Chthonians in Guatemala

Cement Surroundings are no defense.

Via Boing Boing, via the Guatemalan government's Flicker feed.

Please Don't Worry

Please don’t worry.
When I wake up I'll be something new.

Painting by Daniel Danger.

Decemberists Poster 3

Hedge Assignation.

Via I Have a Yellow Hat (though who knows where she got it).

Decemberists Poster 2

The great Forrest Whale chimera.

Art by Daniel Danger.

Decemberists Poster 1

Most likely a region of the Dreaming or Arcadian Realm.


Drawing by Jay Ryan.

The Ice Plane Scavangers

It is said that in the olden times our ancestors often found treasures in flying houses such as this one. But it was still strange to us and we approached it with caution none the less.

Photo by Darran Rees.


Via Presedia Creative, via Core77.

Island of the Dead

By Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin. Likely based on the similarly fascinating Greek isle of Pondikónisi:

Crescent

by Phil Rossi

On the old, massive, half-completed space station Crescent something forgotten is stirring again. This in spite of the influence of the community's ancient crone and the ruthless efforts of it's corrupt mayor.

It's a story old as time: A thing or things want to exist which would better not. Toward this end locations, people and events are being manipulated into the horrific arcane conjunctions necessary to hasten it's arrival.

It could be argued that the story is unevenly paced, plodding over some events while sweeping right past others. Or that it dwells too heavily on scenes of carnage and sexual depravity in an attempt to set the tone of seediness and horror. But in spite of these flaws I found Crescent to be an interesting take on the idea of a Lovecraftian "Great Old One" style incursion in a non-standard setting.


Warning: Heavy adult content.

Here's a direct link to the first episode.

The rest of the series can be found at Podiobooks.com or at the official Crescent Station website.

Abandoned Places (etc.)

As a source for desolate, claustrophobic, and/or seedy locations to set a game I highly recommend the Abandoned Places blog. A smattering of it's more famous or interesting areas includes:

Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong

Abandoned Places:

Kowloon used to be one of the areas of Hong Kong city. By the end of 1970s Walled City began to grow. Square buildings folded up into one another as thousands of modifications were made, virtually none by architects or engineers, until the entire City became monolithic. Labyrinthine corridors ran through the City, some former streets (at the ground level, and often clogged up with refuse), and some running through upper floors, through and between buildings. The streets were illuminated by fluorescent lights, as sunlight rarely reached the lower levels.

. . .

By the early 1980s, Kowloon Walled City had an estimated population of 35,000. The City was notorious for its excess of brothels, casinos, opium dens, cocaine parlours, food courts serving dog meat, and secret factories.

Centralia, United States

The moderately well known Pennsylvania town where a mine fire, raging unchecked since 1962, occasionally still opens smoking rents in the ground and chars hillside foliage.

Gunkanjima, Japan

Abandoned Places:

Mitsubishi bought the island in 1890 and began the project, the aim of which was retrieving coal from the bottom of the sea. They built Japan’s first large concrete building, a block of apartments in 1916 to accommodate their burgeoning ranks of workers (many of whom were forcibly recruited labourers from other parts of Asia), and to protect against typhoon destruction.

As petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960s, coal mines began shutting down all over the country, and Hashima’s mines were no exception. Mitsubishi officially announced the closing of the mine in 1974, and today it is empty and bare, which is why it’s called the Ghost Island. Travel to Hashima was re-opened on April 22, 2009 after more than 20 years of closure.

Pripyat, Ukraine

Ukrainian community built to house workers at Chernobyl. Evacuated and abandoned after the 1986 disaster.

Photo by Artem Grinchenko.

Link.


Thanks to Mike Lake of the Unknown Armies mailing list for pointing out the site.

Christoph Morlinghaus

Cathedral of the Grand Unification

Industrial Chapel

Venusian Arcology

Arcology Village

Link.

Via Dirty Russia.