Of Keys and Gates (OKG) is the second -and to date last- in the Resurrected series of scenario reprints from early issues of The Unspeakable Oath (TUO), the first being "Grace Under Pressure". Printed in 1994, OKG is currently OOP.
OKG consists of 32 staple bound pages and contains 3 scenarios set in the 1920s: "The Travesty", "The House on Stratford Lane" and "Within You Without You". These scenarios are expanded and revised from their original appearances in TUO #1 and #3, not having seen those products however, I cannot say how extensive the rewriting for OKG has been. The text appears to be printed in an unusually small font, but it is well laid out and easy to read and effectively increases the content per page.
Each of the scenarios begins with an atmospheric full page drawing by Tom Kalichack - "the Travesty" being my favourite - and concludes with a blank page for keeper's notes (one of which is the inside back cover). Normally such blank pages annoy me as being a waste of space, but it would be churlish to complain here when so much has been squeezed into a small booklet. The clearly executed maps were again drawn by Mr. Kalichack.
On to the content. Whilst I won't be too explicit about the contents of the scenarios, the review from this point on inevitably contains some spoilers.
The three scenarios are each intended for a single nights play, and the pack as a whole is reminiscent of Chaosium's "fright night" line of shorter scenario booklets. In the words of John Tynes' introduction they seek to "… explore classic Lovecraftian themes - the importance of history, the fragility of memory, and the persistence of evil across time and space". The scenarios certainly deal well with the importance of history and the persistence of evil, not too sure about "the fragility of memory" though, unless it is folk or group memory that is meant. But I'm quibbling, these are rather fine scenarios, sharing a further theme in common - the misguided attempt to bargain with or control malign powers. In two of the scenarios this meddling with things best left…,er,…unmeddled with ? is motivated not by evil intent, but by selfishness, desperation or intellectual egotism; in the third scenario the meddlesome individual is/was a wizard of malign intent over sure of his own powers. As the back page quotes HPL "Do not call up any that you can not put down".
The introduction points out that Chris Klepac's "the Travesty" was written at the age of 14. Well it appears that either Mr Klepac's 14th birthday somewhat unusually fell between the ages of 21 and 40, or this is an amazingly mature piece of writing. This is a rather good haunted house (well, hotel) story set on the shores of Lake Superior starring an interesting non-mythos monster and a good cast of NPCs. The adventure features a series of nicely surreal happenings as the monster tries to drive the characters mad and hints for keepers to develop further happenings pertinent to the investigators' history. There is not much emphasis in the text on researching the background of the haunting, instead it deals mainly with the situation when the investigators arrive and with combating the evil in situ. The research portion of the adventure could easily be expanded however to bring more of the interesting background story into the session. Players' success in defeating the monster hinges on finding the lost journal of a previous owner of the building. This is one of those "How to Defeat the Bad Guy in three (not-)so easy steps" books which regularly feature in CoC adventures. If the players don't find this clue they are in for a pasting, although it should be an easy matter to alter the journal's location if the players are floundering or if the keeper wishes to jolly the action along. The climax is well written, with the players having to go through the ritual rather than just expanding MPs and making a die roll. At an early stage in the process however, the players have to match wills against the monster in a POW v POW struggle and loose 1 POW (added to the monster) for failure, making subsequent attempts more difficult. Depending on the strength of the party you may wish to alter this mechanism to POW v POW, but loose 1d4 or 1d6 MP for failure. There are no player handouts in this scenario. (8 pages, counting illustration and keeper's notes pages).
"The House on Stratford Lane" is set in Connecticut and begins with an old acquaintance asking the investigators to investigate an eccentric neighbour whom they suspect of being responsible for the recent kidnapping of a local child. The suspect has been ruled out by the police, but local residents are not satisfied. The twist to this scenario is that the mythos events occurring locally are a red herring to the players' initial aim of rescuing the missing child. The suspected kidnapper, innocent of that offence, is a misguided but well intentioned researcher into multidimensional physics, who may become a mythos agent during the course of the scenario if the investigators linger too long. There are some nice loose ends for the investigators to follow up if they survive this one. This is a solid enough scenario, but perhaps less innovative than the others in the pack. It was the first published scenario for Call of Cthulhu by John Crowe III. (12 pages with illustration and notes, no hand outs).
The final scenario, "Within You Without You" by John Tynes, is the pick of the bunch and a very original piece. It is set in rural New England in the snow bound village of Solace. The investigators are contacted by a fellow occult investigator to visit a village with an interesting history and, unknown to anyone, an even more interesting albeit brief future. I don't want to say too much about this one as it would be a shame to give away any of the surprises in store, suffice to say that it is full of memorable moments and provides great role playing opportunities for the players. The climax is well done, with three possible options covered. It is just a shame that few players are likely to choose the final option ("oops") as it results in the most interesting conclusion to the adventure. (12 pages including illustration and note pages, two player hand outs).
In summary then, this is a mighty fine little booklet with three good, clearly presented scenarios suitable for single gaming sessions. The first two adventures are well suited to beginning players. The stand out "Within You Without You" could also be tackled by an ambitious group of beginners, although it requires thorough investigation for players to succeed and as such may be better run after some experience has been gained. OKG is however a shortish booklet, so don't go over the top in an online auction.
*stop press- Pagan's email newsletter today announced a 3rd volume of the Resurrected, "Out of the Vault", is in the pipeline*
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