Sanctum Secorum Episode #18 Companion: The People of the Pit

The Sanctum Secorum Episode #18 Companion: The People of the Pit was written by Bob Brinkman. Art is by Catsupninja, David Hueso, Ramirez de Souza, and Robert Eede. The publisher is Sanctum Media. This product is produced in association with the Sanctum Secorum podcast.

This Episode Companion is based on Sanctum Secorum Episode 18: The People of the Pit, which discussed the short story by Abraham Merritt. The featured adventure was The People of the Pit by Joseph Goodman.

Disclosure: An adventure I wrote, Mermaids from Yuggoth, was discussed in this episode.

Within you will find:

Monsters

Ghoul’ound: Warped and muscular beings, which once followed Lao T'zai, and which now roam the Plateau of Leng.

Leng Spider: The ice-cold spiders of Leng.

Patrons

Lao T’zai: "Dark and dreaded patron to the T’cho-t’cho people of the Plateau of Leng, Lao T’zai’s power is drawn from dark gods that walked the earth before the time of man. Twisted deities such as Cthulhu and Hastur aided him in his quest for unholy powers and now, accompanied by his dread ghoul’ound familiar, he answers the call of the vilest wizards imaginable."

In this case, Bob Brinkman provides a complete patron write-up, including patron spells. The patron spells are: Chill winds of Leng, fear dust of Lao T’zai, and hunger of the wastes.

In the short story, A. Merritt says “My mouth was as dry as though Lao T’zai had poured his fear dust down my throat.” The author of this Episode Companion clearly linked this with his own interest in the Cthulhu Mythos, which is not actually a great stretch. The People of the Pit was published in January of 1918, around the time that H.P. Lovecraft was beginning his literary career.

Although Lord Dunsany and Edgar Allen Poe are obvious influences on Lovecraft's early stories, consider the dream which Lovecraft sites as an inspiration for Polaris, which was written in the early part of 1918: "Several nights ago I had a strange dream of a strange city--a city of many palaces and gilded domes, lying in a hollow betwixt ranges of grey, horrible hills.... I was, as I said, aware of this city visually. I was in it and around it. But certainly I had no corporeal existence."

Could this story have been an influence on H.P. Lovecraft? I am not aware of any textual proof that it was, although there is evidence that Lovecraft was a fan of Merritt's work. The two writers also contributed to the same story once: The Challenge From Beyond.

As with previous Companions, this volume can help the discerning Dungeon Crawl Classics judge determine how to stat up creatures from whatever movie or literature she likes.

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