list of things to do . However Andrew Marrington's The Lamentable Companion came across my desk this morning at about six A.M. That being said DM Pete sent me a copy of The Lamentable Companion. And so I printed out a copy & thumbed through it last night. 

Grimm Aramil publishing has put out OSR material that my group of players have run before and had several TPK's with. And this includes a run in a couple of years ago with the  Chaos Cults: Bubonica. Which pretty much trashed the entire crew. But Andrew Marrington's 'The Lamentable Companion' offers something complete different. A number of options for PC agency within Lamentations & other B/X games. And there's a great table of contents with break downs of sections. Can't tell you how welcome this is at the table top in the middle of DMing. 
And because 'The Lamentable Companion' is only twenty five pages there isn't really a lot of long doddering explainations about new rules. Instead   'The Lamentable Companion' get's right into the meat and heart of the matter with expansions of the 'professsions' found within the Lamentations rule book. And then we get rules on age actually affecting PC's and it's got some good additions to. And hiring hirelings in Lamentations & this is one of the most neglected sections of B/X OSR style systems. 

Ship to ship combat variant rules  is always welcome at the table top level. And the rules are solidly done. They hit the high points of the combat easily. 
And then we get another table of mutations for Lamentations and B/X style games this is welcome for DM's used to dealing out the weird at the table top level. 

And finally we have the Selling Your Soul & this hits the high marks that DM Pete's necromancer has taken & it's a pretty nasty deal. One where your PC respawns in another body of one of the faithful and offers some measure of protection.There's the usual sell your soul for a magic item bit as well. 
And then we have down time between adventures and this one is interesting as well such as property ownership, caurousing and it's missteps, and that's it. There's a ton of  B/X Dungeons & Dragons or OSR clones where these rules could come in very handy. 

Is the 'The Lamentable Companion' By Andrew Marrington  worth the download?! In a word? In a word, yes because it expands the length & breath of B/X games that other authors havent' thought of. There's are real needs for many of these rules as someone whose played & DM'ed lots of Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventures over the years. 

 'The Lamentable Companion' By Andrew Marrington For The Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg Is Available Right Over Here 

Appendix N Sword & Sorcery - HP Lovecraft & Henry Kuttner OSR Witch Dreams

 "WHETHER the dreams brought on the fever or the fever brought on the dreams Walter Gilman did not know. Behind everything crouched the brooding, festering horror of the ancient town, and of the mouldy, unhallowed garret gable where he wrote and studied and wrestled with figures and formulae when he was not tossing on the meagre iron bed. His ears were growing sensitive to a preternatural and intolerable degree, and he had long ago stopped the cheap mantel clock whose ticking had come to seem like a thunder of artillery. At night the subtle stirring of the black city outside, the sinister scurrying of rats in the wormy partitions, and the creaking of hidden timbers in the centuried house, were enough to give him a sense of strident pandemonium. The darkness always teemed with unexplained sound—and yet he sometimes shook with fear lest the noises he heard should subside and allow him to hear certain other fainter noises which he suspected were lurking behind them."
"The Dreams in the Witch House"  H. P. Lovecraft, Weird Tales 1933 

The Dreams in the Witch House is one of the cornerstone tales of H.P. Lovecraft that no one really talks about. There's so much too this tale from the mathematics, to the higher dimensional realms travel, to the sheer weirdness of the appearance of the Elder Things in a brief cameo. There's a lot to take on board here but what was happening in New England at this time that kicked off the witch pacts between witches & the Lovecraftian gods?! 

The rat thing Brown Jenkins who served Keziah and Nyarlathotep,is only one of the alien horrors that lurks in Massachusetts. These weren't just simply witches making pacts with the 'Devil'. No this was the influence of Nyarlathotep itself. Now its too bad that there wasn't a follow up to Dreams in th Witchhouse. What if I told you that in point of fact there was a story with a witch house, a curse, strange noises, bad dreams. Throw in the old gods and  even the Necronomicon?! What if I told you that it was written in 1937 by one of the leading lights of the Lovecraft Circle?!  We're talking about C.L. Moore's husband here Henry Kuttner & the tale in question?! Well it takes place right down the road from Arkham in witch house haunted Salem. Kuttner's Salem is a place of crumbling haunted houses, streets with dark histories, haunted places, & of course the Lovecraft gods. The Salem Horror  (1937)  by Henry Kuttner  from Weird Tales Volume 29, Issue 5

'The Salem Horror' isn't a sequel to 'Dreams in the Witch House' rather its more of a side quest of a story that takes place within the same Lovecraft New England as the rest of the Cthulhu mythos. Surely though there isn't an OSR connection here right?! What if I said that there were more then two?!

The Black Man", an aspect of Nyarlathotep as described by H. P. Lovecraft in "The Dreams in the Witch House" (1932). Acrylics on cardboard 34×23 cm by 
Jens Heimdahl - Facebook : Art of Jens Heimdahl

 How many more keys & gates were left behind by the witches thar created pacts with Nyarlathotep?! How many of those gates are still active today?! If such witch gates are active they could theoritically lead anywhere or anywhen! But what happens if one of these gates leads deep into the far future world of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcereres of Hyperborea rpg?! 

How?! Well one gate is hidden within a historic museum of the Salem witch trials which is a converted former witch house that leads to the dungeons within AS&SH's Rats in the Walls & Other Perils. This gate is simply a hidden litle hidey hole within the adventure that I added several years ago. Still hasn't been found. 

The second gate is down in the sewers of Arkham & leads into the dreamlands of Swords & Wizardry's Encephalon Gorgers on the Moon  This one of those adventure modules that works within a campaign if its padded out with some solid background especially if its paired with some solid appendix N authors. 

And the third witch gate leads into the dungeon locations of England, 1620. within the dungeons of No Salvation for Witches for the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg. Another possible choice is that the gate leads into Germany or the battle fields of 'Better Then Any Man'. 

Needless to say that anyone using one or any of these witch gates is going reek of Chaos & dark magicks. The authorities are going to take note of this & there might be other consquences folks.