About the Stories | About the Authors

SORCERY AGAINST CAESAR

Simon of Gitta, an escaped slave turned magician, roves the Roman Empire battling dark magic and demons, all the while pursued by Caesar’s soldiers. Join Simon as he flees across the ancient world evading cultists and Legionaries, outwitting sorcerers and Centurions, and fighting gladiators and gods—even the deities of the Cthulhu pantheon. Yet all these foes cannot prepare him for his greatest challenge: the pursuit of his lost soul-mate Helen, a love so deep even death can’t stand in its way for long.

These stories were one of the inspirations for the Cthulhu Invictus campaign for the Call of Cthulhu role playing game by Chaosium. That RPG includes many elements from the Simon of Gitta tales, including the occult tomes Sapientia Magorum and the Scroll of Thoth-Amon, cults like the Followers of Urakhu and the Priests of Melkarth, more than a few demons and monsters, and even player stats for Simon himself!

Enjoy sixteen stories combining superbly researched historical fiction with sword & sorcery and Lovecraftian horror.

THE STORIES

• Introduction by Robert M. Price
A detailed examination of the historical Simon Magus, and the ancient mystery cults of the Mideast which inspired the cosmology of the Simon of Gitta universe.

• The Sword of Spartacus by Richard L. Tierney
Simon of Gitta, a slave in the arena, is scheduled to fight a gladiator champion (and die). His only hope is a legendary sword, an elderly sorcerer, and their mutual hatred of Rome.

• The Fire of Mazda by Richard L. Tierney
Simon’s mentor, Dositheus, prepares a powerful spell to bring down the Roman Emperor, but it requires a human sacrifice—who turns out to be Simon’s soul-mate, Helen. But not completing the spell can have dire consequences…

• The Seed of the Star-God by Richard L. Tierney
A powerful and possessed sorcerer intends to sacrifice his own daughters to summon the dark fertility goddess Shub-Niggurath into the mortal world. Simon and his few allies are the only people with any chance of stopping it.

• The Blade of the Slayer by Richard L. Tierney
Caught between a fanatical sorcerer and a band of vengeance-obsessed bandits, Simon’s only hope is freeing their strange prisoner… an ancient warrior known only as “The Slayer”.

• The Throne of Achamoth by Richard L. Tierney & Robert M. Price
Desperate to see Helen again at any cost, Simon undergoes a perilous vision-quest that takes him all the way to where the demiurge Achamoth boils and seethes at the center of reality.

• The Emerald Tablet by Robert M. Price
Simon, in pursuit of secret ancient wisdom, discovers far too late that he’s wandered straight into a trap.

• The Soul of Kephri by Richard L. Tierney
The Roman Emperor’s plan to achieve immortality could destroy Egypt—and possibly the whole world. It’s up to Simon must stop the Emperor’s supernatural minion, guided only by dreams of the long-dead sage Epimetrius, and armed only with an ancient, broken sword that once belonged to an Aquilonian King.

• The Ring of Set by Richard L. Tierney
Simon must retrieve the stolen Ring of Set before its curse can be unleashed. Unfortunately, the ring is held by the Roman Emperor himself…

• The Worm of Urakhu by Richard L. Tierney
Chased by a Roman cohort across the Egyptian desert, out of water, and on the verge of death, Simon’s only hope is reaching an ancient abandoned temple. But the shrine is not completely empty, and what awaits inside could be worse that all the legions of Rome.

• The Curse of the Crocodile by Richard L. Tierney
An unholy alliance between the Roman ruler of Thebes and the Cult of Sebek, the crocodile-headed Egyptian God of the Nile, seeks to conquer first Egypt, then the whole Roman Empire. But maybe, if Simon and his allies can sabotage the ritual to summon Sebek himself, perhaps the onslaught can be averted.

• The Treasure of Horemkhu by Richard L. Tierney
A violent Roman Centurion seeks a legendary treasure hidden beneath the great Sphinx, and forces Simon and his friends to assist in his greedy quest. But the Roman has no idea of the danger he’s walking into…

• The Secret of Nephren-Ka by Robert M. Price
The shade of the Black Pharaoh, Nephren-Ka, appeals to Simon to save his faithful worshipers in a far-off land from destruction. But Simon, no fool, suspects the spirit has a darker ulterior motive…

• The Scroll of Thoth by Richard L. Tierney
The Roman Emperor Caligula has acquired the ancient, sinister Scroll of Thoth, and plays with its dark power like a child with a new toy. Can Simon steal away the scroll, right under the nose of the Praetorian Guard, before Caligula unleashes something even the Emperor of Rome cannot control?

• The Dragons of Mons Fractus by Richard L. Tierney
One of Caligula’s monstrous experiments has escaped and is terrorizing Germania just beyond the Roman frontier. Driven by revenge, Simon must find and destroy it before more of his friends (and girlfriend) die.

• The Wedding of Sheila-Na-Gog by Richard L. Tierney & Glenn A. Rahman
In Gaul, Simon of Gitta, betrayed by the Druids, captured by the Romans, and set to be sacrificed to the mysterious goddess Sheila-na-gog, has no choice but to seek the help of disreputable and unlikely allies: the Averoni.

• The Pillars of Melkarth by Richard L. Tierney
High Priest Matan is preparing to summon of Ku-thuga through the Pillars of Melkarth, and for once this army of cultists and their fiery supernatural servitors are too much for Simon to handle, even with his allies. But perhaps, if they can summon an opposing god, they might have a chance of stopping Ku-thuga before the earth is burned to ashes.

• Vengence Quest by Richard L. Tierney
Simon recounts, in verse, his greatest battles against Romans, sorcerers, and gods.

THE AUTHORS

• Richard Tierney was born in north central Iowa. Beginning in his teens, he has been both a fan and scholar of H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and other great names from the pulp fiction era. In 1961, he earned a degree in entomological science (Iowa State College) and served for many years with the U.S. Forest Service in the West of the United States and Alaska. An archaeological tourist by instinct, he has traveled widely, especially in Mexico, Central, and South America. Many of the ideas and images that he has employed in his stories have been inspired by his extensive travels. In the literary field, Mr. Tierney has frequently been both an editor and a writer of adventure fiction, mainly in the realm of dark fantasy. He has coauthored the Red Sonja series for Ace Books (early 1980’s) and created the popular hero-adventurer, Simon of Gitta, a fictionalized version of Simon Magus. His major works include Collected Poems (1981, Arkham House), The House of the Toad (1993, Fedogan and Bremer), The Drums of Chaos (2008, Mythos Books), and Savage Menace and Other Poems of Horror (2010, reprint 2021, P’rea Press).

• Robert M. Price is an American theologian and writer, and the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus. As editor of the journal Crypt of Cthulhu and of a series of Cthulhu Mythos anthologies, Price has been a major figure in H. P. Lovecraft scholarship and fandom for many years. In essays that introduce the anthologies and the individual stories, Price traces the origins of Lovecraft’s entities, motifs, and literary style. Price’s religious background often informs his Mythos criticism, seeing gnostic themes in Lovecraft’s fictional god Azathoth and interpreting “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” as a kind of initiation ritual.

• Glenn A. Rahman, in the ’70s and ’80s, was a frequent per-computer era contributor to the semi-pro scene, such as Fantasy Crosswinds, Eldritch Tales, and Crypt of Cthulhu. His first professional publication came with the release of the fantasy board game Divine Right, published by TSR, Inc. in 1979. This was followed by Knights of Camelot (1980, TSR), the Trojan War (1980, Metagaming), and Down with the King (1980, Avalon Hill). During this time, Glenn Rahman and his brother Philip (founder of the still-extant Fedogan and Bremer book company, specializing in Cthulhu Mythos and supernaturally-themed literature) created a two-part article for Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the Lovecraft Variant and the Monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos which amounted to the first successful transference of H.P. Lovecraft’s style of supernatural literature into a modern role-playing format. In addition, Mr. Rahman has continued to publish board gaming and fantasy role-playing articles and supplements widely. His first book-length fictional work was serialized in Dragon Magazine (beginning in 1980), entitled The Minarian Legends, which keyed off his original Divine Right universe. In 1989, Mr. Rahman’s HPL-inspired novel Heir of Darkness was released from New Infinities Productions, Inc., followed in 2001 when Sidecar Books of Minneapolis, MN published his Gardens of Lucullus, a Cthulhu Mythos novel in collaboration with Richard L. Tierney. Currently, a new edition of Divine Right is slated for release in 2020, to be followed soon by a second original board game, Scarlet Empire.

THE ARTIST

Steven C. Gilberts is known for his dark, macabre, and bizarre artwork. No stranger to Lovecraftian Horror, he’s done cover art before for Chaosium, Cemetery Dance, Elder Sign Press, and Space & Time Magazine. Steven and his lovely wife now live in a spooky Queen Ann cottage within a small Dunwich-esk village of southern Indiana. While hiding from the townsfolk, Steven concocts odd illustrations for the small press industry. You can check out his artwork at his website, www.stevengilberts.com.