A Wealth of Knowledge by Leth Brownlee 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 from DriveThruRPG as an 18 page Pay What You Want PDF. One page is the front cover and credits and one the Table of Contents.
The Introduction explains that the scenario is set in a town just outside Arkham and the investigators are assumed to be students at Miskatonic University, and possibly a professor, but it can be adapted to other campaigns and locations. The scenario has very little combat and academic skills are more useful than combat ones. This section also covers recent events, which had the town construct a library, but one that was instigated by an alien and its human servitor. The library is now used to attract people to become followers of the creature. There is also a dramatis personae in this, which is followed by a Timeline of Events, which explains what happens over the course of four days, and motivations.
The Game then covers the four days in the timeline in more detail. The events that happen on each day are explained; these are the ones that happen without investigator interference. The characters are sent to the library occupied by the alien in order to find a book they need for a course in anthropology; the Miskatonic University library being out of it. There, they can discover the machinations of the alien, a spawn of Abhoth, and its librarian follower, and, hopefully, stop it.
Additional Notes covers what happens when the investigators bring home a book from the library that contains part of the creature.
Finally, Non Player Characters extensively covers the creature.
A Wealth of Knowledge in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough that they would have been useful. The Table of Contents is reasonably thorough, covering the major and subsections. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two column two colour format and a number of minor errors were noticed. There are no illustrations; the supplement is just text. Presentation is functional.
Although the adventure could be adapted to other campaigns and settings, as long as they are ones that require a library and have a nearby university, it might best work for a Miskatonic University campaign, as a starter introducing new investigators to the Cthulhu Mythos. In such a case, though, where this starts a longer campaign, it might be advisable to have a more balanced group rather than pure academics. In this adventure, even though there is little combat, that does not mean investigators can’t die. Fortunately, though, the creature has a rather large vulnerability. A Wealth of Knowledge is a decent, densely described scenario, and it can be checked out by clicking here.
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