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
• Gabi King as The One-Eyed Servant
  https://x.com/gabikingmusic
• Thomas Barker as The General, The Ruler
• Matthew T. Patton as The Spit-Turner
  https://whyp.it/users/36577/mtpatton
• Jesse D. Hill as The Gardener
  [email protected]
• Asha Lear as The Usher, The Steward
  https://www.castingcall.club/asha_lear
• Llamapie124 as A Religious Slave
• Sammi Puffer as A Palace Guard
  Sammipuffs.bluesky.social
• Robabank2034 as The Voice from the Bell
  https://youtube.com/@robabank2034?si=6b5ZMmpWEd-fOjT2

Produced and written by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: [email protected]

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

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
  [email protected]
• Emily Morse-Lee as Wide-Eye
  @TheRealGChu.bsky.social
• Melissa Carrington as Split-Heel
  @melissac-va.bsky.social
• Virtue as Hears-Whispers
  X: @VirtueVestigial

Produced and written by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: [email protected]

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

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
  [email protected]
• Emily Morse-Lee as Wide-Eye
  @TheRealGChu.bsky.social
• Melissa Carrington as Split-Heel
  @melissac-va.bsky.social
• Virtue as Hears-Whispers
  X: @VirtueVestigial

Produced and written by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: [email protected]

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

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-Road
  https://andrewwinson.com/
• Thomas Barker as Athamas
• Jesse D. Hill as Longarm
  [email protected]
• Emily Morse-Lee as Wide-Eye
  @TheRealGChu.bsky.social
• Melissa Carrington as Split-Heel
  @melissac-va.bsky.social
• Virtue as Hears-Whispers
  X: @VirtueVestigial

Produced and written by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: [email protected]

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

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.castingcall.club/asha_lear
• Sammi Puffer as Assistant
  Sammipuffs.bluesky.social
• Thomas Barker as Guards 1 and 2

Produced and written by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: [email protected]

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

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
  [email protected]
• Emily Morse-Lee as Wide-Eye
  @TheRealGChu.bsky.social
• Melissa Carrington as Split-Heel
  @melissac-va.bsky.social
• Virtue as Hears-Whispers
  X: @VirtueVestigial

Produced and written by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: [email protected]

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

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-part, weekly series.

Cast
Andrew Winson as Fork-in-the-Road
https://andrewwinson.com/
Thomas Barker as Athamas

Produced and written by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: [email protected]

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

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: [email protected]

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

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 opening title card of the 2004 movie Hellboy.
This is my first reading of a Bloch tale, and I can promise you now, there will be many more.

Tibi, magnum Innominandum, signa stellarum nigrarum et bufoniformis Sadoquae sigillum.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Buy your faithful reader a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/tuomasva

Queries, comments? Write to me at: [email protected]

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

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: [email protected]

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi