"The Seven Geases" by Clark Ashton Smith

I kept wanting to say the name Robilar instead of Ralibar. Old AD&D grognards will get that reference. Indeed, I did record it as Robilar now and again and had to re-record such passages to correct it.

There seems to be a great deal of confusion over how to pronounce 'geas'. Not being a speaker of any Gaelic language, I have no idea. What I used here is definitely correct in some forms of Gaelic, maybe not in others. I don't know. It's what you are getting, like it or not :-P

But what is a geas? A (generally magical) vow, obligation or injunction placed upon someone to do or not do something, which typically brings harm if violated and blessings if obeyed.

Catoblepas also doesn't seem to be widely agreed upon in pronunciation. And what is a catoblepas? A legendary creature from Ethiopia, said to have the body of a Cape buffalo, scales on its back, and the head of a wild boar, which always points downward because of its weight. It's gaze was said to be lethal.

Tsathoggua gives us a tie-in to Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos! One reference I can recall specifically is in his story "The Mound", in chapter 5. I really enjoyed that story, go give it a listen if you can spare a few hours. Looks like also in "The Whisperer in Darkness". I believe it first appears in Clark's writings, and Lovecraft picked it up and used it as well.

anlace is a new one on me - a double-edged dagger of the Medieval period.

porrected: extended forward

caul has two meanings: the amniotic membrane enclosing a fetus, or a woman's close-fitting indoor headdress or hairnet. "Caul of darkness" is probably using the second definition.

The picture used is "Tsathoggua" by Kaek, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

To follow along: http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/192/the-seven-geases