Our Ladies of Sorrow
Evil walks among us in the form of three sisters: Mater Tenebrarum, the Mother of Darkness; Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sighs; and Mater Lachrymarum, the Mother of Tears. These three evil women are the mystical beings investigators will have to discover (and stop if possible) in Our Ladies of Sorrow, a 152-page Call of Cthulhu adventure book by Kevin Ross. The book presents three different adventures which deal with one of the ladies. There is also a wealth of advice on how to run the adventures linked as a campaign, by themselves, or as part of a Delta Green campaign.
Make no mistake about it, Our Ladies of Sorrow is creepy. Like, “don’t go in your basement at night alone” creepy. It manages this because the adventures are based on real phenomenon and events. Part of the magic of the book is the sheer number of unrelated real world sources and occurrences Kevin brings together and explains as being supernatural. Everything from mummified babies to nightmares of being attacked by old women (an occurrence that it is estimated fifteen percent of the real world has experienced) are all neatly woven together into a story about the deeds of three supernatural women. Our Ladies of Sorrow is very creepy and whole lot of fun.
In fact, the tone of the book is what makes Our Ladies of Sorrow a great book. It is full of things which are terrifying without being shocking. There are very few tangible terrors (like, say, marching skeletons or Old Ones) that the investigators have to deal with. Instead, they are forced to confront women who appear and disappear out of the corner of their eye, move impossibly fast, rape their dreams, and crush their hopes.
Even a relatively inexperienced Keeper can take the source material and turn it into a creepy series of game sessions. With the first adventure’s nightmares, the second adventure’s hopelessness, and the fact a ghost asks for the party by name in the final adventure, there is plenty of material for presenting a scary mood, which is, after all, the real joy of a Call of Cthulhu game. The mood makes the game fun for players.
For Keepers who want to run the game, though, Ross included a lot of detail to make playing it easier. Call of Cthulhu, is a game about supernatural terror firstly, but finding that terror involves a great deal of investigation and slowly finding clues. These clues, which in another game would point towards a rational explanation, inexorably draw investigators towards something unworldly and awful. However, there still need to be clues, and Ross does a great job of providing Keepers with answers to a lot of the questions that players may ask.
For instance, the immediate area in which the adventures take place has been sketched out, complete with floor plans where necessary. NPCs are statted out and if they have information relevant to the case, that information is clearly described, along with suggested rolls on how to get the NPCs to say what they know. Additionally, there are handouts at the back of the book and journal entries that alternately help the Investigators know what is going on and make the truth harder to find.
On the other hand, Our Ladies of Sorrow does not force decisions on the Keeper. In fact, while the book includes a lot of the small details (for instance, a certain NPC has this clue, or another clue can be found in this location) the game says next to nothing about what is really going on behind the scenes. In fact, the book explicitly states that it is not going to give a lot of definitive answers as to what the Ladies are so that Keepers can have the freedom to come up with their own answers.
The freedom even extends into how much of the Cthulhu Mythos the Keeper chooses to use. There are few Mythos-related bad guys running around these adventures and frankly, the Ladies are creepy enough on their own – they don’t need Old Ones to make things worse. Of course, some Keepers will disagree and decide that perhaps the Ladies are the forerunners of Nyarlathotep. It is all up the Keeper to decide and the party to uncover.
If that were not enough, the end of the book includes an expansive bibliography of books the author found helpful over the twenty years he pondered this game. While taking on a research project before running an adventure is never fun, a quick Google search of some of the movies, songs, books, and legends Ross drew on can be enough for Keepers to get in the right mood for the game. Even better, Ross included a two page short story “Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow” by Thomas De Quincey, which gave him the inspiration to actually sit down and write the game.
If Our Ladies of Sorrow runs into any criticism, it will be its lack of direct Cthulhu material. The game is unapologetically non-Cthulhu, which may turn off some gamers who want to experience running into familiar supernatural creatures. If Keepers know that their players are only looking for Cthulhu-inspired villains, they can always make the Ladies part of the Mythos; however, those players may still be disappointed by the lack of any recognizable Mythos demons, spirits, and other assorted foul beings.
Even though Our Ladies of Sorrow is not a direct Cthulhu tie-in, the system still works perfectly since the adventures involve uncovering secrets about the paranormal. Also, the game does a great job of creating that familiar feel of terror that comes from playing a traditional Call of Cthulhu game. All in all, it deserves to be included amongst other Cthulhu Mythos games and is perfect for those wanting to play a game of modern horror.
Want to learn more about Our Ladies of Sorrow? Read on…
- Atomic Array: Our Ladies of Sorrow (Atomic Array 033)
- Game Cryer: Review by Chris Perrin
- All Games Considered: A More Intimate Horror
- Apathy Blogs: Modern Maidens of Myth
- Critical Hits: Modern Gaming Scary Women
- Gnome Stew: by Matthew Neagley
- Kobold Quarterly: How Would You Stop The Seasons?
- Bartleby: Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow
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