1 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:06,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:12,280 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the 3 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:20,040 Speaker 2: Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. 5 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:25,919 Speaker 2: Last week on The Monster Fact, in a fit of 6 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:29,880 Speaker 2: enthusiasm for the release of Dungeons and Dragons Ravenloft The 7 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:33,519 Speaker 2: Horrors Within, I discussed several of the creatures included in 8 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:36,680 Speaker 2: the book's bestiary. This week, I want to focus on 9 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:41,280 Speaker 2: just one. It is the Boneless. These creatures were also 10 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:44,360 Speaker 2: in the last Ravenloft supplement and I believe date back 11 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:46,680 Speaker 2: to the second edition of the game, but I missed 12 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:49,040 Speaker 2: them when I was a D and D obsessed youth. 13 00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 2: I didn't get into these particular creatures until the fifth edition. 14 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:55,920 Speaker 2: But I've already used these guys on multiple occasions and 15 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 2: games that I've hosted, and I have several of the 16 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,400 Speaker 2: Little Whiz Kids minis on hand. I want to hold 17 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:06,280 Speaker 2: one up here for those of you who have video. Yeah, 18 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:09,080 Speaker 2: these are a lot of fun to throw at your players. 19 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:11,520 Speaker 2: What are they? Well, you can kind of think of 20 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:17,160 Speaker 2: them as pancake zombies. They're reanimated humanoid corpses, but just 21 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:21,720 Speaker 2: the skin, and they crawl around like grotesque animate rugs, 22 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:24,880 Speaker 2: sliding under doorways, and of course they are eager to 23 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:30,200 Speaker 2: pounce or drop or slide up onto unsuspecting player characters 24 00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:34,040 Speaker 2: to smother them to death. They're generally considered the result 25 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:38,200 Speaker 2: of a flayed humanoid the skin then coming to life, 26 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:42,399 Speaker 2: or otherwise being reanimated by, say a necromancer, but we 27 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:45,360 Speaker 2: might also imagine this being due to the outer fleshy 28 00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:50,120 Speaker 2: dermal layers of a corpse slouching off, perhaps slouching off 29 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:53,880 Speaker 2: of a bloated sea zombie. This is an idea that 30 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 2: I find quite attractive in D and D because we 31 00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:58,720 Speaker 2: also have stats for a sea zombie, so you can 32 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 2: have one reanimated body becoming two enemies. Always fun when 33 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:06,880 Speaker 2: that happens. The Horrors Within and previous D and D 34 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:09,880 Speaker 2: materials also suggest that a boneless could be the result 35 00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:13,280 Speaker 2: of a body simply being flattened by something, so keep 36 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:16,400 Speaker 2: that in mind for future encounters. Your players happen to 37 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:19,480 Speaker 2: drop something heavy on some zombies, well, now they have 38 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:22,560 Speaker 2: to fight some boneless, you know that sort of thing. 39 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:26,640 Speaker 2: For natural world comparisons, the boneless always bring to mind 40 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:30,840 Speaker 2: creatures such as rays flounders, both of them have skeletons 41 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:33,520 Speaker 2: in this case though, and are therefore not boneless, as 42 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:37,160 Speaker 2: well as flat worms, which are indeed boneless. But the 43 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:41,120 Speaker 2: ick factor of the boneless in Dungeons and Dragons is 44 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:45,080 Speaker 2: that what was once part of someone is now an independent, 45 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:49,080 Speaker 2: animate undead, and it feels even more detached when it 46 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:54,000 Speaker 2: is the skin compared to say, ahead Now, when it 47 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:57,280 Speaker 2: comes to folkloric and mythological parallels, we have a pretty 48 00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:00,840 Speaker 2: direct one in the book Spirits Feare Marries, Leprechauns and 49 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:04,000 Speaker 2: Goblins by folkloris Carol rose I often refer to this 50 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:07,560 Speaker 2: or another of her books. She lists the boneless as 51 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:11,680 Speaker 2: an entity tied to the traditions of Oxfordshire, England. She 52 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:16,240 Speaker 2: describes it as a quote clammy white, stinking, shapeless mass 53 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:20,960 Speaker 2: that haunts lonely country lanes, moving along the ground to 54 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:26,280 Speaker 2: eventually overtake and engulf doomed travelers. She connects it to 55 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:30,639 Speaker 2: various traditions of shapeless or amorphous spirits in the British Isles, 56 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:33,760 Speaker 2: and of course we see shades of this tradition around 57 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:37,840 Speaker 2: the world, such as the shapeless putrid yokai in Japanese 58 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:40,840 Speaker 2: traditions known as the New Peppo. I've covered the New 59 00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:43,600 Speaker 2: Peppo on the monster fact before. You can check that 60 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:45,920 Speaker 2: out in the archives. To be clear, it is not flat, 61 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:51,240 Speaker 2: but it is amorphous and gross and strange smelling. And 62 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:53,360 Speaker 2: in many of these cases we have a lot of 63 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:55,720 Speaker 2: different influences to draw on, but one could be the 64 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 2: smell of putrid flesh, and observations of putrid flesh, either 65 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:02,600 Speaker 2: the flesh of humans or certainly flesh of animals, could 66 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:06,480 Speaker 2: be tied to traditions of butchering and so forth. I 67 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:09,680 Speaker 2: turned to another source as well. In nineteen seventy six's 68 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:14,440 Speaker 2: Encyclopedia of Fairies Folkloris, Catherine Mary Briggs goes into a 69 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:18,800 Speaker 2: bit more detail about traditions of the boneless, describing it 70 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:21,680 Speaker 2: as one of the mini spirits chronicled by sixteenth century 71 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:25,800 Speaker 2: English politician and author Reginald Scott, and that while Scott 72 00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:29,479 Speaker 2: provided little info, it was quote one of those formless 73 00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:32,680 Speaker 2: things whose chief function it was to terrify travelers or 74 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:36,120 Speaker 2: children in their bed. She mentions a story as well, 75 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:39,719 Speaker 2: from nineteen sixteen of a pedler encountering the boneless on 76 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:42,839 Speaker 2: a lonesome road, as well as a more recent account 77 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:46,559 Speaker 2: of a policeman encountering the spirit. I'm going to share 78 00:04:46,880 --> 00:04:49,520 Speaker 2: this story that she relates here. I would do want 79 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:52,080 Speaker 2: to mention that she uses the word as summit or 80 00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:56,320 Speaker 2: quotes the word summit. This just means something. Quote he 81 00:04:56,360 --> 00:05:00,800 Speaker 2: told her. It was darksome over above putcham Rode, and 82 00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:03,680 Speaker 2: the tide was in far below. He could hear it 83 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:07,680 Speaker 2: playing down two hillfields, and then his lamp lit up 84 00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:11,280 Speaker 2: a white summit across the road. It weren't fog, it 85 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:14,440 Speaker 2: were alive, kind of wooly, like a cloud or a 86 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:17,279 Speaker 2: wet sheep. And it slid up and all over him 87 00:05:17,400 --> 00:05:20,960 Speaker 2: on his bike and was gone, rolling and bowling and 88 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 2: stretching out and in up the Perry Farm road. It 89 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:27,719 Speaker 2: was so sudden he didn't fall off. But he says 90 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:30,800 Speaker 2: it was like a wet, heavy blanket, and so terrible 91 00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:34,960 Speaker 2: cold and smelled stale. So while the D and D 92 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:38,520 Speaker 2: version of the boneless is a reanimated flayed skin or 93 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:41,520 Speaker 2: a flat Stanley zombie, that doesn't seem to be a 94 00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:44,839 Speaker 2: part of the actual tradition here. Based on the description 95 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:49,119 Speaker 2: quoted by Briggs and certainly as well as how Rose 96 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:53,000 Speaker 2: describes it. There seems no actual connection to a flayed 97 00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:56,480 Speaker 2: skin human or animal, rather to just some manner of 98 00:05:56,520 --> 00:06:00,440 Speaker 2: a morphous, crawling entity that could in some case be 99 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 2: compared to some sort of hide. Naturally, some cryptid enthusiasts 100 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:08,120 Speaker 2: have really taken to this tale. They try to imagine 101 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:10,520 Speaker 2: what sort of real life animal it could be, perhaps 102 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:12,800 Speaker 2: some sort of large and vertebrate. But I think the 103 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:17,160 Speaker 2: clear answer lies in the nebulous world of the fearful imagination, 104 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:20,920 Speaker 2: something that crawls across the ground like a cast's shadow, 105 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:25,839 Speaker 2: but is composed of strange flesh that desires to envelop us. 106 00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:29,240 Speaker 2: Tune in for additional episodes of the Monster Fact, the 107 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:32,640 Speaker 2: Artifact or Animalius Dependium each week. As always, you can 108 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:35,400 Speaker 2: email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind 109 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:44,479 Speaker 2: dot com. 110 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:47,560 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. 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