Line #27 Literature/TheGodInTheBowl


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/conan_god_in_bowl.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/Se7en WHAT'S IN THE BOWL!?]][[note]][[BeastWithAHumanFace A pretty head.]][[/note]]]]
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4	[[https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1501131h.html "The God in the Bowl"]] is a ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' story written by Creator/RobertEHoward.
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6	A nightwatchman at Kallian Publico's temple comes upon the owner's corpse while making his rounds, only to run into Conan in the process of attempting a heist. Thinking Conan the murderer, the watchman sounds the alarm to summon the city guards, and by luck the chief inquisitor happened to be accompanying the guards on their round. An investigation is initiated, and despite the chief guard's insistance that Conan is the guilty party, the inquisitor finds doubt as to such accusations.
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8	As the investigation goes on, more participants are brought in, secrets are revealed and eventually, Conan stands alone against an otherworldly foe...
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10	Written in 1932 or 1933, but not published. A version edited by Creator/LSpragueDeCamp was first published in September, 1952. The original version was first published in 1975.
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12	Creator/MarvelComics would adapt the work for their ongoing ''ComicBook/ConanTheBarbarian'' comic, as well as ''The Savage Sword of Conan'' a few years later. Creator/DarkhorseComics would later adapt the story for their own ongoing ''Conan'' book.
13	----
14	!!The Tropes In The Bowl:
15	* AnimalisticAbomination: [[spoiler: A serpent with an inhumanly beautiful humanoid head.]]
16	* AssholeVictim: Posthumo gets trampled by his compatriots as they flee.
17	* BullyingADragon: ZigZagged. Dionus think the best way to go about the investigation is to ''[[TooDumbToLive beat a confession out of Conan]]'', while Demetrio knows antagonizing a wild Cimmerian is a fatally bad idea.
18	* TheCorpseStopsHere: The story begins when the night watchman comes across Conan near the body of Kallian Publico. It doesn't help his case that the Cimmerian was there to steal.
19	* DeathByMaterialism: Kallian Publico opens the bowl meant for the high priest of Ibis in the hopes of claiming the riches within for himself. Instead, what lurked within strangles him dead.
20	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Conan manages to [[spoiler: decapitate a PhysicalGod]].
21	* DontAskJustRun: When the cast gets a glimpse of the horror that killed Promero, everybody but Conan rushes screaming into the streets. The garrison watching the building bolts away along with them, needing no explanation.
22	* EyeScream: Posthumo, a Numalian guard, once gouged a woman's eye out when she would not betray her sweetheart of a thief. He gets his own eye gouged out by Conan later on during a tussle.
23	* FakingAndEntering: Kallian opens the bowl to look for valuables, since he can claim a burglar took them.
24	* FiveSecondForeshadowing: One guard mentions having found the murder weapon wrapped around a column near the ceiling, only to find it gone after. A few paragraphs later a scream is heard and the guards run like hell at the sight of the Son of Set that slithered near them.
25	* GenreShift: The bulk of the story reads less like a typical SwordAndSorcery adventure and more like a police procedural or ''Series/{{CSI}}: Nemedia''. Really shows Robert E. Howard's genius as a writer: he can plunk his BarbarianHero into a detective story -- as a suspect, no less! -- and still make a compelling yarn of it.
26	* GoodCopBadCop: Demetrio and Dionus, to a large extent. Dionus threatens Conan with beatings and execution every chance he gets; Demetrio mostly just wants Conan's cooperation in figuring out what actually happened.
27	* GreaterScopeVillain: Thoth-Amon and his master Set don't appear in the story, but the characters suspect that the former is the one who sent the bowl to the museum. Demetrio finds it odd that the bowl was originally sent to Kalanthes as a gift to the priest of Ibis as the Set worshipper of Stygia hates Ibis and Promero recognizes a newly carved crest as being the sign of Thoth-Amon. The titular MonsterOfTheWeek is implied to be one of Set's progeny.
28	* HeroAntagonist: The guards led by Dionus and Demetrio are (mostly) just people doing their job, trying to stop a burglary and figure out who or ''what'' is responsible for the murders. Demetrio in particular is very fair and even-handed in his dealings with Conan, in that while he knows the Cimmerian is a thief, he deduces he couldn't have possibly killed anyone.
29	* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: The story is a BottleEpisode which almost entirely takes place inside Kallian Publico's Temple, [[spoiler:features a MonsterOfTheWeek which goes down in a SingleStrokeBattle]], and wasn't even published during Howard's lifetime, but was retroactively made into one of the most important events of Conan's life after pastiche writers L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter made [[BreakoutVillain Thoth-Amon]] into Conan's ArchEnemy. In "The Black Sphinx of Nebthu," Thoth-Amon himself refers to Conan's actions during this story "that first time, when [Conan] meddled in [his] affairs," beginning a feud between the two men that spanned over multiple stories and forty years InUniverse.
30	* {{Jerkass}}: Dionus, who is quick to yell at everyone and threaten them with death.
31	** Conan himself is not exactly at his best here. The story takes place very early in his adventuring life, and he is even more hot-tempered than usual. He inflicts some very cruel damage to some of the other characters.
32	** Posthumo, a towering guardsman, enjoys tormenting suspects and terrorizing them a little too much. He once [[EyeScream tore out the eye]] of a thief's sweetheart to get her to tell on him. He gets some justice when Conan gouges ''his'' eye out.
33	** Aztrias Petanius is this in droves. He hires Conan to steal a jeweled goblet and keeps feigning ignorance when he's caught, even as the authorities promise that not only will he not be implicated, but Conan's freedom would also be guaranteed.
34	* KickTheDog: Posthumo gouged out a woman's eye for not testifying against her thieving lover.
35	* LockedRoomMystery: Kallian Publico is found dead in his own museum, alone except for the night watchman who discovered the corpse and Conan, who had just broken in through a trapdoor on the roof and wouldn't have had time to kill him. The doors are all locked; Kallian and the watchman have the only keys.
36	* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Conan only broke in to the museum to steal [[spoiler: a jeweled goblet]]; he had no idea that at the same time the museum's owner had accidentally [[spoiler: unleashed an eldritch monstrosity]] and died horribly.
37	* NominalHero: Conan could nearly qualify as a VillainProtagonist in this story. He's a thief who cuts down several of the guards without regret, but the murderer is something even worse. The Nemedian justice system is also horribly corrupt and are willing to burn Conan at the stake if they can't find the real murderer.
38	* OffWithHisHead: Conan decapitates Aztrias Petanius with a single sword stroke, [[spoiler:and later does the same to the titular God]].
39	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Demetrio generally comes across as one. He still abides to an archaic caste system of justice where if they don't find the guilty party they'll arrest the next best thing but he knows a Cimmerian like Conan will at the very least kill a few guards if they try bringing him in.
40	* TheScapegoat: Dionus plans this for Conan. Kallian Publico fully intended for Arus, the nightwatchman of his temple, to take the blame for the "theft" of the bowl's contents.
41	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Everyone who isn't dead, or driven mad, or named Conan of Cimmeria hightails it out of the place before the climax. Conan hightails it ''after'' the climax as the horror is sinking in.
42	* SingleStrokeBattle: [[spoiler: Conan versus the son of Set.]]
43	* SnakePeople: One, in a jar. It's referred to as the son of Set and is used in an assassination attempt.
44	* SnakesAreSinister: Especially gigantic snakes that can and do kill people.
45	* UnknownRival: As in "The Phoenix On The Sword", Conan's life is endangered as a result of actions Thoth-Amon took to kill someone else entirely.

Context Literature / TheGodInTheBowl