Saturday Free Fiction and More

It's Saturday and there are some very cool free items today. Time for some space R&R.





Fiction
At Subterranean Press: "The Crawling Sky" by Joe R. Lansdale.
"Wood Tick wasn’t so much a town as it was a wide rip in the forest. The Reverend Jebidiah Mercer rode in on an ebony horse on a coolish autumn day beneath an overcast sky of humped up, slow-blowing, gun-metal-gray clouds; they seemed to crawl."

Online HERE.


At Daily Science Fiction: "Shark's Teeth" by T. A. Pratt.
"Marla Mason, sorcerer in exile, looked over the railing of the balcony, down at the lavish resort hotel's pool with its swim-up bar and tanned, happy people lounging on chairs, and thought, I can't take another day of this."

Online HERE.



Aphelion reached an impressive milestone with its 150th issue. This issue featured fiction by Frederick Rustam, Tristan Kloss, B. A. Hartman, Rob Hunter, Martin A. Ramos, Jeffrey Sorensen, Richard Tornello, David Garlock, Sergei Servianov, David Alan Jones, E. A. Moore, and Jeff Williams with Elizabeth Markham. All these, along with poetry, features, and more are HERE.






@Dark Valentine Magazine: "Bait" by Alexander Douglas.

@Wolfsbane Publishing: "Dark Secrets" by Cast Macabre editor, Barry John Northern. (horror short story). [via Cast Macabre]

Classic SF:
@Two-Fisted Tales of True-Life Weird Romance: "The Tree of Life" by C. L. Moore. (1936).
"A gripping tale of the planet Mars and the terrible monstrosity that called its victims to it from afar - a tale of Northwest Smith." Scanned JPEGS from Weird Tales vol. 28. #. 3.

@BestScienceFictionStories: "18 Fantastic Robot Stories" 18 robot stories reviewed and linked to, many of them free.


Audio Fiction:





@Escape Pod: Episode #284 "On a Clear Day You Can See All the Way to Conspiracy" by Desmond Warzel, read by Joshua McNichols. Streaming and in MP3 download.

@Pseudopod: Episode #221: "Lives" by John Grant, read by Eric Luke.

@Cast Macabre: "Two in the Morning" by Kella Hanna-Wayne, read by Barry J. Northern.

Serial Audio:
@The Guild of Cowry Catchers: Cowry Catchers Book 3 – Episode 5


Flash Fiction:



@Every Day Fiction: "The Perfect Song" by Christopher Lockheardt.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Lessons from Grandma" by Michael A. Kechula.
@365 tomorrows: The Things Between Us by Jason Frank.
@Every Day Fiction: "The Strange Fate of George Morris’ Brother's Dirty Old Shoe" by T.C. Powell.
@365 tomorrows: "Seeding" by John Wallace.


Gaming
At Peril Planet: FU: Free, Universal Roleplaing Game.
"FU is a game of action, adventure and fun! It is a roleplaying game of grand proportions and stupefying simplicity. FU lets you create exciting stories in any setting imaginable, with a minimum of fuss, or even preparation."

In a free PDF download HERE. [via DriveThruRPG]





At A Character for Every Game: "Ruins of the Gorgon" a fully stocked dungeon map. Essentially a small module with all the crunchy bits, just leaving the flavor text for the DM. (I sounded like Brian from KoDT there).

Online HERE.



At The Land of NOD: "League of Groovy Gentlemen (and Ladies). " "Essentially ... something like the League of Extraordinary Gentleman using only '70s television" Interesting, with some unusual choices. For Mystery Men! (available as a free PDF here).


Online HERE.



Small, But Cool, Gaming Freebies
@Strange Magic: [Monster Makeover] The Flail Snail.
@Strange Magic: [New Class] Bene Gesserit.
@Strange Magic: [New Class] Mentat.
@ChicagoWiz's RPG Blog: [New Monster] Zombie Shrieker.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Magic Item] Infernal Shield of Count Blackfire.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Magic Item] Devilstone.
@The Land of NOD: [Encounter] Mu-Pan - Encounter VI.
@A Character for Every Game: [Map/Encounter] Ochre Rock – a level 2-3 encounter.
@Blog on the Borderlands: [New Magic Item] Wand of Pain.