Recently, I was made aware through Yog-Sothoth.com, that the authors of the second volume of the Malleus Monstrorum (appropriately titled Malleus Monstrorum 2). The Contest was called: Design-A- Great Old One, so I did. Unfortunately, I lost. So, the prize, a free copy of Malleus Monstrorum 2, will go to someone else. I'll have to buy my own. Which, if it is anything like the first one, will easily be worth it.But, I thought that I could at least share my efforts here, with you guys. You'll, undoubtedly see why I didn't win. However, I feel that my execution was sound if my ideas were a little flawed. First, a little background: The Rules (from YSDC):Using the two short (and admittedly vague) story quotes below, I want YOU to come up with a description, details, cult, and statistics for the two Great Old Ones mentioned in the quotes -- Noth-Yidik and K’thun. Be creative -- I'm not looking for a Cthulhu knock-off. Be different, original, unique! But give it some thought and pay attention to details. It should "make sense", or as much sense as such a thing can make! Here's those quotes: “Fool! Spawn of Noth-Yidik and effluvium of K’thun! Son of the dogs that howl in the maelstrom of Azathoth! You would have been sacred and immortal, and now you are betraying It and Its priest!" -- H.P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald, "The Horror In the Museum." "Aye, I speak of the very Hounds Of Tindalos themselves, those Hunters From Beyond that be the Spawn of Noth-Yidik and the effluvium of K'thun, and that howl forever in the maelstrom that is dread and fearsome Azathoth; aye, They be none other than the very minions and servitors of the Daemon-Sultan, under Their ghastly sire and dam, Noth-Yidik and terrible K'thun." -- Lin Carter, "The Madness Out Of Time."The Malleus Monstrorum is an amazing book hat manages to present Mythos monster as they would appear in a historical context. If you haven't checked it out I would highly recommend it it is seriously the last Mythos monster book you will ever have to buy, with the possible exception of The Malleus Monstrorum 2. What I like most about it, besides the really inventive art, is that the detailed entries make excellent guides for creating your own monsters to suit your campaigns.And now, my entries:K'thun, Great Old One. Aye, I speak of the very Hounds Of Tindalos themselves, those Hunters From Beyond that be the Spawn of Noth-Yidik and the effluvium of K'thun, and that howl forever in the maelstrom that is dread and fearsome Azathoth; aye, They be none other than the very minions and servitors of the Daemon-Sultan, under Their ghastly sire and dam, Noth-Yidik and terrible K'thun. -- Lin Carter, "The Madness Out Of Time."Alternatives Titles: The Fisher From Beyond, The Seeker From Outside, The TrapDESCRIPTION: K'thun has trouble entering our realm. Largely non-moving, the creature is content to stretch forth its sticky tentacles, grasp hold of a victim and draw them back to its mouth, awaiting them just outside of our dimension. Invisible to us, K'thun is easily seen in the presence of a Tillinghast Resonator. In this light, K-thun is an unsegmented worm of enormous size. Its body is lined with vestigial legs. At its head is a massive mouth with retractable black fangs. Lining the mouth are impossibly long and slender tentacles. If pressed by attackers it could potentially shift its bulk to roll onto them, crushing them to death. The main threat are the countless, smooth, sticky, and mostly invisible tentacles.DETAILS: Fueled by an unending hunger, K'thun's only desire is to feed. Its feelers relentlessly scour every realm and dimension until they find a welcome source of sustenance. Once located, K'thun will choose to feed until all are devoured. If it so chooses, K-thun can refrain from consuming it's victims and rather, reduce them to lures. These lures lose all sense of self-preservation and become puppets, mere shells for K'thun's manipulating limbs. K'thun must devote one of its tentacles to maintaining this connection. CULT: No known human cult knowingly worships K'thun. However as a force of destruction or all-consuming entity, K'thun has many worshippers with no specific organization.ATTACKS & SPECIAL EFFECTS:STATISTICS:K'THUN, The Endless HungerSTR 60    CON 50    SIZ 100    INT 15    POW 9DEX 6    Move 0            HP 130Damage Bonus +9D6.Tentacles of K'THUNSTR 10    CON 5    SIZ 10    INT N/A    POW N/ADEX 20    Move 6            HP 5Damage Bonus +0Weapons: Countless smooth tentacles that adhere immediately upon contact. K'thun gets 1D6+1 tentacle attacks/turn. Grapple upon contact - drag on next turn for 1D3 damage, dependent upon terrain. drag distance per turn is 20 meters minus the size of the investigator or NPC.    Dominate POW vs. POW upon contact with tentacle, Any character so dominated loses 1 permanent point from any characteristic for every minute dominated up to a maximum loss of half of each stat. K'thun can maintain 1D6+1 connections at a time re-rolled at the beginning of combat and every round thereafterArmor: Body - 15 points of muscle, regenerates 3 HP per round, Tentacles - NoneSpells: NoneSanity Loss:  1D6/1D10+5 Sanity points to see K'thun or be attacked by its invisible tentacles By JoeViturbo As you can see, I went with two distinct ideas. I wanted the two to be linked somehow but felt that I wouldn't win if one entry relied upon the other. While my description of Noth-Yidik is inspired by Werner Herzog's Soliloquy in "Burden of Dreams", I think that, despite my effort to distinguish it, ultimately, it's a Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young, rip-off. I also would have liked to of added in a few more wrinkles. There are ideas here that I would like to use, expand upon and test. There is an inherent difficulty in creating a God in that it should not be possible to destroy or kill them. However, they still need to provide a form of conflict for the players.  The winners were:With his really cool version of Noth-Yidik is winner Rookery and for his equally-cool design for K'thun is Ghoth the Burrower!!! Thanks guys. And thanks to everyone who participated. There were some really wild entries, and it was a tough decision, which is part of the reason its taken me so long! I for one, am greatly interested in seeing their entries, you know for comparison purposes. I'm quite certain that not only will I be greatly impressed, but also I will look forward to using those characters in my own games.