Title: Call of Cthulhu: The Dreamlands Express (Roleplaying Game)
Media: Book/roleplaying game module
Approx length: 50 pages
Where to find it: This is an optional, self-contained module within the larger Horror on the Orient Express campaign; it is contained within Book II: Through The Alps, starting on pp 131. You don't have to know anything about the larger campaign to read it. You don't have to have greater Cthulhu Mythos knowledge, either, though it is a paean to the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and would work excellently with any of the Dream sequence stories in Lovecraft (and company)'s canon.
What is it, in summary?: Where to start! The module is self-contained within the larger (much larger) Horror on the Orient Express, and involves investigators/players riding on a dream version of the Orient Express through Lovecraft's Dreamlands as imagined in stories like the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. It's a locked-room murder (of course it is), but more importantly it's ripe for worldbuilding, sucking in all the canon from Dream-Quest and sprinkling it with lots of flavour, including (of course) the Cats of Ulthar. The Dreamlands Express is the product of its dreamer, once-Orient Express conducteur Henri Peeters who died in a fire on the train in real life. Anyone who rides on the Orient Express in real life can dream their way onto the Dreamlands Express. This opens up so many crossover opportunities, all of which I'd be excited for. The Dreamlands Express was imagined up to allow passengers to "discard disabling fears and hopeless dreams," eventually terminating at the Gulf of Nodens, where passengers can throw their emotions into the gulf as a sacrifice to Nodens.
What do you love about it?/What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Gosh. There's so much here: the Orient/Dreamlands Express crossover is great, for one thing, with so much History (TM) as well as geography both real and psychological to build on. There's oodles of worldbuilding/character exploration to be done with the idea that Henri envisioned riding on the Dreamlands Express as a way of discarding things that hold them back - both fears and dreams/ambitions.
It's alluded to that Henri had to do many deals with many Dreamlands entities to build the Express: how!!! What deals!!! With whom?! I love the idea of a man loving something so much he dreams it into a reality, and bargains for its existence with eldritch things. TELL ME MORE!!!
Or crossovers such as... what if Agatha Christie dreamt herself onto the Dreamlands Express, and Murder on the Orient Express is really a re-telling of her meeting a dream-Poirot, or some other investigator she later turns into Poirot? Or maybe the King in Yellow from Robert Chambers comes on for a mind-bending visit.
Or, within the universe itself, what if Randolph Carter got onto the train? Where would he go? Was a kick-ass train scene involving Nyalarthotep part of that story???
Call of Cthulhu: The Dreamlands Express (Roleplaying Game)
Title: Call of Cthulhu: The Dreamlands Express (Roleplaying Game)
Media: Book/roleplaying game module
Approx length: 50 pages
Where to find it: This is an optional, self-contained module within the larger Horror on the Orient Express campaign; it is contained within Book II: Through The Alps, starting on pp 131. You don't have to know anything about the larger campaign to read it. You don't have to have greater Cthulhu Mythos knowledge, either, though it is a paean to the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and would work excellently with any of the Dream sequence stories in Lovecraft (and company)'s canon.
What is it, in summary?: Where to start! The module is self-contained within the larger (much larger) Horror on the Orient Express, and involves investigators/players riding on a dream version of the Orient Express through Lovecraft's Dreamlands as imagined in stories like the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. It's a locked-room murder (of course it is), but more importantly it's ripe for worldbuilding, sucking in all the canon from Dream-Quest and sprinkling it with lots of flavour, including (of course) the Cats of Ulthar. The Dreamlands Express is the product of its dreamer, once-Orient Express conducteur Henri Peeters who died in a fire on the train in real life. Anyone who rides on the Orient Express in real life can dream their way onto the Dreamlands Express. This opens up so many crossover opportunities, all of which I'd be excited for. The Dreamlands Express was imagined up to allow passengers to "discard disabling fears and hopeless dreams," eventually terminating at the Gulf of Nodens, where passengers can throw their emotions into the gulf as a sacrifice to Nodens.
What do you love about it?/What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Gosh. There's so much here: the Orient/Dreamlands Express crossover is great, for one thing, with so much History (TM) as well as geography both real and psychological to build on. There's oodles of worldbuilding/character exploration to be done with the idea that Henri envisioned riding on the Dreamlands Express as a way of discarding things that hold them back - both fears and dreams/ambitions.
It's alluded to that Henri had to do many deals with many Dreamlands entities to build the Express: how!!! What deals!!! With whom?! I love the idea of a man loving something so much he dreams it into a reality, and bargains for its existence with eldritch things. TELL ME MORE!!!
Or crossovers such as... what if Agatha Christie dreamt herself onto the Dreamlands Express, and Murder on the Orient Express is really a re-telling of her meeting a dream-Poirot, or some other investigator she later turns into Poirot? Or maybe the King in Yellow from Robert Chambers comes on for a mind-bending visit.
Or, within the universe itself, what if Randolph Carter got onto the train? Where would he go? Was a kick-ass train scene involving Nyalarthotep part of that story???