A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore
The Hunting Horror has two skills that grant it broad but inconsistent knowledge, allowing it to demonstrate insight into obscure subjects while remaining oblivious to more common knowledge.
Spellcraft
The Hunting Horror has +26 Spellcraft, an unusually high skill for a creature of its type. While it uses this skill in ways any character with Spellcraft would—such as identifying spells—the remarkable part is that it possesses this level of magical expertise at all.
Arcane vs. Divine Spells
WOW! I didn’t know Xykon knew how to cast cleric spells, too!
This moment demonstrates Spellcraft being used to distinguish between arcane and divine magic, a standard function of the skill. The Hunting Horror’s high proficiency means it can perform these identifications with ease.
Half Ritual
Fine! Read your stupid half of a ritual, I’ll find someone else to help me!
This reference highlights the role of Spellcraft in understanding shared or incomplete magical workings, reinforcing how the skill enables spellcasters to interpret rituals even when only part of the information is available.
Knowledge (Occult)
The Hunting Horror has +26 Knowledge (Occult) on its skill list, a skill unique to Call of Cthulhu. The official conversion rules state that such unique skills are unsuitable for Dungeons & Dragons. However, they also deny the need to update monsters, focusing instead on adapting sanity mechanics and the altered spell system. This contradiction allows Rich creative freedom to define what Knowledge (Occult) covers.
The examples below suggest that Rich has chosen to apply Knowledge (Occult) to concepts that have a basis in real-world mysticism, folklore, or esoteric traditions, but instead of importing these concepts from the real world, he appears to slot in the closest D&D equivalent, keeping the terminology while adjusting its application.
Magical Tomes
Oooo! Is it one of those books that raises your ability scores?
Please! In the grand scheme of things, this book makes the “Tome of Clear Thought” look like “Dianetics”.
Knowledge (Occult) explicitly covers magical books in Call of Cthulhu, including legendary tomes like the Necronomicon. In that system, all books related to magic are referred to as tomes, and the use of the word here echoes that tradition. While the function of these books differs in Order of the Stick, the terminology remains intact, following the broader pattern of slotting in a Dungeons & Dragons equivalent for a Call of Cthulhu concept, preserving the terminology while shifting the meaning to fit the setting.
The Astral Plane
Oooo! I love the Astral Plane! It’s so silvery and weightless!
Knowledge (Occult) explicitly covers esoteric traditions, and the Astral Plane has a long history in mystical and philosophical thought. In Dungeons & Dragons, it is a space between realms, while in real-world occultism, it is often described as a plane of consciousness or spirit. Instead of the Monster in the Dark being familiar with the real-world concept of an astral plane, Rich appears to have slotted in D&D’s Astral Plane as the closest equivalent, maintaining the terminology while reshaping its significance within the setting.
(Not) Recognizing Undead
Redcloak stresses that the three false Xykons are hard to distinguish, hence they each get a color-coded amulet. However, even after Redcloak explains that one is a huecuva, the Monster in the Dark is still surprised that “Xykon” can cast divine spells.
The Monster in the Dark’s ignorance follows from the separation of Knowledge (Occult) and Knowledge (Religion) in Call of Cthulhu, where Knowledge (Occult) does not include real-world religious knowledge.
By preserving the skill divide but slotting in the D&D version of Knowledge (Religion), Rich extended the gap in the Monster in the Dark’s knowledge to include identifying Undead. Since D&D’s Knowledge (Religion) covers that function, the Monster in the Dark—lacking that skill—fails to recognize a huecuva or understand its abilities.
Trenchant Political Analysis
[Bugbears] mostly get name-dropped to bolster an appealing but ultimately specious pan-goblinoid narrative that probably arose to elide historic sectarian divisions between goblins and hobgoblins… is a thing I totally overheard some guy say.
I want to believe the Monster in the Dark is repeating something it overheard, exactly as it claims, but without knowing who said it or what their expertise was I don’t want to rely on it. If the story concludes without further clarification, I may present this more assertively as one of the best remaining interpretations, but for now, I’m just trying to offer an explanation that fits within existing game mechanics.
Impetus
First, it’s important to note that the rules for recognizing monsters do not exist in d20 Call of Cthulhu. The DM is never compelled to tell you what a monster is or how it works. However, the Detect Life spell offers an alternative:
You detect living creatures. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area or subject.
At the GM’s discretion, understanding what a creature is and what it can do may require a Cthulhu Mythos, Knowledge (Occult), or Knowledge (Biology) check.
d20 Call of Cthulhu is not the best-organized book, and niche rules like this are scattered throughout, affecting many skills.
I feel like the chance of Rich encountering Detect Life is extremely high. The Escape scene suggests that Rich first conceived of a dramatic moment in which the Monster in the Dark would cast a Call of Cthulhu spell. Having decided on that, he likely reviewed the spell list and selected Word of Recall as one that could be reframed as strange and mysterious. If this was the case, then the Escape scene would have been constructed around that choice, and along the way, Rich would have encountered Detect Life, which may have inspired the trenchant political analysis scene.
If Knowledge (Occult) applies to goblins, then the Monster in the Dark’s detailed knowledge makes sense.
Analysis
Cthulhu Mythos is not a likely fit—goblins in Order of the Stick are not unfathomable horrors. But even if someone argues otherwise, it might actually help my case, since Hunting Horrors automatically pass all Cthulhu Mythos checks.
Biology is a plausible alternative since goblins are similar enough to humans for some crossover. However, this doesn’t fit the pattern Rich has followed elsewhere. Instead of reasoning from real-world classifications, he has consistently taken Call of Cthulhu labels and applied them to D&D concepts, swapping in equivalents rather than adapting based on function.
Goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears all exist in folklore, and Knowledge (Occult) explicitly covers ancient mysteries, magical traditions, and cryptozoology. If Rich followed the same approach here—slotting in a Dungeons & Dragons equivalent under a Call of Cthulhu label—then it makes sense that the Monster in the Dark would recognize goblins in this context.
The Evil Sorcerer
This has nothing to do with Knowledge (Occult), but it’s another example of the pattern. Between Comic 13 and Comic 191, Xykon went from being an undead mage to a mighty lich sorcerer. It’s possible that Xykon’s transition to a sorcerer was not incidental, but a deliberate choice to align better with the Hunting Horror’s established role.
In Call of Cthulhu, Hunting Horrors serve evil sorcerers, a term with vastly different connotations in that system. Rather than adapting the meaning, Rich appears to have taken the Call of Cthulhu label and applied it to a Dungeons & Dragons concept, treating the two as interchangeable. This makes it easier for readers to recognize the connection between the two settings without needing prior knowledge of either.
A Twisted Tie To Tiamat
The same pattern of keeping the label while substituting a Dungeons & Dragons version applies to Tiamat. In Mesopotamian mythology, Tiamat was a primordial goddess of the sea, with no connection to a five-headed dragon representing the chromatic spectrum of evil dragons. However, when Rich adapted the Mesopotamian gods into the Western Pantheon in Order of the Stick, he retained the name Tiamat but slotted in the D&D version instead of the original mythological figure, maintaining the pattern of repurposing real-world labels for D&D concepts, treating them as interchangeable without adapting their original meanings.