‘The Day of the Beast’ campaign thoughts
At the beginning of October 2022, my gaming group and I met up in a pub in Bradford to complete the 40th and final session of ‘The Day of the Beast’ (DotB) (by Keith Herber et al., originally published as ‘The Fungi from Yuggoth’). It was the first long campaign we had played as a group, and a bit of a learning curve. Although not as flashy as MoN and HotOE, DoTB has its charms and its problems. To that end I thought I’d share my experiences for posterity, so that anyone thinking of running the campaign in the future can see what others have done. I hope it is useful.
A map of my group's progression through the scenario is included above, and a link to the handouts I made for the campaign can be found at the bottom.
Thoughts on the Campaign
One point that is often brought up when discussing DotB is how much of a mythos hoedown it can become. I feel this is very much a product of its time (being one of the first campaigns for CoC). The plot jumps about a fair amount, and certain key elements are introduced far too late in my opinion. BUT we had fun with a globe-trotting campaign with a lot of interesting elements.
Running it, I made a number of changes from the source. These are detailed below (spoilers!)
Suffer Little Children: Ran this one straight. Good introduction to Paul LeMond. No changes, although one investigator who went temporarily insane during the banishment unknowingly became a new vessel for Kathryn Tannerhill. Kathryn would rear her head in subsequent bouts of madness throughout the campaign.
I didn’t run Black Hills, Blacker Secrets as it seemed too similar to the Peru chapter (Mountains of the Moon) later on in the campaign (NWI mine and alien insects…) Instead I replaced it with Murder of Crows (by Stan!, relocated to South Dakota) and The Knocking Box (printed in White Wolf Magazine, 1988) to give an introduction to the Mi-Go. One investigator comes into possession of a Mi-Go artefact, which in turns begins to possess him. Started slipping NWI into the background. The dead cultist in The Knocking Box became a member of the Brotherhood of the Beast (unknown to the investigators at this point) and had a tattoo of Nophru-Ka’s cartouche on his wrist (a recurring theme). Investigators then made their first trip to Miskatonic University for research. While there I introduced them to Professor Galloway (met later in Sands of Time). He points them in the direction of an auction for a stele fragment bearing the same cartouche that is happening in New York this week. This introduces a new element to the final ritual at the climax of the campaign - the stele of the prophet. The investigators don’t get their hands on it just yet as it is bought for a hefty price by a private buyer (Edward Chandler, but the investigators don’t know this) before the auction occurs. This acted as the introduction to the late Professor Johannes Van der Hoff, a member of the Brotherhood.
Slotted in a one-shot here to introduce backup characters in case they were needed - Great Old Ones on the Great White Way (an old Monograph scenario). Linked the theatrical elements with Herb Whitfield. More inclusion of NWI in the background.
The Dreamer: Run pretty much as written with one change: Clarence Rogers and Edith Bryant are no-longer members of the Great Race of Yith, but rather an occultist and a resurrected witch (ancestor of Paul LeMond, who Paul and Clarence Summoned a few years ago which resulted in Paul’s disappearance). All ran smoothly and Paul was saved at the last moment with Edith killed and Clarence escaping. Paul tells of his dreams, leading to...
The Thing in the Well: Run as written. Not much to add; it’s a fun little scenario which gives a lot of leads on Hauptmann and the Brotherhood. This is where the investigators found out that the Nophru-Ka’s cartouche was associated with the Brotherhood. All aboard the boat for Romania, via England in search of the niece of one of the investigators. I used The Mauritania here (renamed the RMS. Curwen - a ship of the New World Line, a subsidiary of NWI). Pearson’s mirror showed cryptic visions about the Day of the Beast and the Brotherhood. Upon arrival in England I skipped London Calling (a bit of a messy scenario, although with hindsight probably should have kept it for introduction the sons of terror) and instead inserted The Dragon of Wantley (Miskatonic Repository). This gave the first glimpse of Dholes and the importance of Blue John in their summoning and banishing.
Onto Drovosna. During the journey Clarence Rogers returned to take his revenge. I fully intended him to escape but events transpired differently, with the investigator possessed by Katheryn Tannerhill unleashing righteous fury on him. The scene was roleplayed so well by all involved I allowed Clarence to be utterly destroyed. Otherwise I would have had him return near the end of the campaign for a final confrontation.
Castle Dark ran pretty much as written. Added a couple of extra handouts. One from Edward (no surname given at this point) telling Hauptmann that he had obtained the Prophet’s Stele and talking of the ongoing work in Peru, and one from Boston telling Hauptmann that Dr. Cornwallis’ grave had been disturbed. Paranoia increases as the investigators realise their actions are not going unnoticed. Embellished the function of Hauptmann’s spectacles (more on that later). First investigator loss here, as the possessed investigator loses her mind and her body is taken over fully by Katherine Tannerhill. She ends up escaping with Hauptmann via Star Vampire.
The Halls of Celeano During the journey to Egypt that follows, a new investigator works out that the different lenses from Hauptmann’s workshop can be used to navigate space with the spectacles. Investigator is able to use them to project her consciousness across to Celaeno. She can’t physically interact with anything but can be seen and can talk to entities there. She made use of the NPCs in this scenario and found the information required (transcriptions made, rolling for transcription errors).
Arrival in Athens gave more library searching times, and first mention of faceless sphinxes dropped here. Onwards to Egypt. Used The Lightless Beacon to introduce a new investigator.
The Sands of Time incorporated some details from MON: Cairo (Nuri and her son in El Wasta), with the late Prof. Van der Hoff taking on the role of Robert Carlisle. Introduced the resurrection magic and essential salts of Joseph Curwen (Curwen replaced Lang-Fu in this run through). The rest of the scenario ran as written. Katif now has added history as the foreman for Van der Hoff before working for Galloway. Added some cryptic clues to Peru in the hieroglyphics in the tomb as part of Norphu-Ka’s prophecy. Lovely climax in the tomb. Almost TPK but some successful rolls at the end allowed them to just survive! Plenty of time spent afterwards in Cairo recovering both physically and mentaly.
Inserted an intermission to run Test Subjects (Miskatonic Repository) for more backup character options, just in case!
Bit of a departure now as I removed the downtime between Egypt and The Mountains of the Moon. NWI is starting to become more prevalent. Second investigator loss during the voyage (had their own deep-one story going on in the background). Encounter with a member of the Brotherhood but they were quickly escaped from. Peru ran mostly as written. Investigators ignored most of the action with the altar of Yig, the indigenous tribes and the rebels and went straight for Area A-48. Added in some backstory elements here and brought back Katherine Tannerhill, who was eventually killed by the original player’s secondary character. Another investigator ‘killed’ on the Moon by Mi-Go, and is now a brain in a jar. Suitably pulpy and silly scenario. Good fun.
I moved the crates of Blue John from San Francisco to Peru, with information about Rhon Paku and the ritual. Investigators realised the significance (although they thought that all the temples would be working together to summon one enormous dhole!) and made an effort to circulate an incorrect ritual to prevent the summoning. Found the identity of Edward Chandler and decided to pay him a visit.
Skipped By the Bay pt. I as Lang-Fu not featuring and blue john dealt with in Peru. Relocated By the Bay pt. 2 to NWI headquarters in Chicago. The journey to Chicago included Lost and Found (Miskatonic Repository) which tied up the Van der Hoff arc - turns out he wasn’t quite as dead as everyone thought!
At NWI headquarters the investigators go on a heist of the complex and manage to bypass almost everything to do with the Sons of Terror. I’d had NWI kidnap Paul LeMond to use his psychic powers to contact Nophru-Ka (in place of Lang-Fu) and included Voice out of Time from the original edition of Fungi from Yuggoth. Investigators meet Joseph Curwen, now added here by me as a member of the Brotherhood. Things are looking grim but one investigator is able to reduce Curwen to human dust. They rescue LeMond and escape.
Armed with all the necessary information about the ritual, investigators head to Giza for climax of the campaign: The Day of the Beast.
After getting translations for most of the documents found during their travels, the investigators arrive in Giza armed with Call/Dismiss Beast, Barrier of Naach-Tith and 12 sticks of dynamite. They scope out the ritual site, set the dynamite as a trap and await the Day itself. The ritual begins. POW rolls all round. Failed by the investigator set to trigger the dynamite who watches on in awe. Ritual completes with Edward placing the Prophet’s Stele into its place in front of the Great Sphinx, investigators regain their senses and dynamite is triggered. Big explosion (6d10) decimates a number of cultists and Edward Chandler. Firefight ensues. Hauptmann dispatches an investigator (who managed to break through his flesh ward) but is taken down by an extreme firearms roll. The Beast awakens and rampages, destroying indiscriminately. Investigators attempt Dismissing the Beast, breaking the Stele to weaken its link to this reality. They fail but the beast is weakened and eventually dissipates after levelling Cairo and its environs. With the death of Edward, NWI collapses under the weight of its own bureaucracy, crippling many industries in the USA and the world. This became a major contributor to the Wall Street Crash the following October. With the final death of the entire leadership of the Brotherhood of the Beast, the remains of the cult fall apart to infighting and is no-longer a threat to the world.
Those investigators that survived go their separate ways, ready to step up next time I run a campaign.
Notes
The investigators started off with high credit ratings so didn’t use Robert Carrington much. LeMond wrote letters but I shied away from using him as the hook for every scenario. Incorporated the dreams sparingly as the investigators were able to use clues provided to progress along the campaign.
You can tell this campaign hails from the early days of Call of Cthulhu, and while it was updated for 6e, there is still a certain disconnect between the scenarios. I tried to address this with additional elements that were built up and foreshadowed throughout (such as the inclusion of the Stele, earlier introduction of the Mi-Go, and boosting the power of Hauptman’s spectacles).
Conclusion
A fun campaign that needs a little work to make it more cohesive but a nice shorter alternative to MoN.
If anyone is interested in running the campaing, I've made some handouts for it that are free to use:
For a full writeup of the campaign, our campaign log can be found here (More Spoilers, and some spelling mistakes!)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GYb6_xfHvll5xjDyvAMwQdk_2s-ant-Q/view?usp=share_link
