For tonight’s tale, we revisit an incident that had a monumental impact on both the River Village and the Mountain Village. Yet we will not concern ourselves with that tale, for it was not true. Not only that, it was a shameful falsehood intended to cover up the folly of the wolves of the mountain. That had been charged with protecting the mountain, and they had been found lacking.             This is the tale of the young man who forced the wolves of the mountain to own up to their ineptitude. Our hero was a proud resident of the mountain village. He was proud of its rich history and cultural heritage. His ancestors called to him through these tales. For the mountain village was founded by fiercely rugged people who thrived amidst the supernatural elements of the strange, shadowy mountain. His ancestors made homes for themselves where others feared to even tread. For they dared to form an alliance with the dark elements of the mountain. Our hero stared into the dark places of the mountain, hoping to see what his ancestors saw.             But the dark places faded away when the tourists arrived. Soon, the tales our hero grew up with became entertainment for the throngs of tourists who come to the mountain to gawk at things other people told them were important. Our hero could no longer accept the fact that his village was becoming nothing more than a tourist attraction. So he found the worst tourist of the lot and whooped his ass. He whooped his ass good and proper. He whooped that ass in the spirit of his proud ancestors. And for that act of resistance to overtourism, he was expelled from his village.             Cast out of the light, he sought out the darkness. Yet he never suspected that the darkness had been creeping closer and closer to him all of his life. As he makes his way from the village, the cult of the Spider claims him for their own. They offer him a chance to join the darkness at the heart of the village. So he is faced with a choice. Should he make peace with the modern world, or should he embrace the inhuman forces that lurk in the darkness. The decision he ultimately makes shapes the fates of both villages. For the cult of the spider has come to power, and their members are everywhere.             This tale contains profanity, overtourism, violence, antisocial behavior, occult elements, and references to excessive alcohol consumption. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, I explain why this week’s episode is late. I also give you a bit of insight into how these episodes are made, and what it's like to deal with the denizens of these villages. Though this is not a full episode, I still managed to include profanity in it for some reason. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we look upon an abandoned house. It was the scene of a horrific attack on a family that left one dead and two wounded. The attack was so brutal and savage that the surviving brothers could live there no longer. At least, that’s was version of the story that was told to a lone priest, who had previously been content to passively observe the village around him. However, this tale inspired him to take an active role in investigating the house. He is a member of a secretive sect that specializes in communing with the dead. Their practitioners are few and their methods are unconventional. Yet this lone priest from a renegade sect will dare to test their methods against whatever wickedness is lurking in that house.             When he enters the abandoned house, he is confronted with an angry ghost that forces him to question his sanity, his faith, and his mental fortitude. This test is brought to an abrupt conclusion when the doorbell rings. Behind the door, he is confronted by two hulking brutes that demand his signature. They have a terrible burden to place upon his shoulders, and they will not leave until he signs his name to their unearthly document and accepts that burden. If you’re familiar with the village, you probably know the dread burden that the priest is made to bear. It’s an ass whoopin, administered by them boys, who are back in town. They’ve returned to teach the priest to mind his manners and pick up after himself.             Humbled, our priest gets on the bus to make his way back to his home. Yet on the bus, he has a chance encounter that greatly changes the nature of his relationship with the village. Armed with a new outlook, our humble priest decides he is no longer content to watch others from the shadows. He now intends to become an active player in the tragedy that is our ruined village.             This tale contains profanity, violence, course language, and descriptions of antisocial behavior. Listener discretion is advised.

            I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the ruined village. If you’re new here, the flowers are beautiful this time of year, so you picked a great time to join us. Other than the flowers, the rest of the place is fairly ruined. It would be a good idea to watch where you step. In fact, go ahead and bring an extra pair of shoes. Shoes don’t tend to last long in the village.             Our returning listeners probably think they’re familiar with the state of the ruin at the heart of the village. Well, a lot has happened since our last visit. The pack of roving drunks we all know and love are now the River Road crew. They have claimed their rightful position as the law of the land. This claim was supported by the Cult of the Spider, who have taken control of the River Village and its neighboring Mountain Village. The birdman is locked away in a cage, the fox is in hiding, and the other creeps will be dealt with soon enough. So it may be a good time to come back to the village to see who survived the last season.             It’s a new day in the village, and the old problems have all been solved or run off. A whole new set of problems is around the corner, so let’s hope the River Road crew notices. The Cult of the Spider may even prove to be understanding and compassionate in their reign. But that doesn’t seem likely. Given that spiders never have been known for their compassion, it’s best to be prepared for anything. But rest assured that no matter what dangers await us on the River Road, the bus that takes us out of there will be late.

            Moonlight Over a Ruined Village is a Weird Fiction anthology podcast dedicated to weird and scary stories. These stories deal with people caught in the grasp of social decay and are based on accounts collected from the residents of a suburban village that has fallen into a state of ruin.             Though the names of the people and locations have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved in these events, the events could happen anywhere at any time. These tales deal with dark themes and disturbing content that some listeners may find troubling. In addition, there is a fair bit or profanity, so listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we meet the cult of the spider. Their leader has been lurking in the shadows of all of these tales. He watched the wolves move into the mountain village, and he did nothing. He watched the river village fall into a state of ruin, and he did nothing. He watched the demented followers of the wolf of the mountain perpetrate their sick bone removal ritual on a lonely traveler, and he did nothing. Yet when the character known as the bird man started to manipulate the denizens of both villages, he started to plot in the darkness.             The birdman then used the bone removal ritual on the denizen of the river village to strengthen his control over them. When those lost souls howled through the ether, the spider answered their call. He took them in, listened to them, and he was angered. These lost souls could not forgive the torment they suffered at the hands of the birdman.             So they all discussed the matter in the darkness, and formed the cult of the spider. For his first act as their leader, he shook the strands of their web which had been woven throughout both villages. This act set events in motion that would send all the characters exactly where he wanted them to be.             Tonight, the trap is set, the pieces are in place, and their plan of dominion is enacted. They will capture the birdman and see that he suffers. They will then establish his rulership over both villages. Tonight, the chaos of the past comes to an end. Tonight is the night that order is established. This order is that of the cult of the spiders, and they will suffer no nonsense.             This tale marks the end of season one. Season two may follow shortly. For nothing is guaranteed on the River Road. This tale contains exposition, violence, profanity, antisocial behavior, and horror. Listener discretion is advised.

            Tonight is the night we look back over the second seven episodes of the series. First, we meet the mysterious Sachiko as she rides the bus into the ruined village. She has come to investigate the bizarre incidents the area has become known for. Then we meet the solitary thug on his way to meet someone about a job, which does not go well for him at all. Next, we meet Reggie, who was once down and out, but who managed to pull himself back up. He uses his second chance at life to rid the ruined village of the nonsense that’s been plaguing it.             Then we go back to the time when Tomisaburo first met the Bird man and proposed the formation of the cabal that is responsible for most of the ruin in the village.  Next, we find a man who is tormented by a ghost. He seeks help with the devil monk, but soon decided to try his luck with them boys and their crew. They have a really good time solving his problem, which is great, uplifting, and fun for all of the.               The next episode makes up for that by being really dark and scary. That’s where we deal with the cabal and the sick process they devised for removing bones from the living. And finally, we have the epic tale of a lone wanderer who gets lost walking on a strait road next to a river. She soon runs into them boys and their crew, who solve none of her problems. Instead, they take her on a tour of every convenience store parking lot in the neighborhood. They then proceed to incur the wrath of everyone in their neighborhood.             For tonight is the night we examine where these tales came from, and we speculate where they are going. Because nobody who sets foot in the ruined village ends up where they intended. This episode contains profanity, violence, references to previous episodes, and antisocial behavior. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we finally address the issue of the weasel, for he has been lurking in the background of these tales for far too long. While his story is as tragic as you probably think it is, there are supernatural elements woven throughout the weasel’s misspent life that may shock you. The weasel possesses supernatural powers that enabled it to survive the hatred all living creatures. These powers were given to him by a notorious fox deity by the name of Tomisaburo. He bestowed upon him unnatural abilities of transfiguration and regeneration. These gifts were given to him just to enable him to survive the torments he enacted on the weasel in jest. But when Tomisaburo meets the sinister dirt spider, the idle play, sick though it is, soon turns into a conspiracy to enslave the denizens of the ruined village.                     Tomisaburo and the dirt spider devise a plan to use the weasel as the tool he is to infiltrate the pharmaceutical company at the foot of the mountain of the wolf. Once inside, they will create a chemical that will enable them to manipulate the residents of the ruined village. But like all things from the village, this plan is also ruined. It is not long before the weasel catches the attention of the wolf deity, and the wolf deity does not like what he finds.             What follows is an account of how a cult removed the weasel’s bones from his body repeatedly. This account, which is an obvious fabrication, was accepted as the undisputed truth by all the denizens of the ruined village. They have been living in fear of the mountain village ever since, which doesn’t really say much for them.             Tonight’s tale contains a sarcastic account of a ridiculous bone removing ritual that would be disturbing if it was in any way believable. Moreover, it contains demons from hell, cult activity, profanity, and magical creatures engaging in antisocial behavior. Listener discretion is advised.

            For tonight’s tale, we rejoin the young woman who dared to venture into the ruined village where she lost her way on the river road. Having learned little from her last ordeal, she decides to set out to explore a different village, this one at the foot of a haunted mountain. This mountain is said to be the home of not only a coven of witches, but also a murderous cult who is suspected of using bones for the purposes of occult rituals. She is sent at the request of the denizens of the ruined village to look into shocking new developments regarding the fates of the doomed young men whose bones were removed from their bodies and were left to die in the river. It turns out those youths are not only still in possession of their bones, but they are using them to live in this haunted village. That information changed pretty much everything for them, so they sent her to the mountain village to verify all of it. Hopefully, she can make sure they haven’t joined that weird ass cult. While on a bus going to the mountain, she gets of the bus to wander around in the parking lot of a convenience store.  There she runs into who you are probably expecting her to run into. Together, they venture into the heart of the mountain where they are soon confronted by the very cult of weird assholes she was sent there to investigate. She soon finds herself being pulled into the cold, earthen depths of a strange new village, where unknown horrors lurk in the very earth itself. This episode contains the usual level of violence, antisocial behavior, and profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we find ourselves back on the river road. Yet we are not alone. Far from it. We are members of a gang of likeminded malcontents who have finally decided to do something about the strange occurrences that have plagued the river road. They are going to go straight to source all of these occurrences. The entrance to the drainage tunnels. This is near the area where six of the village youths were found after their bones had been removed from their bodies. The charge is being led by the mysterious Rook, and by his side is the father of the solitary thug whose bones were removed from his body. They are both armed with rebar poles that they will gladly plunge straight into the softest parts of whoever dares to get in their way. With them is Sachiko, the enigmatic snake deity. She is joined by the town drunk, the professor and his consortium of ghosts, and the animate ventriloquist dummy who has recently graduated from cigarettes to cigars. They will go deep into the tunnels to confront whatever resides within. That will prove to be a very bad idea, for which they find themselves grossly ill-prepared. The only reason they don’t immediately regret it is because the tunnels are so long that it takes them forever to get to the center. Once there, they confront the oddity that lurks within the tunnels. This is the very same oddity that has been lurking on the river road, where it has been seen aggressively eating chicken, discarding bottles, and denying warrantee claims. This weirdo is more than ready for them, and they soon find themselves caught in the very center of his web. Bound and at his mercy, he forces them to confront their past indiscretions before delivering a shocking revelation that makes them all question what they’ve all been doing with their lives. For this is the evening that this collective of malcontents finally learn that their true enemies are not who they thought they were. This tale contains profanity, descriptions of violent crime, dark themes, supernatural entities, and characters mercilessly ridiculing people for their unconventional fashion choices. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we return to the very spot where the solitary thug waited beneath the moonlight for his doom. This was the spot where the hapless thug encountered the ruined beings that removed the very bones from his body while he was still alive. They then left the empty husk of all that was left of him to drown in water not even deep enough to cover the discarded cans and garbage that always seems to accumulate along the river road. Though that event is in the distant past for the surviving villagers, it is relived every night for the parents of the victim of this cruel act of depravity. The mother wastes away in her bed, resolved to lie there as lifeless as her son did at the end of his life. The son’s father, however, stalks the river road in search of the criminals who destroyed his son’s life. His single-minded devotion to his vendetta has claimed every waking moment of his life, which has resulted in his being ostracized by the rest of the village. Yet he has allies in the form of them boys and their crew. Their persistent dedication to shredding the web of terror that binds the river road has attracted the attention of dark entities from beyond. These dark, strange beings have decided to take a stand against the cabal that preys upon the pilgrims of the river road. Tonight is the night that these beings make themselves known to the father of the lost thug. Beneath the moonlight, they declare their allegiance to the father and his undying vendetta. Tonight’s tale contains people dealing with depression, references to violent acts of criminality, antisocial sentiment, profanity, unholy entities, and a father with a single-minded devotion to his vendetta. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we find ourselves with a lone woman standing beneath a streetlight in front of a desolate field. There is nothing around her but the gravel street in front of her and the torn-up earth and abandoned construction equipment behind her. As she stands there, she is watched from a hole in the ground by a pair of auburn eyes. This particular shade of auburn does not naturally occur in humans, and the owner of those eyes would never claim to be human. For the owner of those eyes holds humans in such contempt that he refuses to have anything to do with them apart from feeding off of them. Yet this woman awakens a feeling in his heart that he has never known. As he watches her stand there alone, he grows concerned for her. This feeling evolves into an infatuation that makes him question his biological need to feed upon her. However, the evening takes a dramatic turn when she asks him for his aid. He soon finds himself amidst a calamity of her making, where he learns this woman has made some really bad choices in her life. He soon finds that his choice between protecting this woman and surviving was already made for him by a mind colder than the earthen hole he crawled out from.  This tale contains violence and themes of death, mutilation, and decomposition. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we follow the newly initiated member of the crew that haunts the village with them boys. They have taken to calling him the professor, as he has a unique talent for looking into the supernatural with his feet planted firmly on the ground. Often when dealing with the unknown, people become so bewitched and bewildered that they lose sight of the ground they were standing on before everything changed. For that is what happened to the crew. They were gravely wounded in what they claimed was an unprovoked attack. They needed the professor to help them find a path to recovery. But to do this, they will have to make a bargain with an old enemy. One who has kept a red eye on them and all they do. For this is the tale of the night when old vendettas were settled and new ones were forged. This tale contains profanity and references to tobacco and people being burned by tobacco. Listener discretion is advised.

Tonight is the night we look back over the first five episodes of the series. We start with a hapless traveler on his way home that is pursued by a faceless phantom, and we end with a mysterious vigilante assaulting a gang of creeps in a graveyard. In between, we have two sisters learning a new way of life, two brothers preserving their old way of life, a ventriloquist dummy given unholy life by a ruined man, and a doomed soul robbed of all traces of their identity. All the while, the river that cuts through the village is haunted by two lost souls who hoard trash, a tunnel dwelling miscreant who poisons the village around him, and a vengeful Kitsune trying to take his pound of flesh from a world that thought it had escaped him. For tonight is the night we examine where these tales came from, and we speculate where they are going. Because nobody who sets foot in the ruined village ends up where they intended. This episode contains profanity, violence, and references to previous episodes and antisocial behavior. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we meet Tomisaburo. Some of you may think you are familiar with that name, but you are mistaken. You have yet to meet Tomisaburo, but tonight you will be cured of that. For this is the night that Tomisaburo gets revenge on them boys for attacking him. That never happened, but the rumor is that he tried to tempt them with a haunted shamisen and they beat him for it. Since them boys did nothing to dispel the stories of this incident, the repercussions of it are going to occur. The tale of this incident will replace the false narrative being perpetuated by them boys and their ilk. For in this tale, Tomisaburo reminds them boys and the misfits they keep as pets that the unknown forces that weave their way around us are best left unknown. They can never be known, and it is the epitome of folly to assume any degree of familiarity with them. Tomisaburo will use a glass bottle to do this, and it will hurt like hell. This tale is violent and gruesome. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we follow another traveler along the river road.  Though he has no definite destination, he has an aim, he has a purpose, and he has the means and will to obtain them. This is a man who was haunted by denizens from beyond the veil. Lost and desperate, he sought help in the ruined village. While there he found them boys and their crew. They helped him to find his strength. Emboldened, he returned to the River Road, to seek out other denizens from beyond the veil, to show them he was no longer going to live in fear of them. As he travels the road, he contends with the strange, ruined creatures that stalk about the River Road. But when he meets one of the denizens from beyond, all of his plans fail. At a loss, he stares into the darkness. It is there that he receives help from an unlikely source. As they work together to salvage his plan, he is forced to question the purpose of his journey. By the end, he learns that true horror lies not on the other side of the veil, but in the trappings we humans create for ourselves on this side of it. This tale contains profanity, references to previous tales, and excessive descriptions of bureaucracy. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we meet our hapless drunk. He is standing on the street at dusk. He is alone and without his crew, but he is not aimless. For he is there to execute the duties of his office. The hapless drunk has moved up in the world, and he somehow managed to assume the role of liaison to the board of education for the ruined village. At least, that’s the way he remembers it. He is there to confront the teacher who sent a young writer into the next of vipers that is the ruined village. The acting liaison will enact his scheme to teach this cowardly teacher the importance of manners and honesty when one walks the river road. However, this teacher is far from lost, and him and his student came to the ruined village for a reason. This reason may prove greater than even a hapless drunk can imagine. This tale contains profanity, antisocial behavior, references to previous episodes, and references to crime, murder, and mutilation. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we follow our hapless wanderer as the reaches the conclusion of her journey through the darkness at the center of the ruined village. She is pulled from the battle between the two raving jackasses by a strange creature in the form of a ventriloquist dummy. From that point on, it gets a lot weirder.  For this haunted dummy serves as her only guide through her encounters with an increasingly bizarre succession of unearthly beings. This roving pack of drunks serve as her only hope of finding her way to the end of the River Road. They bravely guide her along the strait road that runs along a river that runs near the bus stop she used to get there in the first place. Along the way they face the dangers of convenience stores that are willing to sell them alcohol if they shut up and go away. Their mad journey enriches her with valuable life lessons, such as the importance of friendship in the face of adversity, the strength that comes with compassion, and most important of all, the importance of looking up from your God damned phone when you’re in an unfamiliar area. But the tale takes a dark turn. For as she makes her way back to the real world, she finds the unseen phantoms of the River Road linger about her like smoke from incense offered to the departed. The darkness has found her, it has marked her, and its denizens will forevermore be able to find her. This tale contains references to the previous episode, so the same warnings apply. Furthermore, this tale deals with irresponsible people in states of inebriation and a great deal of disrespect for public order. Listener discretion is advised.

Tonight’s tale will be told in two parts. For the first part, we follow a young woman as she ventures into the village. The fires of her curiosity were undoubtedly stoked by the villages growing reputation for being infested with thugs, drunks, assholes, and the pedantic creeps who broke them. Her curiosity leads her to the infamous doll museum, and her better judgment leads her to leave it almost immediately. This leads her to the river road, where sleepy houses are overshadowed by trees that sway in the seer winds from the ghoul haunted forests and mountains that surround it. The road is gentle during the day, attracting families, children, and dog owners. However, the sun soon sets and the darkness descends. With the darkness come the predators, and the gentle town folk become their prey. The first victim is a small dog that goes missing. The loss of the dog sends all of them into a panic, and they are soon reminded that ownership of the river road changes when the sun is no longer there to watch over it. Once the moon holds court, the denizens of the night creep from the shadows with brazen audacity. Bewitched and bewildered by the darkness, she cannot find the way out. Enraged ghosts find her, eager to bring fresh blood into their endless conflict. Caught in a hellish maelstrom, she is pulled away. She is pulled into the cold, silent shadows by an otherworldly creature. Helpless and at a loss, she follows the strange creature deeper into the shadows. Her only hope is that she chose the lesser of evils as darkness engulfs her. This tale contains references to crime and mutilation, animals and humans in states of distress, references to dolls, and a greater than reasonable amount of profanity. Listener discretion is advised.

For tonight’s tale, we follow our solitary thug as he makes his way through the tunnels that run beneath our ruined village. He was sent there by a mysterious figure. Some call him the bird man, others call him the dirt spider. Our hapless thug is being pursued by an unimaginable horror that has just received a name, and that name is the Rook. The birdman informs our solitary thug that the Rook is coming for him and he will steal the bones from his body. He tells him that his only hope lies in the center of the tunnels. Yet the path our hapless thug thinks will lead to his last hope drops him straight into a Hell worse than he could ever imagine. This tale is dark, bleak, scary, and it may disturb sensitive listeners. It contains themes of violence, medical horror, mutilation, and despair.  Listener discretion is advised.