In which I get to use the headline "MAN DIES THREE TIMES IN ONE NIGHT!" in something other than the opening of Horror on the Orient Express!
The scenario "Dead Man Stomp" originally appeared in 1989's "1920's Keeper Kit" - which I do not own, and have never had the pleasure of seeing - but probably received its widest exposure from being included in the 5th (and possibly 6th?) edition rulebooks.
Most recently, it was revised, updated, and included in the 7th edition's Starter Set - which you should buy! It's great!
I chose Dead Man Stomp to be kind of a capper or climax to my "Zone Rouge" mini-campaign, which is itself a prequel to Horror on the Orient Express.
In the last two scenarios, the Investigators have been bouncing around the Verdun area of France, in pursuit of Rudolf von Sebottendorf and his nefarious efforts to overturn the political and occult situation in France. The Investigators are backed by Hugh "Quex" Sinclair, section chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service. von Sebottendorf is backed by a mysterious entity he encounters only in his dreams, an entity calling itself "En Kalif." Sharp-eyed anagram fans who are also familiar with Horror on the Orient Express will recognize that [SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!] En Kalif is a pseudonym for Fenalik, one-time owner of the Sedefkar Simulacrum and current (as of 1921) comatose vampire.
Twice now the Investigators have interfered in von Sebottendorf's activities, and now things are coming to a head. They are barreling towards a final confrontation in the Montmarte neighborhood, in Paris.
There will be 3 parts to this post:
- A recap of the campaign timeline so far!
- Converting Dead Man Stomp from Harlem to 1921 Paris, including a number of ties and call-forwards to the Horror on the Orient Express campaign
- Adapting Dead Man Stomp for use at the table!
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| Image from Pixabay; in public domain. |
How Did We Get Here?
Briefly, here's what Rudolf von Sebottendorf's been up to, and how the Investigators have gotten up his nose so far! Note that historical events here don't line up perfectly with real history.
Overview:
- Late 1917, von Sebottendorf and some kindred spirits in Munich get together and found the Thule Society (wiki link).
- Early 1918, von Sebottendorf arrives in Verdun.
In return, En Kalif asks that he help sow unrest in France. En Kalif's reasons are his own.
- Early 1918, he meets Marion Alard of the Alsatian Circle, and begins to tutor him. He refuses to introduce Alard to En Kalif, and by the end of the year they have broken off their acquaintance, and he hears no more from Alard. He does not learn of Alard's death.
- 26 April 1919, German Communist forces in Munich break into the headquarters of von Sebottendorf’s Thule society, arresting - and eventually executing - a number of prominent members, as “right-wing spies.” Surviving members of the Society blame von Sebottendorf for betraying them; he does not deny this.
- In the summer of 1919, he goes to Paris to establish a new society. Creatively, he calls this "the Paris circle." Based in vaguely Rosicrucian and Martinist traditions, they pursue occult knowledge and try to fight the emerging Communist factions.
- In November 1920, several of von Sebottendorf’s Alsatian Circle agents in Verdun die or go missing: Marie LeCroix [in "Lumiere Morte"] and Rupert Merriweather [in Edge of Darkness] chief among them.
- In the spring of 1921, the dream visits of En Kalif cease without warning and von S grows increasingly desperate to maintain and expand his authority.
- In April 1921, a German member of the Paris Circle, one Peter Mann, begins to conspire with surviving members of the Thule Society back in Munich. He has lost faith in von Sebottendorf, and the Thules want revenge.
- In June 1921, von Sebottendorf learns of Mann's betrayal. He decides to keep him around for a while before destroying him.
- In July of 1921, the Vienna Club Investigators arrive in Paris, advertising a golden sarcophagus with strange markings in it. von Sebottendorf is interested, and sends Mann to a jazz club, Le Grand Duc, to look it over. Here, he will have Mann killed.
The sarcophagus is the same one that Marion Alard gave to Rupert Merriweather. Alard was killed in Paris a few years prior, when he was asking around in the Parisian occult community and "the wrong people" got wind of it. The "wrong people," in this case, were one of the Makryat duplicates, or perhaps Makryat himself, who was in Paris at the time. He stabbed Alard through the heart, but realized the box was not with him. He has learned patience and caution since then.
Converting Dead Man Stomp to Fit the Mini-Campaign
Spoilers, obviously, for Dead Man Stomp. Gratuitous spoilers.
One of the virtues of "Dead Man Stomp," as written, is that it's not strongly tied to any particular place. It works pretty well in any urban environment that has a strong Jazz flavor - and for that, the Montmarte neighborhood in Paris works very well!
Montmarte in this era was the center of a small black American community. Many of the residents had fought for the U.S. in WWI, and then settled in France after the war. Montmarte was home to a number of soon-to-be-famous jazz clubs - le Grand Duc, Bricktop's, Chez Florence - and some other landmarks worth integrating into a game: the Grand Guignol theater, and several prominent churches and cathedrals.
The older of the two churches in the neighborhood, the Church of St. Pierre of Montmarte, (wiki link) is home to the "Martyrium of St. Denis," a chapel (built roughly on the spot of the original place to bear that name) that is associated with two significant church events. First, the martyrdom (by beheading) of Denis, the first Bishop of Paris. In the legend, he was beheaded, which failed to prevent him from standing up, picking up his head, and walking down the hill a while to a more favored dying spot. Second, the Martyrium is the place where the Jesuit Society was founded.
So - lots of history, lots of atmosphere! And, thanks to the bones of centuries' worth of saints and parishioners... lots of bodies who can be ripped from their eternal rest by the mad squeals of Leroy's trumpet. Could the climax of the scenario occur here? Reader - it must!
The only thing that's potentially a setting problem in this conversion is that Paris did not have Prohibition in the way that American cities did. Granted, there was a minor prohibition which forbade absinthe, but all other drinks were readily available - something that appealed to many of the famous American expats who made their way to Paris during the années folles (wiki link).
The biggest issue when converting this for use in my campaign is that I need it to cap off the Investigators' pursuit of Rudolf von Sebottendorf. Therefore, I've taken the step of replacing the mob outfit in the scenario-as-written with von S's "Paris Circle."
The other thing I've done is foreground the threat (or opportunity) posed by the Paris Circle, as a secondary threat in addition to Leroy Turner's mythos-related trumpet that can raise the dead. This gives the Investigators opportunities to decide how they want to "deal" with von S, and it also adds some pressure and forces them to make some choices: will they go after the Paris Circle and ignore Leroy? If they pursue Leroy, will their quarry get away? Will they team up with von S to deal with Leroy? What happens then?
I did not change the names of the African-American characters, as it's reasonable that they could all be expats living in France.
I've had to do some wrenching on the mechanics of this scenario as well, for reasons of playability and design that I'll get into in the next section.
Montmarte in this era was the center of a small black American community. Many of the residents had fought for the U.S. in WWI, and then settled in France after the war. Montmarte was home to a number of soon-to-be-famous jazz clubs - le Grand Duc, Bricktop's, Chez Florence - and some other landmarks worth integrating into a game: the Grand Guignol theater, and several prominent churches and cathedrals.
The older of the two churches in the neighborhood, the Church of St. Pierre of Montmarte, (wiki link) is home to the "Martyrium of St. Denis," a chapel (built roughly on the spot of the original place to bear that name) that is associated with two significant church events. First, the martyrdom (by beheading) of Denis, the first Bishop of Paris. In the legend, he was beheaded, which failed to prevent him from standing up, picking up his head, and walking down the hill a while to a more favored dying spot. Second, the Martyrium is the place where the Jesuit Society was founded.
So - lots of history, lots of atmosphere! And, thanks to the bones of centuries' worth of saints and parishioners... lots of bodies who can be ripped from their eternal rest by the mad squeals of Leroy's trumpet. Could the climax of the scenario occur here? Reader - it must!
The only thing that's potentially a setting problem in this conversion is that Paris did not have Prohibition in the way that American cities did. Granted, there was a minor prohibition which forbade absinthe, but all other drinks were readily available - something that appealed to many of the famous American expats who made their way to Paris during the années folles (wiki link).
The biggest issue when converting this for use in my campaign is that I need it to cap off the Investigators' pursuit of Rudolf von Sebottendorf. Therefore, I've taken the step of replacing the mob outfit in the scenario-as-written with von S's "Paris Circle."
The other thing I've done is foreground the threat (or opportunity) posed by the Paris Circle, as a secondary threat in addition to Leroy Turner's mythos-related trumpet that can raise the dead. This gives the Investigators opportunities to decide how they want to "deal" with von S, and it also adds some pressure and forces them to make some choices: will they go after the Paris Circle and ignore Leroy? If they pursue Leroy, will their quarry get away? Will they team up with von S to deal with Leroy? What happens then?
Changes to Names & Locations
In the next section you'll see me refer to some of these names. Here's a conversion list, to help forestall confusion!
Harlem -> Montmarte, Paris
Small's Paradise (jazz club) -> Le Grand Duc
Pete Mancuso (mob accountant) -> Peter Mann, German nationalist and Rosicrucian occultist
Joey Lawson -> Josephe Laurier, member of Paris Circle, combat veteran
Archie Bonato -> Rudolf von Sebottendorf, occultist, spy, general villain
Garage (mob headquarters) -> Martyrium of St. Denis (Paris Circle headquarters)
I did not change the names of the African-American characters, as it's reasonable that they could all be expats living in France.
I've had to do some wrenching on the mechanics of this scenario as well, for reasons of playability and design that I'll get into in the next section.
Adapting Dead Man Stomp for Use at the Table
Dead Man Stomp has a lot of good things going for it. Most particularly, it has:
- A lively setting, full of jazz and passion and danger and death
- 3 really good set-pieces: the shooting at the club, the jazz funeral, and the climax with the risen dead.
But if there's a consistent knock on the scenario, it's that it is VERY railroad-dependent. Investigators are almost literally moved from one set-piece to another, where they witness things, and - unfortunately - don't have a whole lot of plot levers to pull.
And - as sometimes happens in Cthulhu games - if the Investigators don't choose to pursue a particular lead, it can leave the group stranded without a functional scenario. Now - as written in the 7th edition Starter Set version, these clues and prompts ARE there in sufficient number to keep things moving. However, the way they are laid out in the text - which is almost exclusively done in big narrative paragraphs - makes them a little hard for the aspiring keeper to map out.
So I mapped it out! In the prior post I talked about how I format scenarios for use at the table - generally, a lot of outlines, bullet points and bold phrases. But for this, I needed something a little more at the global scope. I needed - a MAP!
Tada!
This is in 3 parts. In these maps:
This is in 3 parts. In these maps:
- Red boxes are settings, or overall activities (e.g. Le Grand Duc jazz club; "Looking into Laurier", etc)
- Blue boxes are important clues or events that the Investigators need to witness/pick up
- Unboxed text are generally methods or avenues for the Investigators to get their clues.
These maps don't have every detail from the scenario as written, but they show the general relationship between people, events, motivations, and clues. They also show how messy the opening vignettes can be, which is where this system of mapping will really benefit a keeper choosing to run this otherwise excellent scenario.
Finally, a few cosmetic changes:
- In the scenario as written, Turner's fiancee Marnie died when she was struck by a gray Packard. This is implied to be the same care that Joey Lawton drives. However, there's no explicit connection made and it's not implied that Leroy has any animus against the mobsters. So, I dropped it. In my version, Marnie perished from the flu, like many others of that time.
- The scenario relates a line of dialogue between "Louis Armstrong" and Leroy Turner which would be a big clue to the mystical nature of things, but it says "Leroy won't tell them this." If it's not available to the Players there's no real reason for it to be in the scenario. In my verison, Leroy WILL tell them this after a successful persuasion or similar roll.
I'll be running this in 2 weeks, and probably will wrap it up in a single session. I think it's going to be great!
Next up - we head up to London for some good old-fashioned spy-vs.-spy action, in... THE AUCTION!
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Want more of what I do? I have a number of best-selling Adventures and GM guides for the 7th Sea system at this link, available via DriveThruRPG! They are reasonably popular and shockingly inexpensive, so check them out! And now, it's been announced that 7th Sea will live under the same Chaosium roof as Call of Cthulhu - so there's some nice synergy for you!
I'll soon be working on writing my first-ever CoC scenario for publication, giving it the same "behind-the-scenes development" treatment you've seen so far - so watch this space for future posts on that topic!
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