16 replies to this topic

[set-anubis]

I really liked the "sword dervish" agohoth had in http://en.wikipedia....an_the_Renegade

[Taranaich]

The Puffballs of Death from "The People of the Black Cricle" is probably my favourite, though that might be because they remind me a bit of Rover from "The Prisoner."

[set-anubis]

The Puffballs of Death from "The People of the Black Cricle" is probably my favourite, though that might be because they remind me a bit of Rover from "The Prisoner."

I will have to re read that one.

[VonKalmbach]

Reckon it has to be the Black Hand of Set from Hour of the Dragon for me.

[Almuric]

The ability to survive without one's head is cool, if problematic. I wonder how long Tsotha-lanti chased his purloined noggin around?

[Aza9]

The ability to survive without one's head is cool, if problematic. I wonder how long Tsotha-lanti chased his purloined noggin around?

Pelias transforming into a giant eagle is one of my faves.

Oh, the conversations Pelias must have had with Tsotha's still-animate head!

[duaneshadow]

my adolescent brain gave salome some pretty impressive tricks during her debauches, if that counts?

[emerald]

Aw come on!
No contest, It's the horrific Heart Grab that the Master of Yimsha uses on poor Kerim Shah in People of the Black Circle.

"Where is Yasmina?" demanded Kerim Shah.
The Master laughed down at him.
"What is that to you, dead man? Have you so quickly forgotten my strength, once lent to you, that you come armed against me, you poor fool? I think I will take your heart, Kerim Shah!"
He held out his hand as if to receive something, and the Turanian cried out sharply like a man in mortal agony. He reeled drunkenly, and then, with a splintering of bones, a rending of flesh and muscle and a snapping of mail-links, his breast burst outward with a shower of blood, and through the ghastly aperture something red and dripping shot through the air into the Master's outstretched hand, as a bit of steel leaps to the magnet. The Turanian slumped to the floor and lay motionless, and the Master laughed and hurled the object to fall before Conan's feet--a still-quivering human heart.

I mean, holy crap guys, that's some frightening stuff right there. First time I read it my hair damn near stood on end.

Seems to me that not enough people see how well REH wrote horror, or how much horror was part and parcel of his Conan tales.

[deuce]

Aw come on!
No contest, It's the horrific Heart Grab that the Master of Yimsha uses on poor Kerim Shah in People of the Black Circle.

"Where is Yasmina?" demanded Kerim Shah.
The Master laughed down at him.
"What is that to you, dead man? Have you so quickly forgotten my strength, once lent to you, that you come armed against me, you poor fool? I think I will take your heart, Kerim Shah!"
He held out his hand as if to receive something, and the Turanian cried out sharply like a man in mortal agony. He reeled drunkenly, and then, with a splintering of bones, a rending of flesh and muscle and a snapping of mail-links, his breast burst outward with a shower of blood, and through the ghastly aperture something red and dripping shot through the air into the Master's outstretched hand, as a bit of steel leaps to the magnet. The Turanian slumped to the floor and lay motionless, and the Master laughed and hurled the object to fall before Conan's feet--a still-quivering human heart.

I mean, holy crap guys, that's some frightening stuff right there. First time I read it my hair damn near stood on end.

Seems to me that not enough people see how well REH wrote horror, or how much horror was part and parcel of his Conan tales.

Beat me to it, John.

[Strom]

No love for Thoth-Amon - how can we forget such power? To summon a demon from hell from thin air - no prolonged ritual or lame designs scribbled in the dirt to protect the sorcerer! Just straight up blood and power - my vote is for Thoth-Amon's unstoppable (unless Epemitreus throws you a bone) demon summoned from the gulf of the abyss.

"The Ring! By Set! The Ring!" he shrieked. "My Ring--stolen from me--" Steel glittered in the Stygian's hand and with a heave of his great dusky shoulders he drove the dagger into the baron's fat body. Dion's high thin squeal broke in a strangled gurgle and his whole flabby frame collapsed like melted butter. A fool to the end, he died in mad terror, not knowing why. Flinging aside the crumpled corpse, already forgetful of it, Thoth grasped the ring in both hands, his dark eyes blazing with a fearful avidness.

"My Ring!" he whispered in terrible exultation. "My power!"

How long he crouched over the baleful thing, motionless as a statue, drinking the evil aura of it into his dark soul, not even the Stygian knew. When he shook himself from his revery and drew back his mind from the nighted abysses where it had been questing, the moon was rising, casting long shadows across the smooth marble back of the garden seat, at the foot of which sprawled the darker shadow which had been the lord of Attalus.

"No more, Ascalante, no more!" whispered the Stygian, and his eyes burned red as a vampire's in the gloom. Stooping, he cupped a handful of congealing blood from the sluggish pool in which his victim sprawled, and rubbed it in the copper serpent's eyes until the yellow sparks were covered by a crimson mask.

"Blind your eyes, mystic serpent," he chanted in a blood-freezing whisper. "Blind your eyes to the moonlight and open them on darker gulfs! What do you see, oh serpent of Set? Whom do you call from the gulfs of the Night? Whose shadow falls on the waning Light? Call him to me, oh serpent of Set!"

Stroking the scales with a peculiar circular motion of his fingers, a motion which always carried the fingers back to their starting place, his voice sank still lower as he whispered dark names and grisly incantations forgotten the world over save in the grim hinterlands of dark Stygia, where monstrous shapes move in the dusk of the tombs.

There was a movement in the air about him, such a swirl as is made in water when some creature rises to the surface. A nameless, freezing wind blew on him briefly, as if from an opened door. Thoth felt a presence at his back, but he did not look about. He kept his eyes fixed on the moonlit space of marble, on which a tenuous shadow hovered. As he continued his whispered incantations, this shadow grew in size and clarity, until it stood out distinct and horrific. Its outline was not unlike that of a gigantic baboon, but no such baboon ever walked the earth, not even in Stygia. Still Thoth did not look, but drawing from his girdle a sandal of his master--always carried in the dim hope that he might be able to put it to such use--he cast it behind him.

"Know it well, slave of the Ring!" he exclaimed. "Find him who wore it and destroy him! Look into his eyes and blast his soul, before you tear out his throat! Kill him! Aye," in a blind burst of passion, "and all with him!"

Etched on the moonlit wall Thoth saw the horror lower its misshapen head and take the scent like some hideous hound. Then the grisly head was thrown back and the thing wheeled and was gone like a wind through the trees. The Stygian flung up his arms in maddened exultation, and his teeth and eyes gleamed in the moonlight.

A soldier on guard without the walls yelled in startled horror as a great loping black shadow with flaming eyes cleared the wall and swept by him with a swirling rush of wind. But it was gone so swiftly that the bewildered warrior was left wondering whether it had been a dream or a hallucination.

[Ironhand]

"My Ring!" he whispered in terrible exultation. "My power!"

When I picture this scene as I would write it for a screenplay, I imagine a eunuch (played by Yul Brynner as he appeared in The Ten Commandments or The King and I) who has just rediscovered his lost testacles, and whispers in terrible exultation "My Balls! My manhood!"

[Strom]

With all due respect - and I don't think you are being very respectful to the story, the character, or the author - that is why you are Ironhand and Robert E. Howard created Thoth-Amon. Your analogy is simply inaccurate and misrepresented.

Men knew me not in Aquilonia," he said. "But should my enemies in Stygia learn my whereabouts, not the width of half a world between us would suffice to save me from such a doom as would blast the soul of a bronze statue. Only a king with castles and hosts of swordsmen could protect me. So I have told you my secret, and urge that you make a pact with me. I can aid you with my wisdom, and you can protect me. And some day I will find the Ring--"

That is not a man who has no balls. But a sorcerer supreme who understands the horrific doom that awaits him. You know - there are those who vote for the death penalty - and then there are those who throw the switch and clean up the piss and foamy blood. They know the horror of the death - like Thoth who knew his fate and did what he had to do to avoid that grisly fate "that would blast the soul of a bronze statue." Anyway. it may not be your favorite wizard ability but I am impressed with the ease of Thoth's conjuration.

[Ironhand]

I didn't mean to dis Thoth-Amon. It was my attempt to depict, or explain to an actor or director, the incandescant passion that T-A feels wrt to re-acquiring his Ring. Saying "he gets his magic ring back" just doesn't cut it.

It may very well be my favorite, or one of my favorite, wizard abilities.

Edited by Ironhand, 05 November 2012 - 11:09 AM.

[PiefacePaul]

I liked the part of Hour of the Dragon where Xaltotun tells a squire that he's a fool to wear a serpent round his waist and the the poor guy drops dead with his belt buckle prong embedded in his hand like a snakes fangs. It always seemed slightly plausible to me.

[Rargentum]

Probably not a popular choice, but I quite like the guy in the TV series that talks to the rubber head in the fish bowl.

Fantastic way to get an insight into a problem

[Almuric]

Eh, Harry Desden does it better.

[set-anubis]

Aw come on!
No contest, It's the horrific Heart Grab that the Master of Yimsha uses on poor Kerim Shah in People of the Black Circle.

"Where is Yasmina?" demanded Kerim Shah.
The Master laughed down at him.
"What is that to you, dead man? Have you so quickly forgotten my strength, once lent to you, that you come armed against me, you poor fool? I think I will take your heart, Kerim Shah!"
He held out his hand as if to receive something, and the Turanian cried out sharply like a man in mortal agony. He reeled drunkenly, and then, with a splintering of bones, a rending of flesh and muscle and a snapping of mail-links, his breast burst outward with a shower of blood, and through the ghastly aperture something red and dripping shot through the air into the Master's outstretched hand, as a bit of steel leaps to the magnet. The Turanian slumped to the floor and lay motionless, and the Master laughed and hurled the object to fall before Conan's feet--a still-quivering human heart.

I mean, holy crap guys, that's some frightening stuff right there. First time I read it my hair damn near stood on end.

Seems to me that not enough people see how well REH wrote horror, or how much horror was part and parcel of his Conan tales.

Holy s^^t I don't remember that!!!

Edited by Strom, 11 December 2012 - 03:12 AM.
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