SPITTLEDRUM, the Four-eyed Demon, has scoured the internet for new eyes: four sword-and-sorcery gems! Illustration provided by Mustafa Bekir.
"The Familiar's Four Gems will be posted every week. It is a curated list of old and new digital resources for amateur sword and sorcery writers and readers; it will occasionally provide short reviews where appropriate. If you have something you would like to include, contact us. -JRC
Blog Post: The Ten Greatest Sword-and-Sorcery Stories by Robert E. Howard, by D.M. Ritzlin. "I asked a panel of wizened experts (disclaimer: said panel consists solely of myself) to select the ten greatest sword-and-sorcery stories by Robert E. Howard. All of Howard’s most notable characters are represented here: Kull, the Atlantean who became King of Valusia, the Puritan avenger Solomon Kane, and of course, Conan the Cimmerian. If you’re mostly familiar with Howard’s work through the Conan the Barbarian films or comic books, this should prove to be a helpful reading guide."
Digital Gaming Convention: Bride of CyclopsCon in October! "Bride of Cyclops Con will be online everywhere October 16-18, 2020. And this convention will feature not only Dungeon Crawl Classics, but also Dungeons and Dragons, and every other game that you can associate with Goodman Games. We’re talking DCC, MCC, XCC, DCC Lankhmar, D&D, and maybe even some of the others that you don’t think about as much—we’re looking at you, Metamorphosis Alpha, DragonMech, Dinosaur Crawl Classics, and others!"
Academic Blog: The Weird Tales Three and Verbal Black Magic, by Chase A. Folmar. "While reading any of the Weird Tales Three, there’s a certain quote by Clark Ashton Smith that always springs to mind: "My own conscious ideal has been to delude the reader into accepting an impossibility, or series of impossibilities, by means of a sort of verbal black magic, in the achievement of which I make use of prose-rhythm, metaphor, simile, tone-color, counter-point, and other stylistic resources, like a sort of incantation."
Dungeon Synth Album: Eldritch Wizardry: Where None Dare Venture. "Far over the treacherous waters of the western sea, there is an island shrouded in an unearthly fog. Upon it stands an ancient fortress, once the dwelling place of a merciless warlord whose defenses were unmatched by any kingdom. Until one day, a curse was brought upon the island, when an old sorcerer was burned alive by the warlord's men. A curse that swallowed them all in the earth and roots beneath them. The fortress still stands upon the forsaken isle, surrounded by the very roots that conquered the once-mighty warlord; as a warning to all who dare enter and attempt to claim the treasures left behind by the condemned."
