Reading – Plunge

Joe Hill came to my attention with the award winning Locke & Key some years ago. Eldritch horror bubbles and foams at the edges of a family trying to put itself together until the entire thing is a frothy waking nightmare. Worth a read, great art, and available at most public libraries these days. I never really clicked with the TV adaptation, so I can’t comment on that but the collected trade paperbacks kept me looking out for more Joe Hill.

Plunge is a love letter to the works of John Carpenter and H.P. Lovecraft. More than that I dare not say lest I ruin the tributes scattered throughout these pages, darkly illustrated by Stuart Immomen and Dave Stewart. Even the a casual check of the advertising blurb is seeded with the names of “Derleth” and “Carpenter” and a captain that could only be played by Kurt Russell. The plot itself echoes many a horror movie set in desolate abandoned places, themes of corruption and forbidden knowledge, and of course encountering something alien to human understanding.

I enjoyed it and would recommend it as a good pulpy story in a similar vein to The Thing and Event Horizon, so also be warned it deals with body horror like they do. If a head crab scurried across the scene, it would be right at home in these pages. A formerly lost ship has started sending out a distress signal and it’s a race to get there before it falls into the hands of rivals. Only thing is, this ship disappeared 40 years ago with only one survivor ever found …

If interested, Google Books has a preview of the first issue of Plunge.

For the Gamer Eye

Mothership and Call of Cthulhu / Trail of Cthulhu / etc. would fit this story perfectly. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a half dozen pamphlet adventures for Mothership that essentially follow the same beats. For those who haven’t checked out Mothership, there is still the free Edition Zero out there that came before the Kickstarter campaign. The TOMBS cycle is but one of the great bits for GMs new and old to be found within. Meanwhile, Plunge offers great inspiration and fodder for your own game.