Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread.
—H. P. Lovecraft, "The Dunwich Horror"
Jason McKittrick returns with
this excellent wall plaque featuring Yog-Sothoth. I love the detail work of the mountaintop altar.
Here are some places to download The Dunwich Horror (pub 1929) for free (why pay more)
ReplyDeletehttp://manybooks.net/titles/lovecrafthother06dunwitch.html
https://archive.org/details/TheDunwichHorror
as an audio book https://archive.org/details/dunwich_horror_1511_librivox
Wikipedia has a fairly good article about The Dunwich Horror and gives some good leads for folks writing RPG scenarios. It suggests that many of the locations in the story may be lifted from actual locations in north central Mass. Let’s not mention the 1970 movie of the same name. Even farther off the beam is the 2009 made-for-TV-movie, which moves the scene to Louisiana.
The Colour Out of Space (1927), which may have been inspired by the flooding of Scituate Reservoir, RI was written about the same time as The Dunwich Horror (written in 1928). You might also try Michael Shea’s The Color Out of Time (1984) which is a pretty good pseudo sequel, although the style of writing is not up to HPL’s standards.
Along that line, here are some lost towns of New York state inundated by flooding and some postcards of same, which would make excellent props http://napanochny.tripod.com/id36.htm
For those of you who want a more urban and modern setting for your (soggy) scenarios might try the area called The Hole in NYC, a forgotten area between Queens and Brooklyn that sets some 30 feet below grade and becomes a sump every time it rains. It sounds like a great area for a modern scenario. You might even work an ancient meteorite into the mix.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hole,_New_York
http://weburbanist.com/2012/05/22/open-secret-the-ghost-town-of-new-york-city/
http://ny.curbed.com/2014/6/24/10084028/tour-the-hole-nycs-rundown-brooklyn-queens-border-town