Dorky in Memphis
After introducing Call of Cthulhu to a new group, they enjoyed the introductory Edge of Darkness scenario enough to want to keep digging into the mythos. This was a wonderful excuse for me to string together some of the games’ many, many Massachusestt-based scenarios into a loose episodic campaign, and I hesitantly chose House of Memphis for the latest instalment.
I say hesitantly because, although the scenario sits in Chaosium’s Mansions of Madness Volume 1 collection, alongside updated classics like Mr Corbitt and The Crack’d and Crook’d Manse, in prepping the scenario it was immediately clear something was slightly off.
Spoilers below.
Body corporate meetings were getting out of hand.
Adapting an introduction to fit your group is a basic task for any half-competent Keeper, but this is the only scenario I am aware of that goes out of its way to offer two different starting scenes.
It's a juicy enough set up – an attempted burglary and triple murder at the home of a famous stage magician, the Great Memphis, missing presumed dead, with his stage props as the murder weapons of choice. In one opening, a law firm is looking into the murders on behalf of Memphis’s daughter, and in the other a local mobster wants to know who killed his boys.
In practice, these introductions offer no differences. Since my group included one low-level criminal investigator, I ended up using both. A threatening mobster provided a little extra tension and motivation in the middle of proceedings.
Memphis’s daughter, Ingrid, is looking for help finding her father. Meanwhile, her fiancé and Memphis’s former protégé, Harold Hawkins, is performing an exotic new trick at the Wilbur Theatre. What are the chances that Hawkins had something to do with Memphis’s disappearance? Or that his new trick draws on THE UNSPEAKABLE POWERS OF THE MYTHOS?
Of course, the Great Memphis isn’t really missing. Hawkins attempted to kill his master but only rendered him incorporeal, which in turn gave Memphis the opportunity to periodically possess Hawkin’s youthful body. While there are comments from Ingrid that her fiance has become “just like her father”, there’s no discussion of the incest this would seem to imply.
Intriguingly, the scenario touches on HP Lovecraft’s real-life links to Harry Houdini. The fictional blend of the mythos with the secretive behind-the-scenes world of stage magic has long had appeal. There is even a scene for the investigators to attempt some sleight of hand magic of their own, to impress a few NPCs. This is a similar approach to The Vanishing Conjurer, published in 1986, which gave players the option of performing an actual card trick at the table. And just like in that scenario, here it’s a meaningless gimmick.
House of Memphis goes further and offers ‘Magician’ as a new occupation and a new Stage Magic skill, but Call of Cthulhu’s usual rules-as-written slowness in learning skills prevent this from being useful. A player could create a magician for this adventure, but they would presumably already have some insight into that behind-the-scenes world, which significantly alters the scenario’s dynamic. Stage magicians as investigators is a rich idea and this needs a more in-depth exploration than presented in the space available here.
The scenario’s ‘Putting It Together’ section is thin on practical advice. There’s a large number of NPCs, most of whom are unworthy of the space they occupy. There are enough clues to point to the murderer, but little agency available to bring him to justice, legal or otherwise. Instead, there’s just a big scary floating wizard head in a house full of Egyptian artifacts. Or Bhutanese. Not that it matters.
The final showdown is a complicated sequence with one of two antagonists, who manipulates reality and regenerates Magic Points. It takes several pages to explain the sequence, while also claiming that it’s optional! During the scene, there’s advantage to be gained by breaking a series of magical orbs found in the house, but no clue given anywhere to suggest this is a good idea. Given players’ usual approach to hoarding magic items, why would they want to smash them?
A femme fatal is provided in the form of Josephine Lynch, Memphis’s devoted assistant, but she is under-utilised. Her main motivation is trying to drag Hawkins into the Great Memphis’s house, so her master can complete his possession, but she doesn’t seem to be doing anything about this aside from asking the players to do it for her.
Similarly, Hawkin’s own assistant, Edith, is injured early in the scenario, but could be a source of information if visited in the hospital, but this is overlooked.
As are the activities of Hawkins himself. Driven to murder his mentor while engaged to his daughter, there is zero explanation of what is keeping Hawkins occupied during any of this. I ended up creating a new location for Hawkins, a warehouse workshop, so the investigators could learn more about his mental state, a tip for breaking those orbs, and maybe witness him fighting off an attempted possession by Memphis. It was also a location that Lynch could surveil and potentially confront the investigators.
The ridiculous conclusion plays out like the end of the first Poltergeist movie, with the house sucked into a magical vortex. My players found this enjoyable enough, particularly blaming it on a rare Boston tornado.
Ultimately, it’s a scenario that while not terrible, is mostly underwritten. That there are two antagonists, Hawkins and Memphis, is likely why it feels too crowded to give the investigators much agency, and ultimately offers a conclusion that even the author admits can sideline the players into being mere spectators.