Attached here is a PDF of an adventure I have written called “Servants of the Charnel God.” It is based on the short story “The Charnel God,” by Clark Ashton Smith. Literate gamers certainly will be quick to point out that “Vultures of Shem,” the adventure in the Core Book, likewise is based on Smith’s “The Charnel God.” As I say in my note to the attached adventure, I nevertheless find the specific action in Smith’s tale so evocative and “gameable” that I needed to adapt it, more or less, as Smith himself presented it. At least, this is what I have tried to do.
CONAN_Servants_Charnel_God.pdf (676.4 KB)
This is not my first adaptation of this material. About two years ago, I also made the tale’s events a scenario for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (a game which appears more directly to take Smith, rather than Howard, as the chief source of its inspiration). As far as I know, that early version still might be findable over at the Hyperborea boards.
I ran this adventure, about a year ago, for a local Conan group. I’m about to run it again, this time for an impromptu online group. I find this an occasion to prettify the adventure and share it with the Conan community. I intend to release more adventures in what I am going to consider an early weird fiction series. The next two planned are “Satisfaction of the Sea-Witch” (based on Nictzin Dyalhis’s “The Sea-Witch”) and “Death in Fort Defiance” (based on Henry S. Whitehead’s “Black Tancrede”).
Much of the weird fiction I read seems suitable for Kull adventures rather than Conan adventures. Two I have begun drafting are based on work by A. Merritt and (again) Clark Ashton Smith.
Learning how to game online in the time of Covid has caused me to use Dungeondraft for my vtt maps. If anyone chooses to run my adventures and wants my map files, send me a message; I’ll see if I can help you out.
P.S. It just occurred to me that I made no mention of stats for Mordiggian in the attached adventure. They are those of an Abomination, Unspeakable, of course, the same that “Vultures of Shem” uses.