Bourbon & Barbarians, Season 3 Episode 3: Spider Fight!

Hile, travlers! We have returned with another episode of Bourbon & Barbarians! Herein we jump straight into a spider fight!

Our episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. "Gnarled Situation" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Likewise Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Our final track is "Warrior" by Wishbone Ash from the Argus album. All music was obtained legally; we hope our discussion of this content makes you want to go out and purchase the work!

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Email us! (thecromcast at gmail dot com)

Season 9 Episode 4: The Transformation of "The Black Stranger" with Rusty Burke!

Yo ho Cromrades! We sail still on the Road of Revisions! In this episode, we engage with "The Transformation"! How does Robert E. Howard's "The Black Stranger" become two other pirate tales- "The Swords of the Red Brotherhood" (also by Howard) and "The Treasure of Tranicos" (by L. Sprague de Camp)? To find out, tune in and join us as we meet up with Howard scholar Rusty Burke for a rousing discussion!

Yarr! Our One Things!
Rusty: Some Notes on a Nonentity: The Life of H.P. Lovecraft by Sam Gafford and Jason Eckhardt.
Jon: Jeremy Wade's Dark Waters! 
Josh: No free time lately - only work, so teaching Entomology.
Luke: Veep on HBO

Next time, it's even more pirates as we tackle... "THE ADAPTATION"!

Questions? Comments? Curses?

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Legal Mumbo-Jumbo

Our episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Themes by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. 

Outro: "Don't Talk to Strangers" by Dio.  All music was obtained legally; we hope our discussion of this content makes you want to go out and purchase the work!

Season 9, Episode 3: The Inspiration – "The Striking of the Gong" by Howard & Carter

Welcome back, Cromrades! We're chugging along The Road of Revisions! In this episode, which we term 'The Inspiration,' we tackle "The Striking of the Gong," which you can find in the Kull collection by Del Ray or perhaps a used copy of King Kull.

A graphic interpretation of the story from The Savage Sword of Conan comic!

Here's the One Things!
Jon: Stardew Valley!
Josh: Harvest Moon - Friends of Mineral Town!
Luke: More gardening! Specifically his zinnia planting!

NEXT TIME.... THE TRANSFORMATION!

Questions? Comments? Curses?
Email us! (thecromcast at gmail dot com)
You know you want to follow us on Twitter!
Did you know that we're on Facebook?
We're posting photos on the Instagrams!
Subscribe to our feed on FeedBurner!
Or, check us out on iTunes!
We're also on Stitcher Radio and Google Play!
Finally.... Call us! (859) 429-CROM!

Legal Mumbo-Jumbo
Our episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Themes by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. Outro is "Do You Realize" by The Flaming Lips. All music was obtained legally; we hope our discussion of this content makes you want to go out and purchase the work!

Season 9, Episode 2: The Extension – "The God in the Bowl" with Mark Finn!

Welcome back, Cromrades! We're picking up steam as we head down The Road of Revisions with our guest, Mark Finn! In this episode, which we term 'The Extension,' we tackle one of the earliest-written Conan stories, "The God in the Bowl," which didn't see publication until 1952 when it appeared in Space Science Fiction.

An illustration by Mark Schultz in The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (Del Rey, 2003). 

Mark Finn is a long-standing REH and weird/pulp scholar. You may have heard of his biography, Blood and Thunder? Mark continues to blog at both 'Finn's Wake' and 'Confessions of a Reformed RPGer.' Do yourself a favor and jump over to some of his written material; it is well worth your time!

Beyond Mark's writing, we spend some time in this episode talking about the ongoing series of articles at The Black Gate entitled 'Hither Came Conan,' and discuss some of the points made by Bob Byrne in his article, 'Robert E. Howard Wrote a Police Procedural? With Conan?? Crom!!!'

Anyway, 'nuff with the jibba-jabba... Here's the One Things!

Mark: Red Dead Redemption 2

Jon and Josh: Avengers Endgame! Now showing at a theater near you :)

Luke: Fred Saberhagen's The Broken Lands / Empire of the East

NEXT TIME.... THE INSPIRATION!

Questions? Comments? Curses?
Email us! (thecromcast at gmail dot com)
You know you want to follow us on Twitter!
Did you know that we're on Facebook?
We're posting photos on the Instagrams!
Subscribe to our feed on FeedBurner!
Or, check us out on iTunes!
We're also on Stitcher Radio and Google Play!
Finally.... Call us! (859) 429-CROM!

Legal Mumbo-Jumbo
Our episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Themes by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. Outro is "Crawling King Snake" by The Doors. All music was obtained legally; we hope our discussion of this content makes you want to go out and purchase the work!

A Grave Night on the Borderlands - A One Page Dungeon Submission!

Hail, Cromrades! Looking for a quick bit of fun around the game table? Well, you're in luck! Below is Luke's submission to this year's One Page Dungeon contest. This 'Borderlands' one-shot is system-agnostic, and is designed to be a spooky little investigation!

If you have an idea yourself, submit it to this year's contest before May 1st! Entering is free, and past years' submissions are collected and available via Shattered Pike Studio. These past compendiums are chock full of ideas, and you absolutely can't beat 'em!

A low-res image of the dungeon is below; you can download the free PDF here!

Season 9, Episode 1: The Initiation - Kull and Conan with Karen Joan Kohoutek!

Welcome back, Cromrades! We're excited to get rolling down The Road of Revisions, and we go big with our first episode! Here we tackle the roots of Robert E. Howard's brand of sword and sorcery by going deep with the Kull/Conan dichotomy, and we call in our friend and Howard Scholar Karen Joan Kohoutek to provide us with her insight into this topic. Karen authored an insightful essay comparing "By This Axe I Rule!" and "The Phoenix On The Sword" which was published on On An Underwood #5  July 22, 2018. Read that, and prepare for an epic exploration of these two stories!

The text analysis we discuss toward the end of the episode is below.

Fig. 1 - The Phoenix on the Sword - Most Common Words

Fig. 2 - By This Axe I Rule - Most Common Words

Fig. 3 - Most Frequent Words in "Axe" and "Sword" Combined. 

Fig. 4 - Frequent Word Pairs - Arrows Point to Second Word of the Pair, Increasing Shade of Arrow = Increasing Frequency of the Word Combination

Fig. 5 - Sentiment Scores by Section of "Axe" and "Phoenix"

Fig. 6 - Words Contributing Most Heavily to Sentiment Analysis in "Axe" and "Phoenix". 

One Things
Karen: Star Wars Celebration in Chicago!
Jon: Monster - The Zodiac Killer podcast
Josh: Joining The Appendix N Book Club Podcast for a series of episodes! Luke joined in for a discussion of L. Sprague De Camp's The Goblin Tower on Episode 41, Jon was up next for Conan The Wanderer on Episode 42, and Josh joined in for a Leiberian conversation about Swords Against Wizardry on Episode 43.
Also, we joined Trick or Treat Radio for Episode 350 and discussed The Head Hunter.
If you haven't subscribed to these great shows, you absolutely should!
Luke: Death Metal Gardening! Spring renewal, green growth, and renewal by raiding the soil's nutrients for your crops!

Growth and Graves

Next: A long-awaited story, and an old friend returns... 

"In Mitra's name what is in that chamber?"

Questions? Comments? Curses?

Email us! (thecromcast at gmail dot com)

You know you want to follow us on Twitter!
Did you know that we're on Facebook?
We're posting photos on the Instagrams!
Subscribe to our feed on FeedBurner!
Or, check us out on iTunes!
We're also on Stitcher Radio and Google Play!
Finally.... Call us! (859) 429-CROM!

Legal Mumbo-Jumbo

Our episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Themes by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. 

Outro: "Steel and Silver" by Visigoth.  All music was obtained legally; we hope our discussion of this content makes you want to go out and purchase the work!