TRAIL OF CTHULHU

Hideous Creatures

Hunting Horror
Publisher: Cathriona Tobin

Author: Kenneth Hite

Layout: Cathriona Tobin

Artwork: Ethan Black

Hideous Creatures: Hunting Horror is part of the Ken Writes about Stuff
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© 2015 Pelgrane Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Trail of Cthulhu is published by arrangement with
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 TRAIL OF CTHULHU

Hideous Creatures: Introduction

Lovecraft created his various “shadowy congeners” because the stories of vampires, werewolves, and even ghosts had become too
familiar and too formulaic to evoke true horror. Almost a century after he wrote, his own monstrous races have likewise begun
to seem like comfortable story furniture rather than unnerving signals that the world is horrible and wrong.

Our goal with this series is to present a comprehensive look at Lovecraft’s hideous creatures, from as many angles as we can.
Our goal is contradiction, surprise, and most especially the uncanny: the recognition of something familiar as something weird.
As in the “Gods and Titans” section of the Trail of Cthulhu core book, this series deliberately contradicts itself, blurring boundaries
and erasing certainties in the name of the uncanny. In your campaign, these variant truths might be misunderstandings, legends,
heresies, or deliberate lies spread by the creatures to lull their foes into a false sense of familiarity.

Change anything and everything in these pages, most especially the ability scores. If you need a terrifying assassin, a brief but
survivable fright, or a sanity-shattering horror, just add or subtract points at will.

Contents
Hideous Creatures: Introduction 3 Ophies Pteretoi (Ancient Greece, Arabia Felix) 7

Hunting Horror 4 Pihuechenyi (Chile) 7

Possible Hunting Horror Abilities 5 Uktena (Southeastern U.S., Oklahoma) 7

Variations 5 Investigations 7

Mythic Echoes 6 Clues 7

Ala (Serbia, Macedonia) 6 Scenario Seeds 10

Azi Dahaka (Persia) 7 The Shadow From the Screen 10

Draco (Rome) 7 Out of the Vale of Pnath 10

Ifrit (Arabia) 7 Bibliography 10

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“GREAT POLYPOUS HORRORS SLID DARKLY PAST, AND UNSEEN BAT-WINGS BEAT MULTITUDINOUS AROUND HIM … AND
HOARY NODENS RAISED A HOWL OF TRIUMPH WHEN NYARLATHOTEP, CLOSE ON HIS QUARRY, STOPPED BAFFLED BY A
GLARE THAT SEARED HIS FORMLESS HUNTING-HORRORS TO GREY DUST.”
-- "THE DREAM-QUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH"

Swift and implacable, hunting horrors • A humped, polypous form trailing the Keeper: can the dull yellow light
harry their chosen prey, sometimes tentacles behind it as it flies of an approaching tornado dismiss
serving wizards seeking blood and lives. the horror, or the red light of a sun
Native to a distant dark dimension, they HPL signals the arrival of the Haunter choked by burning cities?
emerge through a crystal focus such as of the Dark (generally considered a
the Shining Trapezohedron, or follow paradigmatic hunting horror) not just Hunting Horror
to Earth the summons or sendings of with a traditional Lovecraftian blast of
their eldritch masters. foetor but with a rushing wind or even Abilities: Athletics 7 (ground)/11
Hunting horrors resemble enormous an approaching thunderstorm. Other (flying), Health 14, Scuffling 22
(40-foot) ropy black serpents or ways to herald their approach might Magic: A hunting horror in service to
worms with one or two bat-like or include: a magus, or the alpha horror of a pack
sail-like wings. Their faces feature a • A sudden croaking as if a flock of has Magic 10-18, along with Contact
three-lobed burning eye set over a invisible ravens rushes nearer Nyarlathotep, Summon Hunting
mouth lined with serrated teeth. They • A nightmarish buzzing, like metal Horror, and likely attack spells such as
often appear as clouds of thick, foetid tearing through cloth (listen to Shrivelling or Steal Life.
smoke. Their twitching, writhing recordings of V-1 “buzz bombs” for Hit Threshold: 3 (large)
forms continually shift and change, the right note of alien terror) Alertness Modifier: +2
painful to behold. • What light there is in the area shifts Stealth Modifier: +2 (flying)
This of course sets you up to shift deep into the infrared, like the sea Weapon: +1 (bite), -1 (tail loop)
and change the hunting horror from going out before the tsunami Armor: -5 vs. any (scales); all firearms
its standard “bat-winged black viper” • Unnatural sheet lightning that do damage as if their modifier were -1
description: somehow never actually brightens Stability Loss: +1
• Change the wings to grubby the sky, only changing its color Held Back By Light: A hunting
or patchy crow wings, or thick • The taste of ashes and a powdery horror must make a successful Health
and oily fly wings, or weirdly sensation on exposed skin test against a Difficulty of 8 to cross a
articulated skin-umbrella wings • A sense that surrounding tall lighted area (torches or street lamps
• A viscous flow of black, iridescent buildings are folding or falling in on count). It can spend Magic points on
oil suspended in other gravities you this test.
• An elongated, distorted tuatara or Tail Grasp: After a successful tail
frill-necked lizard, using its ruff or However you present the horror’s loop attack on a target, he must spend
frill to fly approach, give serious thought to 3 Athletics to do anything but writhe
• Change the three-lobed eye to a evoking the Doppler effect: hunting uncomfortably. A grasped foe has his
triple-insect eye, segmented and horrors fly so fast that the signs of Hit Threshold lowered by 2. To free
iridescent like the surface of the their coming pile up onto each other himself, he must defeat the horror in a
Trapezohedron in a sensory overload. contest of Athletics – but of course, the
• A latticework of intertwined Daylight dispels the Haunter and other horror can carry its target into the sky
burnt-brown spines and ribs, hunting horrors; a strong enough or another dimension. While holding
extending out into thin bone wing burst of direct light (from a lightning a foe, the horror can only make bite
spines and questing horns bolt or an atomic blast, perhaps) could attacks, although it can automatically
• An elongated flying-fish with bony sear one to dust. How strong the light constrict its grasped target for -1
plated head, spine, and jaws and how direct it must be are up to damage per round without attacking.

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around a hunting horror must make In all forms, they retain the three-
Possible Hunting Horror a Difficulty 5 Health test or be Hurt lobed burning eye, although the “Man
until they return to clean air. in Black” hunting horror conceals its
Abilities three-lobed eyes behind dark glasses.
Bulletproof, fast, and implacable, you’d Gnaw: The hunting horror can gnaw Shifting forms costs a hunting horror 2
think that hunting horrors were bad and masticate the victim held in its Health or Magic.
enough. But really – is Nyarlathotep tail loop (Scuffling attack at -2 to Hit
the kind of god who settles for “bad Threshold), doing three instances of Tracking: The myriad alien senses of
enough?” +1 damage. the hunting horror can always identify
its chosen target at any distance out to
Acid Spittle: The hunting horror’s Manifest Fog: The hunting horror the interstellar.
spittle is powerfully acidic. It can spit can manifest a concealing fog in its
acid at Close or Near range (resolve as presence by thickening the foulness it
Scuffling, +1 to Hit Threshold) for +1
caustic damage each round for the next
emits. For each 2 Magic (or Health)
points spent, the fog increases any
Variations
“AND IN THE AIR ABOUT HIM
three rounds. After each successful bite relevant test’s Difficulty by 1; at WERE GREAT VIPERINE CREATURES,
attack, the victim continues to take 8 Magic points spent, the fog is WHICH HAD CURIOUSLY DISTORTED
+0 damage from the acidic saliva for completely opaque. HEADS, AND GROTESQUELY GREAT
two more rounds. Its saliva of course CLAWED APPENDAGES, SUPPORTING
corrodes street lamps, auto engines, or Smoke Form: The hunting horror can THEMSELVES WITH EASE BY THE
anything else inconvenient. turn to smoke, making it completely AID OF BLACK RUBBERY WINGS
immune to all material attacks OF SINGULARLY MONSTROUS
Bull-Roar: The hunting horror utters (lightning still affects it) and allowing it DIMENSIONS.”
a bass howl that seemingly penetrates to flow through cracks, small windows,
bone and stone, plunging deep into the etc. Its smoke form is also supernally – AUGUST DERLETH, THE LURKER AT
subsonic. It does +1 damage to both fast, capable of flicking across a city in THE THRESHOLD
Health and Stability to all who hear it seconds. Changing forms costs 2 Magic
(Near range) as they bleed from the (or Health). As with the “Gods and Titans” section
ears and nose, and know themselves in the corebook, this compendium
utterly and completely alone in the Swallow Whole: With a successful is intentionally self-contradictory.
cosmos. This howl costs it 2 Magic (or Scuffling attack (at -2 to Hit Threshold) Its facts and theories come from
Health) and can only be uttered once the hunting horror can unhinge its jaw Lovecraft, from later writers, and from
per scene. like a viper and swallow the victim the universe of possibilities opened up
held in its tail loop, engulfing her in between them.
Damaged by Light: Focused light its abyssal hell-form. This triggers an • Hunting horrors serve
beams calve off portions of the horror’s immediate 7-point Stability test and Nyarlathotep, and he has incarnated
infra-flesh. Light sources include: begins the immediate suffocation of as the greatest of them, the Haunter
flashlight (-1); car headlights (+0); the victim (ToC, p. 68) by the horror’s of the Dark, as one of his Thousand
floodlights (+1); arc lamps (+2); smoky foetor. Only the dissolution of Forms.
all damage drops by -1 at each range the horror by bright light can free the • Hunting horrors are made of
increment greater than Close. “Firing” victim. ultraterrene matter, and fly by
a light resolves as a Firearms attack, at exerting pressure into other
-1 to Hit Threshold. Shining a light at a Tail Whip: After grasping a victim, dimensions.
horror is a great way to get attacked by the horror can hurl him up to 100 yards • Hunting horrors do not fly in a
it – and your Hit Threshold also drops away by whipping its tail and paying 1 straight line, but proceed along a
by -1, being so well illuminated. Scuffling. This does +5 damage and non-Euclidean great curve more
forces an immediate Consciousness directly to their target; they seem
Darkvision: A hunting horror sees roll. to flicker or stutter in and out of
by the inverse of light; it never suffers existence, or to be imperfectly
penalties for darkness, fog, etc. Thousand Forms: Like their master resolved in local space, causing the
Nyarlathotep, hunting horrors can take “cloud” effect.
Foetor: “As a foulness shall ye know on any of a thousand forms. All their • Hunting horrors are native to an
them.” All unprotected breathers forms are vulnerable to bright light. utterly dark dimension, and even

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• Summoning a hunting horror

requires a bleeding victim, bound
in darkness. Or just making contact
with a proper prism, of course.

Mythic Echoes
“NOTHING DEFINITE COULD BE SEEN
… THOUGH SOME UPWARD-LOOKING
SPECTATORS THOUGHT THEY
GLIMPSED A GREAT SPREADING BLUR
OF DENSER BLACKNESS AGAINST
THE INKY SKY—SOMETHING LIKE A
FORMLESS CLOUD OF SMOKE THAT
SHOT WITH METEORLIKE SPEED
TOWARDS THE EAST.”

-- “THE HAUNTER OF THE DARK”

In addition to the various dragons,
sky-demons, and dark horrors listed
below, the Haunter of the Dark
seems to embody a specific failure
and corruption of the land – one
perhaps more familiar from Grail
myth. The Trapezohedron is a sort of
anti-Grail, offering visions of gods
and communion with Nyarlathotep,
discovered in a Perilous Chapel that
Blake finds mysteriously difficult to
approach. When Blake finds the “Grail”
the Haunter-king is feeble, but gains
power from Blake’s curiosity (reversing
Perceval’s unasked Question) and
eventually emerges into Lovecraft’s
sacred Providence. The parallels may
be strained, but they can be used to add
starlight causes them infinitesimal • The folk of Yaddith have defeated depth to a hunting horror story.
wounds, accounting for their rage the hunting horrors and know a As with the variations and possible
and hunger in our cosmos. certain Sign to thwart them; Sicilian powers above, the hunting horrors
• Hunting horrors “cannot cross the peasants learned of a similar (if might more closely match their various
universe of light,” so they do not fly slightly less effective) sign from the mythic depictions than Lovecraft’s
through space but through dream Sibyl in Roman times. fiction.
or hyperspace. • Hunting horrors are given shape by
• Hunting horrors come from an the one who gazes into their prism Ala (Serbia, Macedonia)
anti-radiant dimension; they see to call them – if she fears dragons
darkness as light, and vice versa. or snakes, she calls the winged viper This sky demon takes many forms
• “They from the air cannot help form. In other forms, they might in addition to the black and horrible
without human blood. They take be abstract ghouls, elongated rat- wind: thundercloud, dragon, three-
body from it.” things, or hundred-mouthed toads. headed snake, and a winged horse-
• Hunting horrors are the mature • The mi-go built the hunting horrors headed serpentine creature with a
form of star vampires, extruded from Yuggothian fungus-flesh as sword for a tail. It brings or embodies
from that pupal stage once they an offering-vehicle for their lord storms and madness; associated
have obtained enough blood. Nyarlathotep. with summer hailstorms, it devours

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the fertility of the land. It possesses Ifrit (Arabia) one for stabbing, and one for grasping
chosen victims called aloviti, and eats victims. Dwelling in Lake Tagua Tagua,
children. The “dusty ones” are a winged race one was supposedly captured in 1784
Ale (the plural) dwell in lakes or of djinn, made of coils of smoke and and brought to the authorities in Peru.
mountain caves, avoiding sunlight and dwelling underground or in ruins.
only emerging during sky-darkening Though immune to weapons, the Uktena (Southeastern U.S.,
storms or eclipses. In later myths, ifrit fears lightning, and burns up if Oklahoma)
ale fear eagles (possibly symbolizing destroyed. It serves Shaitan, can be
the lightning that defeats the hunting bound with magic by a sorcerer such The “Horned Serpent” and “Winged
horror) and avoid magical “ala’s herbs” as Solomon, and is restrained by his Serpent” are common motifs in many
found growing at the ends of plowed Seal or Sign. Early tales of the ifrits Indian legends, often overlapping in
furrows. said they formed around the blood space or time. The Cherokee describe
of a murder victim, and took the the uktena (“keen-eyed”) as a great
Azi Dahaka (Persia) shape of sandstorms or dust devils. horned snake with glowing scales,
In later stories, ifrits have kings and although since it dwells both in rivers
In Zoroastrian myth, Azi Dahaka family lines, part of the usual folkloric and high mountain passes (“where
(“snake that burns”) is the three- “domestication” pattern of the Uktena stays”) it likely has the power
headed winged serpent whose wings unknown and terrifying. of flight or teleportation. The uktena
blot out the heavens. Like the Haunter, emits a poisonous foulness such that
it is imprisoned in a stone (in this Ophies Pteretoi (Ancient Greece, the hunter who sees one dooms
case, Mount Demavand in Iran) until Arabia Felix) not just himself but his family. Most
its release, which will herald the interestingly, the uktena bears a great
apocalypse. Persian mythic influence According to Herodotus, these gem, the Ulunsu’ti, in its forehead –
– or Nyarlathotep cultism – stretched varicolored winged snakes guarded the coveted by sorcerers, it can only be
as far as the Buriats of Siberia, whose frankincense trees of southern Arabia. powered by blood. Hunters become so
sky demon Alkhla clearly echoes Azi They were deadly poisonous, and captivated by the gem they run toward
Dahaka, and adds lordship over eclipses attacked at night; Aelian reports that the uktena to their doom.
to his portfolio. Like the Haunter, their urine caused “festering wounds.”
Alkhla is also damaged by sunlight,
which burns him in half.
They attempted to invade Egypt each
year, but were driven back to Arabia by
Investigations
flocks of ibises – a tangled reference Keepers should treat this section,
Draco (Rome) to the 3rd dynasty replacement of and use these elements, even more
Nyarlathotep by his “friendlier” avatar idiosyncratically.
The specifically Roman version of the Thoth? Even in Herodotus’ time,
more familiar dragon is a fierce winged mounds of their spines could be seen Clues
serpent that glows strangely and in the Mitla Pass in the Sinai. They Perforce, the clues in this section mostly
crushes its foes. (Heraldically this beast can be driven off only by the smoke point to “standard” hunting horrors,
is called the wyvern or amphiptere, of burning storax (the resin of the assumed to be servitors similar to the
although the wyvern grew legs by the sweetgum tree). avatar of Nyarlathotep in “The Haunter
16th century.) Aelian said the draco of the Dark.” Feel free to adjust them
lived in caves in India and Ethiopia; Pihuechenyi (Chile) at will.
later authors added fiery breath.
Medievals called the hypnotically The Araucanian tribes feared these Accounting: That mildewed bag
glowing draco – a conflation with the winged snakes that attacked travellers looks like it holds all the donations
Shining Trapezohedron? – the scitalis. and those asleep in the forests by ever made to the church for its last two
In the 2nd century A.D., the Romans night. The pihuechenyi drank the decades. The Reverend didn’t do good
adopted the draco as a standard from blood of its victims, or carried them works, or expand their building, or
either the Sarmatians or the Dacians, off to its unknown lair. Some sources even embezzle it. Just collected it, like
both of whom carried draco “banners” describe Pihuechenyi as a god, a forgotten, meaningless ritual action.
into battle. The Roman commanders of possibly a reference to Nyarlathotep
late antiquity – including King Arthur as the Haunter. Another Chilean lake Anthropology: Among the Indians
– thus rode to war under the sign of monster has a human face, bat wings, of the Mississippi valley, the winged
the hunting horror. and a serpent body with two tails: serpent represents a dangerous

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compromise between the powers of When a flock of them approached it, he (indicating thick, looped cable was used
the Below World and the powers of thought, they would wheel and scatter to suspend the body and possibly slam
the Upper World, one that only the in panic confusion.” (Outdoorsman) it into a wall) and wounds made by at
most powerful of medicine men could least five different shapes of blades,
command. Bureaucracy: Both the county and mostly hatchet-like. The left foot,
the city claim it’s the other jurisdiction’s heart, and at least three inches of the
Archaeology: Nephren-Ka, last responsibility to tear down the derelict trachea have not been recovered from
pharaoh of the 3rd dynasty, took the church. You can’t tell why they’re so the crime scene.
Black Winged Uraeus as a throne- adamant on the topic, but the local
symbol, blasphemously unifying the bureaucrats are barely capable of Geology: The pictograms are all in
cobra and vulture symbols of Lower and reasoned discussion of it even with you. red ocher (iron oxide), and the crystal
Upper Egypt. Later priests erased his in the box appears to be hematite,
name from all records, making his tomb Chemistry: “The possible causes of or iron oxide. Hematite has very
impossible to find – although there’s a such an event are many. No one can strange magnetic properties, and this
rumor that the Reverend Enoch Bowen speak with certainty of the obscure crystal has been subjected to immense
discovered it by accident in 1843. chemical processes arising in a vast, magnetic stress and fractured. Could
ancient, ill-aired, and long-deserted we use a shard of it as a compass, to find
Architecture: This steeple is taller building of heterogeneous contents. the thing before it emerges tonight?
than the staircase inside it. There’s a Mephitic vapours—spontaneous (1-point spend if hematite acts as a locater
hidden gallery concealed above the bell combustion—pressure of gases born or tracker; 0-point spend if it merely provides
chamber. of long decay—any one of numberless early warning of an attack by moving of its
phenomena might be responsible.” own accord) (Physics)
Art History: This haunting, or
whatever it is, reminds me of the Cop Talk: “The police sent an officer History: On May 19, 1780, a
sensationalistic rumors about the death to verify the reports. Three men in mysterious darkness settled over New
of painter and author Robert Harrison succession found ways of evading the England between Portland, Maine and
Blake in Providence during the great assignment, and the fourth went very northern New Jersey for several hours.
storm of August 9, 1935. The inquest reluctantly and returned very soon Accompanied by a foul sulphurous
demonstrated he had been struck without adding to the account given by smell and a blood-red moon, the Dark
by lightning, but there were certain the reporters.” Day may represent some major action
details not admitted into the record at by the thing’s worshippers – and the
the time … Credit Rating (4+): Infiltrating the moon is turning red again, and the west
parishioners requires a professional wind smells of fetid sulphur …
Assess Honesty: “Again he asked a demeanor, with enough potential social
merchant about the massive church clout to open the outer doors, at least. Languages: “The cipher, he soon saw,
of stone, and this time he could have was no simple one; and after a long
sworn that the plea of ignorance was Cryptography: “The devices of period of endeavour he felt sure that its
feigned. The dark man's face had a look the sun, moon, planets, aspects, and language could not be English, Latin,
of fear which he tried to hide, and Blake zodiacal signs — here massed in Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, or
saw him make a curious sign with his solid pages of text, with divisions and German. … The text was, he found, in
right hand.” paragraphings suggesting that each the dark Aklo language used by certain
symbol answered to some alphabetical cults of evil antiquity.” (Cryptography)
Astronomy: Most of the letter.”
disappearances happened at night, Law: The actions of Mayor Thomas
but we haven’t been able to explain Evidence Collection: Somebody Doyle and his “secret committee” to
Osgood’s death at 4:30 in the afternoon. smashed the streetlight that ordinarily close the Church of the Starry Wisdom
Except he vanished on August 31, 1932 shines on this courtyard. These bullets in 1877 were completely extra-legal.
– during a total eclipse in Gloucester! hit something, though, something that This Elizabeth Bowen absolutely has
flattened them out. a case, if she cares to bring it, and if
Biology: “The birds of spring were she can prove her descent from the
returning, and as he watched their Forensics: The corpse was mauled and Reverend Enoch Bowen. This might
sunset flights he fancied they avoided mutilated, showing severe blunt trauma explain why Mayor Dunne is turning a
the gaunt, lone spire as never before. as well as ligature marks on the limbs blind eye to these disappearances.

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Library Use: The first description

of the lucifuge, or “fly-the-light”
demon, appears in Johann Weyer’s De
Praestigiis Daemonum (Basel, 1563).
We need the most complete version,
perhaps one annotated by the witch-
hunter Remigius – check archives in
Paris, Lyons, and Nancy.

Medicine: “Blake stooped over

the gleaming bones and noted their
peculiar state. Some of them were
badly scattered, and a few seemed
oddly dissolved at the ends. Others
were strangely yellowed, with vague
suggestions of charring. This charring
extended to some of the fragments
of clothing. The skull was in a very
peculiar state—stained yellow, and
with a charred aperture in the top
as if some powerful acid had eaten
through the solid bone.” (Forensics)

Occult: The symbol is the goetic

emblem for Focalor, a demon
governing storms. But “Focalor” is
also a rough anagram for “Rofocale,”
the name of the great Lucifuge
according to the Grand Grimoire.
This could be a summoning … or a
warning?

Oral History: “All of the few

observers, however, agree as to the
violent gust from the west and the
flood of intolerable stench which
preceded the belated stroke, whilst Photography: For some reason, the of what looked like charring. Opening
evidence concerning the momentary shadow of the church seems longer the door to the tower, and pausing a
burned odour after the stroke is than those of the other buildings, given moment at the suspicion of a scraping
equally general.” the time of afternoon. Darker, too. sound above, they found the narrow
spiral stairs wiped roughly clean.”
Outdoorsman: “It was odd that Physics: This machinery seems
the green of spring had not touched designed solely to channel the electrical Streetwise: Old Paddy remembers,
the brown, withered growths in the system of this building – possibly this aye! One o’ the Federal Hill Bhoys I
raised, iron-fenced yard.” (Biology) whole block – into a single discharge was, back when we ran those Starry
of bright light. Or that’s what it was Wisdom heathens out o’ Providence. I
Pharmacy: The material in the designed to do, before it got smashed seen more than most back then, I did. ‘S
bowl is shredded kava root, used in to pieces. (2-point spend to rebuild the Lux why I’m blind now, yuss, but I c’n tell
Polynesian cultures to inspire visions. Capacitor) ye what I saw, if’n you have the price of
It also causes dreamless sleep – was a dram on ye.
Audrey trying to commune with the Sense Trouble: “There was a bad
thing, or prevent it from communing odour everywhere, and here and there Theology: “The designs were largely
with her? were bits of yellow stain and patches conventional, and his knowledge of

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obscure symbolism told him much lead is named Clare Bowen. And of Every nine years, however, the
concerning some of the ancient course the script is based on the story true God Nyarlathotep sends His
patterns. The few saints depicted bore “The Stairs in the Crypt,” published Dark Angel – a hunting horror –
expressions distinctly open to criticism in Whispers magazine after the death to draw a favored worshiper up to
… the cobwebbed cross above the of its author, Robert Harrison Blake, Sharnoth, the true Heaven. And the
altar was not of the ordinary kind, but in Providence in 1935. Chosen compete to be that favored
resembled the primordial ankh or crux Each tiny fragment of creativity put worshiper. Their competition
ansata of shadowy Egypt.” (Occult) into the film was drawn into the consists of committing ever more
nimbus of the Shining Trapezohedron. horrible, nihilist evil outrages, and
The creature in the crypt, never bringing their trophies to Gordion
Scenario Seeds clearly seen in the film, is a hunting every nine years on Walpurgisnacht.
The usual role of the hunting horror horror, assembled from the shards of The Investigators likely stumble over
in Mythos adventures is either as interest its makers briefly expressed one or more of the Chosen engaging
horrible monstrosity haunting a before falling back into mediocrity. in seemingly insane and pointless
ruin/artifact/both, or as the level This emergent monstrosity, the dark monstrosity, and track them to
boss summoned by the Nyarlathotep shadow of wasted talent, dwells in Turkey … because this is, of course,
cultists at the big finale. While it between frames of the film, in the the ninth year, and the Dark Angel
serves both functions admirably, these ultimate dark. It enters the theater will come again.
scenario seeds offer two different and takes those who respond most
takes on the Haunter and the horror. strongly to the movie, drawn by
their interest. And nobody is more
Bibliography
The Shadow From the Screen interested in Stairs in the Crypt than Like many of the familiar monsters
the Investigators. of Cthulhoid gaming, the hunting
The movie Stairs in the Crypt plays in This seed combines the good old horror looms larger in RPG scenarios
whatever exists below the B-movie “Haunter in the Dark” with the than in Mythos fiction.
circuit, at desperate theaters without electrical-showman version of the Lovecraft introduced the hunting
air-conditioning, or in Elks Lodges titular deity in “Nyarlathotep.” horrors of Nyarlathotep in The Dream-
in one-horse towns. A black-and- See “The Final Reel” in Shadows Quest of Unknown Kadath, although
white horror film about a hidden Over Filmland for more cinematic he left their appearance and nature
monster lurking in a crypt, it exists Cthulhianity, as a sequel to this unsaid. General consensus casts the
to fill space until the new Laurel & adventure perhaps. titular “Haunter of the Dark” as an
Hardy or Roy Rogers comes out. avatar of Nyarlathotep in the form
And every so often when it plays Out of the Vale of Pnath of a gigantic hunting horror. (The
in a town, someone watching dies, interested Keeper should also read
or spontaneously combusts, or just Walter Ennis, an archaeologist Robert Bloch’s wonderful, if hunting-
never comes back out of the darkened connected to a small religious horror free, sequel to that story, “The
theater. college in the Midwest, has been Shadow From the Steeple.”) But as
Investigating the film, nobody excavating a pre-Roman mound so often turns out to be the case, it
associated with it has ever outside Gordion in Turkey since the was August Derleth who provided us
accomplished much; the set designer end of the War, uncovering a temple with a description of the beasts, in his
worked for United Artists until his to the Galatian god Noadatos, better novel The Lurker at the Threshold.
alcoholism got him fired, and Franz known as Nodens. His work, and the It’s possible that a hunting horror or
Ritter (who plays the elderly mystic) publication of his initial researches, the like is also the titular “Horror
was a silent star 20 years ago. The has reawakened the Chosen of From the Middle Span” (an August
alleged leads are clearly summer- Sathariel, a Gnostic cult that believes Derleth tale that name-checks the
stock players from Wisconsin, where this world is the Vale of Pnath, where Haunter) in that it comes “from the
Horngate Films was incorporated the charnel demiurges hurl their air,” then snatches and exsanguinates
before going bankrupt and burning bones. The Chosen easily took over human victims – but if so, its shapes
down in an insurance scam. But the mound and site from Dr. Ennis, include that of a beautiful, albeit
digging deeper uncovers a few whom they keep prisoner there to scaled, woman. A thousand forms,
tendrils in a larger web: the score was interpret the carvings and carry out indeed.
composed by the son of an organist the rites of Noadatos, placating the
in Providence, R.I., and the female night-gaunts who infest the ruins.

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