SS4 14 The Charnel God

Join us for a dark trip into Zothique with Smith's classic The Charnel God. We talk cover art, the parade of nudes, dromedaries, Xuthal and Charlton Heston.
Reader: Heather Miller
Favourite words: optamites, orotund, necrophagism, adytum, privity, unctuous, chafferer, huckster, noctabulistic
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Innsmouth Literary Festival    Grooving in Green     

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:10

Strange shadows.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Mordigan is the god of Zul Basair, said the innkeeper with fructuous solemnity. He has been the god from years that are lost to man's memory in shadow deeper than the subterranes of his black temple. There is no other god in Zulbasir. And all who die within the walls of the city are sacred to Mordigin. Even the kings and the Optamates at death are delivered into the hands of his muffled priests. It is the law and the custom. A little while, and the priests will come for your bride. But a life is not dead, protested the youth Farion, for the third or fourth time in piteous desperation. Twice before has she lain insensible, with a pallor upon her cheeks and a stillness in her very blood that could hardly be distinguished from those of the two. And twice she has awakened after an interim of days. The innkeeper peered with an air of ponderous unbelief at the girl who lay white and motionless as a moan lily on the bed in the poorly furnished attic chamber. In that case, you should not have brought her into Zurbasair, he averred in a tone of owlish irony. The physician has pronounced her dead, and her death has been reported to the priests. She must go to the Temple of Mordican.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Greetings, traveller, and welcome to season 4, episode 14 of Strange Shadows, the Clark Ashton Smith Podcast. The voice you just heard was Heather Miller reading the opening to today's story. And Heather kindly dropped into the Gilman House recently for an excellent chat about her Lovecraft studies. So if you'd like to hear that, then do check out the latest episode of the Insmith Book Club. I'm one of your hosts, Rob Poynton.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

And I'm the other one, Tim Mendys, and today we're looking at a Stone Cold Classic, one of my favourite Clark Ashen Smith stories. And we're back in Zothik, aren't we, sir?

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Yes, yeah, and one of my favourites too. This is just a superb all round this story, isn't it? The Charnell God. Even the name.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Oh yeah, yeah. Well, I liked this so much that I actually took Mordigian and ran with it. I've used Mordigian in a in a sort of loose cycle of ghoul stories. Oh. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Yeah, this this ties in with a lot of other things, I think. And for me, this is really quintessential. Smithian sword and sorcery, dungeons and dragons. Uh, it has so many associations for me, this story, I think.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Yeah, I mean, the structure of it, when especially when you get the the nefarious necromancers, I think it's safe to call them, who get them turning up. It does have echoes of like seven geuses and and temper zeros and all that kind of stuff. And it would make a really good sort of DD campaign, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Absolutely. And uh I know we've spoken about this before with the Colossus of Ellorn. There was that one module specifically based on that. But we're back to adaptations again, aren't we? Very very few people have adapted Smith for RPGs. Watch this space. Uh, and even less people have adapted Smith for TV and film. And wouldn't this make just an outstanding 45-minute episode on uh the Zothik series or something like that?

SPEAKER_02 3:52

It would. It would, yeah, definitely. Well, even you could even flesh it out to uh, you know, those sort of 90-minute eighties sword and sorcery movies, you know, with the books and wench and the you know the the metal bikini kind of thing. She'd be the one who's died and comes back and write, and you know, you could you could you could see it, you could see that. Yes, I I certainly can. Oh, we'll be we'll be getting into to to filth very shortly, don't you worry.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Yes, yes, some uh some top-tier filth. Oh, you don't know what I've got lined up, mate. I dread to think you're not gonna put on an iron bikini, are you? Uh no, no, not today, not maybe at the weekend. All right. However, we do have some news before we start, which is of course the Innsmouth Literary Festival 2026, September the 19th in Oddly Moist Bedford. And we are very pleased to announce our guests of honour this year, Mr. Stephen Jones, author and editor extraordinaire, and Mr. Les Edwards, one of my favourite fantasy artists. Well, I say fantasy, he's done a lot of work with Caller Cthulhu as well, and paperback books and games, uh, a whole host of stuff. And I just found out he grew up just up the road from where I used to live. So there we go. That's two good things that have come out of East London. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Oh, yeah, I'll be I'll be there in a couple of weeks around the corner from there with the cart and horses.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Oh, yeah, you're you're playing in Stratford, aren't you? Yeah, Grooving and Green hit the East End. Amazing. Yeah, and that's um you've got a string of gigs lined up. It's like it's a sort of mini tour you're on.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Yeah, yeah, we've got a mini tour over Easter. We got um we're in Stratford on the Thursday, Good Friday we're in Northampton, and then Saturday we're up in Leeds, and then we've got a bunch of other dates throughout the year and more being announced. It's one of those that keep uh keep agreeing to things and booking things, and it's only when you put them all down you go, actually, that's a lot of gigs. Yeah, but it's good to be gigging, sir.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

It's good to be gigging. Oh, it is, yeah, absolutely. Okay, shall we start with our publication history? And I I think sit down, everyone, because I think this is a rare acceptance, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Yeah, this shocked me with how um how straightforward it was. Smith completed the story on November the 15th, 1932, and it was instantly snapped up by Farnsmith Wright. Wow. And Wright was so enamoured of the story that he also commissioned Smith to do an illustration for it. Ah which is nice. Yeah. In fact, Smith was actually considered for the cover.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Really?

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah, yeah. It was down to him and uh Hugh B. Cave's story, um, the gar black gargoyle.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

It was down to those for the cover. And if if Smith got the cover, Smith himself was going to do the illustration for it.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Yeah, Smith wrote to August Derlith, we're gonna delve into eccentric impractical devils, the letters of August Derleth and Clark Ashton Smith from Hippocampus on November 17th, 1933. Anyway, Farnabosis ordered another drawing for the Charnel God this time. He is hesitating whether to take the March cover design from this story or from something by Hugh B. Cave. I wish he'd let me do a cover for Weird Tales sometime. I work better in colour than in black and white. So that's quite interesting. Alas, it was actually Cave that got the cover, which is a real shame if you ask me. Smith wrote about the drawing that he did have in the issue of Weird Tales on December the 22nd to Derleth. I have finally been able to rest a little time for art and literature. Have done a drawing for the journal God, but I'm none too well satisfied with it, and may try another scene from the story. Wright won't need the picture before January the 5th. Cave is to get the cover design for the March issue, which after all is perhaps just as well. I hate to think of the mediocre mess that Brundage female would make of my ghoul god story. Ouch. We'll come back to this in just a moment. This rabbit hole that I went down, we'll come back to this in a moment. Now you may have noticed that that was about a year removed from the completion of the story. But the s the story, like I say, was accepted pretty much immediately after submission. But it took until 1934, March 1934, before it was published.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

That's quite a gap again, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 8:40

It is. It's it getting to the uh ridiculous point here. Now, Smith actually mentioned this in a letter dated December the 3rd, 1932, in which he talks to Durleth about it being accepted. So this is straight after the acceptance. The Charnel God he took promptly and without Cavill. This gives him a round dozen of my tales, and I wish to God he'd hurry up with the printing. He also has the White Sybil under consideration and still holds the Vartec episode. So, yeah, a dozen stories. So he he had a pretty big Clark Ashton Smith backlog. It must have been incredibly frustrating. I mean, I've been in the situation where I've had like four or five short stories all sort of out in the ether waiting for for being published or whatever. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

And that's annoying enough, but I think the longest I waited was about a year for something to see print.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

But it must it makes it quite difficult when you're creating stuff, right? Because you have you almost in effect have this creative backlog, isn't it? You've got you've got those ideas out and done, and you want to move on to your next thing. Uh-huh. I think most creators, authors, musicians, painters, once a project is done, you think, what's next? And it's almost like you don't know what's happening with that one yet. So yeah, very frustrating, let alone the pecuniary implications, of course.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Well, exactly. Now, I mentioned that I went down a rabbit hole, and it's a bit of a filthy one here. Now, because we mentioned the the cover illustrations of M. Brundage. Now, I I did how I what I usually do, I went and had a look through subsequent issues of Weird Tales to see if there was any letters about the Charnel God. And there were various bits and pieces, just throw away lines from people saying, Oh, my favorite was the Charnel God, or my second favorite was the Charnel God. Charnel God was great, etc. Now, at the same time, you know, the Erie is often a place for arguments. Now, the current argument at this point in time was all about these cover art illustrations. I've got three letters here that show three different sides of this argument, right? Because there's three sides of it, because of course there is. Um, but it all ties in, you'll see what I mean. The first one is titled Against the Nudes.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

This isn't a certain Mr. HPL, is it?

SPEAKER_02 11:15

No, no, no, no. You're gonna love the name of this, but and I swear I am not making this up. Joseph H. Heil of New York. Joseph Heil. Heil, which yeah, writes, why the nudes? I have noticed that the majority of your readers have resented your cheap-looking covers, and I wish to add my emphatic vote against the continuance of these trashy covers. Looking back on the old issues of Weird Tales, I find that they contained none of the nudism of your present-day frontispieces, but nonwithstanding, they were much more interesting and illustrated the stories much more vividly than today. I was first attracted to your publication by an exciting cover depicting some weird plants overrunning the earth. Many people are, I'm sure, attracted likewise, but how can you expect to attract the attention of a lover of the weird by the portrayal of a wide-eyed nude gracefully reclining on some stones or silks, as the case may be? Nice, nice. Your stories are excellent, and this month's The Black Gargoyle by Hugh Cave was one of your best. Clark Ashton Smith is, I think, one of your best writers. His stories are filled with a realistic atmosphere that completely envelops his readers. Oh. Now, this gets even better. This gets even better. This next letter is entitled The Parade of the Nudes. Mrs. Harriet K. Evans of Rochester, New York, writes How can anyone possibly object to the exquisite nudes done by Brundage is beyond me? The first time I ever bought your magazine, I did so because I wanted the picture on the cover, a naked girl running with wolves. The stories were like olives. You had to get used to them before you liked them. But I am writing chiefly to tell you that I hope the nudes will not be discontinued. You see, I have started a procession of these charming, unclad ladies in a decorative scheme on my bathroom wall. I cut out the female figures with a razor blade and have mounted them one by one in a sort of nude parade. The result is decidedly pretty, but if you stop printing them now, it's going to be such a short parade. I'd like to have the ladies going all around the room because I love a parade. So here's to Brundage. May his lovely ladies continue to grace the covers of Weird Tales.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Oh, his, his. Well, I suppose because they were credited to M. Brandage, I guess, weren't they? Rather than Margaret Brundage. Nah, yeah. Well I that ties into this final letter, but I love that one. The Parade of Nudes. I know, in the bathroom. You'd think wouldn't they get damp and sort of I'm more interested now in how she was fixing those to the wall. Hasters, you know what I mean? Yeah. Was it putting varnish over them? Oh yeah. There's bunkers in it. It's brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

But it's like there was a pub in Mac uh called uh called the Bullen Gate, and it's gent's toilet. The wall were covered from floor to ceiling. Page three girls.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

All right.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Same kind of thing, I imagine. Yes, yes. So our final letter, our final letter now. Um it a guy who thinks he's got the answer to this conundrum. This is entitled A Weird Suggestion. Bob Tucker of Bloomington, Illinois, writes to the Eerie, after watching the argument over your sexy covers wax merry, I think it's time for someone to step forward with a suggestion to save the day. So here goes my chance to be a Napoleon. Why not have your nude ladies in very weird or horrifying circumstances, such as the March issue, or the issue several months ago that pictured a slim, red-haired girl running with a wolf pack. To my way of thinking, that picture should please both sides, including your own. It was nudey and it was weird, and it illustrated a scene from one of the stories. If pictures like that were on the covers, it might ease the situation you're in, dear editor. Same thing with the March issue. That ugly black gargoyle in the window serves to dispel the idea that it's a sex magazine. One question, please. Is M Brundage a man or a woman? No bad feeling now. I'm just curious. It seems that everybody in the Erie speaks of M. Brundage as a man. I think she's a femme. So what now? Ah. And I love this little bit at the bottom. We shall certainly ask M Brundage about this, the editor.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Wow. Well where do you start with this? Because obviously this I'm I'm gonna get on to uh Zoothell, the Slytherin Shadow, Robert Y Howard later on, because I see a number of connections, and the biggest connection here at the moment is the Brundage cover for that story, which was the rather famous one of one lady whipping another.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

That was probably a most salacious cover. Yes. Bob Howard knew this, which is why he put those scenes in his stories, so he'd get the cover, I suspect, at least partly. So it raises a whole lot of issues, doesn't it? Really? Did that kind of cover attract readership or did it put people off?

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Well, you've only got to look at the detective magazines. Do you remember though, then ones that like the ones that were about the true crimes and stuff? The fronts of that was always like a w like a half-naked woman in bondage, like with a gag, and uh and they were all very sort of sexualized. And yeah, and that was a big selling point, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Very much the same with the those sort of noir detective novels from the 50s, 60s, 70s. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The woman was either the victim or she was some sort of femme fatale, wasn't she? She lured them in with her charms and then garotted them in their sleep or something. I thought that was interesting, and and I couldn't and a bit of a giggle.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

I couldn't resist. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Rabbit hole over. Marvellous, marvellous stuff. All right, let's get into our favourite words. Now, I've spotted about four in the first paragraph. I was gonna say most of mine are from the first paragraph. So I'm gonna trim this down a little because some of these we have covered before, but one that I had to look up was Orotund, not at all familiar with that. And it means a rich, clear, or strong voice, or perhaps even bombastic. Which in itself is that's a very nice word in itself, bombastic, Mr. Bombastic. Very fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Ooh, mantic. Yeah, I had to look that one up as well. Yeah, there's there's a few. Now, this is a phrase, the first one I'm going to go with just because I love it so much. Unctuous solemnity. That's a band name. That's a goth band, isn't it? I mean, obviously solemnity, you know, yeah, but unctuous is a great word, which means excessively flattering or ingratiating. It can also mean having a pleasingly rich taste.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Uh it's interesting in some stories, I think genius loque, we had vampire, vampire, vampire, vampire. In this, we get oily, because another uh meaning of unctuous is we get oily, greasy, and all the rest of it keeps cropping up. So, yeah, unctuous is a is a lovely word. I'm not quite sure how I'm gonna pronounce this, so I'm just gonna go for necrophagism. Uh it's necrophagism. Ah, I stand corrected, sir. Yes. Eating the dead, yeah. Necrophagism. Eater of the dead necrophagism, right, right. Well, see, in my mind, I saw this, and I'm sure I'm pretty sure there's a band called Necrophagists.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

I'm pretty sure yeah, necrophagy, yeah, German band.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

German band, yeah. But I thought, and I'm gonna pronounce this wrong deliberately, necrophagasm. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Oh, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Any budding bands out there want to take that, then you're welcome.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Nice. Yeah, next one I'm gonna go with is Optimates, which is a member of the patrician order in ancient Rome, or can also denote a noble or an aristocrat. Ah, there we go. I think in this it's very much the member of the patrician order in Rome.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

It's yeah, for that context.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Sticking with the letter N, I'm next gonna go for oh uh it's obvious what this month means, but it just sounds great. Noctabulistic. Which I kinda smashy and nicely for those people who remember those characters. It's noctabulistic, mate. It's great. I loved smashy and nicy.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

Pertaining to a sleepwalker, basically. My next one is chaperas, which is somebody who haggles or bargains or negotiates over price. So then people in markets that are like, you want this for five quid, you know, that yeah, that's a chafferer. And it ties into my next one because it's in the same sentence. I'm gonna do two for the price of one here. Hooksters.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Oh, that's a good word, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Yeah. Hooksters, uh, door-to-door salesman or market trader, or for those of you from the East End, a barrow boy.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

You mean a barra boy? I do, I mean a barra boy. Yeah. Get off me, barra. From illegal or partially uh legal to full legal, I'm going for privity, which is a legal connection between two parties. That was one that was unfamiliar to me.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Yeah, my final one was unfamiliar. Aditum, I believe that's how you pronounce it, which is an innermost sanctuary of an ancient Greek temple.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Yes, yes, very fitting as we get into this story. Because, of course, the main setting for this story is the Temple of Mordigian. So, we're back in Zothik. I I could read every sentence in this. There's so many good things in here. It's just dripping with atmosphere and wonderful rock language, and is uh I think one of the most vivid of his tales as well. It's so easy to visualize this, so many marvellous colours and textures, and lots of little phrases and band names that are going to be cropping up. Throughout.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Yeah, and I I like the whole premise of it because it's almost like a riff on the Haitian voodoo zombie practice, isn't it? Because they they would in get a death-like state, the catalepsy using the tetratoxin, the puff fish poison, right? But this is almost like she has it, she just falls into these cataleptic states.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Yeah. Which I which I thought we've got that Poe reference to start with. We're we're opening with Poe and the idea of yeah, catatonia and premature burial. Yes. Although in in this case, she's sort of fortunate in a way that they're not in a city where people have to be interred very quickly, because that that might be a custom in some places, or they're put on the the funeral pyre.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

Yes, yes, indeed.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

And I just want to have a quick mention of the name Mortigan. So there are a couple of speculations about the root of this. Some say obviously it's very close to Mortician.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Other people point to the Celtic death goddess Morrigan, who is also known as the crow that feasts on the battlefield. So another eater of the dead. But either way, it's a great name.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Yeah, and writers have um taken that and run with the mortician thing. Uh, because I've seen him described in other people's work as the mortuary god. Uh, but I've always but I've always stuck with the the Smith, the Charnel god. I've always stuck with that, the great ghoul or the charnel god.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

Yeah, and uh sources for this whole idea as well, because we've got ghouls mentioned, so we think of Arabian Knights, which is obviously an influence here. But some people say that the Nightlands was an influence as well, Hodgson. Uh, and Smith certainly referenced that, but I don't think he read that until a little bit later on. I'm I'm not sure of the exact date. So I think it's a bit of a stretch to say the Nightlands is a direct influence on this, perhaps, but you can certainly see parallels.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

I think the Arabian Knights parallel is is bigger, myself, because you've only got to look at this first line, right? Mordigian is the god of Zool Basair. I mean, that name is very, very much of that kind of thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Yes. So, yes, we have this young couple, Elaith and Farium, who are just sort of passing through the town of Zool Baha Seir. And unfortunately, she has this episode where she falls into a death-like swoon. And the law in this place is that if you're dead, you go to the temple there to be. Well, does it specifically say that the god eats them? I mean, I think it's it's pretty clear, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 24:54

It does later on. Yeah, because there's the whole um speculation because somebody got done for heresy for saying that it was the priests that ate them, not Mordigian, and the Mordigian didn't exist, and he got dumb for heresy.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

Yeah, and it is pretty clear here to be fair, because it's chatting to the innkeeper, right? This uncuous innkeeper who's quite a good character. I think I quite like this innkeeper. Yes. And the innkeeper tells him, All who die in Zulbahazir are the property of Mordigian, insisted the tavern sententiously. Outlanders are not exempt. The dark moor of his temple yawned eternally, and no man, no child, no woman throughout the years has evaded its yawning. All mortal flesh must become in due time the provinder of the god. Nice. So, yeah, everyone's quite clear what's going on here. Uh and and there's well, there's several inferences throughout of other practices as well, which no doubt we'll get. Yes, we we we will get to that.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

We will definitely get to that because I've got my notes over there. Subtle and not so subtle. Yeah, yeah. I like that, I like that because his his argument is that we're outlanders' guests just tonight, and I like this innkeeper's response. Uh, in a tone of owlish irony, in that case, you shouldn't have brought her into Zul Bashir. Shouldn't have come here, then, should you, idiot?

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Which, you know, you sort of got a point. Yeah, I thought our owlish irony was great, and we're into the world building throughout. There's some marvellous world building in typical Smithian fashion of just a couple of lines, but yeah, he creates this such a vivid setting and tableau. And I I like this idea of uh Farion was saying, Well, what sort of god is this? Who imitates the hyena and the vulture? Surely he is no god but a ghoul. And this is not the sort of thing you want to be saying in this town, is it?

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Take heed lest you utter blasphemy. Yeah, it's uh Medigian is old and omnipotent as death. He was worshipped in former continents before lifting of Zotic from out of the sea. Through him we are saved from corruption and the worm. Even as the people of other places devote their dead to the consuming flame, so we of Zul Bashir deliver ours to the god. Nice, nice. It is very gothic, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Yes, yes, and it is an interesting take, isn't it, on uh funerary practices? Because you know, in our culture, you put people in the ground traditionally, where they where the conqueror worm gets this film. So is this really any different? No, well, this is it. One goes in the ground for the worms, one goes into a temple for the big worm. Yeah, yeah, essentially. Oh, maybe Smith is asking us a question here.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

I've just realized that yeah, my next album is gonna be called Corruption and the Worm. That is such a great album title. Oh, that's a great name.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

And he mentions these priests as well. We're gonna meet very soon, and these are cool characters as well, because the faces of the priests are hidden behind masks of silver, and even their hands are shrouded, that men may not gaze on them that have seen Mordigian. So even the the priests are mysterious, maybe not even human.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

Yeah, and we get we get the distinct feeling here that that it is that the cult or the you know the adherents of Mordigian, they're in charge here. Because he says, Isn't there a king? And he's and uh the innkeeper's like, yeah, there is, but he's not in charge.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Yeah, it will go to the worm as well, you know, it's going in the temple as well, doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's the none is above Mordigian here.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

So Porpharium's in a bit of a bind here. His wife is in this cataleptic state, he's fretting about it, and then we get the stealthy creaking on the stairs that led to the attic of the inn. I thought this is interesting because Smith doesn't really describe this setting particularly, but yet for me it's so strong. As I go back to like Sword and Sorcery, Dungeons and Dragons, you know, it's it's a very live setting.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

Yeah. I like how Pacy the pacing of this story is he's done the sort of uh narrative style, which I do a lot, where you drop it straight into a scene, and then at the at the end of this, we jump back and it gives you how we ended up in that. Yes, right. It's a way it's such a great device for a short story, and something I I probably overuse, if I'm honest, but I find it's a really good way of getting you straight into it, bang, uh hook the reader, especially if you're in an anthology, right? You because people skim. Yeah, you wanna you want to grip them. So, and I think this is probably why Wright picked it up, because it's one of the most immediate of Smith's stories so far, I think. It just grips you straight away, and it's done masterfully because he's building the atmosphere just by using certain words and sounds and and like the creak of the wooden stairs. Everybody knows what that sounds like.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

And heavy heavy, you know, the heavy footfalls and the sweep of a cloak and all that kind of thing. It's something that you can instantly think of, and it's just really well done.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

And I think there's another parallel there with Robert Howard as well, and particularly the Conan stories. I'm thinking of uh Shadows in Zambula, where the first line is death hides in the house of Aram Baksh. Yeah. And it's like Conan's walking down the street and someone says that to him. He's like, What? You know, or you don't want to stay there, and then you get the backstory and all the rest of it. So yeah, very immediate, it pulls you straight into the situation, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02 31:05

Yeah. I mean, nothing nothing hooks you better than like I looked down at my bloody hands and realized I shouldn't have gone down that alleyway. There you go. Sorted.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Story of my life, mate. So this is now the appearance of the priests. The sound drew nearer with inhuman rapidity, and four strange figures came into the room, heavily garbed in funereal purple and wearing huge masks of silver, graven in the likeness of skulls. That isn't that great. Purple robes and silver skull masks.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

Couldn't help thinking, here we go. Check this off your bingo card. Doctor Who, the mask of Mandragara. Ah. Uh, which is set in Renaissance Italy, Tom Baker, and they're all purple robes, and they've got the Greek tragedy masks, the cult in it, the cult of Diamos.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Ah, nice.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

Yeah, so that's my brain just instantly goes to that. That's one of my favourite Doctor Who stories, so always good.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

And I like Smith's attention to detail here because it's already described them. We've already got this very vivid picture. But we go into detail about their purple gowns came down in loose folds that trailed about their feet like unwinding sear cloths. They're they're almost under those purple robes, they're wearing grave garments, and they're sort of becoming loose and undone. And the way they walk, unnatural crouching attitudes, beast-like agility, unhampered by their cumbrous abilities. And then even down to what they're carrying, a curious beer made from interwoven strips of leather and with monstrous bones that served for frame and handles. This is Bosch, isn't it? This is uh Bruegel's triumph of death, you know.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Yeah, very much, very much so. And also, I couldn't help getting the parallels. I mean, because obviously we know where this is going, right? But he does it's never said what's under these cloaks until right at the end. Yeah, yeah. But you've got the little the hints here. Anybody who's read Pikman's model, you know, the the crouching gait and all that.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Yeah, yeah. Now, Farium does what every good sword and sorcery hero is going to do in this situation. He draws his knife and uh tries to intervene. Quick and muscular as he is, they just kind of bat him aside, really. Two of them whirled about with the swiftness of tigers. One of them struck the knife from Farium's hand with a movement that the eye could barely follow in its snakey darting. They both assailed him, beating him back with terrible flailing blows of their shrouded arms, and hurling him across the room into an empty corner, stunned by his fall, he lay senseless. So it he he tries to be a Conan, but it doesn't really work out for him the same way that it does for a Conan, does it?

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Yeah, and I like the fact that yeah, they've obviously knocked all the wind out of him, haven't they? And the taverners kind of like, not bad. The priests of Mordigian are merciful, they make allowance for the frenzy and distraction of the newly bereaved. It is well for you that they are compassionate and considerate of moral weakness. And he gets up and he's all like gonna go after him. And the tabernacle continues, beware lest you exceed the bounds of the mercy of Mordigian. It is an ill thing to follow his priests, and a worse thing to intrude upon the deathly and sacred gloom of his temple.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

Sacred gloom. Sacred gloom, yeah. And I mentioned that idea about oiliness and everything. We get that other mention here as Farium goes and the innkeeper grabs him. He was stopped by the hand of the hostler clutching greasily at his shoulder. And he talks about prying away the odious fingers. And this is a constant scene throughout this this oleaginous quality, well, certainly of the innkeeper, but some of the other characters as well.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

Yeah, because we had one right the the top of the top of the previous page. Ferrium has shuddered at the oily and potentious declaration, so it's oily in speech as well as in touch, and you know, we've all you've all been we've all been around people like that, right? A bit slimy.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Yes, indeed. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:37

Used car salesman. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

But the innkeeper is a practical fellow, he's a businessman after all. And he's is the he's obviously determined to go chasing after his wife. And the innkeeper leaves him with, at least pay me the money you owe me for food and lodging ere you depart. Oh, all the also there's the matter of the physician's fee, which I can settle for you if you entrust me with the proper sum. Pay now, for there is no surety that you will return. You know, you you can't really blame him for that, can you? No, I think that's very smart, you know.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

We I think we've all done that, haven't we? Well, it's it's like when you you know you're a bit pissed up, you and your mates, and you get in a taxi, and the driver's like, right, give me the money before I go anywhere, right? Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

That's uh not gonna make a run for it, you know. So that brings us into chapter two, where we get something of the backstory of this couple and uh and some very nice description of Zulbashaia at twilight. And we have this very typical thing with Smith was even though the sun has risen over the overjutting houses, it seems to Farion that there is no light other than a lost and doleful glimmering, such as might descend into mortuary depths. So it it is under this cloud of despair. And I like the fact that they've travelled here on uh the one dromedary that has survived their passage of the northern desert. You know, we get those elements of world building, oh it's just tossed in casually, really. Yeah. With the rosy purple of afterglow upon its walls and cupolas, with the deepening golden eyes of its lit windows, the place had seemed a fair and nameless city of dreams, and they had planned to rest there for a day or two before resuming the long, arduous journey to Farad in Yoros. And even here we get this nice little extra sort of detail going in that they they started travelling with a large caravan of merchants. The merchants were attacked by bandits, Faryom and his bride escaped with the dromedaries, they've had this trek across the desert, uh Yondo springs to mind, uh course, and all the rest. Oh, yeah. And they were heading for Tar Sun, but they inadvertently took this track leading to Zulba Sahir, a ward metropolis on the southwestern verge of the waste, which their itinerary had not included. It's almost they're on a little travel tour. On Wednesday, we're going coach trips, yeah, yeah. Don't don't die there. But this is another parallel. Um I'm gonna refer to this throughout of Robert E. Howard's uh Zuthal to The Slytherin Shadow, which again was a mysterious city on the edge of the desert or in the heart of the desert, actually. But uh I'll come back to that later on.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

Yeah, it it's I like we were talking about an adaptation. If you were to adapt it, that's how you'd stretch it out to a full film, wouldn't you? Because you could do some bits and pieces and then have some like some foreboding shots as they're approaching and all that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

Yeah. The whole flashback with the backstory there of why they flee because the emperor and then the bandits attack and all that sort of thing, yeah. Yeah. And he starts remembering now some of the legends, the tardily remembered legends which he'd heard in Salak. Ill and dubious indeed was the renowned of Zulbas Shaiya, and he marvelled that he should have forgotten it and cursed himself, the black curses, for the temporary but fatal forgetfulness.

SPEAKER_02 39:11

Yeah, I like the fact that he basically said it'd be better if he'd have died in the desert.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

So, I mean that so again, sorry, I'm gonna keep doing this. Another parallel with Zoothal is they're dying of thirst. Conan is gonna, rather than have his companion uh suffer a horrible death, is actually drawing his sword to put her out of her misery when he spots the city of Zuthal. So, yeah, another interesting little parallel.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Yeah, and as is it's kind of a trope in these kind of stories, isn't it? There's ill rumour and legend about this place. It's one of those places that you don't want to turn up. Yeah, you know, it's like if you you walk in somewhere and you take a wrong turn and you ask somebody, is it you know, where am I? sort of thing, and they say, Oh, you're in the such and such a state, and you go, Oh crap. You know, it's that kind of thing, right? Oh yeah. Because the city was a mart of trade where outland travellers came but did not care to linger because of the repulsive cult of Mordigan, the invisible eater of the dead, who was believed to share his provender with the shrouded beasts. It was said that the bodies lay for days in the dark temple and were not devoured till corruption had begun. It's almost like hanging a pheasant, or you know, you hang meat, don't you? Nice and gamey. Yeah, yeah, you hang meat before you you serve it. So it's the same kind of principle, I guess. I mean, I I've never cooked long pig, but I I imagine it's no different than you know, your standard farm the odd swine.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Meat is meat, right? But then here we get our next hint. Uh people whispered a foul of things, of blasphemous rites that were solemnized in the gore-ridden vaults, and nameless uses to which the dead were put before Mordigian claims them. Coffin rumpy. But yeah, yeah, again, there's this practical aspect, right? Tombs, graves, catacombs, funeral pyres, and other such nuisances were rendered needless by this highly utilitarian deity. There's Smith having a little poke as well there. It's uh well London's a prime example, right? The the big eight cemeteries was millions of people's bodies were disinterred.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

Uh they they were stacking them, weren't they, in the old city cemeteries, eight or nine high kind of thing. Oh, yeah. My granddad always used to call it the gravy. So, you know, the the gravy was running off into adjoining properties and all the rest of it. So that's why they built your high gates and your city of London's and all the rest.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

Yeah, well, it was a a joke in Macclesfield growing up. There was a big house on the hill, really big old mansion. And it and it and it was always the thing. It's like, who lives there? Well, it's the undertaker, innit? This is God's waiting room.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

And of course, there this is, you know, Smith does have very good insight into sort of human behaviour, I think, as well. Because, of course, the rest of the city is just going about its daily business. Porters are passing with bowels of household goods, merchants are squatting in their shops like other merchants, buyers and sellers chaffered loudly in the public bazaars, women laughed and chattered in the doorways, and again, we get a lot of nice colour here and a very vivid scene of uh what you imagine a sort of desert market town to look like. But Farium is almost surprised that all this is happening because he's got this huge cloud of despair hanging over him. It's how a mood influences a person's outlook on their surroundings.

SPEAKER_02 43:07

Basically, he's uh he's just trying to think of a way to rescue her now, isn't he? And that's all you know, that's all consuming his mind at this point.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

So he starts making inquiries, and I like this as well, that he's being quite furtive about it. He he pretends to be interested in the wares of the sellers and he draws them into conversation uh and gradually gets around to oh, so this uh this temple where it's and everyone's like, Well, it's over there. It's got four doors, they're open all the time. Well, of course they are, because who the bloodier would want to go in there?

SPEAKER_02 43:41

Well, yeah, there you go. Yeah, then because there's a superstition as well, isn't there? Uh superstition that any living person who intruded upon its gloom would return to it shortly as the provider of the god. So you sort of mark yourself. They're sizing you up, going oh, you can get a couple of nice couplets off that one.

SPEAKER_01 44:04

Sunday lunch, frying tonight. Yes, indeed. And there are various stories about the priests as well, because no one knows where they're from or how they're recruited. Many believe that they were both male and female, thus renewing their numbers from generation to generation, with no ulterior commerce. Others thought they were not human beings at all, but an order of subterranean earth entities who lived forever and who fed upon corpses like the god himself.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 44:36

So no one knows, do they? It's interesting. And I think that again, this is Smith having a bit of a popper organized religion, perhaps. You you've got this place, temple, church, whatever you want to call it, at the centre of the community. This is what is expected of you. If you stick with that, everything's kind of alright. We don't really question it too much, whatever's going on, and everything sort of ticks over very nicely, you know.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Yeah, definitely. It and he's also having a pop, I think, at the profit of death commerce, death commerce, I guess you could call it. Because like like I mentioned there now, I mean, if you see like you you look at the costs of a funeral and things like that, right? Well, the old West, right? Wild West movies, Westerns, there'd be a gunfighter, there'd be the little fellow in their little hat running around with the tape measure, you know.

SPEAKER_01 45:34

That's it.

unknown 45:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:36

Get three coffins ready. Sorry, you'll need four. Yes. It's a fistful of dollars, I think.

SPEAKER_02 45:45

It is fistful of dollars, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:47

And while he's doing this, while he he thinks he's being very covert and clever and not drawing too attention to himself, he sees the priests again bearing another litter like beer of bone and leather, and they're carrying the body of a girl. For a moment he thinks it's Elaith, but he looks again, he sees this mistake. The gown that the girl wore, though simple, was made of some rare exotic stuff. Her features, though pale as though of Elaith, were crowned with curls like the petals of heavy black poppies. Her beauty, warm and voluptuous even in death, differed from the blonde pureness of Elaith as tropic lilies differ from the narcissi. So even in death there's this voluptuousness.

SPEAKER_02 46:34

Well, that ties into the other practices, the other uses for corpses that these priests may or may not have.

SPEAKER_01 46:41

Yes, yes. And uh this this woman is a notable, right? She's Ark Taylor, the daughter of Chaos, a high noble and magistrate of Zorbas Shaiya. And she died very quickly and mysteriously from a cause unknown to the physicians, a cause that had not marred or wasted her beauty in the least. So there's talk of poison, there's talk of perhaps sorcery, malefic sorcery as the cause of her demise, which, as we shall see, is not far from the truth. This is where we get our first sight of the temple as well, because obviously he tells these priests and emerges into a circular hollow at the city's heart. And I really like this description of it as well. The temple of Mordigan loomed alone and separate amid pavements of sad onyx and funerary cedars, whose green had blackened as if with the undeparting charnel shadows bequeathed by dead ages. The edifice was built of a strange stone hued as with the blackish purple of carnal decay. A stone that refused the ardent lustre of noon and the prodigality of dawn or sunset glory. It was low and windowless, having the form of a monstrous mausoleum. Its portals yawned sepulchrally in the gloom of the cedars.

SPEAKER_02 48:10

Yeah. And Farium, I like this. He's creeping about. Again, it's very visual. He's watching as they sort of vision as they go inside. Carrying the girl Ostella like phantoms who bear a phantom burden. That's nice, isn't it? He's in full poetic flow with this story. It's something you see with his Otique tales. It's yeah, the rock, you said it earlier. But then we get some great stuff here. There was no sign of activity about the place, but he shuddered uncontrollably at the thought of that which was hidden within its walls, even as the feasting of worms is hidden in the marble tomb. Like a vomiting of charnels, the abominations of which he had heard rose up before him in the sunlight, and again he drew close to madness, knowing that a lathe must lie among the dead in the temple, with the foul umbrage of such things upon her, and that he, consumed with unremitting frenzy, must wait for the favorable shrouding of darkness before he could execute his nebulous, doubtful plan of rescue. A vomiting of charnels. Oh my word, yeah. The feasting of worms. Oh man, it's great.

SPEAKER_01 49:31

He's really laying it on in this. Yeah. So this is the young lad already bit a bit wobbly with his sand rolls, right? You know. So that brings us on to chapter three, where we have a sort of change of point of view, and now we learn what happened to the unfortunate Architailor because we switch over to one Abnon Thar, sorcerer and necromancer, was felicitating himself. Oh dear, that made me chuck. And is very pleased with himself, Abnon Thar, because he's come up with this wonderful plan through which Arctala, daughter of the proud Khaos, would become his unquestioning slave. No other lover, he told himself, could have been resourceful enough to obtain a desired woman in this way. So basically, as we learn, he knows spells that can kill quickly and more surely than knife or poison at a distance, but he also knows the darker spells by which the dead can be reanimated even after years or ages of decay. So he's gonna reanimate her for nefarious purposes.

SPEAKER_02 50:50

Indeed, yeah, because she's betrothed to another uh a no a noble of the city, and he's not best pleased about this. It's that, you know, lusty necromancer thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 51:03

Yes. Tryapic. Indeed. Oh, grim. He's not local, he's from the half mythic isle of Sotar, lying somewhere to the east of the huge continent of Sathique. And I like this description, like a sleek young vulture, he had established himself in the very shadow of the Charnell fane and had prospered, taking to himself pupils and assistants. I suppose in a way, this is uh it's not really a death cult, is it? Because the pe they're not killing people to feed the god, they're already dead. Yeah, and in a way, that's anti-necromancy because he wants to bring them back. So it's kind of a is in a bit of an odd situation, I think, old Abnon Tal. But he seems to be doing all right for himself. Uh, and here we get it, right? This this was the line that stood out for me. His dealings with the priests were long and extensive, and the bargain he had just made was far from being the first of its kind. They had allowed him the temporary use of bodies claimed by a Mordigian, stipulating only that these bodies should not be removed from the temple during the course of any of his um experiments in necromancy. Since the privilege was slightly irregular from their viewpoint, he had found it necessarily to bribe them, not with gold, but with the promise of a liberal purveyance of matters more sinister and corruptible. So his providing the bodies, we're almost back to like um comedy of terrors, the classic Vincent Price. Business is a bit slack. So, well, for the undertaker, well, let's create our own then, you know. Oh yeah, yeah. So, yeah, that's basically his plan. He's very pleased with himself, he's he's keeping a ready supply of corpses going into the temple. That will give him the opportunity to pop in there, get Arc Taylor's corpse, bring her out, resurrect her, and we draw a discrete vow over the rest of that scene.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

Yeah, and he's he's got two little toadying assistants, hasn't he? Nagai and November 5th. Apologies. My pronunciations are all over everywhere today. Well, there we go. And uh yeah, they they're kind of going along with it, but they're not entirely sure it's a great idea, but then he persuades them that it is, and it's that kind of setup, isn't it? One of them specifically is like, I don't think we should be doing this, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

SPEAKER_01 53:35

Yes, yeah. We get that mention of dromedaries again, which I like. They've got because they're once he's out, they've got their escape route planned. Five dromedaries bred for racing, waited in the inner courtyard of Abnanthar's house, a higher mouldering mansion that seemed to lean forward upon the open circular area belonging to the temple. Even his house is mouldering. That's a nice little touch.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

Yeah, I like this because it's uh Nagai who's saying, But master, is it wise after all to do this thing? Must you take the girl from the temple? That kind of thing. He's just like, Look, our dromedes are really quick. We'll have it away on our toes before they even know it's happened.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

Yeah, but you can't can't outrun death, right? Exactly, exactly. Yeah, yeah. And they they tell this story about long ago a noble of the city bore hence the cadaver of a woman he had loved and fled with it into the desert, but the priests pursued him, running more swiftly than jackals. There's another little nod to uh certain attributes of certain types of denizens of the uh the underworld. Indeed. Abnanthar is is a bit of a is very confident, isn't he? Yes. Bit up himself. I fear neither Mordigia nor his creatures, said Abnanthar, with a sort of solemn vainglory in his voice. My dromedaries can outrun the priests. Even granting that the priests are not men at all, but ghouls, as some say. They won't follow us. Basically his idea is they're feasting tonight, they'll have full bellies, they'll be napping. Yeah. You know. The morrow will find us far on the road to Tar Sun ere they awake. Now guy is really hammering his home, isn't he? But but they say Mordian doesn't sleep, that he watches all things eternally from his black vault beneath the temple. Oh, it's just superstition. This is interesting because now this is the bad guy ignoring the yokel knowledge, isn't it? Which is a nice little switch around.

SPEAKER_02 55:35

It's classic hubris, isn't it? It's that whole pride comes before a fall thing. But uh, I like this line here. There is nothing to confirm them in the real nature of corpse-eating entities. So far, I've never beheld Mordigian either sleeping or awake, but in all likelihood, he is merely a common ghoul. Don't think so, mate.

SPEAKER_01 55:58

Yes, never underestimate your enemies.

SPEAKER_02 56:01

Especially not a ghoul.

SPEAKER_01 56:03

But in a way, is is even looked at that eventuality because he's made a deal. If Arc Taylor goes, then she will be replaced with another cadaver, which is the youth Alos, her betrothed. So he now has to work on a spell for that, and this is a lovely phrasing for this. Go now and leave me, for I must devise the inward invultuation that will rot the heart of Alos like a worm that awakens at the core of fruit.

SPEAKER_02 56:33

Lovely. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 56:35

That brings us into chapter four, and we're back to Farion, fevered and distraught.

SPEAKER_02 56:41

It just opens with such a great line as well. It seemed that the cloudless day went by with the sluggishness of a corpse-clogged river.

SPEAKER_01 56:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 56:51

He's really laying it on.

SPEAKER_01 56:54

Well, this next little bit, this couple of sentences here, I think this is the best Smith I've ever read. And I've I've just made a note here, I put film it for exclamation marks, because this this just needs someone to film it. Unable to calm his agitation, he wandered aimlessly through the thronged bazaars till the western towers grew dark on a heaven of saffron flame, and the twilight rose like a grey and curdling sea among the houses. Oh, for fuck's sake. That just makes you want to give up as a writer. It does a bit, doesn't it? Yeah. And he walked around the town a bit and the sun came up. I feel like I write, and that then you've got that. Masterful, masterful. We're back on the dromedary. Uh I had a question that comes up later on. I don't know if you know this. I don't know how well you know your dromedaries, sir. There's something about the dromedary clopping through the streets. And I've wondered, uh, do they have hard hooves, camels and dromedaries, or do they have quite soft feet? So it basically is a question about camel toes.

SPEAKER_02 58:02

I was waiting for it to go there. Now I'm gonna have to give a shout out to one of my major editors. He had this conversation with another writer because she had written in her thing about camel's hooves. Yeah, they had a whole argument about camel hooves. And it's yeah, it's always amused me because no, they don't have hooves, they have two toes padded feet. Right. Oh, yeah. And that was always become uh Morgan's thing whenever we were talking, and we were talking about a bit of text, he was going, nah nah, Tim, that's a camel hoof. That was always be it became a running joke.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

Well, I I think we can give forgive Smith that because you know, did he ever even see a camel or a dromedary in his lifetime? Unless they had one in uh San Franzou or somewhere. I don't know. Perhaps someone could tell us. So he's got his uh he's got his dromedary on standby, he's in the shelter of the thick groups of ancient cedars, ties the dromedary to a branch, and now he goes sneaking in. So now we're in sort of Satanpra Zeros mode, or the uh the archetypal barbarian breaking into the temple kind of setup.

SPEAKER_02 59:22

Yeah, theft of the 39 girdles, you know.

SPEAKER_01 59:26

Yes, yes, the horde with the gibbelins and all those things, and yeah, yeah. And it's a f it's a fantastic set in this. I mean, uh say we could just read the whole next pages really, but you know, it as soon as he's in crossing the threshold, he was engulfed instantly by a dead and clammy darkness, touched with the faint fetor of corruption and a smell as of charred bone and flesh. He thought he was in a huge corridor, and feeling his way forward along the right hand wall, he soon came to a sudden turn and saw a bluish glimmering far ahead, as if in some central aditum where the hall ended. Massy columns were silhouetted against the glimmering, and across it as he drew nearer, several darker, muffled figures passed, presenting the profiles of enormous skulls. Two of them were sharing the burden of a human body which they carried in their arms. I mean, this is classic D. How they didn't put him in appendix end. Well, we've spoken about that before. I I don't know. There may have been reasons. And in fact, now I think about it, given Gary Gygax's uh religious views, reading this story again, perhaps I can see why he wouldn't have drawn attention to something like this. Maybe speculation, speculation.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:46

Maybe, yeah, maybe. Yeah, so he's hanging about, and I love this this turn of phrase here. An oppression of mortuary mystery thickened the air and stifled him like the noisome effluvia of catacombs. Stop it. Just stop it.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:02

I know, noisome effluvia of catacombs. Oh, so good, so good.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:08

I mean, yeah. Rich doesn't even cover it, does it? The language in this.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:14

Nope. So he makes his way into the main sanctuary, a lower, many pillared room. I like this bluish fires as well, because there's not torches or brages, it's almost like this sort of uh the the will of the wisp kind of thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:29

Yeah, it's like a gas fire kind of thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

Yeah, or a dead light. I can imagine it gives off no heat, just a pale blue light and no heat. And there's a vast table in the centre of the room, upon the table, half lit by the flaming urns, or shrouded by the umbrage of the heavy columns, a number of people lay side by side, and Farium knew that he had found the black altar of Mordigan, whereon were disposed the bodies claimed by the gods. And to be fair to the god again, it's not picky. We've got nobles, merchants, beggars in filthy rags, some are newly dead, others, it seemed, had lain there for days. And he's searching for Elaith, and he begins to despair that she's not there.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:16

Yeah, there's a sort of really grim speculation here, isn't there? There were many gaps in the ordered row suggesting that certain of the corpses had been recently removed.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:29

That builds up that anticipation very nice. This is the creepiest place we've been to, I think, in the Smith story so far, which is saying something. Maybe uh that some of the Ma stories they they certainly have that creepiness. This is full-on Ho-esque body horror, as well as that dread, the inevitable approach of death.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:50

Well, because you've got this line of corpses on the table, some of them rotting, and all the while you've got a bunch of ghouls in purple robes skulking about with skull masks on, you know, just to just to add the cherry on top of it, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:05

And then we get something else, right? Because now he he hears some voices, he hears footsteps. So what does he do? He ducks under the table, sensible lad. And now we get some curiously sandal feet and shortish robes of three persons, so it seems they're not the priests, and he is this conversation going on, and obviously, this is our necromancer and his two assistants, and now things take a turn for the even worse, as is often the way, because they're here for one body, but he hears one of them say, Oh, look, this one's very fair. Let's take her as well, shall we?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:46

I like his um response to the necromancer here. Just like, I haven't got time to do a double resurrection. You do it. Go on, if you wanna, you do it. So it becomes a bit of a uh competition almost, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:02

Yeah, and and this is like it's almost November 6th showing off, isn't it? Because of course, as he starts doing his uh incantation, as we see, she wakes up, she's chosen that time to wake up, and he thinks, Oh, my spell worked, and I did it quicker than you, Master. Yeah, that was yeah, exactly. I I added that when I read it, but so they depart, Farium comes out of his hiding place, Elaith is gone, and Ark Taylor has gone as well, and he he just sees the sort of tail end of those shadowy figures going out. He doesn't know are they ghouls, are they worse than ghouls? But of course he's gonna follow because they've got his wife. And this is where as he follows them he hears a sullen metallic grating and a glimmer that narrows to a slit like gleam, as if the door of a chamber from which it issued were being closed. So we know that the necromancer has been working here. It seems like he's got his own little room within the temple, which is quite handy, isn't it? So of course he follows and peeks in through the door. The room was full of sensuous luxury that accorded strangely with the dull funereal stone of that temple of death. There were couches and carpets of superbly figured stuffs, vermilion, gold, azure, silver, and jewelled sensors of unknown metals that stood in far corners. A low table at one side was littered with curious bottles and occult appliances such as might be used in medicine or sorcery. So this is your archetypal necromancer's lair.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:37

Yeah. It's another little grate there right in here. One of the three, a tall middle aged man whom he identified as the master, had assembled certain peculiar vessels, including a small brazier and a censor, and had set them on the floor beside our settler. The second, a younger man with lecherously slitted eyes, had placed similar impedimentable. Before Elaith. It's yeah, that that that seedy kind of look. But you yeah, you can picture it, can't you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:09

And we get this lovely description of their ritual or their spell as they seek to reanimate these two well, what they think are corpses, one obviously isn't a corpse, and as we've said, Elaith wakes up as this incantation is going on. Oc Taylor also rises, rising to her feet like a somnambulist. The chanting of Abnon Thar standing before her came sonorously to an end. In the awful silence that followed, Farion heard a weak cry from Elaith, and then the exultant growling voice of Bembid Sith, who was stooping above her. Behold, O Abnanthar, my spells are swifter than yours, for she that I have chosen awakened before Ark Taylor.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:53

I'd like to think he got a like clip round the ear for that one. Shot at you.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:58

Abnanthar has to be Vincent Price, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:02

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:03

Bember Sith. That could be Peter Laurie, maybe. Mr. Tramble. Anyway, Farrium is uh decided this is the time for action. Although, as he comes in, Narguy, he doesn't do very well again. Varky and Narguy and Vembasith draw short crawly hooks swords, which they carry. And once again the knife gets struck from his fingers with a darting blow that shattered the thin blade at its hilt, and Vembasith, his weapon swinging back in a vicious arc, would have killed the youth promptly if Abnon Thar had not intervened and bade him stay. I would know the meaning of this intrusion, said the necromancer. Truly you are bold to enter the temple of Mordigion. I came to find the girl who lies yonder. She is Elaith, my wife, who was claimed unjustly by the god. But tell me, why have you brought her to this room? And what manner of men are you that raise up the dead of yours raised this other woman? This gives Abnonsar a little bit of a chance to gloat, doesn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:05

I am reading all of his lines in Vincent Price's voice now. I would know the meaning of this intrusion.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:16

Very good. But as Farrian points out, well, she wasn't actually dead, she's in a cataleptic trance. So you should just let us go because I want to get her out of here. We're just passing travelers. And we we get this nice scene where Abnanthar says, Oh, you could travel with us. I think we're where are you going? Ah Tasun, oh we're we're going there as well. We could all travel together, couldn't we? Yes. What a remarkable coincidence, I think is the exact phrasing. Farium divined the dark evil that lay behind the oily, mocking speeches of the necromancer. Also he saw the furtive and sinister sign that Abnon Thar had made to his assistants. Weaponless he could only give a formal assent to the sardonic proposal. He knew well that he would not be permitted to leave the temple alive. For the narrow eyes of Nargi and Vembasith, regarding him closely, were alight with the red lust of murder. So we've gone from that other lust to the lust for murder now. So he's in a bit of a pickle. Doesn't want to turn his back on him, but at the same time he's got to kind of follow him out. Doesn't really have any choice. He demonstrates a bit of quick thinking here, doesn't he? Metal Brazier, full of smoldering coals. There you go. Cop that in your mush, mate. Yeah, I like that. He takes Vember Sith out, he goes down with a terrible smothered cry. But Nargae, snarling ferociously, leapt forward. His scimitar gleamed with the wicked lustre in the lurid glare of the urns as he swung it back for the blow. But then we get again, this is so cinematic, you can so visualize this in a film. It's standing there with the sword raised, and then he looks beyond Farion and sort of goes, Oh shit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:05

The blade would fall right over the shoulder with a clang.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:12

An Atharium, of course, looks round to see what it is. Yeah. And I think here what I like is is the the description is quite Lovecraftian. So it could just be a huge puffy grave worm. That would be bad enough. But it has that element in it, but what he sees is a colossal shadow. It filled the portals from side to side. It towered above the lintel, and then swiftly it became more than a shadow. It was a bulk of darkness black and opaque that somehow blinded the eyes with a strange dazzlement. It seemed to suck the flame from the red urns and inform the chamber with a chill of utter death and voidness. Its form was that of a worm shaping column, huge as a dragon, its further coils still issuing from the gloom of the corridor, but it changed from moment to moment, swirling and spinning as if with the vortical energies of dark eons.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:12

I'm a big fan of Mordigian. It's a great creature.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:17

And again, they are going to draw another parallel with the Slithering Shadow with Thog, who was a shogoth, maybe formless spawn of Sarthoguer, but again had that it's like a giant toad face thing, but then it's shapeless and you can't quite see it. It's like it's flickering in and out of our reality, and you're struggling to make any sense of it. So a very nice Lovecraft young creature, and I think. Yeah. And that's basically it for the necromancer and his crew. Octaylor's gone. She's just snapped up straight away. The god departs. It leaves the others behind, and they're sort of uh well, Nagai is crying in hysteric terror, and you think, Oh, has Mordigian left them? Well, I suppose he would leave them because they're not dead. The priest, however, that's a different story.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:11

Yes. It seemed that his cry was answered by a score of sardonic echoes, unhuman as the howling of hyenas, and yet articulate. They repeated the name Mordygian. Into the room from the dark hall, there poured a horde of creatures whose violet robes alone identified them in Ferium's eyes as the priests of the Ghoul god. They had removed the skull like masks, revealing heads and faces that were half anthropomorphic, half canine, and wholly diabolic. Also they had taken off the fingerless gloves. There were at least a dozen of them. Their curving talons gleamed in the bloody light like hooks of darkly tarnished metal. Their spiky teeth, longer than coffin nails, protruded from snarling lips.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:02

These are full-on Lovecraft ghouls, then, aren't they? Oh yeah, proper.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:05

That's why that's why I mentioned Pikmin earlier. These are proper Pikmin ghouls.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:09

Which is interesting because we know Lovecraft took the ghoul concept and kind of altered it, because we've we've spoken about this before. There are various uh well, uh a ghoul originally was more like a spirit, I think, wasn't it, in the original mythology?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:23

It's had various, various forms over the years, hasn't it? Yeah. But this is your ghoul spelt G-H-U-L.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:30

Yes, yes. So the interesting thing is they round up the necromancer and his two assistants. You sort of imagine they're being dragged off to some horrible demise. And they ignore Farium and Elaith, who stood looking on as if in some bowelful trance. What the fuck is going on? Stand still, don't move. Hope that perhaps they won't notice. Yeah, exactly. One turns to them and addresses them in a hoarse hollow voice, like a tomb reverberate barking. That's a lovely phrase. Go, for Mordician is a just god who claims only the dead and has no concern with the living. And we, the priests of Mordician, deal in our own fashion with those who would violate his law by removing the dead from the temple. So there you go. It's not all bad, is it? No. No, no, no. No, it it's almost you could almost call this a happy ending. Well, I guess it is because it ends with Farium Alaith leaning on his shoulder. They go out into the dark hall, hearing a hideous clamour in which the screams of men were mingled with a growling as of jackals, a laughter as of hyenas. The clamour ceased as they entered the blue-lit sanctuary and passed toward the outer corridor, and the silence that filled Mordigians fame behind them was deep as the silence of the dead on the black altar table.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:58

Lovely stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:00

Yeah, so they do escape. The young couple escape. Yeah, it's a happy ending.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:04

And roll credits.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:06

And roll credits. Yeah. Out into you imagine they get out and the night air smells wonderful, you know. A cool breeze on their face, the dromedary looks up from chewing the cud or whatever dromedary is chewing. Yeah. And off they go. It's just such uh as such a filmic quality about it that you can see the full moon rising over the desert sands, and you know, so many things in there, uh uh so strong visually.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:34

I keep I I keep visualizing it as one of those late 60s, early 70s epic kind of things with that music, you know, the kind of stuff going on, right? And that technocolor, you know. Oh yeah, cinema scope. Cinema scope, the techno technicolor and all that shit, right? Absolutely, yeah. It'd look great. Them some because they it worked really well, the like the gold, the sandy desert and everything, the really sumptuous robes and all this, but then the darkness, it'd look really cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:06

Everything now is that sort of teal and orange. There's a very particular thing you see on a lot of stuff, isn't there? Yeah. Back back to the days of that. Well, that'd be a lovely contrast, the colour of the outside, and then into the temple with that palpse glow kind of thing going on. And uh maybe if it's back then, you could have Farrion played by Charlton Heston. Oh there you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:33

Oh, I can't think of a line from a song uh by um Lard, which was uh a band comprised of Ministry, the industrial rock band, with Jella Biafra from the Dead Kennedys. Oh wow. So whenever anybody mentions Charlton Heston, I can't help but hear Jell O Biafra going, You can't throw me to the lions, I'm Charlton Heston.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:57

My Charlton Heston song is one by a band called Stump, who came out of Ireland in uh I think late 80s uh who did a wonderful song called Charlton Heston Put His Vest On, which I will link to below because it's an excellent video. Yeah, just go and look at it. It's all Egypt, the ancient plagues, and uh yeah, Charton Heston put his vest on, marvelous stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:22

Nice. I think the Lard song is Mate Spawn and Die from the album Last Temptation of Reed for those who are interested. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:32

That's a good title, mate Spawn and Die. That sounds rather sathoggy to me. So, yeah, fantastic story, and say for me that has a lot of associations beginning to play D D uh back at the time when I just started reading all this stuff and those parallels with Robert E. Howard, who we know was a fan of this story. So I did wonder if there was a connection whether R.E.H. read this and then wrote The Slither in Shadow, or perhaps vice versa. But it seems interesting that they probably were both written at about the same time, because Zoothhow was published in Weird Towers in September 33. So I'm guessing Howard wrote it 32, maybe early 33. Yeah. So there's no way he could have read this before writing Slither in Shadow, and vice versa. Yeah, I see so many parallels. The the desert city, the the living god in Zoothell, the inhabitants sleep while the sh the shadow comes and takes them every now and again to assuage its hunger. Uh there's obviously Conan has a big fire, and it's one of the few times in the Conan stories he comes off worse as well. He's only saved by his companion finding uh a sort of healing potions. Uh because, well, I think he says no one fights a devil and comes off with a whole skin.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:57

Well, Robert E. Howard was actually a fan of this story. Oh, yeah, yeah. Um yeah, because we actually have an excerpt of a letter that was from Howard to Smith written in March 1934. Um we only have an excerpt which is found in the in the back of the volume we're going from. Uh, the full letter can be found in collected letters of Robert E. Howard. So there we go, from the Robert E. Howard Foundation and published in 2008. Howard writes, I was glad to see your illustration of your really magnificent charnel god. That story is really a tremendously powerful thing. Sinister figures moving mysteriously against a black background of subtle horror. I don't know when I've read anything I admired more.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:44

There you go. I praise indeed. And this is one of those quite Howardian Smith stories. Uh we always say that sometimes Smith is like a mixture of the other two. Yes. You know, he he can go full Lovecraftian or full Howardian, but then there's his own style as well. And I think this is encapsulates that perfectly, that sort of blend of Howard and Lovecraft, really. Lovecraftian monster, Howardian setting. But also the Smith touch is that Farium the hero is not a Conan. No, twice he tries to attack, and twice he just gets batted aside.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:21

Yeah, he's incredibly ineffective, isn't he? And you know, and to be fair, to be fair, I mean, he's one of those protagonists that if he'd have done nothing, the outcome probably would have been the same. Because she'd have probably waken up, Mordigium would have come, then the ghouls would have taken them, then she'd have been stood around at this temple going, Why the hell am I?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:42

Yeah, yeah, it's quite possibly. Yeah, you you've got to admire his minerals though for going in there, haven't you? Oh, yeah, fair enough. Yeah, there is that. Yeah, but yeah, that's that's possibly true. This could be a story where he didn't have to do anything, he could have just waited outside. But uh, I I guess maybe it was the hint of those other unnatural practices that spurred him on as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:04

Well, yeah, before they realised she was alive.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:06

Yeah. But that is quintessential Smith again. You've got those marvellous descriptions of the sunsets and the sunrises and the colours and the gold and the azure and everything else, but there's that underlying grimness and horrible reality, not of death, but of things even worse than death.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:26

Yes, very much so.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:28

So it's nice to see that this one got picked up by Riot straight away. And uh I don't think I've seen any adaptations of this in comic form or graphic novel form or anything else, which surprises me. But we're back to that again. Obviously, there was a whole run of Conan comics and still is. Savage Sword of Conan started with the original stories and branched out. I can think of a few very graphic novel adaptations of Smith stories in general.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:58

Strange, isn't it? Because I mean it'd be an easy day for your illustrator because he gives you all the colour and everything that you need in the story.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:08

Yeah, and their their graphic novel length as well. Yes. You know, that's that's that's like a 30-page story kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:15

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:16

So yeah, it it is odd. Perhaps that someone can rectify that. Any comic publishers out there, artists, authors, you know, head on it. Come on. We need some Smith adaptations.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:27

Definitely, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:29

Although maybe not Mr.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:30

Del Toro, because you know I I've I've noticed I've developed like almost a Tourette kind of response that anytime anybody says about Del Toro and Lovecraft or anything like that in the same sentence, I'd just go, Oh I can't help it. It's it's involuntary.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:47

I think you're like Captain Darling in Black Adder.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:50

Yes. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:52

So did the iTwitch, yeah, yeah. Wonderful stuff. Uh, we'd be very interested to hear what you think, dear listener, of course. I I don't think anyone could put that in anything other than the top five, personally, but Oh, it's class. So class. And I believe we're returning to Zoth Eagle next time as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:13

We are with another classic, uh, the Dark Eyed Olen.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:17

Which, by popular opinion, seems to be the best Smith story of all, the greatest of his stories. I I see that banded around a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:27

Yeah, yeah. Well, uh Penguin named their Penguin Classics edition of Smith's work, their best of, after it. So, you know, there we go.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:43

Okay, we hope you can join us for that, folks. In the meantime, do let us know your thoughts on the Channel God. And uh we'll be checking into our mailbag next time as well. We've had some missives in, but we're we've both had a bit of a busy week this week, so we've not had time for a proper delve. We shall return to the mailbag next time. Do keep your messages coming in. Thank you for everyone who sends in messages, and also thank you to everyone who supports the show via our Patreon. If you check out the Patreon site, you can sign up and you'll get access to bonus content for Strange Shadows and the Innsmouth Book Club. You'll get a quarterly copy of Innsmouth News on PDF. And of course, of course, of course, you get free entry into the wonder and delight that is the Innsmouth Literary Festival. We would love to see you there. You might never leave, but we would love to see you there. And just before we go, a quick mention if you look on my Dragon's Teeth YouTube channel, we have the first play session up of my Mothership Sci-Fi Horror Game RPG campaign. If you like your horror in space, I think you'll enjoy it. It's uh an ongoing campaign, so we're going to be putting episodes up fortnightly. Do take a look because in space no one eats ice cream. And with that, it's goodbye from me, Rob Pointon.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:06

That is goodbye for me to notice.