Monster of the Week #7

 

This week, we returned to the Gateways to Terror scenario book for Call of Cthulhu.

One of our D&D players was interested in playing Call of Cthulhu, but has never played before. I felt one of the Gateways to Terror games would be perfect as they are fairly short, concise, and introduce all the main mechanics of a Call of Cthulhu game in a one-shot. Stay tuned for a short review about Gateways to Terror. Spoilers for the Dead Boarder scenario are below.

The monster for this week was not always a monster, but a man-driven mad - James Gardiner.

Gardiner was became unable to dream, and through his research into the occult he discovered the Dreamlands, and that he could travel there through the help of a book and some dark magic.

Unfortunately, Gardiner was tricked by an other-dimensional being, and by performed a dark and brutal self-sacrifice which he thought would transfer him to the Dreamlands. Instead, this monster took over intended to Gardiner's body. This is where the players come in - to investigate a murder or suicide, but are met by the Gardiner Thing.

Like the Abomination from the Necropolis story, the Gardiner thing introduces some neat features and dangers in a Call of Cthulhu beast. This time though, the Gardiner thing is much less damaging, making for a fight that players won't (generally) get killed in one attack. The Gardiner-Thing also has minor magic to stun players and escape the players. Its damage bonus is 1D4, so it packs the same punch as the larger players that may be in the game too - making it feel a little more balanced for those who are newer to the game.

Dead Boarder is a great one-shot for Cthulhu, with the Gardiner-Thing being an unexpected, horrific encounter than can allow new players to get some crunchy combat before they either die, kill the creature, or allow it to escape into the night - free to run riot in the world with its new vessel. In addition to being the good introductory monster, I feel it also helps introduce Sanity loss, and eludes to the mythos and other game mechanics that players will learn about without providing too much cognitive overload for newer players. And that's why I wanted to have the Gardiner-Thing in my list this week!

What do you think? Have you been up against the Gardiner-Thing (or something like it)? Is there a better introductory monster you could share with us for Call of Cthulhu? We'd love to see hear your thoughts, and thanks for taking the time to read the post.

Good gaming and see you next time!

-KJ