Miskatonic Monday #187: Lost Light

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.

—oOo—

Name: Lost Light

Publisher: Chaosium, Inc.
Author: Michał Pietrzak

Setting: A forest
Product: Scenario

What You Get: Twenty-four page, 892.62 KB Full Colour PDF
Elevator Pitch: The mystery of a lighthouse inland...

Plot Hook: Discovery of a lighthouse in the forest!

Plot Support: Staging advice, three handouts, one map, one NPC, and four Mythos monsters.

Production Values: Decent.

Pros

# One-on-one, one Keeper, one Investigator, one session investigation

# Nice sense of the weird and unworldly

# Another lighthouse scenario, but not at sea!

# Three threats not one, separate to each other

# Three separate threats provide flexibility

# With effort could be interwoven

# Strongly plotted

# Xanthophobia

# Angelophobia

# Hotatsosphobia! Who knew?

Cons

# Needs a slight edit

# Strongly plotted

# Another lighthouse scenario

# Threats separate with no advice to interweave them together

# Using one threat means the other threats cannot really be used for that player

Conclusion

# Strongly plotted one-on-one scenario which offers three different threat options

# Another lighthouse scenario for Call of Cthulhu, but weirder, more unworldly, and more flexible than usual