A quick little ghost story for this time. This poem mentions “Nodier” and he’s one of the authors we will be dabbling with next year. Charles Nodier’s Infernaliana was one of the earliest French collections of vampire stories. The poem below was released through Librviox. Thanks to Alan Mapstone, and the production team. In Spain,…
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False, But Beautiful by John Rollin Ridge
Another avatar of our old friend the Infernal Saint of Sorrow. Thanks to Winston Tharp for the recording. Dark as a demon’s dream is one I love—In soul—but oh, how beautiful in form!She glows like Venus throned in joy above,Or on the crimson couch of Evening warmReposing her sweet limbs, her heaving breastUnveiled to him…
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Cellini and the unicorn from Dunsany
Another little episode for Christmas Week 2021. For the last year or so we’ve worked through The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany. In an odd coda, we find the unicorn horn from it turn up in the biography of Benevenuto Cellini, which is the replacement for next year. Thanks to David Lazarus and…
Read MoreTwo Old Bachelors by Edward Lear
A Merry Christmas. I hope this poem finds you well. Thanks to Craig Franklin for the read, and his Librivox production team. Two old Bachelors were living in one house;One caught a Muffin, the other caught a Mouse.Said he who caught the Muffin to him who caught the Mouse,–‘This happens just in time! For we’ve…
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Cellini and the hailstorm
In this brief section, Cellini suffers what may be a miracle for his murders, or it may be a spell effect. Note his travelling companion tries the Miserere, which we’ve discussed in an earlier episode. Thanks to Joyce Martin and her team for the recording. We were one day distant from Lyons, and it was…
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The Wondersmith by Fitz-James O’Brien
Fitz-James O’Brien monsters are great for Ars Magica, but he was extremely racist. In this story, for example, goes after Jews, Romani and Neopolitans, and that’s just in the first four sentences. That means I can’t record them for Librivox, because we have a policy of not bowdlerising the text we are recording and I’m…
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Magonomia – Signals intelligence in Elizabethan England
You’d be be amazed how bad tradecraft is in Elizabethan England., Seriously, some of the techniques they used are now games for children. Let’s think about what they were doing, and what your character can do about it. The basic technique of sigint that Walsingham uses is interception of mail. There’s no postal system as…
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Pentamerone – Sapia Liccardia
Sapia the Glutton, as Burton calls it, has the following faux Jacobean summary “Sapia with her ability maintaineth herself in all honour, in spite of the bad example of her sisters, their father being away. She laugheth at her lover, and foreseeing the danger which overshadoweth her, she surpasseth it; and at last the king’s…
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Magonomia – Alchemical terror and treasure-filled poultry (introducing Benvenuto Cellini)
Cellini was a Florentine goldsmith who lived during Elizabeth’s reign. He wrote a lengthy biography in which he confesses to serial murder and necromancy, but its the little boasts which make him particularly charming. If you’re an Ars Magica player his petty pride is perfect for a Verditus magus, and if you play Magonomia, his…
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“Eyes” by Galen Colin from “Weird Tales” 1924
A ghost story with a cheat at the end, which could still be a great Ars Magica monster. Statistics eventually. Thanks to Dale Grothman and his team at Librivox. *** “Happy” Bill Ransom of struggling Medical College days is now Dr. William Ransom, world renowned surgeon, and collects thousands in fat fees every year. But…
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Games From Folktales 