Issues with Conan the Adventurer

Overall another good regional sourcebook. However, I have the following issues:

  1. I failed to find in the book a description of the Stygian people (their phenotype), and if I’m not wrong the core book lacks it. I know there are the descendants of the “giant kings”, and they are tall and have lighter skin. But how about the majority of the population?

  2. p. 65 mentions the Ammut demon and references p. 84. However, p. 84 says nothing on Ammut.

  3. The books fails to mention serpent men. The map (p. 30) shows a “lost colony of serpent men”, but says nothing about the place. Considering the book covers Stygia I can say it is a disappointment.

  4. Other place displayed in the map isn’t described at all: the monolith of Carcosa.

  5. Some locations mentioned in the text aren’t displayed in the map: the ford of Bubastes; the Bakhr river; the Purple Lotus Swamp.

  6. Minor inconsistencies. Compare the following two passages (both from page 65):

“Whether this is a holdover from an earlier tribal version of the cult, or some mystical truism, it remains that the dead are important in Stygia. Petitioners often go to the tombs of their ancestors to ask for favors. For example, if a couple is childless, they may place letters at the tombs of their relatives asking them to speak to the gods in their favor for a child”

x

“Stygians place their dead in a Hall of the Dead, a broad dim-lit hall of colossal proportions in which rises tier upon tier of carven painted sarcophagi. Each stands in a niche in the black stone, and the tiers mount up and up to be lost in the gloom above. A Hall of the Dead is the silent grave of thousands of these mummies. Few see these halls save the silent priests of Set.”

The first passage states the living relatives visit their dead often. The second passage state the dead are stored within Halls of the Dead, and that these buildings aren’t usually visited.

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Well, 2-5 are not based on Howard’s work and were probably removed because of that, 1, Stygians are the descendants of the Lemurians, a dark-skinned race from the East

So, as someone who is looking to complete his collection, is this worth picking up then? It certainly sounds like it from your review.

I’d say it is worth it. I’d rate it 3/5, but it still worth.

Isn’t Carcosa a HPL Dreamlands site or mentioned in The King In Yellow? It could be used as a crossover or maybe it only appears at certain time during the year. A single standing stone is pretty hard to find :smiley:

Lovecraft mentions it and it is mentioned in Robert Chamber’s the King in Yellow. It is a reference by both and by other writers to Ambrose Bierce’s short story An Inhabitant of Carcossa.

Monster Talk did a Christmas episode a few year ago that featured a reading of Bierce’s story and talked about the story’s influence. I put a link in to the episode.

Serpent men are described in Horrors (a fantastic book, by the way and WELL worth picking up). Some stuff gets left off the maps, I think, because there is no definitive lcoation in REH’s work and they leave it to you to decide.

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