Strange NPCs: Edgar Cayce

28 March, 2023

We’re back and we’re catching up with our sleep. Don’t worry, we’re still using this time productively, just like Edgar Cayce taught us. Whether it’s diagnosing your athlete’s foot, telling you of your past life in ancient K’n-yan, or just prophesying the fall of Penge again, we’re on the case. Just take care not to transcribe any snoring as that just tends to confuse the reading. Now, can you leave us to peruse the Akashic Records for another 15 minutes? We were up late last night.

Strange NPCs: Edgar Cayce

We are returning to our Strange NPCs format, in which we look into the lives of historical figures who might inspire our games of Call of Cthulhu. This began with our first two “Great NPCs of History” episodes (one and two). We then had more detailed episodes about Albert Fish and Louis Wain.

This episode looks into the life of Edgar Cayce, the Sleeping Prophet. While Cayce’s work grew in fame following his death, becoming a cornerstone of the New Age movement, his origins were more humble. That’s not to say they weren’t filled with strange events. We delve into his life, belief and legacy, looking for elements we might include in our games.

Thank you to Mecrutio on our Discord server for suggesting this topic.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

New Age movement
William Blake
Potato salad kickstarter
L Ron Hubbard
Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L Ron Hubbard by Russell Miller
“The Call of Cthulhu” by HP Lovecraft
Theosophy
Edgar Cayce’s beliefs about reincarnation and scripture
There is a River by Thomas Sugrue
Tutankhamun
The Association of National Investigators
Edgar Cayce Hospital
Kult: Divinity Lost
TENS machines
Wall Street Crash

Akashic Records
Helena Blavatsky
Akasha
CW Leadbeater
Rudolf Steiner
Biodynamics
Root Races in Theosophy
Bimini Road
The Association for Research and Enlightenment
Wilhelm Reich
Orgone accumulator
Nostradamus
James Randi
Harry Houdini
“Under the Pyramids” by HP Lovecraft for Harry Houdini
A Cold Fire Within

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.

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.

Issue 4b is in the pipeline and will be available for download in early April.

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

Paul at Chaosium Con

Paul will be attending Chaosium Con in Ann Arbor, Michigan, between April 13-16. Please do say hi if you spot him in the wild.

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Mythos Deities: Cyäegha and Byatis

14 March, 2023

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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.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

“Darkness, My Name Is” by Eddy C Bertin
The Disciples of Cthulhu
“I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison
Cthulhu
Gla’aki
“The Broadsword” from Occultation and Other Stories by Laird Barron
“The Unnamable” by HP Lovecraft
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Yog-Sothoth
“Through the Gates of the Silver Key” by HP Lovecraft and E Hoffman Price
Call of Cthulhu Keeper rulebook
Malleus Monstrorum
Kult: Divinity Lost
Event Horizon
Stranger Things

“Sufficient Unto the Day” in Worlds of Cthulhu issue 3
The Dark by James Herbert
“The Shambler From the Stars” by Robert Bloch
De Vermis Mysteriis
Star vampires
“The Haunter of the Dark” by HP Lovecraft
“The Curse of Yig” by HP Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop
“The Room in the Castle” by Ramsey Campbell
The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants by Ramsey Campbell
Daoloth
Shub-Niggurath
Hypnotoad
Grizzly Peaks Radio
Bookhounds of London
Escape From Innsmouth
Ramsey Campbell’s Goatswood and Less Pleasant Places

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 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.

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Listener Suggestions

28 February, 2023

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We’re back and we’re listening to the strange voices that whisper to us from beyond the veil. Well, maybe they’re whispering from Twitter and Discord, but we’re not sure that’s any less frightening. At least they’re offering helpful suggestions. Opening oneself up to the dark spirits of Twitter can be a chancy thing.

Listener Suggestions

Late last year, we used Discord and Twitter to ask our listeners what kinds of things they’d like to hear us discuss. The response was overwhelming and we now have a massive list of possible topics. Although these suggestions were exceptional, there are a good number we’d struggle to turn into complete episodes. Rather than ignore these, we’ve decided to go through the replies and see what we can address succinctly.

We barely scratched the surface of the suggestions this time. As a result, we plan to revisit this list again soon in a follow-up episode.

Please do let us know if you have any suggestions of your own. We are always hungry for ideas. And cheese. But mostly ideas.

Thank you to Alixo, R’lyeh Scary and PTroilus on our Discord server for the topics we discuss in this episode.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

MK-RPG
Sorcerer
Vaesen
Blade Runner
Dog Eat Dog
Seth Skorkowsky’s YouTube channel
Traveller
Kult
The Witch-Cult in Western Europe by Margaret Murray
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Episode on the Cthulhu Mythos skill

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.

Matt on Into the Darkness

Matt has been running more games for our good friends at Into the Darkness. In particular, he’s run a few scenarios from The Blasphemous Tome recently, including “Of This Men Shall Know Nothing” from issue 6 and “Educement” from issue 10.

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Michael Shea’s “Fat Face”

14 February, 2023

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We’re back and we’re pouring ourselves into our rubber suits and orthopaedic shoes. Doing up all these straps can be murder when your fingers are made of protoplasm. We’re going to need a nice, tasty stray dog or two to get our energy back after all this messing around. At least we’ve learnt how to maintain a human countenance atop all the ooze, fat face and all. Extruding a new head can be, well, a headache.

Fat Face

This episode is our discussion of Michael Shea’s Mythos tale, “Fat Face”. Originally published as a chapbook in 1987, this nasty little novelette has since been collected in countless anthologies. It’s probably sitting in one of those Mythos books on your shelf right now, waiting patiently for you.

As well as being a great story in its own right, “Fat Face” is the origin of shoggoth lords, as seen in the Call of Cthulhu RPG. We take a little detour into their presentation in the game and some of the ways they’ve been used.

The protagonist of the story is a sex worker, and while the story isn’t at all prurient, it also doesn’t shy away from some of the more dangerous aspects of Patti’s profession. Be warned that our discussion mentions the story’s depictions of violence against women, threats of sexual violence, drug use, body horror and animal cruelty.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

FatFace clothing brand
Michael Shea
A Quest For Simbilis by Michael Shea
The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities
Weird fiction

Sword and sorcery
Nifft the Lean by Michael Shea
Mr Cannyharme by Michael Shea
Demiurge by Michael Shea
The Autopsy: Best Weird Stories of Michael Shea
The Best Fantasy and Horror Volume 1 edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Cthulhu 2000
The Color Out of Time by Michael Shea
“The Colour Out of Space” by HP Lovecraft
“The Hound” by HP Lovecraft

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by HP Lovecraft
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
The great vowel shift
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Simon Whistler on YouTube
The Casual Criminalist
Dorothea Puente
At the Mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft
Strange Eons by Robert Bloch
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
“The Whisperer in Darkness” by HP Lovecraft
“The Visible Filth” by Nathan Ballingrud
Wounds (2019)
Malleus Monstrorum
At Your Door
Cthulhu Now

News

Blasphemous Tome 3 reissue

Matt has finished converting issue 3 of The Blasphemous Tome to PDF format. This means that backers can now download it from our Patreon page. Those backing us at the $3 level or higher before the end of the month will also receive a voucher for a print-on-demand version from DriveThruRPG. See Patreon for more details.

The Blasphemous Tome is the fully licenced Call of Cthulhu fanzine we produce for backers of the podcast. As well as all the usual features, issue 3 includes Scott’s Pulp Cthulhu scenario, “A New Age of Wonders!” This weird little adventure follows a notoriously self-aggrandising inventor as he throws a New Year’s Eve party to unveil his latest creation to the world. Of course, nothing good can come of this and deadly peril awaits. If you want to hear how it plays, Scott ran it for our good friends at Pretending to be People last year.

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Media Catch-up – TV

31 January, 2023

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We’re back and we’re staring in disbelief as our hands fall off.

Media Catch-up – TV

Once again, we are perched open mouthed before the small screen, gobbling down televisual delights and regurgitating opinions. This is the latest in our ongoing series of media reviews, sharing our thoughts on the TV programmes we’ve been watching lately. There’s more horror than usual in our selections, making this episode dangerously on-topic. We’ll do better next time.