Lovecraftian Ecology Of The Serpent Men of Old Mars

Deep in the jungles of Old Mars the cold & evil alien eyes of an old enemy of mankind stirs. Where strikes the serpent men few can say. But their plague of evil once again comes for they have become a plague upon Old Mars! For Serpent Men are awesome monsters of the Lovecraftian Mythos. 

 Going all of the way back to 2012 I did a piece on Serpent Men on this blog. Since that time I've used these protagonists a lot going through OSR campaigns, one off adventures, and more. Serpent Men are very easy to use and at their height in both Howard, Lovecraft, & Merritt's work they had a sorcerous & technological empire that rivaled many human civilizations of history. So it makes sense they they'd have reached the stars and beyond.

Simon Burchell (Own work)

Now dealing with some of the works of these old school enemies of man kind can be interesting to say the least. Years ago I placed several colonies of Serpent Men on Mars as the main protagonists of an adventure storyline. The reason is that deep in the Kaolian forest clustered around Tharsis are lots of hidden swamp lands. Here three pyramids of the serpent men could remain hidden for eons in the shadow of Therns. They take the occasional sacrifice to their dark gods & move on into the wastelands of Mars.


Reaper miniatures 06208: Nagendra Warriors by Jason Wiebe

And what pray tell would these serpent men be doing on Old Mars? Spreading their chaos & corruption across the face of the wasteland & selling their own brand of that old time religion among the Martians. They'd have been there for centuries operating as Vivimancers, shape shifting assassins, mercenaries, & infiltrating the Therns from within. These serpent men are Lovecraftian bad guys of the highest order, and to get a really good look at some of the interior workings of the their religion I turn to two OSR publications. Now the first is from Mr. Rafael Chandler Obscene Serpent Religion is an Adult title from Neoplastic Press ( a little while back their titles & lines were put on 'pay what you want') which was very generous of him. Now suddenly the dungeon master has the inner workings & mysteries of the serpent men's religion & heinous rites. Want to know what the party of adventurers finds in the ruin location that the serpents have been operating out of? Its all there in gory details, but be careful because this is an Adult title & I don't say that lightly consider yourselves warned.


The second OSR resource that I'd use is  Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos. Because of the social classes of Barsoom, & many of the old science fantasy novels such as Leigh Brackett & C.L. Moore. Cults of Chaos gives not only structure but adventure hooks to use at every level of the social strata making such a cult very dangerous & creditable. Here's a review to kinda drive home the point.

When it comes to using serpent men they make an unexpected twist to throw into an old school game & they might pop up anywhere. They were extremely dangerous & one of the powers behind quite a few power structures in Robert Howard's Kull saga. According to HP Lovecraft's Shadow Out of Time they were one of the minds that the Great Race of Yith used to grab quite regularly.
"There was a mind from the planet we know as Venus, which would live incalculable epochs to come, and one from an outer moon of Jupiter six million years in the past. Of earthly minds there were some from the winged, star-headed, half-vegetable race of palaeogean Antarctica; one from the reptile people of fabled Valusia; three from the furry pre-human Hyperborean worshippers of Tsathoggua; one from the wholly abominable Tcho-Tchos; two from the arachnid denizens of earth’s last age; five from the hardy coleopterous species immediately following mankind, to which the Great Race was some day to transfer its keenest minds en masse in the face of horrible peril; and several from different branches of humanity."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out Of Time

The stats for serpent men are available for Astonishing Swordsmen Sorcerers of Hyperborea Referee's Manual or for other OSR games Realms of Crawling Chaos from Goblinoid Games


There are several references to serpent men or reptile men in the stories of  Leigh Brackett especially the Sea-Kings of Mars (more commonly known as The Sword of Rhiannon) &" Clark Aston Smith's  adapted the race for inclusion in the Cthulhu Mythos, inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Nameless City", which refers to an Arabian city built by a pre-human reptilian race. Lovecraft's story "The Haunter of the Dark" explicitly mentions the "serpent men of Valusia" as being one-time possessors of the Shining Trapezohedron. " 

However they were already in the Cthulhu Mythos via Robert Howard's Work;"However, the Cthulhu Mythos was already connected to the works of Robert E. Howard (a contemporary and correspondent of H. P. Lovecraft as well as a direct contributor to the Mythos itself). In this case, the Serpent Men were created for the very first Kull story, the character of Kull later made an appearance in a Bran Mak Morn story, Kings of the Night, while in another such story, Worms of the Earth, Bran Mak Morn explicitly refers to Cthulhu and R'lyeh. Many Conan stories by Howard are also part of the Mythos." Now given this it only makes sense to have them appear on Old Mars & Old Venus because of their connections with the writings of the other Lovecraft Circle writers.

 

Are there other hidden enclaves of these ancient horrors waiting in the Martian underworld for some foolish adventurers to stumble upon their lairs and activate their sleep chambers? Could these ancient horrors carve out their own sections of the wastes of Old Mars? They will be in my campaigns.
Note that this is for personal use only and is not an attempt to violate the copyright or trademark of The Dark Albion Rpg, Realms of Crawling Chaos, The Warriors of the Red Planet rpg or The Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg system. 
All material herein comes under the heading of fair use. This blog post is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

Ideas, items, names, adventure ideas, opinions to follow are the copyright & trademark of the author & Dark Corner Production

1d20 Random Encounter Table For Along The Passages & Roads of the Boreas Winds

The years are a falling of snow,
Slow but without cessation,
On hills and mountains and towers and worlds that were;
But snow, and the crawling night wherein it fell,
May be washed away in one swifter hour of flame:
Thus it was that some slant of sunset
In the chasms of pilèd cloud—
Transient mountains that made a new horizon,
Uplifting the west to fantastic pinnacles—
Smote warm in a buried realm of the spirit,
Till the snows of forgetfulness were gone.
Clear in the vistas of memory,
The peaks of a world long unremembered
Soared further than clouds but fell not,
Based on hills that shook not nor melted
With that burden enormous, hardly to be believed.
Rent with stupendous chasms,
Full of an umber twilight,
I beheld that larger world :
Bright was the twilight, clear like ethereal wine
Above, but low in the clefts it thickened,
Dull as with duskier tincture.
Like whimsical wings outspread but unstirring,
Flowers that seemed spirits of the twilight
That must pass with its passing—
Too fragile for day or for darkness—
Fed the dusk with more delicate hues than its own;
Stars that were nearer, more radiant than ours,
Quivered and pulsed in the clear thin gold of the sky.
These things I beheld
Till the gold was shaken with tight
Of fantastical wings like broken shadows
Forerunning the darkness;
Till the twilight shivered with outcry of eldritch voices
Like pain's last cry ere oblivion.

Remembered Light  (1912)  by Clark Ashton Smith

Adventurers don't know what sights might be encountered when the step onto the Boreas winds into the Outer Darkness between the stars. Many  encounters await them among the dead spaces between the dimensions & planets. For there are horrid & ancient things trapped in the Outer Darkness imprisoned but not dead waiting for the juicy & sacrosanct souls of humanity to step over The Threshold. The Threshold  that holds back the ever washing washing unreality of primal chaos.



There are demons, fallen gods, & far worse trapped in amber & crystal prisons cast into the darkness. But among them is rumored to be doors to the primal underworld with its twisting tunnels & slip trails down into Hel itself. Many of these empty halls & ruined abodes of the gods are filled with millions of souls from the ravaging of Earth. The nameless goddess who rules this place controls trillions of souls both of men & other far older essences. She has many names & it is said that still in Underborea one can find her name on metal foil paged grimoires & in the secret doctrines of Ixian necrotic cults. There is a 10% chance should her name be uttered during an encounter with the right manners that she may grant a boon should the proper respect be shown to her. Otherwise she might take the fool's soul instead.

Certain armies of warriors have used the passages between the Boreas winds as a sorcererous short cut during times of war when their wizards have sacrificed fair haired youths to open the passages between worlds as a tactical advantage. These passages are fraught with danger as many men often seek riches sewn at their feet where the Elemental plane's bounty tides itself against the hidden corners of unreality.


Any items such as gems or crystals will most likely at best be cursed & at worst could be the egg of some nameless elemental horror. Here then are twenty encounters along the passages &  roads of the Boreas winds for fools & madmen to falter into.



1d20 Random Encounter Table For 
Along The Passages &  Roads of the Boreas Winds

1. 1d8 Ice zombies of a lost unit of late Roman legionaries. They will stop to ask directions but their incredible hunger for the living will cause them to attack anyone they meet. 
2. A necromancer & his demonic servant on a quest for a demon stone egg from the Outer Edges. 
3. A floating crystal skull belonging to lich servant of Cthulhu on its way to its teacher & demonic tentacled master. 
4. A angelic servant of Law on its way to help to heal a dying paladin trapped on a nearby asteroid. It will try to enroll the PC's help with promises of reward but will use a geas if necessary. 
5. A crystallized ghoul who needs to feed on the living as soon as possible.  
6. Three serpent men upon a barge of sorcerous gold & jet who are looking for test subjects for their latest project. They are seventh level black wizards of the darkest stripe and have energy weapons.
7. Giant soul devouring Outer Darkness life form that needs to feed on the living and will assume for 1d20 hours the form of the person it consumes. Perfect in almost every detail, this vile creature will try to feed on 1d6 others each one assuming the perfect shape to trap their prey. 
8. 1d6 Mi Go on an errant for one of their dangerous masters. 
9. 1d ghouls with a 7th level black wizard half ghoul master. They cross the winds on their way to the underworld. 
10. The giant head of a fallen god that acts as the base for 1d10 brigands and outlaws lead by a capable 8th level wizard. His rival is a lich and seeks the wizard's head for a magick relic's creation. 
11. 1d10 giant violet fungus that feeds on the souls & flesh of the living. 
12. 1d4 brain parasites with zombie bodies floating through the void. 
13. A giant crystal warrior belonging to a clan of stone giants who looking for sacrifices to their heathen Lovecraftian god thing. 
14. Giant skull of some ancient warrior whose soul is trapped in the thing. It whispers strange and damning secrets to those who spend more then 1d6 hours with it. Certain Ixian necromancers would pay handsomely for the skull's location. 
15. Pack of 1d8 gargoyles on the hunt for prey and guess whose on the menu! 
16.  Remains of an ancient void craft wheeling its way through the void. There is a 10% chance of 1d6 pieces of treasure on board with undead alien guardians. 
17. The burnt to a crisp wreck of an ancient long boat with a Ju Ju zombie warrior chieftain on board and 1d6 relics & treasure. 
18. The remains of a fallen demon frozen and seemingly unmoving. 
19. 1d20 damned souls looking for victims. 
20. A strange temple building trapped on the back of a crystallized star spawn of Cthulhu. An eerie light beckons to those outside. Can you resist?  

1d6 Random Warped Lovecraftian Elemental Demonic Patrons Table For Your Old School Game Campaigns

Deep in the western parts of the Old Solar System are places with alien has taken root & ancient spirits not seen on Old Earth for a billion years haunt strange woods. There are weird spirits who hunt in the dreams of men & were old when the first stone hinges were reared in decrepit Mu. There are spirits of storm, chaos, & the savagery of the alien elemental forces that still call to men across time & space.



These are twisted semi demonic elemental spirits that dwell between the seasons & the elements. The come when druid or shaman calls them from their hiding places but they are deadly & dangerous beings capacious at the best of times. Still man prays to them and gives them the adoration they seek along with the occasional blood sacrifice to satisfy their whims & deadly natures.
It is said that many of these spirits are the unnatural offspring of  the evil archomentals & the Old Ones from Saturn. Cryonax: Prince of Evil Cold Creatures,Imix: Prince of Evil Fire Creatures  Ogrémoch: Prince of Evil Earth Creatures,Olhydra: Princess of Evil Water Creatures &Yan-C-Bin: Prince of Evil Air Creatures all had a hand in the creation of these strange spirits capable of going toe to toe with with the lesser deity-class creatures of the outer void. It is said that these beings consume the souls and sanity of those fools who use them for perspicacity. A complex variation of a standard summon elemental spell which  will pull a small bit of these demonic spirits essence from where these alien beings to dwell. They are often used not only help bolster the meager resources of interstellar colonies. But to twist the local fauna & flora into usable  & sustainable places. Witches,druids, shamans, often summon these beings as they have for millions of years.

"West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight. On the gentler slopes there are farms, ancient and rocky, with squat, moss-coated cottages brooding eternally over old New England secrets in the lee of great ledges; but these are all vacant now, the wide chimneys crumbling and the shingled sides bulging perilously beneath low gambrel roofs."

(“The Colour out of Space”, March 1927)

1d6 Random Warped Minor Lovecraftian Elemental Demonic Patrons Table

1. Hetheglir & Hathau 'The Twin Evils' - This spirit is often invoked before weddings to insure children of a stout heart and hail body. They are often summoned to help insure a healthy growth season for food production.  These two often watch over the fate of colonies, gardens, farms, & pastures. They guard isolated communities & colonies on the edge of the wild. These two prefer blood and sacrifice to mark the beginning and end of its season. Harvests will increase by 1d100 tons of product under their strange influence. But some children may be marked by mutation or other more disturbing changes.
2. Maturogllauna The Eyeless Thing - This strange creature is part Yeti & part something semi demonic. This being uses the elemental currents of the air to read the future and forbidden secrets whispered on the wind. It plies its worshipers with a mix of black magick spells & promises along with hints of the future if only they can make the monster's price of a blood pact with it and a sacrifice. 
3. Wetung The Bloodless Fiend is a creature of the Earth and sky that uses its appearance to frighten worshipers into giving endless rounds of sacrifice. It can grant 1d20 druidic spells and a minor boon in exchange for a life. 
4. Shaegoro The Ancient Horror - A thing made from parts of other gods & the forgotten life essences of ancient sacrifices. This god is held together by the spirits of dead Atlantian druids. This being grants access to visions of the ancient past. The worshiper can see 1d4 insane visions that might reveal the secrets of the forbidden corners of the universe. This god may also grant 1d4 spells of a rather black nature. 
5. Vaurgor The Vanishing - This elemental demon is made up of some of the most heinous winds and will blow across the wastelands making room for the 'new' of life. This being will grant 1d4 forbidden bits of wisdom to its patron as it blasts the supplicant's sanity with horrors beyond imagining. 
6. Thatugwe The Wise - A squat frog like thing of incredible size that will grant 1d8 strange insights to the past. He can also impart bits of ancient wisdom and cause plants within 45 feet of him to wither day and not.

1d6 Random Martian Women Warriors & Mercenary Companies Of 'Old Mars' Encounter Table

They are the Martian warriors without home, hearth, & family except to each other. These warriors are 'the promised ones' the mistresses of sword, spear, radium pistol, and energy weapons. They move across the face of 'Old Mars' with the tides of war & strife. These are the Martian  warrior women of the 'old world'. They are heroines to some, demons to many, & angels of war. Their bravery is second to none.


These companies are made up of 2nd & third level fighters with scatterings of scientists & wizards sprinkled with Martian clerics & thieves. These are very dangerous mercenaries working for honor, coin, & sometimes esoteric principles not easily understood by humans.
There is a 15% chance of these mercenaries having a relic or artifact weapon among them.  Here are 1d6 random women warriors & mercenary companies.
1d6 Random Martian Women Warriors
& Mercenary Companies Of 'Old Mars' Encounter Table

1. 'The Silent Brides of Klou'r - These dangerous warriors are made up of the survivors of the sacking & looting of the low lander Martian tribes whose men and children were taken by high mountain mutants led by a mad scientist. They have followed in this mad man's conquests & stopped his reign of terror at every turn. There is a pattern of madness & violence to their actions, they fight for underdog kingdoms & kill slavers for their booty and loot. These they sell to finance their streak of revenge! They have been accused of stripping shipments from Helium & its neighbors for their treasure. 
2. 'The Sisters of Revenge' - A group of displaced rebel scum and royals who are led by a scientist queen who is a master strategist and planner. Her troops come from the poorest natives of lower class low landers, her troops are loyal & very dangerous. They use several fliers of exceptional quality as troop transport. She is known for raiding radium shipments from the old mine works near the Weeping mountains. 
3. The Hruir' Ous Or 'The Purple Lizards' a mercenary outfit named from the draco lizard beasts of the Purple Wastes near the Swamps of Thoon. These warriors are the descendants of a forgotten city who have turned to the life of mercenaries to feed their families they are known for using dangerous sword techniques and are gifted with radium rifles. They specialize in taking down cargo fliers and military transports. 
4. The Daughters of Issus - A dangerous & murderous group of terrorists made up of scouts and rangers devoted to the displaced goddess. They are murderous psychopaths who carve up non believers & follow an incredibly foul crone goddess aspect of Issus. 
5. The Carvers of Red - These mercenaries are actually scavengers & relic hunters who finance their operations with military contracts & actions. There are over 60,000 warriors who love to use some of the most dangerous energy weapons found in the wastes. They prey on flier pirates & wasteland raiders with relish. 
6. 'The Toys' - A company of artificial persons who are converted 'pleasure bots & droids' from some long forgotten Martian city near the polar regions. They are supreme infiltrators & special forces, they often operate for years within a targets home turf & take out 'impossible' targets. There are nine groups of these ladies operating under the leadership of an A.I. called Benevolent Matrix.

Commentary On Ass Kicking Warrior Women of The Old Mars Setting

Diane thanks for the email & that's a great question, 'How do you place more women warriors on an 'Old Mars' setting & make them credible for players?' 'And are there real world historical examples of these?' Yes, and yes to both questions. Since Jeddaks,queens, and other royals of Mars exist in the classic science fantasy of Edgar Rice Burroughs, C.L. Moore, & Leigh Brackett its not a hard stretch to place classic historical female warriors within these fictional bounds. "The Dahomey Amazons or N'Nonmiton of  which means "our mothers" in Fon, were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey in the present-day Republic of Benin which lasted until the end of the 19th century. They were so named by Western observers and historians due to their similarity to the semi-mythical Amazons of ancient Anatolia and the Black Sea", at least according to their wiki entry. 

They served as some of the inspiration for Lamentations of the Flame Princess's World of The Lost which features a wide variety of warrior women with similar skill sets by Rafael Chandler. Now I've written extensively about this source book before. Basically your dealing with women warriors who are not only competent but agile, lightly armed, & used to killing within their environment. Africa proving to be one of the inspirations of Edgar Rice Burroughs for not only Tarzan but Barsoom as well. Africa was one of the last great unexplored frontiers well into the '20s to Western eyes.

But what does this have to do with 'Old Mars' as a setting? Quite a bit because your dealing with race & class separated in both Warriors of the Red Planet & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.  So this means that your going  to be dealing with Amazons within the bounds of 'Old Mars' as a human nation of adventurers cycling through the Human & Martian city states, smaller kingdoms, even the po dunk Western style settlements ala C.L. Moore.  There is a lot to pull from from using World of the Lost from robotic horrors, to energy weapons and more for an 'Old Mars' campaign. I digress.

So what does this have to do with 'Old Mars'? Well pulling from Edgar Rice Burroughs one of his later efforts shows a completely different side to those Martian princesses in 'A Fighting Man of Mars'. Since its Frank Frazetta's birth a couple of days ago here's the Doubleday 1973 cover of  The Master Mind of Mars & A  Fighting Man of Mars. I'll cover The Master Mind of Mars another day. Wiki has a really good break down of two of the essential Barsoom books.



These two novels are intertwined," The story-teller is Ulysses Paxton, protagonist of the previous novel, The Master Mind of Mars, but this story is not about him; rather, it is the tale of Tan Hadron of Hastor, a lowly, poor padwar (a low-ranking officer) who is in love with the beautiful, haughty Sanoma Tora, daughter of Tor Hatan, a minor but rich noble. As he is only a padwar, Sanoma spurns him. Then Sanoma Tora is kidnapped.

As Tan Hadron crosses Mars ("Barsoom", as Burroughs calls it) searching for Sanoma Tora, he encounters some of Barsoom's most ferocious beasts: huge, many-armed, flesh-eating white apes, gigantic spiders, and the insane cannibals of U-Gor. He also meets the mad scientist Phor Tak, who cackles "Heigh-oo!" and is crazed with the desire for revenge.

The initial simplicity of Burroughs' well-worn pursuit plot is elaborated by Hadron's rescue of an escaped slave, Tavia, from a band of six-limbed green Tharks, en route to the city of Jahar where Hadron believes Sanoma Tora has been taken. Tavia is an atypical Burroughs heroine; depicted as self-reliant and competent with weapons, witty and intelligent, she compares favorably for both reader and Hadron with beautiful but shallow Sanoma Tora, who ultimately shows herself unworthy of the virtuous hero. With the addition of Nur An, a disaffected Jaharian warrior, and another escaped woman slave, Phao, Hadron's quest becomes more collaborative than Burroughs' usual, although Tavia, in an unsurprising plot development, is revealed to be a princess at the end"
Its really Tavia that's important; "Tavia is an atypical Burroughs heroine; depicted as self-reliant and competent with weapons, witty and intelligent." Burroughs Martian women are not your typical bubble headed heroines or the usual 'Sword & Sorcery' 'damsels in distress' in fact these ladies are bound to be mercenaries & adventurers within their own rights. Many of the games I run Martian ladies are some of the most blood thirst & dangerous  adversaries player's PC can run across. Leigh Brackett's 'The Sword of Rhiannon' has a number of female Martian queens and royals running around in the background of a lush million year plus setting of Mars ancient past.


So what does this have to do with the Amazon power blocks on old Mars? Well, if we're looking at Hyperborean races intermingling through the Boreas Winds onto 'Old Mars' then your looking at Amazon warriors, adventurers, wizards, clerics, outlaws, and others making their way into the social structure of outlaw nations, thieves guilds, thieves quarters, anywhere that they can assimilate into the fringe elements that adventurers are drawn to. They're going to exploit the 'patriarchal controlled' decedent royal houses, and play them for all their worth. So are Martian women adventurers & Hyperborean lady adventurers going to get along? I think that you could see some mixed parties but I also don't think either group is going to see the other for anything other then competition in the wastelands pure and simple.

Lady adventurers are probably found in every single quarter of 'Old Mars' having run my fair share of  Warriors of the Red Planet, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, and even Dark Albion. Players love lady warriors as PC's. When you get into the wastelands of the archaic pulp origin of 'Old Mars' doesn't dictate the origin point of your adventurers.
In fact I'd be remiss for not mentioning Dark Albion's great section on women adventurers which had some nice ideas for using real historic lady warriors as a guide for that world's fantastic fantasy setting that's grounded in real  world history. Some of those ideas might work in other games enhancing play.

The tropes & ideas of pulp writers  of the past should be explored & to some extent exploited by OSR players & dungeon masters. There are plenty of ways of break molds & stereo types of the past with some imagination & creativity. Edgar Rice Burroughs, C.L. Moore, & Leigh Brackett were some of the trail blazers for many other writers who followed in their foot steps. We're only playing in the shadows of those who came before us.
Note that this is for personal use only and is not an attempt to violate the copyright or trademark of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea nor the Warriors of the Red Planet rpg systems
Note that neither Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea nor the Warriors of the Red Planet rpg systems is anyway responsible for the content or materials of Swords & Stitchery.
Ideas, items, names, adventure ideas, opinions to follow are the copyright & trademark of the author & Dark Corner Productions

The Insideous Lovecraftian Ecology of The Ovions - The Feasters From Within

Are there strange insectoid aliens out among the old stars that have preyed upon us down through the ages? Did the Atlanteans or the Hyperboreans know them & their demonic masters?

They have been with us thousands of years, brought onto Old Earth when the ancient ones came to our small planet eons ago. They are the children of the southwestern wind, the bearers of storms & drought. But these insectoid alien entities often masquerade in a thousand forms. Some know them as the Ovions but many know them by the legions of names they carry with them through ancient myth & legends of Old Earth. But now their mines & hives complexes dot the Martian underworld in the southwestern wastelands of Old Mars  

Their brothels, pleasure palaces, & human run settlements mask their works below & hide the horrid secrets of these ancient alien horrors.

The sacred texts of old Earth spoke of these false insectoid deceivers & gave cryptic warnings of them that have come down through the ages to us. From the forbidden  Necronomicon, the scrolls of Skelos, Marvels of Science, & even the Christian Bible. Our ancient ancestors knew them very well.
"I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.
Joel 2:25 Bible English Standard Version"


Ovions often set up the gambling resorts & pleasure to lure humans to them to serve as living food for their hatching larvae in their underground chambers even as they mine for rare fuels, minerals, & other weird sources of energies. But they always work in a symbiotic relationship with a more powerful race as they exploit the local human or near humanoid population as food for their young & as a psychic resource for their leaders & spawn. Going back to Mesopotamia, 900-612 BC their demonic master Pazuzu brought them to old Earth to mine for gold, nuclear fuels, & many precious metals. They were finally driven back to their colony upon Earth's moon 'Luna' which had one of their hidden cities & for thousands of years they remained undiscovered until 1901. When an eccentric scientist, Mr. Cavor & a businessman Mr. Bedford stumbled upon their sophisticated extraterrestrial civilization they call these creatures "Selenites". They had no clue that these 'Selenites' had been visiting, mining, & taking full advantage of the humans of Earth for thousands of years.
These men discover that gold is common on the moon, something that always seems to follow Ovions/Selenites. There will be 1d3000 coins worth of  gold artifacts or ore around the mining works of these aliens .

 There are literally thousands of forms of Ovions,the species can adapt a myriad of humanoid forms with a wide variety of limbs for many purposes from industrial to military.


"Cavor's account explains that Selenites exist in thousands of forms and find fulfillment in carrying out the specific social function for which they have been brought up: specialization is the essence of Selenite society. "With knowledge the Selenites grew and changed; mankind stored their knowledge about them and remained brutes—equipped," remarks the Grand Lunar, when he finally meets Cavor and hears about life on Earth.^[8] Unfortunately, Cavor reveals humanity's propensity for war; the lunar leader and those listening to the interview are "stricken with amazement". Bedford infers that it is for this reason that Cavor has been prevented from further broadcasting to Earth. Cavor's transmissions are cut off as he is trying to describe how to make cavorite. His final fate is unknown, but Bedford is sure that "we shall never… receive another message from the moon""
These alien insect humanoids often sport very sophisticated weaponry, tools, & technology. These will often be in the form of laser weaponry in the form of staffs, pistols, or rifles. These weapons are capable of doing 1d8 x2 points of damage per shot with a range of 60 feet or better with an energy cell capable of holding 1d20 shots. There will be 1d4 energy cells nearby if found as a part of a horde.

Concept art of Dan Goozee for Battlestar Galactica's Ovion costume.

The true forbidden trauma of these insect fiends is the fact their young feast upon humans & red Martians with relish. These spawn feed upon flesh,organs, & even bone to build their chitinous exoskeletons as well as limbs. Should human prey not be available they will use locally available minerals, fungus, and flesh of so called 'moon cows'. The flesh of humans & Red Martians is prized above all others. These spawn also psychically  feed on the excitement, fear, and depravity of their prey who indulge in the vice palaces above the nest sites of these creatures. There have been reports of some adventurers who have been infected with parasitic Ovion younglets through food or oral implantation. Those who do not make a save vs poison become infected for a 1d6 week period with a growing parasitic embryo. The thing grows into a fully grown  adult warrior caste  within eighteen hours unless a cure light wounds or super science medicinal measures are applied.


Speculation among certain branches of esoteric experts wonder if these insectoid aliens might somehow be related to alien creatures of Clark Aston Smith's Master of the Asteroid.

For further information about the set up and society of the Ovions see the free download of HG Wells The First Men in the Moon



Concept art of Dan Goozee for Battlestar Galactica's Ovion costume.

The Warrior caste of the Ovions
No Encountered: 1d2 (1d4+6) 

Alignment: Chaotic Evil 

Size: L 

Movement:30 

Dex:8 

AC:5

Hit Dice: 4+2 

No Attacks 2(claw/claw) 

Damage 1d6+1/1d6+1 

or weapon 

Saving Throw:13 

Morale:9 

Experience: 175 

Treasure:C

Ovion Worker 

No encountered : 1d4 

Alignment: Neutral with Evil tendencies

Size: M 

Movement: 20 

Dexterity: 12

AC: 7 

Hit Dice: 4 

No Attacks:2 (claw/claw) 

Damage:  1d6+1/1d6 +1 

Saving throw: 15 

Morale:8 

Experience Points: 90 

Treasure Type: Qx2

Ovion Spawn 

No Encountered:1d3 

Alignment: Chaotic Evil 

Size: Small 

Movement:20 

Dexterity:12 

AC:8 

Hit Dice: 2 (4) 

No Attacks:1 (bite) 

Damage: 1d6 

Saving Throw: 15 

Morale: 6 

Experience: 90 

Treasure: S from victim's possessions

For even more more wonderful concept artwork & incredible insight into the history of the Ovions in Battle Star Galactica see the History of the Ovion Costume from the Galatica TV website

& Paula Crist GALACTICA.TV interview. Paula Crist was a stunt woman on the Battlestar Galactica series that next to fitting the costume also ended up wearing it on screen.


Note that this is for personal use only and is not an attempt to violate the copyright or trademark of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea nor the Warriors of the Red Planet rpg systems
Note that neither Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea nor the Warriors of the Red Planet rpg systems is anyway responsible for the content or materials of Swords & Stitchery. This blog post is not an attempt to violate the trade marks nor copyrights of the Battle Star Galatica tv show. This blog post is for educational & entertainment purposes only All material herein comes under the heading of fair use. This blog post is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

Ideas, items, names, adventure ideas, opinions to follow are the copyright & trademark of the author & Dark Corner Productions

Lovecraftian Ecology Of The Serpent Men of Old Mars

Deep in the jungles of Old Mars the cold & evil alien eyes of an old enemy of mankind stirs. Where strikes the serpent men few can say. But their plague of evil once again comes for they have become a plague upon Old Mars! For Serpent Men are awesome monsters of the Lovecraftian Mythos. 

 Going all of the way back to 2012 I did a piece on Serpent Men on this blog. Since that time I've used these protagonists a lot going through OSR campaigns, one off adventures, and more. Serpent Men are very easy to use and at their height in both Howard, Lovecraft, & Merritt's work they had a sorcerous & technological empire that rivaled many human civilizations of history. So it makes sense they they'd have reached the stars and beyond.

Simon Burchell (Own work)

Now dealing with some of the works of these old school enemies of man kind can be interesting to say the least. Years ago I placed several colonies of Serpent Men on Mars as the main protagonists of an adventure storyline. The reason is that deep in the Kaolian forest clustered around Tharsis are lots of hidden swamp lands. Here three pyramids of the serpent men could remain hidden for eons in the shadow of Therns. They take the occasional sacrifice to their dark gods & move on into the wastelands of Mars.


Reaper miniatures 06208: Nagendra Warriors by Jason Wiebe

And what pray tell would these serpent men be doing on Old Mars? Spreading their chaos & corruption across the face of the wasteland & selling their own brand of that old time religion among the Martians. They'd have been there for centuries operating as Vivimancers, shape shifting assassins, mercenaries, & infiltrating the Therns from within. These serpent men are Lovecraftian bad guys of the highest order, and to get a really good look at some of the interior workings of the their religion I turn to two OSR publications. Now the first is from Mr. Rafael Chandler Obscene Serpent Religion is an Adult title from Neoplastic Press ( a little while back their titles & lines were put on 'pay what you want') which was very generous of him. Now suddenly the dungeon master has the inner workings & mysteries of the serpent men's religion & heinous rites. Want to know what the party of adventurers finds in the ruin location that the serpents have been operating out of? Its all there in gory details, but be careful because this is an Adult title & I don't say that lightly consider yourselves warned.


The second OSR resource that I'd use is  Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos. Because of the social classes of Barsoom, & many of the old science fantasy novels such as Leigh Brackett & C.L. Moore. Cults of Chaos gives not only structure but adventure hooks to use at every level of the social strata making such a cult very dangerous & creditable. Here's a review to kinda drive home the point.

When it comes to using serpent men they make an unexpected twist to throw into an old school game & they might pop up anywhere. They were extremely dangerous & one of the powers behind quite a few power structures in Robert Howard's Kull saga. According to HP Lovecraft's Shadow Out of Time they were one of the minds that the Great Race of Yith used to grab quite regularly.
"There was a mind from the planet we know as Venus, which would live incalculable epochs to come, and one from an outer moon of Jupiter six million years in the past. Of earthly minds there were some from the winged, star-headed, half-vegetable race of palaeogean Antarctica; one from the reptile people of fabled Valusia; three from the furry pre-human Hyperborean worshippers of Tsathoggua; one from the wholly abominable Tcho-Tchos; two from the arachnid denizens of earth’s last age; five from the hardy coleopterous species immediately following mankind, to which the Great Race was some day to transfer its keenest minds en masse in the face of horrible peril; and several from different branches of humanity."
H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out Of Time

The stats for serpent men are available for Astonishing Swordsmen Sorcerers of Hyperborea Referee's Manual or for other OSR games Realms of Crawling Chaos from Goblinoid Games


There are several references to serpent men or reptile men in the stories of  Leigh Brackett especially the Sea-Kings of Mars (more commonly known as The Sword of Rhiannon) &" Clark Aston Smith's  adapted the race for inclusion in the Cthulhu Mythos, inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Nameless City", which refers to an Arabian city built by a pre-human reptilian race. Lovecraft's story "The Haunter of the Dark" explicitly mentions the "serpent men of Valusia" as being one-time possessors of the Shining Trapezohedron. " 

However they were already in the Cthulhu Mythos via Robert Howard's Work;"However, the Cthulhu Mythos was already connected to the works of Robert E. Howard (a contemporary and correspondent of H. P. Lovecraft as well as a direct contributor to the Mythos itself). In this case, the Serpent Men were created for the very first Kull story, the character of Kull later made an appearance in a Bran Mak Morn story, Kings of the Night, while in another such story, Worms of the Earth, Bran Mak Morn explicitly refers to Cthulhu and R'lyeh. Many Conan stories by Howard are also part of the Mythos." Now given this it only makes sense to have them appear on Old Mars & Old Venus because of their connections with the writings of the other Lovecraft Circle writers.

 

Are there other hidden enclaves of these ancient horrors waiting in the Martian underworld for some foolish adventurers to stumble upon their lairs and activate their sleep chambers? Could these ancient horrors carve out their own sections of the wastes of Old Mars? They will be in my campaigns.

Note that this is for personal use only and is not an attempt to violate the copyright or trademark of The Dark Albion Rpg, Realms of Crawling Chaos, The Warriors of the Red Planet rpg or The Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg system. 
All material herein comes under the heading of fair use. This blog post is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

Ideas, items, names, adventure ideas, opinions to follow are the copyright & trademark of the author & Dark Corner Productions