VIII Great Old Ones and Outer Gods Sandy’s Notes Yog-Sothoth in Combat That portion of Yog-Sothoth which reaches through a gate can attack by detaching globules from his body, which fly independently through the air and strike at his foes, or he can reach out with the tangled rootlets that form his internal structure, which become like antennae to strike The touch of Yog-Sothoth brings about desiccation and death to the part of the body struck, but he does not merely cause this damage by contact His orbs and rootlets are otherworldly and multidimensional and literally pass through foes, causing damage internally as they so Yog-Sothoth himself is not fully on any one threedimensional plane of existence, and physical weapons have only a limited effect on him Of course, even if a USING YOG-SOTHOTH Yog-Sothoth is one of the most powerful beings in the Cthulhu Mythos (Indeed, Lovecraft never used the phrase “Cthulhu Mythos”, inventing the term “Yog-Sothothery” to refer to his created mythology.) Yog-Sothoth is one tough cookie Not only are physical attacks almost useless against him, as he can easily replace a damaged body part with more mass from his interdimensional self, but he twists and distorts most magic spells For example, should a bold wizard hurl a meteor swarm at Yog-Sothoth, the Outer God can redirect it at the wizard’s allies or change it into any other 9th-level spell from the spellcaster’s spell list For example, Yog-Sothoth might turn it into a dominate monster and target the wizard in an attempt to force him into some other course of action The result is that the best way to deal with Yog-Sothoth is in fact not to battle him directly, except for the minimum needed to stay live Instead, try to destroy the arcane passageway giving him access to our realm Once it closes, he must immediately depart portion of him is destroyed while extruded through the gate, he can push more into the area Yog-Sothoth’s full size is at least hundreds of miles or kilometers across, so destroying a few cubic feet or meters of his local presence causes him little concern Yog-Sothoth has complete control of all the magical flux within his environs Any spells cast might be repurposed, modified, and redirected by Yog-Sothoth, except for a few ceremonies powered by ancient artifacts of the Elder Gods or Great Old Ones themselves A caster might maintain a spell through intense force of will, but this is rare Yog-Sothoth’s minions are well aware of this ability and typically cast spells recklessly in his presence, expecting Yog-Sothoth to turn all such spells into useful aids “He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again He knows where They have trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread.” —H.P Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror 291