FORGOTTEN BUT NOT GONE, PART FIVE

In part one of this series I mentioned one of the early multisystem adventures that White Dwarf initially published to support WFRP1, ‘The Black Knight’ in WD83. There were two more adventures like this. ‘On Ealden Byrgen’ (in WD89) was an adventure for ICE’s Robin Hood setting, with WFRP1 and AD&D statistics included. ‘Letters from a Foreign Land’ (in WD93) was a Call of Cthulhu scenario set in Romania with conversions for WFRP1 and MERP.

The former is unremarkable. The latter, though, is perhaps more interesting. There have been similarities between WFRP and Call of Cthulhu ever since Shadows Over Bögenhafen.

LETTERS FROM A FOREIGN LAND

The PCs are in correspondence with an NPC who is exploring a remote area of the Middle Mountains. After a disturbing letter, the correspondence stops and the PCs travel to investigate.

Warning. Spoilers follow.

They follow a trail through remote mountain villages, monasteries and temples. They discover that their acquaintance has been sacrificed by a cult of Kháine, which aims to summon a malevolent entity known as the Evil One. The cult is secretly led by a woman masqerading as a monk. The PCs unmask her and confront the Evil One in a final showdown.

The plot is a fairly familiar one and the setting echoes countless Dracula movies with gypsy charms and spooky villagers. But overall it creates quite a sinister feel, a little reminiscent of The Wicker Man. It is also a welcome change that for once the nameless evil is not an agent of Chaos.

The scenario does need some work. The write-up is quite sketchy in parts. Most notably the finale provides no detail of either its location or the Evil One. The links are also quite weak. It generally seems to be assumed that the PCs will find a wand that will guide them to where the need to go. But with some development it could make quite an entertaining scenario. It is not the best WFRP adventure, but nor is it the worst.

Djinn and chthonic: ‘Letters from a Foreign Land’, White Dwarf 93 (September 1987)

Title art by Les Edwards. Internal art by Dave Carson. Used without permission. No challenge intended to the rights holders.

One thought on “FORGOTTEN BUT NOT GONE, PART FIVE

  1. I think when commenting on this adventure here before I called it undeveloped- but that is being kind. This could easily become a mini campaign but amounts to little more than some barely fleshed out locations and two NPCs. The atmospheric letters aren’t really necessary to the defeat the demon plot, comprise a very text heavy introduction for players and the adventurers don’t get to explore most of the region anyway. The whole first part of the adventure – travelling to the remote region – is left entirely open for a GM to improvise. At least some ideas for seeding themes and clues for the rest of the adventure should surely be included?

    There’s enough here – especially in terms of atmosphere- that it stuck in my mind for 30 odd years but not enough for this to be run without substantial further work.

    Liked by 1 person

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