The 31st Day of Horror: Spring (2014)

 

Spring (2014)

For the final 31 Days of Horror challenge I am pleased to see that the final stretch is populated heavily with cosmic horror films of different fine calibers. Spring, a movie that apparently came out 11 years ago and I only just now watched, is often described as in the cosmic horror/Lovecraftian vein, but I rather disagree; it fits a niche more in line with mythology and even creeps into the realm of allegory just a little. Spring is only partially a horror film, and takes themes of transformation, immortality and tradition that might exist in a decidedly different context in another story and treats them in unique and new ways.

The story premise is simple: Evan is a cook at a bar who has been taking care of his terminally ill mother. After she passes away he gets into a brawl at the bar and soon decides maybe he needs to get out of California entirely, and takes a trip to Italy on a lark, the place he wanted to go with his father before he passed as away as well. With so much loss in his life, he needs an escape, and Italy provides it.

First Evan runs into a couple Englishmen who he tags along with, then while visiting a remote seaside town he meets Louise, a young local woman who he rather quickly becomes obsessed with; she for some reason just wants a one night stand, but he wants a real relationship. She blows him off, but Evan is persistent and decides to stay in the town, working for an old gentleman offering lodging in exchange for farm work. Evan then manages to bump in to her the next day and convinces her to give him a chance on a date. They hit it off well, and it quickly builds up a week long whirlwind relationship.

The problem is that Louise seems to have a secret. She has two different color eyes, though she tries to disguise it with contacts. She works on a research program for a University to study the genetics of the local population, which has changed very little over the centuries. She takes special shots for an unusual skin condition she manifests. Occasionally, she transforms into a horrifying monster and murders things.

Evan's and Louise's relationship is the core of the film, but her complication as a unique, ancient immortal Roman with a monstrous variation of lycanthropy that you really have to see to appreciate makes for a fascinating character study laced with a unique form of horror mixed with, at its core, a deep and impermeable love story about two very complicated and extremely sympathetic people.

This was a fascinating, thoughtful and even philosophical movie, and honestly almost more of a love story than a monster flick, though it is absolutely both. If you are like me and missed this gem for the last decade, definitely check it out. Yet another A+! Deeply interesting, and it honestly goes in directions I don't think any other film has quite managed to do so well. 

SPOILER SECTION

This movie is so much better than it lets on, a deep dive into a world that is more than the sum of its parts. It's a love story, and its markedly allegorical in how it spins a story of two young lovers who just happen to have this extra hurdle, specifically her monstrous nature, and her inevitable reincarnation which leaves her both herself, in her consciousness, but an entirely new person as well. An an allegory this could be symbolic of any relationship in which one partner has a deep, dark secret, obligation, addiction or other obstacle to properly embracing the relationship or building trust. By veiling this practical issue in building a relationship in a literal monstrous allegory it allows for a fun exploration of what it means to fall in love and build trust.

Layered on top of this fine allegory is a surprisingly deep conceptual space about what is literally happening in the film: an immortal, ancient woman who is genetically anomalous, bordering on magic, with a condition that could be the actual explanation for so many mythological creatures of the archaic world. Her awareness of her condition and her attempts in the modern age to study and understand her own genetics and treat it to give herself a better life, even as she tries to fall back on old occult paths as a last resort, makes her a remarkably sympathetic character, no matter how many animals and tourists she eats along the way. Her decision at the end (and we assume the best ending here, which is what seems to be implied), is that like her mother in Pompeii she can choose to fall in love, and the chemical influence of oxytocin causes the "birth" of her new self to stall, leading to her existing self continuing, but now as a mortal woman. But the subtly stated implication is, just as with her mother, that her children will be born with her genetic monstrousness, so the cycle still continues. 

As a stand alone film Spring is great, well worth a watch. But as a concept space where I want to learn more about Louise and her kind, for surely there must be others such as her who have perhaps disappeared over time? Throwbacks to a wild sort of mutation that founded the belief in everything from Lilith to the gorgons, lamias to chimeras, you name it....the implied universe of Spring is deeply fascinating to think about. Given Hollywood's track record for pile-driving expanded universes into the ground I'll just say that Spring, by itself, is more than enough to let me imagine what this universe is like.

Primeval Thule Closing in on Zero Hour - new stuff unlocked + General Kickstarter Update

Primeval Thule for D&D 5E is about a day away from closing as of writing, and the PDFs of the GM's Companion, Player's Companion and Adventure Anthology have transformed into print add-ons. This naturally shoved me deeper into the hole because if I'm already getting the main book, GM screen and map I might as well get the whole enchilada. I mean....between Frog God and Sasquatch Studios, this will make for a well-rounded year of 5E products regardless of WotC's schedule.


I bailed on the Mythos Kickstarter but I don't feel bad about it; Troll Lord is very good at getting their product out and available for purchase and I will be more than ready for it when they show up. At this point the only thing I'm really missing is my name in the KS credits of the book. Either way, that's money I can funnel in to Primeval Thule, a setting I find rather cool for a system I actually run 1-2 times a week.

Still hanging on with Enascentia. I sort of feel like it's worth it; the style and direction of the Italian fantasy RPG powered by Savage Worlds is just too impressive, and the parties involved diverse enough (and blooded) such that it seems like it's both a sure bet and the sort of book that one will want and have a hard time finding if you don't back it otherwise.

Backing the Castles & Crusades Mythos Kickstarter

Dammit, this is getting to be a bad habit for me...I'm backing another Kickstarter. But: the Troll Lords are very consistent and reliable in their Kickstarters, and their books for the last couple of years now have been stellar productions. Also, I bought Codex Nordica which Brian Young (the author of the three books in this KS) wrote, and it's really, really good stuff; I'll be snagging Codex Celtarum soon.

C&C Mythos is actually a KS for 3 books: Codex Germanica, Codex Slavorum and Codex Classicum. Together it sounds like you could have the full workings of an ancient mythic Europe campaign. Now, if they are contextually like Codex Nordica then you can expect a series of books laden with the flavor and mythology of each setting, and an emphasis on the academic historical elements....you could in fact use Codex Nordica for a straight up traditional historical game if you like, but its really aimed at something larger than life and more mythic; the world as traditional Vikings thought it was, rather than just what historians knew it to be.

So...Mythos. Check it out:

Hastur the Unspeakable for Dungeons & Dragons 5E

With all apologies to my players, this was what showed up on Wednesday's game. I tried to simplify the Pathfinder version a bit while skewing more toward the CoC 6th edition entry. I figure Hastur in a sword & sorcery manifestation will lean more toward a terrifying manifestation of inimical evil...his mask/cloak is a later manifestation in his overall mythos, but has become sort of iconic so I kept a reference to it below.

Dropping an iconic Old One into a D&D session is a quick reminder that D&D and Cthulhu Mythos really don't mix. Not fantasy and mythos, mind you....those can work quite well; but D&D specifically is a flavor of fantasy that does not come naturally to the mythos. The prospect of a campaign in which daredevil heroes have fought rakshasa, death knights and small armies of devils hits a hard wall when the players realize they are fighting something that is effectively a puzzle piece....a creature than can and will destroy or turn them into its minions, while they desperately try to figure out how to unsummon it. 

Anyway, I'm thinking that to get back to the more visceral elements of my Pergerron setting I'll be returning to a Magic World powered campaign, and let D&D return to Chirak, Enzada and Lingusia, which are all comfortably home to adventurers who stand a chance against the vile chaos.

Hastur the Unspeakable (Great Old One)

CR 30 (155,00 XP)

CE medium humanoid Aberration (Great Old One)

Initiative +10

Aura: Unspeakable Presence (DC 24 Save vs. Sanity score; failure imbues target with one random form of temporary insanity; fail by ten or more and it is long term)

DEFENSE

AC 25 (dexterity plus natural)

HP 493 (34D8+340)

Resistance: resistant to all non-magical forms of bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage

Immunity: poison, disease, cold, necrotic, mind-affecting spells, paralysis

Magic Resistance – Hastur rolls advantage on all spell saves.

OFFENSE

Speed 80 feet flying/hovering

Multiattack – Hastur can strike with any combination of up to four tattered lashes, Dreams of the Yellow Sign, or terrifying visage.

Melee Attack- tattered lashes +16 to hit (reach 10 feet, one target) 8D8+7 slashing damage and target must make a DC 24 Con save or take an additional 1D8 bleeding damage each round (save ends).

Statistics

STR 24 (+7), DEX 30 (+10), CON 30 (+10), INT 30 (+10), WIS 30 (+10), CHA 30 (+10)

Saves: Str +13, Dex +16, Con +16, Int +16, Wis +16, Cha +16

Languages: aklo, telepathy 100 feet, tongues at will

Senses: superior darkvision, true seeing (constant), Perception +16 (passive 26)

Skills: all at attribute value plus proficiency (see saves)

TRAITS

Archmagus: Hastur is a spell-caster of 20^th level ability with access to all wizard spells.

Dreams of the Yellow Sign: once per day Hastur may touch a solid surface to inscribe the Yellow Sign upon it. The sign will last at least one year, but is only visible when certain stars shine right upon it at night, specifically the star Aldebaran, which may be visible in any number of night skies. Any who view the sign must make a DC 24 Wisdom Save or become Dominated (as per the spell) by Hastur. Once a save is made, the target does not have to make another save for 24 hours regardless of success or failure. Once dominated, the target behave as Hastur wishes. Each day the target remains dominated it will see out the sign, and each time it fails a further save it loses 1D6 Charisma (this Charisma will be restored with a long rest if the spell is broken with a successful save). Should it reach 0 Charisma, will immediately become a vessel for Hastur to manifest within. The sign can be removed with a wish spell.

Terrifying Visage: if Hastur reveals his true form to a target that victim must make a DC 24 save vs. Charisma or be paralyzed for 1 minute and take 8D12 psychic damage. When the paralysis lifts the target may make a DC 21 Wisdom save or become frightened and flee for 1 minute.

Immortality: as an elder god of the outer darkness of space Hastur is shockingly resilient; most manifestations of the god are said to be mere projections of a portion of its power, but it is also spoken of a robe and mask which, when donned, prompt a DC 24 save vs. Charisma, or the bearer of the robe and mask transform into a new vessel for Hastur. Likewise, those who succumb to the Yellow Sign can also become vessels of the dark god’s power. It is unknown if Hastur can be killed in any conventional sense of the word; his existence crosses boundaries of time and space that defy death.

Legendary Actions (3 points per round); used at the end of any character’s turn

Additional Lash – for 1 point Hastur may use tattered lash.

Conversion to the Yellow Sign –for 2 points Hastur may manifest the Yellow Sign before a target and if it fails a DC 24 save vs. Wisdom it is subject to the effects of Dreams of the Yellow Sign as above.

Possession – for 1 point Hastur may evaporate and appear fullow formed in the body of a target which has fallen to zero hit points; target is killed. This body may be within sight range.

Dread Manifestation – for 3 points Hastur may summon 1D8 byakhee or other minions to his bidding. Th minions roll for initiative and act immediately.

Hastur the Unspeakable is one of the more mysterious and terrifying of the Greater Old Ones, a dark god which moves through the cosmic void of space, sometimes aided by the dreaded byakhee who regard him as a fearsome divinity. Other humanoid and monstrous beings on many worlds worship him, but his following among men is smaller than his legacy. The Yellow Sign is a known artifact or symbol of the god, but its exact connection to Hastur is regarded as a mystery; its appearance often herald’s the god’s presence, however.

In the world of Pergerron, Hastur has a vile interest in manifesting on the planet in the flesh, for he intends to seek out an infernal device located beneath the Amber Sea, which his followers understand to be some sort of terraformer powered by the cosmic energy of the Yellow Sign. Once Hastur succeeds, all beings of the world will be puppets to the dark god, and the world will be colonized by the byakhee.

Adapted from the Pathfinder Bestiary 4 and Call of Cthulhu 6^th edition. 

Magic World meets Dark Ages Cthulhu

Tonight's Magic World session turned decidedly dark as the adventurers (well, Home Invaders as I've taken to calling them lately) trashed the smuggling ring beneath the warehouse in the harbor district of Samaskar and discovered that the smugglers had been leasing out the back wing to a den of serpent men cultists worshipping Hox Nagor, primordial god of serpents.

In the midst of the purge the entire event got a little Mythosesque on the group as the serpent men, while defending their turf, took to summoning something hideous from the Dreamlands in the back room. They popped the serpent man doing the summoning but not before one of these showed up:

Yep, a Gug. Most of these players are not versed heavily in the lore of the Cthulhu Mythos, but some knew enough to realize that this was not good. Suddenly, that extra book I was hauling around labeled "Cthulhu: Dark Ages" started looking a lot more concerning to everyone...

The gang eventually found a way to send the gug back to the Dreamlands, but not before realizing that they had very nearly seen a potent and horrific beast let loose in the heart of civilization. One of the adventurers, a nomad from the Aiga to the north was driven mad when the gug nearly ripped his left arm off....and the searing touch on his flesh left him with a keen sense of the beast's presence. Another, an elven thief, stole the jeweled eyes of the primordial statue of Hox Nagor earlier and suddenly discovered she could see all manifestations of the quintessence around her....and into other realms coterminous with ours, as well.

I let the group know this was still "heroic" Mythos level Howard-inspired type stuff afterwards; we're not playing with sanity rules, and these are all heroes who take for granted that the world is filled with supernatural horrors....but avoiding this thing's grasp was still an excellent idea!

The Many Days of Horror - The Hive

Tim Curran may not be overly familiar to you, but that's mostly because he's been circulating in the small press and online fiction resources for most of his career, and it's a damn shame because his writing is bar none some of the goriest, moodiest and most evocative out there. I previously reviewed his work in Zombie Pulp, and it's time to talk about The Hive. This review focuses on the Kindle ebook edition, which includes a lot of additional material omitted from the print copy I read many years go.

We'll get the preamble out of the way: it's well written, its well-researched (as far as I know, not being an Antarctic researcher....worked for me!) and it's a direct sequel to Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. No small feat making a sequel to Lovecraft's greatest novella, but Curran does so, not only evoking the memory of the original but also drawing inspiration from a host of modern resources, not the least of which is Carpenter's The Thing. Don't worry, though; the derivations from The Thing are principally a matter of mood and suspense, along with a healthy dose of "last-name-itis" amongst the crew of Kharkov Station deep in Antarctica near the Medusa Ice Shelf. Sure....a shoggoth bears more than a passing resemblance to something Thing-like, but the shoggoths in Curran's version of the mythos are really damned freaky.

Curran's tale weaves between a myriad variety of characters stuck in Antarctica when one researcher and his crew stumble across evidence of subterranean ruins beneath the glacial ice, as well as actual mummified bodies of decidedly alien beings (the old ones, sometimes known as elder things to CoC fans). As things rapidly begin to unravel we are treated to a vast number of hideous and sometimes subtle ways that discovering these ruins and bodies can affect humanity, as the scientists come to grips with the chilling truth about what they are witnessing, and what it means for the ancient history of mankind and possibly all life on Earth. Meanwhile other scientists drilling down to a frozen lake beneath the glacial ice uncover evidence of live, active old ones...and a scientist who's discovered too much encountered a diary of an expedition that preceded even the mysterious lost expedition of the original novel, which serves as a lengthy interlude not in the original book.

The pacing is great, events exciting and believable, the cast of characters thick and filled with those both memorable, deceitful and otherwise problematic, the sorts of personalities that you don't want to be around when you begin to awaken the hive consciousness of alien beings who might have created humanity and all other entities as a byproduct of some other greater experiment.

If you like good horror, and especially if you like good mythos fiction that stands on its own merits, then you need to read The Hive. I'll be hitting the sequel soon!

A+++

Putting the Mythos into Azeroth

The Real Secret: Yogg-Saron is actually a Froghemoth with Delusions of Grandeur!

Kidding!

Once in a while I stumble on a lore related blog or article about the World of Warcraft. WoW is something I have more or less successfully quit, although it is the Key Source of Entertainment for my wife, so it remains an ever-present specter in my gaming environment. I logged hundreds of hours on WoW from all the way back in February 2005, so I remember when it took months and months to get to level 60 (unlike today, where you can slam out a level 85 in a few weeks if you're sufficiently dedicated).

With Cataclysm, as cool as many of its features and revisions were, I lost steam and couldn't continue. Part of my problem is that I simply lack the dedication necessary to see all the end-game content, instances, raids, gear and such. Another part is that I am too easily sucked away to enjoy more conventional computer games which cater specifically to me with elaborate story arcs and structures, fully-voiced acting and staggeringly good graphics. I love it when a game panders to me!

Anyway, this article is apparently written by one of the more famous lore gurus for WoW out there. It's a great, weird tinfoil hat review of the mythosesque elements of the bizarre and seemingly nonsensical mythology of the game, and a demonstration of how well it seems to correlate to the actual Lovecraftian Cthulhu Mythos on which much of it is clearly inspired. It's fun reading, and demonstrates pretty much how anything....even a world filled with butt-slapping gnomes, shamanistic space goats and drunken kung fu pandas...can seem cooler when you inject it with a hypodermic syringe full of Mythos Madness!

It's impressive because its fun to read a serious effort at this sort of interpretation; all of the mythosesque stuff I've seen in WoW before I had largely assumed to have been wedded in sometime around the Burning Crusade era by the developers as they cast about for story/plot/villain ideas and someone got inspired after an all-night bender while reading Lovecraft (which makes sense to me, because on the surface at least WoW's cosmology seems to be a startling hodge-podge of ideas, which meshes well with the fact that over the last two decades the game world's designers, writers and developers have changed up, a lot, going all the way back to "Orcs & Humans" on up to the present 8,000 Lb. Gorilla in the House).

Cthulhuphant, from League of Legends by the Ctrl-Alt-Del guy!