Miskatonic Monday #140: Whispers from Wavering Hills

Between October 2003 and October 2013, Chaosium, Inc. published a series of books for Call of Cthulhu under the Miskatonic University Library Association brand. Whether a sourcebook, scenario, anthology, or campaign, each was a showcase for their authors—amateur rather than professional, but fans of Call of Cthulhu nonetheless—to put forward their ideas and share with others. The programme was notable for having launched the writing careers of several authors, but for every Cthulhu Invictus, The Pastores, Primal State, Ripples from Carcosa, and Halloween Horror, there was Five Go Mad in Egypt, Return of the Ripper, Rise of the Dead, Rise of the Dead II: The Raid, and more...

The Miskatonic University Library Association brand is no more, alas, but what we have in its stead is the Miskatonic Repository, based on the same format as the DM’s Guild for Dungeons & Dragons. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creators, Chaosium has provided templates and art packs, both free to use, so that the resulting releases can look and feel as professional as possible. To support the efforts of these contributors, Miskatonic Monday is an occasional series of reviews which will in turn examine an item drawn from the depths of the Miskatonic Repository.

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Name: Whispers from Wavering Hills

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author Scott Cox

Setting: Jazz Age Kentucky

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Fourteen page, 3.01 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: What if science was worse than the cure?

Plot Hook: What drives a young girl to commit suicide at the Wavering Hills Sanatorium?
Plot Support: Staging advice, four NPCs, one Mythos tome, and two Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Decent.

Pros

# Short one to two hour one-shot

# Mini-sanatorium-sandbox

# Nosocomephobia

# Entomophobia

# Based on a real location

# Investigators can be patients, visitors, or staff for easier access to the plot

# Decent treatment of the ‘Doctor using super/weird science in the pursuit of, well, science’ cliché

Cons

# Needs an edit

# Requires Malleus Monstrorum

# Slightly underdeveloped in places.

# Investigators really, really need the Stealth skill 

# Employs the ‘Doctor using super/weird science in the pursuit of, well, science’ cliché 

Conclusion

# Decent treatment of the ‘Doctor using super/weird science in the pursuit of, well, science’ cliché which could really do with a map

# Short, mini-sanatorium-sandbox, based on a real location that is simple enough if in need of a bit more fleshing out.