Café de Nuit

So... A while ago I saw a YouTube video* analysing DND abberrations in relation to the original themes of cosmic horror.
They said beholders aren't a good example of cosmic horror, because their psychology - the pettiness, the xenophobia, the obssession with protecting their possesssions etc. - is all very human. They aren't unknowable, but a parody of flaws we know very well from ourselves - or, at least, the most annoying people around us.
And (I think Pointy Hat adresses with shortly in the video itself) we all know a man who succumbed to these flaws horribly.
It's the man who invented the genre.

So...
I'm not saying that the Gothic Earth version of HP Lovecraft took things a step further and did something evil enough to get snatched by the DP, his curse to have the terrors only he could imagine come to life, retaining just enough of his sanity to realise he's turned into one of them...
But maybe I can invent a villain like that, the origin of beholders much like Strahd is the origin of vampires?

*'DND Has A Lovecraft Problem' by Pointy Hat

Lovecraft formed the genre of cosmic horror from how his racism, obsession with orientalism, and deadly seafood allergies shaped, or perhaps deformed his perspectives of life. His story "Cool Air" offers a glimpse of how his crippling dairy allergy wounded him.

Baron Von Stanton wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2026 4:29 pm Lovecraft formed the genre of cosmic horror from how his racism, obsession with orientalism, and deadly seafood allergies shaped, or perhaps deformed his perspectives of life. His story "Cool Air" offers a glimpse of how his crippling dairy allergy wounded him.

I would also add his traumatic familiar life.

Mistmaster wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2026 6:53 pm

Baron Von Stanton wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2026 4:29 pm Lovecraft formed the genre of cosmic horror from how his racism, obsession with orientalism, and deadly seafood allergies shaped, or perhaps deformed his perspectives of life. His story "Cool Air" offers a glimpse of how his crippling dairy allergy wounded him.

I would also add his traumatic familiar life.

I.e., "The Color Out Of Space"

The thing with Lovecraft is that he died young, and towards the end of his life he was starting to realise how stupid his views on race were. But pancreatic cancer is a hell of a disease.

If you extrapolate that Lovecraft was recanting his past ideas and didn't die in the Masque setting, the you can tea him up to be an expert on the horrors coming in from outside reality. I'd have him become a recluse, hidden away as he's caught between knowing how to stop abberations and being a target as he's the only one who does.

Then he has to face the consequences of his past (as I'd move time on to the 1960s) and he has his past attitudes clashing with the Civil RIghts movement, causing his agorophobia to resurface, but this time over guilt.

The PCs then have to track him down, then convince him they aren't agents of the Red Death and that they aren't going to cause him harm because of his past.

Drinnik Shoehorn wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 5:08 am The thing with Lovecraft is that he died young, and towards the end of his life he was starting to realise how stupid his views on race were. But pancreatic cancer is a hell of a disease.

If you extrapolate that Lovecraft was recanting his past ideas and didn't die in the Masque setting, the you can tea him up to be an expert on the horrors coming in from outside reality. I'd have him become a recluse, hidden away as he's caught between knowing how to stop abberations and being a target as he's the only one who does.

Then he has to face the consequences of his past (as I'd move time on to the 1960s) and he has his past attitudes clashing with the Civil RIghts movement, causing his agorophobia to resurface, but this time over guilt.

The PCs then have to track him down, then convince him they aren't agents of the Red Death and that they aren't going to cause him harm because of his past.

This is a cool idea too

While we're at 'Lovecraft (as, in, the author himself) inspired characters', I've also entratained the thought of a character who, considering the evidence available to them, has a completely misguided but perfectly valid reason to be rascist.
Like
Not just semi-understandable thirst for revenge. That's been done.

I'm talking about someome who geniunely believes, let's say, that all Borcans are mindflayers in disguise.
Why?
Cause he's a psion from another domain, and at some point he attracted the God Brain's attention. Unfortunately, he reached the final stage during a travel to Borca, surrounded by strangers. He survived. But he has no idea what was going on - from his POV, he saw a bunch of random Borcans turn into mindflayers.
And there are holes in this story, but right now he's too traumatized to think them through. So from his perspective it's a proven fact, from everyone else's it's an incredibly racist (and strangely random) conspiracy theory...

TheArcaneWeirdo wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 8:08 pm While we're at 'Lovecraft (as, in, the author himself) inspired characters', I've also entratained the thought of a character who, considering the evidence available to them, has a completely misguided but perfectly valid reason to be rascist.
Like
Not just semi-understandable thirst for revenge. That's been done.

I'm talking about someome who geniunely believes, let's say, that all Borcans are mindflayers in disguise.
Why?
Cause he's a psion from another domain, and at some point he attracted the God Brain's attention. Unfortunately, he reached the final stage during a travel to Borca, surrounded by strangers. He survived. But he has no idea what was going on - from his POV, he saw a bunch of random Borcans turn into mindflayers.
And there are holes in this story, but right now he's too traumatized to think them through. So from his perspective it's a proven fact, from everyone else's it's an incredibly racist (and strangely random) conspiracy theory...

There was this one anthology of adventures concerning Rudolph Van Ritchen, one of them being about Van Ritchen being duped into murdering several bards by one of Azalin's pet vassalliches using a wand of illusion to trick Van Ritchen into thinking said bards were vampires.

Baron Von Stanton wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2026 9:38 pm

TheArcaneWeirdo wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2026 8:08 pm While we're at 'Lovecraft (as, in, the author himself) inspired characters', I've also entratained the thought of a character who, considering the evidence available to them, has a completely misguided but perfectly valid reason to be rascist.
Like
Not just semi-understandable thirst for revenge. That's been done.

I'm talking about someome who geniunely believes, let's say, that all Borcans are mindflayers in disguise.
Why?
Cause he's a psion from another domain, and at some point he attracted the God Brain's attention. Unfortunately, he reached the final stage during a travel to Borca, surrounded by strangers. He survived. But he has no idea what was going on - from his POV, he saw a bunch of random Borcans turn into mindflayers.
And there are holes in this story, but right now he's too traumatized to think them through. So from his perspective it's a proven fact, from everyone else's it's an incredibly racist (and strangely random) conspiracy theory...

There was this one anthology of adventures concerning Rudolph Van Ritchen, one of them being about Van Ritchen being duped into murdering several bards by one of Azalin's pet vassalliches using a wand of illusion to trick Van Ritchen into thinking said bards were vampires.

Heard about it

TheArcaneWeirdo wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2026 6:58 am
Heard about it

It's funnier when you remember that the vassallich is defying Azalin's orders to leave Van Ritchen alone.

Baron Von Stanton wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2026 3:43 pm

TheArcaneWeirdo wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2026 6:58 am
Heard about it

It's funnier when you remember that the vassallich is defying Azalin's orders to leave Van Ritchen alone.

Really?

Wait
I don't have the context why, so there might be something I'm missing
But if I'm right
This might be another evidence to my theory

You see
Azalin is the reason Van Richten became a monster hunter in the first place, isn't it? He'd never even find out Eresmus was sold to Baron Metus without a necromancer to raise Ravodan so he can follow the Randaviches through the mists.
And when Van Richten revealed Azalin as a lich, Azalin could send people to silence him (Van Richten was sure it's going to happen and moved to a different country just to be careful), but did he even try? Not that we know of. Maybe the good doctor was just that successful at evading him.
But my theory is that Azalin left Van Richten alone intentionally. He created the greatest monster-hunter in the world, sheltered him as much as he could without looking suspicious - then set him upon the world and hoped the man would be more of a bother to Strahd than to himself.

TheArcaneWeirdo wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2026 1:32 am

Baron Von Stanton wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2026 3:43 pm

TheArcaneWeirdo wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2026 6:58 am
Heard about it

It's funnier when you remember that the vassallich is defying Azalin's orders to leave Van Ritchen alone.

Really?

Wait
I don't have the context why, so there might be something I'm missing
But if I'm right
This might be another evidence to my theory

You see
Azalin is the reason Van Richten became a monster hunter in the first place, isn't it? He'd never even find out Eresmus was sold to Baron Metus without a necromancer to raise Ravodan so he can follow the Randaviches through the mists.
And when Van Richten revealed Azalin as a lich, Azalin could send people to silence him (Van Richten was sure it's going to happen and moved to a different country just to be careful), but did he even try? Not that we know of. Maybe the good doctor was just that successful at evading him.
But my theory is that Azalin left Van Richten alone intentionally. He created the greatest monster-hunter in the world, sheltered him as much as he could without looking suspicious - then set him upon the world and hoped the man would be more of a bother to Strahd than to himself.

Your theory is implied to be one of the reasons why Azalin never got around to silencing or, shall we say, overtly editing Van Ritchen. Narratives in Van Ritchen's Guides to the Lich, Ghosts, and Fiends strongly suggests that Van Ritchen knows that Azalin is inhuman (when Van Ritchen happened to spy Azalin reanimating the victims of a carriage crash as zombie minions, and when Van Ritchen reunited with the ghost of a former friend who became an apprentice of the lich via a Faustian bargain), AND that Azalin knows Van Ritchen knows the king of Darkon is a lich, and is apparently trying to direct the vampire hunter to be a thorn in Strahd's side when Azalin has an excerpt of Strahd's diary, specifically a part describing Strahd's feud with Inajira delivered to the vampire hunter.

In the context of the adventure "Gazing Into the Abyss" from "Chilling Tales," the vassallich Vort wants to corrupt Van Ritchen into becoming a mass murderer to avenge Azalin's honor over what Van Ritchen has written about the lich. Azalin told Vort to not do this, as Azalin officially sees the vampire hunter as being a Don Quixote, "tilting at windmills," and it's implied that, if Vort wasn't slain by the PCs at the end, he faces a worse fate from Azalin for defying his orders.