Stop the Insanity!

[Orlanth]

So as an HPL fan I've been trying my hand (er.. tentacle) at R'lyeh but am not having much luck, particularly with those Void Gate summons I hear so much about. It seems like 75% of summons end up with my squid going feebleminded; sometimes with gating in a few lesser beasts but most often failing or being attacked. I've never gotten to a summoning skill above 1, and most that make it that far are nuts. Is this pretty normal or am I doing something wrong - & is there anything that influences the rate of void success? Should I aim for a high local dominion, or strong magic or luck scales, or bring some units with me into the gate? Does Astral level help? (my few Astral 4 Starspawns have seemed to fare no better).