Clark Ashton Smith makes me very thanksful for electronic readers; I've never read anything by him that didn't include at least one word I'd never encountered before. He is, of course, the author that inspired X2: Castle Amber, a fun-house dungeon much beloved by many grognards.
As a glossary of words gamers might find useful, I begin with his short story "A Vintage From Atlantis":
I turned giddy; and a sort of dark confusion possessed my senses by degrees; and I seemed to hear and see and feel as in the, mounting fever of calenture.
According to Miriam-Webster, calenture is "a fever formerly supposed to affect sailors in the tropics."
While you could use this as part of the name of a spell or a plague ravaging the Isle of Dread, I think it might also make an excellent name for a succubus or night hag.
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I love how a single obscure word like calenture can open up a whole set of gaming ideas, from a fever that makes sailors dream of green fields to a plague sweeping an island. Your suggestion of using it as the name of a succubus or night hag is especially good, since the delusion at its heart fits a creature that tempts people toward something that is not really there. It is also a nice reminder of how useful Clark Ashton Smith's vocabulary is for gamers, even when an e-reader is doing the heavy lifting. After all that talk of fevers and false paradises, I switched to something much lighter through this Kick the Buddy guide, which is pure low-stakes play with no curses attached. Thanks for another entry in a glossary series that keeps giving GMs new tools.
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