Friday Fantasy: Temple of the Wurm

A lake from whose waters fishermen go missing. A lake from whose wooded shores fur trappers have disappeared. A lake from whose depths can be seen flashes of light. A local nobleman willing to pay for information about his missing son who was last seen travelling towards the lake. A local fisherman, renowned for being a drunk and condemned for having drowned his son, pleads for help in finding his son, who he claims was dragged overboard by weird tentacled creatures and into the depths of the lake. This sets up Temple of the Wurm, a scenario for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay. If the Player Characters investigate and dive to the bottom of the lake, they find the entrance to a crystal temple and from there access to a complex of rooms below occupied by beings which defy comprehension. Here, creatures fully flat and existing in two dimensions slide across ceilings marked with odd systemic notations and markings and slip through exacting cracks to access other areas, as energy crackles and fizzes up and down one strange device after another. The complex is not just a home, but a laboratory and a space in which they can explore the third dimension—height, and even the fourth dimension—time. Thus, they have the means, which may be science or it may be magic, to extend themselves into the third dimension and beyond, and to manipulate not just shadow, but the dimensionality of others. They add dimensions to others, pushing them into the fourth, fifth, and beyond dimensions… Or they can steal dimensions, pulling them into their dimension, and so making them flat. Lurking here too, if a creature feared by the inhabitants, one capable of freely shifting between two, three, or four dimensionalities, the Wurm of the title, ready to make the complex its own. All that stand in its way are the strange flatlandish inhabitants and the new arrived Player Characters who are about to experience their own adventures in relative dimensions in time and space.

This is the set-up for Temple of the Wurm, published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess, a scenario inspired by Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Although the scenario talks mechanically about magic and details the abilities of the strange inhabits of the complex, the Arcindians, like spells, for example, Add Dimension/Remove Dimension and Shadow to Flesh, its feel is not that of fantasy. It is more Science Fiction than fantasy, which together with the horrors of what this ‘magic’ or ‘science’ can do pushes into the realms of Science Fiction horror or comic horror. The scenario has a Lovecraftian feel, but very much the austerity of stories such as ‘From Beyond’, ‘The Whisperer in Darkness’, and especially, At the Mountains of Madness. The combination of this and the strange occupants of the complex is likely to confound the players, let alone their characters. What exactly they are expected to do in terms of the plot will be unclear initially, but the Arcindians are not a hostile species, merely a curious one and they are prepared, even want, to communicate if they can. Theirs is a threatened existence and perhaps if they can enlist the help of the Player Characters, they too can provide some assistance. However, getting to that point where communication is possible is probably going to involve a mix of exploration and examination—and that is where the fun starts. Or rather, the fun for both the Game Master and other players as that exploration and examination triggers strange effects. Not simply making a Player Character disappear and reappear again after time has passed, but also quite literally falling flat, his shadow literally substance, and so on.

This will have profound effect on game play, as some Player Characters will be in one state in two dimensions, some in another state in three dimensions, and some even in higher dimensions. Most of the action will take place in either two or three dimensions, which will undoubtedly confusing enough and challenging for the Game Master to corral when it comes to combat. However, it is likely to have its advantages in some situations, such as being able to interact many of the features of the complex and with the Arcindians themselves. Ultimately, this is necessary for the plot of Temple of the Wurm to proceed, otherwise the Player Characters will wander around, triggering weird effects and probably growing increasing frustrated and fascinated at the same time.

Temple of the Wurm is also different to other scenarios for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay in that it is not set in the roleplaying game’s default era of the Early Modern period. In fact, it is time and setting neutral other than the fact that it is a scenario for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay.

Physically, Temple of the Wurm is well presented and easy to use. Given the potential complexity of the situation the Player Characters will find themselves in, the book goes to great lengths to explain how everything works to that the Game Master can understand it all and bring it into play. Both cartography and artwork are good, but the cover, with its melting clocks echoes the works of Salvador Dalí, rather than what is actually going on in Temple of the Wurm. This is not to say that it is not a good painting, but rather it does not fit the scenario.

Temple of the Wurm brings a striking combination of austere surrealism and cosmic horror to Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay, making it not so much Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay as Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Science Roleplay.

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DISCLAIMER: The author of this review is an editor who has edited titles for Lamentations of the Flame Princess on a freelance basis. He was not involved in the production of this book and his connection to both publisher and author has no bearing on the resulting review.