Moonlight Over a Ruined Village

            Tonight’s tale begins in a hole, dug deep into the earth by a creature that wants nothing to do with the world. The hole is merely a space in the earth for him to occupy until he passes from this world. For that is all this creature wants. He seeks oblivion.             Yet the outer world would still claim this creature’s time and labor. The creature is awakened from his wretched slumber by merciless lights that flash in his eyes and a thunderous pounding in his skull. So the creature answers the phone he had been sleeping on, and discovers he is late for work.             Thrust back into the world he wanted to abandon, the ruined creature bathes in freezing waters and is subjected to the judging stares of an outraged class of students. This causes him to violently retch in the river, which just makes it worse. He then runs through the streets and endures the outright hostility of the types of jackasses who honk their horns at pedestrians. He finally arrives at his job, where things start to go really bad for him.             It is hard to know what finally broke him. It could have been the pedantic middle manager drunk with the authority granted to him by elites who couldn’t care less about him. It could have been the sniveling customers who tried to make him share the burden of their idiocy. Although it was more than likely his altered physical state from his time being held as a prisoner of the cult of the spider. Whatever it was, our hero looked the world in the face and declared that he would rather not.             So he retreats to the darkness. But there, he finds he is not alone. In fact, his decision to abandon humanity was not entirely his own.  Our retching demon soon learns that he has been expected by an old evil from his past. This tale involves one guy retching more than is entirely necessary. It also contains references to antisocial behavior, body horror, vampirism, occult themes, violence, bureaucracy, and profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we join a doomed soul that has been locked away. He was first removed from society, and then from all sources of light. His sanity did not survive. The years he spent in his perpetually darkened cell could not be counted by his broken mind. He clawed at unforgiving walls and pulled at iron bars until his body failed him. He devoted his wretched life to vain attempts at escaping that darkness, and he failed every time. Soon the denizens of the darkness found him and dined on his flesh and blood. Before long, he was forced into a sickening communion with these horrible creatures.             Satisfied with his ruined state, his captors pulled him from his cell, threw him into the back of a vehicle, and dumped him onto a dirt road in the middle of a ruined village. But it is not just any ruined village. It is the very village from which he was abducted. In fact, it is the very village he played a role in ruining. Emboldened by the familiarity of the road beneath his feet, he sets out to reclaim his village.             Those plans are cut short by the arrival of two goons known as them boys. They inform the prisoner that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated in this village. In fact, they are there to see to it that he accepts the changes all of them have been through. The prisoner then has to acknowledge the horrific changes he was forced to undergo in the darkness.               This tale is dark and deals with imprisonment, supernatural elements, body horror, mistrust in government institutions, and antisocial behavior. Moreover, it contains profanity and references to past stories. Listener discretion is advised.

            Tonight is the night we conclude season four. It began with the cult of the Spider taking control of the ruined village. They assigned the River Road crew to punish Tomisaburo, deal with the Devil monk, assist the faceless man, and locate the weasel. Over the past season, they have taken bold steps to accomplish some of those tasks. Some of it may have even been intentional. However, the weasel eludes them still. With his ability to make copies of himself, it seems like he will plague them forever. Yet that was before Tomisaburo got involved. He was the one who taught him all his tricks, after all.             The weasel has been busy this season. He has secured a contract with the government to produce the mind control drug they used last year to manipulate the village population. They want to have the drug in their possession, mostly because they don’t want other players to have access to it. So they send a hapless government stooge to finalize the deal. Amidst the neon lights of a local bar in the mountain village, they agree to sign the contracts at an abandoned amusement park the next evening.             This does not go well. Neither of them remembers who chose the amusement park as a place to meet. Moreover, the stooge and the weasel have different memories of the previous evening. As they struggle to make sense of it all, they are confronted by a mysterious figure in a Kimono with an array of fox tails at his back. He has come for the weasel, and he is taking him to settle a score. But the weasel has made friends in the mountains, and they will not let him go without a fight. That’s fine with the Kitsune, though. He brought an ass-whoopin with him, and he needs to use it before it expires. This is the night old scores are settled and new ones are forged.             This tale contains violence, body horror, references to irresponsible alcohol consumption, occult themes, and gore. Moreover, it expresses mistrust in authority, bureaucracy, and the government. It doesn’t matter which one. Take your pick. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we join a lone stranger who fancies himself something of a celebrity. He has journeyed to a nearby resort town to investigate a strange incident. The employees of a local distillery claim mysterious entities have interfered with their production operations. The entities themselves defy explanation, as their actions are too erratic to be those of humans. However, the skills necessary to perform those actions are too advanced to be those of animals. The locals suspect supernatural forces are at work. Some even go so far as to declare them to be deities from the local mountain.             However, our celebrity has a different theory. He believes the hauntings are being perpetrated by entities from his past. These entities dealt him a wound, and he refuses to bear that wound in silence. So he goes to the town to investigate. His likeable face grants him information about the haunting, and his nefarious skills grant him access to the site of the haunting. When the entities appear, he decides then and there to confront them. When he does, things immediately go very wrong.               For the entities themselves remember the celebrity, as they were wounded by him as well. Moreover, they have a score to settle with the celebrity. But they are not alone. For our celebrity has made his share of mistakes in the past, and the victims of those mistakes now demand compensation. It soon becomes apparent to all that the only solution to their problems is to conduct an involuntary medical procedure. The recipient of the procedure stands no chance of enjoying the experience, but he will probably survive.             This episode is the second-to-last tale for season four. The next tale will be the final tale of the season. This tale obviously contains themes of medical horror. It’s not fun, but it’s not really that bad. However, this tale also contains supernatural themes, descriptions of alcohol abuse, discussions of urban decay, antisocial sentiment, profanity, and disregard for public order. Moreover, it contains references to previous tales. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we find ourselves in the parking lot of an electronic store. The reputation of the store has always been negative. Yet the discovery of animate corpses on the second floor of the premises has damaged the store’s reputation beyond repair. These corpses were animated by the pedantic psychopath known as the Turkey. He has operated unopposed for so long that the situation has festered and worsened right before the eyes of the community. The Professor, who is the acting manager of the store, is desperate to rid his store of the animate dead. Moreover, he wants to free the village from the Turkey’s relentless nonsense. But the job is too big for him alone.             In the past, the River Road crew could be counted on to help folk when they were down and out. Furthermore, they knew when to keep fools in check. However, they are nowhere to be seen. To make matters worse, the town drunk, in his capacity as a liaison to city hall, has done nothing to address the problem. So the Professor is alone.             Yet chance soon brings the Kitsune noble known as Tomisaburo to his store. He is accompanied by the mysterious Rook. The two of them intent to find the animate dead so that they can inhume them. They soon find an eager partner in the Professor, and the three of them waste no time forging a plan to eliminate the animate dead and to solve the problem of the Turkey once and for all.             Yet the plan they undertake is not going to be subtle. In fact, the three of them are fed up with the village and will do little to spare it from damage. While the River Road crew operated in the darkened back streets, the Undertakers are going to start a full-blown riot in a parking lot. Furthermore, the whole village is invited, whether they like it or not.               This tale contains body horror, violence, occult themes, and profanity. Listener discretion is advised.