Danger Under Dover

Achtung! Cthulhu is the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is pitches the Allied Agents of the Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance into a Secret War against those Nazi Agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. They are willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour! Yet even the darkest of drives to take advantage of the Mythos is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves, utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos, the forces of which have their own unknowable designs…

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under the Gun takes place on the Home Front with the Player Characters, or Agents, suddenly rushed to the Kent coast where a frightening discovery has been made. With the Battle of France over and the Nazi war machine readying itself for Operation Sea Lion, Britain is frantically preparing defences against imminent invasion. This includes the fortification of the Kent coast, specifically in and around Dover and its famous, chalk cliffs which stand at the closet point between England and France. There are news reports that excavations have unearthed an ancient British fort, but this only a cover story. What an archaeologist and several British army engineers have discovered is a strange stone pillar which seems to make everyone feel at least queasy, if not leave them suffering nightmares, seeing things out of the corners of their eye, and if that is not odd enough, suffering bouts of ichthyophobia! Those that have been suffering the worst have been hospitalised. As agents of Section M, the Player Characters are ordered to investigate the site at St. Andrew’s Cliff.

With a little care, the Agents have the opportunity to learn what happened to the men digging at St. Andrew’s Cliff and perhaps conduct a little research locally. Very quickly, the Agents are rushed to the site, now a combination of fortification in the making and archaeological dig site, both semi-abandoned. The Agents have the afternoon to investigate the site before events take a sudden and highly confrontational turn. The site, including the Agents and the few members of the British Army left to guard the site are attacked—not once, but twice! First by locals from the nearby village and then by Nazis. The Agents may already have discovered the legends about the nearby village of St. Andrews, but what they find out in the confrontation is that the legends are true, that, “Them St. Andrew’s folk aren’t right — flat-faced, goggle-eyed devils!” In other words, Deep One Hybrids. The Nazis are members of Black Sun, though only a small team that has landed by glider on the cliffs nearby. This is a big fight—though small in the scheme of things—over who has access to the strange stone pillar in the case of the Black Sun unit and who should be punished for defiling the strange stone pillar in the case of the villagers.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under The Gun is a short, sharp scenario which can be completed in a single session. It does leave the question of what to do with a village of Deep One Hybrids on the English coast up to the Game Master. Either raid the village and intern everyone as per the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps raid on Innsmouth in 1928 or actually recruit them as allies in the Secret War against the Nazi occult? Both options are valid and both would make for interesting developments, especially the latter. More so if the Game Master is planning to run Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard. The events of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under The Gun take place in June, 1940, whereas the events of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard take place in August, 1940. Both involve Deep Ones, so they are thematically linked and thus Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard can be run as a possible sequel to Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under The Gun. Since it involves the Black Sun, it can be run after the events of ‘A Quick Trip to France’ found in the Achtung! Cthulhu Quickstart: A Quick Trip to France.

Although Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under The Gun is not a complex scenario, its climax does involve a big battle with multiple opponents and factions, so it does feel a little like a mini-wargame rather than the climax of a roleplaying scenario. Certainly, the Game Master might want to have the factions involved in this fog-bound confrontation divided between herself and the Player Characters to make it easier to run and give her fewer dice to roll and NPCs to keep track of.

Physically, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under The Gun is cleanly and tidily laid out. It is not illustrated, but the maps of the various locations are decently done.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Under The Gun is a short, sharp encounter with the multiple forces of the Mythos that also manages to pack in a little investigation as well. It can be played in a single session and this makes it easy to drop into a campaign, especially taking early in the war.