Moonlight Over a Ruined Village

            For tonight’s tale, we join a doomed soul that has been locked away. He was first removed from society, and then from all sources of light. His sanity did not survive. The years he spent in his perpetually darkened cell could not be counted by his broken mind. He clawed at unforgiving walls and pulled at iron bars until his body failed him. He devoted his wretched life to vain attempts at escaping that darkness, and he failed every time. Soon the denizens of the darkness found him and dined on his flesh and blood. Before long, he was forced into a sickening communion with these horrible creatures.             Satisfied with his ruined state, his captors pulled him from his cell, threw him into the back of a vehicle, and dumped him onto a dirt road in the middle of a ruined village. But it is not just any ruined village. It is the very village from which he was abducted. In fact, it is the very village he played a role in ruining. Emboldened by the familiarity of the road beneath his feet, he sets out to reclaim his village.             Those plans are cut short by the arrival of two goons known as them boys. They inform the prisoner that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated in this village. In fact, they are there to see to it that he accepts the changes all of them have been through. The prisoner then has to acknowledge the horrific changes he was forced to undergo in the darkness.               This tale is dark and deals with imprisonment, supernatural elements, body horror, mistrust in government institutions, and antisocial behavior. Moreover, it contains profanity and references to past stories. Listener discretion is advised.

            Tonight is the night we conclude season four. It began with the cult of the Spider taking control of the ruined village. They assigned the River Road crew to punish Tomisaburo, deal with the Devil monk, assist the faceless man, and locate the weasel. Over the past season, they have taken bold steps to accomplish some of those tasks. Some of it may have even been intentional. However, the weasel eludes them still. With his ability to make copies of himself, it seems like he will plague them forever. Yet that was before Tomisaburo got involved. He was the one who taught him all his tricks, after all.             The weasel has been busy this season. He has secured a contract with the government to produce the mind control drug they used last year to manipulate the village population. They want to have the drug in their possession, mostly because they don’t want other players to have access to it. So they send a hapless government stooge to finalize the deal. Amidst the neon lights of a local bar in the mountain village, they agree to sign the contracts at an abandoned amusement park the next evening.             This does not go well. Neither of them remembers who chose the amusement park as a place to meet. Moreover, the stooge and the weasel have different memories of the previous evening. As they struggle to make sense of it all, they are confronted by a mysterious figure in a Kimono with an array of fox tails at his back. He has come for the weasel, and he is taking him to settle a score. But the weasel has made friends in the mountains, and they will not let him go without a fight. That’s fine with the Kitsune, though. He brought an ass-whoopin with him, and he needs to use it before it expires. This is the night old scores are settled and new ones are forged.             This tale contains violence, body horror, references to irresponsible alcohol consumption, occult themes, and gore. Moreover, it expresses mistrust in authority, bureaucracy, and the government. It doesn’t matter which one. Take your pick. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we join a lone stranger who fancies himself something of a celebrity. He has journeyed to a nearby resort town to investigate a strange incident. The employees of a local distillery claim mysterious entities have interfered with their production operations. The entities themselves defy explanation, as their actions are too erratic to be those of humans. However, the skills necessary to perform those actions are too advanced to be those of animals. The locals suspect supernatural forces are at work. Some even go so far as to declare them to be deities from the local mountain.             However, our celebrity has a different theory. He believes the hauntings are being perpetrated by entities from his past. These entities dealt him a wound, and he refuses to bear that wound in silence. So he goes to the town to investigate. His likeable face grants him information about the haunting, and his nefarious skills grant him access to the site of the haunting. When the entities appear, he decides then and there to confront them. When he does, things immediately go very wrong.               For the entities themselves remember the celebrity, as they were wounded by him as well. Moreover, they have a score to settle with the celebrity. But they are not alone. For our celebrity has made his share of mistakes in the past, and the victims of those mistakes now demand compensation. It soon becomes apparent to all that the only solution to their problems is to conduct an involuntary medical procedure. The recipient of the procedure stands no chance of enjoying the experience, but he will probably survive.             This episode is the second-to-last tale for season four. The next tale will be the final tale of the season. This tale obviously contains themes of medical horror. It’s not fun, but it’s not really that bad. However, this tale also contains supernatural themes, descriptions of alcohol abuse, discussions of urban decay, antisocial sentiment, profanity, and disregard for public order. Moreover, it contains references to previous tales. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we find ourselves in the parking lot of an electronic store. The reputation of the store has always been negative. Yet the discovery of animate corpses on the second floor of the premises has damaged the store’s reputation beyond repair. These corpses were animated by the pedantic psychopath known as the Turkey. He has operated unopposed for so long that the situation has festered and worsened right before the eyes of the community. The Professor, who is the acting manager of the store, is desperate to rid his store of the animate dead. Moreover, he wants to free the village from the Turkey’s relentless nonsense. But the job is too big for him alone.             In the past, the River Road crew could be counted on to help folk when they were down and out. Furthermore, they knew when to keep fools in check. However, they are nowhere to be seen. To make matters worse, the town drunk, in his capacity as a liaison to city hall, has done nothing to address the problem. So the Professor is alone.             Yet chance soon brings the Kitsune noble known as Tomisaburo to his store. He is accompanied by the mysterious Rook. The two of them intent to find the animate dead so that they can inhume them. They soon find an eager partner in the Professor, and the three of them waste no time forging a plan to eliminate the animate dead and to solve the problem of the Turkey once and for all.             Yet the plan they undertake is not going to be subtle. In fact, the three of them are fed up with the village and will do little to spare it from damage. While the River Road crew operated in the darkened back streets, the Undertakers are going to start a full-blown riot in a parking lot. Furthermore, the whole village is invited, whether they like it or not.               This tale contains body horror, violence, occult themes, and profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

            Tonight, we will visit a lonely second-hand electronics store. It was once the center of a criminal conspiracy that came close to destroying the ruined village, and its situation has not improved much since. The management has been replaced by a member of the River Road crew known as the Professor, who has a reputation for being the most sober member of the drunkest group in town. Assisting him is the Craftsman, who is in charge of repairing the electronics.             However, the craftsman used to be the notorious Turkey, a pedantic little shithead who was once at the center of the very conspiracy the store is trying to leave in the past. This was the same Turkey who created the two ventriloquist dummies that became possessed by an angry ghost. It all worked out in the end, but it could have just as easily gone wrong. Unwilling to abandon his past folly, the Turkey has devised a way to animate corpses. Shockingly enough, the River Road crew does not oppose this course of action. Indeed, the protectors of the ruined village just don’t seem to care.             So our Professor finds himself alone in a den of madness. Corpses stumble around him as the sickening turkey man needles him into signing invoices for the materials he is using to ruin the village again. The only rational course of action for this man of reason is to abandon the village once and for all. Yet this plan is interrupted by the arrival of an old enemy, who is about to become the best friend he ever had. Provided, of course, he is able to survive their first endeavor.             This tale contains corpses animated via electronic implants and a person being pistol whipped. It also contains descriptions of government corruption, incompetence, and nepotism. Furthermore, it contains violence beyond the pistol whipping, medical horror, occult themes, and a surprising amount of profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

            Tonight’s tale concerns a pitiful creature known as a weasel. It awakens to find itself surrounded by darkness, pain, and death. Venom is coursing through its body and threatening to wipe out the weasel’s mind. But there remains within it an undying worm of self-preservation that empowers the weasel to escape.              After a great deal of unpleasantness and a change of clothes, the weasel steps out onto the River Road and its memories come back to it. No, they come back to him. He remembers a time when he was the chief player in both the river village and the mountain village. He was second in command to Tomisaburo, the leader of the syndicate that enslaved the entire village.             As he walks down the River Road, his thoughts linger on his past triumphs and his vanquished foes. His most pathetic victim was a lowly drunkard named Reggie. You may be familiar with him. The weasel had stolen his bones and left him to die on that very road. Yet the weasel has no remorse for that death. In fact, every step he takes on that blood-soaked road strengthens his resolve to return to his former greatness. He then sees a solitary man leaning on a stick under a streetlight, and he makes a plan. He decides to feed on this man as he fed on so many men before him.  So the weasel, who has just risen from hell, stalks his prey with the intent of slowly stealing his life from him until he dies. The only audience to this sickening spectacle is the moonlight and a growing conspiracy of ravens. They have decided to gather at this exact spot, and the weasel is not going to be happy when he finds out why.             This tale contains themes of body horror, more themes of body horror, and to be honest, the weasel throws up a bit. I don’t want to surprise anyone with that sort of thing, so there it is. Furthermore, this tale contains violence, contempt for humanity, themes of corporate corruption, and profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we find ourselves beneath the ruined village. Our guide through this realm of unforgiving darkness is the ethereal Sachiko, the charming snake deity who has captured the hearts of the River Road crew. With her in the tunnels are the devil monk and the weasel. They are her unwilling guests as she unravels the mystery of why the faceless man now looks like Chico Marx.             Yet something is different about her this evening. She no longer has any semblance of patience for these creeps that are ruining the village she has claimed as her own. She had a good thing going with this village, and she’s going to put an end to the nonsense these creepy assholes are perpetuating. And she is not going to be nice about it. She is going to enslave the minds of these two creeps and make them tell her everything she wants to know about the whole sordid affair.             But none of the River Road crew will mind. She has secured their compliance to her methods long ago through the preternatural abilities typical of her elevated kind. They are working to save the village, and they have righteousness on their side. Her means are extreme, and she is no longer going to be gentle in her approach. Tonight, the ruin ends.                       Yet not all of the players on the stage are enthralled by Sachiko. There remain two beings who can see beyond Sachiko’s glamour. They can see her as the venomous serpent who has charmed us all from the beginning. But she is not the only player that has been charming us from the beginning. And though she wishes to enact the final stage in her plan to save the village, there are other plans that she is oblivious to.             This tale contains themes of body horror, violence, and brutality. It also contains descriptions of highly antisocial behavior and profanity. Listener discretion is advised.    

            The world is falling down around us, and the situation does not seem to be improving. The streets are still congested, the sidewalks are more broken than they were before, and all public places are more crowded than they have any right to be. But there are a few remaining places we can go to escape the madness. For we still have our ruined village beneath the moonlight.             One year ago, I started this podcast to provide all of you with a place to safely observe a village as it falls into a state of ruin. We started with a drunkard being chased by a creep with a printed face, and the village has only gotten stranger since then. Yet it still endures, and its tales will continue to haunt most of the places where podcasts are available. However, I would like to announce that the shadow of the village is spreading even further. I warned all of you this would happen in the past, and although it has taken much longer than I thought it would, it has finally happened.             Moonlight Over a Ruined Village is now an e-book series, and the first collection of tales from our archives is currently available for purchase on Amazon. Again, this collection is in an e-book format, and it is internationally available on Amazon sites. These are the tales that started it all. From the man with the printed face to the mysterious Rook whoopin ass up and down the village, these tales mark the points in the village’s history when things started to get really lit. This collection also includes the tales of the discarded bones, the abandoned shamisen, the two jackasses fighting over bottles, the weirdos shoving bones into the gutter, the turkey-necked jackass with his homicidal ventriloquist dummy, and the penultimate ass whoopin that those creeps at the game center so sorely needed. This is your chance to read these tales for yourself at your own pace.             This collection contains versions of the tales that have been revised and expanded to accommodate the increasingly complex occurrences of the village. It also contains an introduction and an afterword that provide additional insight into how these tales came to be. Furthermore, purchasing this collection is a great way to help support this podcast, and to ensure the creation of future episodes.             As with everything associated with this podcast, these tales contain violence, occult themes, antisocial behavior, horror, excessive alcohol consumption, ventriloquist dummies, contempt for public transportation, and gratuitous profanity. Furthermore, reading these tales will more than likely make you deeply mistrustful of darkened roads that run along lonely rivers. Reader discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we join Sachiko as she rides the bus to meet with her colleague. Since she is a snake deity, every interaction she has with the human world is strange to her. So she puts in the effort to understand the humans around her and the nature of their actions. Doing this enables her to move about amidst the humans largely unnoticed. Yet on this bus ride, she encounters something too strange for even this ruined village. For on this bus, she happens to look at the passenger in the seats next to her. When she does, she finds herself looking into the face of Chico Marx.             She quickly deduces that this is not the real Chico Marx. Nobody in their right mind would think it was, after all. Furthermore, it is obviously more of the silly bullshit she has to deal every time she comes to this ruined village. So she contacts her colleague the professor, to listen to his learned opinion. The two of them decide that the asshole wearing the face of Chico Marx is none other than the man with the printed face. He has changed his paper faces for faces made of flesh, and the two of them want to find out how he did it.             They soon find themselves at the game center that once acted as the gathering place for the cabal that kept the faceless man in a prolonged state of drugged servitude. They also find a large amount of artificial flesh that was shoved into a copy machine for some stupid-ass reason. They trace the flesh back to the inner chamber of the tunnel complex that runs beneath the village. It is there that they find one of the architects of the gruesome spectacle they stumbled upon. Weary of living in a constant state of uncertainty, Sachiko takes it upon herself to end this nonsense. She steps forward and reminds these stupid-ass humans why they should mind their manners when elevated folk are about.             This tale contains references to the Marx Brothers, Charlotte Brontë, and Rodney Dangerfield. Moreover, it contains themes of medical horror, mutilation, violence, and gore. As if that were not bad enough, it contains profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we find ourselves back in the ruined village. Strange events continue to occur there, and their grotesque players continue to lurk in the darkened corners of the village. Yet they are largely held in check by the efforts of them boys and their crew. Now the village can even pass for quaint on its better days. However, one strange figure still terrorizes the doomed inmates of the village. More importantly, the town drunk and them boys still have an old score to settle.             The man with the printed face, or the faceless man, as he is also known, still glares out at the world from the darkness. So them boys and the town drunk decide to do something about it. They embark on a hunt for the faceless man, to find out once and for all, what the hell his whole deal is. To do this, they enlist the aid of Tomisaburo, their former enemy and the self-appointed demon fox lord of the village.               Why they enlist his aid remains unknown. Perhaps they need his expertise in the hellish underworld. Maybe the wounds he inflicted on them gained their respect. It’s entirely possible they forgot they ever had a fight with him in the first place. Whatever the case, the four of them set out to hunt for the faceless man.                While the three humans hunt through the liquor sections of every store around them, Tomisaburo finds something disturbing. He discovers human faces, that have been discarded and strewn about the village. Some unearthly power is creating human faces and discarding them throughout the village. Tomisaburo quickly deduces that these faces are being created for the faceless man.             This escalation of the madness that has plagued the village for too long threatens to destroy the fragile peace they have managed to bring to the village. So they hunt for the discarded faces, hoping they will lead them to the faceless man. Ultimately, they do find him, but he has gone through some considerable changes. He is now a major threat to the village, and he must be dealt with. The faceless man has returned to the village that broke him, and he brought some new tricks with him.             This tale contains frequent mention of discarded faces and other themes of body horror. Moreover, it contains references to gore, antisocial behavior, alcohol consumption, and violence. Furthermore, it contains profanity. Listener discretion is advised.  

            For tonight’s tale, we join another solitary pilgrim who has the audacity to walk on the river road after nightfall. The night on which he chose to do this dangerous activity is the night of the Wild Hunt. Though this tradition is forgotten amidst the chaotic events that happen in the ruined village on a regular basis, the gods have not forgotten. This night is when supernatural denizens are led by the Queen of Winter. They hunt for living souls to enlist in their endless hunt.             This solitary figure finds himself amidst an assembly of otherworldly creatures being led by the Queen of Winter, who demands he fulfill his end of the hunt by being their prey. However, things soon fall apart when it is discovered that he is too weak to run from them. Deprived of a means to satisfy their bloodlust, they have to alter the details of the hunt. Soon, the nature of the hunt is changed greatly. It then becomes unclear which side of the conflict is hunting which.             This tale deals with ghosts, death, horror, supernatural elements, and despair.  It also contains mentions of irresponsible alcohol consumption. Furthermore, it occasionally resorts to the use of profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s episode, I explain why there was a delay in the release of this episode. That involves me recounting a strange incident that occurred while I was conducting field work for the next episode. This episode will serve to give you an idea of the hardships and dangers I face to bring these episodes to you on a semi regular basis. Despite the informal nature of this episode, it still includes references to violence, excessive alcohol consumption, charlatanism, and profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we follow a lone fox as it emerges from its burrow. It has just healed from wounds dealt to it in the past, and it needs to hunt to regain its strength. So the fox ventures out to capture its prey. After a successful hunt, it returns to its burrow. It is that satisfied it has secured its survival for the immediate future.             However, the prey is far from normal. It was infected by some unknown force that animates it into a grotesque mockery of life. The prey captures the newly healed fox and drags it from the safety of its burrow. Then, the fox, who some of us may know by the name of Tomisaburo, is confronted by one of his former victims. Tomisaburo is then dragged through the streets to serve as an example to all of the denizens of the ruined village. The journey is a hard one for him, as he is forced to endure beatings and humiliation. The fact that all of it is justified doesn’t lessen the weight of his burden. His ultimate destination is unknown to him, but he is sure he doesn’t want to go there.             Along the way, they encounter the town drunk. He is more than familiar with Tomisaburo and his past crimes. The drunkard accompanies Tomisaburo as he nears the end of this gruesome procession. Though the conditions are far from ideal, the two of them eventually reach something of an understanding and reveal their honest opinions about each other. But it is far too late. The bond of camaraderie they form is tainted by the sense of doom that overshadows the end of their journey. For amidst the drunken ramblings of the town drunk lurk hints of the doom that awaits Tomisaburo at the end of his journey. And for him, that end has arrived.             This tale contains descriptions of beatings, vampirism, zombification, antisocial behavior, alcohol and tobacco consumption, and the use of profanity. Listener discretion is advised.  

            For tonight’s tale we follow a lone IT specialist as he whiles away his life working for a pharmaceutical company. However, this is no normal pharmaceutical company. For it has government contracts to produce chemical weapons that can be used to remove the bones from the living. Fortunately for out IT specialist, he knows all about those contracts. In fact, he is not even an IT specialist. He is a spy that was sent to that company to find those very chemicals. He was sent by none other than the spider deity, who has claimed control over the mountain village and the river village.             In his capacity as lord of these villages, he aims to find a cure for the victims of their cruel experiments. So he made his best disciple into his chief specialist and sent him to obtain the means to do so. However, between our specialist and the chemicals he needs to make that cure lurks a horror beyond imagination. For those chemicals are being kept in the domain of the creature known by its creators as the Skin Doll. This creature is the result of the horrific experiments being conducted at the facility, and is being kept alive for nefarious purposes.             Our specialist will have to enter the domain of this creature and ultimately deal with it. But out specialist has died before, only to be reborn as something beyond human. By the order of the spider deity, he fears no darkness. For the cult of the spider has claimed lordship over the entirety of both of these two villages, and that includes the denizens of the places too dark to even be imagined.             This tale contains themes of mutilation, medical horror, bureaucracy.  Human resources departments, office culture, occult activities, and profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

            In this episode, I will talk to you like a normal person and give you some insight into what it’s like to do field work in these two ruined villages. Please be warned that I will resort to the use of course language to do so. I may also mention violence, occult activities, and antisocial behavior. For those reasons, and probably others that I am too far gone to even notice, listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we revisit an incident that had a monumental impact on both the River Village and the Mountain Village. Yet we will not concern ourselves with that tale, for it was not true. Not only that, it was a shameful falsehood intended to cover up the folly of the wolves of the mountain. That had been charged with protecting the mountain, and they had been found lacking.             This is the tale of the young man who forced the wolves of the mountain to own up to their ineptitude. Our hero was a proud resident of the mountain village. He was proud of its rich history and cultural heritage. His ancestors called to him through these tales. For the mountain village was founded by fiercely rugged people who thrived amidst the supernatural elements of the strange, shadowy mountain. His ancestors made homes for themselves where others feared to even tread. For they dared to form an alliance with the dark elements of the mountain. Our hero stared into the dark places of the mountain, hoping to see what his ancestors saw.             But the dark places faded away when the tourists arrived. Soon, the tales our hero grew up with became entertainment for the throngs of tourists who come to the mountain to gawk at things other people told them were important. Our hero could no longer accept the fact that his village was becoming nothing more than a tourist attraction. So he found the worst tourist of the lot and whooped his ass. He whooped his ass good and proper. He whooped that ass in the spirit of his proud ancestors. And for that act of resistance to overtourism, he was expelled from his village.             Cast out of the light, he sought out the darkness. Yet he never suspected that the darkness had been creeping closer and closer to him all of his life. As he makes his way from the village, the cult of the Spider claims him for their own. They offer him a chance to join the darkness at the heart of the village. So he is faced with a choice. Should he make peace with the modern world, or should he embrace the inhuman forces that lurk in the darkness. The decision he ultimately makes shapes the fates of both villages. For the cult of the spider has come to power, and their members are everywhere.             This tale contains profanity, overtourism, violence, antisocial behavior, occult elements, and references to excessive alcohol consumption. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, I explain why this week’s episode is late. I also give you a bit of insight into how these episodes are made, and what it's like to deal with the denizens of these villages. Though this is not a full episode, I still managed to include profanity in it for some reason. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we look upon an abandoned house. It was the scene of a horrific attack on a family that left one dead and two wounded. The attack was so brutal and savage that the surviving brothers could live there no longer. At least, that’s was version of the story that was told to a lone priest, who had previously been content to passively observe the village around him. However, this tale inspired him to take an active role in investigating the house. He is a member of a secretive sect that specializes in communing with the dead. Their practitioners are few and their methods are unconventional. Yet this lone priest from a renegade sect will dare to test their methods against whatever wickedness is lurking in that house.             When he enters the abandoned house, he is confronted with an angry ghost that forces him to question his sanity, his faith, and his mental fortitude. This test is brought to an abrupt conclusion when the doorbell rings. Behind the door, he is confronted by two hulking brutes that demand his signature. They have a terrible burden to place upon his shoulders, and they will not leave until he signs his name to their unearthly document and accepts that burden. If you’re familiar with the village, you probably know the dread burden that the priest is made to bear. It’s an ass whoopin, administered by them boys, who are back in town. They’ve returned to teach the priest to mind his manners and pick up after himself.             Humbled, our priest gets on the bus to make his way back to his home. Yet on the bus, he has a chance encounter that greatly changes the nature of his relationship with the village. Armed with a new outlook, our humble priest decides he is no longer content to watch others from the shadows. He now intends to become an active player in the tragedy that is our ruined village.             This tale contains profanity, violence, course language, and descriptions of antisocial behavior. Listener discretion is advised.

            I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the ruined village. If you’re new here, the flowers are beautiful this time of year, so you picked a great time to join us. Other than the flowers, the rest of the place is fairly ruined. It would be a good idea to watch where you step. In fact, go ahead and bring an extra pair of shoes. Shoes don’t tend to last long in the village.             Our returning listeners probably think they’re familiar with the state of the ruin at the heart of the village. Well, a lot has happened since our last visit. The pack of roving drunks we all know and love are now the River Road crew. They have claimed their rightful position as the law of the land. This claim was supported by the Cult of the Spider, who have taken control of the River Village and its neighboring Mountain Village. The birdman is locked away in a cage, the fox is in hiding, and the other creeps will be dealt with soon enough. So it may be a good time to come back to the village to see who survived the last season.             It’s a new day in the village, and the old problems have all been solved or run off. A whole new set of problems is around the corner, so let’s hope the River Road crew notices. The Cult of the Spider may even prove to be understanding and compassionate in their reign. But that doesn’t seem likely. Given that spiders never have been known for their compassion, it’s best to be prepared for anything. But rest assured that no matter what dangers await us on the River Road, the bus that takes us out of there will be late.

            Moonlight Over a Ruined Village is a Weird Fiction anthology podcast dedicated to weird and scary stories. These stories deal with people caught in the grasp of social decay and are based on accounts collected from the residents of a suburban village that has fallen into a state of ruin.             Though the names of the people and locations have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved in these events, the events could happen anywhere at any time. These tales deal with dark themes and disturbing content that some listeners may find troubling. In addition, there is a fair bit or profanity, so listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we meet the cult of the spider. Their leader has been lurking in the shadows of all of these tales. He watched the wolves move into the mountain village, and he did nothing. He watched the river village fall into a state of ruin, and he did nothing. He watched the demented followers of the wolf of the mountain perpetrate their sick bone removal ritual on a lonely traveler, and he did nothing. Yet when the character known as the bird man started to manipulate the denizens of both villages, he started to plot in the darkness.             The birdman then used the bone removal ritual on the denizen of the river village to strengthen his control over them. When those lost souls howled through the ether, the spider answered their call. He took them in, listened to them, and he was angered. These lost souls could not forgive the torment they suffered at the hands of the birdman.             So they all discussed the matter in the darkness, and formed the cult of the spider. For his first act as their leader, he shook the strands of their web which had been woven throughout both villages. This act set events in motion that would send all the characters exactly where he wanted them to be.             Tonight, the trap is set, the pieces are in place, and their plan of dominion is enacted. They will capture the birdman and see that he suffers. They will then establish his rulership over both villages. Tonight, the chaos of the past comes to an end. Tonight is the night that order is established. This order is that of the cult of the spiders, and they will suffer no nonsense.             This tale marks the end of season one. Season two may follow shortly. For nothing is guaranteed on the River Road. This tale contains exposition, violence, profanity, antisocial behavior, and horror. Listener discretion is advised.

            Tonight is the night we look back over the second seven episodes of the series. First, we meet the mysterious Sachiko as she rides the bus into the ruined village. She has come to investigate the bizarre incidents the area has become known for. Then we meet the solitary thug on his way to meet someone about a job, which does not go well for him at all. Next, we meet Reggie, who was once down and out, but who managed to pull himself back up. He uses his second chance at life to rid the ruined village of the nonsense that’s been plaguing it.             Then we go back to the time when Tomisaburo first met the Bird man and proposed the formation of the cabal that is responsible for most of the ruin in the village.  Next, we find a man who is tormented by a ghost. He seeks help with the devil monk, but soon decided to try his luck with them boys and their crew. They have a really good time solving his problem, which is great, uplifting, and fun for all of the.               The next episode makes up for that by being really dark and scary. That’s where we deal with the cabal and the sick process they devised for removing bones from the living. And finally, we have the epic tale of a lone wanderer who gets lost walking on a strait road next to a river. She soon runs into them boys and their crew, who solve none of her problems. Instead, they take her on a tour of every convenience store parking lot in the neighborhood. They then proceed to incur the wrath of everyone in their neighborhood.             For tonight is the night we examine where these tales came from, and we speculate where they are going. Because nobody who sets foot in the ruined village ends up where they intended. This episode contains profanity, violence, references to previous episodes, and antisocial behavior. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we finally address the issue of the weasel, for he has been lurking in the background of these tales for far too long. While his story is as tragic as you probably think it is, there are supernatural elements woven throughout the weasel’s misspent life that may shock you. The weasel possesses supernatural powers that enabled it to survive the hatred all living creatures. These powers were given to him by a notorious fox deity by the name of Tomisaburo. He bestowed upon him unnatural abilities of transfiguration and regeneration. These gifts were given to him just to enable him to survive the torments he enacted on the weasel in jest. But when Tomisaburo meets the sinister dirt spider, the idle play, sick though it is, soon turns into a conspiracy to enslave the denizens of the ruined village.                     Tomisaburo and the dirt spider devise a plan to use the weasel as the tool he is to infiltrate the pharmaceutical company at the foot of the mountain of the wolf. Once inside, they will create a chemical that will enable them to manipulate the residents of the ruined village. But like all things from the village, this plan is also ruined. It is not long before the weasel catches the attention of the wolf deity, and the wolf deity does not like what he finds.             What follows is an account of how a cult removed the weasel’s bones from his body repeatedly. This account, which is an obvious fabrication, was accepted as the undisputed truth by all the denizens of the ruined village. They have been living in fear of the mountain village ever since, which doesn’t really say much for them.             Tonight’s tale contains a sarcastic account of a ridiculous bone removing ritual that would be disturbing if it was in any way believable. Moreover, it contains demons from hell, cult activity, profanity, and magical creatures engaging in antisocial behavior. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we rejoin the young woman who dared to venture into the ruined village where she lost her way on the river road. Having learned little from her last ordeal, she decides to set out to explore a different village, this one at the foot of a haunted mountain. This mountain is said to be the home of not only a coven of witches, but also a murderous cult who is suspected of using bones for the purposes of occult rituals. She is sent at the request of the denizens of the ruined village to look into shocking new developments regarding the fates of the doomed young men whose bones were removed from their bodies and were left to die in the river. It turns out those youths are not only still in possession of their bones, but they are using them to live in this haunted village. That information changed pretty much everything for them, so they sent her to the mountain village to verify all of it. Hopefully, she can make sure they haven’t joined that weird ass cult. While on a bus going to the mountain, she gets of the bus to wander around in the parking lot of a convenience store.  There she runs into who you are probably expecting her to run into. Together, they venture into the heart of the mountain where they are soon confronted by the very cult of weird assholes she was sent there to investigate. She soon finds herself being pulled into the cold, earthen depths of a strange new village, where unknown horrors lurk in the very earth itself. This episode contains the usual level of violence, antisocial behavior, and profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we find ourselves back on the river road. Yet we are not alone. Far from it. We are members of a gang of likeminded malcontents who have finally decided to do something about the strange occurrences that have plagued the river road. They are going to go straight to source all of these occurrences. The entrance to the drainage tunnels. This is near the area where six of the village youths were found after their bones had been removed from their bodies. The charge is being led by the mysterious Rook, and by his side is the father of the solitary thug whose bones were removed from his body. They are both armed with rebar poles that they will gladly plunge straight into the softest parts of whoever dares to get in their way. With them is Sachiko, the enigmatic snake deity. She is joined by the town drunk, the professor and his consortium of ghosts, and the animate ventriloquist dummy who has recently graduated from cigarettes to cigars. They will go deep into the tunnels to confront whatever resides within. That will prove to be a very bad idea, for which they find themselves grossly ill-prepared. The only reason they don’t immediately regret it is because the tunnels are so long that it takes them forever to get to the center. Once there, they confront the oddity that lurks within the tunnels. This is the very same oddity that has been lurking on the river road, where it has been seen aggressively eating chicken, discarding bottles, and denying warrantee claims. This weirdo is more than ready for them, and they soon find themselves caught in the very center of his web. Bound and at his mercy, he forces them to confront their past indiscretions before delivering a shocking revelation that makes them all question what they’ve all been doing with their lives. For this is the evening that this collective of malcontents finally learn that their true enemies are not who they thought they were. This tale contains profanity, descriptions of violent crime, dark themes, supernatural entities, and characters mercilessly ridiculing people for their unconventional fashion choices. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we return to the very spot where the solitary thug waited beneath the moonlight for his doom. This was the spot where the hapless thug encountered the ruined beings that removed the very bones from his body while he was still alive. They then left the empty husk of all that was left of him to drown in water not even deep enough to cover the discarded cans and garbage that always seems to accumulate along the river road. Though that event is in the distant past for the surviving villagers, it is relived every night for the parents of the victim of this cruel act of depravity. The mother wastes away in her bed, resolved to lie there as lifeless as her son did at the end of his life. The son’s father, however, stalks the river road in search of the criminals who destroyed his son’s life. His single-minded devotion to his vendetta has claimed every waking moment of his life, which has resulted in his being ostracized by the rest of the village. Yet he has allies in the form of them boys and their crew. Their persistent dedication to shredding the web of terror that binds the river road has attracted the attention of dark entities from beyond. These dark, strange beings have decided to take a stand against the cabal that preys upon the pilgrims of the river road. Tonight is the night that these beings make themselves known to the father of the lost thug. Beneath the moonlight, they declare their allegiance to the father and his undying vendetta. Tonight’s tale contains people dealing with depression, references to violent acts of criminality, antisocial sentiment, profanity, unholy entities, and a father with a single-minded devotion to his vendetta. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we find ourselves with a lone woman standing beneath a streetlight in front of a desolate field. There is nothing around her but the gravel street in front of her and the torn-up earth and abandoned construction equipment behind her. As she stands there, she is watched from a hole in the ground by a pair of auburn eyes. This particular shade of auburn does not naturally occur in humans, and the owner of those eyes would never claim to be human. For the owner of those eyes holds humans in such contempt that he refuses to have anything to do with them apart from feeding off of them. Yet this woman awakens a feeling in his heart that he has never known. As he watches her stand there alone, he grows concerned for her. This feeling evolves into an infatuation that makes him question his biological need to feed upon her. However, the evening takes a dramatic turn when she asks him for his aid. He soon finds himself amidst a calamity of her making, where he learns this woman has made some really bad choices in her life. He soon finds that his choice between protecting this woman and surviving was already made for him by a mind colder than the earthen hole he crawled out from.  This tale contains violence and themes of death, mutilation, and decomposition. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we follow the newly initiated member of the crew that haunts the village with them boys. They have taken to calling him the professor, as he has a unique talent for looking into the supernatural with his feet planted firmly on the ground. Often when dealing with the unknown, people become so bewitched and bewildered that they lose sight of the ground they were standing on before everything changed. For that is what happened to the crew. They were gravely wounded in what they claimed was an unprovoked attack. They needed the professor to help them find a path to recovery. But to do this, they will have to make a bargain with an old enemy. One who has kept a red eye on them and all they do. For this is the tale of the night when old vendettas were settled and new ones were forged. This tale contains profanity and references to tobacco and people being burned by tobacco. Listener discretion is advised.

Tonight is the night we look back over the first five episodes of the series. We start with a hapless traveler on his way home that is pursued by a faceless phantom, and we end with a mysterious vigilante assaulting a gang of creeps in a graveyard. In between, we have two sisters learning a new way of life, two brothers preserving their old way of life, a ventriloquist dummy given unholy life by a ruined man, and a doomed soul robbed of all traces of their identity. All the while, the river that cuts through the village is haunted by two lost souls who hoard trash, a tunnel dwelling miscreant who poisons the village around him, and a vengeful Kitsune trying to take his pound of flesh from a world that thought it had escaped him. For tonight is the night we examine where these tales came from, and we speculate where they are going. Because nobody who sets foot in the ruined village ends up where they intended. This episode contains profanity, violence, and references to previous episodes and antisocial behavior. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we meet Tomisaburo. Some of you may think you are familiar with that name, but you are mistaken. You have yet to meet Tomisaburo, but tonight you will be cured of that. For this is the night that Tomisaburo gets revenge on them boys for attacking him. That never happened, but the rumor is that he tried to tempt them with a haunted shamisen and they beat him for it. Since them boys did nothing to dispel the stories of this incident, the repercussions of it are going to occur. The tale of this incident will replace the false narrative being perpetuated by them boys and their ilk. For in this tale, Tomisaburo reminds them boys and the misfits they keep as pets that the unknown forces that weave their way around us are best left unknown. They can never be known, and it is the epitome of folly to assume any degree of familiarity with them. Tomisaburo will use a glass bottle to do this, and it will hurt like hell. This tale is violent and gruesome. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we follow another traveler along the river road.  Though he has no definite destination, he has an aim, he has a purpose, and he has the means and will to obtain them. This is a man who was haunted by denizens from beyond the veil. Lost and desperate, he sought help in the ruined village. While there he found them boys and their crew. They helped him to find his strength. Emboldened, he returned to the River Road, to seek out other denizens from beyond the veil, to show them he was no longer going to live in fear of them. As he travels the road, he contends with the strange, ruined creatures that stalk about the River Road. But when he meets one of the denizens from beyond, all of his plans fail. At a loss, he stares into the darkness. It is there that he receives help from an unlikely source. As they work together to salvage his plan, he is forced to question the purpose of his journey. By the end, he learns that true horror lies not on the other side of the veil, but in the trappings we humans create for ourselves on this side of it. This tale contains profanity, references to previous tales, and excessive descriptions of bureaucracy. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we meet our hapless drunk. He is standing on the street at dusk. He is alone and without his crew, but he is not aimless. For he is there to execute the duties of his office. The hapless drunk has moved up in the world, and he somehow managed to assume the role of liaison to the board of education for the ruined village. At least, that’s the way he remembers it. He is there to confront the teacher who sent a young writer into the next of vipers that is the ruined village. The acting liaison will enact his scheme to teach this cowardly teacher the importance of manners and honesty when one walks the river road. However, this teacher is far from lost, and him and his student came to the ruined village for a reason. This reason may prove greater than even a hapless drunk can imagine. This tale contains profanity, antisocial behavior, references to previous episodes, and references to crime, murder, and mutilation. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we follow our hapless wanderer as the reaches the conclusion of her journey through the darkness at the center of the ruined village. She is pulled from the battle between the two raving jackasses by a strange creature in the form of a ventriloquist dummy. From that point on, it gets a lot weirder.  For this haunted dummy serves as her only guide through her encounters with an increasingly bizarre succession of unearthly beings. This roving pack of drunks serve as her only hope of finding her way to the end of the River Road. They bravely guide her along the strait road that runs along a river that runs near the bus stop she used to get there in the first place. Along the way they face the dangers of convenience stores that are willing to sell them alcohol if they shut up and go away. Their mad journey enriches her with valuable life lessons, such as the importance of friendship in the face of adversity, the strength that comes with compassion, and most important of all, the importance of looking up from your God damned phone when you’re in an unfamiliar area. But the tale takes a dark turn. For as she makes her way back to the real world, she finds the unseen phantoms of the River Road linger about her like smoke from incense offered to the departed. The darkness has found her, it has marked her, and its denizens will forevermore be able to find her. This tale contains references to the previous episode, so the same warnings apply. Furthermore, this tale deals with irresponsible people in states of inebriation and a great deal of disrespect for public order. Listener discretion is advised.

Tonight’s tale will be told in two parts. For the first part, we follow a young woman as she ventures into the village. The fires of her curiosity were undoubtedly stoked by the villages growing reputation for being infested with thugs, drunks, assholes, and the pedantic creeps who broke them. Her curiosity leads her to the infamous doll museum, and her better judgment leads her to leave it almost immediately. This leads her to the river road, where sleepy houses are overshadowed by trees that sway in the seer winds from the ghoul haunted forests and mountains that surround it. The road is gentle during the day, attracting families, children, and dog owners. However, the sun soon sets and the darkness descends. With the darkness come the predators, and the gentle town folk become their prey. The first victim is a small dog that goes missing. The loss of the dog sends all of them into a panic, and they are soon reminded that ownership of the river road changes when the sun is no longer there to watch over it. Once the moon holds court, the denizens of the night creep from the shadows with brazen audacity. Bewitched and bewildered by the darkness, she cannot find the way out. Enraged ghosts find her, eager to bring fresh blood into their endless conflict. Caught in a hellish maelstrom, she is pulled away. She is pulled into the cold, silent shadows by an otherworldly creature. Helpless and at a loss, she follows the strange creature deeper into the shadows. Her only hope is that she chose the lesser of evils as darkness engulfs her. This tale contains references to crime and mutilation, animals and humans in states of distress, references to dolls, and a greater than reasonable amount of profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we follow our solitary thug as he makes his way through the tunnels that run beneath our ruined village. He was sent there by a mysterious figure. Some call him the bird man, others call him the dirt spider. Our hapless thug is being pursued by an unimaginable horror that has just received a name, and that name is the Rook. The birdman informs our solitary thug that the Rook is coming for him and he will steal the bones from his body. He tells him that his only hope lies in the center of the tunnels. Yet the path our hapless thug thinks will lead to his last hope drops him straight into a Hell worse than he could ever imagine. This tale is dark, bleak, scary, and it may disturb sensitive listeners. It contains themes of violence, medical horror, mutilation, and despair.  Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we meet a man embarking on a quest. Our pilgrim, a young man who is being relentlessly haunted by an unquiet spirit, has decided he can no longer endure the ice cold touch of the restless dead that pokes him in the eye every Thursday night. He seeks aid from one who is learned in the ways of the dead. Yet our hero finds that the learned make claims to knowledge they can never possess, and they are in no position to stand between the living and the dead. Abandoned by the learned, he must seek out help from a band of fools who gladly rush forward where the wizened fear to tread.  This band of fools lead our pilgrim on a rampage through the heart of polite society, and they do whatever it takes to punish the decadent powers that be, appease the unquiet dead, and evade the franticly clutching claws of madness. This tale contains profanity and excessive references to alcohol and tobacco consumption. As a general rule with these tales, listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we find Tomisaburo, the mysterious Kitsune who acts as the demon lord of the ruined village, curled up in a hole he dug in the ground. He is lying there so he does not have to show his face to the moonlight. As he contemplates his place in the world of the living, a world in which he received that savage ass whoopin from them boys, he hears a strange voice. Intrigued by the level of venomous pride and arrogance in the voice, he follows it to its source, a mysterious figure known for now as the dirt spider. The dirt spider is the master of the web that forms the technical mainframe that forms the cultural center of the disaffected youths of the area. That means he works at the local second hand store and has a part time at the game center next door. Who is this mysterious dirt spider? He’s the birdman from previous episodes. The guy who made that boy shove those chicken bones into the gutter. He’s that guy. Whoever gave us this story either got his name wrong, or the guy who gave us the chicken bone story got the name wrong. As a general rule, the people who give us these stories are unreliable, and I’m not much better for passing them along to you. Nevertheless, Tomisaburo, the demon lord of this ruined village seeks to form an alliance with the dirt spider. Their plan is to exact revenge on them boys and to hasten them along to their final, bitter reward. With them boys gone, them and their unholy cabal of damned souls will be unopposed as they feast upon the blood, bones, and marrow of the ruined villages miserable inmates. This tale contains blood, violence, pain, turmoil, horrific themes, and profanity. In addition, there are references to grave desecration and alcohol consumption. Listener discretion is advised.

Though it is not my intent to allow this work to descend into the realm of self promotion, I fear it is necessary as it is relevant to tonight’s tale. I wrote a novelette entitled Escaping the Old Charleston Jail, and it is available on Amazon. It’s a dark tale about man at odds with the world around him. He turns to alcohol to dull the pain of fitting in, but the alcohol becomes a prison to him. Our doomed hero eventually finds his escape. Unfortunately, his judgment is so ruined that he escapes in the wrong direction. The tale is dark and dramatic, and it does not have a happy ending. And that always bothered me. I wrote it when I was younger, and I figured that’s what happened at the end of a story like that. Tonight’s tale is similar, but it doesn’t end properly. Indeed, It reaches a proper ending, but then it keeps on going and stumbles along even thought its supposed to be over. It moves along in open defiance of the events that should have ended it. In short, tonight’s tale is about a man who refuses to accept the fact that he should be dead. So he acts like he’s not, and the rest of the world just has to deal with it. This tale is pretty dark and deals with themes of addiction and alienation. Moreover, it contains elements of involuntary body modification, which is that the whole bone removal thing from the last episode. And I don’t think its so bad, but at least one of the characters use public transportation a few times, and that may offend some people for some reason. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s episode, we find ourselves standing at the crossroads with one of the village’s disaffected youths. As we stand beneath the moon in need of direction and purpose, we await the birdman and his legion of doomed souls. The hour is late, and nothing good is likely to come of any of this. Nevertheless, we stand waiting, mulling over the past crimes and sins that brought us to this lonely street corner. Our guide is an aimless soul, yet he has been enlisted to protect the birdman from the dangers that assail him. As he looks to the sky for the arrival of his fate, his doom creeps towards him on dead fingers, ready to drag him to the depths of a watery oblivion. The only weapons within his grasp lie deeper in the darkness, beyond our worst fears. This episode contains discussions of crime and cruel acts of mutilation, as well as horror, death, hopelessness, and profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

The village is much quieter after being the recipient of that epic asswhoopin expertly administered by the Rook and his crew. The weed has been pulled from the garden. But parts of the roots still remain. Not enough to warrant the brutal attentions of the Rook, but these loose ends have attracted the attentions of independent agents in search of new holes to invade. For all gardens have their snakes, and our doomed little garden has now been claimed by none other than Sachiko. She is as beautiful as she wants to be, and those who know her fear her. She has come to this ruined village that has been left barren after being swept of refuse in search of answers. She wants to know how it came to pass that sentient life was bestowed unto a ventriloquist dummy. That search is going to bring her into contact the very jackasses responsible for such a staggeringly idiotic act. She will have to use all her charm and wit to contend with their madness and folly, hopeful that the answers she finds will be worth the price she has to pay. This episode makes frequent references to ventriloquist dummies, senseless violence, alcohol consumption, and wanton disrespect for public order. Moreover, it contains the usual level of needless profanity. Listener discretion is advised.