Lore of the Underlings ~ The Podcast: Recent Episodes
John Klobucher
A poetically heroic and comically apocalyptic episodic ebook/audio epic. Come join the journey as author John Klobucher brings the tales of the Lore to life with dramatic performances of all the characters and original music too! If you like long and lyrical romantic fantasies, great battles of good and evil, and some serious bouts of buffoonery, then the "Lore of the Underlings" is for you... (for free ebooks, artwork, and more of the Lore, visit loreoftheunderlings.com)
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Blink of an Eye “Three farns a bunch!” cried the blind old woman, hawking her bruised, rotten fruit on the side of the road. “Pepper pears! Ripe blood poms!” But the village folk all […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… The Ogmont Ogdog hadn’t been home in a hundred years, but something was calling him now. It was on the air, in his skin, a weight to the raindrops falling black as oil, a […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Lam’s Song Jury stood watch at the edge of a lonely outpost, far from the heart of Nord. It was midnight but lit by a full blue moon that turned the nearby forest into […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Children’s Day It had become an annual ritual, one special day on the Ides of Lune when Lord Plesh summoned the children of Nord to gather and celebrate his reign. This was the thirteenth […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Grimhaven To say that Jury and Morio were not the finest foot soldiers in the Nord Lord’s dreaded Legion would be an understatement of epic proportions. And yet they were given a plum assignment […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… The Underlore Shosha the young scribe boy looked puzzled. He’d been practicing runes on the dungeon’s dirt floor for hours as all beginners did, but this shape was odd; he’d not seen it before. […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Anak the Prophet In an age before the written rune when the lands of the world had names now forgotten and empires rose or fell at the magi’s whim, a girl named Anak lived. […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Bitter Fruit Oatus Troot stood on the edge of his field of marshmellons, wielding a hacking blade. The old farmer picked out the best looking fruit, a pearl-white orb the size of a cabbage, […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… The Fighting Pit It was still dark when the ram horn sounded. Jury and Morio jumped to their feet and scrambled outside with the other recruits, falling in line just in time for their […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Red Letter Day Marb Ogger had just made the morning tea, a big steaming pot of Nordish black, when she heard a loud rapping at the door. “Now who could that be at this […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… The Stone Knight “Please, Sir Narkalus, tell us a story, won’t you? One of your great adventures?” The clerk walking next to the Stone Knight’s steed looked starstruck, lucky to taste his dust. “Thou […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Edict of Thoom The High Priests of Merth had heard enough. Word of the unrest and strange goings on in Nord did not sit well with them, so they called for an unheard of […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Of Ogs and Oggers Jurykynd Ogger was barely awake when he stumbled outside for the morning chores. He crossed the snowy courtyard barefoot and shirtless, buck naked but for his britches, and seemingly unaware […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… The Wide Eyed As soon as Nard Hardseed heard word of the Pendant, the ominous object that clouded the skies over Nord, the far first province of Merth, the leathery westman abandoned his sad […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… The Yooper It was a feast day throughout the land and Morio Yoop’s mother, a typical Nordswoman not to be crossed, had sent her son out on a mushrooming mission. “Murklees… and lumpums too, […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Lam and Jury Long ago, on the warm clear morn of old Nord’s Midsummer’s Day, two teenage lovers, Lam and Jury, lay together in a field of white lillylorn gazing up at the eye-blue […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 4 (part 6) “The Letting Pen” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ When Morio unfolds a secret map, things take an unexpected turn… Podcast of the Lore 017 ~ Episode 4 (part 6) “The Letting Pen” (Replay from March 2014 at the House of Lore, Framingham […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 4 (part 5) “The Letting Pen” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ Vaam recalls the chilling evil that led them to this distant land… Podcast of the Lore 016 ~ Episode 4 (part 5) “The Letting Pen” (Replay from March 2014 at the House of Lore, […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 4 (part 4) “The Letting Pen” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ Vaam awakens in captivity, an ancient lullaby on her lips… Podcast of the Lore 015 ~ Episode 4 (part 4) “The Letting Pen” (Replay from March 2014 at the House of Lore, Framingham MA […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 4 (part 3) “The Letting Pen” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ A new peril looms over beautiful Vaam who sleeps unaware of it… Podcast of the Lore 014 ~ Episode 4 (part 3) “The Letting Pen” (Replay from February 2014 at the House of Lore, […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 4 (part 2) “The Letting Pen” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ The strangers learn secrets of their captors through a storied door… Podcast of the Lore 013 ~ Episode 4 (part 2) “The Letting Pen” (Replay from February 2014 at the House of Lore, Framingham […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 4 (part 1) “The Letting Pen” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ The strangers bide time in an ink-black pen, awaiting a fate unwritten… Podcast of the Lore 012 ~ Episode 4 (part 1) “The Letting Pen” (Replay from January 2014 at the House of Lore, […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 3 (part 5) “Fyryx” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ Fyryx concludes his troubled vigil as news arrives with the dawn… Podcast of the Lore 011 ~ Episode 3 (part 5) “Fyryx” (Replay from December 2013 at the House of Lore, Framingham MA USA, 18 minutes […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 3 (part 4) “Fyryx” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ Fyryx tastes a sourness in the fruit of his people’s salvation… Podcast of the Lore 010 ~ Episode 3 (part 4) “Fyryx” (Replay from December 2013 at the House of Lore, Framingham MA USA, 17 minutes […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 3 (part 3) “Fyryx” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ Darker memories overcome Fyryx as he loses himself in the past… Podcast of the Lore 009 ~ Episode 3 (part 3) “Fyryx” (Replay from November 2013 at the House of Lore, Framingham MA USA, 15 minutes […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 3 (part 2) “Fyryx” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ Fyryx takes a journey back into the epic tales of his youth… Podcast of the Lore 008 ~ Episode 3 (part 2) “Fyryx” (Replay from November 2013 at the House of Lore, Framingham MA USA, 18 […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 3 (part 1) “Fyryx” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ The troubled leader begins nightwatch for his dear but injured vell… Podcast of the Lore 007 ~ Episode 3 (part 1) “Fyryx” (Replay from October 2013 at the House of Lore, Framingham MA USA, 13 minutes and […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 2 (part 3) “Return of the Guard” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ Can an odd ally save the three strangers from an even odder end?… Podcast of the Lore 006 ~ Episode 2 (part 3) “Return of the Guard” (Replay from October 2013 at the […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 2 (part 2) “Return of the Guard” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ Morio runs afoul of the master Guard in hopes of helping Jixy Mox… Podcast of the Lore 005 ~ Episode 2 (part 2) “Return of the Guard” (Replay from September 2013 at the […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 2 (part 1) “Return of the Guard” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ The three strangers meet the mighty Guard and their stern leader… Podcast of the Lore 004 ~ Episode 2 (part 1) “Return of the Guard” (Replay from September 2013 at the House of […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 1 (part 2) “The Strangers” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ The bashful, baffled folk puzzle over the strangers in their midst… Podcast of the Lore 003 ~ Episode 1 (part 2) “The Strangers” (Replay from September 2013 at the House of Lore, Framingham MA […]
Dramatic audio performance of Episode 1 (part 1) “The Strangers” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ Ominous visitors invade the remote outpost of a reclusive folk… Podcast of the Lore 002 ~ Episode 1 (part 1) “The Strangers” (Replay from September 2013 at the House of Lore, Framingham MA USA, […]
Dramatic audio performance of Foreword “Into the Lore” from the Lore of the Underlings ebook series by John Klobucher ~ A haunting yet humorous start to the LotU series, which tells the mysterious story behind these tales… Podcast of the Lore 001 ~ Foreword “Into the Lore” (Replay from August 2013 at the House of Lore, […]
Here’s a quiet little song, a loving but melancholy lullaby, from the podcast of Lore of the Underlings, my episodic epic. It’s sung by a most mysterious character — the beautiful, space-shifting Vaam. We both hope you like it (it’s one of my favorite things from the entire series so far)… Flower of the Field (Replay from March […]
This is the first theme music that I’ve created specifically for Lore of the Underlings ~ The Podcast. It is simple and brief. I hope you find that it evokes the ancient mystery and future wonder of the Lore and its lands. LoreSong (Replay from August 2013 at the House of Lore, Framingham MA USA, 45 […]
Fantasy fans, sci-fi buffs… a strange and brave new world awaits. A saga for FREE (but not for long). The Lore Anthology on amazon.com… Now through Thursday, August 20 you can download this Kindle edition of all eight Lore of the Underlings episodes, a collection of epic adventures and colorful characters, for merely a click. Come explore the […]
Fantasy fans, sci-fi buffs… a strange and brave new world awaits. A saga for FREE (but not for long). The Lore Anthology on amazon.com… Now through Thursday, May 21 you can download this Kindle edition of all eight Lore of the Underlings episodes, a collection of epic adventures and colorful characters, for merely a click. Come explore the […]
Fantasy fans, sci-fi buffs… a strange and brave new world awaits. A saga for FREE (but not for long). The Lore Anthology on amazon.com… Now through Thursday, February 20 you can download this Kindle edition of all eight Lore of the Underlings episodes, a collection of epic adventures and colorful characters, for merely a click. Come explore the […]
Fantasy fans, sci-fi buffs… a strange and brave new world awaits. A saga for FREE (but not for long). The Lore Anthology on amazon.com… Now through Thursday, November 21 you can download this Kindle edition of all eight Lore of the Underlings episodes, a collection of epic adventures and colorful characters, for merely a click. Come explore the […]
Fantasy fans and sci-fi buffs! A speedy FREE ebook of Lore awaits you: One-Minute Epics on smashwords.com It all begins when a specter appears over Nord — and looms for a generation. But that’s just one of the Underlings’ epic troubles. And evil grows within… One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from the Lore of […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Blink of an Eye “Three farns a bunch!” cried the blind old woman, hawking her bruised, rotten fruit on the side of the road. “Pepper pears! Ripe blood poms!” But the village folk all […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… The Ogmont Ogdog hadn’t been home in a hundred years, but something was calling him now. It was on the air, in his skin, a weight to the raindrops falling black as oil, a […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Lam’s Song Jury stood watch at the edge of a lonely outpost, far from the heart of Nord. It was midnight but lit by a full blue moon that turned the nearby forest into […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Children’s Day It had become an annual ritual, one special day on the Ides of Lune when Lord Plesh summoned the children of Nord to gather and celebrate his reign. This was the thirteenth […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Grimhaven To say that Jury and Morio were not the finest foot soldiers in the Nord Lord’s dreaded Legion would be an understatement of epic proportions. And yet they were given a plum assignment […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… The Underlore Shosha the young scribe boy looked puzzled. He’d been practicing runes on the dungeon’s dirt floor for hours as all beginners did, but this shape was odd; he’d not seen it before. […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Anak the Prophet In an age before the written rune when the lands of the world had names now forgotten and empires rose or fell at the magi’s whim, a girl named Anak lived. […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Bitter Fruit Oatus Troot stood on the edge of his field of marshmellons, wielding a hacking blade. The old farmer picked out the best looking fruit, a pearl-white orb the size of a cabbage, […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… The Fighting Pit It was still dark when the ram horn sounded. Jury and Morio jumped to their feet and scrambled outside with the other recruits, falling in line just in time for their […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment… Red Letter Day Marb Ogger had just made the morning tea, a big steaming pot of Nordish black, when she heard a loud rapping at the door. “Now who could that be at this […]
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment…
The Stone Knight “Please, Sir Narkalus, tell us a story, won’t you? One of your great adventures?” The clerk walking next to the Stone Knight’s steed looked starstruck, lucky to taste his dust. “Thou art a persistent man,” growled the legend. He raised his visor. “Well, just this once.”
The rider, Sir Narkalus Grayvane, had been dispatched by order of Merth’s High Priests to bring their law to troubled Nord and quell the turmoil that engulfed it. The mightiest knight in a thousand years, Grayvane the Cold was renowned for his steelstone armor, a suit he forged himself, and a sword hand none had ever fought and survived. The Stone Knight knew no mercy. Even now with age his fiercest foe, he was more than a match for any horde of men, and he still lusted to face them.
Today the knight led a dozen attendants winding their way down Crossing Road toward the Underland in the heart of Nord. The thirteenth, the clerk, the High Priests had added to serve as the eyes and ears of Thoom. The bureaucrat’s name was Rippen Plesh, a man with a ruddy complexion and greasy black hair, and not much else of note.
“Here’s some lore for thou, scribe,” the knight reminisced, spitting in the clerk’s direction. “‘Twas long ago during the Battle of G’urn when I met at Lord’s Pass a legion of Narr men — foul, fanged creatures that smelled to heaven — and slayed them alone with none but this.” He touched the hilt of his sword, the Merth Keeper. “Only then did the enemy show its hand, a sorcery grim and long forgotten. The Narr dead had been enchanted to rise again; seventeen times I killed them until the blood moon broke their spell and I felled them like saplings for once and for all. ‘Tis said that turned the tide of war, crushing the Narrish threat forever.”
“Bravo!” gushed the swooning clerk. Then the company came to a sudden halt.
“The bridge is out, my liege,” called a young valet. “The detour’s a fortnight north.” The knight, wanting none of it, reached to unsheathe his blade.
The clerk chirped, “I know a shortcut…”
Plesh led them down to the old Low Road and warned that, though quicker, it was “a shadowed way.” The brave knight scoffed at his caution. “Descend, men, into the gorge,” he ordered as mist clouds parted to welcome them.
Before long the entourage reached a vast swampland, Hell’s Hollow, and took to its narrow causeway, crossing the fogbound bog in single file for what seemed like forever. Sun and moon were obscured above them, day and night both but a ghastly glow. And strange sounds swirled around like restless ghosts. The Stone Knight paused to listen.
“Doest thou not hear that damsel in distress?” he shouted, dismounting his steed. He was in the water before his men could stop him. “I’ll save you, m’lady! Hold on…” Then the Stone Knight waded into the endless deep. The black muck swallowed him up.
While the rest of the company stood in stunned silence, clerk Plesh let out a long, low whistle and grinned when a widowlark answered him with a cry as it took flight from the murk. “Tragic the good knight didn’t know his birdsong. On to Nord, my friends!”
One-Minute Epics are poetic micro tales from John Klobucher’s Lore of the Underlings, a lyrical fantasy-fiction world. Please enjoy this installment…
Edict of Thoom The High Priests of Merth had heard enough. Word of the unrest and strange goings on in Nord did not sit well with them, so they called for an unheard of Council of Lords to convene on the eve of the new year’s moon in Thoom, their stronghold and holy city crowned by the Temple of Rain and Sun. Prelates flocked from across the land and locked themselves away for days of debate, some of it so contentious that points were made with blades and fists.
But the fur really flew when the priest of the west accused the eastern lord of concocting it all, the tales of things in the sky, of flying girls, martyrs, and thousands possessed. “I know you, Hennok. This smells like one of your tricks, a menace you’ve conjured up over Nord and its weak-minded, inbred folk. It’s no doubt merely a ruse to raise an army and resurrect the throne.”
“I wish I’d thought of that,” Hennok laughed. “I’d order you skinned alive as my first royal act…” Then he gagged on his mug of wine and choked to death, poisoned with half of his faction.
The west lord was strangled that night as she slept.
The blood was still wet on the chamber floor when the council resumed deliberations. “Brothers! Sisters! We must stop these squabbles now,” cried the priest of birds and beasts. “The crisis grows with every sunrise — the crows have told me so. I believe them.”
There was a dangerous silence before the wisest, the Sooth of the South, spoke up. “Be that as it may, what matters is… we must act before the Senate does.”
All agreed and they issued the Edict of Thoom. It was written in crimson, posted, and read…
“Hear ye, folk of the Underland!” yelled the herald, unrolling a lambskin scroll. “Harken — this is official business.” A hush fell over the wide-eyed crowd.
“The Lordly have spoken from holy Thoom and offer this gift of four Commandments; heed them or not, on pain of death:”
– Firstly, don’t gaze at the sky again.– No flying or dying without permission.– Speech is allowed, but not aloud.– Everything else is strictly forbidden.
The messenger tucked away the scroll to leave, “Good luck with that, Underlings. You’ll need it — the High Priests have sent their knight.” And he laughed as he lumbered out of sight.