Demon Which Guards the Fire of Asshurbanipal

[REH Fire (online text)]: A demon that guards the mystic jewel called the Fire of Asshurbanipal.

The demon seems to have originally dwelt in or near "a nameless vast cavern in a dark, untraveled land" where the jewel resided. During the time of Asshurbanipal (669-631 BC), the wizard Xuthltan cast a spell to make the demon sleep, so that Xuthltan could steal the jewel. Before Xuthltan died, he freed the demon from the sleep spell, allowing the demon to come to Kara-Shehr and kill the king who had stolen the stone from Xuthltan.

Since then, the demon has remained hidden in Kara-Shehr. The demon kills anyone who dares to touch the jewel. In modern times (ca 1930s), the demon decapitated Nurreddin El Mekru when the latter tried to steal the jewel.

Appearance

Legend describes the demon as a grisly shape with fearsome paws. In modern times, Steve Clarney "caught a glimmer in the blackness that might have been the glitter of monstrous eyes." According to Clarney, "It was gigantic and black and shadowy; it was a hulking monstrosity that walked upright like a man, but it was like a toad, too, and it was winged and tentacled." The glimpse was enough to make Clarney faint; if seen clearly, the demon's appearance is enough to instantly cause stark black madness.

The demon has a horrible smell, described as a "fetid wind" and a "soul-shakingly foul breath."

Mode of Transport

According to legend, when the demon appeared in ancient times to kill the king of Kara-Shehr, it first manifested as "a black cloud spinning up from the floor." But when the demon manifested in modern times, no black cloud appeared, and the demon instead came through an opening that suddenly appeared in a stone wall. The difference is probably that on the first occasion, the dying wizard Xuthltan was raising the demon from its sleep and summoning it from a great distance. Since then, the demon has probably been lingering in a secret chamber near the throne room in Kara-Shehr, so has no need to dematerialize and rematerialize before setting on its prey.

How it Kills

In ancient times, the demon "stretched forth fearsome paws and laid them on the king, who shriveled and died at their touch." In modern times, the demon used a tentacle to seize its victim and then decapitated him. It is not clear that the victim was shriveled.

Relations to Other Creatures

When Xuthltan summoned the demon, he also cried out to "the forgotten gods, Cthulhu and Koth and Yog-Sothoth, and all the pre-Adamite Dwellers in the black cities under the sea and the caverns of the earth." Possibly the demon is allied to these "forgotten gods," or perhaps Xuthltan used their power to cast the original sleep spell or to awaken and summon it.

The wizard's name "Xuthltan" is the same as the original name of the village of Stregoicavar, Hungary, where the Master of the Monolith was once worshipped with grisly offerings. Like the demon in Kara-Shehr, the Master of the Monolith at Stregoicavar was also likened to a giant toad. So the two beings might be related. But they are probably not the same entity, since the Master of the Monolith was apparently slain in 1526, whereas the demon guardian was still active in Kara-Shehr in modern times. [REH Black (online text)]

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