Iconic 1E PHB Cover - Adventure?

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

The iconic 1E PHB cover has always intrigued me.

Has anyone used the imagery on this cover to create or enhance an adventure scenario?

Is this imagery based on anything from actual gameplay, such as the original Greyhawk campaign, or first VOH and TOEE adventures?

An adventuring party dragging dead lizard men while thieves are pilfering a large {fire opal?} gem from a demon statue eye...some potential links to the DMG monastery adventure/VOH/TOEE if those are huge fire opal gem eyes in the demon statue?

[grodog]

You'd want to incorporate the DM Screen artwork into such as adventure as well, which definitely changes up the possible details to include in such as scenario.

IIRC HackMaster did an adventure inspired by the cover, but I don't have any idea what quality it might have been.

Allan.

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

Would the PHB cover be a depiction of a demon, devil, daemon, or something else entirely?

Moloch perhaps?

[GRWelsh]

I appears to me to be a devil of some sort, but that's just my impression based on its similarity to other devils, especially those drawn by Dave Trampier. It isn't officially anything. Sinced it is horned, I lean towards devil, but there are demons that have horns, such as Orcus and Baphomet, so that doesn't clearly establish it as a devil. Many people seem to think it is Baalzebul, but if you compare the illustrations, they really are not a close match. Baalzebul has a longer head and eyes that are clearly inhuman and fly-like. The statue has a rounder, wider head. Moloch is a much better fit based on the illustrations, even though Moloch wasn't defined and illustrated until later on. But really, it could be anything you want it to be... I just think it is a generic demon/devil/evil god statue of the sort you'd expect to find in a pulp swords & sorcery story.

Otherworld did a resin miniature of this statue, and simply called it "The Demon Idol." They gave it hooves for feet, which only reinforces my impression that it is actually a devil.

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

Yeah, I was thinking Moloch looks the closest, is there any information about him besides monster manual II?

And why do you think the character party might be dragging dead lizard men around and piling them on top of an altar? in front of the statue?

Or might that be an NPC party?

[geneweigel]

I thought that I replied to this. That is weird. Must have deleted. In 1985, I think I had a crafts class and we had to carve soapstone. So my first aim was the PHB cover but it was so hard to carve that I went off course and strted carvign my own demonic idol (unfortunately it went down with the ship in 1988) and I dubbed it "Mammon".

[geneweigel]

I had used it in a game because it was scaled to the PHB statue to represent Moloch's statue in the Temple of Moloch

[davegibsongreyhawkdm]

Dec 4, 2017 9:07:50 GMT -5 geneweigel said:

I had used it in a game because it was scaled to the PHB statue to represent Moloch's statue in the Temple of Moloch

What's the story behind the Temple of Moloch adventure you created? Did you incorporate lizard men into the temple as worshippers? Did you have traps or infernal responses for adventurers who tried to pilfer the statue's gem stone eyes? About what character level adventure was it?

[GRWelsh]

For the demons and devils in D&D, I always look back to Dante's INFERNO and Milton's PARADISE LOST and other estoric sources like Rabbinical or medieval traditions. In PARADISE LOST, Moloch was "sceptered king" the "strongest and and fiercest spirit that fought in Heaven, now fiercer by despair." In the debate in Pandemonium, Moloch advised open war, and admitted to not being an expert at wiles. In Rabbinical tradition, Moloch is associated with animal and child sacrifice as a bronze statue that was heated until the sacrifices were burned My favorite image of Moloch is in Fritz Lang's movie METROPOLIS, when someone has a vision of the underground factory as an ancient temple of Moloch, presumably in which the children of the workers are being sacrificed to the fire.

Characters usually drag dead bodies around to avoid being detected. I assumed the characters killed the lizard men in another room or hallway, and were dragging them into the room with the statue to avoid notice. The characters certainly don't seem to be making any sort of offering to the statue, since they aren't showing it any respect... Many of them are facing away from it, and some thieves are even trying to pry the gem-eyes out of its head! But who knows, you could come up with any sort of weird story to fit that painting. I've always had the vague feeling that there may be some dire consequences to prying those gems out of the statue... Earthquake, summoned monsters, a curse, a trap, or something! Defiling or touching altars/idols/relics and having random effects as a result is one of those recurring Gygaxian themes...

[geneweigel]

Dec 4, 2017 9:17:43 GMT -5 davegibsongreyhawkdm said:

Dec 4, 2017 9:07:50 GMT -5 geneweigel said:

I had used it in a game because it was scaled to the PHB statue to represent Moloch's statue in the Temple of Moloch

What's the story behind the Temple of Moloch adventure you created? Did you incorporate lizard men into the temple as worshippers? Did you have traps or infernal responses for adventurers who tried to pilfer the statue's gem stone eyes? About what character level adventure was it?

Nah it was so different-looking that it looked unlike that cover by the time it was finished. So no lizardnen.

I just wrote "Moloch" sorry it was "Mammon". The temple of Mammon not Moloch. I carved with the cover in mind but a horn broke off then it was a matter of salvaging because we were provided one piece of stone. So i thought small horned fat Mammon.