February Mapping Challenge Entry - "I love HP Lovecraft"

[Juggernaut1981]

As many who know me personally understand... I have a love for early 1900s horror/wierd stories. I own a couple of hardcover books of HP Lovecraft (and the stories he also edited) and a big number of my BBEGs are clearly inspired by Lovecraft-esque themes. So I feel, that this 1-page test, I will make as a homage the the GREAT HP Lovecraft.

I am considering taking a quick straw poll from people first...

1) Madman's Laboratory
2) Mental Asylum
3) Underground "Ryl'yeh" type complex
4) Ancient Building suitably filled with beasties (possible Haunted House-type option here)
5) Cursed Landscape...

Please put your Straws on my Profile. I'll check in a day or two and then go from there.

*Sighs the contented sigh of Cthulhu*

[mearrin69]

Sounds awesome and I'm certainly a fan of Lovecraft-inspired stuff in D&D. I have never read [*gasp*] any of his stuff, however, so would you mind telling a bit more about

3) Underground "Ryl'yeh" type complex

because I don't know what it is but it sounds like it might be something cool...

My entire knowledge of Cthulu comes from friends versed in it, old-school D&D, and modern Paizo. I don't know enough to tell my Ps from my Qs, however.
M

[Juggernaut1981]

Okay, short version...
Get an octopus, shove it onto a dragon's body, get rid of dragon's legs and replace them with ape-like arms & legs. That's the visuals on Cthulhu.
Various bits basically say "Cthulhu" is some great powerful almost deity being that is absolutely and completely insane. Cthulhu dreams and people half a world away have nightmares and do strange things.

Lovecraft type horror is a progression from the "classic ghost story", but with a lot of the "moralism" taken out. The world is full of stuff that science can't explain and basically thinks you are lunch (or doesn't really care at all about you and will squash you like an ant). Think Edgar Allan Poe, but without the morality you find in things like "A Telltale Heart".

"Ryl'yeh" is said to be the underwater complex that is inhabited by Cthulhu as he dreams. Basically to go inside sends you insane, to meet Cthulhu sends folds your skin inside out, makes your brain explode and THEN makes you insane...

"The Far Realms" and most of the abberations are inspired by Lovecraft.

[Coyotemax]

If you've read any Stephen King, he was heavily influenced by Lovecraft. King's spookier works start to show those elements. Room 1408 (recently made into a half decent movie) is one such story. That may help a bit too, with some more modern reference

The Elder Gods, as we refer to them, are a very strange bunch, and like Juggernaut says, they're either entirely hostile and offended by our existence, or just doing their thing and don't care or notice, and we just get swept up in the psychic backlash of their mere presence And then there's the ones where it's creepy inbred backwoods mountainmen finding strange things in the forests and they head in to town with weird ideas in their heads, and no one is happy after that, heh.

It's great stuff!! I highly recommend! there's some great collections out these days too. One of my favourites from the newer authors writing in the style is Pickman's Modem (a take-off on Pickman's Model, a Lovecraft story) where the modem has it's own dark agenda and warps the bbs and newsgroup postings that it's owner is subscribed to

So yeah, that gives you a small inkling of how looking forward to this map I am

[mearrin69]

Yeah, well, you've got me hooked. I am actually a pretty big King fan. His writing is IMHO about the best of any modern author; the guy's got a way with words (never thought I'd say that about a modern multi-book author...and I avoided even trying to read him for a long, long time). I'm also a fan of just about any aberration or twisted bit that has appeared in D&D.

So, let's see that map. Finish it, or we'll come to Sydney and explode your brain. We might come to Sydney anyway, of course...I hear it's lovely.
M

[Juggernaut1981]

So, I'm personally looking to lean between the Mad Laboratory and "Ryl'yeh". I think both of them would make for an awesome adventure setting, way too many options as a GM/DM and really engaging environment to play in (if you have the playgroup that is willing to immerse, otherwise any adventure is about equal to "hey guys, how about you fight what's on page 114 next...")

Mad Lab: Because I LOVED the story about the insane surgeon (and based a D&D Dungeon/NPC on that precise character).
Ryl'yeh: Because seriously, how much fun would it be to have a map of the near-famous sleeping place of Cthulhu? (Cthulhu not included, requires 2xAA battery)

[Juggernaut1981]

I was kicking around without heaps to do at my desk (except filing... BORING)... and I've decided (sans help from you mob! sheeesh can't even give a guy a little extra decision making power!) and after thinking about it... It is time to unveil...

Tsaths Lab.jpg

[Coyotemax]

YES!!! my evil mind control laser worked!!

Erm

What are you all looking at? go back to mapping.

(seriously, excellent choice!)

[su_liam]

Yeah, R'lyeh would have been better, but the mere sight of it would have driven everyone on CG insane, so... yeah.

[Coyotemax]

We're not already there?