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In the midst of the table an alembic was working. The lamp's flame -- deep blue, this one -- kept a-boil in the large crystal cucurbit a dark, viscid fluid with here and there diamond glints. From out of the thick, seething stuff, strands of a darker vapor streamed upward to crowd through the cucurbit's narrow mouth and stain -- oddly, with bright scarlet -- the transparent head and then, dead black now, flow down the narrow pipe from the head into a spherical crystal receiver, larger even than the cucurbit, and there curl and weave about like so many coils of living black cord -- an endless, skinny, ebon serpent.

Behind the left end of the table stood a tall, yet hunchbacked man in black robe and hood, which shadowed more than hid a face . . . From under a receding forehead and bushy gray brows, wide-set eyes looked intently down at an age-browned scroll, which his disgustingly small club-hands, knuckles big, short backs gray-bristled, ceaselessly unrolled and rolled up again. The only move his eyes ever made, besides the short side-to-side one as he read the lines he was rapidly intoning, was an occasional farther sidewise glance at the alembic.

. . .

[In Bones Alley] the night-smog was thicker than ever. A high-circling nighthawk would have seen the stuff converging from all sections of Lankhmar, north, east, south, west -- from the Inner Sea, from the Great Salt Marsh, from the many-ditched grainlands, from the River Hlal -- in swift-moving black rivers and rivulets, heaping, eddying, swirling, dark and reeking essence of Lankhmar from its branding irons, braziers, bonfires, bonefires, kitchen fires and warmth fires, kilns, forges, breweries, distilleries, junk and garbage fires innumerable, sweating alchemists' and sorcerers' dens, crematoriums, charcoal burners' turfed mounds, all those and many more . . . converging purposefully on Dim Lane and particularly on the Silver Eel and perhaps especially on the ricketty house behind it, untenanted except for attic. The closer to that center it got, the more substantial the smog became, eddy-strands and swirl-tatters tearing off and clinging to rough stone corners and scraggly-surfaced brick like black cobwebs.

. . .

The tempo of the incantation quickened, the blue-white flames brightened and hissed audibly, the fluid in the cucurbit grew thick as lava, great bubbles formed and loudly broke, the black rope in the receiver writhed like a nest of snakes; there was an increasing sense of invisible presences, the supernatural tension grew almost unendurable, and Fafhrd and the Mouser were hard put to keep silent the open-mouthed gasps by which they now breathed, and each feared his heartbeat could be heard cubits away.

Abruptly the incantation peaked and broke off, like a drum struck very hard, then instantly silenced by palm and fingers outspread against the head. With a bright flash and dull explosion, cracks innumerable appeared in the cucurbit; its crystal became white and opaque, yet it did not shatter or drip. The head lifted a span, hung there, fell back. While two black nooses appeared among the coils in the receiver and suddenly narrowed until they were only two big black knots.

-- "Ill Met in Lankhmar", Fritz Leiber

"The Shadow of Yesterday" explicitly declares its debt to Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories, and does a splendidly at allowing creation of Leiberesque characters and plots. But in the rules as written, I don't see a good way to do magic like the famous strangling smog from "Ill Met in Lankhmar". Three-Corner Magic, I think, has quite the wrong feel to it. The smog is not anything so tidy as a Creation of Air, and it kills from several blocks away, no line of sight.

Myself, I think it's a sorcery, a summoning of a killing spirit that merely takes the smog as a special effect. So here's a proposal for how I'd do sorcery in TSoY rules. I have made no great attempt to disguise my influences -- this is obviously a simplified, semi-neutered borrowing from Ron Edward's excellent "Sorcerer". I intend it mostly to be for villains, but if a player character demands to learn, it would be nice if it was balanced.

The Secret of Sorcery
Allows your character to use the sorcerous abilities Summon, Bind, and Command at Unskilled. You may spend advances as usual to improve the abilities. The character must accept a visible physical marking of some kind, such as scars, gnarled hands, eldritch tattoos on the face, or similar.

Ability: Summon (Instinct)
Bring a demon into the world. By default it will remain for one hour. The basic demon is a beast with Power 1, Prowess 1, Senses 1, and Brain 1. Success levels determine how many advances may be spent improving the demon, at usual prices. "Unspent" success levels may be rolled over into bonus dice on attempts to Bind or Command the demon. Summoned demons will follow their own black desires unless Bound and/or Commanded.
The Story Guide might choose to interpret a failed Summoning attempt as "you got something, but it wasn't what you wanted."
Summon can also be used "in reverse" to attempt to banish a demon, opposed by the demon's best Ability (it will attempt to attack).

Ability: Bind (Reason)
Normally the demon will remain in the world for about an hour. A successful Bind conflict will keep the demon trapped indefinitely, until a specified condition occurs. The demon must be bound to a particular object, such as a jewel. Likely conditions include "until I say 'Szarthulasacz'", "until the Potentate of Ammeni touches the jewel," or "until one not of my blood crosses this threshold". While bound, a demon can do nothing. Attempts to bind will be opposed by the demon using its best Ability; failure stakes may be that the demon attacks the sorcerer, or that it flees to find tastier prey, as the SG chooses.
When released, the demon will generally attack the closest human. If it kills someone, unless commanded otherwise, it will depart the world to feast on the soul it has taken.

Ability: Command (Vigor)
Compel the demon to carry out one task of your will, rather than its own. It will follow its instructions for as long as it remains in the world, or until they are complete, whichever comes first; then it returns to the netherworld. The sorcerer need not remain in contact with the demon while it is executing its task. Attempts to bind will be opposed by the demon using its best Ability; failure stakes may be that the demon attacks the sorcerer, or that it flees to find tastier prey, as the SG chooses.

The Secret of the Pentacle
You can inscribe a line that no unbound demon can cross. Permanent until broken (by being scratched or scuffed, etc). Cost: 2 Instinct.

Modifiers

Summoning takes about an hour to do cautiously. It can be hurried to be done in a minute, for one penalty die, or even in a few seconds, for two penalty dice.

The sacrifice of a costly item that has been specially prepared over a period of days is worth a bonus die to any sorcery ability check.

Sample demon secrets

Armour
The demon has an intrinsic armour rating. For instance, +1 in physical combat, or +2 vs slashing weapons, or +3 vs the Potentate of Ammeni.

Insubstantial Form
The demon may pass through walls or other barriers at will.

Questions and considerations

Should the Secret of Sorcery provide any other benefit than merely serving as prerequisite?
With an Imbued brazier of +2 for Summoning demons plus gift dice and/or the Secret of Enhancement (Summoning), it is not terribly difficult to accummulate SL 6 on a Summoning roll. This would allow the creation of a demon with Power 3 plus one secret, or Power 2 plus four secrets. With an Imbued amulet of +1 for conflicts against demons, a sorcerer need only be Competent at Command to have a fair shot at controlling it. Adept would help, as would Enhancement(Command). Does this seem reasonably balanced? There's a lot of power available there, but quite a few advances and secrets spent controlling it.

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Sample demon secrets

Questions and considerations