Mysteries of Montreal

Upworthy has a lot to answer for in the way it has influenced internet article headlines. The number of superlatives used is extraordinary and unbelievable. You'll never read another headline like it again! Sorry, I got a little carried away. Still, these fabulous pictures of places in Canada are more than a little cool, and Investigators to the great Canadian outdoors in any era can come across these places whilst trekking North to explore the unknown and unexplained. Or indeed, they may be the end point, and place of interest they are out to explore/investigate. Two of the places mentioned are in Quebec, and I intend to write more about them at some point. Indeed, both the places pictured in Quebec are of craters. One, the Manicouagan crater , is of particular interest, as I had never heard much about it, till I was on Google maps one day, and it struck me as somethign of interest, and wondered why I had never heard more about it. I plan to do a whole post dedica...

What it says in the title really, the MTL Blog has posted a scan of an old tourist flyer from 1925 . The original pdf can be downloaded from the Archives de Montréal  here . A great little handout for gamers from out of town, as well as a source of local information for players and Keepers alike.

Got a group of Gaslight investigators looking for work? Put an advert in the paper, that's sure to bring in the clowns! Source Mosher's Detective Agency: The only office where ladies are employed! In fact, each line of these ads is so well written, there's a great number of adventure seeds tightly packed into this short clipping.

  There was a haunted house for sale in Montreal . The original sales post has long gone, as indeed has the estate agent's website, but the text was saved in the article linked above, suggests it was on the market for over a year with no buyers. (original CTV article from 2012 here). Why the interest in the house? well, some visitors said the place was eerie and emits a ghostly aura, and that's about it. However, the house was built in the 1910-20s, but the decor inside had not been changed since. The images supplied by the realator were an amazing look into a time capsule of a house. If this were still on the market, I would be looking to go have a nosey around and take some pictures of my own. The four bedroom house in Rosemont can be found on google maps here . I post here the pictures of the interiors, as they are exactly right to be used in a Montreal based game as props for interiors.  Backyard Den Den Dining Room Dining Room...

Two years after the Titanic was sunk, the Empress of Ireand sunk in the St Lawrence river (29th of May 1914). 1,012 people were killed, as the ship went down in just 14 minutes, after colliding with a Norwegian freighter, the SS Sorstad Near Rimouski . 465 of the original 1477 people on board survived. It seems the story of the Empress has been lost, as it's death-toll was overshadowed by that of the Titanic two years earlier, and the story in international news at the time was pushed aside weeks later by the outbreak of the Great War. Not to lessen the tragedy of such a wreck, but to ignore it's gaming potential, especially for Call of Cthulhu, would be to deny the reason for this blog's existence. My first thought on this, was to use the Titanic as a starting point. As a more famous wreck, in the same time frame and with a very similar passenger list, it would be foolish not to see what was already out there. Pelgrane Press's RMS Titanic: The Millionaire’s Sp...

You may notice I have a new header image. I had been on the lookout for an image of the skyline of Montreal fro the 1920s or there abouts. I found what I have been looking for in a flickr stream of pictures on Montreal from the air between 1925 and 1935 . Photos aériennes prises pour la Ville de Montréal par la Fairchild Serial Surveys Co. (of Canada) Ltd de Grand-Mère, Québec., entre 1925 et 1935. Ces images nous offrent un aperçu exceptionnel d’un Montréal en pleine expansion, entre 1925 et 1935. La vague d’annexions qui s’est terminée en 1918 confère à la cité agrandie une allure parfois rurale, du fait du grand nombre d’espaces non construits. Les nouveaux quartiers vont se remplir peu à peu de nouveaux habitats, parmi lesquelles le multiplex domine. Les terrains cultivés cèdent progressivement la place à ces constructions, aux installations industrielles ou aux infrastructures routières. Ce lot de photos sur plaque de verre montre notamment les secteurs des usines Angus, du cen...

I came across this whilst on another google search of all things Lovecraft and Mthos in Montreal. Indeed, I am surprised I haven't chanced acros it before. Based in Montreal is The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies is a non-profit, community-based curriculum through which established horror writers, directors, scholars and programmers/curators celebrate horror history and culture while helping enthusiastic fans of the genre to gain a critical perspective. One reason I may not have come across them previously is that my recent searches on the Montreal Mythos have not been concerned solely with the 1920-30s. The second reason is that the Institute itself has only existed since 2010. Mostly it seems to be a forum for discussion of the Horror genre in film, however, there is an uncoming course/event running for 5 weeks called H.P. Lovecraft – From Cosmic Horror to Heavy Metal  that I am seriously considering going along to. So w...