A Clutch is a story featured in the anthology [The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu: New Lovecratian Fiction](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25898190-the-mammoth-book-of-cthulhu) in 2016. The story is set in the dark fantasy world known as [[Antiquity]]. In the story, a man named Ruark tells his cursed life story (or 'lives stories'?) on his deathbed. ### __Characters__ The first half of the story is an absolute tidal wave of lore: with new names of locations, people and historical events being thrown around in every new sentence. Reminds me a bit of reading [Clark Ashton Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Ashton_Smith) stories. Lot of stuff I have yet to look up in other stories. The main character's last name is Ruark. He is a woodsman, as are all men in his family: "Ours has ever been a family of foresters – hunters, trappers, fellers, every one." (The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu, p. ) This likely means that our protagonist is in some way related to one of the hunters featured in [[The Men from Porlock]]: the logger named Ruark who, during the events of the story, is compelled to join (or succumb to) the [[Children of Old Leech]]. They might be directly related, but seeing as A Clutch is set in Antiquity, it's more likely that we're dealing with an Antiquity [[Alter Ego]] of the logger or a family member. Ruark, in his youth, signs up with the army and is assigned to ransack old and abandoned castles for treasure, apparently under order of a warlock named Jon Foot. Jon Foot also appears in the story [[Oblivion Mode]]. At one point in the story, Ruark himself actually meets Jon Foot, who mentions some people who are apparently evil wizards: "Others sought the Clutch. Bad ones. Ethan, Julie the Fifth, Carling . . . Phil Wary. Black sorcerers, each." (The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu, p. ) [[Phil Wary]] is a recurring character in the non-Antiquity stories and is a notable sorcerer in those stories as well. Julie the Fifth is probably the alter ego of recurring character [[Julie Vellum]]. She's sometimes called 'Julie V' or 'Julie Five' in her [[Swift To Chase (Book)]] stories as well. The name (or person) [[Carling]] appears in multiple stories as well, and this is the third time a Carling is portrayed as a sorceress, witch of some kind of occultist. No idea who Ethan is. #Story #Antiquity