The functioning heart of the radio prop is this custom Bluetooth™ speaker. Complete instructions for its use are contained in the game book. By placing the speaker inside the oatmeal canister, Keepers can readily replicate the sound of a genuine 1920s/'30s homemade radio. By pairing the speaker with the playback device of your choice, you can play any audio file.

"Spark Angel" is the name of a fictional electronic parts company that Abner found advertised in one of his radio magazines. His home-built radio is made from various bits and pieces acquired from Spark Angel, among other places.

This adventure comes with 23 audio props, the first three of which are meant to be played specifically through Abner's oatmeal canister radio.

Both the game book and the "Read-Me" card that comes inside the Spark Devil box contain the URL where you can download the audio prop files. Once you've downloaded the files, you can use any Bluetooth-enabled playback device of your choice to play them through the Spark Angel speaker. Most phones and computers these days have this ability.

While the first three audio props are radio broadcasts meant to be played through Abner's radio, the others are live interactions with NPCs, and will probably sound better if you remove the speaker from the oatmeal canister, or play them through another sound system of your choosing. The HPLHS is grateful to our talented company of professional actors for lending their voice talents to this collection of characters.

Based on stock designs that were commonly available from funeral directors at the time, this funeral card provides some clues for Investigators. Abner's memorial service takes place on a Tuesday, which coincides with the meeting of the Workmen's Co-Operative Association.

Abner is played in the photograph on this card by Academy Award-winning actor Victor McLaglen.

This prop is a page torn from one of Abner's radio magazines, on which he has scribbled some very disturbing and cryptic notes. The item combines articles and graphics from real radio magazines of the day, including Radio News, Radio-Craft and Short Wave Craft. You can see the complete issue of Radio News for January, 1935, the month when this game takes place, HERE.

Found at the Providence hall of records, this prop is based on real city permits of the time. It can lead Investigators to Joe Soletti, and/or to the basement at 141 Benefit Street.

Found at the Providence hall of records, this document provides mostly true information and a couple of fibs. Although the cause of Bujaki's death was not actually cardiac arrest, it did take place at 141 Benefit St.

In the 1930s, involuntary psychiatric commitment was not an uncommon practice, and the legal documents making it possible were dreadfully routine. Investigators might find copies of this document in the files of the courthouse, the health department, or McCray's office.

This prop is a page from a made-up book published in the late 1800s. The cult of the Spark Devil is obscure and highly secretive, so this glancing reference is the only one the Investigators can find.

The prop set includes six clippings from The Providence Journal, ranging from 1901 to 1934. The largest is an entire half of the front page of the paper, and is a detailed replica of the actual coverage of the fire at Maplewood, which was a real historical event. Except for the inclusion of a couple of fictional characters and incidents, the story is pulled verbatim from the real coverage. The photos from the real newspaper were not of sufficiently high quality for reprinting, so they have been mocked up using other sources.

Investigators might find any/all of these items at the public library or in the morgue files at The Providence Journal itself. Muriel Tidewell herself might be able to provide the most recent one from the clutter of her own home, if the Investigators need a shove in that direction.

This is a replica of an actual syndicated press photograph of the real building at Maplewood that burned down on the night of March 17, 1931. All of the notations on the back are recreated from the original. This item can only be found by the Investigators in the morgue at the offices of The Providence Journal.

Dr. Bates sanitarium at Maplewood on Conanicut Island was a real place, and might well have been — at least in part — the inspiration for the asylum from which Charles Dexter Ward is reported to have escaped in Lovecraft's story "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward". During HPL's lifetime it was a well-known local institution, the second of two sanitariums run by William Lincoln Bates. They really did have an in-house newsletter called "The Electric Spark", and we are very grateful to the Jamestown Historical Society for providing us access to some copies, on which these prop replicas are based.

Some people use the word "sanitarium" and some use "sanatorium". In the 1930s the words were basically interchangeable, and technically still are, although these days "sanitarium" has come more to mean a mental institution, and "sanatorium" refers more a health spa. Bates' facilities were both of those things, although Butler Hospital was more of a sanitarium than a sanatorium. Sanatoriums were once quite fashionable.

Found on the bulletin board at The Bookstore, this very businesslike flyer has been a bit crumpled and pre-drilled with a thumbtack hole at the top. The union label at the bottom was commonly included in print jobs of the day, and in 1935 is a political statement in its own right.

This item is to be found at 141 Benefit St., where it has been pinned up as a curiosity by the working men who now occupy the rooms on the second floor. This document is 34 years old, and has been distressed to suggest its age. It can lead to Joe Soletti, and/or to the strange machinery in the basement.

This item is found among the possessions of Joe Soletti, who kept it as a souvenir of his time working at the Bates Electropathic Sanitarium because it includes a picture of himself. This 32-page booklet is a painstaking replica of a real brochure published in the 1890s by William L. Bates promoting his sanitarium. All of the photos it contains, except the two shown here, are from the original brochure. These two are fictional composites created for the game. Bujaki is played in the photograph by famous Italian electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi, and Joe Soletti is played by George de Hevesy, a Hungarian Nobel Prize-winning radiochemist. We are very grateful to the Jamestown Historical Society for providing access to the original document.

This item is to be found in the old patient files at Maplewood, and ties Clive Pruitt to Moira McCray and the art therapy program. The letterhead is fictional, although the logo at the top left is the actual pin given to nurses by Dr. Bates.

This prop is a composite of various real autopsy reports of the time, and provides numerous disturbing details about Abner Tidewell's untimely death.

This badly-typed letter is to be found in the files of Moira McCray at Butler Hospital. The letterhead is based on that of a real private investigator from Providence we found in the city directory of 1921.

This letter is one of many to be found in the possession of Moira McCray, if not in her office at Butler Hospital, then in her home. It is based on a sample of Nikola Tesla's actual stationery, and the signature is a replica of his real one. The prop has been lightly distressed due to its age.

This crumpled old sheet is to be found in the possession of Moira McCray. It is one of many pages of notes and diagrams drawn by her deceased husband, Kristof Bujáki. It makes little sense to anyone without Electrical Repair skill, and not much more to people who have it, but suggests terrible things regarding electricity and human victims.

This large-format map is based on one from the 1890s, and shows the relative locations of Providence and Conanicut Island, and the ferry routes Investigators can take to get to Maplewood.

This large-format map is based on one of the extremely detailed fire insurance maps published by the Sanborn Insurance Company in 1921. The fictional Electropathic Ward has replaced what was really the Sawyer Ward.

This handout is provided for gaming convenience, but it could be considered a prop if the Investigators were to find it in the Providence hall of records, or possibly in the possession of Joe Soletti from his days of working on the building. The floorplan shows the locations of McCray's office, patient rooms and nurses' station, as well as the various entrances and exits to the electropathic wing of Butler Hospital, including windows that are barred, and the direct route to the basement from the outside of the building. Anyone planning a surreptitious entry to the wing might find it very useful.