A Small Tremor in the Mountains by Laurie Hedge is a role playing game supplement published by Chaosium Inc. through the Miskatonic Repository Community Content Programme for use with Call of Cthulhu, the horror role playing game based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
The supplement is available as a 22 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, one the front matter and one the Table of Contents.
The Introduction explains that this is a modern day adventure in which a group of thrill seekers enter a newly-discovered natural cave system. One that is occupied.
The Background starts off with how the first occupant of the cave came to be inside it 250 million years ago, then how more recently, only 150 years ago, a famine led local villagers to descend into cannibalism with predictable results. Recently, an earth tremor led to the opening of a new entrance to the cave system and, though the Icelandic government has ruled the system out of bounds, this hasn’t stopped people going there. Two spelunkers have already entered and the investigators, thrill seekers and treasure hunters, will soon follow.
Dramatis Personae details the NPCs and the main foe.
Running the Game suggests that if an investigator dies early on that they are instead rescued at the last moment; this does feel rather counter to Call of Cthulhu’s lethality. Later on, a player who has lost their character can take over an NPC. The game is supposed to feel disorienting to players, so it’s recommended they not be given a map of the caves.
Navigating the Caves has some details on handling the vertical areas, diving and plundering the caves for natural treasure.
Chapter One: Arrival has the characters arrive in Iceland, travel to the mountain and possibly spend some time in the village near the caves. No map is given but various locations of interest in the village are described, together with information or equipment that could be obtained there.
Chapter Two: Upper Caves has the investigators travelling the upper regions of the cave.
Chapter Three: Lower Caves is the lower part of the network, and the part occupied by the monsters.
Chapter Four: Escape has the investigators fleeing the caves in an attempt to escape, and there’s a stylised map of the chase sequence with various events. The obstacles are described and their effect, and what happens during the chase, which could be everyone dying.
The Epilogue wraps things up, with a police interview – the investigators were breaking the law – and has the players narrate what the investigator does with the rest of their lives. There are, oddly, no Sanity rewards.
NPCs & Creatures has the stats for these.
Pre-Generated Investigators has five of these.
The last page is a map of the cave system.
A Small Tremor in the Mountains in Review
The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents is to a similar depth and is hyperlinked. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column format and a number of minor errors were noticed. As well as the map, there are a couple of pieces of black filler and a single colour illustration. Presentation is okay.
Though this adventure is set in Iceland, it will require minimal work to set it elsewhere; cave networks and earthquakes are hardly uncommon. Mostly, names will need changing and the investigators will need a different motivation. If used as part of a campaign, and not a one-shot, Sanity rewards will need adding at the end; it’s unusual for them to be missing, even in a one-shot. Keepers may also wish to ignore the suggestion to tone down the potential lethality of the early adventure; Call of Cthulhu is a lethal game. A Small Tremor in the Mountains is a decent little adventure and it can be found by clicking here.
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