The Lindworm

Our impromptu Runecairn game continued! If you want to read the first bit of our Vikings' adventures in a world broken by a failed Ragnarok, it's here.

Characters

Toki, a skald

Sigridur. a scout

Hallbera, a berserkr

Gorm, a seer

Revna, a pyre

Events

The world passes under the heroes in a blur as massive ravens carried them in their talons, yet they still got a sense of the Broken World that now existed after a failed Ragnarok. Farmsteads and great jarldoms alike were naught but ruins. Wide rivers of fire cut swaths through the sundered land. And corpses, of men and monsters, choked the soil with their blighted black blood. 

And still, there were signs of life. New settlements had appeared where forsaken people banded together for survival, eager to find the bonds of fellowship that would sustain them. Monsters, too, roamed the Broken World; they saw lonely giants in the mountains, bands of elves creeping through forests, and hordes of the walking dead riding forth from blood-soaked battlefields. 

At last, their destination came into view. At first, they mistook it for a citadel, but as it neared they saw that it was the corpse of a great lindworm rising from a crack in the earth, forever frozen in the moment of its demise. The ravens dropped them at the foot of the grand worm, where a bonfire burned bright. As they wheeled away, one of the corvids said, “If thou seekest justice, enter the unhallowed worm and findest the five treasures that will call forth an end to the world's misery.”

After scouting around the perimeter of the lindworm, they discovered a way to enter it--a large wound gaping in its side. They fashioned torches and lit them in the bonfire, then proceeded in. Inside the first chamber, they found a family of trolls sleeping. Their attempt to sneak past the trolls failed, but Revna was able to slip behind the trolls and take one of their children hostage. Using the child's life as leverage--so dishonorable!--they convinced the trolls to leave without further conflict. 

Further inside the lindworm, they found a "waterfall" of bile running from a pierced organ above. Behind the horrid fluid were handholds they could use to ascend further up the worm's decaying body. A few members of the party were cursed by the shower of bile as they traversed it, but they soon located a new bonfire that cleansed them of the evil. 

In another hollowed-out "chamber" within the lindworm, the reality of their situation fell away and they found themselves once more in one of Idis's orchards; as before, the mother-maiden-crone tended a massive apple tree basking in a shaft of pure sunlight. Idis was able to tell them that the treasures they sought were likely to be a mistletoe-wrapped dart, a silver chain, a great hammer, a horn, and an iron spoon. Idis also added another draught to their mead horns before they departed. 

Further exploration brought them to a pool of bubbling hot "mud," but when the substance proved corrosive they decided to return when they had a better idea of how to deal with it. They also encountered an ongoing spectral echo of Ragnarok in which Vikings allied with their jarl fought eternally against Norsemen allied to the jotunn. At another juncture leading upward, they battled a withered undead being who called himself "Hel's Champion.' After he was beheaded, he continued talking, warning them that death still awaited them.

Within the next "level" of the lindworm's body, they met a tall, thin man wearing a luxurious fur cloak and a horned helm. He offered them a hundred souls for the mistletoe dart they had found below. When they balked at his insanely generous offer--and his emphasis on the fact that they would be as powerful as gods with a hundred souls in their possession--he simply left, bewildering them. The heroes believed they had just met Loki, the trickster.

In another chamber, they found two monstrous wolves snarling at each other, apparently fighting over a horn that lay between them. Hallbera attempted to offer a meal of fish to one of the wolves to get it to be her friend, but it bit her viciously. Battle commenced! During the fight, two of the party were slain--Hallbera and Sigridur awoke at the last bonfire they had rested at and had to backtrack to where the others fought the Children of Fenrir. 

Continuing on after besting the wolves and taking the horn, they found a young jotunn chained to stone slab. Above him, a diseased organ dripped the corrosive "mud" substance onto him; whenever it touched his flesh, he thrashed wildly, causing the entire worm to shake. Revna smashed the chains that held him with her hammer; before he disappeared, the jotunn gave her a smile of thanks. When they retraced their steps back to the pool of "mud," they found that it had drained through holes in the lindworm's flesh and that they now had access to a single soul that sat at the bottom of the pool. 

Back above, Hallbera became entranced by an orb surrounded by hooded wraiths; Toki slapped her back to consciousness; Hallbera then shattered the orb, causing mist to flood the chamber. The group beat a hasty retreat. 

At last, they once again encountered Jarl Angraboldr. However, this time his specter begged them to forgive him for asking for their blood and souls in the cave. After forgiving him, they climbed higher, but were ambushed by an enormous serpent who tried to swallow Gorm as it slithered down from the ceiling. The battle was fraught, but once slain they were able to take the hammer roped around the serpent's neck. Realizing that they had probably missed one of the treasures on the first "level," they returned below and found the sharpened iron spoon in the possession of a dead, dismembered dwarf. 

Back up top, they at last emerged out onto the lindworm's wide-open mouth. A crazed, battlesorrowed valkyrie flew down from the heavens; around her waist was the silver chain they sought. The valkyrie summoned four undead warriors to join her in the fight, but ultimately the heroes were victorious and gained the last of the treasures the ravens sent them to gather. 

Once out of the decaying lindworm, they stood at the edge of the sea and blew a long, melancholy note from the horn that resounded over the sound of the crashing waves. The water stirred, becoming tumultuous, and then the dragon-headed prow of a warship broke the surface as it emerged from the frigid deep. Water poured from the ship. There was something strange about its construction. And then, they realized--the ship was made of the fingernails of the dead. 

The frozen waves bit at their skin as they swim to the ship. A rope ladder was tossed overboard by unseen hands. As they clambered aboard, they saw that a woman was watching them. She stood in profile. She was blonde, thin, and comely of face. When she turned, they were horrified to see that the other side of her body was withered and blackened. She smiled a grim smile. The ship lurched downward, taking them into the fathomless mystery of the sea.

To what realm do our Viking heroes now speed? We'll find out next time.

Total Skull: January, 2026

All the things the delighted me in January, 2026.

The Abandons

My yen for Westerns carried over from December into the New Year. Luckily, first season of The Abandons was there for me in my time of need. The Abandons is set in the Washington Territory and centers on the conflict between two powerful matriarchs, the wealthy mine owner Constance Van Ness (played by Gillian Anderson) and rancher Fiona Nolan (played by Lena Headey). The first episode was truly great; it's pedal to the metal right from the get-go. The episodes that follow slow the pace a little, but it's all just "pot coming to a boil" as a confrontation between the two central families becomes inevitable. My only complaint is that the cliffhanger ending of this first season felt a little cheap.

Josh Rountree, The Unkillable Frank Lightning

Imagine if Frankenstein's monster was working at a Wild West show and his wife was hunting him down to end his unnatural life. That's the starting premise of Josh Rountree's The Unkillable Frank Lightning, but this is a a novel where the situation definitely...evolves into something else. Said wife discovers that her reanimated husband is not the same person he was the last time they met, and the hired guns she's brought with her have their own unheralded issues to deal with. Strangely, and somewhat surprisingly, I think this is actually a book about learning to navigate regret.

Stephen Graham Jones, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

I've had my copy of Stephen Graham Jones's The Buffalo Hunter Hunter for a long while now, but I was waiting for a weekend where I could read it straight through without interruption. I gotta tell you--it completely lives up to all the hype it got in 2025. Plus, it has one of my favorite fictional conventions--a frame narrative! A dissatisfied academic learns that one of her ancestors, a Lutheran priest, wrote his memoir of meeting a vampiric Native out to kill the men responsible for crimes against his people and for the decimation of the buffalo population. Man, Stephen Graham Jones has done it again. Essential reading.

Will Maclean, The Apparition Phase

In Will Maclean's The Apparition Phase, two weirdo twins obsessed with faking ghost photographs show their work to the wrong classmate; all hell breaks lose from there. Especially when one of the twin's therapists suggests he visit a remote grand house where a ghost investigation is already underway. Fans of classic British ghost stories and the 1970s spectral revival will love this; it reminded me, in places, of M. R. James, William Hope Hodgson, and Andrew Michael Hurley, but it very much stands on its own noteworthy merits. 

Eyes of Fire

Eyes of Fire is an incredibly strange American folk horror movie from 1983. A heretical preacher and his flock abscond from their community to settle a commune (read: cult) deep into the "unknown" frontier, but they encounter a "devil witch" and her clay-smeared minions in the territory. I really enjoyed how unapologetically weird it was--it feels like a made-for-tv movie that never would have been aired and the witch looked suitably freaky. 

Agatha Christie's The Seven Dials Mystery and Netflix's Seven Dials

I knew Netflix's adaptation of The Seven Dials Mystery was coming, so I got myself a second-hand copy of the novel to read first. There is a mystery in the novel, but this is a particularly madcap Agatha Christie book in which a plucky young heroine is encouraged by the police to stick her nose into a case of conspiracy and murder. Very fun. The Netflix adaptation is also pretty fun, but be aware that they put in some effort toward hammering it into a more conventional narrative structure with the expected plot beats. If possible, I recommend reading the book first because it's much weirder and more idiosyncratic. 

Laura Purcell, The Silent Companions

I'd been meaning to read this book for years, as it is always noted as being one of the best in its class, but with a prequel coming soon I decided it was time to get on with it. I read a lot of this sort of neo-Victorian Gothic novel, and you always want to find in them some special spice that allows the book you're reading to stand out among the other fiction in that genre. In Laura Purcell's The Silent Companion, that spice is the presence of "companions" in the haunted house: wooden cut-outs painted so cleverly that they can be mistaken for real people. (These are real things that exist; check it out.) Of course, these companions crop up where they're least expected, and no one will admit to moving them around the household. Excellent book, now I'm really looking forward to the new one!

The Devil Rides Out

Based on the classic occult nonsense book by Dennis Wheatley, with a screenplay adapted by Richard Matheson and directed by Terrence Fischer, it's hard not to love The Devil Rides Out. Christopher Lee is great as a priggish man out to foil a devil-worshiping cult's machinations, and the plot throws in everything from damsels in distress, occult rituals, psychic connections, spirit possession, the Angel of Death, and even...time travel? Okay, so maybe it's a trifle too "Christian" in its morality to satisfy in the long term, but consider the story's source. And just look at that movie poster! Isn't that one of the all-time greats?

The Initiation of Sarah

The Initiation of Sarah is one of the crop of "bullied teens with supernatural powers" made-for-tv flicks that sprang up in the wake of Carrie's success. This one skews slightly older than the usual, with its adopted protagonist heading off to college with her non-biological sister. You see, the sister is poised for success--all her life she has been primed to follow in her mother's footsteps and pledge to the "powerful" sorority. The bookish, classical music-loving adopted sister? Not so much; she only finds a place in the misfits sorority, which happens to be bullied by the popular sorority on campus. How will they push back against the mean girls? Psychic powers, baby. I thought this was pretty good for a made-for-tv movie, with a strong cast and some interesting turns. Honestly--I keep thinking about it.

Poppy, Empty Hands

Poppy's evolution into screaming metal valkyrie has been fascinating to watch. On previous outings, the mix between the heavy parts and the pop hasn't always felt balanced; sometimes it was even prone to give the listener whiplash from track to track. However, Empty Hands is Poppy's most seamless release to date--yes, the electropop elements are still present, but they're woven into the fabric of the heavy songs on offer. There's also some surprisingly crushing songs on this one; Poppy is convincingly unhinged. 

After Ragnarok

I ran my first game of the year last Friday: a session of Runecairn using a modified version of the introductory adventure in the game's core book.

Characters

A skald

A scout

A berserkr

A seer

A pyre

Events

The characters awoke in a stone chamber lit by a bonfire at the center of the room. They did not remember their names, nor how they had come to be in this cave. When the pyre examined the bonfire, she saw that a skeleton pierced through with a spear sat at its middle. She could feel the heat of the flames on her skin, but the sensation was muted--she realized then that they numbered all among the dead.

The sound of the sea could be heard from the mouth of a sea cave to the south. Looking out of the mouth revealed a sea choked with broken dragon-prowed ships, dead Vikings, and slain monsters. The scout dismantled the bonfire, which (in retrospect) could have been a disastrous mistake. The berserkr found a broken sword; this was their only weapon for the time being.

They could also hear the sound of metal scraping against stone coming from a corridor. They followed the sound and saw two viking specters uselessly dragging broken swords across the stone walls of the corridor. The wraiths ignored them as they passed through the tunnel into a wide-open chamber with a large crater at its center. When the berserkr examined the crater, a massive demon made of rock dropped from a ledge overhead. The party ran for the safety of another corridor, but they did see that a set of massive carved doors were also in that chamber.

The corridor led them to another bonfire. Nearby leaned five bundles of wolf fur held shut with leather straps. Inside each bundle was an item of power meant for each of the Vikings; touching their item caused them to remember their names. The skald was named Toki; the scout was named Sigridur; the seer was named Gorm; the berserkr was named Hallbera, and the pyre was named Revna. They also now remembered that they were blood-kin sworn to the service of Jarl Angraboldr.

In a cavern covered in mushrooms, they found a skeleton near a murky pool. Approaching the skeleton caused it to rise and attack; another skeletal warrior emerged from the murky pool to attack them from behind. Once the skeletons were destroyed, Gorm used his yew staff to check for anything strange or interesting in the pool. He ended up wading into the murk to retrieve a luminescent, palm-sized lump of glass. 

The presence of arrowheads along the next stretch of corridor alerted them to the skeleton archers waiting to ambush the group. As the rest of the group engaged the archers, Sigridur ducked into an alcove and found another five wolfskin bundles. These bundles contained the rest of the Vikings' gear. They were now well-armed for the confrontations ahead.

Following their path brought them to a huge grotto. A hole in the ceiling of this chamber brought a huge shaft of sunlight into the space; a massive apple tree dominated the room. Tending the tree was a woman whose form shifted between that of a maiden, a mother, and a crone. The woman's name was Idis; she referred to the members of the party as "the Fallen," and told them that to leave the cairn they'd need to kill the stone demon, gather the souls within it, then toss the souls into a bonfire so that they could become living once more. Before the Vikings departed from Idis's grotto, she gave them each a drinking horn containing a draught of healing mead.

After returning to the last bonfire and resting, the group pressed on. They found a set of natural stairs, at the top of which was a wraith making threatening gestures. They approached the wraith, but a boulder suddenly rolled at them from the top of their stairs, injuring most of them as it crashed to the back of the tunnel. Eventually, they emerged into a ledge that overlooked the cratered chamber in which the stone demon prowled. They did find an iron key hanging on the wall.

Sigridur plunged down on the stone demon from above with his hunting knives, doing massive damage to the creature. The rest of the party followed him into the chamber to do battle with the demon. Although the demon was once a formidable opponent when they were unarmed, they quickly destroyed it. Among the stone wreckage left behind were five glass souls and a bronze key.

Both keys were required to open the carved door. Inside was a mass of thick fog they were forced to press through. In the chamber beyond the mist, they saw the inverse of Idis's chamber: a massive dead tree loomed at its center. A gilded wooded throne sat beneath it; upon the throne was a desiccated, undead Jarl Angraboldr. Angraboldr called upon them as his oath-sworn to give him the blood he needed to live again. Figuring that their oaths were null and void since they had died in his service once before, they instead refused him, angering the Jarl and causing him to attack. The battle was brief, but fierce. 

When the Jarl fell, five ravens descended from an aperture far above. They asked the Vikings if they "wouldst seek justice in the Broken World." When the Vikings responded in the affirmative, each raven grabbed up one of characters and soared with them up and out of the cairn complex.

Where are the ravens taking them? We'll find out next time.

Menoch, Morokain, Nergazu

Three more patrons for cults and weird warlocks in Krevborna. This time we've got an eldritch scholar of horrid secrets, a biblical lord of murder, and a disease-spreading demon.

Menoch, The Chained Scholar

Menoch is an eldritch entity from the Outer Dark that feeds on madness; it pushes mortals to seek arcane secrets and forbidden magics that are likely to drive them into the throes of insanity.

    • Menoch’s avatar takes the form of a man-like creature wrapped in chains, its face obscured by a hooded robe.

    • Menoch is responsible for inspiring mad mages to pen grimoires containing hideous truths.

    • Cults devoted to Menoch often begin as antiquarian societies and academic salons.

    • Isolated hermits and eccentric magicians who devote themselves to Menoch wear shackles at their wrists adorned with hanging chains.

Morokain, The Lord of Murder

According to the Holy Blood Bible, Morokain was the first murderer, accursed with immortality and doomed to wander as a pariah.

    • Morokain is said to be a brutish man with a brand on his forehead.

    • Morokain’s curse grants him enormous eldritch power; it is said that there is nothing he cannot kill.

    • Assassins, killers, and bandits revere Morokain as a god.

    • The Skarabasca are among the most infamous of Morokain’s devotees.

Nergazu, The Demon Lord of Plagues

Nergazu is the Demon Lord of Plagues, one of the most disturbing of Hell’s demonic princes.

    • Nergazu’s avatar manifests as a demon with a toad-like head and the wings of a carrion bird.

    • Bodily degradation and the fear it engenders are Nergazu’s sphere of demonic influence.

    • Nergazu’s cults are often small and are often comprised of outlaws, outcasts, and abject criminals.

    • Nergazu’s cults engage in activities such as poisoning wells, spreading contagions, and other acts that endanger public health.

Maximus (Mix for January 2026)

One thing I'm gonna try to do in 2026 is make at least one "mix tape" per month. Forget Spotify playlists; this is the art we must keep alive. Below is the track list for January's mix; people on my Discord get access to the actual mix--drop me a line at totgad AT gmail DOT com if you want an invite.

Krom Krulek, Lilinesh, Malistrad

Three more patron entities with dangerous cults in Krevborna.

Krom Krulek, The Crawling King

Krom Krulek is a chthonic entity from the Outer Dark who claims dominion over all the abject vermin of the earth.

    • Krom Krulek’s avatar takes the form of a massive worm with a toothy maw.

    • It desires nothing save to be fed sacrifices.

    • Krom Krulek was worshiped as a ravenous and insatiable god of hunger and fecundity by Krevborna’s pagans in the days of widespread heathenism.

    • Cults who worship Krom Krulek often taken the form of fertility cults who handle poisonous snakes as part of their bizarre rituals.

Lilinesh, The Demon Queen of Excess

Lilinesh is the archetypal demonic sexual temptress. She is the befouled mistress of perversion and carnal corruption.

    • Lilinesh’s avatar manifests as an enticing, bat-winged succubus clad in leather and lace.

    • She wields pleasure as a weapon, using it to break mortals’ wills and enslave them through the lures of the flesh.

    • Each Lilinesh cult tends to focus its devotions on a specific sexual fetish, such as sadomasochism, dominance and submission, or orgiastic rites.

    • Lilinesh’s worshipers often accumulate power and influence by ensnaring well-placed victims into webs of sexual dependency.

Malistrad, The Lord of Death

Malistrad is the progenitor of all vampires; he was created when the leader of the rebellious angels was cleaved in two during the War in Heaven. 

    • Malistrad appears to be a tall human man with pale flesh and long black hair streaked with white; he currently walks among mankind using the name Zorin Malistrad.

    • As the ancestor of all vampires and the Lord of Death, he possesses godlike strength and untold necromantic power.

    • Malistrad is worshiped by some vampires and necromancers; they beseech his favor in hopes of learning the deepest secrets of the undead.

    • He is currently missing, and his whereabouts are unknown.

Best of 2025

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 90: Best of 2025

Jack and Kate look at what they've read and watched in the year that was 2025 and make some recommendations in the world of books and beyond. The rules of engagement are simple: the hosts each choose one movie, album, TV show, and book that was the best experience of its kind, regardless of when it was actually produced. A little bit new, a little bit old, and a whole lot of weirdness is in store!

Your hosts travel through vintage TV ghosts of the non-BBC flavor, the joys of being pandered to, and multiple Suicide Squads (without actually talking about the Suicide Squad).