Occult Secrets Of The Trinity of Awesome Kickstarter With Kort'thalis Publishing

The Trinity of Awesome is winding down in about seven days but it still needs your help to get to the promised stretch goals but I wanted to take a look into the deeper Lovecraftian horrors of  The Green Jewel They Must Possess adventure for a moment a part of The Outer Presence rpg line.



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When it comes to low prep, high octane Seventies old school adventure one of my favorites is the Outer Presence by Venger Satanis. Now with the release of the Trinity of Awesome kickstarter we've got another Lovecraftian piece of that puzzle that is the Outer Presence universe in the form of A Green Jewel They Must Possess adventure. The basic plot outline sounds like something from an Eighties animated film but there are some very subtle differences;"This is a 4 - 5 page adventure of investigative horror set in "modern day," specifically the 1970's.  A glowing green sphere with spiritual powers has been discovered in Peru, but it's cursed because people keep dying.  Obviously, it's worth a fortune."
Right off the bat we've got this glowing jewel showing up in the 1970's Peru a country with a history soaked in blood going all of the way back to the Incan empire through the rise of the Shining Path. There is a lot of real world & Lovecraftian history tied up in Peru.


Photo by Matěj Baťha

Weirdly enough this is the second Venger Satanis adventure set in South America, the first one The Outer Presence deals with some very 'Cannibal Holocaust' jungle elements & Lovecraftian adventure sequences mixed with a good dose of adventure. These adventures are also self contained mini rpg systems that hook in with the principal game mechanic which is a d6 dice pool.  It's a simplified, closer-to-the-real-world version of Crimson Dragon Slayer and it makes modifying it into your favorite old school investigative supernatural game a snap. The Outer Presence takes place in & around Papua New Guinea with a health dose of action & some very dark supernatural horror taking place within its pages.


There is a definitively Lovecraftian element to the back universe story in the Outer Presence;"
The adventure starts in and around Miskatonic University and quickly heads to Papua New Guinea... cause you know what they do there, right?  This isn't one of those dull scenarios where hardly anything happens.  In fact, The Outer Presence occasionally borders on "out there" without diving into full-on gonzo territory.  Eldritch pulp action-adventure probably sums it up best." There are several places where the adventure almost seems to strain against itself to tell you more about the Outer Presence universe. In fact just the other day on G+ Venger let slip a tid bit about that universe that implies that there are deeper secrets in the Outer Presence adventures then meets the eye;"There is a para-military organization safeguarding the world from supernatural disaster. Theta Chartreuse is a splinter group devoted to awakening the Great Old Ones. They are determined to usher in an apocalyptic new world order." So already we're getting into tin foil hat X files territory which reminds me of several late night Eighties horror films not to mention the Heavy Metal film from 1981. 

Could this be because someplace deep within the Outer Presence universe there are those in the 'know' who are being deeply influenced & whose sanity is strained by the very Lovecraftian gods, horrific elements, and other weirdness just lurking on this side of the adventure. Could this have something to do with the Lovecraftian horrors lurk just on the other side of both Crimson Dragon Slayer and Alpha Blue? I think so my friends because there are wheels within wheels in the Outer Presence & Venger Satanis's creations. We've seen this in Alpha Blue & The Island of Purple Haunted Putrescence's connections through NPC's, random encounters, and other game elements. The same could be said for the Outer Presence. This sort of a pulpy weird vibe runs through the Outer Presence right from the very beginning.
 Basically its really essentially a boiled down pulp adventure done in a more contemporary style with Venger's flare for the gonzo with a heap of Lost, Cannibal Holocaust, and a piping hot side of HP Lovecraft. .There's precious little preventing the Game Master from swapping New Guinea out for the jungles of South America or similar locale. This scenario could take place during any period of the 20th century. If the 70's don't resonate with you, feel free to change it. Some conversion will be necessary, but the majority should play just fine as it is."

There are elements of Robert Howard's Cthulhu Mythos and other far more contemporary echoes in The Outer Presence. With a heap of Jim Jones style madness that anyone who grew up in this time will recognize. For example is  Doctor Karl Steiner, anthropologist, ego-maniac, and frequent contributor to the quarterly anthropology journal Culturally Speaking. With the help of Dr. Steiner and his team, the Meepie tribe has regressed to cannibalism and human sacrifice in order to appease something that lives in the nearby temple…the outer  presence."

And now the circle of Green Jeweled Lovecraftian madness has moved into 1970's modern  America, no one or nothing is going to be safe from the horrors that shall come from outside our reality. The secret cabal behind the jewel and its machinations are going to the fodder for the continuing weirdness. Be sure to support the Trinity of Awesome on Kickstarter to get more 1970's investigative horror.