Welcome to a new season of the Summer Book Club!

In this episode, hosts Jon Hook and James Droucker talk about the selection of stories in "Into the Cthulhu-Universe," edited by Steven Paulsen and Christopher Sequeira.

Table of Contents:

• The Chaos Lords of Mars, by Jonathan Maberry

• Twas Brilling, by Cat Rambo

• Sweet Music, by Jason Nahrung

• Simbiyu and the Nameless, by Eugene Bacon

• The Meatamorphosis, by Aaron Sterns

• Innsmouth Park, by Jane Routley

• The Queen's Solution, by Peter Rawlik & Sal Ciano

• Dread Island, by Joe R. Lansdale

• Fhtagntastic Four, by Christopher Sequeria & Jan Scherpenhuizen

• The Sleepwalker's Manifesto, by Kat Clay

• Creatures of the Night Train, by Del Howison

• A Perfect Summer for Baseball, Tentacles, Mutants, and Love, by Barry N. Malzberg & Jack Dann

• Three Bad Actors In A Silvery Room, by Steve Proposch

• Fame Bites, by Anna Tambour

• Leftovers, by Jim Krueger

• The Power of F'thagn, by Scott Driscoll

• Hill-Runner and the Enemy From Behind the Curtain of Stars, by Gerry Huntman

• The Colour Out of Hautdesert, by JM Merryt

• The Sign of Daoloth, by Ramsey Campbell

Seth and Jon are in the balcony to talk about movies made within the last ten years that are considered Lovecraftian, or Lovecraftian adjacent.

But first, thank you to Graeme Patrick for sponsoring this episode! Check out his amazing scenario, Of Sorrow & Clay, available on the Miskatonic Repository on DriveThruRPG.

• Of Sorrow & Clay is an 1880s scenario set deep in the Appalachian Mountains

• Has a fantastic cast of extremely memorable mountain-folk NPCs for the PCs to encounter and 5 pre-gen investigators perfect for this remorse mountain setting

• Some really cool (and new) creatures for the investigators to encounter

• New spells and new magical items, and a couple of really nice handouts

• Just 23 pages + Pregens

• Alex Guillote handled art and design

• Available Roll20 VTT pack for ease of play online

  Of Sorrow & Clay: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/396056/of-sorrow-and-clay?affiliate_id=51821

  Of Sorrow & Clay - Roll20 VTT pack: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/457142/of-sorrow-and-clay-roll20-vtt?affiliate_id=51821 

The Ritual (2017)

• Studio: eOne / Netflix

• Director: David Bruckner

• Staring: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier, & Sam Troughton

• Based on the book, The Ritual, by Adam Nevill

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ritual_(2017_film) 

Older Gods (2023)

• Studio: Wagyu Films

• Director/Writer: David A. Roberts

• Staring: Lindsay Bennett-Thompson, Ieuan Coombs, & Jonathan Keeble

• Making of Podcast: From Dream to Silver Screen (conversations about making this movie)

• https://oldergodsmovie.com/

The Void (2016)

• Studio: D Films / Cave Painting Pictures

• Directors/Writers: Steven Kostanski & Jeremy Gillespie

• Staring: Aaron Poole, Kenneth Welsh, Daniel Fathers, Kathleen Munroe, Ellen Wong, Evan Stern, Trish Rainone, & Mik Byskov 

• Creature special effects crowdfunded on Indiegogo for $82,510 (the rest of the picture was funded traditionally) 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Void_(2016_film) 

Underwater (2020)

• Studio: 20th Century Fox

• Director: William Eubank

• Starring: Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick, John Gallagher Jr, Mamoudou Athie, & T. J. Miller

• Last movie released under the “20th Century Fox” brand, before being rebranded as “20th Century Studios”, and it was a box office bomb

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_(film) 

The Lighthouse (2019)

• Studio: A24 / VVS Films

• Director: Robert Eggers / Writers: Robert Eggers & Max Eggers 

• Starring: Robert Pattinson & Willem Dafoe

• Max Eggers had the original idea for this movie as a re-envisioning of the unfinished Edgar Allan Poe short story with the same title. 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lighthouse_(2019_film) 

We can’t do this show alone. We want to thank our amazing editors Max Mahaffa, Edwin Nagy, and Zach Sokol for their hard work and keen skills at making us sound awesome! 

We also want to thank John Sumrow, for our badass logo. He’s a very talented artist, so please follow him on Facebook, check out his official website,  and please consider joining his Patreon account. Links in the show notes. 

https://www.facebook.com/johnsumrow

http://www.johnsumrow.com

https://www.patreon.com/JohnSumrow

And finally, we want to thank The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets for generously allowing us to use their song, Gluttony, as our intro and outro music. If you are a fan of Lovecraft’s writing and the Call of Cthulhu RPG, then you need to check out The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets. Please check out their BandCamp site and their official band site. Links in the show notes. 

https://thedarkestofthehillsidethickets.bandcamp.com/ 

http://thickets.net/ 

@darkestthickets.bsky.social

And once again, a huge thank you to our sponsor Graeme Patrick. Thanks for listening.

Seth and Jon sojourned to Ypsilanti, (Ann Arbor/Detroit adjacent), for Chaosium Con 2025! As you can well imagine, it was amazing!

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Fire Lizard Games, thank you for sponsoring this episode!

Check out Fire Lizard Games' upcoming Yith Borg game! Designed with the Mork Borg rules, in Yith Borg you are a Yithian looking to stake your claim on Earth in the hellscape aftermath of a Mythos-fueled cataclysm that devastated the planet in 1920.

Check out their Upcoming Projects page at: https://www.firelizardgames.com/upcoming-projects

And check out their full site at: https://www.firelizardgames.com/

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While at Chaosium Con, Seth and Jon did some "Man on the Street" interviews with convention goers we ran into in the lobby/bar in the morning hours of Friday and Saturday. This entire endeavor would not have been possible without friend-of-the-show and new Modern Mythos editor, Zach Sokol! Thank you, Zach!

Zach provided all of the equipment we used to record these "live" sessions, and he fully edited this episode. We are thrilled to add Zach's audio expertise to the team.

We interviewed:

• Ben Burns, of New Comet Games

• Andy Miesem

• Holly Buetow, of RPG Reanimators

• Rina Hensey

• Matt "Doc" Tracey

• Bucho Rodenberger

• Sandy Petersen

• Zach Sokol

We can’t do this show alone. We want to thank our amazing editors Max Mahaffa, Edwin Nagy, and Zach Sokol for their hard work and keen skills at making us sound awesome! 

We also want to thank John Sumrow, for our badass logo. He’s a very talented artist, so please follow him on Facebook, check out his official website,  and please consider joining his Patreon account. Links in the show notes. 

https://www.facebook.com/johnsumrow

http://www.johnsumrow.com

https://www.patreon.com/JohnSumrow

And finally, we want to thank The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets for generously allowing us to use their song, Gluttony, as our intro and outro music. If you are a fan of Lovecraft’s writing and the Call of Cthulhu RPG, then you need to check out The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets. Please check out their BandCamp site and their official band site. Links in the show notes. 

https://thedarkestofthehillsidethickets.bandcamp.com/

http://thickets.net/

@darkestthickets.bsky.social

And once again, a huge thank you to our sponsor Fire Lizard Games. Thanks for listening. 

Chaosium's Cthulhu by Gaslight: Keeper's Guide 

Hardcover book, 261 pages of content, retail price $49.99. A free PDF of the book is included with a purchase of the hardcover book directly from Chaosium.com.

• 7 Chapters, plus 2 Appendices

  • Chapter 1: A Keeper’s Miscellany

  • Chapter 2: Occult Secrets & The Golden Dawn

  • Chapter 3: Running Gaslight Games

  • Chapter 4: Notable Victorians

  • Chapter 5: Victorian Horrors 

  • Chapter 6: The Forby Masterwork (Scenario #1)

  • Chapter 7: Oranges & Lemons (Scenario #2)

  • Appendix A: Keeper Resources 

  • Appendix B: Generic Victorians

• Separate indexes for the Main Book, Each Scenario, and Tables

• Free pre-gen, player maps, and Keeper maps downloads for the two included scenarios

Note: The Resources section of Chaosium’s website has not been updated to feature free downloads of the updated CoC Gaslight character sheets displayed in the new Cthulhu by Gaslight: Investigators’ Guide and Cthulhu by Gaslight: Keeper’s Guide.

Final Thoughts: Seth and Jon agree, this is a "must have" book for any group looking to play Call of Cthulhu in London's fog-shrouded Victorian period.

Jon and Seth are joined by Oscar Rios, President of Golden Goblin Press. We ask him about the latest news coming out of Golden Goblin Press, and why the Miskatonic Valley is such an attractive locale for Lovecraftian Gothic horror.

This episode is sponsored by Matt "Doc" Tracey, and his amazing Call of Cthulhu scenarios, Ghost Trade, and Lights in the Trees.

Ghost Trade is a classic 1920s scenario set in the fictional town of Pennybrook, Maine. The investigators visit Pennybrook to study a spike in the number of earthquakes in the region. Townsfolk say the earthquakes are the result of the Pennybrook ghost. Clearly, there is a rational scientific reason for the earthquakes, and the investigators are determined to find out what it is.

Ghost Trade on DriveThruRPG

Lights in the Trees is a 1975 post-Vietnam War setting scenario. The investigators are veterans of the War, platoon brothers, who are called back together to help one of their own who’s having trouble adjusting to life back at home. Can they help their friend conquer his personal demons, or will those demons consume them as well?

Lights in the Trees on DriveThruRPG

Islands of Ignorance: The Third Cthulhu Companion Kickstarter, and Dark Seas of Infinity: The Fourth Cthulhu Companion, and Legacy of Shadows:

 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/golden-goblin-press/island-of-ignorance-the-third-cthulhu-companion-for-7e/description

Oscar Rios Lovecraft Wiki list of credits: https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Oscar_Rios

We can’t do this show alone. We want to thank our amazing editors Max Mahaffa and Edwin Nagy for their hard work and keen skills at making us sound awesome! 

We also want to thank John Sumrow, for our badass logo. He’s a very talented artist, so please follow him on Facebook, check out his official website,  and please consider joining his Patreon account. Links in the show notes. 

https://www.facebook.com/johnsumrow

http://www.johnsumrow.com

https://www.patreon.com/JohnSumrow

And finally, we want to thank The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets for generously allowing us to use their song, Gluttony, as our intro and outro music. If you are a fan of Lovecraft’s writing and the Call of Cthulhu RPG, then you need to check out The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets. Please check out their BandCamp site and their official band site. Links in the show notes. 

https://thedarkestofthehillsidethickets.bandcamp.com/ 

http://thickets.net/

A Miskatonic University professor and his team of student archeologists has gone missing. The university is dispatching a new team to find their missing personnel.

Featuring:

Seth Skorkowsky as Dr. Caleb Buchman, a medical physician

David Moore as Mr. Gilbert Palmer, a dilettante playboy (but also a secret cult leader)

Rob Dennis as Mr. Hampton Fincher, an investigative journalist

Andy Miesem as Mr. Shelby Avery, an occult bookstore owner

Jon Hook as the Keeper of Arcane Lore

Doorway of the Gods is the third chapter in the Time for Sacrifice campaign, by Ben Burns, Brian Courtemanche, and Jonathan Bagelman.

A Miskatonic University professor and his team of student archeologists has gone missing. The university is dispatching a new team to find their missing personnel.

Featuring:

Seth Skorkowsky as Dr. Caleb Buchman, a medical physician

David Moore as Mr. Gilbert Palmer, a dilettante playboy (but also a secret cult leader)

Rob Dennis as Mr. Hampton Fincher, an investigative journalist

Andy Miesem as Mr. Shelby Avery, an occult bookstore owner

Jon Hook as the Keeper of Arcane Lore

Doorway of the Gods is the third chapter in the Time for Sacrifice campaign, by Ben Burns, Brian Courtemanche, and Jonathan Bagelman.

A Miskatonic University professor and his team of student archeologists has gone missing. The university is dispatching a new team to find their missing personnel.

Featuring:

Seth Skorkowsky as Dr. Caleb Buchman, a medical physician

David Moore as Mr. Gilbert Palmer, a dilettante playboy (but also a secret cult leader)

Rob Dennis as Mr. Hampton Fincher, an investigative journalist

Andy Miesem as Mr. Shelby Avery, an occult bookstore owner

Jon Hook as the Keeper of Arcane Lore

Doorway of the Gods is the third chapter in the Time for Sacrifice campaign, by Ben Burns, Brian Courtemanche, and Jonathan Bagelman.

A Miskatonic University professor and his team of student archeologists has gone missing. The university is dispatching a new team to find their missing personnel.

Featuring:

Seth Skorkowsky as Dr. Caleb Buchman, a medical physician

David Moore as Mr. Gilbert Palmer, a dilettante playboy (but also a secret cult leader)

Rob Dennis as Mr. Hampton Fincher, an investigative journalist

Andy Miesem as Mr. Shelby Avery, an occult bookstore owner

Jon Hook as the Keeper of Arcane Lore

Doorway of the Gods is the third chapter in the Time for Sacrifice campaign, by Ben Burns, Brian Courtemanche, and Jonathan Bagelman.

Sponsor:

We want to thank authors David Trotti and Amy Kate Connolly for sponsoring this episode. They are the authors of the absolutely amazing, Japan: Empire of Shadows, the definitive sourcebook for roleplaying in Imperial Japan during the late Taisho and early Showa eras (1920 - 1932).

Japan: Empire of Shadows provides single-session story hooks and multi-session narrative threads, and it includes information to play either as foreign investigators or as Japanese investigators. The 400 page book includes 334 unique locations, 35 full color maps, over 70 NPCs, 20 player handouts, 6 pre-generated investigators, new spells, new Mythos tomes, new monsters, a concise history of the island nation, the Japanese people, and so much more.  Japan: Empire of Shadow has achieved Platinum Level sales on DriveThruRPG. And it’s clear, with every page, that David and Amy took meticulous care to create an unparalleled sourcebook for the Call of Cthulhu game. 

We also want to take this moment to remember that Amy and David lost their home in the LA wildfires. In addition to buying their amazing sourcebook of Japan, please consider sending a donation to the American Red Cross. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/446091/japan-empire-of-shadows-a-call-of-cthulhu-sourcebook-for-1920s-imperial-japan?affiliate_id=51821 

Matt Ryan - Artist/Cartographer/Musician/Punk Rocker! Reckoning of the Dead: https://reckoningofthedead.wordpress.com/  Blog with Noah Lloyd

Official Chaosium cartographer

Currently running Masks of Nyarlathotep in parallel with Bob Geis “Armchair Keepers of Arcane Secrets”  https://www.youtube.com/@ArmchairKeepersofArcaneSecrets

We can’t do this show alone. We want to thank our amazing editors Max Mahaffa and Edwin Nagy for their hard work and keen skills at making us sound awesome!

We also want to thank John Sumrow, for our badass logo. He’s a very talented artist, so please follow him on Facebook, check out his official website,  and please consider joining his Patreon account. Links in the show notes.

https://www.facebook.com/johnsumrow

http://www.johnsumrow.com

https://www.patreon.com/JohnSumrow

And finally, we want to thank The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets for generously allowing us to use their song, Gluttony, as our intro and outro music. If you are a fan of Lovecraft’s writing and the Call of Cthulhu RPG, then you need to check out The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets. Please check out their BandCamp site and their official band site. Links in the show notes. 

https://thedarkestofthehillsidethickets.bandcamp.com/ 

http://thickets.net/

And once again, a huge thank you to our sponsor Japan: Empire of Shadow, by David Trotti and Amy Kate Connolly. Remember to hit the link in the show notes and pick it up. And please consider donating to the American Red Cross. Thanks for listening.