Inlay

If you're following our Backerkit campaign, you have access to the promotional podcast stream. I just posted a special bonus episode there; it's a work-in-progress, recounting a deep dive into the history of the Pendragon Club. It's pretty interesting stuff. The finished version will be part of […]

So a few people were commenting on how the Devil's Reef imagery that we're being sent doesn't match the sign I saw when I visited the trailer park back in Season 1 of the show. And you're right, it is absolutely not the same image. Al Treggoré bought the land that the trailer park sat on in 1981, nearly forty years before I showed up there. The sign I saw was old and weathered, but maybe it wasn't the original sign? And the image on that sign, I never saw it on a T-shirt or a keychain. There could be a dozen explanations for this, but you guys put a bee in my bonnet and I couldn't let it go. So when the East Coast woke up, I made a call to the administrators and asked if they knew anything about the artwork discrepancy. The person I spoke to knew nothing about it but, twenty minutes ago, I got a call from another person in the office, and they sent this through to me. Apparently this is one of the letters they found in the office that they were sending over anyway, so it will probably show up in the souvenir pack. But it does at least go some way towards answering the question:

Some items for the Crowley crowdfund are now starting to show up in the Red Hook offices, and we thought you might like to take a look at some early bits and pieces... The script books, especially, are really very nice. We're going to be offering the same thing for the Call of Cthulhu, but we're also going to be offering something a little more special: Collectors Edition hardback coffee-table books of the scripts for each of the seasons so far, including the new one, with new essays, behind-the-scenes stuff and documentation. We've sourced an amazing printer and these volumes will be Smyth-sewn with coloured endpapers, ribbon markers and dust jackets painted especially by artist Carl Pugh. These things are not cheap to make and they will not be cheap to buy, but they are going to be pretty amazing. We're also offering a Cthulhu Case File; a pack containing facsimiles of every document and paper artefact we came across during the Cthulhu investigation. And that's before we get to the hoodies and T-shirts, tote bags, baseball caps, and the brilliant CD media book we have planned as a stretch goal, ... We're also hoping to launch the new series with a live show... There'll be details of that when the campaign kicks off next Wednesday. If you pledged for Crowley, your stuff will start shipping next month. If you haven't signed up to follow the Cthulhu Backerkit yet, then there is a 25 minute Call of Cthulhu bonus episode waiting for you when you get SIGN UP.

Hi all We have more to say about what's going on, including some plans for the store, which you may have seen appearing at the top of the site. But we'll save those for when we have had a moment to catch our breath. In the meantime, the new crowdfund trailer, which many of you may have heard on the Crowley feed, is live: Anyone who signs up to the pre-launch at Backerkit will be getting access to an RSS feed that will include some odds and sods of audio as we head towards the launch, not least, a full "raw" bonus episode of the new show that will be exclusively available to Backerkit followers.

News reached us recently that the Devil's Reef Trailer Park in Rhode Island has closed down. (It wasn't the most surprising news). As regular listeners will know, Kennedy visited the trailer park during the course of the investigation into Charles Dexter Ward (Season 1, Episode 6). Ward and Dr Allen had maintained a trailer there, and seemed to be doing something nefarious in the old smugglers' tunnels underneath the park. Prior to being a trailer park, the site had been notorious as the home of Joseph Curwen's cult. Our involvement with Devil's Reef seems not to have gone unnoticed. Someone at the company administering the liquidation got in touch with us, after listening to the show. It turns out they are trying to dispose of a bunch of stuff that they found there; various knick-knacks that were presumably marketed to visitors during the trailer park's heyday. We were only too happy to take this stuff off their hands and we are going to make it up into an add-on for our Call of Cthulhu crowdfund. We're calling it the **Devil's Reef Souvenir Pack** and it comprises: * **A long-sleeved T-shirt** (size can be selected in the pledge manager) * **A Devil's Reef phone/memo pad** , which we assume was once placed on the phone table in those rental trailers which were connected to landlines. * **A Devil's Reef ballpoint pen** , presumably for use with the pad. * **A Devil's Reef keyring** - we're not sure if this was actually used for trailer keys or just something that would have been available as a memento from the gift shop. * **A Devil's Reef woven patch**. Again, presumably a gift shop item. Images created on the basis of their descriptions. We have not received the real things yet. In addition to "official" merchandise, a number of items are on their way across the Atlantic that seem a little more... Unusual. There is a "**Rules of the Reef** " laminated notice. Apparently this was displayed in the manager's office (Kennedy has a vague recollection of this), and placed in all the rental trailers. It details a quite eclectic set of dos and don't for visitors. Also in the manager's office, the administrators found a safe containing a number of **coins engraved with the words "The Esoteric Order of Dagon"** , and **several items of correspondence** , typed on an old manual typewriter, facsimiles of which we will be including in the Souvenir Pack. The whole lot will come inside a Devil's Reef Tote Bag, and is available as an add-on in Backerkit now.

Nothing that we have experienced since launching our investigation into the disappearance of Charles Dexter Ward has served to fuel any sense of optimism. Quite the opposite. We have lost our funding, our office, our equipment, and I personally mislaid three years of my life. We don't expect things to go well, is the point. When we first decided to look into crowdfunding, we were too uncertain of the territory to attempt to finance a whole season, so we decided to test the water with the Crowley series. We put everything we had into that campaign, and it worked out better than we could possibly have hoped. But we're still not optimistic. Perhaps we just aren't wired that way. The budget for _The Call of Cthulhu_ is significantly higher than it was for Crowley, and economic conditions are worsening for a lot of people. Last year's success doesn't automatically lead to this year's success. That's why we're trying to make sure that everything we're putting together for this campaign, from bespoke CD books and digital offerings to new books and merch, is considered, desirable, and good value. This time, we're looking for numbers, rather than high-value investors (we'll obviously take those too!). And we're going to be pushing the whole way through, just like we did with Crowley, because we can't afford to take this campaign for granted. But right now, more than the money, it's the numbers that matter: in order to get the strongest possible launch, we need the highest possible number of people signed up to the campaign. With big numbers, we move up the Backerkit charts and we garner attention from people who might not otherwise know about the show, as well as earning the attention and assistance of the good people at Backerkit themselves. At this pre-launch stage, the numbers really are make-or-break. When we sent out the initial announcement to Pleasant Green subscribers yesterday, those numbers really started to climb. But it came to our attention that nearly 80% of the people who opened that email DID NOT sign up to the pre-launch. There are probably a lot of very good reasons for this - you're subscribed to this site, so you're hardly likely to miss out, or maybe you were just out and about on a Saturday afternoon and you didn't get around to it. I get it, I've been there - I never click those things either! But in this case, clicking the "Count me in" button gives us a lot of invisible assistance with the launch, without any obligation to actually back the campaign. And it also lets you in on whatever pre-launch offers we can put together that. At this stage in the game, we really need those clicks! So if you didn't get a chance to do it yesterday, please take a moment right now to jump to this link... Get Ready for Lovecraft Investigations: The Call of CthulhuFrom Julian Simpson - Get Ready for Lovecraft Investigations: The Call of CthulhuJulian Simpson ...and click "**Yes, count me in** ". Again, no obligation to pledge, just a registration of interest that we could really use right now. This next series is going to be immense, and we're really excited to get working on it. We know you'll love the story we have to tell, but we need to engage you all to get it over the finish line. Maybe it will be easier than we think it will be. But, as I say, we're never optimistic. Please do everything you can, and please spread the word to friends and family and to your online communities. The more interest we can register now, the greater the chances that this new season sees the light of day. Have a good Sunday. Matthew

You may have noticed that one of our stretch goals for the Call of Cthulhu campaign, a rules-light TTRPG based on the show, created by Graham Walmsley, has disappeared from the literature. It is not gone forever, but just from this campaign, and the simple reason is that I got a little too enthusiastic about the idea. From an initial spark, it quickly grew beyond something that could justifiably be contained within a stretch goal, or budgeted for within this campaign. It's one of those cases of "If we're going to do it, let's do it properly", and I don't have the bandwidth for that at the same time as creating an entire new season of the show from whole cloth. So it's gone for the moment, but certainly not forgotten - there will be a time in the not-too-distant future, where you will be rolling sanity as a quaint English village appears from nowhere. In the meantime, the £100,000 stretch has been replaced by a MYSTERY GIFT that will be dropped into everyone's physical orders when we hit that goal. Do I know what it is? Yes I do. Will I be telling you? Yes I will. But not yet...

A lot to do here today. We're going to cover some FAQs about CDs, Crowley, Stickers etc, then we're going to get into some new offers that are going up up on the Backerkit site, including scripts, donations, T-shirts, gifting, and a NEW BOOK! But first... A HUGE round of applause to all of you, along with our heartfelt thanks. We launched the crowdfund on Wednesday, with a target of £85,000. We did think it was a bit touch and go; it was a big target and you never really know how these things are going to launch. When we pressed the "Launch" button at midday, we really didn't know if this was going to pay off. But we smashed through that target within the first hour and went on to end the day with all of our initial stretch goals met. At time of writing, we are around the £237,000 mark, which is completely incredible. This success is entirely down to all of you; you have been cheerleaders for this project, and your unflagging support and enthusiasm have got us to where we are today. Thank you. Looking over some of the community comments, we have seen a few commonalities arising and so we thought we'd address them here. We'll still be trying to answer individual questions when they come up, but if you happen to spot someone asking a question that is answered below, please send them over here. ## FAQs 1. **CDs/Downloads of previous seasons**. These will be available in the near future, but the rights situation prohibits us from being able to include them in this crowdfund. 2. **Crowley catch-up**. None of the Crowley materials are available in this current crowdfund, because we wanted to make it as clean and easy to navigate as possible. The Village Shop, linked to at the top of this site, or available HERE, offer all digital material from that campaign. 3. **Stickers and other incentives**. Those who backed in the first 48 hours, or who were returning backers from Crowley, were entitled to a range of digital downloads and a couple of physical items (pin badge and sticker set). This has thrown up some questions... * The physical items were keyed to those who had pledged at tiers that included physical delivery. This is because we didn't want someone who had deliberately only pledged digital to suddenly have to deal with shipping admin and costs. Of course some people pledged digital and then went on to add physical delivery items to their order. Those people do not AUTOMATICALLY qualify for the stickers and badges but, at the end of the campaign, we will be able to generate the list of people who qualify and add those items onto your order - don't worry. * If you used a different e-mail address for this crowdfund from the one you used for Crowley, there is probably no way for either Backerkit or us to know that you are a returning backer. In the survey at the end of the campaign, you will be able to indicate that you did this, and we will be able to cross-check and sort you out. ## The Soundtrack The soundtrack CD and download has been on the Backerkit site since launch, and it has been selling very well, but we haven't really said anything about it specifically. Tim Elsenburg, of Sweet Billy Pilgrim, has been composing music for the show since day one. For the first time, we are making a selection of that music available. Disc One (if you're on CD, otherwise Part One) is a smorgasbord of music spanning the entire run from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward to the present day (it may even include some music from the new series). And yes, it will include the theme... Lovecraft Investigations theme 0:00 /26.308209 1× And Disc/Part 2 will be one continuous mix of music. We have loved working to the loops Tim created, for Crowley especially, and so we've asked him to create a "dream mix" of music that will tranport you, whether you're working, reading, or just staring out the window... Crowley Atmospheres 1 piano theme 0:00 /138 1× The CDs and downloads are available to buy on the Backerkit site right now. ## New Items Over the next few days, we're going to be introducing a few new add-ons, some by popular demand, some because we thought they would be fun, and relevant, additions to the list. In the latter category we have... ### Red Hook Stories book 1 This is one we're excited about. Paying subscribers to this website will already be aware of the Saltmarsh and De Kliek investigations. Plenty of elements within these stories tie in or tee-up aspects of the forthcoming season. We presented them online in a form that best fitted that medium, but now we are going to substantially revise, rewrite (and in the case of De Kliek, FINISH!) those accounts and present them in book form. **SALTMARSH** - This investigation was undertaken by Kennedy following the events of The Shadow Over Innsmouth. A mysterious death in Paris leads to a village on the Thames Estuary that may not really exist. **DE KLIEK** - Following on from the end of The Haunter of the Dark, Matthew and Kennedy stumble onto the strange death of Arthur Jermyn and find themselves, at Parker's urging, investigating a sinister European organisation that just might be behind everything that has happened so far. This will be a single paperback novel, containing both stories (with additional endnotes), with a cover designed by our friend Carl Pugh to resemble something you might have found on the spinner of your local newsagents in the 1970s or 80s. We're going to be offering an ebook format (EPUB, probably) at £5.99 and a physical paperback at £9.99. If you buy the paperback, we will also throw in an ebook copy. These books will be available to buy from the Village Shop once the new season is released, but the Backerkit price we're offering now will be a little lower than the eventual retail price. We're excited, not only to present these stories in a new way, but also for readers to experience how elements of both of those investigations feed into The Call of Cthulhu. ### Previous Scripts Softcover copies of the full scripts to The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Whisperer in Darkness, The Shadow over Innsmouth and The Haunter of the Dark. These are being designed to match the Crowley script we're about to send out and the Call of Cthulhu softcover that we're already offering (so they'll look good as a set on your bookshelves!) Price will be £20 each, with a "Buy 3 get 1 free" price of £60. We're also offering a PDF compendium of all four previous seasons for £14.99, and this will be available almost as soon as the campaign closes. Please note that these books are JUST the episode and bonus episode scripts; the additional material planned for the Collectors Edition hardbacks will not be included in these. _These softcover scriptbooks and the PDF are available NOW._ ## Community Donation An incredible number of people have asked whether they can donate to a fund to allow others to participate in the crowdfund. You're all so nice! We've talked to Backerkit about this, and it seems that a tried-and-tested method is to add a "Community Donation" add-on, priced at £10. We'll keep tabs on how much is in that pot and create a commensurate number of "Donated Pledge" tiers, priced at £1 for basic Cultist access (it has to be priced, there's no mechanism for free tiers). If you have friends who would like the show but can't afford to get involved, that will be the tier to point them too. We have to operate it on an honesty-basis and see how it goes. _AVAILABLE NOW_ ## Gifting Tiers Christmas is just around the corner (or it will be, by the time we deliver - NO PROMISES!) and a few backers have asked about being able to gift tiers to people. Again, Backerkit have been really helpful. If you email us at [email protected], we can set up a special gift tier for you, which you can add to your package. When the campaign is done, you will then be able to tell us who you would like that gift sent to. ## More T-Shirts We're going to be putting a couple of new T-shirts up over the next few days. One will be an old design we tracked down from back in the day for the "Devil's Reef Trailer Park", and the other is TBA. * * * That MIGHT be it for now. We hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend, and thank you again for your kindness and support during this campaign so far. We can't wait to see you at the live show (or via the livestream of that, which we are hoping to set up) and we're looking forward to digging into those old Eleanor Peck lectures, should that stretch goal be reached. M&K

We can now measure the time until launch in hours, and it's getting a little fraught here! I thought I'd take this opportunity to preview the pledge tiers that will be available when the campaign goes live on Wednesday 20th, at 12PM London time, and to do any other bits and pieces of useful housekeeping. ## Pledge Tiers Here's how they stand at the moment, You'd be wise to read the real thing carefully on the day, because I can't promise there won't be some movement within these between now and then: **Cultist** — £19. The series, digitally. If you just want the show, this is your tier. **Historian** — £49. The series in hi-res Dolby Atmos, plus the PDF scriptbook and a digital dossier of in-world case documents. You also get instant access to "The Secret History of the World" which is going to be my filing system for research, ideas, notes and scribbles throughout the process of putting this show together - I'll be filling that up as we go. **Adventurer** — £99. Everything above, plus a physical softcover scriptbook and the deluxe six-disc CD box set. **Pendragon Club** — £299. Everything above, plus a physical case-file of in-world documents and the Pendragon Club Membership Pack, which already has some serious goodies planned for it. **Librarian** — £499. Everything above, plus five Collectors Edition hardback script-books, one per Lovecraft Investigations season: A4, full-colour, Smyth-sewn, with full scripts, new essays, behind-the-scenes photographs, notebook scans etc. Signed bookplate included for the Call of Cthulhu book. **Red Hook Stories Investor** — £999. Everything above, plus an Associate Producer credit, a Red Hook Stories t-shirt, a ticket to the Live Reading (should we reach that stretch goal), and monthly live Zoom calls with yours truly throughout the writing process. **Executive Producer** - £4,999 Everything in previous tiers PLUS: * You will be named as Executive Producer on the show and all relevant materials. You get two tickets to the Live Show, should the stretch goal fire. * You will become part of the Pleasant Green Universe. We'll work together to create a canonical character connected to the events of The Call of Cthulhu: named for you, or for someone of your choosing, and real within the world of the show. How visible they are, and what form their involvement takes, we'll work out together. You'll receive their Department of Works file: classified, personalised, and yours. * You will also receive a numbered limited edition print by Carl Pugh, the artist behind some of the most striking imagery in the Pleasant Green Universe. It arrives pre-mounted, with a card addressed to you and signed by the full cast and crew set into the mount below. Hang it up. You made this show happen. * Finally, you'll join a small, separate monthly conversation with me. Not the group call. Just the Executive Producers, a considerably shorter guest list, and a more personal conversation about how the production is going. And then, on top of all that, we have tote bags, T-shirts, hoodies, baseball caps... Want to see? Oh go on then, just a peek... These are all mock-ups, as close to the real thing as we can get. ## Housekeeping For those of you who live a long way away (from me, I mean, you presumably live incredibly close to you), I have made the decision to cap shipping at a somewhat reasonable rate (you start trying to ship five 2kg books to Australia and you don't even want to know what that costs!); I'll pick up the tab for a chunk of the delivery cost so that no one is excessively penalised for their generosity. I have also enabled paying in instalments, which means the more expensive tiers have the option of paying in four monthly instalments, rather than all in one go. As I understand it (read the small print!), there is no interest charged on this, so it's not credit, just a payment plan to make higher tiers more accessible. We also have some instant rewards set up (again, subject to change) that trigger if you back in the first 48 hours, or if you backed Crowley. I'm not ENTIRELY sure I trust that last one, because Crowley was done through Kickstarter. Backerkit MAY know who you are, or they may not. And you might be using a different e-mail. Do me a favour; if you're a previous backer and you DON'T get a reward, drop me a line and we'll figure it out. Stretch goals (called Achievements in Backerkit) are set up and you'll see those when the campaign launches. The one worth mentioning, though, is the one that hits when we go BIG: at £250,000, we drop the Peck Lectures into everyone's package - it turns out that, some years ago, Eleanor Peck gave a series of short lectures on various aspects of folklore. We have uncovered those recordings and will be making them available if the campaign goes stratospheric. Lastly, a few people on Crowley said that they wished they could give more (love those people!). It occurred to me to set higher tiers, but then there was the question of what to put in them and how much they should go for, etc etc. I know there are a few people here who really love what we make and would like to be more involved, so what I can do, in consultation with you, is create a bespoke tier that could allow for greater investment in return for more targeted rewards. If this is interesting, or something you want to explore in more detail, drop me a line at [email protected] Until Wednesday, then... P.S. Did I put a link to the Backerkit anywhere in this post? I did not. It's HERE.

I don't expect that anyone here is a new listener, but you might know people who are a little nervous to join a show four seasons in (five, if you count Crowley). By way of reassurance, Kennedy and I have made a trail just for the new people, because The Call of Cthulhu is going to be an "on ramp", and we don't want it to seem daunting for newcomers. If you know anyone who might be interested, please point them to this trailer: