'bominable 'bominations

Have you ever been out in the cold, yearning for the warmth of a crackling fire, and the company of kind humans?

Well, tonight's double-feature will satisfy that unnatural yearning, as both tales concern the subject of companionship, although each with wildly different, and terrifying results...

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtub...

The descent continues. Through fire, into ice. The deep, dark hell of frozen shades recount their heinous acts to our narrator and his spectral guide.

The kaleidoscopic imagery and boundless, morbid imagination of Dante Alighieri is fully on display in this new translation, with each soul given their own distinct voice and characterisation by the narrator.

Abandon all hope, but enjoy the ride!

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comment...

Another temporary shift. Away from the pilgrims and their murky problems, to a lighter sphere, at least at first glance. A place of grand palaces and ancient lineages. The roots of nobility are buried deep in this plane, but long rotted, and fit only for kindling. How, and when, will all these stories converge? The echoes are increasing.

Part 7 of a multi-part series.

Cast

• Steven Courtney as A Sibyl
  Stevencourtneyvo.carrd.co
• Ga...

The group makes its way through the tunnels underneath the mountain, towards the marshes of the Grey Grease. Wes and Lithee are isolated from the main group, and encounter strange phenomena. Garm goes to investigate. Huw, Ra and Asher share a story.

Part 6 of a multi-part series.

Cast

• Andrew Winson as Fork-in-the-Road
  https://andrewwinson.com/
• Thomas Barker as Athamas
• Jesse D. Hill as Longarm
  defunktknig...

The pilgrims regroup to assess their situation, given the catastrophe that has befallen them.
Asher begins to assert himself, and faultlines are revealed, but there are moments of bonding too. Will they make for the city and an uncertain future? 

Part 5 of a multi-part, weekly series.

Cast

• Andrew Winson as Fork-in-the-Road
  https://andrewwinson.com/
• Thomas Barker as Athamas
• Jesse D. Hill as Longarm
  d...

We rejoin the pilgrims in the aftermath of an attack by the Child of Iachtanabas. Trapped within the cave they fled to for safety, they set to in order to dig themselves out of trouble, literally. Huw enlists Wes and Lithee to search for the lost sleepers, and Garm entertains (in the loosest possible sense of the word) Ra with an old song.

Part 4 of a multi-part, weekly series.

Cast

• Andrew Winson as Fork-in-the...

Our narrative swerves, temporarily, and we find ourselves under a merciless sun, atop shifting sands, in an unknown time and place. Connections to our main story, the sunken realm and its imperilled pilgrims, will become apparent in due course.

Part 3 of a multi-part, weekly series.

Cast

• Matthew T. Patton as The Lead Excavator
  https://whyp.it/users/36577/mtpatton
• Asha Lear as Digger 1 and 2
  https://www.c...

With no time to further understand the strange world he has been thrust into, the erstwhile sleeper and the small group that accompanies him flee for their lives. In the brief moments of respite during their flight, introductions are made.

Part 2 of a multi-part, weekly series.

Cast

• Andrew Winson as Fork-in-the-Road
  https://andrewwinson.com/
• Thomas Barker as Athamas
• Jesse D. Hill as Longarm
  defunktknight...

Behold, The Crawling World. A thickly huddled mass. Dark-hued, folded in on itself a thousand, nay ten thousand times over. From your vantage point beyond the veil, you can dimly make out vast oceans, a tumult of mountains honeycomb-riddled with caves, extending you suppose, down into the fused depths.

Into this world is born Athamas. A sleeper, now awakened into a very dangerous reality indeed.

Part 1 of a multi...

Sword and Sorcery clashes with the Cthulhu Mythos in this thrilling tale of the Pictish king Bran Mak Morn, by Robert E. Howard (a contemporary and correspondant of HP Lovecraft and creator of Conan the Barbarian). In order to bring justice to one of his people, the warrior-king enlists an ancient foe.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: h...

Narrated by a (somewhat) impartial court observer, this reworking of a much older tale, concerns the obsessive artistry, and terrible downfall of the painter Yoshihide. First published in 1918 in serial form, the author is considered the father of the Japanese short story, and himself met a tragic end.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

https://ko-fi.com/tuomasva

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com
<...

This famous story (regarded by Kurt Vonnegut as the best short story in American literature) describes (in a style that today might be described as Lynchian) a moment in time. A man, condemned, and a dreamlike escape.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

https://ko-fi.com/tuomasva

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHAS...

The first in a sequence of three stories (The Shambler from the Stars, The Haunter of the Dark and The Shadow from the Steeple), this gruesome narrative involves a burgeoning writer who, in the desire for occult knowledge, purchases a forbidding book: De Vermis Mysteriis.
This tome has had quite the afterlife in subsequent fiction, appearing in many other stories by Bloch and Lovecraft, as well as (among many others) the openin...

It was a seemingly ordinary mezzotint*, unremarkable except for the unusually high price, and the half-missing attribution on the back. Until the changes began. For the curator of a university art museum, a most unexpected, and shocking series of events is about to unfold.

This tale first appeared in James's first collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, in 1904.


*a type of monochrome print

Na...

Robert Blake is a hunted man, only he does not know it yet.

A young writer with an interest in the occult, Mr Blake becomes fascinated by a distant church, the spire of which he can see from his garrett window. A furtive exploration uncovers an ancient artifact, and seals his fate.

The last written of H. P Lovecraft's stories (apart from a few collaborations), and is part of a sequence of three stories, the f...

Warning! Tonal whiplash incoming. This delightful (and delightfully creepy) short story by master of the genre Montague Rhodes James is a sort-of Billy Bunter meets the contents of a Breugel the Elder painting. Hopefully that doesn't give too much away.
First published in 1928, this was a joy to record; you can't beat the old English public-school grotesques.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write ...

An ancient evil festers in the heart of a small community, and though the original perpetrators may be gone, traces of their misdeeds linger on. Also, it's never a good idea to stay the night in a seemingly abandoned mansion, even if you are on holiday.

Written in 1934, "Pigeons from Hell" is one of several regional horror stories by Howard set in the Piney Woods of the ArkLaTex region of the Deep South.

In our final instalment of this perplexing and perturbing story, (see episode 34 for part two). Things reach a fever pitch at Bly manor with multiple manifestations, disappearances, and a possible breakdown. Of reality, or of sanity? You be the judge.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASay...