Horror on the Orient Express: Bloody Belgrade

[jcfiala]

So, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I've been running some friends through the classic Call of Cthulhu campaign, 'Horror on the Orient Express'. I'm running it with the D20 rules, which has worked fine so far, largely converting the stats and challenges on the fly.

The basic plot of the Horror, if you haven't heard, is that the PCs are tasked with gathering the parts of a mystical statue, the Sedefkar Simulacrum, which has been broken up into six points and scattered among towns which all coincidentally lie at stops along the Orient Express. As could be expected, the plot is a bit railroady, but it's got some interesting and different episodes along the way. There was the city where you had to enter a twisted sort of dream to find the piece, and the city where it was hidden in a clock, and so forth.

And then there's Belgrade, which has problems. I've had to patch them, and spent all night getting ready... and now we might not play because of outside forces. *sigh*

Now, I'm going to be getting into spoiler territory here for a moment, so if you think you might be run through this sometime, you probably want to skip onto the next Friends entry, which is probably a quiz of some sort. I'm almost certain none of my players are on lj or have friended me, so I'm not too worried.

SPOILER
Belgrade is a problem. It starts off well enough - exploring the city, finding contacts to track down the statue piece, and going through some bureaucratic red tape to finally get a lead to the town where it is at. The players trek out there, find themselves (effectively) in the 19th century again, and then finally find their way to Baba Yaga's house. And then she tries to eat them, and it's a horrible run back to civilization with the piece, trying to escape the country before this female goddess can catch and eat them all.

Yeeeah. Riiiiight.

It just doesn't work. It's completely out of the style of the previous bits. In preceding chapters, the horror's been subtle and odd. Never this powerful, never this obvious. And it's pretty much GM fiat that they survive, really - I can't think of any reasonable reason why they don't all die right here - which is stupid.

So, my plan is to use an idea from this page (SPOILER HEAVY) on running the campaign. We're going to go all Hammer Horror on them - Gypsies, wolves, evil bloodthirsty cults, moldy old castles holding old secrets. We're a stone's throw from Transylvania here, and it's easy to laugh at vampires in the modern age when we've got all this stuff - but this will basically force them back into the 1800's, and have to deal with things with a more primitive method.

Besides, as the link says, it's good preparation for Sofia, which is a bloody mess in the right manner, a setup for Constantinople.

Any other hints or suggestions or ideas are warmly welcome.
END OF SPOILER

Comments

hmm

[(Anonymous)]

but it seems that Baba is the boss monster of the adventure. I agree that it sounds like you need more build up - but maybe the answer is more beasts before getting to her?

Spidermonkey

Re: hmm

[jcfiala.livejournal.com]

That's the problem, though. She's not supposed to be a boss monster - there's certainly no way for the players to beat her. (In the game, the characters are generally normal people.)

It'd be like playing a game where you're trying to take down the corrupt mob boss, but one of the minor problems is Durrga. Inapropriate and jarring.

[zeeth_kyrah]

Might want to use good ol' lj-cut if you want to hide your spoiler.

Beyond that, I'm kind of floating on minimal creativity right now.

Re: hmm

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Well... You could perhaps use a Baba Yaga variation. The only reason she doesn't eat all those heros and such like in the old tales is that there are rules she has to live by. And the traditional way for someone to defeat Baba Yaga is to have the help of someone they did a favor for earlier in the tale. And that's just if she actually wants them dead, I have read a number of stories where for whatever reason she willingly helps the polite and respectful adventurer who obeys all the rules of hospitality. Much like Yu-baba in Spirted Away there is always some rule she cannot break, frex: if you actually ask for her hospitality she cannot turn you away and until you are no longer her guest she cannot hurt you. Or if the players are unfailingly polite and respectfully call her, "Grandmother", she might actually take a liking to them.

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020902/comrade_grandmother.shtml

Re: hmm

[(Anonymous)]

"Durga?"

"Yeah its my middle name..."

"Oh thats a lovely middle name Noonan."

Is it dorky to quote your own movies on the internet?