The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis


It seems that we always expect archeologists to get into a lot more trouble than they actually do. There's the famous but (probably...) fictional curse upon Howard Carter's team, after they opened the tomb of Tutankhamun and allowed visitors to traipse through without even so much as a single human sacrifice. Then there's the gunslinging, monster-ridden adventures of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz as they attempt to avoid being horrifically murdered by the risen King Imhotep. Finally, need I even mention it, you have poor Indy, constantly having to leap giant pits and cold-cock nazis just to get his MacGuffins safely into a museum (or secret warehouse).

Very much within this vein are the intrepid, but ill-fated archeologists exploring a far future Mars in Clark Ashton Smith's The Vault of Yoh-Vombis. While Mars is home to hordes of bellicose natives in the writings of most pulp authors, CAS envisions it as a darker, haunted locale filled with ancient and long-slumbering evils. It's easy to see how the visions of Lovecraft and CAS meshed in a way that left both inspired by the other's work.

Let's dig in--but be careful! We wouldn't want to get lost in...




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