Frankenstein Freakery

Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror: The Corpse That Love Built – 2018 Halloween Module is a scenario for Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Designed for Player Characters of Second Level, as well as being a Halloween scenario for the popular retroclone, it is a sequel to the author’s earlier Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red—of a sort. In Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red, the Player Characters—all Zero Level and all members of the major families in the village of Portnelle were at the wedding of a young couple whose marriage might have healed a long running rift between two of the families. Of course, it was not to be, as wedding guests were decapitated and stolen away by strange creatures which erupted from beneath the ground. Eventually, after a weirdly crunchy encounter at the nearby abandoned vineyard and a delve underground, they revealed both the culprit behind the attacks at the wedding and darker family secrets. These darker family secrets play out in the events of Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror: The Corpse That Love Built – 2018 Halloween Module—sort of.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror: The Corpse That Love Built – 2018 Halloween Module opens with the inhabitants of Portnelle and the Player Characters in the local church. Recently, the townsfolk have suffered a rash of abductions and mutilations, and as a fierce lightning storm rages outside, the senile Father Giralt cries out that he has been granted a vision identifying the person responsible for both. None other than Doctor Lotrin von Weißgras-Geisterblut, a local Elf who resides in a strange castle down by the coast and a recluse who has long been estranged from his family. Of course, as the local priest makes his declaration, there is a crash of lightning, the doors get knocked down, and the congregation is attacked by strangely earthy golems! Who could have ordered such an attack, could it have been Doctor Lotrin von Weißgras-Geisterblut?

Armed with the few rumours they know about the reclusive Elf—the adventure comes with an extensive rumour table—the Player Characters proceed to Castle von Weißgras-Geisterblut! Behind its high walls, they will find all manner of strangeness. First is that the tower keep has been transformed into the head and torso of a woman reaching up out of the earth and into the sky. Second, there is all manner of odd constructed creatures. They include things like ‘Crude Fleshy-Contraption Archers’, collections of gears and levers, powered by enchanted sinews; ‘Weredoggins’, a combination of were-hound and scorpion, whose traditional curse is more spiritual than medical in nature; and the ‘Halfling-Hand Luck-Sucking Lizard’, which is as weird and as nasty as it sounds. There is some enjoyably inventive monster creations here, so it is a pity that so few of them are illustrated in the module. However, the signs of Doctor Lotrin von Weißgras-Geisterblut’s research can be found throughout the tower and together with the constructs, they add to the sense that a mad scientist is at work, which pervades the scenario.

Ultimately, signs point to the top and bottom of the tower. At the top of the staircase which climbs all the way up the arm can be found a local woman, imprisoned and at the mercy of the lightning storm, whilst at the bottom is Doctor Lotrin von Weißgras-Geisterblut’s laboratory. Between the two runs a lengthy coil of mithril. Could the mad doctor be seeking to harness the lightning for a purpose of his own? To which, of course, the answer is ‘yes’, and it is one that the Player Characters will confront—as depicted in the scenario’s centrefold of the Bride Giant, an obvious homage to Bride of Frankenstein!

There are one or two issues with Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror: The Corpse That Love Built – 2018 Halloween Module. One is that the dungeon, essentially, the inside of the tower, is small, just nine locations. It does not feel like somewhere that Doctor Lotrin von Weißgras-Geisterblut lives and perhaps another level, one in the ‘head’ of the tower, could have been included to flesh it out a little. Another is that although Exact Spirit Animal, the spell that works in conjunction with the effect of the bite of the ‘Weredoggins’, is included in the scenario, another spell, Geisterblut’s Squirming Flesh, is not. And there is also the matter of the scenario’s centrefold of the Bride Giant. It is not titillating as such, but there is plenty of ‘flesh’ on show, and it may not be to everyone’s taste.

If the horror in Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red is gothic, its inspiration that of Edgar Allen Poe, then the horror of Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror: The Corpse That Love Built – 2018 Halloween Module is that of Universal Monsters—in particular, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, as well as Hammer Horror. The scenario is horrifying, challenging, nasty, and in the right hands, campy fun too. That though is Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror: The Corpse That Love Built – 2018 Halloween Module as a standalone scenario.

As a sequel to Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red, this scenario is disappointing. Not just the fact that Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red is a Character Funnel for Zero Level Player Characters and Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror: The Corpse That Love Built – 2018 Halloween Module is designed for Second Level, meaning that the Judge will need to run a scenario or two to get the Player Characters who survived Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red up to the required Level to player this scenario, but that there are so few links between the two. Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red ended by indicating that Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror: The Corpse That Love Built – 2018 Halloween Module is a sequel, but as written, the links between the two are underwritten. The villain of this scenario, Doctor Lotrin von Weißgras-Geisterblut, is a nod at least to Lotrin Whitegrass, husband of the betrayed Brandolyn from Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red—and besides the fact that the two scenarios are set in the same location, Portnelle (whether town or village), that is really all there is in terms of links. There is no family set-up as there is in Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red, there is no advice to link the two, which is both frustrating and disappointing. It just means that the Judge will have to create some of his own.

Ultimately, as a standalone horror scenario, Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror: The Corpse That Love Built – 2018 Halloween Module is entertaining, being a fan and campy challenge. As a sequel to Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red, it is very much a missed opportunity.

—oOo—

[Update] Sunday, March 21st
Note as of Sunday, March 21st, the author of both Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror #1: They Served Brandolyn Red and Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror: The Corpse That Love Built – 2018 Halloween Module has posted an entry on his blog explaining the connections between the two scenarios. For owners of both scenarios, they can be found here.