Curse of Cthulhu is a role playing game supplement published by Chaosium Inc. for use with Call of Cthulhu, their horror role playing game system based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft. The book is set in the 1920s and contains the campaign The Fungi from Yuggoth, which was originally published separately, as well as three short scenarios, the first two of which are intended to be used as a lead in to the campaign. Some of the other content was published in the supplement Trail of Tsathoggua.
The supplement was available as a softback book, but it is no longer available new in any format although the original printed book can still be found on sites such as Amazon. Trail of Tsathoggua is still available, but the main adventure used from this is The Haunted House. The book has 120 numbered pages; four pages are the front matter, one page the Table of Contents and one page the Introduction. The numbered pages are followed by twenty pages of handouts, many of which are printed on both sides, as well as two pages for an Investigator’s Sheet and two pages for Keeper’s Notes.
The Case is the first of the two lead-in adventures for the campaign. Set in Rhode Island, the investigators meet with the mother of an old friend who has been committed after his fascination with an ancestor led to him apparently going insane. There is a note from a primary antagonistic non-player character from the main campaign that can be found.
Wail of the Witch is the second of the two lead-in adventures, and sees the investigators dealing with the spirit of an executed witch in Salem, who had been convicted in the infamous Salem Witch Trials. There is also a visit to the Elder Thing city in Antarctica when it was at its height, many years in the past.
The Fungi from Yuggoth is the main campaign, taking up approximately half of the book, and sees the investigators travelling all across the globe to stop a threat by followers of Nyarlathotep. It starts with a one page introduction on using the separate chapters as individual adventures, if desired, some ideas on how to expand the campaign and mentions the various appendices. This is followed by a two page synopsis of the plot of the campaign
The Dreamer starts the campaign in New York City, where the investigators are hired to find a missing medium. This medium (who had his consciousness swapped with a member of the Great Race of Yith previously, although the players may well never find that out) is used throughout the rest of the campaign to provide dream clues – which means he cannot be killed.
The Thing in the Well sends the players to Boston, where they investigate a series of child murders and get a link to the next destination.
Castle Dark sees the players heading to Romania. This chapter is described as resembling a Bela Lugosi movie – but doesn’t involve vampires.
Sands of Time sends the players to Egypt, where a Miskatonic University team has been looking for the tomb of Nophru-Ka, a long-dead Egyptian priest who the entire campaign revolves around.
Mountains of the Moon sees the players heading to Peru to investigate a mining operation, this one actually connected to the Mi-Go, that is providing material for the cultists plans.
By the Bay: Part I is set in San Francisco and sees the players encountering a Deep One cult from China and one of the major antagonists.
By the Bay: Part II is still in San Francisco, where a research station needs investigating.
Day of the Beast is the final confrontation, and sees the players heading back to Egypt and the Giza Plateau.
Conclusion is a single page, and basically covers how the players may stop various aspects of the plan, and the rewards they get for doing so.
Optional Scene 1: Halls of Celaeno can see the players heading to a library on Celaeno, a distant planet created by August Derleth in the Pleiades, to get a spell that can be useful later on.
Optional Scene 2: Voice Out of Time has the medium from the beginning of the campaign contacting Nophru-Ka personally so that the dead priest can be questioned.
Appendices has details on Nophru-Ka, the primary modern antagonists and a timeline of events from the beginning of the cultists’ plans.
The Haunted House is the final scenario in the book, and is unconnected to any of the others. The players have to go to a reputedly haunted house and get rid of the haunting, for which they will receive a share of the proceeds from the sale of the house and contents.
Curse of Cthulhu in Review
The Table of Contents covers the scenarios, the various different parts of The Fungi from Yuggoth, the appendices and various maps, plans and illustrations. This is better than in many Call of Cthulhu supplements, but could have been improved on by adding various other important sections and items to it. However, the Contents do have an error; section V of The Fungi from Yuggoth, Mountains of the Moon, is not in bold text like all the others.
The book has full colour front and back covers, the front image being a scene from The Case. There are also four full colour full page and a fifth, fold-out two page, plates in the centre of the book, depicting various scenes from The Fungi from Yuggoth. The inclusion of colour images was unusual for the time, although several, rereleased and repackaged, supplements released by Chaosium in the same period also contained full colour plates. The remainder of the illustrations and maps are black and white. Some maps appear to be hand draw; others to be reproductions of period maps. All of these illustrations vary in size, up to full page.
Although they are supposed to be used as a lead-in to the main campaign, the connection between the first two adventures and the campaign is rather tenuous. The first scenario has a note linking it to a primary villain in the campaign, but the second lacks even that. This does mean that they can easily be run separately too, without being used with Fungi. The Case, as it states in the adventure, is inspired by Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and does follow quite closely to that tale. There are some suggestions are provided if a Keeper does not wish to follow the original story as closely; perhaps they don’t want the players, who may have read the story, to easily figure out what is going on.
The final scenario, The Haunted House, is atypical for a Call of Cthulhu adventure, as it is not related to the Cthulhu Mythos at all (although there are a couple of minor references, these are not integral to the plot in any way). Instead, it resembles a more traditional horror/haunted house. This scenario also seems to be tagged on as an afterthought. It also goes into extensive detail on the family who owned the house, and their history – more detail in fact than seems to be actually justified by the adventure.
As is typical for a Call of Cthulhu supplement, there are new spells, new Mythos books and new creatures. The Fungi from Yuggoth, as a campaign, bears some similarities to Shadows of Yog-Sothoth and Masks of Nyarlathotep. Each has players trotting around the globe to put a stop to cultists of Nyarlathotep who are planning an event that will affect the entire world. However, it was one of the earliest campaigns, and Curse of Cthulhu is worth getting for it alone.
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