The Unworthy

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 86: The Unworthy

Agustina Bazterrica’s 2023 novel The Unworthy explores the relationship of its unnamed narrator with the repressive post-apocalyptic cult in which she finds herself. Jack and Kate embark on a harrowing journey through broken relationships and authoritarian control and dare to ask the most important question of all: can it be considered nunsploitation?

What does it mean to crave feel-bad stories? Where did nunsploitation come from? And why does everything have to be “elevated,” anyway? All these topics and more will be explored in this episode of the podcast.

The Vespermark

Art by Mike Royal

The Vespermark is an area of Krevborna not detailed in the first-edition book, but it will be featured in the revised version of the setting. I realized I wanted in an area of frontier wildlands, one influenced by the Westerns I grew up on.

The Vespermark

A Nightmarish and Lawless Frontier

The sparsely populated hills and plains west of Krevborna’s nominal bastions of civilization are collectively known as the Vespermark. Small towns, villages, and farmsteads dot the borderlands between the settled areas of Krevborna and the rest of the world. In between these outposts are swaths of badlands and steppes littered with supposedly abandoned keeps, castles, and monasteries.

An atmosphere of vigilante justice prevails in the often lawless Vespermark; its settlements are imperiled by unholy beasts and predatory outlaws, and it lies beyond the protective reach of the Church of Holy Blood. The lonely homesteads and towns of the Vespermark are encircled by perimeter walls meant to keep out monsters and bandits. 

Most settlements in the Vespermark practice their own forms of self-governance, but some are oppressed by local tyrants, hereditary boyars, mercenary bands, or cult leaders. For example, the wilds of the Vespermark are a safe haven for the Yezhuli—a forbidden sect of the Church of Holy Blood that practices polygamy.

People who live in the Vespermark are protective of the lives they carve out of the desolate landscape. They are often regarded as standoffish, justifiably so, as they often have good reason to be distrustful of strangers.

Hallmarks

The following elements and aesthetic notes define the Vespermark:

    • The Vespermark is the sparsely populated borderland between Krevborna’s “civilized” areas and the neighboring countries.

    • The settlements of the Vespermark are self-governed, when they aren’t oppressed by local strong-arm rulers.

    • Strange cults that would otherwise be stamped out by the Church often take root in the Vespermark.

    • Brigands, highwaymen, and monsters prowl the badlands and prey upon the Vespermark’s farmsteads and towns.

    • Unusual flowers, their scent both sickly sweet and redolent of rotten meat, grow in the wilds of the Vespermark.

Two Reasons Why Call of Cthulhu is One of the Great Horror RPGs

Call of Cthulhu is one of the best horror games I've ever played, and I've played a lot of them. There are many reasons why it works great for horror, but I want to spotlight two elements that make a particular case for Call of Cthulhu as a top of the class game.

Sanity

It has been said, and rightly so, that Call of Cthulhu's Sanity system is a poor representation of actual mental illness.

Everyone who says that is correct. What they're missing is that this is a feature, not a bug.

Used liberally, Sanity loss in Call of Cthulhu is an unstoppable spiral into the abyss. Players should be incentivized to involve their character in the scenario for an important reason (stopping something awful from happening, keeping the people they love safe, etc.), but the act of involving their characters should also always put them in a position where losing precious Sanity is a preeminent threat.

The beauty of Call of Cthulhu's Sanity system is not in how it models mental illness, but rather in how it snowballs precipitously into a spiral of madness. One failed check means the next check is even more likely to fail, which means that the margin of success on the check after that is likely to be the slimmest it's been. 

Couple the viciousness of that unmitigable peril with the fact that every blown Sanity check could be an opportunity to make the current situation worse. If things go truly bad on a SAN check, it might mean briefly handing a player's character over to the Keeper's machinations and forcing them to do something that is contrary to their best interests.

And Keepers? If you get that opportunity, use it. Have the character do something that really fucks them over or makes the situation demonstrably worse.

What this means is deceptively simple: in Call of Cthulhu, even your own character is a liability.

There's also a special social effect that often occurs when the Sanity system rears its misshapen head in Call of Cthulhu. Sanity loss seldom spreads itself evenly across a group of characters; some characters get hit hard, while others remain largely unscathed. This creates a tension within the group between players who want to play it safer (they're watching their character's SAN score plummeting toward permanent insanity) and those who want to explore the scenario more cavalierly (their character is mostly unharmed by the horrors encountered thus far, so they see room for further error without consequences). 

So long as that tension remains at the table between the characters, and doesn't spill over to the players themselves, it makes for a wonderful push-and-pull of anxiety and dread that really enhances the game's atmosphere of horror.

The Character Sheet

At the side, you can see the skill list that takes up the majority of a Call of Cthulhu character sheet. It almost looks like a tax form, doesn't it? There sure are a lot of skills in this game.

They won't save you.

Ideally, there comes a point in a Call of Cthulhu scenario where a player desperately looks to all the skills listed on their sheet and has a horrifying realization: there is nothing there that can help them.

I've never seen a better encapsulation of the futility of human animal come face to face with eldritch horrors than that.

It's the theme, isn't it? The sum of human ability, the skillset that has allowed mankind to flourish on Earth, all that hard-won specialized knowledge and mastery--all of it is ultimately worthless when confronting things the human mind is not equipped to comprehend.

Now, do I think that is an intentional design choice on the part of Call of Cthulhu's authors? Of course not; the skill list in Call of Cthulhu is obviously an iteration of RuneQuest's rules updated for a modern setting. But as an unintentional facet of the game--it's utterly delicious, a nightmarish serendipity. 

I Wrote a Novel

I got back into writing short fiction in a concerted way in 2024, so for 2025 I gave myself the goal of writing a novel--something I'd never tried before. And I did it; I have now written a novel! And, as you can see from the word count, it's not even a short novel.

I'll have more to say about the process and how I crossed the finish line in a post or two to come at a later date. I've set my book aside for a bit, to give it (and myself) a rest. Then the revision process will begin.

Printed out, double-sided, the draft is thick

What's my novel about? Let me take a crack at summing it up:

A melancholy grave robber and her cheerful automaton friend get involved in the mystery of a missing corpse and an equally missing book of poetry. As they investigate, they cross paths with a black metal bard out to kill an angel and a famous monster hunter who is in love with a beautiful, but deeply evil, witch. 

It's got Slavic monsters, nunsploitation, a first date at an absinthe bar, a fetishistic death cult obsessed with red-haired women...and a whole lot more.

I'll definitely let everyone know when it's available to read.

The Horror at Hickory Park

I broke one of my own rules: I ran a Call of Cthulhu game set in the modern era, instead of using the 1920s or the Victoria era. In this game, the characters graduated from high school in 1995. That summer, on the Fourth of July, they went camping in Hickory Park with their friend Kim. Kim died on that trip, and her death was ruled an accidental drowning.

Although the players didn't know this about the other players' characters, each character had a memory of being the one who killed Kim. 

The present year is 2005, ten years after the tragedy. Each of the characters received a blackmail letter threatening to expose their secrets if they didn't bring $10,000 to the park on the anniversary of Kim's death. 

Characters

Dan, NYSEG accountant

Mickey, comic shop owner

Jason, journalist

Ruth Ann, yoga instructor and art therapist

Events

The group arrived at Hickory Park in two vehicles: Mickey's Ford Transit van and Ruth Ann's 70s AMC Hornet with a deer painted on the hood. At the gates of the park, they spoke to a park ranger whose nametag disconcertingly read "Kim." Kim explained that there would be fireworks later that night, a family friendly movie at the park's drive-in theater, and that they had accommodated the group's request for a campsite at a remove from the other campers. The booking had been apparently made over the phone by Jason, though he denied making it.

As they set up their tents at the campsite, Mickey was blasting a cd of Led Zeppelin's 4 on his boombox--until it started playing Nirvana's "Come As You Are," their friend Kim's favorite song. They stopped the cd player, started it again, but could not get it to play "Come As You Are" again; the song simply wasn't on the cd.

The group left their campsite to see what was going on at the beach. The beach was full of families, teenagers, and middle-aged people looking to cut loose on the holiday; they passed folks stacking firewood in the firepit for a party on the beach later. They decided to rent a canoe from the pier, where old men were fishing, and row around the river to see what was what. However, before they all set off in a canoe, Jason said he left something at camp. He told the rest of the group he would catch up to them later.

While canoeing on the river, the rest of the group saw workers setting up fireworks on Hiawatha Island. Sharp-eyed Dan also spotted a river cave on the isle, so they rowed for it and dragged their canoe up the rocky beach. They discovered a few strange things inside the cave, such as a shrine to their friend Kim (complete with framed yearbook photo), a mural depicting six people wearing furs and metal masks about to sacrifice a young woman lying in the snow (the young woman had an uncanny resemblance to Kim), and a tin mask and hand-crafted knife (that bore a resemblance to those in the mural).

Meanwhile, back at the camp, Jason searched everyone's tents and found their stashed weapons and hidden cash. The jig was up--he rightly assumed that every member of the group was being blackmailed, even if they had denied it earlier. 

When he made his way to the island in his own canoe, he caught up with the group just as they were examining a strange white globe hanging from the ceiling of a cavern by what looked to be a rope of flesh. The globe was covered with a lattice of some sort, and the chamber itself was frosted over despite the fact that it was a hot summer day. As they began to leave the chamber, they heard an unearthly howl. Ruth Ann panicked at the sound, drew her gun, and shot the orb.

When it exploded, it generated enough force to propel the group against the walls of the cave at speed. They all lost consciousness.

As they awoke, they realized that the world was not as they had left it. Hiawatha Island was piled high with snow and the Susquehanna was partially iced over. The gray clouds above threatened snow. They dug their canoes out of the snow and made their way back to the campground, but when they reached the beach they saw that all the celebrants who had been alive when they set out were now frozen-solid corpses. The cars in the parking lot were also mangled beyond repair.

They quickly made their way to their campsite, but trudging through the snow made them realize that they would soon need cold-weather gear if they wanted to survive the unnatural winter that had descended around them. They found their campsite destroyed as if an explosion had centered on it--the trees around it were bent backwards, their tents were shredded, their belongings scattered, and all the cash they had brought was strewn about.

Desperate for warmer clothing, they headed over to the camp's general store. The door was open, though they did knock over a bucket full of water and a mop as they entered. They found cold-weather parkas and boots lined up in the back of the shop--almost as if someone was expecting a sudden, violent turn in the weather. Within the shop they also found a dead man, his body evidencing multiple recent stab wounds. 

The movement of someone crossing the window caught their eye and they moved to lock the front door. Whoever it was pleaded with them to open the door to save them from the cold, but when they risked a look out a window they saw that the would-be intruder was clad in furs and was wearing a tin mask. They quietly exited out the back instead.

As they plodded near the playground, on their way to the house on the hill, they saw that there were children playing on the swings and teeter-totters. The kids were also clad in furs, and some of the group caught a snippet of their singsong: "Wind walker, wind walker, wendigo! Wind walker, wind walker, where'd Kim go?"

They entered the house through its unlocked back door. Inside, they could hear a rhythmic rocking sound coming from the stairs leading to the second story. The group paused too long in the hallway, riven by indecision; they heard a window shatter in a nearby room and the sound of something large trying to push its way into the house. The group opened the door of the room to see what they were up against: the creature was four-armed, covered in shaggy fur, and its monstrous head devolved into a giant curling horn.

Mickey and Dan both made a break for it, running back outside. Unfortunately, the creature easily caught up to them and messily dismembered them.

Back in the house, Ruth Ann and Jason ascended to the second floor. Unfortunately, they never made it to the origin of the rhythmic sound they heard; the monster squeezed up the stairs and into the second-floor hallway, effectively cutting off their escape route. Ruth Ann unloaded her pistol at it, but to no avail. The monster killed her first. Jason tried to ready a can of bug spray and a lighter to use as a makeshift flamethrower, but--the eldritch horror tore through him as well.

The last image we imagine in this scenario was the can of bug spray rolling down the stairs.

The headline in the Press & Sun Bulletin the next day reported that many died during the "freak storm" that darkened the Fourth of July, but no one would ever truly understand--the Horror at Hickory Park.

Comments are Back on the Menu, Boys

I've turned comments back on for this blog. I turned them off years ago because keeping up with spam comments started to feel like a part-time job. 

But they're back on now, because I've heard the filter is much better, so you can yell at me about my posts, agree rabidly as your vie to join my cult of personality, or just say, "hey, what's good. homie?"

Unless, of course, the filter is still crap. In that case, I'll turn comments off again or something.

Smoke City

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 85: Smoke City

Keith Rosson’s 2019 novel Smoke City is a supernatural character study that somehow makes the road trip adventure shared by a loose-cannon pop artist, a reluctant immortal, and a would-be ghost hunter into something much more poignant that one might expect. Jack and Kate hitch a ride with this motley crew and learn whether or not the real treasure is, in fact, the friends we make along the way.

Why does absolutely everyone in LA have a doorman? What is it that makes a dive bar truly magical? Is it ever wise to start a fight with a headbutt? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People.

Almost Dying on the Moon

The second, and final, Krevborna game taking place on the Shadow Moon.

Characters

Willard Corn, strange old man in search of his missing dog

Heck, revenant who punches things to death

Garazi, young witch with a bird familiar

Panthalassa, a necromancer out for vengeance against a death cult

Daytona, dhampir cowboy along for the ride

Events

When we last left our "heroes," Panthalassa ran in to grab a skull mask off a table in a mess hall just as a dragon swooped down from a hole in the ceiling; everyone else was gathered by the doorway. Panthalassa took a mauling from the dragon, but made it to the door with the mask. 

The group slammed the door shut. Willard and Daytona ran down the hall, but everyone else stood by the door arguing which way they should flee--which gave the dragon the opportunity to breath fire and nail the characters who weren't already in motion. The door was blown off its hinges and the hallway filled with fire.

That got the rest of them moving. 

Now that most of them were injured, they decided to hole up in the empty cells in the subterranean floor to rest and recuperate. The time passed without them being detected, but they did begin to recall strange snippets of the woman who sent them here in the first place. 

Panthalassa summoned a cat and used it to explore the fissures running through the broken walls in the complex. Through the cat, they located a cache of stowed-away food and a room where the remaining Fraternitie du Cadavre cultists huddled in darkness. The last mask they needed was with the cultists. 

The group was detected as they approached the cultists. The cultists ran deeper into the tunnels, but the characters followed them. They ran into a chamber where the living avatar of the Nightmother stood; her six hands each held a blade, her monstrous tongue lolled from her mouth. Her mere presence caused fear in the majority of the party; thus debilitated, they had a difficult time fighting the pagan goddess's avatar, but eventually they prevailed--mostly due to Willard's efforts.

Unfortunately, while they were battling the Nightmother, the spectral necromancer Valton Blakely oozed into the room in shadow form and joined the fray. He wore a twisted crown and bore a greatsword blazing with black fire. Luckily, they heard the barking of a dog--Willard's legendary three-legged dog burst from a tunnel and tore a chunk out of Valton. 

Valton proved to be an even more powerful foe than the Nightmother. Since many of the characters (including Panthalassa's summoned raptors) were all bunched together, he was able to hit them all with a big swing, Dark Souls-boss swing of his blackflame sword. Interestingly, they didn't scatter after the first time that happened--so they all took another full swing of massive damage from the necromancer's sword. 

It was a very near thing; even Heck, the party's strongest member, was in danger of meeting death again. They did, at last, kill Valton, but they were always on the brink of losing one or two of their own.

They slaughtered the remaining cultists without mercy and took the final mask as their prize. They then hid out in the room with the cached food to heal up again. Backtracking to the room where they had fought the vlaak Lord Doctors, they realized that they had never looted the bodies there. In that room, they found the key to the vlaak craft, which Yarsi helpfully knew how to operate. 

Once everyone was aboard and strapped in, Yarsi fired up the ship and brought them back to Hemlock Hollow. Willard bid the rest of the group farewell; his next destination was the stars where, with Yarsi and his dog at his side, we would seek more vlaak to kill. 

The rest of the group brought the skull masks back to the Usher house. Inside, they found the sorceress Cassie Mabcrowe and her friends Brigid and Anastasia waiting for them. Nightsong was there too; she was yelling at Cassie for using "her team" for this mission. Cassie explained that she had sealed away their memories to prevent their plan from falling into the wrong hands if it was discovered--which was only partially true, but no one pressed her on that. 

They did, however, insist on watching her perform the ritual that would put Madeline Usher back to "sleep." Wisely, they wanted to make sure Cassie was as good as her word. She was telling the truth--this time, at least. The world is now safe again from Madeline, the Curse of the Ushers.

But how does the party feel about being used by Cassie and, more importantly, what can they do about it? Perhaps that will be filed away, as the next item that appears to be on their agenda is to confront the witchfinders responsible for Heck's death.