We’re back and we’re finally free of the city of the Elder Things. Now, we’re racing off to the aëroplane as fast as our little legs will carry us. Everything will be fine once we’re airborne. We’ve learnt our lessons and we shan’t look back. Nope, no way. Not after that whole shoggoth incident. Looking back only leads to trouble. We’re smarter than that now.
Oh, bugger. We looked back.
Main Topic: At the Mountains of Madness part 5
This is the final part of our discussion of Lovecraft’s epic, At the Mountains of Madness. After all the geological, biological and historical explorations of previous chapters, we find ourselves caught up in something almost mystical. The story ends with another infodump, but one born of madness. As ever, we pick this apart in search of gaming inspiration.
We then offer a quick overview of other works inspired by At the Mountains of Madness. Unsurprisingly, Beyond the Mountains of Madness, the classic Call of Cthulhu campaign, plays a big part in our discussion.
It says a lot about our interests that we completely neglected to discuss any video games. There are plenty of fine games out there that draw upon Lovecraft’s tale, but you’ll have to turn to younger and hipper podcasters for details of them.
Links
Some of the things we mention in this episode include:
- “Pharos” from Fungi From Yuggoth
- The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
- “The Thing on the Doorstep”
- “The Dreams in the Witch-House”
- The House of Doors by Brian Lumley
- “The Colour Out of Space”
- Jacob’s ladder
- The Archetypes from “The Seven Geases”
- Beyond the Mountains of Madness
- Assault on the Mountains of Madness
- The Antarktos Cycle
- Frozen Hell by John W Campbell
- The Great White Space by Basil Copper
- “Shaft Number 247” from New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
- “The Crevasse” from Nathan Ballingrud’s North American Lake Monsters
- Monsterland — the upcoming TV programme based on North American Lake Monsters
- “Branch Line Repairman” by Adrian Tchaikovsky, from The Private Life of Elder Things
- The Thing From Another World
- The Thing
- Guillermo Del Toro’s ill-fated adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness
- Prometheus
- Ubik by Philip K Dick
- Blade Runner (A Movie) by William S Burroughs
- Antarctic Journal
- R-Point
- Ian Culbard’s graphic novel adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness
- The manga adaptation by Gou Tanabe
- Illustrated edition by François Baranger
- Mountains of Madness by The Tiger Lilies
- At the Mountains of Madness by the psychedelic rock band, HP Lovecraft
- The HP Lovecraft Historical Society’s readings of Lovecraft’s fiction
- The HPLHS Dark Adventure Radio Theater adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness
- Extinction Rebellion
- The Last Winter
- Blood Glacier
- Lake Vostok
- Aghori ascetics
- The Exegesis of Philip K Dick
News
The Blasphemous Tome issue 5
Issue 5 of The Blasphemous Tome has come back from the printer and the first batch will be in the post any day now!
The Tome is the print-only fanzine we produce exclusively for our Patreon backers. This issue features a new scenario for Call of Cthulhu, called “Number 22”, written by very our own Matt Sanderson. You will also find plenty of other juicy articles, stories and artwork, including many contributions from our wonderful listeners! If you would like to secure your copy, simply back us on Patreon by the end of the year.
Dragonmeet 2019
Matt and Paul will be attending Dragonmeet in a few days. This one-day convention takes place at the Novotel in West London on the 30th of November. Paul will also be a guest on a panel hosted by our good friends Baz and Gaz of the Smart Party. Check the programme on the day for details.
Other Stuff
Reviews and Social Media
We share a lovely new review from The Final Sam in the USA. If you feel inspired to write a review of your own — whether on Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you might find podcasts — we would be delighted!
As of episode 171, we shall be dropping the social media segment of the podcast. This is part of our grander plan to retool a few things to keep the podcast fresh.
Songs
As part of this retooling, we are also discontinuing the songs we sing to new Patreon backers. This is probably an act of mercy. While they’ve been fun to do, the joke is wearing thin. Thank you to everyone we’ve sung to and we hope the mental scars fade with time!
You will find a couple of our final abominations in this episode. Be warned.
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Great episode! I’d also recommend “A Colder War” by Charles Stross. It’s a sequel of sorts to AtMoM, set during the Reagan administration.
Relating to releasing supporting material as a book rather than, say, a baggie full of clippings and ancient scrolls, I remember reading that Pratchett’s Discworld maps were released as books (as in, folding out from a cover) rather than posters or whatnot because then they weren’t subject to VAT and were therefore cheaper at point of sale. So maybe that was why they went with the less convenient format.
Sandy Petersen has interpreted the Elder Pharos/Moon-Ladder part of Danforth’s vision as a new Great Old One: Gobogeg ,the Twice-Invoked for the Cthulhu Wars game ,and has written about it in his Cthulhu Mythos suplements for and Pathfinder and 5ed D&D.