Post by Deleted on May 23, 2021 17:30:05 GMT -6
I've been re-reading select Lovecraft texts while waiting for my new book on the Greek epics to arrive and noticed something specific and peculiar in the description of the Shoggoth from "At The Mountains of Madness." The specific passage in question, bolded emphasis mine:
But we were not on a station platform. We were on the track ahead as the nightmare plastic column of foetid black iridescence oozed tightly onward through its fifteen-foot sinus; gathering unholy speed and driving before it a spiral, re-thickening cloud of the pallid abyss-vapour. It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train—a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and unforming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter. Still came that eldritch, mocking cry—“Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!” And at last we remembered that the daemoniac shoggoths—given life, thought, and plastic organ patterns solely by the Old Ones, and having no language save that which the dot-groups expressed—had likewise no voice save the imitated accents of their bygone masters.
Compare this to a section from Booklet II of OD&D "Monsters & Treasure"
OCHRE JELLY: The clean-up crew includes Ochre Jelly and similar weird monsters.
Ochre Jelly is a giant amoeba which can be killed by fire or cold, but hits by weaponry or lightning bolts will merely make them into several smaller Ochre Jellies.
Ochre Jelly does not affect stone or metal, but it does destroy wood, and it causes
one die of damage per turn it is in contact with exposed flesh. It seeps through small
cracks easily.
BLACK (or GRAY) PUDDING: Another member of the clean-up crew and
nuisance monster. Black Puddings are not affected by cold. It is spread into
smaller ones by chops or lightning bolts, but is killed by fire. Black Puddings
dissolve wood, corrode metal at a reasonably fast rate, have no effect on stone,
and cause three dice of damage to exposed flesh. If an armored character runs
through a Black Pudding the monster’s corrosive power will eat away the foot
and leg protection of the armor so that it will fall-away next turn. Black Puddings
can pass through fairly small openings, and they can travel as easily on ceilings
as on floors
Probably not a particularly exciting or ground-breaking find to some of you here but it was cool to me to see another specific Appendix N influence on early D&D. It would appear that the slimes and jellies Gary referred to as "clean-up crew" could be a highly nerfed and simplified reference to Lovecraft's horrifying Shoggoths. It's cool to me, anyway. I love finding these little connections littered throughout literature.
But we were not on a station platform. We were on the track ahead as the nightmare plastic column of foetid black iridescence oozed tightly onward through its fifteen-foot sinus; gathering unholy speed and driving before it a spiral, re-thickening cloud of the pallid abyss-vapour. It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train—a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and unforming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter. Still came that eldritch, mocking cry—“Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!” And at last we remembered that the daemoniac shoggoths—given life, thought, and plastic organ patterns solely by the Old Ones, and having no language save that which the dot-groups expressed—had likewise no voice save the imitated accents of their bygone masters.
Compare this to a section from Booklet II of OD&D "Monsters & Treasure"
OCHRE JELLY: The clean-up crew includes Ochre Jelly and similar weird monsters.
Ochre Jelly is a giant amoeba which can be killed by fire or cold, but hits by weaponry or lightning bolts will merely make them into several smaller Ochre Jellies.
Ochre Jelly does not affect stone or metal, but it does destroy wood, and it causes
one die of damage per turn it is in contact with exposed flesh. It seeps through small
cracks easily.
BLACK (or GRAY) PUDDING: Another member of the clean-up crew and
nuisance monster. Black Puddings are not affected by cold. It is spread into
smaller ones by chops or lightning bolts, but is killed by fire. Black Puddings
dissolve wood, corrode metal at a reasonably fast rate, have no effect on stone,
and cause three dice of damage to exposed flesh. If an armored character runs
through a Black Pudding the monster’s corrosive power will eat away the foot
and leg protection of the armor so that it will fall-away next turn. Black Puddings
can pass through fairly small openings, and they can travel as easily on ceilings
as on floors
Probably not a particularly exciting or ground-breaking find to some of you here but it was cool to me to see another specific Appendix N influence on early D&D. It would appear that the slimes and jellies Gary referred to as "clean-up crew" could be a highly nerfed and simplified reference to Lovecraft's horrifying Shoggoths. It's cool to me, anyway. I love finding these little connections littered throughout literature.
