Influences for the past few quests!

[lonnarin]

Howdy Folks!  As you may have noticed, the past few quests have been heavily influenced by HP Lovecraft.  If any of you have heard that name or that of Cthulu, definitely pick up a copy of ANYTHING he has ever written and read read read!   Of course we do not have Cthulu in Layonara, but we do still have Aberrations!  Between Mind Flayers, Aboleth and Beholders, Lovecraft lives on, influencing generations of Fantasy afficiandos and gamers alike.  

The aboleth in particular are never given enough credit IMO for the sheer depths of horror and transmutative natural perversion that they spread, dragging sailors down below to be brainwashed and mutated into scaley humanoid horrors to carry out the tentacle lords' work on coastal lands and ships.  As you look into the waves, crags become waves, reefs become wind and sandbars seem traversable as open sea.  Then you run aground, shipwreck, and are hounded by mutants and tentacles dragging you down below to become food for the masters.  Or worse yet, their future aquatic foot soldiers, icky stuff!

Mind Flayers, or Illithid, go as far as to bear Cthulu's classic visage.  A slimey beast of the depths with a tentacled, lamprey mouth that sucks out your brain for sweet sustainance.  Their mind control powers rival that of the Aboleth, and their hierarchal structure is as alien as the Zerg.  Mother brains spawn these minnows which circle around in the tank eating brain matter offered from above.  Meanwhile, mother eats the minnow children too slow or witless to avoid her tentacles.  Only the strongest and most affluent minnow rise to the surface of the tank, to be taken by birthing thralls and implanted into slave skulls.  There, they feast upon the brains and control the host body like a puppet, until the minnow larva takes over the entire body and transmutes it into a united being.  This being will become the Mind flayers you see and fight in your journeys.  For further reading on this awesome and most under-used D&D classic monster, check out 2nd Edition's Slayer's Guide to Mind Flayers.  They even go into full detail into how they use the bodies of adventurers in their slave pits and gladitorial arenas.  (Imagine Battlebots with your defeated bodies as husks and your enthralled brains to eat the victory prize.)  

And then the Beholders.  The beautiful thing about a beholder is his vast intellect partnered with his enchantment skills.  Legions of monsters and humanoids serve them as witless thralls, you face a hundred "beef and potato" critters like bandits, orcs or critters before you find out BEHOLDERS are behind it all.  Entire merchant guilds bends to their whispers at night.  And that one central eye, larger than the rest?  Poof, there goes your stoneskin, barkskin, strength and death ward.  Although they are the pinnacle of magical beings (after dragons), some even gouge out their own central eye just to learn magic.  Their vast intellects allow them to excell in the craft, combining the 8 other rays of doom with a full spellbook of tricks at their disposal.  Most powerful ones also see true. (sorry shadowdancers!)  There is also an excellent Slayer's guide out there detailing this race of monsters.  Apparantly they float like a dirigable, from an air bladder of lighter-than-air gas.  This is how they fly in no-magic zones. (and in the view of their no-magic cones!)

All three of these beasts have exceptional mind-enthralling powers.  People driven either mad and frothing or quite and complacent into servitude.  The good puppets often blend into society, nobody the wiser.  They rule guilds, head houes or just blend in with the populace as eyes and ears.  The bad ones are injested as food, or implanted as husks to use as puppets for the young.  Topside? In the deep? Beneath the Briney Depths?  You will come to face one and find yourself locked into a fantasy world of your pitiful adventurer's ego against a mind tyrant.  No secret is safe, no thought is sacred.  What IS Real?!  They will use your own childhood against you.  This is why I LOVE them!

Those who paid attention to the rants and ravings of the mad cultists and the scaled guardians also may have noticed another influence.  Dethklok - Go Into The Water [FULL VIDEO CLIP] - YouTube  I shall attempt to invoke the spirit of metal in all of my quests.  Tonight, love was in the Eye of the Beholder.  Hope you had fun, in any case!

Now back to pirate goodness!

[Lance Stargazer]

*grins*  Cthullu is late Armand is already crazy upon the eyes of a lot of people ,.. heh.. Cant take his sanity *grins*

[Aphel]

So sad I haven't been there. Having read some Lovecraft short stories I can see why his name is mentioned in the upper ranks of influential horror writers. Without wanting to spoil future readers, Lovecraft is not an excellent writer of these horror stories. I must say that King's "IT" is much better written and more tense than Lovecraft's writings as far as I know them. Then again, read them. They're a classic. One should have read it. Much like "War and Peace" from Tolstoi, tho that is a complete different cup of green tea.

Also, you might like: Eben Brooks: Hey There Cthulhu (new live performance) - YouTube

@Lance: Iä!

[Lance Stargazer]

I agree with what you say somehow aphel regarding the stories of Stephen King, But Lovecraft strenght is not the dramatic writter style, but the whole universe he develops, as you mentioned you have read short stories you may have noted that there are several common things on it.

Its not about the narration but about the whole picture and how things are presented and disguised from the normal world and how "crazy" people is the one who actually gets "enlightened" . Cause most of the intent of this is that this "creatures" that defiles "our" reality makes the character stories to tend towards crazy, pretty much as a big masquerade.

And yes i agree that he may need some help on some parts. as that old example of a "stone so perfectly round that would make you go crazy" yes agree , there are some points he can get, but hey . lot of people say that Salvatore is the best Forgotten reals writter.  which is true if you got to the "story flow" but lacks on some parts, with this i mean is that every good writter has their strenghts and weaknesses.  

PS .- I still don't forgive Salvatore for Killing Chewbacca.  There i said it.

[Lance Stargazer]

And i know that Thunder pants would have loved this kind of series.  

This is something he left for us on its pass thru here.  

A video that same as him fills me with joy.

The adventures of lil'Cthullu

[RollinsCat]

Lovecraft's style is heavy on building a defense in the reader's mind, only to knock it down at the end, and his style isn't for everyone.  I personally I love the wordy, descriptive, moody setup and having to have a dictionary next to me so I can understand it (cacodaemoniacal?  saraband?).  

I would say that reading a string of the short stories in a row can sometimes feel repetitive because of the "gotcha" endings but I at least never tire of the mental and emotional descriptiveness.  If anyone wants something meaty, try At the Mountains of Madness as a good intro, it's not a short story but he sets up the feeling in an incredibly visceral manner.  I always feel physically cold reading it too.

[Aphel]

I agree with what you say somehow aphel regarding the stories of Stephen King, But Lovecraft strenght is not the dramatic writter style, but the whole universe he develops, as you mentioned you have read short stories you may have noted that there are several common things on it.

It wasn't my intention to attack Lovecraft's writing style (that's a matter of taste and opinion), I merely wanted to point out that HP Lovecraft influenced a lot of other writers and the genre as a whole. And some of what has roots in his writings is at least just as much readable, if not more, depending on taste and such.

Also, playable. Transhuman Horror Adventures in Space? With a fan-made crossover with Lovecraft under way? I mean, it's in space! And not to mention all the horror games, both on PC and Pen and Paper, that are based on Lovecraft's writings.

[Lance Stargazer]

Nor my intent to belittle your remarks mate, just offering a point of view and some understanding to those non familiar with the style of Lovecraft.

And i do agree that is a matter of taste and liking from each reader, personally I am not quite liking of Lovecraft, its not bad simply not the style i enjoy.