Death Dealer | EN World Tabletop RPG News & Reviews

Publish date: 2024-05-04
Whoa!!!!

The Death Dealer (or Gath of Baal) is a character created by Frank Frazetta. This character was further developed by James Silke, who wrote 4 novels which are out of print and are really hard to find today.

These novels are not your average fantasy read and properly belong to the "Dark Fantasy" genre. The battles are bloody and the imagery is very descriptive. The magic has a "tantric" touch to it and the plots are very interesting.

Gath of Baal is a barbaric character whose savagery is unsurpassed by any other character I've ever read about. Imagine him like a Conan on steroids who happens to possess a magical horned helmet (actually a demon) that turns him into an unstopable killing machine when he dons it. There is a slight problem with the helmet, however. The person who wears it cannot take it off (unless he or she has a will strong enough to overcome the demon that is bound to the helmet) and will eventually die as the helmet either slowly strangles its wearer or progressively gets heavier until it rips off the wearer's head.

Silke's narrative is much more colorful and descriptive than Robert E. Howard's, IMHO. When Gath jumps into a fray, you can almost feel that you are right there witnessing how he tears an opponent's arm and bludgeons him to death with it or how his axe swings back and forth cutting through sinews of flesh. It's just a gory bloodbath....

For anyone who likes Robert E. Howard, I highly recomend it. It will melt your brain.

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