Ambient Knowledge for Lovecraft Easter

Gene Michael Stover

created Sunday, 2022 April 10
updated ???


Ambient Knowledge? Say What?

In photography, “ambient light” is the light the happens to be there, not your flash, studio lights, or reflectors that the photographer sets up.

So I figure that ambient knowledge is stuff you just happen to know.

This is a grab bag of things that your character knows simply by being a kid in the 1920s in Lovecraft Country.

It's not well-organized, & that's by design.

I'll (try to remember to) remind you when something here is relevant to the story.

A pile of things you know

Leigh Tierney is Alice's best friend.

Calvin Chase is a schoolmate of George's & Edward's. He used to be a good student, but that changed when his mother died 8 months ago. Since then, he often skips school, his grades have plummeted, & when he shows up at school, he is very upset & sometimes bruised.

Hellmouth House is rumored to be a haunted house, or maybe worse than haunted, in Arkham. You haven't been there because it's rumored to be really scary, you haven't had an opportunity (only 2 of you live in Arkham at all), & you're a kid, only recently old enough to try getting away from parents to visit a place they wouldn't approve.

The “Finns” is a gang of kids who hangs out at the arcade. Though they are kids, they are rough & seem to have connections with an adult, real criminal gang.

George owns a collectable baseball card autographed by Red Sox first basement (1923) George Henry Burns. Classmates have offered to buy it for 7 dollars.

Arkham's public library is a pleasant place for a kid to spend a summer afternoon.

Arkham has 2 newspapers: The respectable(?) Arkham Gazette & the more tabloidish Arkham Advisor.

When you were all in the arcade last summer, Gerdie pissed off a boy in the Finns (doesn't matter why), he started to bully her. Alice jumped in to defend Gerdie. Gordon jumped in to help Alice. It resulted in all the Finns being told to leave the arcade for the rest of the week. The Finns might be a little bitter about that.

Arkham's movie theatre has good popcorn.

There's a rumor that only one person, a student at the Miskatonic University in Arkham managed to enter Hallmouth House & make it out alive.

End.