Mother Of Toads

Brought to you by Altrusian Grace Media and human-narrated by Matthew Schmitz.

Mother of Toads by Clark Ashton Smith follows Pierre, a young apothecary’s apprentice, who visits the feared witch Mère Antoinette in a remote marshland and becomes ensnared by her sinister enchantments. After drinking a seemingly harmless spiced wine, he falls under a grotesque illusion that transforms the repulsive sorceress into a figure of irresistible allure, leading to a night of corrupted intimacy. Awakening to her true monstrous, toad-like form, Pierre flees—only to be relentlessly driven back by swarming toads that serve as her familiars. Trapped within her supernatural domain, he is ultimately overwhelmed by these creatures, suggesting his doom as he is dragged into the witch’s grotesque, inescapable power.