Thunder, Wind, & Rain

by  James D'Amato

Happy birthday to my absolute favorite of all of the Weird Tales writers, Clark Ashton Smith. Lovecraft was about cosmic horror; Cave was about revitalizing old horror tropes; Robert E. Howard was about manly adventurers, but Clark Ashton Smith’s greatest gift was in worldbuilding, of a creation of surreal, exotic and strange settings, from Hyperborea, which was Greenland before the ice sheet, which was partially inhabited by reptile men who enslaved mankind, Poseidonis, a part of Atlantis that survived after the destruction of Atlantis in the prehistoric world, and Zothique, a Pangea-like supercontinent that exists a billion years in the future, home to bizarre Arabian Nights horror, necromancers, and ape-creatures. 

Chris Achilleos is one of the most important fantasy and science fiction illustrators in modern history, not only from Europe, but from all over the world. His work has been very influential and used, especially in the 80s and 90s, and some stages of some companies or publishers (such as Games Workshop) specializes in his works. He has made album covers, books, comics, several covers, interior illustrations, his illustrations books are highly valued.

Image by Wayne Reynolds, © Wizards of the Coast. Accessed at the Monster Manual II Art Gallery here

[When I ran Age of Worms, I made a soundtrack for it with appropriate cues for specific combats and characters. The battle with the ulgurstasta at the climax of “The Champion’s Belt” got “The Kraken” from Pirates of the Caribbean. ]

Ulgurstasta This house sized horror resembles nothing so much as an immense maggot, with a cluster of beady eyes overlooking a voracious, fanged maw. It has dozens of small legs lining its entire body, each ending in a hook, and black tendrils fire from pores in its body and whip about it.

The ulgurstasta is a creation of Kyuss, the Worm that Walks. Their original intent was to serve as barely sentient siege engines, but they gained the capacity for intelligence as a side effect of their creation. Now, the ulgurstastas are as much generals as they are weapons, and they may command legions of undead armies in service of the Wormgod. Ulgurstastas have never been common, and they typically give each other a wide berth, the better to spread and avoid being hunted down all at once by the enemies of undeath and evil. They happily work with other worshippers of Kyuss, and some cults use them to “deliver” sacrifices to Kyuss by feeding them to the ravenous beast.

An ulgurstasta may be a genius, but they still delight in direct combat when the opportunity arises. Their jaws sit on an eversible pharynx, allowing them to extend far beyond its body to grab a victim and devour them. The acid that drips from its maw and fills its stomach is charged with negative energy, causing it to eat away at the life force of its victims as easily as it consumes their flesh. Opponents drained of life animate as skeletons in the blink of an eye. The ulgurstasta can carry these minions in a compartment in its guts that protects them from its acid and allows them to ride inside it for a horrible surprise attack.

Creating an Ulgurstasta The secrets to create an ulgurstasta are found in The Apostolic Scrolls, the holy book of Kyuss’ grim religion. To form an ulgurstasta, the flesh from a hundred humanoid corpses must be liquefied and poured into a mass grave at least 20 feet square in desecrated or unhallowed ground. Then, twelve intelligent undead creatures must enter the grave and the creator must cast a create greater undead spell. This effectively kills the twelve lesser undead, whose minds combine into the gestalt intelligence of the ulgurstasta.