Mysteries of Montreal

Another short film, this time as mentioned on the Miskatonic University Podcast ( MUP ).

Short film/skit, the Ordeal of Randolph Carter, by many of the people involved in the HP Podcraft . I'm pretty sure the inspiration for this came when Chris and Chad were discussing The Statement of Randolph Carter . Based on 'The Statement of Randolph Carter' by H.P. Lovecraft. Written, directed and produced by Chris Lackey and Greig Johnson . Starring Greig Johnson and Chris Lackey, with a special appearance by Andrew Leman of The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society . Music by Reber Clark and title design by Kristyna Baczynski .

I didn't know that Edgar Allen Poe was a Bostonian, although, after a little research, it isn't all that surprising that the information is not wiespread, as he refered to the city as “Frogpondium,” 'a disparaging reference to a frog pond on its common and what he believed to be a parochial view of the world on the part of its literary set. ( source )'. However, as I am just returned from the city, I thought I would share my snaps of the building and the plaque where he is said to have been born, now a burrito restaurant. The plaque is situated on a building at 176 Boylston Street, on the corner of Edgar Allen Poe way, the small alleyway running to the left of the building in this photograph. The plaque was installed by the Boston's Authors Club in 1925, to mark the supposed approximate location of the house in which the author was born.

Through this article , I found out that the Vatican Library is uploading many of their manuscripts and books, and are putting them online for us all to see! Of course, this is a project that will take time to finish, and as of the writing of this post, they have only done 4,200 or so of their 82,000 documents, but still, that's a lot of manuscripts to go for for gaming inspiration and handouts. Even if most of them are in Italian or Latin, some of the illuminations alone are worth the effort of digging through. Which does raise one issue, the means for searching through the documents leaves a lot to be desired. The other issue is of course the surroundings are nowhere near the same as if you were in the actual Vatican Library, but a google image search will soon fix that. Also, there's no mention of when they're going to get round to their secret archives , as lets be honest, that's what we're really all interested in!

As a signal boost for my friend Jason, I present to you The Hunter of the Dark. A short film "created for the 48 hour Tasploitation Challenge 2016. A Lovecraftian styled horror set in a remote Tasmanian Cabin The Hunter of the Dark from jasonmacqueen on Vimeo . Make sure to leave an appreciative comment on the Vimeo page, that way he will be sure to make more!

The last in this trilogy of posts on the Sedefkar Simulacrum Kickstarter that arrived last week, and this time, it is less to do with the Horror on the Orient Express, and all to do with that other stupendous campaign, Masks of Nyarlathotep. Initially, when the box came through, I had completely forgotten that I had added this prop, so it was genuinely surprised when I opened the envelope. Contents of the envelope Inside, was a well wrapped resin prop in two parts. The two halves of the Eye were individually wrapped in foam paper, so that they did not chip against each other in transit. That is some well thought out packaging! There was also a signed certificate of authenticity for the eye. Of course I will do my best to heed the warning about reading of spells in close proximity to the Eye, so as ot to cause any unnecessary trans-dimensional disturbances.  I found the line below to be very cool. If you can't get the first off the production line, at least ...

As my last post was rather long-winded and ranty , I decided to cut it off before getting round to what I had planned as the main event, that is the unboxing of the Sedefkar Simulacrum, as delivered to me last week. Each set came with a letter from Delphes, the campaign organiser and artist, as well as a certificate of authenticity. A packing error meant I got two copies of the letter and certificate, but as the certificates are not numbered, this isn't an issue. The Box First off, the box itself. Aged to look like it has sat on a shelf for some time (even the hinges are rusted), and labelled on the outside as part of the Miskatonic University collection. Inside, the Simulacrum is hidden in wood shavings/straw, and on the inside of the lid is a faded and slightly warped insignia for the Simplon Orient Express. As was mentioned by Delphes on the KS page, the box is a touch too short to lie the Simulacrum flat, due to a later change in the positioning of the leg mag...