The North Sea. Cold. Dark. Mysterious. When the sun shines, you might be tempted to go for a vigorous swim, but when it gets dark, a storm gathers, and the tide comes rolling in, you realize you are too far from civilization to run to safety when the horrors come out of the sea...

    In other words, the North Sea coast makes for a perfect horror setting, which is probably what crossed the minds of the crew at Pegasus Spiele when they decided to publish Auf den Inseln, a brand new German-language campaign for Call of Cthulhu...

In the box you find...

    Yes, that's right. This product isn't just a book - it's an entire boxed set. While this kind of game accessory has virtually vanished from the US market, boxed sets still seem to be very popular in Germany for some reason (witness the German translations of D&D3E and Fading Suns...). And like most boxed sets, this is full of goodies - in this case, lots of handouts, most of them fully in color! These include several period maps of the German North Sea coast and its islands, as well a reprint of period tourist's guidebook to the isle of Borkum and a booklet with local myths and legends. More on that later...

    But the main book features three adventures that all revolve around the North Sea and the dark secrets it harbors...

Mediis Tranquillum in Undis (Calm within the Waves)

    "'Ruhend inmitten der Wogen' lautet der Wahlspruch der Nordseeinsel Borkum, der sich im Stadtwappen, dem Siegel der evangelisch-reformierten Kirche und an manchen Insulanerhäuschen findet..."

    In the summer of the year 1923 the island of Borkum is one of Germany's most popular and prestigeous vacation spots, and the investigatos want nothing more than to get away from chasing the Mythos and relax for a change. But a series of odd occurrences slowly conspire to create a panic among the tourists. Can the investigators get to the bottom of this before the first people turn up dead?

    Conclusion: In my opinion, it would be best to play this adventure with already established characters after an especially gruelling investigation, so that they can get into the proper spirit of playing tourists for a change. Newly created characters with less defined personalities will probably just wait for the inevitable supernatural events to happen, unless the players are first-grade role-players. Let the investigators have some fun first. This way the horror will be much greater when things go very wrong indeed...

    All in all, it serves nicely as a short introductory adventure to the campaign. Its only bad point is a truly horrible pun, but fortunately the text gives advice on how to do away with it if neccessary.

Ekke Nekkepenn - Ein winterliches Abenteuer auf Sylt (Ekke Nekkepenn - A winter adventure on Sylt)

    "In den nächsten Tagen wird an der Küste von Rantum bis Westerland ein ekeliger grüner Film an den Strand gespült, den man im Sommer für Algen halten könnte, der im Winter aber höchst merkwürdig ist. Untersuchungen über die Natur der grünen Substanz werden nicht veröffentlicht, aber vieleicht ist es kein Zufall, dass die chemische Industrie Deutschlands in den kommenden Jahren weltweit führend wird..."

    An old friend of one of the investigators, an officer in the Reichswehr, offers him and his friends to go to a veteran's meeting on the isle of Sylt in his stead. And even though it is now winter, Sylt remains a great vacation spot. But between the drunken German soldiers, the archaeological dig, their shifty neighbors in the hotel, and the rumors about a merman this vacation turns out to be a lot more hectic than planned... and not to mention more dangerous!

    Conclusion: It is perhaps unfortunate that this adventure uses the same schtick to get the investigators involved as the first one ("the characters go on vacation"), so perhaps it is appropriate to insert another adventure or two of the keeper's own making. There's also a danger of information overflow - the booklet on local myths and legends features no less than nine tales of Sylt alone, and few players are willing to stop the game for that long just so that one of them can read through them - and that's just one of the handouts! It's probably a good idea to "split the party" (which isn't really all that dangerous at this point - yet) and give the booklet to one of the players to read while the characters of others go off to question various NPCs. It's probably best if the player in question is the one who is the quickest to jump to conclusions...

    Apart from that, there is plenty of opportunity to build a great atmosphere in this adventure, but the players need to help making it work. Even more so than in the first adventure, the investigators shouldn't simply be content to sit in their hotel rooms and wait for something interesting to happen, but go out and interact with the locals, even if it means talking about something as banal as the weather. But if the players get into the proper spirit, the payoff will be high.

Der Ruf des Meeres (The Call of the Sea)

    "Als Gezeiten, niederdeutsch Tiden genannt, bezeichnet man das regelmäßige Schwanken des Meeresspiegels, das sich in der Nordsee zweimal in ungefähr 25 Stunden vollzieht..."

    By now the investigators have learned beyond a doubt that there are strange horrors lurking beneath the waves. And yet five years have passed since they escaped with their lives, and the seas have remained calm without yielding any further hints. But now a friend of one of the investigators, who had always been afraid of any open water, apparently died by drowning on the North Sea! What starts off as a simple investigation of his death soon turns into a desperate race against time as the investigators must face off against an overwhelming enemy...

    Conclusion: By far the most hectic and dangerous part of the campaign, this adventure keeps the investigators constantly on their toes. But it is important that the investigators are the kinds of people who would risk their lives to save an innocent from a fate worse than death, or they might just turn back and run at some point - several scenes in this adventure will seem to be dangerously reckless (and they are...) to anyone who is less than desperate.

    If the keeper wants to make the stakes even more personal (and thus more important to the players), I'd suggest the following hook: In the second adventure there is an artifact which might trigger a horrible transformation in one of the investigators, though an exact time for when this might occur isn't given. But there is ample opportunity for such a trigger in this adventure, and thus the race against time could very well become a quest for enough information before this character's very soul is doomed...

Conclusion

    With the right players, this campaign can give a gaming group many hours of enjoyment and thrills away from the usual New England haunts of the Cthulhu Mythos. So bring some friends, visit the German North Sea coast, and watch the tides hurrying in.

    And don't let Ekke Nekkepenn catch you!