We’re back and we’re stroking our chin serpents. The Byatis beard care regimen is a strange one and requires a little more anthropophagy than we normally indulge in. Still, it’s hard to argue with the results. The only real downside is the way we can be pulled away without notice whenever someone strokes an effigy of us. Even that is a small price to pay for such lustrous facial, um, hair. Yeah, let’s call it hair.

Cyäegha and Byatis

This episode is our latest exploration of the deities of the Cthulhu Mythos. We have devoted previous episodes to Dagon, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep, Hastur, Azathoth, Nodens, Ubbo-Sathla and Mordiggian, Ithaqua, Cthulhu, Daoloth and Eihort, Gla’aki, Y’golonac, and Tsathoggua, Atlach-Nacha and Abhoth.

Rather than focusing on the creations of a specific writer, we’ve chosen this episode’s pairing for their connections to specific places. Cyäegha comes from the work of Belgian weird fiction author Eddy Bertin, remaining Bertin’s best-known creation. The parentage of Byatis is more complicated, however, originating as a passing mention from Robert Bloch before being fleshed out by a young Ramsey Campbell. Both are unusual deities, however, and we find plenty to say about them.

News

Submissions for The Blasphemous Tome issue 11

While the next issue of The Blasphemous Tome is still a few months away, we’re currently open for submissions. If you have a short article, poem or piece of flash fiction of up to 500 words, or some artwork (black and white or colour) that you think we’d like, we’d love to see it! You can send them to submissions@blasphemoustomes.com

Submissions for this issue will be open until the end of April 2023.

The Blasphemous Tome is the fully licenced Call of Cthulhu fanzine we produce for Patreon backers of the podcast.

Nameless Horrors and Rivers of London

Some or all of us have been involved with two recent publications from Chaosium. First, there is the reprint of Nameless Horrors. This was the scenario collection the three of us penned as part of the Call of Cthulhu 7th edition Kickstarter, way back in 2015. Unlike every 7th ed book that followed, it was printed in black and white and issued as a softback. The new edition is a hardback and in full colour, however, finally matching the rest of the game line.

Hardcopies of the Rivers of London RPG are also beginning to ship. This is the RPG based on the urban fantasy series by Ben Aaronovitch.

Blasphemous Tome 4a Rerelease

We’re continuing our rereleases of out-of-print issues of our fanzine, The Blasphemous Tome. Issue 4a was one of our print-only publications and has not been available as a PDF until now. All Patreon backers of the Good Friends can now download the PDF, along with many other back issues. Anyone backing us at the $3 level or above before the end of March 2023 will also receive a voucher for a heavily discounted print-on-demand copy.

The Blasphemous Tome issue 4 cover — Thank you again to Evan Dorkin for his fantastic cover art!

The Good Friends on Really Dicey

Paul, Matt and Scott recently appeared on the Really Dicey YouTube channel to discuss the rerelease of Nameless Horrors. We talked about what inspired the book and what to expect from this new edition.