Miskatonic Monday #247: The Secret Song of Lake Billings

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: The Secret Song of Lake Billings

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Aaron Hawke

Setting: 1980s Virginia

Product: Scenario
What You Get: Eighteen page, 5.29 MB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: What if Bruce wasn’t a shark and it wasn’t set at sea?

Plot Hook: Tourism must go on, even as the killer beast strikes.
Plot Support: Staging advice, four pre-generated Investigators, five NPCs, two handouts, and one Mythos creature.

Production Values: Decent

Pros

# More ‘creature feature’ than Mythos mystery

# Straightforward, easy to run scenario

# Nice sense of small town issues and paranoia

# Decently done pre-generated Investigators

# Entomophobia

# Decantophobia

# Ovophobia

Cons

# More ‘creature feature’ than Mythos mystery

# Needs a slight edit

# More maps would have been useful

Conclusion

# Easy to run, eighties ‘creature feature’ one-shot

# Sometimes the mayor is the real evil