COMMONPLACE BOOK LPC EN CTHULHU | MARZO 15, 2007 This book consists of ideas, images, & quotations hastily

jotted down for possib le future use in weird fiction. Very few are actually developed plots for the most part they are merely suggestions or random impressions designed to set the memo ry or imagination working. Their sources are various dreams, things read, casual i ncidents, idle conceptions, & so on. H. P. Lovecraft Presented to R. H. Barlow, Esq., on May 7, 1934 in exchange for an admirably neat typed copy from his skilled hand. 1 Demophon shivered when the sun shone upon him. (Lover of darkness = ign orance.) 2 3 Inhabitants of Zinge, over whom the star Canopus rises every night, are always gay and without sorrow. [x] The shores of Attica respond in song to the waves of the Aegean. [x] from falling from a vast height

4 Horror Story Man dreams of falling found on floor mangled as tho . [x]

5 Narrator walks along unfamiliar country road, comes to strange region of the unreal. 6 In Ld Dunsany s Idle Days on the Yann The inhabitants of the antient Astahan, on the Yann, do all things according to antient ceremony. Nothing new is found. Here we have fetter d and manacled Time, who wou d otherwise slay the Gods. 7 Horror Story The sculptured hand or other artificial hand which strangles its creator. [x] 8 Hor. Sto. Man makes appt. with old enemy. Dies body keeps appt. 9 10 11 12 ding Dr. Eben Spencer plot. [x] Dream of flying over city. [Celephas] Odd nocturnal ritual. Beasts dance and march to musick. [x] Happenings in interval between preliminary sound and striking of clock en [x]

it was the tones of the clock striking three . [x] 13 14 15 16 17 House and garden old associations. Scene takes on strange aspect. Hideous sound in the dark. Bridge and slimy black waters. [Fungi The Canal] The walking dead seemingly alive, but . [x] Doors found mysteriously open and shut etc. excite terror.

18 Calamander-wood a very valuable cabinet wood of Ceylon and S. India, rese mbling rosewood. 19 20 . Revise 1907 tale painting of ultimate horror. Man journeys into the past or imaginative realm leaving bodily shell behind

21 A very ancient colossus in a very ancient desert. Face gone no man hath s een it. 22 Mermaid Legend Encyc. Britt. XVI 40.

23 The man who would not sleep dares not sleep takes drugs to keep himself awa ke. Finally falls asleep and something happens. Motto from Baudelaire p. 214. [Hyp nos] 24 Dunsany Go-By Street Man stumbles on dream world returns to earth seeks to go back succeeds, but finds drea m world ancient and decayed as though by thousands of years. 1919 25 Man visits museum of antiquities asks that it accept a bas-relief he has just made old and learned curator laughs and says he cannot accept anything so mod ern. Man says that dreams are older than brooding Egypt or the contemplative Sphinx or garden-girdle d Babylonia and that he had fashioned the sculpture in his dreams. Curator bids him shew his product, and when he does so curator shews horror. Asks who the man may be. He tells modern name. No before that says curator. Man does not remember except in drea ms. Then curator offers high price, but man fears he means to destroy sculpture. Asks fabulous price curator will consult directors. Add good development and describe nature of bas-relief. [Cthulhu] 26 Dream of ancient castle stairs sleeping guards narrow window battle on plain between men of England and men of yellow tabards with red dragons. Leader of Eng lish challenges leader of foe to single combat. They fight. Foe unhelmeted, but there is no head revealed. Whole army of foe fades into mist, and watcher finds himself to be the English knight on the plain, mounted. Looks at castle, and see s a peculiar concentration of fantastic clouds over the highest battlements. 27 Life and Death Death its desolation and horror bleak spaces sea-bottom dead cities. But Life the greater horror! Vast unheard-of reptiles and leviathans hideous beasts of prehistoric jung le rank slimy vegetation evil instincts of primal man Life is more horrible than death . 28 The Cats of Ulthar The cat is the soul of antique gyptus and bearer of tales from forgotten cities o f Mero and Ophir. He is the kin of the jungle s lords, and heir to the secrets of h oary and sinister Africa. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks her language; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which she hath forgot ten.

29 Dream of Seekonk ebbing tide bolt from sky exodus from Providence fall of Congr egational dome. 30 Strange visit to a place at night moonlight castle of great magnificence et c. Daylight shews either abandonment or unrecognisable ruins perhaps of vast antiq uity. 31 Prehistoric man preserved in Siberian ice. (See Winchell Walks and Talks in the Geological field p. 156 et seq.) 32 As dinosaurs were once surpassed by mammals, so will man-mammal be surp assed by insect or bird fall of man before the new race. [x] 33 Determinism and prophecy. [x]

34 Moving away from earth more swiftly than light past gradually unfolded horr ible revelation. 35 Special beings with special senses from remote universes. Advent of an external universe to view. 36 Disintegration of all matter to electrons and finally empty space assur ed, just as devolution of energy to radiant heat is known. Case of acceleration ma n passes into space. 37 ancy. Peculiar odour of a book of childhood induces repetition of childhood f

38 Drowning sensations undersea cities ships souls of the dead. Drowning is a horr ible death. 39 eing. Sounds possibly musical heard in the night from other worlds or realms of b

40 Warning that certain ground is sacred or accursed; that a house or city must not be built upon it or must be abandoned or destroyed if built, under penal ty of catastrophe. 41 The Italians call Fear La figlia della Morte the daughter of Death. [x]

42 Fear of mirrors memory of dream in which scene is altered and climax is h ideous surprise at seeing oneself in the water or a mirror. (Identity?) [Outside r?] 43 Monsters born living burrow underground and multiply, forming race of uns uspected daemons. 44 Castle by pool or river reflection fixed thro centuries castle destroyed, re flection lives to avenge destroyers weirdly. 45 Race of immortal Pharaohs dwelling beneath pyramids in vast subterranea n halls down black staircases. 46 Hawthorne unwritten plot

Visitor from tomb stranger at some publick concourse followed at midnight to grave yard where he descends into the earth. 47 From Arabia Encyc. Britan. II 255

Prehistoric fabulous tribes of Ad in the south, Thamood in the north, and Tasm a nd Jadis in the centre of the peninsula. Very gorgeous are the descriptions given of Irem, the City of Pillars (as the Koran styles it) supposed to have been ere cted by Shedad, the latest despot of Ad, in the regions of Hadramaut, and which yet, after the annihilation of its tenants, remains entire, so Arabs say, invisi ble to ordinary eyes, but occasionally and at rare intervals, revealed to some h eaven-favoured traveller. // Rock excavations in N.W. Hejaz ascribed to Thamood t ribe. 48 49 50 Cities wiped out by supernatural wrath. AZATHOTH hideous name. [x] Phleg'-e-thon

a river of liquid fire in Hades. [x] 51 Enchanted garden where moon casts shadow of object or ghost invisible t o the human eye. 52 53 54 55 Calling on the dead voice or familiar sound in adjacent room. Hand of dead man writes. Transposition of identity. Man followed by invisible thing.

56 Book or MS. too horrible to read warned against reading it someone reads an d is found dead. Haverhill incident. 57 Sailing or rowing on lake in moonlight sailing into invisibility.

58 A queer village in a valley, reached by a long road and visible from the crest of the hill from which that road descends or close to a dense and antique fo rest. 59 Man in strange subterranean chamber seeks to force door of bronze overwhelm ed by influx of waters. 60 Fisherman casts his net into the sea by moonlight what he finds.

61 A terrible pilgrimage to seek the nighted throne of the far daemon-sult an Azathoth. 62 63 64 65 66 Live man buried in bridge masonry according to superstition or black cat. Sinister names Nasht Kaman-Thah. [x] Identity reconstruction of personality man makes duplicate of himself. [x] Riley s fear of undertakers door locked on inside after death. Catacombs discovered beneath a city (in America?).

67 An impression city in peril dead city equestrian statue men in closed room clatte ring of hooves heard from outside marvel disclosed on looking out doubtful ending. 68 Murder discovered body located by psychological detective who pretends he h as made walls of room transparent. Works on fear of murderer.

69

Man with unnatural face oddity of speaking found to be a mask Revelation.

70 Tone of extreme phantasy Man transformed to island or mountain. [x] 71 Man has sold his soul to devil returns to family from trip life afterward fea r culminating horror novel length. 72 Hallowe en incident mirror in cellar face seen therein death (claw-mark?).

73 Rats multiply and exterminate first a single city and then all mankind. Increased size and intelligence. 74 Jr.] 75 76 ody. Italian revenge killing self in cell with enemy under castle. [used by FBL, Black Mass under antique church. Ancient cathedral hideous gargoyle man seeks to rob found dead gargoyle s jaw blo

77 Unspeakable dance of the gargoyles in morning several gargoyles on old ca thedral found transposed. 78 Wandering thro labyrinth of narrow slum streets come on distant light unhear d-of rites of swarming beggars like Court of Miracles in Notre Dame de Paris. 79 80 81 82 1920 83 Quotation . . . a defunct nightmare, which had perished in the midst of its wickedness, and left its flabby corpse on the breast of the tormented one, to be gotten rid of as it might. Hawthorne 84 Hideous cracked discords of bass musick from (ruin d) organ in (abandon d) abbey or cathedral. [Red Hook] 85 For has not Nature, too, her grotesques the rent rock, the distorting ligh ts of evening on lonely roads, the unveiled structure of man in the embryo, or t he skeleton? Pater Renaissance (da Vinci). 86 To find something horrible in a (perhaps familiar) book, and not to be able to find it again. 87 Borellus says, that the Essential Salts of animals may be so prepared an d preserved, that an ingenious man may have the whole ark of Noah in his own Stu dy, and raise the fine shape of an animal out of its ashes at his pleasure; and that by the like method from the Essential Salts of humane dust, a Philosopher m Horrible secret in crypt of ancient castle discovered by dweller. Shapeless living thing forming nucleus of ancient building. Marblehead dream burying hill evening unreality. [x] [Festival?] Power of wizard to influence dreams of others.

ay, without any criminal necromancy, call up the shape of any dead ancestor from the dust whereinto his body has been incinerated. [Charles Dexter Ward] 88 Lonely philosopher fond of cat. Hypnotises it as it were by repeatedly talk ing to it and looking at it. After his death the cat evinces signs of possessing his personality. N.B. He has trained cat, and leaves it to a friend, with instr uctions as to fitting a pen to its right fore paw by means of a harness. Later w rites with deceased s own handwriting. 89 Lone lagoons and swamps of Louisiana death daemon ancient house and gardens m oss-grown trees festoons of Spanish moss. 1922? 90 size. Anencephalous or brainless monster who survives and attains prodigious

91 Lost winter day slept over 20 yrs. later. Sleep in chair on summer night fals e dawn old scenery and sensations cold old persons now dead horror frozen? 1922? 92 Man s body dies but corpse retains life. Stalks about tries to conceal odour of decay detained somewhere hideous climax. [Cool Air] 93 A place one has been a beautiful view of a village or farm-dotted valley in the sunset which one cannot find again or locate in memory. 94 Change comes over the sun shews objects in strange form, perhaps restorin g landscape of the past. 95 Horrible Colonial farmhouse and overgrown garden on city hillside overtak en by growth. Verse The House as basis of story. [Shunned House] 96 Unknown fires seen across the hills at night.

97 Blind fear of a certain woodland hollow where streams writhe among croo ked roots, and where on a buried altar terrible sacrifices have occur d Phosphoresce nce of dead trees. Ground bubbles. 98 Hideous old house on steep city hillside Bowen St. beckons in the night black windows horror unnam d cold touch and voice the welcome of the dead. 1923 99 Salem story the cottage of an aged witch wherein after her death are found sundry terrible things. 100 Subterranean region beneath placid New England village, inhabited by (l iving or extinct) creatures of prehistoric antiquity and strangeness. 101 Hideous secret society widespread horrible rites in caverns under familiar scenes one s own neighbour may belong. [x] 102 Corpse in room performs some act prompted by discussion in its presence. Tears up or hides will, etc.

103

Sealed room or at least no lamp allowed there. Shadow on wall. [x]

104 Old sea tavern now far inland from made land. Strange occurrences sound o f lapping of waves 105 Vampire visits man in ancestral abode is his own father.

106 A thing that sat on a sleeper s chest. Gone in morning, but something lef t behind. 1923 107 Walls] Wall paper cracks off in sinister shape man dies of fright. [x] [Rats in

108 Educated mulatto seeks to displace personality of white man and occupy his body. 109 Ancient negro voodoo wizard in cabin in swamp possesses white man.

110 Antediluvian Cyclopean ruins on lonely Pacific island. Centre of earthwid e subterranean witch cult. 111 112 Ancient ruin in Alabama swamp voodoo. Man lives near graveyard how does he live? Eats no food. [x]

113 Biological-hereditary memories of other worlds and universes. Butler God Known and Unk. p. 59. [Belknap] 114 Death lights dancing over a salt marsh.

115 Ancient castle within sound of weird waterfall sound ceases for a time un der strange conditions. 116 117 1924 118 . 119 120 121 Something seen at oriel window of forbidden room in ancient manor house Art note fantastick daemons of Salvator Rosa or Fuseli (trunk-proboscis). Talking bird of great longevity tells secret long afterward. Photius tells of a (lost) writer named Damascius, who wrote Prowling at night around an unlighted castle amidst strange scenery. A secret living thing kept and fed in an old house.

Incredible Fictions Tales of Daemons Marvellous Stories of Appearances from the Dead . 122 Horrible things whispered in the lines of Gauthier de Metz (13th cen.) mage du Monde . 123 Dried-up man living for centuries in cataleptic state in ancient tomb. I

124 Hideous secret assemblage at night in antique alley disperse furtively on e by one one seen to drop something a human hand 125 Man abandon d by ship swimming in sea pickt up hours later with strange story of undersea region he has visited mad?? 126 rmed. Castaways on island eat unknown vegetation and become strangely transfo

127 Ancient and unknown ruins strange and immortal bird who speaks in a langu age horrifying and revelatory to the explorers. 128 Individual, by some strange process, retraces the path of evolution and becomes amphibious. ? Dr. insists that the particular amphibian from which man descends is not like any known to palaeontology. To prove it, indulges in (or relates) strange experi ment. 1925 129 Marble Faun p. 346 strange and prehistorick Italian city of stone. s

130 N.E. region call d Witches Hollow along course of a river. Rumours of witches abbaths and Indian powwows on a broad mound rising out of the level where some o ld hemlocks and beeches formed a dark grove or daemon-temple. Legends hard to ac count for. Holmes Guardian Angel. 131 Phosphorescence of decaying wood called in New England fox-fire .

132 Mad artist in ancient sinister house draws things. What were his models ? Glimpse. [Pickman s Model] 133 Man has miniature shapeless Siamese twin exhib. in circus twin surgically d etached disappears does hideous things with malign life of his own. [HSW Cassius] 134 Witches Hollow novel? Man hired as teacher in private school misses road on first trip encounters dark hollow with unnaturally swollen trees and small cot tage (light in window?). Reaches school and hears that boys are forbidden to vis it hollow. One boy is strange teacher sees him visit hollow odd doings mysterious disa ppearance or hideous fate. 135 Hideous world superimposed on visible world gate through power guides narra tor to ancient and forbidden book with directions for access. 136 A secret language spoken by a very few old men in a wild country leads to hidden marvels and terrors still surviving. 137 Strange man seen in lonely mountain place talking with great winged thi ng which flies away as others approach. 138 Someone or something cries in fright at sight of the rising moon, as if it were something strange. [x] 139 DELRIO asks An sint unquam daemones incubi et succubae, et an ex tali co ngressu proles nasci queat? [Red Hook] 140 Explorer enters strange land where some atmospheric quality darkens the

sky to virtual blackness marvels therein. 1926 141 Footnote by Haggard or Lang in The World s Desire

Probably the mysterious and indecipherable ancient books, which were occasionally excavated in old Egypt, were written in this dead language of a more ancient an d now forgotten people. Such was the book discovered at Coptos, in the ancient s anctuary there, by a priest of the Goddess. The whole earth was dark, but the moo n shone all about the Book. A scribe of the period of the Ramessids mentions anot her in indecipherable ancient writing. Thou tellest me thou understandest no word of it, good or bad. There is, as it were, a wall about it that none may climb. Thou art instructed, yet thou knowest it not; this makes me afraid. Birch Zeitschrift 1871 pp. 61 64 Papyrus Anastasi I pl. X, l.8, pl. X l.4. Maspero, Hist. Anc. pp. 66 67. 142 Members of witch-cult were buried face downward. Man investigates ances tor in family tomb and finds disquieting condition. 143 Strange well in Arkham country water gives out (or was never struck hole k ept tightly covered by a stone ever since dug) no bottom shunned and feared what lay b eneath (either unholy temple or other very ancient thing, or great cave-world). [Fungi The Well] 144 145 Hideous book glimpsed in ancient shop never seen again. Horrible boarding house closed door never opened.

146 Ancient lamp found in tomb when filled and used, its light reveals strang e world. [Fungi] 147 Any very ancient, unknown, or prehistoric object its power of suggestion fo rbidden memories. 148 149 ] Vampire dog. Evil alley or enclosed court in ancient city Union or Milligan St. [Fungi

150 Visit to someone in wild and remote house ride from station through the n ight into the haunted hills house by forest or water terrible things live there. 151 Man forced to take shelter in strange house. Host has thick beard and d ark glasses. Retires. In night guest rises and sees host s clothes about also mask w hich was the apparent face of whatever the host was. Flight. 152 Autonomic nervous system and subconscious mind do not reside in the hea d. Have mad physician decapitate a man but keep him alive and subconsciously con trolled. Avoid copying tale by W. C. Morrow. 1928 153 Black cat on hill near dark gulf of ancient inn yard. Mew hoarsely invite s artist to nighted mysteries beyond. Finally dies at advanced age. Haunts dream s of artist lures him to follow strange outcome (never wakes up? or makes bizarre di scovery of an elder world outside 3-dimensioned space?) [Used by Dwyer]

154

Trophonius cave of. Vide Class. Dict. and Atlantic article.

155 Steepled town seen from afar at sunset does not light up at night. Sail h as been seen putting out to sea. [Fungi] 156 Adventures of a disembodied spirit thro dim, half-familiar cities and over strange moors thro space and time other planets and universes in the end. 157 Vague lights, geometrical figures, etc., seen on retina when eyes are c losed. Caus d by rays from other dimensions acting on optick nerve? From other pla nets? Connected with a life or phase of being in which person could live if he o nly knew how to get there? Man afraid to shut eyes he has been somewhere on a terr ible pilgrimage and this fearsome seeing faculty remains. 158 Man has terrible wizard friend who gains influence over him. Kills him in defence of his soul walls body up in ancient cellar BUT the dead wizard (who has sa id strange things about soul lingering in body) changes bodies with him . . . le aving him a conscious corpse in cellar. [Thing on Doorstep] 159 Certain kind of deep-toned stately music of the style of the 1870 s or 18 80 s recalls certain visions of that period gas-litten parlours of the dead, moonlig ht on old floors, decaying business streets with gas lamps, etc. under terrible ci rcumstances. 160 Book which induces sleep on reading cannot be read determined man reads it go es mad precautions taken by aged initiate who knows protection (as of author and tra nslator) by incantation. 161 Time and space past event 150 yrs ago unexplained. Modern period person intense ly homesick for past says or does something which is psychically transmitted bac k and actually causes the past event. 162 Ultimate horror grandfather returns from strange trip mystery in house wind a nd darkness grandf. and mother engulfed questions forbidden somnolence investigation catac lysm screams overheard 163 Man whose money was obscurely made loses it. Tells his family he must g o again to THE PLACE (horrible and sinister and extra-dimensional) where he got his gold. Hints of possible pursuers or of his possible non-return. He goes record o f what happens to him or what happens at his home when he returns. Perhaps connect with preceding topic. Give fantastic, quasi-Dunsanian treatment. 164 Man observed in a publick place with features (or ring or jewel) identi fied with those of man long (perhaps generations) buried. 165 Terrible trip to an ancient and forgotten tomb.

166 Hideous family living in shadow in ancient castle by edge of wood near black cliffs and monstrous waterfall. 167 Boy rear d in atmosphere of considerable mystery. Believes father dead. S uddenly is told that father is about to return. Strange preparations consequences. 168 Lonely bleak islands off N.E. coast. Horrors they harbour outpost of cosm ic influences. 169 170 What hatches from primordial egg. Strange man in shadowy quarter of ancient city possesses something of i

mmemorial archaic horror. 171 1930 172 173 174 175 Pre-human idol found in desert. Idol in museum moves in a certain way. Migration of Lemmings Atlantis. Little green Celtic figures dug up in an ancient Irish bog. Hideous old book discovered directions for shocking evocation.

176 Man blindfolded and taken in closed cab or car to some very ancient and secret place. 177 The dreams of one man actually create a strange half-mad world of quasi -material substance in another dimension. Another man, also a dreamer, blunders into this world in a dream. What he finds. Intelligence of denizens. Their depen dence on the first dreamer. What happens at his death. 178 A very ancient tomb in the deep woods near where a 17th century Virgini a manor-house used to be. The undecayed, bloated thing found within. 179 Appearance of an ancient god in a lonely and archaic place prob. temple r uin. Atmosphere of beauty rather than horror. Subtle handling presence revealed by faint sound or shadow. Landscape changes? Seen by child? Impossible to reach or identify locale again? 180 A general house of horror nameless crime sounds later tenants (Flammarion) (nov el length?). 181 Inhabitant of another world face masked, perhaps with human skin or surgi cally alter d human shape, but body alien beneath robes. Having reached earth, tri es to mix with mankind. Hideous revelation. [Suggested by CAS.] 182 In ancient buried city a man finds a mouldering prehistoric document in English and in his own handwriting, telling an incredible tale. Voyage from pre sent into past implied. Possible actualisation of this. 183 Reference in Egyptian papyrus to a secret of secrets under tomb of high -priest Ka-Nefer. Tomb finally found and identified trap door in stone floor stairca se, and the illimitable black abyss. [x] 184 Expedition lost in Antarctic or other weird place. Skeletons and effect s found years later. Camera films used but undeveloped. Finders develop and find s trange horror. 185 Scene of an urban horror Sous le Cap or Champlain Sts. Quebec rugged cliff-fa ce moss, mildew, dampness houses half-burrowing into cliff. 186 Thing from sea in dark house, man finds doorknobs etc. wet as from touch of something. He has been a sea-captain, and once found a strange temple on a vo lcanically risen island. 1931

187 Dream of awaking in vast hall of strange architecture, with sheet-cover ed forms on slabs in positions similar to one s own. Suggestions of disturbingly non -human outlines under sheets. One of the objects moves and throws off sheet non-te rrestrial being revealed. Sugg. that oneself is also such a being mind has become transferred to body on other planet. 188 Desert of rock prehistoric door in cliff, in the valley around which lie the bones of uncounted billions of animals both modern and prehistoric some of the m puzzlingly gnawed. 189 Ancient necropolis bronze door in hillside which opens as the moonlight s trikes it focussed by ancient lens in pylon opposite? 1932 190 Primal mummy in museum awakes and changes place with visitor.

191 An odd wound appears on a man s hand suddenly and without apparent cause. Spreads. Consequences. 1933 192 Thibetan ROLANG Sorcerer (or NGAGSPA) reanimates a corpse by holding it i n a dark room lying on it mouth to mouth and repeating a magic formula with all el se banished from his mind. Corpse slowly comes to life and stands up. Tries to e scape leaps, bounds, and struggles but sorcerer holds it. Continues with magic formu la. Corpse sticks out tongue and sorcerer bites it off. Corpse then collapses. T ongue become a valuable magic talisman. If corpse escapes hideous results and deat h to sorcerer. 193 Strange book of horror discovered in ancient library. Paragraphs of ter rible significance copies. Later unable to find and verify text. Perhaps discove r body or image or charm under floor, in secret cupboard, or elsewhere. Idea tha t book was merely hypnotic delusion induced by dead brain or ancient magic. 194 Man enters (supposedly) own house in pitch dark. Feels way to room and shuts door behind him. Strange horrors or turns on lights and finds alien place or presence. Or finds past restored or future indicated. 195 Pane of peculiar-looking glass from a ruined monastery reputed to have harboured devil-worship set up in modern house at edge of wild country. Landscap e looks vaguely and unplaceably wrong through it. It has some unknown time-disto rting quality, and comes from a primal, lost civilisation. Finally, hideous thin gs in other world seen through it. 196 Daemons, when desiring an human form for evil purposes, take to themsel ves the bodies of hanged men. 197 Loss of memory and entry into a cloudy world of strange sights and expe riences after shock, accident, reading of strange book, participation in strange rite, draught of strange brew, etc. Things seen have vague and disquieting fami liarity. Emergence. Inability to retrace course. 1934 198 Distant tower visible from hillside window. Bats cluster thickly around it at night. Observer fascinated. One night wakes to find self on unknown black

circular staircase. In tower? Hideous goal. 199 Black winged thing flies into one s house at night. Cannot be found or id entified but subtle developments ensue. 200 Invisible Thing felt or seen to make prints on mountain top or other height , inaccessible place. 201 Planets form d of invisible matter.

202 r.

A monstrous derelict found and boarded by a castaway or shipwreck survivo

203 A return to a place under dreamlike, horrible, and only dimly comprehen ded circumstances. Death and decay reigning town fails to light up at night Revelati on. 204 Disturbing conviction that all life is only a deceptive dream with some dismal or sinister horror lurking behind. 205 Person gazes out window and finds city and world dark and dead (or oddl y changed) outside. 206 Trying to identify and visit the distant scenes dimly seen from one s win dow bizarre consequences. 207 Something snatched away from one in the dark in a lonely, ancient, and ge nerally shunned place. 208 (Dream of) some vehicle railway train, coach, etc. which is boarded in a st upor or fever, and which is a fragment of some past or ultra-dimensional world tak ing the passenger out of reality into vague, age-crumbled regions or unbelievable gulfs of marvel. 1935 209 Special Correspondence of NY Times March 3, 1935

Halifax, N.S. Etched deeply into the face of an island which rises from the Atlanti c surges off the S. coast of Nova Scotia 20 m. from Halifax is the strangest roc k phenomenon which Canada boasts. Storm, sea, and frost have graven into the sol id cliff of what has come to be known as Virgin s Island an almost perfect outline of the Madonna with the Christ Child in her arms. The island has sheer and wave-bound sides, is a danger to ships, and is absolute ly uninhabited. So far as is known, no human being has ever set foot on its shor es. 210 An ancient house with blackened pictures on the walls so obscured that th eir subjects cannot be deciphered. Cleaning and revelation. Cf. Hawthorne Edw. Rand. Port. 211 Begin story with presence of narrator inexplicable to himself in utterly al ien and terrifying scenes (dream?). 212 Strange human being (or beings) living in some ancient house or ruins f

ar from populous district (either old N.E. or far exotic land). Suspicion (based on shape and habits) that it is not all human. 213 Ancient winter woods moss great boles twisted branches dark ribbed roots always dri pping. . . . 214 Talking rock of Africa immemorially ancient oracle in desolate jungle rui ns that speaks with a voice out of the aeons. 215 Man with lost memory in strange, imperfectly comprehended environment. Fears to regain memory a glimpse. . . . 216 Man idly shapes a queer image some power impels him to make it queerer th an he understands. Throws it away in disgust but something is abroad in the night. 217 Ancient (Roman? prehistoric?) stone bridge washed away by a (sudden and curious?) storm. Something liberated which had been sealed up in the masonry of years ago. Things happen. 218 219 Mirage in time image of long-vanish d pre-human city. Fog or smoke assumes shaped under incantations.

220 Bell of some ancient church or castle rung by some unknown hand a thing . . . or an invisible Presence. 221 Insects or other entities from space attack and penetrate a man s head an d cause him to remember alien and exotic things possible displacement of personali ty.

The Dungeons and Dragons Critical Fumble Chart. 1. Your weapon, bored of the routine, decides to stop existing.

1.5. Your weapon decides to exist again, claiming that non-existence is much more boring than existence. 2. Your personal gravity reverses. You now fall up, rather than down, for 1d8 minutes, or until gravity notices, turns its big ugly head your way and ask s What the #$%@ is going on over here?!? 3. You hit normally. After the battle, a meteor strikes your character s hea d. If the character is not wearing a helmet, instant death. If your character is wearing a helmet, they are struck unconscious for 1d4 days. If they are indoors , they take 1 sub-dual damage. If the character is underground, the meteor patie ntly waits until the character steps outside before striking. 4. A Succubus begins to follow your character around, under the impressio n that your character s first-born male child will become a nexus of power so grea t, that he ll rule the world, and she wants to mother him for a seat of power. If the Succubus is successful, then exactly 1 year later, she tracks down the chara cter. The child was born female, and the Succubus is mad as hell. 5. You cut yourself for 1 point of damage, and blood falls to the ground. A local cave of Land-sharks catch the scent on the wind. 6. Suddenly, every sentient creature within 200 miles of you is aware of

who you are, what you look like, and what your surface thoughts are for the next 4d6 minutes. 7. 8. The area around you changes itself to a zone of truth. Your worst enemy gains a level.

9. Your nightmare manifests itself inside your home. It becomes bored of waiting for you. It becomes a master of all the board games you own. 10. A pirate ship crashes into your character. Regardless of where your charac ter is. 11. You gain one level in Paladin, and the appropriate alignment. If you are a lready a Paladin, gain one level in Barbarian. 12. Your face melts off, but you don t notice or take damage.

13. Your weapon turns into a flower-shaped baton. Every time you strike an ene my, it grows a flower on its head instantly, and takes 1 damage per round X the number of times it s been hit with the flower baton. The weapon changes back after the battle. 14. Your enemies pity your failure, and walk away. No one gets any experience, or any treasure. Wounds and used items, still remain however. 15. You hit the enemy so hard, it knocks him into the 4th dimension. He abuses the powers of time. (cast time stop on the enemy, and remove the no damage rule ) 16. Your character s hair catches fire. Your character doesn t notice why he s takin g 1d6 damage. 17. Everyone in the battle is abducted by an alien race, probed, and set back down on Earth with their memories erased. An awkward silence falls over the fie ld. . . 18. Commercial break. All real life players are required to stand up, and do s omething else for 2d4 minutes. 19. Everyone in the battle, including yourself and your party members, makes a n Attack of Opportunity against you. No matter where they are. No matter what co ndition they are in. 20. Rocks rise up from the ground, everyone within the area takes damage.

21. You cut a hole in the space-time continuum. Peering into the hole, you can see your character 20 years from now, and he can see you. However, as soon as h e sees you, his features melt away until there s nothing left but skin and bone. T he hole disappears, and your opponent strikes you with a critical hit 22. Your character can no longer perceive any and all cake. He will not recogn ize the word, and he will not be able to sense the cake at all, even through tou ch. 23. The character slowly starts to realize a conspiracy involving the number 2 3. Any time anyone rolls a 23 after mods on anything ever, the character become s insane (as if effected by the insanity spell), and constantly adds random numb ers up to a total of 23.

24. 25. 26. 27.

The opponent smacks you. No damage, except for your pride. The DM smacks the player. No damage, except for your pride. Your pride smacks the DM. You are now the DM. You switch bodies with a woman halfway across the world.

28. Your character s heart grows three sizes. Your character s heart bursts out o f his chest. 29. 30. 31. Your character s weapon turns into a beehive. A very angry beehive. You cut yourself. Funny, I don t remember coating this sword with pois. . . All librarians now hate you, and will attack you on sight. I just lost the game. However, he doesn t know why, nor

32. Your character shouts will he ever know. 33. 34.

Your character is now deathly allergic to fish. Your weapon becomes sovereign-glued to your hand.

35. Wanted posters of your character are put up everywhere. Except your charac ter is naked in every single poster. 36. You trip. Halfway across the world from you, a hurricane utterly destroys a town. 37. A third group of monsters who hate both your party and the current monster s ambushes the fight. 38. All your rations are turned into Lemon Custard Pies.

39. You are teleported to the nearest tavern. The bartender doesn t say anythin g and just hands you a drink. On the house. 40. 41. Your weapon transforms into a dire bee. A very angry, dire bee. Your character becomes addicted to opium.

42. Your opponent becomes mad with power, thinking that you missed because yo u were afraid of his grand presence. He immediately leaves the battle and attemp ts to take over the world. 43. The McGuffin suddenly teleports in the middle of the room. The battle com es to a halt as both sides suddenly realize what has come into their midst. 44. Your character suddenly realizes that he doesn t really exist. He is now et hereal until he thinks that he does exist. Then he becomes material again. 45. You and your entire party suddenly realize that you guys aren t really the chosen ones fated to save destiny. You have no idea who they really are. You and your group were just in the right place at the right time. The party suddenly f eels less confident. 46. You critical hit the planet you are standing on. Roll again. If you get a 20, the planet explodes.

47. A miniature gelatinous cube materializes inside your backpack. All Tiny o bjects inside are thus devoured. 48. Your shadow gains a life of its own. Finally free of your character, your shadow does what it has always wanted to do. Destroy the sun. 49. The legendary 5th dentist, the one that never agrees with the other 4 den tists, suddenly agrees with them. Chaos ensues. 50. Exactly 800 miles away, a merchant finds gold piece is actually a phylactery of the Lich party. The Lich reveals his cunning plan during ddenly becomes extremely paranoid as the sudden e melted that gold piece down dawns on him. 51. a gold piece on the ground. The that is secretly targeting your the first encounter, but then su realization that someone may hav

Your weapon turns into a Bear. A very angry bear.

52. Your character now has access to a Manliness skill, and gains 5 points in i t. Your character can not gain anymore points in this skill. The manliness skill can be used as an added bonus for anything that may be deemed badass or manly . Or t he character can use this skill to instantaneously grow a beard or moustache of the Player s choosing. Note, that this skill is still usable by female characters. 53. Your character is mistaken for an animal and placed inside of a zoo. Anyo ne who hears your pleas for help ignore you, but are very impressed that such a savage beast can speak. 54. Your character wakes up at his nine-to-five job, with his boss yelling at him. It was all just a strange dream. 55. Your character misses and mutters a curse word so foul, that the demon lo rd of hell takes personal offense at it. 56. Your character now speaks a foreign language, but forgets how to speak hi s old one. 57. Your weapon turns into a Dire Bear. A very angry Dire Bear.

58. Your weapon turns into a can of spinach. If you eat the spinach, you gain +8 strength. Now if only you could open the can. . . 59. You become magnetized for 2d8 minutes. All metal objects within 15 fly at you and stick to your body and can not be removed. 60. You are now, by some inexplicable means, fully aware of whenever your cha racters best friend picks his nose. Even if you aren t in the same planet as he is , you know. Your character s best friend picks his nose once per every charisma hour s. I.E., if he has 13 Charisma, than he picks his nose once every 13 hours. 61. A wizard in a place far from the battle field casts time stop. However, f or an inexplicable reason, your character is aware of every painstaking second o f it. 62. 63. 64. . Your opponent becomes explosive to contact, but you don t know this. Your opponent becomes explosive to contact, and you and he both know it. Your opponent becomes explosive to contact, and you know it, but he doesn t

65. 8 maids suddenly desire to milk you, in any way possible. Even if it mean s polymorphing you. 66. The enemy drives a cutting taunt into you that haunts you until your very death. You fight like a dairy farmer. 67. Your character has a bard s curse placed onto him. The player using him mus t now speak in rhyme, or else anything he says is to be ignored by the DM, until the curse is lifted. 68. Your weapon turns into a bear eating a beehive. He s very friendly and teac hes you the bear necessities of life. Gain a level in Ranger. 69. Someone in a distant land curses your name for giving them bad directions to your house. You sneeze and provoke an Attack of Opportunity. 70. The character suddenly realizes that he could have been in the FATAL univ erse rather than the one he is in now. The character is frightened of this thoug ht and takes a second look at his current life. 71. Your character does the Tango de la Muerte with a dance partner. The fema le partner becomes pregnant. Because it is the mystery of the dance. . . 72. The McGuffin turns into a muffin. Will save DC 15 once every 10 minutes t o not eat the McGuffin muffin. Add +5 to the DC for every 2 hours the character hasn t eaten. 73. A troll appears from nowhere and hands your character a handful of Sage. You sink slightly into the ground until your next turn. 74. Count every word you wrote down in your character sheet. Your character t akes that much damage. 75. Your character now hates librarians, and will attack them on sight.

76. Your character becomes a loose-cannon cop on the edge who doesn t play by t he rules. Gain one level in Paladin, except this Paladin is Chaotic Good, and st ill retains his abilities. 77. Your new, personal arch-rival appears. He looks exactly like you, has all your abilities and items, except he is exactly 1/8th your size. And hates you. 78. 79. 80. Your character s alimony officer catches up with you. ALL of your character s alimony officers catch up with you. All of your character s alimony officers and wives catch up with you.

81. Your character is now an atheist. He will now actively deny and antagoniz e every and all God, Clerics, Paladins, and Bards with divine spells, and polar bears. He s not quite sure why polar bears, but he doesn t believe in them. 82. The nearest Wizard PC now as the ability Nerd Rage . If anyone offends or up sets them, they can now Rage like a Barbarian, and will immediately attack that target, friend or foe. 83. Your character is now deathly afraid of the color yellow.

83.5. Your weapon turns into a dire yellow jacket. A sentient, friendly, and ver y clingy, yellow jacket.

84. Your party, in embarrassment, walks away, wanting to do nothing with you anymore for the remainder of the battle. 85. Close your eyes, and open up a random page of the monster manual, and poi nt somewhere within there. That species is now completely extinct because of you r great incompetence, and every single Druid on Earth is aware of it. 86. You, and everyone around you, friend and foe, break out into a dance, com plete with 50's jukebox music. However, you re still fighting. Think Westside Story . 87. Eighty-eight men wearing bandit masks and suits, wielding Masterwork Basta rd Swords, attacks your character. 88. Your target and you are both charmed as per the spell by the other one. Y ou two become lifelong buddies. 89. Your hand starts glowing with an awesome power. The next thing you touch with your burning grip is destroyed. 90. The love of your life transforms into a cherry pie and a tall glass of wa ter. Your DM is now obligated to tell you that this is a sweet surprise. 91. You sacrifice yourself to destroy the enemy. The world sheds a manly tear . Your character ascends to the halls of Valhalla. 92. The Legendary 5th dentist hunts you down. Apparently, you had an appointm ent for yesterday that you forgot about. The Legendary 5th dentist is not happy about being stood up. 93. Your weapon becomes sentient, and you, and only you, are able to detect i t s thoughts. However, every time your weapon strikes something or blocks somethin g, it screams in a chilling, high-pitched, blood-curdling scream of agony. And a fter every battle, when you sheath the weapon, you can hear it softly crying and begging to be destroyed. 94. Your character trips so hard it flattens the world. Anyone above the equa tor doesn t notice, but anyone below it falls of the earth into space. 95. Your party member suddenly decides that now would be the best time to rev eal to you that they ve slept with your significant other. Twice. On your birthday . 96. The next door you come across and it s key both become sentient. However, t he Key refuses to enter the door, under the context that they re divorced and he w ants nothing to do with that bitch. God help you if you force them together. 97. Roll again. Your character is under the impression that the new critical failure just happened and is fully aware of it, but your character is just being delusional. 98. Pun-Pun takes pity on your plight. He suddenly appears at your side and will fight beside you for the remainder of the battle. Any attempts to look Pun -Pun directly in the eye, speak with, or otherwise treat Pun-Pun as an equal wil l immediately bring Pun-Pun s wrath on yourself and everyone you know. 99. You strike a passing butterfly. Immediately, a corpulent time traveler f rom the future appears before you and informs you that the death of that butterf ly causes a chain reaction that it to rain apple pies every day in the place whe re you currently stand. Your name is forever associated with fat, pudgy overind

ulgent pie-eaters. Suffer a -4 to all Intimidate checks. 100. All of the above. At the same time. No saves. Final Destination.

gain, thanks to my bud Pat for finding this on 4chan's gaming forum. We only had one fumble in my Encounter Critical game Saturday, but we got result #7, so I w as quite pleased. Doctor Aquatic's Fumble Chart 1. You crush your own trachea. Your voice is now two octaves lower. 2. You amputate your own arm. It writhes for a while before falling still. 2 day s later, it reanimates as a zombie arm and relentlessly attempts to strangle you . 3. You trip and fall off the nearest cliff, no matter how far away it is. 4. You spontaneously combust. 5. You flail wildly, inadvertently giving yourself a sexy new haircut. 6. You miss so hard that your future self comes back through time to bitchslap y ou. 7. Your weapon gets completely stuck in the ground. You cannot remove it no matt er how hard you try. 5 years later, it has grown into a thriving weapon tree. Ce nturies from now, the weapon forest will be a natural wonder. And then treants w ill animate them and destroy us all. 8. You whiff and split an atom. 9. You lose your grip on your weapon. It flies through the air and hits a tree. This frightens a beautiful bird, which soars out of the tree, majestically twist ing through the air. As you gaze upon it, you get momentarily philosophical, unt il your intended target renovates your skull. 10. You lop off your own head. You eventually fall into a rewarding career as a headless horseman, but always wonder what could have been. 11. You miss so hard that your attack travels through time and assassinates Linc oln. 12. You accidentally slash your own wrists. At least, you tell us it was an acci dent. 13. With a flurry of precision strikes, you somehow give yourself a flawless sex change operation. 14. You put out your own eye. You embrace the disfigurement, beocoming a notorio us pirate. For years you terrorize the seas, hording treasure, pillaging ports a nd murdering innocents. One day, for just a moment, you seem to recognize one of the nameless civilians you are about to kill, as though you knew them, long ago . As soon as it came, the feeling, like their heartbeat, ceases. 15. It turns out you are not holding your weapon, but rather, an angry crab.

16. You give yourself a black eye. Everyone assumes your significant other is be ating you. Your significant other starts frequently beating you, because hey, mi ght as well. 17. Your weapon gets lodged in your pancreas. 18. Your pancreas gets lodged in your weapon. 19. Your weapon spontaneously animates. It does nothing but constantly sing catc hy songs. At first it is enjoyable and quirky. Soon, it begins to grate. Eventua lly, in a fit of rage, you shout at your weapon to be quiet. It never sings agai n. It only sulks quietly, letting out the occasional sigh of pure sadness. Your guilty heart shrivels to the size of a cashew, and you become a lifeless, sullen entity, never again feeling the true touch of joy. 20. You miss. Probably because you didn't believe in yourself. Ass.