"Porcelain Blood" by Tamlan Dipper / Cthulhu Mythos
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- Опубліковано 14 чер 2024
- The White Vault: thewhitevault.com
UA-cam: / @foolscholarproductions
"Porcelain Blood" is a 2024 Cthulhu Mythos story by the British writer, Tamlan Dipper. The tale, which takes place in China in 1928, tells of a British Shanghai Municipal Police constable, who finds himself drawn into a strange investigation, involving of a room with no doors, a theft with no object, and a criminal who has committed no legislated crime.
Author’s note:
Although I have taken care not to be gratuitous in my language, it is impossible to write authentically in the first person in this period (1928) and not betray racial insensitivities on the part of some characters.
Language and attitudes are not my own, or ascribed to any specific individual living or dead.
Tamlan Dipper is a British author who works as an engineering analyst. He's also a keen creator of Call of Cthulhu, the tabletop roleplaying game.
Dipper's "In the Tomb of the White Baron": • "In the Tomb of the Wh...
0:00:00 - Introduction
0:02:50 - Chapter 1
0:25:24 - Chapter 2
0:39:14 - Chapter 3
1:00:50 - Chapter 4
1:11:36 - Chapter 5
1:34:46 - Chapter 6
1:50:15 - Further Listening
Bandcamp link: horrorbabble.bandcamp.com/alb...
Narrated by Ian Gordon for HorrorBabble
Music and production by Ian & Jennifer Gordon
Thumbnail by Tamlan Dipper & Ian Gordon
Video image provided by Tamlan Dipper
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The White Vault: thewhitevault.com
"Porcelain Blood" is a 2024 Cthulhu Mythos story by the British writer, Tamlan Dipper. The tale, which takes place in China in 1928, tells of a British Shanghai Municipal Police constable, who finds himself drawn into a strange investigation, involving of a room with no doors, a theft with no object, and a criminal who has committed no legislated crime.
0:00:00 - Introduction
0:02:50 - Chapter 1
0:25:24 - Chapter 2
0:39:14 - Chapter 3
1:00:50 - Chapter 4
1:11:36 - Chapter 5
1:34:46 - Chapter 6
1:50:15 - Further Listening
Dipper's "In the Tomb of the White Baron": ua-cam.com/video/mpWzNMIUFPs/v-deo.html
I had wanted to write something stemming from the events in 'In the Tomb of the White Baron', and was inspired by the events described by Lovecraft in The Dreams in the Witch House (available also narrated by HB - ua-cam.com/video/QqIMRFhROHw/v-deo.htmlsi=e80yFcVV0Z4Ag2jP ) . It also involves a police effort that I won't spoiler here, but begged the question of how the investigating officers would have perceived it. And of course we have policemen in the Call of Cthulhu, and The Horror at Red Hook.
Historical inaccuracy is my responsibility, but where correct I must credit the superbly intense 'Empire Made Me' for a gritty and intensely personal look at Shanghai policing, which is still in print. 'The Legend of W.E. Fairbairn' by Peter Robins, and 'Fairbairn And the Shanghai Municipal Police Reserve Unit' by Leroy Thompson informed some splendid gunfights and training details that I had to cut in order to prevent an inescapable conclusion where Nyarlathotep armed with a Madsen light machine gun (see Project Lightening, if that interests you ua-cam.com/video/TVgkwQTo2n4/v-deo.htmlsi=8NFckOafBj9j09Q3 ) fights the world's first SWAT team. Instead, the hand to hand work was informed by Get Tough by William Fairbairn himself.
@@tamlandipper29 I'm thrilled you've written a sequel of sorts! I will exercise great restraint and save it for my long walk tomorrow night, very excited you've written more for us and in the International Settlement to boot! (a very cool setting choice)
Tomb of the White Baron has been my favorite contemporary tale featured here. Great to see a sequel of sorts. 👏
@@thisisdavid2 Very pleased to hear you are looking forward to it. If you are going to be listening to it on a long walk at night, I hope it's not too disturbing? Maybe have a read of Get Tough before you set off, and be sure to wear a helmet.
@@sub-jec-tiv It is hugely encouraging to get messages of support like this, and to know it's someone's favourite. Thanks for taking the time to let me know. Did you spot the sequel elements?
Warren is the opposite of Schrödinger's cat.
He's always dead, wether we observe him or not!
But he's not dead! It is a foul rumor spread by his relatives who want to inherit his wealth. I posted about this years ago, but my cries went unheeded.
@@gwendolyn2001 Warren! Get back in the box!
You can't start off a horrorbabble recording without the discovery of at least one slain man named Warren!
"Everybody dies"
Eventually.
But poor Warren must die episodically...
@@davethompson3326 he's like a bad penny--just keeps coming back.
"You look like a Frenchman's bed!!"
Full of baguettes, brie and onions?
🤣
I can't stop saying this line 🤣
@@davidbudge8359And a semi sweet red wine with butts floating in it...
Describing a person’s face as being like an open face beef sandwich is also amazing. 😂
Dipper is a rising star in supernatural horror. Good blend of historical details and otherworldly atmosphere here. Also, kudos for hitting just the right balance (imo) when it comes to the less enlightened views of the era; neither glossing over them or letting them dominate the storytelling. Tricky to pull off. Fantastic final scenes too, very creepy!
As an aside, nice to see a White Vault shoutout. Huge fan.
Great to hear you felt I got the balance right. It literally kept me up at night. I have to recommend Empire Made Me by Robert Bickers in this respect. He shines a harsh light on imperialism in Shanghai using primary sources which meant that I could reflect that without getting wrapped round the axle of polemic. If anyone reads this and knows Robert, I'd love to get his opinion on how I did here, bearing in mind this is a policeman writing his memoirs in the late 1930s.
@@tamlandipper29 I honestly tend to dislike period pieces because they very rarely get these things right, but I do feel this one did.
@@Tacklepig I do sweat to get there, so thanks!
I don't mind the insensitive aspects of period pieces, and I much prefer windows into the past instead of cosplaying self-inserts. Having said that, Dipper is an excellent writer, and he did very much find a very good balance. I'm on my second listen now, I liked this one a lot. Will have to check out his other work!
@@tamlandipper29Absolutely brilliant story - should be made into a film! Is this part of a series?
Best description of why a severed head is creepy I have ever heard
Thanks, Craig. I'm not sure whether to share how I got that right or it might get the video struck.
I really liked this story. It captured the feel of the foreign locale and time. I liked that it did not go overboard with mythos references just a bit here and there.
Enjoyable story. A police detective mystery with Lovecraftian undertones. Thanks 😊
I’d say wholly overtones.
Great story, and, as always, great storyteller! Thanks Ian and Jen.
I really enjoy this story; have listened several times. You really bring it to life. Thanks as always.
I'm STILL waiting for Warren's funeral notice! 🧐😳
You fool!
Memorial service. There's no body, remember?
We got Dr H West to have a look at him and Warren feels better now.
Unfortunately, Warren is deep deep deep down beneath a graveyard, so us being let know that he's dead.Is the only notice anyone's ever gonna get regrettably
@@edennis8578 it's been about 20 years since I actually read any proper HP Lovecraft. (I went through the phase) So no I don't remember! I have been reading cosmic horror since then.
HP Lovecraft wasn't a particularly productive writer compared to others. Sadly.
I absolutely loved this story! I'm a huge Lovecraft fan and this story gave me a perfect balance of Mythos mystery with some nice action sequences in to spice it up. Great job! And the monolog about the severed head was so creepy. I hope I get to see continuing adventures of these characters within the Cthulu mythos!
Glad you liked it, Greg. I've left the door open for the protagonists to have more adventures - learned my lesson after Tomb of the White Baron. But inspiration hasn't struck yet.
@@tamlandipper29this was an exceptional story. I love the idea of the Conscientious Detectives, keeping the meta playing field level by doing a little meddling of their own, even if it’s just a subtle poke or acknowledgement.
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 another good read
I really enjoyed this one!
This is excellent. I love lovecraft, but the use of historical narrative without getting bogged down in the lore is best.
Hey, a White Vault shout out! I love that podcast, I'd even call it the best cosmic horror podcast I've ever come across.
Thank you ❤
The White Vault is good, but it's hard to be scared of Svalbard, when you know there's a Circle K gas station there- and that Bill and Ted may appear at any time.
Warren's not dead, he's just pining for the fjords.😉👍
He has met his maker!
He is no more!
This... is an ex-Warren!
No! He's just shagged out after a prolonged squawk!
But, "Always look on the bright side ?"
@@Eris123451 Would you like an after-dinner mint? It's wafer-thin...
Not really; but if you've got any Camembert I'll have some of that then.
Once again great setting and amazing story
I've completed this now. Mr Dipper does it again! A masterpiece. A full banquet of detail and suspense.
That means a LOT coming from you.
This is a great story. Fantastic narration. Tamlan Dipper does it again. I love the plot, its references, tie-ins to the mythos, and the ending.
I like the time period of these Dipper stories. The author has a lot of knowledge of the world during the timeframe. Tamlan also displays a deep knowledge of the Russian Cival war and the cascading impacts of the war.
This is great. Any book that refers to "n'er-do-wells" and discusses clearing houses with broomhandle Mauser machine pistols is alright by me!
Thanks!
Very glad it hit the right notes for you. Detailed feedback really helps.
@tamlandipper29 No problem
I have to give credit where credit is due. You also used the "W5H" (who, what, when, where, why, and how) concept I teach at work. I did not pick up on it until my second listen through today!
These stories of yours are excellent. I have to get moving and read/listen to more.
I am looking forward to more of your work.
I promise I will spell "civil war" correctly in my next comment (predictive text strikes again) 😀.
Your tidbits of info on the events following the Russian Civil War reminded me of my after class discussions with Professor Khrushchev at the Naval War College.
@@donaldmccleary9015I try to be a proponent of bringing in heavier material to a story, whether it be personal experience or lectures. That's been influenced, appropriately enough, by Fool and Scholar, makers of The White Vault. They use their tradecraft from academia to enrich their horror and make it feel grounded.
"I tried to touch my nose but couldn't *reach* " was what gave me the feel of cosmic horror. Such a bizarre thought!
@@tuomasronnberg5244 I was reading up on tinnitus and it gave me the idea for that segment. The whine I hear is from nerves that have died, and the brain is listening to the nothing. It occurred to me that travelling extradimensionally would not give the senses anything to work with. Perhaps the limits of your own body would themselves cease to transmit. So... whole body tinnitus. Horrendous thought.
Colonial Shanghai is such an underutilized setting with lots of potential for a Mythos tale.
I haven't listened yet, but I immediately thought of Colonel Fairbairn, who was a police Supervisor in China at that time.
Great shout on The White Vault. I listened to the first two seasons, need to re-start it and catch up.
The author of this story is incredibly skilled. I went looking for more of his work and was sad to see he has a day job. I am a huge fan, sir. I hope you keep writing
Thanks, Diane. I have just finished the third in this sequence - working title 'The Whispering Deep'. A lot of review and editing to go, but it should hit in some form later this year. Messages of support like yours help keep motivated to find the free time. But I also should remind everyone that 100% of my commission on these is going to humanitarian aid for Ukraine. The enthusiasm and support is directly saving lives via certified trauma kits. Knowing that is the best motivation to keep on.
Superbly written, love the wry, swift humor.
Going through this one in stages as I'm savouring it - but so far another smash by Tamlan. Love the colonial setting and the detail is as authentic as expected. Great writing, great performance!
Cheers, Paul. Looking forward to your upcoming tale as well.
@@tamlandipper29 Thanks! It's fairly short compared to your epics, but hopefully has a little bit of atmosphere reflecting a city I love visiting.
Thanks for shouting out to The White Vault! A long time favorite of mine!
Outstanding!
WOW! That was amazing and you read it so well.
Thanks Ian. Great reading.
I like this story. It poses more questions than it answers. Well done.
Great to hear. I hope that leaving lines open is not just interesting, but also helps other writers have freedom of action in the same space and time.
@tamlandipper29 when done well, as you have in this story, it is an amazing literary device. I forgot to add, this story was particularly interesting because I had a great uncle from Belfast that at 16 was a stowaway, landed in Hong Kong, and became a constable until he retired in 66. My mom says he spoke Cantonese and Mandarin. Interesting story
Took your advice and listened to "While Vault" .. ended up binging first season! Thank You Much! Fast paced and well written...
Thank you very enjoyable
Awesome thanks Mr Gordon
This one was trippy and hard to follow. Granted I listen to these at bedtime and end up listening to them several times, but this one may take a dozen tries.
Notum bonum: I will listen a dozen times
@@brograb898 I hope that the narrative is clearer now. I appreciate the perseverance.
100% dope and, IMHO, a top-tier mythos tale. Dipper is, like, the Arthur Machen of CH detective stories. Excellent again, HB.
Thanks, man. Ian has me working on the third in the sequence. Might be a while though, due to research time.
This actually had so much humor lol. And as a shanghai native I really enjoyed listening to how a foreign author describes it.
Fantastic to hear. I hope to revisit the setting in the future. There is just so much to draw upon.
Thank you!
The White Vault is awesome. Thanks for promoting them!
Agreed. Great story, and they seem to treat their team well.
This White Vault drama is a darn good advice, mate. Darn good advice indeed.
Checked out White Vault on your recommendation - I love it!
Good story.!
This was a story of horror and delightful madness. Well done
Thanks, fellah. "Delightful madness"!😆
I love horror stories. Rarely do I get the chills while reading/listening to them. In this story, it wasn't even the cosmic horror of it. It was when the man said, "She won't bite." What an awful thing to say. I laughed, and also felt chilled at the same time.
I'm very gratified to hear it hit you. I wanted a key theme to be the contrast between cosmic and ordinary working day horror. In the final scene the eldritch makes our protagonist sweats like he's seen nachtshrecken, but it's empathy for the victims that makes him cry.
@@tamlandipper29 great work, I really enjoyed it.
White Vault is fantastic!
Many thanks for another enjoyable story Ian!🙂
I love the white vault and im glad more people can get to know an incredible series
the white vault has been advertising like crazy and i'm not gonna lie it's actually a damn good audio drama
Excellent tale, and as always, perfectly narrated.
Quite good crime story with horror twist !
Excellent story thanks
Listening from the ukwales ❤
Good story combining Lovecraftian themes and a bit of time travel. Alas poor Warren, we knew him well…
Per my previous post, I have listened about 12 times now. One of the best new mythos stories I’ve ever read/listened to. The only thing I’m still puzzled by is the green/pale fire. And just a comment on Ian’s intro-I think some of the Dr’s crimes did fall under legislated law even in 1928. No spoilers.
Very true, however, the strapline refers to the beginning of the mystery. :) Some details may be brought up again in later stories, if we get the chance.
(I was talking more about his gestatory predilections ;)
I particularly liked the references to the Detection Club (Chesterton and Sayers were specified, as well as a mention of Knox's 'Commandments'. Detective fiction is my go-to in between HB uploads. :D
I forgot to ask if you had any recommendations for detective fiction on UA-cam. Is there an equivalent to HB?
Babble Team putting in that work. 🤘 😂
Well, this was a story!
I hope that means you liked it!
@@tamlandipper29 of course!
Damned Nyarlathotep!
Good recommendation Ian, the White Vault is definitely as you described. I listened to it quite a while ago, and wouldn't mind giving it another go. It has a style to it that heightens the tension and paints an insane mental landscape.
oh heck yeah i love some chilly chills!!!! so keen!
This is excellent…more Mythos pulp tales like this please.
Really enjoyed that yarn.
What a balter!
I like stories about the frozen wastes, although my favourites are generally Old Ones.
So original well enjoyed. ❤
Very kind of you to say so.
The fondness for the Orient resonates with me. It wasnt ao long ago where there was potential for high adventure and by dint of convenience the world is much smaller.
The World can feel very small. But when the knives are out, and no one's smiling, you really only have to be an hour away from the nearest phone to feel like you're on an old frontier.
@@tamlandipper29In my line of work, I know just what you mean.
I don't know if gaming is your thing, but if it is you might dig The Last Train home. Czech soldiers heading home via Siberia to Vladivostok after The Great War.
@@CountingHouseI will take a look, thanks! I think Lindybeige did a bit on the Czech Legion as well. If I recall he went on some kind of bonkers re-enactment march in the snow.
@@tamlandipper29 What a pleasantly surprising confluence of interests.
This one made me realize how comprehensively I detest backrooms and people who like them.
You don't have to like it, but I assume that's a thumbs down? What did you think of the story that inspired this, The Dreams in the Witch House?
Just started listening. Are we going to meet William Ewart Fairbairn and Eric Anthony Sykes?
I wasn't able to pin down their duties in autumn '28, so I attempted to allude to them and their influence on the force.
i was hoping somebody would reference the old gent!
W. E. Fairbairn is a hero
The guys that made the knife?
@@KnoxWheelerJrThat's the lads, yes. I don't reference the 'dagger' (or the smatchet), but there's at least three easter eggs about them in here.
It was a bit too slow for my taste, but the writing is really good. I especially liked the visceral descriptions of the esoteric stuff like Azathoth; it's on about the same level as Lovecraft himself.
I always appreciate constructive feedback. If you could throw out one section to speed it up, what would you go for? I won't obviously, just making sure I understand.
I may be a fool and Warren may be dead, but... I'm not sure where I was going with this.
Biscuit?
❤️🔥
I very much appreciate your introducing us to the White Vault and Fool and Scholar Productions.
I have such a hard time finding decent horror \ supernatural content on YT that isn't Crappy-pasta.
Crappy-pasta has poisoned the well of Horror audiobooks. It's all generic and amatuer. Even just reading the titles of crappy-pasta stories bores me to death. They all use the incredibly rusty trope of being told in the first person, which is used to hide the "author's" lack of skill.
Here's a made up crappy-pasta story title, because they all go like this: "i hunt monsters for the government. Here's my worst case"
Yawn.
And then when i do a search for horror audiobooks, and the creepypasta results peter out, for some fvcked up reason, YT always has the same disgusting "you may also like" suggestions of pimple popping videos and trash like: "this is the first look he gets of my feet"
What the absolute fuck?
I don't watch tabloid crap or disgusting real life body horror blackhead removal videos, so why suggest them in a search for the keyword "horror" ?
And how does a disgusting blackhead removal video get 18 million views in 11 months?
What is wrong with people?
Sorry. YT really is a trash heap, and it pisses me off when I'm not looking for trash, and it's shoved into my searches.
Thanks, Ian and crew (and family too) for keeping it real and horrific without being trashy or generic.
This is a classy channel, for which i am happy to pay.
Oh... oh YES!!! ❤
Sweet
People say the only constant in life is change.
I say there are 3.
Change, Warren being dead, and me being a fool.
I'm here hello everybody
Greetings! 🥸
I will have to look up the street names of that era in Shanghai, I think Fairbain was on the Shanghai police then.
He was, but I wasn't able to pin down his duties in autumn '28 so didn't directly bring him in. Unless that's him with the glasses in chapter 1?
@@tamlandipper29 I will have to look up a picture to see if he wore spectacles or not. I have an outline of a sinologist character who was born and raised in Shanghai, he is half white half Apache on his mother's side Father was a doctor and his mother was his nurse met in med school. They were medical missionaries until it got too dangerous to be out in the hinterlands at that time. The Chings had fallen and many military units turned to banditry and their officers into warlords the republic was just getting on its feet, and the church that bankrolled the mission clinic decided to cut its loss and transferred the doctor his now pregnant wife and all his medical gear into the American sector of the international settlement to set up shop and provide medical and surgical work to those in the American sector. I can expound upon him the main character in an e-mail if you would like he is a very interesting individual.
You fool!
Warren is dead, seared by sickly strange green flames.
Kudos to the narrator and author 🎉🎉
Poor Warren! The Device that burned the ship is not something I'd wish on anyone but my worst enemies.
The white vault is very good. They also have a fantasy podcast with Jeff goldblum.
Why has the thumbnail changed?
Hi Graham -- Tam found some images from the period that we felt could be developed. We feel the result makes for a much more evocative thumbnail.
Babble King!
"The political wits of a budgerigar"...bwah!bwah ha ha!l roffle roffle!
Self-insert there. :)
It's been 2 year and i still don't know who this Warren is 😭😭
He's dead, baby. Warren's dead.
@@tamlandipper29 ok then who was he?
@@Avijit.Bose4869the friend of a fool
Where do we find this author and his works? I like shim up and nothing pops up besides the horrorbable videos. No reddit, no books nothing! What gives?
Currently, his two works are only available here! Though I should keep prodding him about sorting a public profile out.
@@HorrorBabble Stop poking me! I'm super important.
Ok but who is Warren and has a body been found? 😂
Have a listen to, or read, The Statement of Randolph Carter, and you'll learn who Warren is
The body is still walking around and Warren is fine!
first
I can't believe I got beaten here.
Brilliant read…not so good story. Maybe there’s modern authors out there that equal, Lovecraft, Howard, CAS, etc. but I have yet to find them.
Nope, you lost me when you dragged the "God of Abraham" into it. The whole point of lovecraftian horror in my view is to paint a picture of cosmic horror that is neither focused on gore *nor* on the demonic, and by dragging the God of the Bible into it the author has abruptly turned the story into something demonic and spat on the original ideas of the author he so shamelessly steals from.
Excellent