"The Holiness of Azédarac" by Clark Ashton Smith

0:00:00 Chapter 1
0:06:11 Chapter 2
0:21:16 Chapter 3
0:43:29 Chapter 4
0:52:15 Chapter 5

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So many names of devils and demons, and many of them are obscure enough to not have reliably documented pronunciations. Ugh. Well, at least not in English. Perhaps in Hebrew or some other particularly ancient language of the Jewish holy books there might be some help, but I just can't be bothered to research so many names that need to be spoken only once.

Also we obviously get some Lovecraftian names, but with alternate spellings (such as Iog-Sotôt and Sodagui). But the names are being presented as they might appear in medieval French, so it shouldn't be surprising that the conventional spellings we are used to are not used here.

My pronunciation of Azédarac is not perfectly consistent, but it is a particularly bizarre name of no obvious pronunciation to begin with.

addlepated: confused

umbrageous: affording shade; spotted with shadows

innominable: incapable of being named

Paynims: a pagan or heathen, especially a Muslim

unctuous: excessively or ingratiatingly flattering; oily

The Order of Saint Benedict was created in 529 in Italy, and made its way into southern Gaul by the end of the 6th century, and was the standard form of monastic life in most of western Europe by the 9th century

Phlegeton: In Greek mythology, the river Phlegethon was one of the five rivers of the underworld. Plato describes it as "a stream of fire, which coils round the earth and flows into the depths of Tartarus".

weft: a filling thread or yarn in weaving

Interesting choice to use time travel to get rid of bothersome people instead of poison. You'd think poison would be easier and more reliable, although it does leave behind an incriminating corpse. But surely for a powerful sorcerer, bodies can be disposed of in some way that makes them difficult or impossible to be found or usefully examined. Although I love that Smith doesn't bother himself about time travel paradoxes. The characters just zoom around through time indiscriminately, no worries or bother about possible consequences!

The pictures used are:

chapter 1: "Head of a Bishop" by Gaetano Gandolfi. It's an Italian bishop, not a French one, but it'll have to do as a stand-in for Azédarac. It's surprisingly difficult (to me) to find pictures of French medieval bishops. At least using English language search engines.

chapter 2: Photo forêt d'Orléans à Saran, Loiret, by Ryanblu. Let it stand in for the forest of Averoigne. While Ambrose is on the road between Ximes and Vyones, the two most important locales in Averoigne, a medieval road in a rural forest province would probably not be any much better than this.

chapter 3: "Norma e Pollione" by Albert Bauer (1892). We'll have to imagine it being Moriamis calling off the druids to leave Ambrose alone.

chapter 4: a tavern scene that is supposed to be a 15th century tavern in Flanders. Quite a bit off from 13th century France, but it's a lot closer than most of what I could find for medieval taverns or inns. Again, annoyingly difficult to find imagery of French medieval inns via English language search engines.

chapter 5: AI art of a female druid in a blue dress. Technically Moriamis isn't a druid but a sorceress, but this image works well enough.

To follow along: http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/91/the-holiness-of-az%C3%A9darac

Now we finally get into some of the material you will find in the D&D Module X2. One of the things the characters will need to finish the module is a Potion of Time Travel, and they will have the chance to encounter any or all of Jehan or Azédarac or Moriamis to get it.