The funeral takes place on a rainy summer afternoon in June 1925. You pay respects to Minerva Fortescue, obscure occultist and long-retired emerita of your secret society. She was privy to many mysteries, their nature passing with her as she left this life. But your Order asks you to take on an onerous and unenviable assignment: to sift through inventory from her long-shuttered antique shop. What trinkets and treasures and terrors will you find, and in whose hands are they best kept?
An unassuming suitcase
In this two-page one-shot adventure in easy-to-absorb pamphlet format, playable in a single session by two or more players, investigators must delve into the mysteries left behind by an aged but mysterious adventuress. A search through the fantastic and dangerous esoterica left behind in her antique shop, as well as a dark entity inadvertently released within the headquarters of their secret society, leads to an otherworldly conflict that may claim and shatter their minds and lives.
A 2-page adventure
Suitable for experienced Call of Cthulhu Keepers who want to run the adventure in their home games or at conventions.
I have been inspired by The Dare, written by Kevin A. Ross and published by Sentinel Hill Press. I have heard it is a favorite one-shot, especially for Halloween, and the 1980s setting certainly conjures memories for those of a certain vintage, which includes me. It’s a bit of a refreshing change from some of the Classic Era Call of Cthulhu games I typically run, and the Call of Kid-thulhu rules are fun, too.
Most of my gameplay is online, so I decided to use the black-and-white floor plans and layouts from the adventure to inform the design of some color map levels I could use in a virtual table top. I’ve put a few thumbnails in this post, but the downloadable maps are better resolution.
Barnaker House Overhead
I offer this set of maps as a gift to my fellow keepers of arcane lore. To download the whole set of maps, click this link:
I hope you run this game, and if you run it online in a VTT, I hope these maps make it easier! (And I hope this doesn’t bother the Sentinel Hill folks. Please go buy The Dare here. I bought it myself and I really like it. I am not being compensated by them for any of this.)
I have taken some liberties with the map from the official publication in order to keep everything from the setting in a 25×25 grid for easy layering in a VTT. If you don’t like that … okay. I hope you can live with it. I have a commercial DungeonFog license and used that for the map design. I like that application and recommend it. I have not artificially darkened the map because I tend to use dynamic lighting in Roll20. If these aren’t dark enough for you for the atmosphere if you want, you can tune them a bit in the image editor of your choice.
The First Floor
The scenario has some secrets to be discovered, including clues and dangers. As this may be a map you use with players, few of those secrets are explicitly visible, and, instead, you would reveal them narratively, or, if you wish, with your own graphic modifications to the map for personal use. I provide no gamemaster’s key or list of clues — for that, go buy the game from Sentinel Hill Press.
The zip file of maps contains:
An overhead view of the old Barnaker place
Cupola
Attic
Upper Floor
First Floor
… and more (no spoilers here)
If you download or use this set of maps, I have three requests:
Please do not redistribute and share the downloads, and especially do not share or modify or sell as if it is your own work. Just point people back to the source if they want to grab the maps and point them back toThe Dare. Pointers with the lower-resolution map thumbnail are okay by me.
While you can certainly use this map for other adventures, including those of your own devising, please go buy The Dare.
I also wrote Convalescence, a scenario that takes place at a clinic in Dublin, Ireland, as part of the Storytelling Collective workshop. It is a longer adventure and offers more detail, which is especially useful for Keepers who have not run many games. It is creepy and the Mythos elements can be dialed all the way up or all the way down.
Convalescence, my first Call of Cthulhu scenario, was a labor of love (and Lovecraft) and the focus of my first effort as part of the RPG Writer’s Workshop from Storytelling Collective. After quite a few successful outings as a Keeper — I mean, I survived them, and isn’t that the important thing? — it was time for me to write my own adventure. But Convalescence was a bit of a heavy lift in terms of effort and I decided I wanted to try something a little more streamlined. Could I pack what I needed to run an adventure into two pages? I’d seen some samples of other attempts, and I’ve absorbed a lot of wisdom from Professor Dungeon Master and Sly Flourish on how to boil an adventure down to its essence. so I thought I’d give it a go.
And that’s how my investigators wound up in London for Dissonance – A 2-Page 1920s Adventure for Call of Cthulhu, which also has a supplemental set of Maps for Dissonance for those who need something to print or for virtual tabletops. It was great fun to research the founding of the BBC and weave that into an adventure about, in this case, the Regency Airwave Concern. There are more than a few historical references, but the intro to the story goes like this:
The new national radio service is in its first week of broadcast from London, but last night, the regularly scheduled programming was briefly interrupted by unintelligible raving. Most think nothing of it. The station manager can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to this than meets the ear. But he has his eye on a few new friends he’s made at his favorite club who might be able to help him. Will the investigators take him up on his offer for a backstage tour to find out what makes a radio station tick?
Convalescence – A 1920s Adventure for Call of Cthulhu – Miskatonic Repository
Well, I’ve gone and done it. I took place in the Storytelling Collective‘s workshop to write a tabletop RPG adventure. And it’s released to the world! There’s no hope for us now. To buy it, go to DriveThruRPG. Here’s the synopsis.
Wounded investigators take time to heal in a quiet country clinic near Dublin. Almost mended, they are ready to be voluntarily discharged. But they wake to two horrifying and gruesome murders that makes them fear that among angels of mercy may walk an angel of death.
In this single map one-shot adventure, playable in a single session by two or more players, investigators begin under the threat of peril and must use their wits and skills to separate lie from truth, discover the wounds that time won’t heal, and stop who or what killed a patient and her companion.
This adventure includes 13 pages of scenario information, seven pages of handouts, and six pre-generated investigators to use at the Keeper’s discretion.
Adventure Features:
The scenario overview contains the essential details: a thorough map and key with locations, encounters, and SAN penalties.
To aid the Keeper, all clues appear in an at-a-glance section for easy reference.
Possible story hooks, opportunities for investigators to acquire weapons, and several potential outcomes make it easy for a Keeper to run.
The mix of NPCs and the Cthulhu Mythos connection enable varied possibilities for scenario resolution.
Color handouts.
Trigger warnings: Horror, Religion, Violence
The adventure begins on an early sunny Sunday morning in August 1922 near Dublin. The staff of St. Midabaria Clinic wake to discover two murders. Sister Clarissa, an old nun and former nursing instructor, checked herself into the clinic the night before. Her body lays in a pool of her own blood after a brutal attack in her private room. Father O’Donnelly, her colleague and traveling companion, was viciously strangled in the clinic’s chapel. Investigators may be recently recovered patients at the clinic, or possibly contacts who have arrived to provide transportation, or even seekers of cultist connections.
The scenario encompasses five chapters with approximate timings:
Chapter 1: Killings at the Clinic — The investigators hear about the two murders at the clinic overnight and the administrator begs for their help. (10 minutes)
Chapter 2: Searching for Secrets — The investigators explore the clinic, interview the staff, and discover clues. (90 minutes)
Chapter 3: Authorities Arrive — The investigators face the police, who are an obstacle and increase the danger. (20 minutes)
Chapter 4: [redacted to prevent spoilers] (30 minutes)
Chapter 5: [redacted to prevent spoilers] (10 minutes)
This scenario is suitable for new or experienced players. It can be run standalone or as an interlude in a larger campaign. Investigators are always getting injured and finding a reason to get them into a clinic isn’t difficult. Getting them out … that’s another story.
A SanityFree Adventure, with thanks to Storytelling Collective and Chaosium. Some players were harmed in the making of this scenario, or so they tell me. They got better.
The Mummy of Pemberley Grange by Type40 is a tight, four-page scenario for the Call of Cthulhu RPG set in the 1920s and is terrific to play in a single session. I’ll offer thoughts in this brief review to help Keepers decide if this scenario is right for them to run — but in my opinion, it is! I think it would be excellent to run standalone, as a side adventure in a campaign where you can make it fit, or just as an episode in a bottle to take a break from a long campaign. I’ve run the scenario only twice, but had rip-roaring fun both times. I think my players did, too, if you can judge by their faces at all by this picture!
Here’s the Not Spoilery part of the review and it’s probably okay to read even if you’re a player.
There are a lot of elements to like about this scenario and the way it’s packaged.
There are just enough details and NPCs to get the scenario rolling, but there’s not so much setup to bog it down with lots of necessary interrogation or conversation. Prep is quick if you don’t go overboard. (I am guilty of doing that.)
There’s a compelling and urgent threat.
The confined terrain, the manor of Pemberley Grange, helps concentrate investigator activities.
The couple of handouts that are included of a map and some relevant objects are nicely detailed.
For absolute clarity: I recommend this scenario.
Here’s the Spoilery part, and so this is really only for Keepers, or, I suppose, for players who are ready to have their fun ruined. You’ve been warned.
There three great moments of sanity rolls built into the adventure — the unwrapping, the sacrifice, and finding Mason in the kitchen. There are opportunities for at least a couple more sanity rolls: it’s a test of sanity to eat the organs or to see the mummy, for example. So I suggest adding those. If Keepers are worried that’s too much of a loss, consider increasing SAN rewards a little to compensate at the end.
Players might think about smashing the canopic jars before they have all the information they need. This almost happened in my scenarios and would have complicated things.
Not knowing where the mummy is seems to be just as terrifying as knowing where the mummy is — and that’s good for Keepers!
The Mummy of Pemberley Grange was a good foundation for my own embellishments, and I also had some challenges and needed to make small modifications to make the adventure my own.
I wanted my regular players to use their existing characters rather than pregens. However, they needed motivation to attend the unwrapping party. This was easily solved. Most of them happen to be in a secret society. I made Jessica Pemberley’s father an emeritus member who had just passed away and my players came as a delegation from her father’s “amateur antiquarian association.”
I wanted to give my players the chance to snoop around a little before the unwrapping party, so I changed the structure a little. I gave them a short window very early to poke around the house or to chat with any individuals in the household for their individual fact-finding. Then they had dinner and some social time with both Jessica Pemberley and Professor Jonathan Hewitt.
Due to location and other factors, my players and I have trouble getting together in person. However, repurposing the floor plan of Pemberley Grange as a page and map in Roll20 works well. The only downside was that the players spent so much time moving their tokens on the floor plan that a couple were able to observe the secret passages and then asked about them. Since knowing that the passages are there is more terrifying than not knowing, this was fine.
I wanted to keep Mason alive to help guide the players in two important ways. I didn’t want them to try to fight the mummy early following the unwrapping, so when all hell breaks loose, I had him do two important things: 1) He picked up the fainting Jessica Pemberley to carry her to the library, leading the investigators that way and 2) at the same time, yelled at the investigators, “Run you fools! Lock that thing in while I see to Miss Pemberley!” In one session I had a doctor in the player party and it wouldn’t make sense for Mason to run off for smelling salts and subsequently get attacked by the mummy.
Enter a new NPC, the cook and housekeeper, Zenobia. I introduced her early but she remained in the kitchen … but of course, there’s a secret passage between the reception room and the scullery and it’s not too hard to imagine that the mummy might easily attack her and the players ultimately find her body in the kitchen.
I added a family pet, a German Shepherd named Seth (after the Egyptian god, although the Skorkowsky connection occurred to me much later). I like the idea of adding a dog because I think it makes players worry: What’s going to happen with this dog?
I was concerned that the players would have trouble translating the Arabic on the canopic jars and in the letter from H.C., so I put an Arabic to English grammar volume in the library to discover.
I felt strongly that the players should be confined to the house and should not be able to escape or take shortcuts outside to try to circumvent their antagonist. How did I solve that? Cultists! Other hooded members of the Children of Renpet appear when needed to keep the investigators in. The goal is not to hurt them, but to keep the prey of the Priestess penned in. They depart in disappointment if the players resolve the scenario.
And my discoveries:
Players hate to lose POW. Really. So that’s a great penalty that’s woven into the scenario.
There are limited opportunities for physical injury unless players really make serious errors, so the focus is on the mental tolls — willpower and sanity — which are terrifying.
The moments of unmasking the mummy, Hewitt’s sacrifice, the siphoning of player POW, traversing the path from the library to the kitchen, and consuming the organs were fraught with tension and should be milked for all they’re worth.
To get in the proper mood as you prepare to run this scenario, I recommend (re)watching The Mummy (1932) starring Boris Karloff. The mix of ancient flashbacks, Egyptian excavations, and supernatural peril arising and wreaking havoc in “modern” times (back then) set a tone that’s close to what you’ll want for The Mummy of Pemberley Grange. The Ancient High Priestess of the Cult of Renpet will give Imhotep … a run for his mummy. (Sorry!)
Posted by an intermittent Call of Cthulhu Keeper of Arcane Lore and a lurker in various Lovecraftian forums on the internet. He sleeps well when he has both entertained and terrified his friends.
