It's a while ago now but at one point the excellent Call of Cthulhu themed website
Yog-Sothoth (of which I am now a 'patron'), ran a postcard competition. The idea was to send them a scenario theme or kernel on the back of a suitable postcard. Here is my (non-winning) entry.
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| Edinburgh, yesterday |
The postcard is of a photo taken over a rather smokey Edinburgh by Alfred G. Buckham, some time in the 1920s (available from the National Galleries of Scotland). You can see why Edinburgh used to be called "Auld Reekie" (reek being Scots for smoke). As you can appreciate it is very atmospheric and stimulated some dark thoughts in my mind... which I then jotted down on the back of a postcard.
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| Now wash your hands. |
I drew on various aspects of Edinburgh history and tried to meld them together into something a bit creepy. Having typed it up on the computer you can see that I printed it out and then aged and stained the paper using thin washes of brown and yellow paint, as though blood-stained fingers had been handling it before the postie got it.
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| Forth Bridge |
Having discovered Alfred G. Buckham, I wondered what else he had photographed. So here are a few examples. The first is a a flight of biplanes over the famous Forth Bridge near Edinburgh. Taken today, there would be two road bridges in that shot as well, the latest one only opening this month.
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| R100 |
The next is quite an interesting one showing, as it does, the British airship R100 floating about in the clouds. This would be just the kind of travel mode the discerning 1920s or 30s Cthulhu investigator might use.
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| Flying Boat |
Finally, there is this one of a flying boat over the sea. This really has the look of some strange winged horror on its way somewhere, glimpsed perhaps by the crew of a Miskatonic University expeditionary ship forging through treacherous seas to explore the colossal mountain range deep within Antarctica...
