The Mountains of Madness Project

"In spite of all the prevailing horrors, we were left with enough sheer scientific zeal and adventurousness to wonder about the unknown realm beyond those mysterious mountains. As our guarded messages stated, we rested at midnight after our day of terror and bafflement - but not without a tentative plan for one or more range-crossing altitude flights in a lightened plane with aerial camera and geologist’s outfit, beginning the following morning. It was decided that Danforth and I try it first, and we awaked at 7 A.M. intending an early flight; however, heavy winds - mentioned in our brief, bulletin to the outside world - delayed our start till nearly nine o’clock."

- H.P. Lovecraft, "At the Mountains of Madness"

On January 26, 1931 Prof. William Dyer and graduate student Paul Danforth set out on the aerial journey that would culminate with the discovery of an ancient city high atop the Antarctic plateau.

What was found in that city is at the heart of Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness", and one of the primary motivations for the creation of Propnomicon. For years I've been working on the my personal collection of items based on the story, a process documented in the "From the Mountains of Madness" posts. Now I'd like to build on that process.

In a few weeks I'm going to start another Kickstarter drive to fund the "At the Mountains of Madness" prop set. In many respects it will be similar to the earlier Arkham Sanitarium and Miskatonic University efforts, but kicked up a notch. As before, the emphasis will be on items that can't be easily reproduced at home. It doesn't make sense to do a run of prop documents that can be just as easily released as PDFs and printed at your convenience.

At this point I'm aiming to have a basic package that includes the period map of Antarctica I first posted back in 2009, a schematic of the modified Dornier Do-J Wals used by the expedition, an art deco travel-style poster for the departure ceremony in Boston, an expedition equipment sticker, and a postcard for the stop in Hobart, Tasmania. The target for that is around $12-$15 plus shipping.

The next tier will include new versions of the expedition patch, the small fieldbooks, and a cloisonne lapel pin. Since so many of you already have the old versions I wanted to avoid forcing you to buy the new ones just to get the other stuff. The target for that is roughly $20-$25 plus shipping.

I have a few ideas for items to include in a deluxe tier beyond that, but I want to firm up the details of the basic packages first.

One question that may have occurred to you is why I'm announcing the project before I actually launch it. You can credit that to my well documented paranoia. It's inevitable in any human endeavor that there will be delays and things will go wrong. To the greatest extent possible I try to avoid those issues by having all the design work done before I ask anyone for money. If everything is ready to go into production the instant the project gets funded there are far fewer chances for something to go wrong.

As always, your thoughts are appreciated. Particularly if you have any suggestions for cool stuff I haven't thought of. The only restriction on additional items is that they should be able to fit inside a 25" long, 3" diameter mailing tube.