North Sea Nasties

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: Operation Vanguard is designed for a group of Player Characters who have one or two basic adventures under their collective belt, likely Achtung! Cthulhu Quickstart: A Quick Trip to France. In ‘A Quick Trip to France’, the Agents were assigned to investigate the activities of a Black Sun Master in the village of Saint Sulae, southwest of the city of Rouen. That mission takes place in June, 1940, merely weeks after the invasion of the Low Countries and the fall of France. Barely two months pass and in August, 1940, the Agents are sent on another mission into enemy occupied territory. This time, the Netherlands. As the country’s general populace begins to adjust to the shock of being invaded, the newly formed resistance has already begun to report to London where Queen Wilhelmina and her government are now in exile. These reports percolate throughout the various offices and departments of British intelligence, the odder stories ignored by all except Section M. One such report is from the small Dutch fishing town of Nermegen and tells of a strange installation being constructed at both St. Olaf’s lighthouse and on the nearby Skellen Island and of the presence in the town of Nachtwölfe. The rivals to the Black Sun, they are likely just as dangerous. For Section M, this is the first known sighting of the Night Wolves, and it wants it confirmed by the Agents. Their mission to travel by submarine to the Dutch coast and make landfall by folding canoes. There, they are to make contact with the local Resistance movement, avoid all contact with the German garrison, investigate Nachtwölfe activities in and around Nermegen, before proceeding to Skellen Island and determining what the secret organisation is up to. Any and all intelligence is to be gathered with expediency.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard is a straightforward mission and scenario. The Agents are first given some training in the use of the folboat—or folding canoe, used in Operation Frankton and made famous by the film, The Cockleshell Heroes—and the Player Characters the basic skill in them as a nice bonus, before the mission begins. The process of the mission is presented in some detail, including making contact with the Resistance and gathering rumours about the Nazi activities in and around the town, the latter of which will lead to another location on the coast where Nachtwölfe was seen operating and a local drunken fisherman who might know a lot more than they had imagined! Ultimately, this should prime the Agents to investigate first St. Olaf’s lighthouse and then nearby Skellen Island. Both locations are fortified, the scenario including full details of the defences and the enemy numbers stationed at both. For the most part, stealth is probably the most useful skill that the Player Characters will need as a full out assault will alert the garrison and any Nachtwölfe nearby. That will change once the Agents are on Skellen Island and have broken into the base there, ‘Installation 41’, a big bruising fight the likelihood, helped by some unexpected allies.

If the players have been paying attention, by the time their Agents get into ‘Installation 41’, they will have some idea of whatever it is that Nachtwölfe is up to, it involves the Deep Ones. The latter are a major faction in the Secret War, and just as Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard is designed as the first encounter that the players and their Agents have with Nachtwölfe, it also their first with any other faction of the Secret War. The likelihood is that the Agents are not going to be able to communicate with the Deep Ones—an option that the scenario does not really explore—but they are going to them in action against the scientists and soldiers of Nachtwölfe. There is the option to add more if the Agents are floundering, but either way, the best way to run this fight is for the players to roll for the Deep Ones as well as their Agents, so as to keep the action flowing and the Game Master from rolling for too many NPCs.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard does involve Nachtwölfe, though not necessarily the key to its power and the means to power its many advanced weapons of war, the vibrantly blue Blauer Kristall. This and the fact that it takes place in August, 1940, means that it takes place after the events of the campaign, Achtung! Cthulhu: Shadows of Atlantis, which ends in May or June of that year. It could be run as a sequel, but it could also be shifted to earlier in the war and countries under German occupation that bit earlier. Denmark and Norway are good candidates and if used, Operation Vanguard could be run during April 1940. If the Game Master decides not to run Achtung! Cthulhu: Shadows of Atlantis,or is running for different group of Agents, then she can simply run this scenario as is.

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

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard feels inspired by Operation Biting, the raid to capture German radar equipment from near the village of Bruneval in Normandy. Then again, it could been inspired by any number of World War 2 films or commando missions! Overall, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Vanguard combines combines a good mix of the Mythos and the military and is solid stealth and assault mission that includes a little investigation as well.