Explore every episode of the podcast The Lovecraft Vault

THE LADY IN GRAY is a short story by the American author, Donald Wandrei. The tale first appeared in Weird Tales in its December 1933 edition, and was described by the magazine as follows: “The story of a strange woman and a loathsome gray slug that came to a sleeper in his dreams..."

HORROR AT VECRA is a Cthulhu Mythos story by the American author, Henry Hasse, first published in The Acolyte, in its Fall 1943 edition. "After losing their way, two travellers arrive in the eerie village of Vecra, where strange books, unsettling dreams, and a sealed crypt hint at something ancient waiting to be unearthed."

THE HORROR IN THE MUSEUM is a short story ghostwritten by H. P. Lovecraft for Hazel Heald in October 1932, first published in the July 1933 edition of Weird Tales. The story concerns a private wax museum that specialises in the grotesque.

THE TRANSITION OF JUAN ROMERO is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, first published in Marginalia, a 1944 Arkham House collection. The story concerns a mine, beneath which is discovered an immense and mysterious chasm.

THE SPIRITS OF THE LAKE is a short story by Alonzo Deen Cole, author and director of the 1930s radio series, The Witch's Tale. The story first appeared in the November 1941 edition of Weird Tales. "Was it at the bidding of the 'Old Ones' that slime—loathsome, hideously green—rose from the lake's dreadful depths?"

THE DISINTERMENT is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft and Duane W. Rimel, first published in the January 1937 edition of Weird Tales.
Stricken with a devastating case of leprosy, a man turns to his only friend—an enigmatic surgeon captivated by unorthodox science—in a desperate search for a cure.

"TILL A' THE SEAS" is a post-apocalyptic short story by H. P. Lovecraft and R. H. Barlow. The story, which describes a dying world, was first published in The Californian in 1935.

THE SHADOW ON THE SCREEN is a short story by Henry Kuttner, first published in the March 1938 edition of Weird Tales. "A weird story of Hollywood, and the grisly horror that cast its dreadful shadow across the silver screen as an incredible motion-picture was run off."

THE HORROR AT MARTIN'S BEACH is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft and Sonia H. Greene, first published in the November 1923 edition of Weird Tales as "The Invisible Monster". The story tells of a horrifying creature killed by sailors at sea, and of the resulting act of vengeance on behalf of the creature’s mother.

EX OBLIVIONE is a prose poem, first published in The United Amateur in March 1921. It tells of a dying man who finds himself lost in a bizarre dream world.

DIG ME NO GRAVE is a horror story by American author, Robert E. Howard. The tale was first published in Weird Tales in February 1937. It is sometimes known by the title, "John Grimlan's Debt".

THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME is a Cthulhu Mythos story, first published in the June 1936 issue of Astounding Stories. The story follows Professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, who suffers a sudden mental collapse in 1908, losing his memory for five years. During this period, his body is controlled by an unknown intelligence while his own consciousness experiences life in a vast prehistoric era, housed within the body of a member of the Great Race of Yith—an ancient, time-traveling alien species that exchanges minds with beings across time to gather knowledge.

AZATHOTH was written in June of 1922, later published in Leaves in 1938. "A terrible pilgrimage to seek the nighted throne of the far daemon-sultan Azathoth."

THE INVADERS is a Cthulhu Mythos short story by Henry Kuttner. Written under the pseudonym Keith Hammond, it was first published in the February 1939 edition of Strange Stories. The tale tells of a unique writer, who accidentally unleashes the hellspawn of a forgotten age upon the Earth.

THE ELECTRIC EXECUTIONER is a short story by Lovecraft and Adolphe de Castro, first published in the August 1930 edition of Weird Tales. "An investigator for a mining colony finds himself at the mercy of a deranged inventor's bizarre killing machine."

THE QUEST OF IRANON, a Dream Cycle story first published in the July/August edition of Galleon in 1935, tells of a golden-haired youth who wanders into the city of Teloth, telling tales of the great city of Aira, where he was prince.

THE WARDER OF KNOWLEDGE is a Cthulhu Mythos story by Richard F. Searight, unpublished during his lifetime. Lovecraft read the story, saying of it: "I like the story exceedingly." It was first published in the 1992 mythos collection, TALES OF THE LOVECRAFT MYTHOS. In pursuit of omniscience, Professor Gordon Whitney dares to summon the ageless Warder of Knowledge, and finds that some secrets are guarded by horrors beyond human imagining.

THE DIARY OF ALONZO TYPER tells of an occult researcher, who, following a journey to an abandoned, isolated house in upstate New York, disappears without a trace. The story was first published in the February 1938 edition of Weird Tales.

THE HORROR AT RED HOOK was first published in the January 1927 issue of Weird Tales Magazine. In the story, a detective recounts how a federal investigation into a mysterious recluse left him with a phobia of large buildings.

THE DARK DEMON is a Cthulhu Mythos story by Robert Bloch, first published in the November 1936 edition of Weird Tales. "The strange story of a man who communed too closely with things from beyond space."

WINGED DEATH is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald, first published in the March 1934 edition of Weird Tales. "A mysterious death, a maddened diary, and an unholy insect converge to expose a tale of obsession and revenge in the sweltering heart of Africa."

⁠THE GREEN DOOR⁠ is a 2024 Cthulhu Mythos story by Ian Gordon, first published as part of HorrorBabble's From the Library of R'lyeh series. "There’s a green door, and I’m going to tell you all about it."

THE CURSE OF YIG is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop in which Yig, "The Father of Serpents", is first introduced. The story was first published in the November 1929 edition of Weird Tales. Set in Oklahoma around 1889, a newly arrived couple become aware of a chilling local legend: a vengeful “Snake God” known as Yig, who punishes those who harm serpents—either by killing them outright or transforming them into grotesque, half-snake beings.

THE DUNSTABLE HORROR is a Cthulhu Mythos story by Arthur Pendragon, first published in the April 1964 issue of Fantastic Stories of Imagination. “A Gothic, Lovecraftian tale, of ancient evil and ghastly retribution."

In the latest episode of THE UNTOLD MYSTERIES PODCAST, the show's host, Dan Rogers, shares the strange story of a 1978 radio broadcast, concerning a series of calls the station received from a man who claimed to be under the watchful eye of a mysterious sea creature.

Performers:

Erik Peabody as "Dan Rogers"
Ian Gordon as "John Price"
Tony Walker as "Phillip Pritchard"
Written by Ian Gordon
Music and production by Ian Gordon

THE MOUND was written by Lovecraft after he was hired by Zealia Bishop to create a story about an Indian mound haunted by a headless ghost. "An ethnologist investigating eerie legends surrounding a haunted Oklahoma mound uncovers a mysterious metallic relic that hints at an ancient and unsettling secret behind the region’s strange apparitions and madness." The story belongs to the Cthulhu Mythos.

THE TREE was first published in the October 1921 edition of The Tryout. The story takes place in ancient Greece, where the legacy of two master sculptors takes root in a grotesque and supernatural form.

THE RED GOD LAUGHED is a short Cosmic Horror story by Thorp McClusky, first published in the April 1939 edition of Weird Tales. "A strange tale about the end of human life on Earth."

THE DOOM THAT CAME TO SARNATH is a Dream Cycle story, first published in The Scot in June 1920. "A mighty and prosperous city that once annihilated an ancient lake-dwelling race rises to unparalleled splendour, only to confront the long-forgotten consequences of its sacrilege a thousand years later."

COOL AIR was first published in the March 1928 issue of TALES OF MAGIC AND MYSTERY. The story tells of a doctor with a peculiar affliction.

THE UNNAMABLE was first published in the July 1925 edition of Weird Tales. In the story, the antiquarian Randolph Carter tells a close friend the tale of an indescribable entity that allegedly haunts a dilapidated house near an old cemetery.

BELLS OF HORROR is a story by American author, Henry Kuttner, first published in Strange Stories in April 1939, under the pseudonym, Keith Hammond. "The discovery of ancient, lost bells in the remote mountains of California, results in a disturbing, and potentially deadly revelation."

DEVILSKILL is a 2024 Cthulhu Mythos story by the American author, Aaron Vlek, first published as part of the HorrorBabble anthology, From the Library of R'lyeh. "Of that desolate coast and my ancestral village of Devilskill overlooking the sea, many troubling details emerged that hinted at vague warnings and allusions to unnamed horrors."

Aaron Vlek: https://aaronvlek.wordpress.com

First published in Weird Tales in its August 1931 issue, THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS follows an exchange of letters between a sceptical writer and a reclusive scholar in rural Vermont, where reports of strange creatures have surfaced after devastating floods.

THE FIRE OF ASSHURBANIPAL is a short story by American author, Robert E. Howard. In a lost city in the deserts of the Middle East, two unlikely adventurers hunt for a rare gem.

THE GRINNING GHOUL is a short story by the American author, Robert Bloch. First appearing in Weird Tales back in June of 1936, the story was described as follows: “A story of stark horror in the subterranean depths beneath the tomb.”

Artwork by David Last: davidlast.net

TENTACLES is presented as an episode of a fictional podcast called "Finders Creepers with Lana Thompson", in which the host investigates supposed evidence pertaining to mysterious and supernatural events. This particular show, focuses on the strange disappearance of a paranormal investigator.

THE AQUARIUM is a Cthulhu Mythos story by Carl Jacobi, first published in DARK MIND, DARK HEART in 1962. "When a painter and her friend move into a spacious London house, the strange aquarium left behind by its former owner begins to exude an influence both unnatural and terrifying."

THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH⁠, first published by Visionary Press in 1936, tells the strange story of an unnamed student, whose visit to a decrepit Massachusetts seaport—the crumbling town of Innsmouth—leads to a number of shocking and personal revelations… It forms part of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.

TWO BLACK BOTTLES is the result of a collaboration between H. P. Lovecraft and Wilfrid Branch Talman. It was first published in Weird Tales Magazine in August 1927. In the story, the narrator, Hoffman, recounts a trip into the Ramapo Mountains of New York, following the death of his uncle.

SPAWN OF THE GREEN ABYSS is a Cthulhu Mythos story by C. Hall Thompson, first published in the November 1946 edition of Weird Tales. "An accursed house, a soul that is no longer one's own, and a boundless doom that comes from the sea."

BELLS OF OCEANA is a short story by Arthur J. Burks, first published in the December 1927 edition of Weird Tales. It tells of an encounter with something deadly in the uncharted waters of the North Pacific. The story is imbued with a touch of 'outsideness', as noted by Lovecraft in a letter to the magazine in 1928.

THE CRAWLING CHAOS is a short story based on a dream once described to Lovecraft by fellow-author, Winifred V. Jackson, in which the consequences of dabbling with opium were experienced. It was first published in the 1943 collection, Beyond the Wall of Sleep.

THE STRANGE HIGH HOUSE IN THE MIST was written on November 9, 1926, and first published in the October 1931 issue of Weird Tales. It concerns a character traveling to the titular house which is perched on the top of cliff which seems inaccessible both by land and sea, yet is apparently inhabited.

THE RED BRAIN is a short story by Donald Wandrei, first published in the October 1927 edition of Weird Tales Magazine. The story tells of a strange, menacing cosmic dust that engulfs the universe.

Forming part of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, THE DUNWICH HORROR, first published in the April 1929 edition of Weird Tales, takes place in the decaying village of Dunwich, a Massachusetts backwater steeped in rural superstition and dark whispers. When a strange child named Wilbur Whateley is born under mysterious circumstances, a series of bizarre events begins to unfold, drawing the wary attention of both the locals and distant scholars.

PICKMAN'S MODEL was first published in the October 1927 edition of Weird Tales. In the story, the narrator recalls his friendship with Richard Upton Pickman, an eccentric painter whose grotesque and disturbingly lifelike canvases of ghouls and nightmarish scenes earn him both fame and infamy.

THE ABYSS is a Cthulhu Mythos short story by Robert Lowndes. The story was described by Stirring Science Stories back in February 1941 as follows: “A tale of a ghastly journey down a little strip in the center of a rug!”

FROM BEYOND tells of Crawford Tillinghast, a man whose curiosity leads to a fate ‘horrible beyond conception’. First published in the June 1934 edition of The Fantasy Fan.

THE SALEM HORROR is a short story by American author, Henry Kuttner. The tale first appeared in Weird Tales Magazine in May 1937, and tells of an author who rents a quiet house in Salem in order to finish his latest novel—a house that once belonged to a witch—a witch whose presence has far from faded.