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Episode 530 - The Colossus of Ylourgne - Part 1 (Patreon)

Published:
2021-01-05 22:26:58
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Happy New Year! We're starting it off right with The Colossus of Ylourgne by Clark Ashton Smith!

Special thanks to reader Andrew Leman! 

Music for this episode is by Troy Sterling Nies from the Music of Dark Adventure collection - BUY IT NOW!

Fifer was not joking about adapting this as a film - the script is halfway done and we will adapt it to audio for you all this year!

Check out 1925's Wizard of Oz!

Next up: More Ylourgne - and hell, let's do Averoigne stories all month! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Comments

Cole Caron

“I did not know how much I needed this specific kind of nonsense” is definitely how I felt when I began really reading Clark Ashton Smith. He’s not great at scaring the reader or incorporating contemporary settings into his stories (in my opinion) but he’s always playful with weirdness. While reading, I can see CAS grin with pride about the nonsense he cooked up. I can’t see any author smiles when I’m reading Lovecraft or Howard, just a lot of frowns and clenched teeth.

Steve

Always up for some CAS. I feel there's a bit of a James Branch Cabell vibe, borrowing perhaps from Poictesme for Averoigne, and also of a Scooby Doo vibe for the castle, although I guess it is already haunted. But the real mystery is whether Chris has yet to encounter that meaty delicacy the faggot, also known in Yorkshire as the Savoury Duck (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(food)). It's readily available in supermarkets across the UK as Mr Brain's faggots (https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/traditional-44/mr-brains-4s-439g). It has all the meaty goodness of rehydrated pork rind and lard (https://twitter.com/Tucker5law/status/969689429072859136/photo/1).

Sanjay Mathew

Redenbacher Falls is where Sherlock Holmes invented microwave popcorn.

Andrew M. Reichart

Oh dang, I never meant to "get you in trouble" over your bundle-of-sticks post on instagram, lol! If anything I just wanted to offer an illustration of how pervasive and ordinary proto- and crypto-fascist sentiment and imagery can be. We tend to be taught that fascism is this extraordinarily anomalous, cartoonishly evil thing that sprung up in the 20s and died out in 1945, but in truth all of its building blocks are things we find quite common: tradition, patriotism, militarism, policing, gender roles, racial categories, conspiracy theories, nostalgia, social frustration, love of order, uniforms, and -- as symbolized by the bundle of sticks -- unity. None of those things are necessarily fascist in and of themselves, and their familiarity make it all the easier for fascism to sneak up on us. Fun times! Sorry I unwittingly inflicted a bit of SJW trauma on ya.

I Like the Cut of Your Gibbering

I did it, I absolutely did the one thing I said I would never do: listen to an episode the day it dropped, especially a multi-part story. I can't wait a week! But after going through the (agreeably) taxing Turn of the Screw, you had me hooked with "Clark Ashton Smith" and "necromancer." Now I have to wait like a sad...person who waits. I NEED MAH STORIES!

Joshua Hart

The 1981 AD&D module Castle Amber is all about CAS’s Averoigne stories including this one, represented on the cover. There’s even a reading list included. Cool stuff.

Sweatin' to the Great Oldies

I just wanted to let you know that you're glee with this story is infectious. Thank you, my boon companions, for the silly grin!

Richard Horsman

God I love CAS when he gets really macabre and crazy like this. Do more! but pro tip: save "The Dark Eidolon" for the next time you need a palate cleanser after something heavy heavy like James. It'll be perfect, just like this.

eleanore adams

Just finished relistening to the Shunned House episode, so perfect timing for some CAS. Ties back tp HPL nicely.

Ben Gilbert

I wish someone would write a Clark Ashton Smith/Alistair MacLean mashup THE GUNS OF AVEROIGNE.

Lord Rancid

Whoop, back to one of the Old Guard. Feels like it's been too long...

Pagurus

The bit about the young and able men coming out of their graves reminded me of that old hard-boiled detective quip referring to a murder victim being in prime health - "You mean... apart from being dead?"

EspanolBot

One of the fun things about this podcast is realising where Hellboy creator Mike Mignola was inspired for parts of his own franchise. The alchemically created giant made of dead folk in this story seeming like it might have inspired a (very short-lived) alchemically created giant made from human fat from early on in Mignola's series, for example.

Jeppe Mulich

Ah, a new CAS episode - that's almost as promising a lede as another Manly Wade Wellman episode!

Skylar Shaw

Hey guys! Long time first time. I decided to post my first ever patreon comment just to say how freaking excited I am that you guys are finally getting into the Averoigne stories. I think they're one of the most fun and interesting collection of weird tales out there and are criminally underrated, much like Smith himself. The Beast of Averoigne and The Maker of Gargoyles are my favorites of the collection, maybe we can get a March Ashton Smith? Apriloigne? Either way, looking forward to the next part!!

Eldritch Golem (JPM)

Love this story. I read it almost 15-years ago. I learned about it from the Hellboy comic Almost Colossus which is based on it.

Innsmouth Gold

Looking forward to this one, love CAS!

Daniel Running

Yeah, I was just going to write about the old module Castle Amber--it was my first introduction to Smith in the 80s, and the adventure is so far out and weird that I had to check out this author's entire oeuvre. So glad you're bringing us back to Averoigne! The module's story is about a family who trapped themselves in time and space to avoid punishment for necromancy and black arts, and they've totally gone insane because they couldn't figure out how to get out of their own multiverse prison. So good!

Zane Graves

TEN DEVIL-GIVEN PUPILS. I got nothin'. That's just awesome.

Darth Pseudonym

The ten pupils thing sounds like a variation on the legends of the Romanian "Scholomance", where the devil runs a magic school with ten pupils at a time, and the worst student becomes his slave at the end of their training. ("Scholomance" was probably a mistranslation of "Solomonarie", a reference to King Solomon's apocryphal ability to bind demons to do his bidding.)

Anne B

So happy that CAS is back. If it is OK, I would like to recommend "the double shadow" a no longer active podcast dedicated to CAS. The podcast-feed (if you can find it) starts at episode 7. However, the first episodes (covering the giant from Y and "the maker of gargoyles" is available on the web-page: https://thedoubleshadow.com/page/9/

The Eldritch Dark

I echo the above comment about ‘Double Shadow’ . I’m re-listening to it after being reminded of it by this episode.

Tim Hayes

New patreon supporter (?) Is that the term? Long time listener. Always listen at work. Was NOT ready to laugh as much as I did. I hope my coworkers didn't think I was STONED IN PUBLIC.

G. Monaldo

“Everything’s so loaded man.” (looks at ep. publish date: Jan 5). Well, the past Mr. Chad Pfeiffer has some surprises coming.

James Anthony

I swear you guys already covered this story. The bits about the dead monks rising, and the giant being constructed from other bodies is all ringing very familiar. Maybe you gave an outline in an earlier CAS episode?

Ambear

"Ten devil-given pupils" immediately made me picture a creepy spider face with multiple eyes...as an arachnophobe (and for some comedic payoff later), glad that it meant STUDENTS.

Peter Larsen

I am always annoyed at the poor treatment of necromancers in these stories. People are always going on about "devilishness" and "blasphemy," and so on, when necromancers provide many useful services. Did your mom die and not leave the password for the Dropbox where all the family photos are kept? A necromancer could help with that. Did your grandpa leave a confusing note in the family genealogy that's going to take f***ing forever to sort out on those online services? A necromancer could get the answers in a single shadow-haunted night. You want to know Ulysses Grant's actual last words? That's right, necromancer. And for all these valuable services, we, I mean, they, get chased out of towns under threat of torture and death! As for the whole "desecrating graves" business, that's pretty nice coming from an anthropologist! The correct word is "salvage." If you don't want your loved ones (or even your barely-tolerated ones) dug up for completely reasonable experiments, don't just throw them away! It's infuriating! Plus, poor Nathaire not only gets saddled with a ridiculous backstory about being the child of a demon and a sorceress (described in the most unflattering of terms) simply because he had some mild physical irregularities is pure prejudice. Besides, I hear that Alastor and Danielle (yes, she had a name) were very happy together and had a lovely home life. About the worst they did was naming their son "Nathaire" which is kind of hard to say if you've only seen it written, and, by high school, he would just sigh and say "call me Nate, OK?" Really, the way necromancers are treated is just awful.