This work provides an introduction to Scotland as a setting for adventure, and presents no less than six full adventures ready to be played. The Introduction begins with essential background to 1920s Scotland for the Keeper, including a map with major rail routes and a sweeping overview of Scotland - a rich and varied landscapes with mountains, bogs, woodland and more. It's mysterious, beautiful and wild; people have fought over it for centuries, and in the darkness the Mythos stirs. Notes on Scottish life in the 1920s point out that it matters what your social standing is, and that few families remain untouched by the Great War. Standards of living are lower than in the rest of the UK, and social unrest is not far behind. The arts are flourishing, however, with painters, architects and the stage popular and innovative.

Some Scottish dialect and a good summary history of Scotland follows, taking us from the Stone Age through Romans, the nation that flourished between 1000 and 1500, up to the Industrial revolution of the 1750s and to the present day (or at least the 1920s). Scattered comments inject Mythos elements to what otherwise is a competent summary of Scottish history; and there is a timeline of Mythos activity. The chapter rounds off with notable figures of 1920s Scotland, the party may not meet them but they will have heard of them and might read of them in the papers.

We then embark on a more detailed exploration of Scotland in three chapters which cover the Lowlands, the Highlands and the Islands. Each contains a wealth of material starting with the geography then moving on to culture and people, flora and fauna, the climate and - of course - the Mythos in that region. Much of this last is presented in a way that makes it easy to develop each topic touched on into an adventure for your party. Each 'Mythos Threat' is introduced, then there are sections on investigation and possible encounters as well as all the game mechanics and NPCs you might need to run them.

The Lowlands chapter also contains details of Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews with maps and notes on famous locales. Edinburgh University apparently boasts a professor who studies the Mythos (oddly, he wasn't there twenty years later when my mother studied there!). The Highlands section naturally has space devoted to Loch Ness and possible monstrous inhabitants even though Nessie really only caught the public imagination in the 1930s, as well as notes on Aberdeen, Fort William and Inverness. In the Islands chapter, Kirkwall on Orkney, Portree on Skye and Stornoway on Lewis are detailed, and there are notes on the steamers the party will need to travel around the isles.

Armed with this alone, you'd have plenty to run games in Scotland even without the six adventures which follow. The first is Death and Horror Incorporated, set in the underbelly of Glasgow where the party stumbles upon a dark nexus of evil that spreads around the gaol, the cathedral and Glasgow Royal Infirmary. This is a nicely free-form investigation where the party can wander at will gathering clues, but probably would work best with experienced players. It begins with an appeal from the Lord Provost (city mayor) for aid in dealing with a spate of murders... and ends in a desperate battle in the bowels of the earth.

Next, The Hand of Abyzou takes place in Edinburgh and begins when the party learns that an old acquaintance has been committed to the Royal Edinburgh Asylum for the Insane... apparently he'd been babbling about a cult of sorcerers and unearthly terrors in the vaults below the city. This is followed by Uisge Beatha (the Gaelic for Waters of Life, generally used to describe whisky). In rural Aberdeenshire, the heir to some lands arrives from America and visits a distillery that is part of his property for the first time and found rather more than he'd bargained for. Deciding that the locals were probably involved in what appears to be pagan activities (and him a staunch Baptist), he instructs his lawyers to find suitable investigators... and there is plenty for them to find!

The fourth adventure is Heed the Kraken's Call, which takes the party to Loch Ness. A famous naval explorer who announced his intention to survey the loch and plumb its depths has been murdered and his ship set alight. The police are baffled by certain aspects of the crime, and need specialist help. Again, this is a freeform investigation with plenty for the party to discover before they find out what's really going on and try to deal with it. Ample notes are provided to accommodate the party's investigations wherever they choose to go and whoever they speak with. Will they find Nessie?

Then comes The Forbidden Isle which takes the party to the Isle of Rum, where some fellow called Sir George Bullough plans to turn the island into a luxurious playground for Britain's rich and famous... but faces stiff Mythos opposition. Can the party help? Finally, Star Seed leads farther north, to Orkney where a strange artefact has been unearthed by an archaeologist. This adventure is aimed at novice investigators, but has enough meat to keep more experienced ones entertained.

All these adventures are well-resourced with background material, excellently-detailed NPCs to interact with, many intriguing encounters and plot twists and a useful 'Plot Map' that helps you ensure that all critical points are covered. They all have wonderful flavour that help them come alive as you read, never mind around your table-top. With the additional material covering Scotland as well, this is a magnificent addition to your collection as a resource as well as for the adventures.

Somerset, found in the south west of England, has always been a little strange and in this book its potential as a setting for Call of Cthulhu adventures is explored - very successfully! Complete with details of geography and local legends, a collection of NPCs, three complete scenarios and several more adventure seeds, there's all you need to make it happen.

The Introduction sets all in context, explaining the pleasant nature of the area and the underlying stories. Innocuous legends about dragons and witches, giants and fairies, have - the author claims - a deeper and darker origin in the Mythos. Seeing as that's where he grew up, he ought to know! Finally it introduces the (sadly fictitious) scholar Noah Ainley-Chant, a 19th century antiquarian and occultist, whose comments surface throughout the book.

Scene set, we next turn to the History of the region, which goes right back to prehistory. First, though, is a note on the Somerset dialect - Keepers being encouraged to develop some facility in it to render their NPCs more distinctive (but preferably not sounding like pirates, a common misconception!). It seems that the area was inhabited by humans, or their precursors, since the dawn of time even if they have left little more than the odd bone or shard of flint behind them. Erudite comments from Noah Ainley-Chant pepper the pages adding an air of verisimultude to what is a fairly accurate summary anyway. Adventure hooks are added where appropriate, just in case the text itself doesn't spark any ideas. History sweeps on, through Roman times and the Dark Ages (when the name King Arthur arises), Saxons, Middle Ages, and - via the Monmouth Rebellion - right up to the present day.

Next up, Geography. Physical features - rolling hills and lots of rivers - rub shoulders with numerous archaeological sites, before moving on to Locales, which provides details of areas of interest that may be sites for adventure or merely places that attract the investigators' attention for some reason or another. Many are linked into local legends, of which more anon. Many more plot ideas are scattered about here, as well. There's a more extensive section on the city of Bath, which covers its history as well as what it is like in the present day (or at least, in the 1920s). Hospitals, hotels, public buildings and other places to visit are listed here. A map is given but you may prefer to source a better one from an historical map site, and there's a chart of prices for 'taking the waters' for both 1890s and 1920s. Note that the waters are rather sulphurous and unpleasant (something not mentioned here) even if they are supposed to be good for you.

Then comes an extensive section of Legends and Customs. Many are location-based, linking back to the previous section, and there are many observations from Noah Ainley-Chant and plot ideas mixed in to the entries. However fanciful a legend may be, somewhere once there was some element of fact, a real event, item or person that triggered it. Dig deep, you never know what you might find. Here, of course, the root of each legend is given a Mythos twist. They make fascinating reading: standing stones, wassailing, witchcraft, and more.

The three full scenarios follow. Blood and Water mixes Grail legends with the Mythos, an unholy and sanity-wrenching mix that involves the Monarchy. Set in 1923, it begins with the death of Princess Helena Augusta Victoria, one of Queen Victoria's children, and some shady antics attributed to her husband a few years earlier... but it all begins when the party witnesses someone being thrown into a river! The plot thickens, cultists emerge, and the prize of immortality is dangled...

Next is Strange Little Girl. Madness and revenge power this tale, a creepy tale that begins with a strange letter received by one party member, who soon realises that it's intended for someone else of the same name and involves a strange girl and an occult investigator who seeks to banish her to the darkness from which she came.

The final full adventure is St.Swithun's Hole. It's a horror story involving vast underground caverns and begins, as many adventures do, in an inn to which the party has been invited by an antiquarian friend who has a tale to tell and a spot of caving to suggest. There's plenty to find down there for the brave and stout of heart (although not stout of figure, like many caves there are narrow bits you have to wriggle through).

As if these were not enough, there's an array of six adventure seeds you can develop into full adventures, as well as appendices covering cider, magic and local NPCs. Overall, a magnificent introduction to a fine area of Britain, ripe for investigation and well-suited to the Mythos, which has been masterfully entwined with real-world information about Somerset.

Britain has loads of folklore and, if you look at it in a certain way, you can twist it to your own uses in running a Call of Cthulhu game. Wherever you go, there are myths and legends, tales of the faerie folk, monsters and all manner of supernatural things. They're most rooted to certain locations and it's not too far a leap to say that if there is any basis in reality, the Mythos might be involved... and this book explores such a concept with a whole bunch of ideas for you to use.

The Introduction explains this, with an academic grounding and further references for the interested reader. Then Folklore: A Closer Look delves into the whole concept of what folklore actually is, the remarkable creativity of the human mind when, untrammeled by too much 'common sense' or scientific knowledge, it attempts to explain the world around it and the odd things that go on there. Such tales were still going strong in the 1920s, and people were beginning to collect them - there's a new skill, Folklorist, for anyone who wants their character to take an interest.

Next, Using Folklore in Call of Cthulhu Games looks at how it can add depth and excitement, grounding the plot in a context that is familiar. There are various ways that you can use it. The most obvious one is to have a local folk tale have an origin in something Mythos-related. However, perhaps there's a folklore story running parallel to your Mythos-based one - local colour, perhaps, or a complete red herring to confuse the investigators. At times the discussion is a bit dry and academic, but it gives a good grounding in a range of different ways of involving folklore that may not all have occurred to you before. Folklore always raises more questions than it answeres...

The rest of the book provides an array of ideas which can inspire (or just be used outright) your games, starting with Using Folk Magic in Call of Cthulhu games. Folklore is full of magic - magical events, beings that can wield magic and so on. The Mythos too has its magic: but how do they interrelate? Perhaps folk magic is the present-day relic of ancient lore passed down by Mythos beings, or maybe it developed independently as human beings learned to manipulate powers themselves having seen that such powers existed and could be manipulated... Again, more questions than answers, but by pondering them you can figure out what works (and what is mere superstition) in your game. There are plentiful examples to help you decide, and notes on the allied field of folk medicine. To some, folk medicine is wrapped up in magic, for others it is an instinctive knowledge of the properties of plants applied to the healing arts.

Next is A Folklore Bestiary. It provides details of an assortment of common spirits, monsters, creatures, and peoples of folklore complete with notes on how they may have Mythos connections and all the necessary statistics for you to incorporate them into your game. After all, even if they don't have a Mythos connection, if the Mythos is real, so might they be real and able to show up where appropriate! Faerie folk, giants, wizards, shapeshifters and more await you here... not to mention ghosts and other spirits, and strange beasts such as Black Dogs, a common feature of folklore, along with water horses, dragons and of course the Wild Hunt. Plenty of material here to inspire you.

This is followed by The Folklore Calendar. We cannot have our beasties turning up at the wrong time - or if we do, there must be a plot-driven reason that might give the insvestigators a clue as to what is going on. Then Old Ones and Old Gods looks at Mythos figures in terms of how they might feature as the tradional deities (and other powerful beings) in folklore.

Folklore Mythos Threats continues this theme with information on the activities and motivations of a number of Mythos threats lurking behind British folklore in the 1920s. Find out what the Beast of Bodmin might actually be... presented in enough detail for you to run this as an adventure, complete with a few NPCs and events to throw into the mix. There are other pieces in similar vein, scenario outlines at least, concerning an ancient skull, strange finds in chalk downs and a farmer whose plough dug a little too deep one day. There are strange sightings off the coast of Devon and Cornwall which may not be smugglers for once, and strange goings-on associated with a group of tinkers and missing bodies, not to mention a disappearance in the Fenlands that is decidedly suspicious and the appearance of the Allendale Wolf, larger and more ferocious than any normal animal, or a vast cave system in Wales that is said to be an entryway to Fairyland.

Even if you find the earlier chapters too abstract and philosophical for your taste, this last section provides a wealth of material that you can incorporate into your game. Perhaps you will drop one in occasionally to an existing campaign, or use them as a basis for an entire folklore-related series of adventures... whatever you choose, you'll never listen to a folktale in quite the same way again!

Normally I don't pay much attention to cover art - I'm more interested in the contents of a book - but the adaptation of Constable's The Haywain to include a horse being tossed into the air by a tentacled something in the millpond is sheer genius. Cthulhu has come to the UK big-style, in the shape of five separate adventures set from Victorian London to a rather desperate far future when the End Is Nigh if not already here. The Introduction provides a brief summary of each and points out that every one comes with a set of pre-generated characters. A few notes on atmosphere and pacing complete this section, then it's on to the adventures themselves, presented in historical order.

The first adventure, set in Victorian times (1895 to be precise), is Bad Company. It's summer in London and 'society' is in full swing - but one young gentleman who ought to be taking a leading role has vanished from his home in the dead of night, missing presumed kidnapped. Upper-class investigators are best, either the ones provided or your players' own (especially if you want to use this as part of an ongoing campaign). The Keeper's Information explains what actually is going on and provides a timeline, then the game's afoot when young Arthur's father, Sir Godfrey Sommers Bt., summons the party and asks for their help. (Note how I've written his name: this is the correct form of address for a Baronet, you don't address or refer to him as Baronet Sommers as is done repeatedly in the text!) There are plenty of aventues of inquiry for the party to follow, with plenty of information - some of it useful - for them to discover and if that's not enough for you there are a few optional side-plots you can weave in. Neatly, there are two main routes to the solution of the mystery, the party may follow either or both to reach the adventure's climax through the squalid underbelly of London to an outwardly-respectable house in the Strand. Here the awful truth becomes evident and the party have the opportunity to put an end to things... or not. All possible outcomes are covered in the conclusion.

Next up is Darkness, Descending which is set in the 1930s, taking the party to a small village in Norfolk. Here some finds have excited the archaeological world (including the party, apparently). Again pre-generated characters are provided or your players may use their own. The adventure is designed as a one-off, taking up to three sessions to resolve, but could provide the starting point for a campaign presuming the party is successful - failure might make continuing rather difficult. Without going into too much detail, the dig has unearthed something it would be best to leave undisturbed. Once the party arrives, they are soon embroiled in the dig but will also be able to look around the village. Their arrival is set for the Friday, and a timeline of events leads to a climax at sunset the following Monday - the Autumn Equinox.

The following adventure is Wrong Turn, which involves a film crew in the present day who get trapped in a deserted location in a clausrophobic and horrific scenario. Designed as a one-off, it's the sort of horror survival scenario in which there's a slow dawning of what is going on even as the rest of the party gets picked off one-by-one... The core idea is that the film crew have come to an abandoned observatory to assess its potential as a location, being tasked to stay there for 24 hours. This will be a very long 24 hours, and very likely their last. There was but a single night's observing done here which went disasterously wrong, and which have left the place in an unstable state that is not conductive to spending the night there. The adventure takes place in three phases, the horror mounting as time passes...

Moving on, King is also contemporary, and designed as a visceral horror experience rather than an investigation. It begins when the investigators attend hospital as out-patients to receive treatment for a minor eye condition. Then they wake up tied to hospital beds with no idea of how they got there... and that's just the beginning. Intended as a one-off, for reasons that will become obvious once you read the plot, there are some interesting suggestions for how to continue the adventure.

Finally, we travel to the end of known time (or at least, just before) - or so the blurb would have you believe, in actuality it could be run in the present day - for My Little Sister Wants You To Suffer. Stuck on a spaceship, the investigators have no idea where they are or why... and the truth is quite different from what they might imagine it to be. Nothing, as they say, is what it seems. It's a delightful opportunity for the Keeper to really mess with the players' heads, and although the scenario is a linear one, there is a very good reason for what might appear to be rail-roading.

Overall, a nice selection of adventures to have to hand, a bit heavy on the 'bottle show' and 'horror' angles and, apart from the first two, not necessarily very Mythos-related. The first adventure does need London, but any of the others do not necessarily have to be in Britain if for some reason you'd rather run them elsewhere... Solid, horrific fun.

Opening with an almost-poetic paean to the elemental powers, the introduction describes how beguiling and indeed easy it is to tap in to them... yet it is dangerous in the extreme. These are not powers to be trifled with or accessed lightly. Tapping in to the elemental planes has the potential to release far more energy than the mage might expect, and elemental creatures are just as bad - most seek to surround themselves with their element, no matter the damage that they might be doing to their surrounds. Nothing malicious, they just don't realise the harm that they can do.

There's a note about elemental magic in Midgard, where the Dragon Empire and the Southland deserts are particular hot-beds of elemental magic, then a new sorcerous origin is presented: Elemental Essence. Throughout, there are options to base one's power on air, fire, water or earth; and naturally all abilities key in to the chosen element.

For budding warlocks, there's a new Patron, the Genie Lord. Strange, inscrutable and innately quarrelsome, they cannot be fully trusted yet offer much to those who make a pact with them. Wizards are not neglected, there's the new Arcane Tradition of Elementalism which provides many options for gaining mastery of the chosen element.

Finally, there are some seventeen new spells. Most relate to a particular element - not stated, but it's pretty obvious - and there's a good range of dramatic effects. There's also a single magic item, the magma mantle, but it is intended as an example - see what you can come up with!

This opens out exciting possibilities for a spellcaster wishing to specialise in elemental magic. Experiment carefully!

Whilst World War Cthulhu: Cold War contained information about intelligence agencies around the world, the main thrust of that work was British activities. Yet in the Cold War the driving force was the interaction between America and Soviet Russia, so this book deals with American espionage activities. When Section 46 was formed, its ostensible role was to liaise with intelligence agencies in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. There's been a long association between British and American intelligence agencies ever since WW2, and peace did not affect this special relationship. Of course, N is somewhat wary of any government looking into the Mythos - for reasons unknown, a couple are suggested but you can pick what you wish - and keeps a sharp eye on what the Americans are up to. There's a summary of some of the more unusal operations and investigations run in America during the 1960s and 1970s - some real, like Project Bluebook which gathered information about UFO sightings, some weird like Project MKUltra which experimented into mind control, and more.

For those wishing to play American agents, the default agency is the CIA, however other agencies are described and may be used if preferred - for example, a campaign based around events in America might work better with an FBI team. Most published adventures are written with British agents in mind but it ought not to be too difficult to use American ones instead. Groups of agents from different agencies might be difficult to explain if you are aiming for a 'real-world' feel to your game, although they might work together occasionally.

The first chapter deals with The US Intelligence Community in the 1970s. It starts by looking at the somewhat uneasy situation with scandals caused by the revelation of some well-dodgy programmes being run within US agencies. The CIA changed Directors at a dizzying rate, brief details of each are provided. Agencies covered include the CIA, the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the FBI, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the National Security Agency (NSA) and more of the 'alphabet soup' of three-letter agencies that populate the US intelligence scene. It ends with a bibliography for those who wish to delve deeper into real-world American agencies.

Next, Domestic Briefings provides a run-down of what is going on in the murkier circles of the American underworld (apart from the activities described in the preceeding chapter). Organised crime, gangs, drug dealers, domestic terrorists and dissidents rub shoulders with cultists - real ones like the Reverend Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ (which ended in the Jonestown Massacre, a mass suicide). A couple of real dodgy clandestine operations is followed by outline ideas for adventures along similar lines. Each provides both an intelligence operation and a parallel task from N.

Then there's a look at Foreign Intelligence Theatres, a scan around the world with more outline missions in Central America, Angola, Bolivia, Europe, the USSR, Afghanistan, the Far East and Australia. Plenty to keep the party busy and on their toes. This is followed by Keeper Dossiers, a series of two page spreads, featuring a core story or topic, and a series of ancillary facts, characters, locations and topics, along with some targeted guidance for further reading, all designed to inspire the Keeper to come up with even more missions with which to task the party. They're grouped geographically: UK, USA, and the rest of the world.

Beyond Top Secret then looks at the Mythos threat in more detail, providing the Keeper with the necessary information to run credible threats. There's a whole bunch of activities that either Mythos creatures or cultists have been getting up to, and these can be woven into existing missions or provide entirely new ones.

Next, The Brocken Spectre provides a full ready-to-run scenario set in East Berlin and the Harz Mountains of East Germany. It all begins with a search for a missing NSA agent, complicated by the arrival of the estranged son of a person the agent mentioned, the Stasi, and a strange woman who after something but nobody's sure just what. There's enough detail on East Berlin to run it as the dark and claustrophobic place it was, the usual host of well-characterised NPCs. The consequences of failure in this mission are potentially dire, and could even precipitate war between the West and the East.

Finally, there's a collection of American Fortean events (more plot ideas in abundance) and a collection of Persons of Interest - NPCs you can use to help or hinder the party as suits. Each also comes with ideas for plots involving them, although most will make good 'bit part' players to be encountered during other missions.

This makes an excellent addition to the World War Cthulhu: Cold War line, and with a bit of modification in the mission briefings will work with British agents if preferred. A lot of the material would work well in more regular spy games, just excise the Mythos elements (or treat them X-Files style where there was usually a real-world explanation as well as a spooky one for every weird effect.

Opening with the statement 'There is no such thing as a standard mission' this book contains six complete scenarios for you to play through. Each one combines a regular espionage mission appropriate to British or allied secret agents with a lurking undertow of Mythos mischief that turns ordinary missions (filled with people ready to arrest, torture or kill agents at the drop of a hat) into something far more dangerous and horrific. All take place in the 1970s and take the party around the globe from the Arctic to Australia, with Moscow and Cyprus included in the itinerary. Real world events and Mythos horror meld to provide adventures to challenge and terrify the best and bravest that the spy world can offer.

First up, Puddles Become Lakes is set in the United Kingdom in 1970, where a chase to find a leak to the Soviets takes the party from the squalor of the East End of London to the high-living of a golf tournament in St Andrews - the 1970 Open no less. The initial task is to contain a journalist who seems to know too much, and find out where the information's coming from. Section 46 chips in with orders to investigate dreams with the concern that the Mythos may be attempting to pervert the regular give and take of espionage to its own ends. Oh, and the rot extends to the House of Lords... but were they passing information to the Soviets or to someone else? Compressed into five days, the party needs to move fast to deal with it all, visiting the House of Lords, a London pub, a stately home and other locations in their quest with a climaz at the Open golf championship pavillion.

Next, the Forcing Move takes the action to Iceland and another sporting event, the World Chess Championship of 1972. Here the party is tasked to persuade a low-level KGB double-agent that now is not the time to defect, he's of more use where he is. Meanwhile, word is that an American cultist is in town with a nefarious plot in mind... Is this an explanation for Bobby Fischer's erratic and paranoid behaviour? From a briefing in a posh London gentleman's club (complete with special arrangements to admit any female party members to the consternation of other fellows in the club!) it's off to Reykjavik via a quick meeting with N. There's ample background on Reykjavik to help you run the adventure effectively, and plenty about the chess tournament which provides a backdrop to events. It gets quite tense at times...

Then, Cadenza takes the party to Cyprus in 1974 as Turkey invades, with the action centred in Limassol and RAF Akrotiri. If the Royal Air Force personnel didn't have enough to worry about with the invasion there's a rising tide of sabotage and this is what the party - in the guise of RAF Police - are sent to investigate. The adventure revolves around a strange musical transmission picked up by a technician running a numbers station on the base and a honeypot trap that appears to be aimed at stealing a nuclear warhead... but the true explanation is mind-blowing! How will the party account for their discoveries to their superiors?

The fourth adventure is Guardians of the Forest, and takes place in East Timor. The Australians are covertly assisting an Indonesian invasion and have asked the British for help - and the party is sent. Meanwhile N would like them to investigate the disappearance of an expedition studying a remote tribe just before World War 2 broke out. The action starts in Hong Kong, to which they are summoned to receive a briefing on Christmas Day. East Timor is a former Portuguese colony, and their mission is to plant evidence that the current leader of the country is in the pocket of the Communists. From Hong Kong they are flown to Darwin, Australia, thence by boat to East Timor with the action taking place both in the capital city and in the jungle.

Next comes Operation Header, which occurs in the 1970s in Canada. It all begins with the agents being sent to the CIA headquarters in Langley, where it's revealed that they are to investigate a Distant Early Warning (DEW) outpost that has gone silent deep in the Arctic regions... and of course, it's winter! They soon find themselves heading north by airplane then helicopter... finding the outpost damaged and populated mostly by corpses, although there are a few terrified survivors. This is an adventure where atmosphere is important: a dark and bleak location ripe for horror. And a polar bear, plus some Inuit (Eskimo). Survival may well become more important than finding answers...

Finally, The Unclean occurs in Moscow sometime during the 1970s and starts with a rather spectactular defection. Meanwhile Section 46 wants them to investigate a series of deaths going back to the Russian Civil War. There's no mission briefing per se as this scenario starts with them, for whatever reason, manning the night shift for their agency's Moscow station when an unlisted phone rings. Then they are off down a veritable rabbit hole of violence, shady deals and intrigue when it's not clear who - if anyone - can be trusted. Just about every spy agency that is represented in Moscow seems to be in on the action, Russian and foreign alike - Cold War spy games at their very best!

Each adventure is well-resourced with masses of NPCs all pursuing their own agendas and details of locations to provide a backdrop. As just about everywhere is real, you can supplement this with additional information from guidebooks or online - just remember this is supposed to be the 1970s! If you can get hold of old National Geographic magazines, they make a fantastic resource for this style of game. This book provides a series of absorbing scenarios to whisk your party into the Great Game Cold War style.

If World War 2 proved a great opportunity for Mythos forces to get on with their own deviltry amongst the chaos, just imagine what they could do with the ongoing hostilities, tensions and confusion of the Cold War? Imagine no longer, here's a resource to enable you to bring the Cold War into your game.

Part 1: Introduction sets the scene. It revisits the ideas expressed in World War Cthulhu: The Darkest Hour, that while the Mythos isn't interested in taking sides in human conflict, it will take advantage of the chaos, fear and suffering that arises from it. If nothing else, the activities of Mythos powers and their minions can always be passed off as having been 'enemy action' rather than exposed for what they really are - a threat to all humanity whichever side they are on. There's a brief but cogent history of the Cold War, loads of detail about the intelligence scene around the worlds, and information about Section 46 which grew out of the Network N of wartime days. The predominent mood is paranoia, it's a time filled with proxy conflicts where it's more important to know not who is fighting but who is backing each side. And the nuclear threat looms over everything and everyone. There's a reminder that this work deals with recent events, some of your group may have lived through them (as I have) or had their lives affected by them, so care must be taken in choosing the themes you want to explore - the example given is the rise of terrorism from the 1970s onwards. Make sure your group is comfortable with what you want to do in your game.

Next, Part 2: Investigator's Resources is mostly concerned with character generation. The core intention is that characters are somewhere within the intelligence scene even before getting involved with Section 46. Some will have done other jobs before being recruited as a spy, others are picked up as potential candidates while still at university. Once recruited, they receive specialist training, and there are a variety of career paths open to them in the intelligence world... and there's always the possibility of a 'double-recruitment' if the other side tries to get them to become a double agent. You also need to decide how the character first became aware of the Mythos, and how Section 46 became aware of him. The assumption is that the character is British, although there is some wiggle-room if you want to have a different background. There are also notes on converting regular Call of Cthulh and World War Cthulhu: The Darkest Hour characters if you have an existing character you'd like to play.

Then the extensive Part 3: Keeper's Handbook covers notes on mission design, reams of material about what is going on around the world intelligence-wise (accompanied by loads of ideas for missions in each area discussed), and a section on likely Mythos threats and how to incorporate them into your game. There are some NPCs... but high-level ones, the party will have heard of them but may well never meet them. There are also notes on cover identities and weapons (but these matters are covered more extensively in the Section 46 Operations Manual). Possibly the most interesting piece of advice is that you should keep the party feeling paranoid - they should never know just who they can trust. You also should create a heady mix of 'Cold War' espionage activities and Mythos machinations, ideally the party will spend a lot of time wondering which is which! If you either lived through the Cold War or are well up on its history it's great to mix in real-world events that your players might have heard about. There's also a section on typical covert activities and how to run them in your game, and an armoury-full of weapons and other handy equipment you may (or may not) wish to issue.

Finally Part 4: Intersections is a full-blown scenario to get your Cold War campaign off to a flying start. It's more of a mini-campaign, if you use everything that's here, though. There's a whole web of intersecting plots going on in Istanbul, but it all begins when the party is sent there to meet a KGB agent who claims he wants to defect. There's a host of NPCs - British, American, Turkish, Russian - not to mention cultists galore, a bunch of spells and many exotic locations to explore, littered with encounters and opportunities for investigation. The structure allows for considerable player freedom, whatever they decide to do, you will have resources to deal with it... and it ends with suggestions for further adventures as well as the likely consequences for this one.

If you fancy exploring the latter part of the 20th century with a Mythos twist, this is the sourcebook for you. The dizzying amount of information will take a while to digest, but once you have you will be in a position to run some exciting, challenging and scary adventures.

This work provides information for those playing Cold War spies caught up in the even darker web of those who seek to defeat the Mythos as well as the Red Menace. As well as providing masses of information and ideas to aid in planning and running espionage operations, there are notes about appropriate game mechanics to apply and observations as to how 'real world' spy tradecraft is (or more often is not) effective against the Mythos and its agents.

Straight into Chapter 1: Communication and Deception. Beginning with a discourse that announces that 'espionage' means 'discovering secrets' and hence doing so is the core of what a spy does, it goes on to explain that a lot of the information the typical spy gathers is not particularly secret at all! Much can be gathered by observation, although most countries do not welcome spies wandering around even if they only seem to be reading the newspapers and watching what is going on around them in plain view. It looks at how to mount a convincing deception - like persuading someone that your presence is quite innocent, even when it's not - and how to prepare for questioning by having your fake background well imagined and at the tip of your tongue. Then we move on to disguises and cover identities, the building of a 'legend'. This is followed by the more chillings aspects of what might happen if the story doesn't hold enough water to prevent the agent being arrested and questioned further about their identity and activities, and provides hints and tips on how to come out smelling like roses. With some notes on the props that may be used to support a cover story, the narrative moves on to communications: once you have the information you seek, it needs to be passed on. The interception of transmissions is also covered - it can be a good way to find things out, or an easy way for the opposition to find you! Signals, codes and ciphers are covered as well as old-school tradecraft like dead drops, and this chapter ends with propaganda and lies.

Next, Chapter 2: Networks and Assets explores how to set up and run a network in hostile territory, and how to recruit and utilise assets - who may not even know what you are after or what you intend to do with it. This chapter also looks at planning operations and issuing orders for them.

This leads on to Chapter 3: Field Operations. Both urban and rural environments have their challenges and these are explored. Insertions, movement, breaking and entering, all manner of aspects of live in the field are covered here.

This is followed by Chapter 4: Surveillance and Intelligence Gathering, which goes into more detail about various aspects of tradecraft touched upon earlier. Stakeouts, tailing people, conducting all manner of surveillance in person or electronically... plenty useful skills here.

Next, Chapter 5 looks at Personal Violence. Successful spies rarely if ever need to indulge in this - unless handed an assassination task, of course. However, when it becomes necessary to fight at all, the operative must be prepared to do whatever it takes to win. This chapter also covers the use of explosives and incendiary devices. Assassination techniques and those for silent kills are also addressed, along with poisons and other drugs... and the all-important topic of cleaning up bodies and evidence once you're done. Like everything else (barring the Mythos-based comments) this is genuine real world stuff, so don't try it out on your friends. It does make for excellent role-playing if you can describe in realistic detail precisely what your character is doing to accomplish his mission, however.

Then comes Chapter 6: Covert Operations. This is when espionage goes large, and you end up involved in an armed uprising. Maybe the seeds have already been sown, and there is a leader in place for you to assist; sometimes you'll need to sow the seeds yourself and either take the lead or find someone suitable to do so. There's also things like sabotage and disruption here as well as full-blown guerilla warfare. There's a change of focus with a look at close protection duties, should you have a VIP to protect, as well as urban combat and small group actions.

Finally, Chapter 7 looks at Special Weapons and provides some pre-generated characters for those who are ready to leap straight into the fray. The weapons section starts with regular small arms but works right up to nuclear warfare.

Overall, this is an excellent primer for the would-be spy, useful whatever modern spy game you want to play even if it's not the Cold War version of World War Cthulhu. Well worth a look if espionage is your thing.

This work is a massive resource for anyone running World War Cthulhu, which draws on earlier works, especially Cthulhu Britannica: London, World War Cthulh: The Darkest Hour and The SOE Handbook, although you don't need any of these products to use this book in your game. (They might help, though!) The idea behind the book is that the characters are Londoners who are caught up both in the reality of war and the horror of the Mythos. They might be civilians or involved in the emergency services, Home Guard or Civil Defence Volunteers, or part of Network N. Whoever they are, they have to cope with the dangers of the Blitz as well as concerns about those they know who are fighting, threats of invasion... and the Mythos which, while not involved in the war, is happy to take advantage of the fear and chaos it causes.

The Introduction goes on to present a brief history of London during the war, outlining the various phases, and to talk about Network N and in particular those members of the organisation active in London, known as Auxiliries. The next chapter tells you how to create such a Network N Auxiliary. A neat idea is presented, that you could start a campaign with a bunch of Auxiliaries then, as time (and the war) progresses they could advance to full-blown agents and be sent on missions as detailed in The Darkest Hour and the Europe Ablaze book of adventures. There's plenty of ideas here with new professions, new skills and a range of organisations to join that are specifically tailored to London.

The next chapter is Wartime London, which describes everyday life in London during the Blitz. This provides plenty of background against which you can set and run your plots. Everything from air raids to crime is touched upon, there's plenty of atmospheric material to make your wartime London come to life. There's also a selection of notable individuals, many from the entertainment world although Winston Churchill is also included. There are also some interesting places to visit, complete with plot hooks to send the party there or provide some interesting action whilst there. Everyday shopping and the procurement of equipment is covered, with attention paid to rationing and increased costs due to scarcity.

We then move on to a chapter on Mythos Horrors. London has always had more than its fair share of strange cults and beasties, and the war only makes it worse. Ghouls abound, and there's a weird bunch called the Rat Catchers whose life-mission is to capture them. You can meet leading members of the Rat Catchers as well as those of less-wholesome cults. Monsters too, like a long-forgotten imprisoned shoggoth released by falling bombs... Here too are artefacts and tomes, not least the British Museum Restricted Collection. Strange places to explore, odd people to meet: this Chapter will help add a Mythos spin to your London.

Then comes Battles on the Home Front, a chapter jam-packed with advice on creating adventures and even whole campaigns set in wartime London. If that's not enough for you, three complete scenarios are provided to get you started: Midnight Sunrise (mid-1940), Captive Audience (February 1941), and The Meat Trade (a scant month later). These are no outlines, but complete and ready to run with all the resources, NPCs etc, you will need. Each has a solid Conclusions section with ideas for incorporating the consequences of the party's actions into further adventures.

There's plenty here to get a London-based campaign up and running, or to provide a solid percursor to a full-blown Network N campaign that sends the party all over Europe fighting Nazis and the Mythos alike.

As role-players, it's rather nice to know what our characters are capable of doing... then we can plan actions with understanding of their skills and knowledge, and make our characters as realistic as possible. Sometimes we only have our imaginations to draw upon, as there are no real-world equivalents, but if we are playing WW2 undercover operatives, there's a wealth of historical information to delve into... even if we won't find mention of the Mythos there! This book is based on the training and skills developed for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and it the sort of thing we can assume any character working for N will have received training in to a greater or lesser extent, depending on their background.

This is, of course, a game supplement, so the various things it says that your character can learn to do are accompanied by appropriate additions to the Call of Cthulhu ruleset. Notes are also provided specifically for Section N operatives, showing how 'classic' SOE skills transfer into the special situation of combatting the Mythos as well as Nazis. There's also a couple of useful appendices, one showing where SOE and Network N facilities are to be found and how agents were trained, and one on incorporating at least some of the training into your game itself - perhaps developing individual skills prior to a specific mission, or making the training itself part of your plot.

Most of the book is written as a facsimile SOE Handbook and could be regarded as an in-game resource. If your character has access to SOE training, he's read it or something like it - and as a Section N operative, he'll be privy to N's little comments on it as well. It's made up of sections based on various activities: combat, espionage, and irregular warfare; and the whole thing makes for a fascinating read.

The Combat section begins with a reminder that SOE agents ought not to get involved in combat unless absolutely necessary - leave that to soldiers. However there will be occasions when it becomes necessary to fight to complete mission objectives, to remove threats, to stay alive... or if the opportunity arises to do great harm to the enemy. It looks at firearms, with an eye to deliberate acts of assassination as well as the more familiar firefight. There's even a bit about heavy weapons, with the assumption that the agents have captured them from the enemy rather than brought them along themselves (hence needing to know how to use German weapons rather than the British equivalents). Due to the nature of clandestine operations, however, hand-to-hand combat (possibly with improvised weapons or your bare hands) is also likely and there's an extensive section devoted to that, with matters such as dealing with sentries and disarming foes being covered. Note that these are REAL fighting techniques, be very careful if you're tempted to try them out on your friends.

Possibly the most interesting section is the one on Espionage. This is what is often called tradecraft, the tricks used by spies to gather and communicate information to their parent organisation. Falling into several areas, the first is human intelligence, that gathered by you or from other people, including things like evaluating the reliability and honesty of your sources and avoiding being noticed. Many informants won't know why you are gathering information, if they even realise that you're gathering it at all. The section also looks at disguises and cover identities - tasks that can involve the building of an entire 'legend', a well-backstopped identity that will withstand investigation. There are notes on how to pass a routine interrogation at a checkpoint or the like, as well as the tougher questioning you'd expect if trying to access a secure facility or if you get caught up in a security sweep. Some rules are provided for this. Then on to building networks, deception and counter-intelligence.

The third main section covers Communications. Radio, of course, was the mainstay but as anyone might chance on the frequency you're using, codewords are a good idea or you can delve into the esoteric world of ciphers. There are other ways of communicating, many of which fall under the tradecraft banner - leaving signs for others to observe, dead drops. Then there's propaganda - communicating with the enemy to mislead or lower morale or otherwise influence them. Or the media - generally newspapers - can be used to pass information on without anyone suspecting that it has been done. The delivery of orders is also covered, including the formal structure of content.

Finally there's Irregular Warfare. Building on the more personal aspects of combat discussed earlier, this is aimed at the sort of things you can do to weaken, confuse or demoralise the enemy. Sun Tzu said "Kill one to terrorise ten thousand", but here it may be a case of creating a situation that will cause the enemy to commit more and more forces into a specific area to the detriment of their efforts elsewhere. Sabotage, rebellion, ambushes, assassinations, direct attacks and subversion can all be tools in your arsenal. There are useful notes on moving around covertly, and there's a fair bit about using explosives. House-to-house fighting, ambushes and attacking railways to best effect are also covered along with sabotage and arson. Again, these are genuine real-world tactics, but ones which can be used to good effect in your game (I've been drawing on my military training for years to fuel my role-playing...). There's a bit more on surveillance and subversion, which extends material covered in the Espionage section nicely.

There's an extensive Weapons and Equipment section, and this gets interesting fast as specialised kit for the well-dressed spy abounds - easily-concealed firearms, disguised explosives, incendiaries... there's even an exploding rat! Should you need to venture underwater, necessary equipment is covered - and if you're on the water, why, there are even seasickness pills to be had. There are other useful items as well, but care must be taken to never have stuff that screams "Agent" on you in case the enemy searches you as you go about your business...

Probably essential if you want to run World War Cthulhu seriously, there's a lot of useful information here for anyone planning a World War 2 or just thereafter setting for a game whether or not the Mythos features. If you're not using the Call of Cthulhu ruleset, it should be easy enough to convert the game mechanics to whatever system you are playing. Overall, a fascinating read, and well-grounded in historical fact.

Set in the darkest days of World War 2, when it seemed that Britain stood alone against the Nazi hordes, this book provides six fully-developed adventures, missions the party might be sent to complete, all somewhere in mainland Europe. Each combines real war action with additional menace posed by the Mythos and human agents thereof, and all pose real threats to the physical and mental well-being of the party. A couple of them are even based on real events, others are more Mythos based but the war still poses a very tangible threat. The adventures will take the party to northern France, Italy, Norway, Belgium, Greece and Spain (the last being ostensibly neutral, but it's still a dangerous place for British service personnel!). Refer to World War Cthulhu: The Darkest Hour for more extensive details of 'Section N' for which the party is assumed to work.

First up is Sleeper Agents, set in mid-1941 in France. Something untoward is stirring, disturbed by the bombing of trains heading towards the coast for the Dunkirk evacuation the previous year. It's drawn the attention of some very dangerous people... and now it's caught the eye of N, the party's boss, who sends them to find out what's going on and to put a stop to it, under the cover of helping the Resistance establish a network of agents in the area. With detailed NPCs - both friends and foes - and the town of Rennes to investigate, the party should be kept busy for some time... especially once the assassinations start.

Next comes The Play is the Thing, set in Italy sometime before 1943. It all begins with the British suspecting that an Italian biological warfare experiment has gone wrong and sending the party to investigate. Beginning with a briefing in Malta, the party is inserted into the area... but from then on it's somewhat of a sandbox mission as they investigate the outbreak of a rather strange plague. While British Intelligence think it's an experiment gone awry, N reckons there may be cultist activity taking place: whatever the cause, the party is tasked with putting a stop to it. The adventure begins as they parachute in... and with a haunted wood and dismembered body parts they'll soon realise that something's very, very wrong here despite a festival in progress and even a movie being made.

The third adventure is We Will Remember Them. Based on actual historical events, this sees the party sent to Norway to demolish power stations but begins in media res with them waking up in the back of a crashed truck after the attack. Things only get worse... It's an unusual and exciting (and scary once the truth comes out) adventure, with earlier parts of the mission replayed in flashbacks - make sure that you do this, it's an integral part of the plot - and then things slowly become horribly clear. Probably better run as a one-off, as characters will be irrovocably changed and some players may not feel comfortable using them again.

Next up, Lift Not Thy Hands which sends the party to occupied Belgium in 1942 in a mission to retrieve an amulet and investigate the demise of the people who were transporting it, although ostensibly they are there to train the local Resistance. Eavading the Gestapo whilst conducting investigations into occult matters should provide plenty of excitement as the body count rises.

Then The Angel of the Abyss is set in Greece, also in 1942. Again loosely based on historical events, it involves friction between different groups of Greek partisans as they seek to disrupt German supply lines heading south towards Africa. There's plenty of background and a whole host of fascinating and detailed NPCs. The ostensible mission is to aid the Resistance, who have some bridges to demolish, with a side of investigating some unusual religious activity which might attract inconvenient attention from Italian troops. With military duties as well as investigations, the party will be kept busy... then bodies begin to pile up!

Stoways comes next, set in the Mediterranean Sea during the late October of 1943. The party is charged with searching out saboteurs on a hospital ship involved in the exchange of POWs, but there's a nasty bug going around as well. The party will have to deal with sick and injured Germans, British medical personnel and Spanish Red Cross observers. Events are fluid but based around a timeline that ends when the ship makes port... and any mistakes will lead to diplomatic turmoil.

This is an interesting and varied set of adventures that should provide for many sessions of intriguing play for you and your group. With the possible exception of We Will Remember Them they could be played in sequence with the same party - or at least those who survive with bodies and minds reasonably intact - and even that adventure is provided with an alternative that could allow continuation. For ready-made adventures these are excellent, just the right balance of detail and background whilst leaving plenty of scope to run events as you see fit.

The concept is presented in a flurry of facsimile documents that set the scene and create the right atmosphere even before we reach Part 1: Introduction, which explains what 'World War Cthulhu' is all about. Basically war presents opportunities for the followers of dark forces, and the major distruptions of the last century and in particular World War 2 gave rise to unprecedented scope for them to push forwards their plans with little risk of detection. The World War Cthulhu line is intended to explore other avenues as well, but with this the first book in the series the intention is to look at Europe in the early part of the Second World War. It's Allied-centric, with the party involved in defeating Nazis and Mythos creatures alike, although interestingly the Nazis are not represented as attempting to harness the Mythos in support of the Third Reich. Despite Nazi activities in the realms of the occult, they are still not quite that insane! The default setting is that they belong to Section N, an intelligence network - if nothing else, it's a good vehicle to send them off on missions!

The rest of the Introduction sets the mood of the game and details British Intelligence in considerable detail. It's likely that recruits to Section N (which comes at the end) may well be drawn from or at least familiar with the other organs of British Intelligence. If you have a burning desire to play an American, remember you'd be a volunteer in a British unit... the USA is yet to enter the war at this point!

Next is Part 2: Investigator's Resources. Character generation is based on the Call of Cthulhu ruleset, but it's advised that you use this rather the the core rulebook as these characters will be honed to withstand the rigors of wartime. If you do want to use an existing Call of Cthulhu character, there are some notes on how best to tweak it to suit, however. One difference is that the character's background is split into a pre-war occupation and the military service undertaken (in total war, even civilians get swept up in the war machine). As well as noting how the character became aware of the Mythos, recruitment by Section N is also covered - and the resultant training may yield some useful additional skills. As well as British characters, there's information about those from Australia, New Zealand and Canada (the Commonwealth having joined the UK in the war from the outset), escaped Europeans (especially from France and Poland) as well as a word on Americans. After all the detail you need and a worked example, there are some new occupations - politician, scientist and spy - and some new skills suited to this particular environment.

The rest of this chapter moves on from the game mechanics of character creation to a discussion of Intelligence Operating Procedures. Standard procedures can be a blessing and a curse: understanding them can stop you making a silly mistake but following them blindly can lead to disaster or detection. Study them well and use them wisely. For those intending to play military-oriented characters there is also an analysis of small unit tactics. Even the non-combatants ought to read through them - incoming fire rarely stops to ask if you are a trained soldier! Both these sections provide a solid overview of the matters under discussion and are particularly useful for players who have minimal experience in espionage or military combat.

Part 3: Keeper's Handbook covers all manner of things that the Game Master or Keeper should bear in mind when planning or running their game. Whilst there is a lot of good advice here, the main gist of it is to pile horror upon horror, playing to the 'purist' mode of Call of Cthulhu which aims to be as realistic and gritty as possible. The fight against the Nazi horde should be rooted in reality: draw on documentaries and history books rather than movie interpretations. While the agents of the Mythos might be taking advantage of all-out war to further their own ends, N - the party's director - is also taking every advantage of his position in British Intelligence to further his own war against the Mythos. N sure knows a lot about the Mythos, too. Here you can read a fair bit about his background and perhaps discover who he actually is... something the characters might never know, or may discover if (when?) they have to step up and take his place. Several suggestions are made, select the one you prefer or make up one of your own.

Moving on to a discussion of builing plots, things get complex with many strands - human, Mythos, the 'mundane' course of the war - to weave together to create each adventure. Standard intelligence missions are often subverted by N to his own ends, but the needs of the war and maintaining his cover means that the intended mission aims must be met as well as N's own. Then there are the plots being perpetrated by Mythos agents to defeat, as well as said agents to investigate. There's a lot going on, a lot to keep track of... and that's before you get to the strange places and alien horrors that also need to be investigated! There are some maxims for running adventures too. Make things personal - no nameless mooks amongst the opposition, for example. The Mythos and the war effort don't mix: this is not an alternate-history 'weird war' but the Mythos intruding into the real world. It's best to avoid big battles and too many encounters with historical figures, however - you don't want to introduce opportunities for history-changing events. There's a lot to think about as you plan.

Next comes a survey of theatres of war, with suggestions for missions that can be run in each one. Plenty of historical detail mixed with more outlandish stuff here, ready to spawn ideas in your mind for plots. Many mission suggestions have to components: an intelligence mission based on British war aims and a secondary mission at N's instigation. This is followed by The Dark Lamentable Catalogue, which documents Mythos cults and the Mythos beings whom they serve.

Of course, Mythos cultists are not the only opposition, and Behind Closed Doors presents some of the murky organisations, committees and people that the party will have to navigate and contend with back home in London. Attention then turns again to small group tactics, the focus now is on running encounters to best effect. Although it's best to stay away from pitched battles, there's enough here to enable you to run them well if the party's involvement is unavoidable. Should the adventure go underwater, there's information on SCUBA equipment and the underwater environment. Excitement can also be supplied with sections on parachuting and other military skills. Aerial, naval and vehicular combat is aslo covered. This is followed by the Equipment section, which pays attention to the difficulty of obtaining things due to rationing and black marketeering in different areas of Europe. There are plenty of weapons here too, even if their use against Mythos creatures is limited. They don't come with pricetags, they will either be issued or stolen...

Finally, The God in the Woods presents a complete campaign setting with scope for plenty adventure. It's the small town of Saint-Cerneuf-du-Bois in the Dordogne, which lies close to the border between the Nazi-occupied territory and Vichy France. There's a lot of information on locations in the town and the surrounding area, what is going on there, and a whole host of NPCs to encounter there. Everyone is well-developed, with a character and personality all their own. There is, however, Something in the woods - and a group dedicated to it. Once this introductory background material is presented, the sequence of events to drive your campaign is laid out, beginning with a briefing in London... and running over several weeks if not longer, with scope for side-missions and a myriad of events to throw in at opportune moments. It's a delightful slow unfolding of unspeakable horror lurking in the woods and blighting the whole neighbourhood.

A character sheet and a wonderful collection of strange snippets, events that are claimed to have actually happened but are weird enough to form the basis of future adventures finish up this book. What's really appealing is that it mixes real-world history with the Mythos, pulling no punches with either yet avoiding descent into a weird alternative history where the Mythos affected or was harnessed by the conflict going on around the party.

To be honest Coldwater doesn't sound the idea place to visit. Full of smugglers, shrouded by mist and muddy underfoot... but you may find adventure there.

Coldwater, the author explains, is situated in the Duchy of Ashlar but may be placed anywhere suitable in your own campaign world. The village itself and other locations for this adventure are detailed richly, but everything else is vague enough for you to use it in conjunction with other material within your game. We learn of a demon cult and the demon being worshipped, obscure enough that you can slip him in too (unless you prefer to substitute a better-known evil being of your own).

Background done, the adventure begins when the party arrives in Coldwater. Several hooks are provided to get them there, but whether they went there to find it or not, they will soon hear about or stumble across some slimy steps leading down into an area that's nearly always underwater. Yet in a couple of days time the tide is low...

This gives the party time to get oriented, pick up supplies, make inquiries and actually find the steps. To that end, Coldwater is described at length along with notable personalities and interesting locations to visit. There's a map, rumours to pick up and many delightful details to bring the place to life (and of course you can continue to use the village long after the steps have been explored, or even if the party decides not to go there). Basically, this section repeats the contents of Village Backdrop: Coldwater, also available from Raging Swan Press.

We then move on to those slippery steps that are only accessible if the tide is very low - and then only for an hour or so, hence adventurers need to be quick about their explorations - indeed the GM is warned to keep track of time. The party may choose to go by sea or by land, both options are accommodated with their own encounters. The steps lead up to doors (also usually underwater) that are hard to open, but are watertight. Once inside, there's the place of worship of that demon cult to explore. It's not in use these days, but certain... influences remain.

In case the party takes too long about its explorations, details are provided for dealing with the rising tide from advice on how to describe it to all the mechanics necessary for moving, fighting and even drowning in water.

The Conclusions section lays out various options. There's scope for the party to get out dry-shod, or for you to add more to the fairly simple underground complex, or they may end up soaking wet; and a couple of ideas for how to continue the adventure once they have left. Six pre-generated characters are provided if you want to dive straight in to the adventure. It all makes for an atmospheric, if soggy, adventure, a good chance for a low-level party to stake their claim to fame!

The Players' Introduction, or back page text, tells of ancient swamp dwellers exacting revenge for those they feel have abandoned them. The DM's Background explains a bit more - how the relationship between swamp-dwellers and villagers arose, and why the swamp-dwellers had wanted the alliance in the first place (something they conveniently omitted to tell the villagers). It involved a dragon, of course. One that was crippled and resorted to other ways to exert its power over its surroundings.

The adventure starts in a nearby town, where the sole survivor of the village has sought aid. This has set the entire town on edge, noticeable as the party arrives. In due course, the party will be offered work, their mission to find out what is going on in the village and why they were attacked. It's up to you to get them there: some frontier terrain, trackless and marshy, with a couple of encounters thrown in, is recommended but not provided. The devastated village is well mapped and described, with an interesting twist - the invaders actually want to talk! Parties who rush in to do battle straight away will not do themselves any favours.

There's some excellent scenes where the true otherness of the intruders is revealed, and the party will have to engage with their customs to make the best impression before venturing into the swamp itself to confront the problem that brought matters to a head. There's some interesting follow-up material to suggest directions in which your plotline might go given the outcome of this adventure.

Overall, a neat low-level advanture to give a beginning party a chance to make its name, with good portrayal of other races as really being quite different, requiring cultural adaptation to deal with them - they are not just enemies there to be slaughtered: they have reasons for what they do.