Goodbye, Free Fiction Tuesday, Who Could Hang a Name on You?

Wow! Three free Ezines on the same day, Apex Magazine, Black Treacle, and Sorcerous Signals.  These three cover it all, science fiction, speculative fiction, horror, fantasy, and dark fantasy.  And as if that weren't enough, there are new stories.at Mad Scientist Journal and Phantasmacore. HiLobrow continues its serialization of Herland, there are some comics from very cool sites, plenty of ebooks, and even an audio short. Can I get a Huzzah?

It's only goodbye to free fiction Tuesday for a week.





Fiction
• At HiLobrow: "Herland - Chapter 4: Our Venture" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. 1915.
     "We were standing on a narrow, irregular, all too slanting little ledge, and should doubtless have ignominiously slipped off and broken our rash necks but for the vine. This was a thick-leaved, wide-spreading thing, a little like Amphelopsis."

• At Mad Scientist Journal: "The Warning Sign: Dr. Maxwell’s Notes on First Contact" by S. R. Algernon. Science Fiction. [via SF Signal]
     "The Star-Weavers have contacted us! For decades, they have ignored our transmissions, even as they scattered their interstellar beacons across the solar system. This morning, everything changed. A Star-Weaver was here, on our little campus, and not just for a recon flyby, but to see us face-to-face. What follows below is for posterity."

• At Phantasmacore: "Procedural Generation" by Tom Graham. Science Fiction.
     "The days of the hermitage, his small urban sanctuary. Steven, for as long as he could remember, had been agoraphobic. His food was delivered (meals-on-wheels) and he spent his time between an indoor orchid garden, reading stacks of old newsprint, and mindlessly computing, data entry his method of maintaining his seclusive lifestyle."

• Now Posted: Apex Magazine #51 August 2013.

• "Victimless Crimes" by Charlie Jane Anders. Science Fiction.
     "The baby that had been Florence sighed. 'Okay fine. I have to do everything myself. I assume you at least brought an exo? Not that this body isn’t lovely and all, but these hands aren’t going to be karate–chopping henchmen any time soon.'"
• "A Matter of Shapespace" by Brian Trent
     "It stabbed up from the center of his otherwise empty room, its three sides so steep they were nearly vertical, converging to a sharp point that aimed towards the skylight. Jacob gaped at it, disbelieving the sight. The rest of his house was a blank desolation, bereft of furniture, color, and of course, pyramids"
• "Sister Twelve: Confessions of a Party Monster" by Christopher Barzak
     "It didn’t take with me, the world and its rules, the things it expected of me. In the end, that’s the only reason why I find myself still here after all these countless years, and still I refuse to leave the scene. If you drop a beat, I’m on it. If I hear the slightest scratch, I’m ready to spin. If my shoes give out, if I split a sole or break a heel, it doesn’t matter. I kick them off and keep on dancing like the music and my body can’t be put on pause"

• Now Posted: Black Treacle #4. Horror. Dark Fantasy.

• "The Devil’s Due" by Mike Rimar.
    "I leaned forward hoping to appear sufficiently inquisitive and peered at the Soul List. Created from the flayed skin of the eternally damned, the scroll unfurled across his obsidian desk. Smoke trailed from the blackened rim of the hole he’d made with his stiletto-like finger. Around the hole the remaining letters of a name fading from view."
• "Nainaine of the Bayou" by Christopher Keelty.
     "The white lady’s gun lay in the dirt. Nell thought about taking it, but it was too heavy and too long–at least twice as long as the rifle Mama was teaching her to shoot. Instead she dragged it into the shadows and hid it beneath some scrap wood. The spyglass on top looked valuable, but Nell didn’t have time to salvage it."
• "Corn-fed Baby and Gravy" by Christian Riley
     "The stink of shit and animal parlayed with a cloud of dust, rising up and through the opened windows of the Cadillac. Lawrence cursed, reached for a handkerchief and covered his nose. When the dust settled, he grabbed his clipboard and stepped outside, shielding his eyes against the rays of a setting sun."

• Now Posted: Sorcerous Signals Aug - Oct '13. Fantasy.

• "Blood Will Out" by Edward Ahern. . Fantasy.
     "The deadly downside to the obligations of nobility."
• "A Close Call" by Matthew Wilson.  Poetry
• "The Heart of a Diamond" by Lillian Csernica. Fantasy.
     "When murderous conspirators armed with magic attack the House of Treymorr, Lady Tavia's only ally is the Spirit trapped inside a prize diamond." 
• "A Legendary Snooze" by Brandon Barrows. Flash Fiction
• "The Men From the Council" by Robina Williams. Fantasy.
     "A modern twist to an ancient myth: When two besuited men drive up in their smart sedan to the hillside home of Baucis and Philemon to talk about planning issues, the old couple fear they are about to lose their home."
• "The Oak Witch's Helper" by Anna Sykora. Fantasy.
      "Maybe I'm a little batty, but every witch needs a helper like me."
• "The Odyssey of the Penelope Ann" by Ken Goldman. Fantasy.
     "Richard, the captain of the Penelope Ann ship, hardly qualifies as a mythic hero -- although he has some appeal to the local Sirens."
• "The Ragnarok Interrupt" by Mike Jansen. Fantasy.
    "Thor is his name, Norse God of Thunder and Lightning, always in for a good fight. With the end of times approaching, he departs for the battlefield, filled with divine anticipation. But the world has changed and Thor discovers he may just be a little outdated."
• "Sunniva" by David W. Landrum.    "The sorceress Sunniva wins the heart of Prince Dalin when they are very young. His parents do not approve and send her into exile. Dalin also travels far away. But to a sorceress, distances mean very little."
• "To The Fates" by John Grey. Poetry.
• "The Woodcarver's Angel" by E. M. Sole.
    "Lord Hennin finds a marvel to delight a king."

E-Books
• At Amazon: Exile of Lucifer: Chronicles of the Host, Vol 1 by D. Brian Shafer. [via Freebook Sifter]

At Free eBooks Daily:

• Hive by Rachel Starr Thomson. Fantasy.
• Meg: Origins by Steve Alten. Fantasy.
• UnEmbraceable by Precarious Yates YA
• Moorehead Manor by David McMullen-Sullivan. YA Horror.

Comics

• At And Everything Else Too: "Curiosity Kills / Assignment in Fear" Horror. Humor. 1972
• At And Everything Else Too: "The Cameo's Curse / Sonny's World" Horror. Humor. 1972
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Into the 4th Dimension" Sci-fi. 1954.
• At Digital Comics Museum: The Complete Spirit Of Frankenstein from  ACG's Adventures Into The Unknown. Horror.
• At Four-Color Shadows: "The Space Court" Sci-fi. 1965.
• At The Horrors of It All: "The Boy Who Cried Vampire / Behold the Beast" Horror. Humor. 1972
• At The Horrors of It All: "Ultimate Cure / Measure of the Monster" Horror. Humor. 1972

Audio Fiction
• At Apex Magazine: "The Face of Heaven So Fine" by Kat Howard. Flash.

More Free Fiction Links

Many good ones today!  [art for Subterranean Magazine, linked below]











Fiction
• At the WiFiles: "Memory, Hunger" by Valerie Z Lewis. Speculative Fiction.
     "The worst part is memory. It hits her at the strangest times. She’ll be walking downtown, following the crowd, when she’ll catch a glimpse of a bit of garbage on the sidewalk. A candy wrapper. Memory. She knows she used to eat things like that, but she can’t remember what it tastes like. She doesn’t want it anymore, even though she’s hungry all the time."

Now Posted: Electric Spec Volume 8, Issue 1

"Empathy Rocks" by Mark Rigney
      "Pink fire shoots from Quencher's mouth as he thumps his blood-black bass, and the flames belch outward, singeing the hair off at least half the kids in the first three rows."
"Strange Notes from Underground" by Jennifer Crow
      "Tsar Peter, called 'the Great,' built his city in a marsh. Not the best plan, one might say, yet when the Tsar of All the Russias makes up his mind, then all that remains is for his people to do, and to die. And die they did, in their hundreds and thousands."
"The Count is the Kingdom" by Rebecca Schwarz
      "A long, dark line appeared on the horizon. I kicked the mare into a trot, my heart racing. Perhaps I'd at last arrived at the end of the world and would be able to turn back toward home. I had begun to fear that I would never see my North again."
"Heart of a Magpie" by Kathryn Yelinek
     "Marion leaned closer to the white picket fence around her new backyard at ul. Towarnickiego 27. Finally she'd found a magpie that would consider eating bread out of her hand. Just six feet away, the magpie cocked its head, its black eyes fixed on the treat in her outstretched hand."
"The Secret Life of Princes" by David Barber
      "Dichley was skyping Gelda from the 3rd International ChronoCapture Conference in London. It was raining. It had rained since he got there. There was a woman's laughter off-camera and a slim hand put a glass topped with fruit and an umbrella at the keyboard."

Now Posted: Interstellar Fiction #8.

"Robot Origins" by Bruce H. Markuson
     "It all started with the speech my son, Avid, made at the university. “We are not machines. We are sentient beings with souls. This is the gift of the ancient ones. The ancient ones have spoken, we have always said.”"
"Biggest Times Infinity" by Shane D. Rhinewald
     “I’m confident an interim government will form in time. Even anarchists beg for rule again when everything goes to shit,” Commander James Whitehall said. “Still, we’ll likely be up here beyond our original mission. That means no more devouring half a dozen dehydrated noodle bowls per day. And yes, I’m looking at you, Frank.”
"Unfinished Projects" by Darren Goossens
     "He heard a bang and, halfway through swallowing, jerked his head around. He managed to avoid spraying beer on the pizza boxes on the coffee table. Should he investigate? Of course he should. Would he?"
"Stupid Manuscripts" by Antha Ann Adkins
     "Hugh needed to ace this interview with the mysterious SM, Inc. He had looked for work for over a year, and soon he’d have to drop some of his journal subscriptions. That would be tragic.

Now Posted: SQ Mag - Edition 7.

• "Unbound" by Dan Hankner (Sci-Fi)
• "Digital Reflections" by Kevin Rainak (Sci-Fi)
• "A Minor System" by W. B. Stickel (Horror)
• "Serial Fiction: Intangible (Part 2 of 6)" by A.A. Garrison(Fantasy)
• "Surface Stars" by Hansen Hovell Holladay(SciFi)
• "Eyes of the Child" by Robert Harkess (Paranormal Fantasy)
• "My Trip to the Circus" by Jason Lairamore(SciFi)

Now Posted: Subterranean Press Magazine - Spring 2013.

"The Seafarer" by Tobias S. Buckell.
     "The ten soldiers stopped their several days of running at the edge of the red stone cliff and looked out in awe over the gray ocean. A hundred feet below them the waves thudded against the rock and they inhaled the salt spray that slowly drifted up as a fine mist."
"Painted Birds and Shivered Bones" by Kat Howard.
      "The white bird flew through the clarion of the cathedral bells, winging its way through the rich music of their tolling to perch in the shelter of the church’s walls. The chiming continued, marking time into measured, holy hours."
"A Stranger Comes to Kalimpura" by Jay Lake.
     "The older I get, the less I understand about the world. When I was young, I was filled with energetic certainty. My faith in myself was unshaken and unshakeable. Or so I like to pretend, until I revisit the courts of memory. There I realize that I understood far less than I liked to believe."
"The Indelible Dark" by William Browning Spencer.
     "He watched the car come down the mountain. The autumn trees were full of muted color, and black clouds rolled in the sky, restive monsters bloated with rain. The road unraveled in a series of switchbacks, and the car, black, shiny as a beetle, appeared and disappeared amid the trees."
"The Prayer of Ninety Cats" by Caitlín R. Kiernan.
      "In this darkened theatre, the screen shines like the moon. More like the moon than this simile might imply, as the moon makes no light of her own, but instead adamantly casts off whatever the sun sends her way. The silver screen reflects the light pouring from the projector booth."
"The Syndrome" by Brian Francis Slattery.
     "The fundamental issue with my patients, as with all the undead, is that they’ve merged with the eternal. It happens somewhere in the transition from life to undeath—their first death, they call it—and they come out of it with no ordered memory as we understand it"

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Nixon and the Aliens" by Peter Wood. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "A Positive Alien Encounter" by J.D. Rice. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Beam Me Up: Episode 355. Science - Science Fiction.
     Julie Wornan's melancholy post apocalyptic tale "Epilog" and  part 1 of "Know How Can Do" by Michael Blumlein.

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: Beasts of Tarzan Episodes One and Two.
     "Tarzan’s arch-enemy, Nicholas Rokoff, has escaped from his prison cell in France! Almost immediately, Tarzan’s baby son is abducted."

Comic Books

• At Atomic Kommie Comics:  "Runaway Asteroid" Sci-Fi. 1969.
• At Digital Comics Museum: Planet Comics #4. Sci-Fi. 1940.
• At Paizo: Pathfinder Comics #1 is being serialized online Here (the first four pages are up)
• At War: Past, Present and Future: "Remember Makano" Sci-Fi. 1952.

Other Genres

• Audio at Tales of Old:  "Anezka" by Bruce Durham. Historical Fiction - Punic Wars. 
• Audio at Selected Shorts: Flash Forward - "Vanilla Bright Like Eminem" by Michel Faber and "North Country" by Roxane Gay".

Tons

Another huge haul of free fiction including a few awesome eZines. Beneath Ceaseless Skies has four new stories as well as audio fiction, four more stories are up at Four Star Quarterly, there's a new issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly up, and a new issue of The Chiaroscuro is now online. There other great fiction and audio fiction including StarShipSofa, PodCastle, Dunesteef, and other greats. And though I'm still not ready to return to regular gaming links, there are four! free gaming eZines linked today, at least a couple of which have fiction.

Illustration from chapter two of the serial "The Box" by Bill Ward.








@AEG: "The Life of the Warrior" by Brian Yoon. Fantasy.

"The last few moments slowed to a crawl. His grip on the tetsubo tightened as the weapon sped faster and faster toward its target. Its target was an ugly face of grey and brown, peppered with ivory bone protrusions that erupted out from random spots. The jade studs of his tetsubo sizzled into the skin on contact and the monster screamed in indignant pain. The weapon splintered and shattered into a thousand pieces even as it crushed its target."

@Daily Science Fiction: "Her Majesty's Guardian" by Donald S. Crankshaw.

"The Council's vote was unanimous," Duke Richard said. He looked ridiculous in a bright yellow doublet. The color would make anyone look foolish, as the other old men seated around the table proved, but its gaiety was especially jarring against Richard's habitual dark expression. "You know your duty, Guardian."

Now Posted: Beneath Ceaseless Skies #79
"The Tiger’s Turn" by Richard Parks. Fantasy.

On the face of the matter I had to agree. While the estate would technically belong to the Imperial Family, I had been assigned the position of steward—quite a handsome income. “Security is the greatest illusion of all, Kenji-san. As for my poverty, it was more of a problem when I was drinking. Don’t mistake me—I am not ungrateful. I am merely puzzled.”

"The Calendar of Saints" by Kat Howard. Fantasy.

“She wasn’t my opponent when I executed her.” I accept mortal commissions; I’ve killed before. Those deaths were honest. Magdalena’s was a waste, and my hands are filthy with it. With a casual nod, from a cleric who knew nothing about the sword-edge of truth, I have been made to feel like a heretic.

"A Spoonful of Salt" by Nicole M. Taylor. Fantasy.

Dr. Benjamin, he was running, running through the rain from one tent to another, trying to save his Story Eater and those pasty wax circles he’s spent so long collecting and, once, he looked up. Mala was sitting there on the top of the sea wall. She wasn’t wearing a rain slicker or even shoes and she was just looking at him like he was a rat, like he was a bug. Like he was something with too many eyes and too many legs and all she wanted to know was what ridiculous thing he was going to do next.

"The Judge's Right Hand" by J.S. Bangs. Fantasy.

A Seraph approaches me with two brands, red‑hot from the coals. The first is Adultery, and it blackens my right cheek. I bite my tongue to swallow the scream. The second is Death, and it sears my forehead. This time I do scream.

Now Posted: The Chiaroscuro - Volume 49 (October–December, 2011).
"In the House of Houses" by Claude Lalumière.

"In the Persian Gulf, there's an island so small and nondescript it appears on no map. Perhaps island is too generous a term for what appears to most eyes as no more than a lifeless bunch of rocks barely rising above sea level."

"La Divina Commedia" by Katherine Mankiller.

"Last time this happened, I was Orpheus."

"Snicker-Snack" by A. D. Bloom.

"He's a meter-tall, dancing fur-belly with mono-molecular edged claws, an embroidered nose, and telomerase chains longer than your arm. He's an unnatural – a custom-coded gene-job, a chromo-tweaked talker gestated in a pickling jar and born full-grown in a pet store. "

"Stars Fell On Alabama" by Jesse Bullington.

"P.J.’s called Peej, an me an he wuz blood brothas from the first time I took Pop’s buck knife out scoutin for Talabands in them hills tween our road an the base. "

@Four Star Quarterly: "Re-Opening Night" by Lou Antonelli.

"This signal wasn't shot through the wormhole. It's spiraling like water down a drain."

@Four Star Quarterly: "Windows" by Gloria Oliver.

"Pressure suit seals--check." Claudia rolled her head in a full circle within her helmet, trying to work out the kinks in her neck muscles. There was always a bit of anticipation and fear whenever she suited up. A cut or leak or malfunction not caught during prep could mean her life.

@Four Star Quarterly: "Closet Enlightenment" by Selina Rosen.

Let me get this straight," she’d replied, making a valiant attempt to keep from reaching for his long neck and strangling him. "You want to go and sit cross-legged with a bunch of other people and listen to some guy with a beard tell you what life’s all about?"

@Four Star Quarterly: "Operation Hell" by Cathy Spangler.

"My supervisor’s voice grated across my psyche like nails on a chalkboard, churning up nausea in my stomach. I resisted banging my head on my monitor. Oh, joy, another wonderful encounter with Hell Supervisor, as I’d dubbed Mr. Turlow."

Now Posted: Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #10


"Queen of the Desert" by Alex Marshall.

"Throughout the endless afternoon he walked the trackless waste. With his coat held above to shield him from the sun’s brutal rays, Derwent toiled — his shadow and his hopes stretching to the empty distance."

"The Workshop of the Lord of the Estuary and the Wages of Heroism" by James Frederick William Rowe.

"It came from the sea, a thing of cold, slime, and teeth. Declaring its presence through murder, it took the lives of three men fishing on the open water before it claimed as its home the estuary at the orifice of the Mor Oirthearach River in Cacke. Ever since it has held this body of water, permitting none to pass but those who pay it in blood."

"Death at the Pass" by Michael R. Fletcher.

"Brushing a thousand years of dirt and rot from his robes, Khraen marvelled at how well preserved he was. Skin, sunken, cracked and grey, adhered to the bones of his long limbs. He’d never been muscular, but now he was downright skeletal."

Serial Fiction
@Paizo: "The Box - Chapter Two: Where the Heart Is" by Bill Ward. Fantasy.

"Noticing the scrutiny, the guard shifted, hooking his thumb into his broad sash, resting his hand close to the curved knife he wore naked and gleaming at his side like the chip-edged cutlass of some Shackles pirate. You had to admire the Sczarni, Kostin thought; they really played the whole Varisian thug act to the hilt."

Audio
@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Butterfly" by Garth Upshaw. Fantasy.

"Aidan pulled away from my hand. I could feel his finger bones slip and shift out of place."

@Dunesteef: "The Troop" by Harris Tobias. Science Fiction.

"a tale about a sole human survivor on an alien planet, and his attempts to co-exist wit the native creatures there."

@Journey Into: "The Trial of Thomas Jefferson" by David Barr Kirtley. Science Fiction.

"Time travel allows the UN to go back, capture Hitler, and execute him. But why stop there?"

@PodCastle: "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe, read by Eric Luke. Dark.

DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country ; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.

@StarShipSofa: "Blood Dauber" by Ted Kosmatka and Michael Poore. Science Fiction.

"Bell trudged up the path, pushing the wheelbarrow before him, already sweating under his brown khaki uniform. He squinted in the bright sunlight, eyeing the exhibits as he ascended the hill: the goats and their pandering; the silly, horny monkeys; the slothful binturongs—all moving to the front of their enclosures as he approached. "

Gaming
Now Posted: Fighting Fantazine #7.

Includes "a new 230 reference adventure Queen of Shades by Paul Struth, a "Fact of Fiction" article devoted to Seas of Blood, and the winning entry of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy competition: Stuart Lloyd's The Curse of Meraki (illustrated by Michael Wolmarans)" and more.

Free membership required on next three.
@DriveThruRPG: Hollenthon - Issue 1

Hollenthon is GROMM's premire magazine, containing new units, painting tutorials, new rules and much more.This first issue covers playing mass battles in the world of GROMM, a new faction of barbarians from the Koldaath Mountains, a painting tutorial and much more!

@DriveThruRPG: Savage Insider Issue 2

includes the following: 3 fleshed out adversaries, 9 new weapons, A Savage Insider exclusive add-on for Beasts & Barbarians, Part 2 of the Crypt of the Crystal Lich fiction series, The first in the Echoes of Rome fiction series, Part 2 of the Deadlands comics series The Kid, A sci-fi adventure, And much more!

@DriveThruRPG: Pathways #8.

"How can you say 'No' to a FREE collection of Pathfinder templates, encounters, feats and domains, and all of it bundled together with a new fiction piece by author David Bain? You'd have to be crazy to turn it down. "

Two Free Magazines, Gaming Items, Noir, and More

A few free goodies to cure the mid-week blues.






Fiction
Apex Magazine Issue #22 is now free online, featuring:

"The Speaking Bone" by Kat Howard.
"The island itself was made from bones. There was a church, in another land, similarly constructed. The decayed flesh of the saints slipped from its underlying architecture, the white bones, sacred and incorruptible, incarnating the holy place."

"The Dust and the Red" by Darin Bradley.
"I was ten the first time I saw the pearl. The soil had come loose in the Sweetgrass, and to protect the family, my father dug the pearl out of its niche beneath the jamb. He had to clean it, and, since we only had one room, he had no choice but to show us."

"Rats" by Veronica Schanoes.
"What I am about to tell you is a fairy tale and so it is constantly repeating. Little Red Riding Hood is always setting off through the forest to visit her granny. Cinderella is always trying on a glass slipper. Just so, this story is constantly re-enacting itself."

And poetry:
"Quest/a>" by Jessica Wick.
"The King of Cats, the Queen of Wolves" by Mike Allen, Sonya Taaffe, and Nicole Kornher-Stace.


Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #36 is now available for free download. It publishes stories containing an "element of the fantastic. Hard sf, soft sf, fantasy, heroic fantasy, dark fantasy, humorous fantasy, slipstream, magic realism, horror and terror"

Fiction this issue is "The Photographer’s Tale" by Daniel Mills, "A Fable of Worcester" by Victor D. Infante, "Angeline of the Woods" by Dylan Fox, "Told in a Brothel on Darien" by Elaine Graham-Leigh, "The Burden of Proof" by David X. Wiggin, "Totem" by Howard Watts, "Huracan" by Matt Baxter and "'A' Story: an Animated Adventure" by Nicholas Rasche. And there are reviews as well.



BestScienceFictionStories.com reviews and links to a free online version of "The Curator" by Stuart Clark (2008).
"about a hacker that finds an unusual place inside the network."






Audio Fiction
@The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine: "Tupac Shakur And The End Of The World" by Sandra McDonald.
"Where will you be when the end of the world comes? At home, able to spend the final days of your life with your loved ones? Or will you be caught far away, and spend your final days trying get back to them? And what does Tupac Shakur have to do with all of this?"

@ScottSigler.com: Tuesday Terror Episode #04: "Turnover" "a fan-generated anthology of stories based in the Siglerverse. "Turnover" is written and performed by Christiana Ellis and Tee Morris"

Flash Fiction
@Daily Science Fiction: "M is for Mall" by Tim Pratt, Jenn Reese, Heather Shaw, Greg van Eekhout.
@Flashes in the Dark: "All of the Lights" by Lori Titus.
@365 tomorrows: "For Services Rendered" by Roi R. Czechvala.

Gaming
@RPG Creatures: "Crombhalas" for nearly any fantasy RPG.

"The Crombhalas are hunter-scavenger creatures that have specialized in attacking surface-swimming prey. Their antennae are sensitive and pick up all surface disturbances, even in the unsettled waters of storm."







@Daddy Grognard: "An Adventure for Every Monster - Beetle"

"Deep in the ruins of the Caverns, all is not well. A band of dwarf and gnome miners have stumbled across a rockfall and, keen to find out what is on the other side, have broken through."






@The Land of NOD: "Monsters of Mu-Pan II" featuring more monsters from Asian mythology, Baku (Japanese), Harionago - Barbed Woman (Japanese), Kamaitachi (Japanese), and Monkey Folk (Chinese).







@DriveThruRPG: Delta Green: The Last Equation, from Arc Dream Publishing.
"The Last Equation is a complete Call of Cthulhu scenario for Delta Green."

and The Invasion of Jericho Bay (for Godlike), from Arc Dream Publishing. "In this scenario, the players take the role of Talents (Army, Navy or Marine) pulled from the cauldron of battle in Okinawa and sent through the mysterious Bubble which has engulfed a portion of the island, halting the progress of the invasion forces." [Free membership required]

Small But Cool
@Blog on the Borderlands: [New Magic Item] "Rod of Earthly Might."
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Magic Item] "Sword of the Spider."
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Spell] "Give Strength."
@The Land of NOD: [Encounter] "Mu-Pan - Encounter XIX."
@Big Ball of No Fun: [New Monsters] Acheri, Bicorn, Chichevache, Dwende, and Echeneis. - Mostly statless.
@Sea of Stars: [New Magic Item] Disciplina’s Bracelet.
@Underworld Kingdom: [New Monster] Elasmotherium.

Suspense/Noir
@The Online Pulps Site: "Murder's Blue Motive" by Robert Leslie Bellem, from Dan Turner-Hollywood Detective (Feb 1943).

"Dan Turner had little sympathy for the dead woman, and a lot for the girl with the pistol. This seemed the time to take the law into his own hands."

Right click to open PDF or click HERE to visit this cool site (there are far more pulp stories available there).




@The Internet Archive: Martin Kane Private Eye - Murder on Ice. An episode of a very early noir TV series in MPEG download.






@The Internet Archive: The Adventures of Ellery Queen - Death Spins a Wheel (1951). An episode of the classic detective show in MPEG download.





Online fiction @Spinetingler: "The Birthday Present" by Gary Ponzo.
"You’re here to kill me aren’t you?” Sheryl Janeck held open the front door with the demeanor of someone greeting the UPS man. She couldn’t have seen the gun, I had it tucked into the back of my jeans."


Audio Fiction @CrimeWAV. Mark Coggins'The Immortal Game - Episode Eight.
"She reached her fingers round the back of my neck and pulled my head to hers. Cushioning her lips against mine, she probed my mouth with a hot tongue that darted around like an agitated tropical fish. Her mouth tasted of fire and liquor." Earlier and future episodes here.