Thanks to Cthulhu Reborn making a mirror of GEEDUNK, I could use this fantastic line crossing prop as well as the accompanying invitation (and many others), instead of the lackluster one included in the book itself. I run most of the handouts I share in Roll20 through some griming in Photoshop, just to give them some semblance of the real world.
Map of the Panama Canal
As our intrepid expedition members set to see, their journey takes them from the Atlantic Ocean through the Panama Canal to the great Pacific Ocean and south towards Australia.
Map of the World
There's no traversing the world without a proper map, and Stanford's General Map of The World from 1922 is just the ticket, especially because it comes in an outrageously high resolution for all your printing or online VTT purposes.
You Must Listen
First Contact
Yesterday I sent out six telegrams to my prospective players, each containing a short invitation to join the upcoming 1933 Starkweather-Moore Expedition to the Antarctic, it ends by stating that I'll be sending along more information. Tomorrow I'm sending en envelope containing two articles about the expedition, a period-correct map, a passport and two letters, one from Professor Moore (3 pages, in the hand writing of H.P. Lovecraft himself), and a short bravura note from Starkweather.
The penguin is a USB key containing a custom 40-page National Geographic from 1931, covering the Miskatonic expedition, interspersed with photos from the mountains and Lake's camp (this is an edited version of the Antarctic guide from the BtMoM book, from which I removed all rules and anything that can spoil the story).
There's also a 12-minute recording of the Wireless transmissions from Lake's camp (I cut up a 'radio play' and aged the recording significantly, and overlaid it with appropriate sound effects, such as actual barking sled dogs), as well as a 20-minute recording of Worldwide Wireless News's interviews (same with this, although I also interspersed it with musical interludes) with the expedition members and other coverage.
here's also a 10-minute Newsreel covering the expedition (Thank you HPLHS).
Furthermore I put together a 90-minute soundtrack consisting of tracks from a variety of composters, including Erdenstern, Goldenthal, Desplat, Goldsmith, Ligeti, Beltrami (and the sound of actual Antarctic wind).
Finally I included some radio plays of Lovecraft's stories and a version of the Trail of Cthulhu Player's Guide in which I removed all references to At the Mountains of Madness.
The package was received very well indeed, and caused one player's wife to exclaim that he had no other choice but to join the game.
Mission accomplished.