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Eric Dodd
New Zealand
Martinborough
Wairarapa
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It’s Cthulhu Invictus Month at Red Wine Pie review world! First up, the Cthulhu Invictus Companion.
Cthulhu Invictus Companion is a collection of 3 adventures and 5 cults for the Romans-v-Mythos Cthulhu Invictus setting of Call of Cthulhu 6th edition. It was published by Chaosium in February 2011. The book was written by Chad Bowser and Andi Newton and friends. So what’s in the book, and is it an essential guidebook for Cthulhu Invictus campaigns?
PRESENTATION:
CI Companion is a 64-page document, with a colour image of a Dark Young battling some hounds in a coliseum at night. Roman citizens are watching this scene in the foreground, dealing with the sanity losses in their own way. It’s a good picture by Marco Caradonna. Interior illustrations by Thomas Boatwright are mainly of characters and monsters, and convey the local styles and atmosphere. I like the cartoony style of the characters, which does a good job of making the portraits look different. The maps by Cathy Haymaker are generally schematic but readable and useful, covering buildings and boats and most places the investigators are likely to go. There are no player handouts as such, though the maps are repeated at the back of the book.
The main text is in a double format layout, with box-outs for handouts, plot hooks, adventure-specific rules and other supplementary information. The font used for chapter headings and subsections is suitably Roman-style and easy to read, as is the main font. The pages have Roman columns on the long borders of each page. These are clean and simple and add a nice touch. There’s a one-page Contents, but no Index. The Contents are not very well laid out, and it is not immediately clear which parts are the cults information, and which parts the adventures. A little more care here would have made it easier to find the section you’re after.
CONTENTS:
The one-page introduction gives a brief run-down of the new cults, and explains that two of the adventures were previously available in the monograph version of the Cthulhu Invictus rules. They appear here expanded and with extra graphics. The remaining adventure Bacchanalia is new to this book.
The cults are split into three locations - in Egypt, in Gallia (modern-day Germany) and in Africa. The Akeru guard the tomb of a god, and also hunt down those who would try to open it. The Lords of Abydos have made contact with the powerful temporal avatar of a god who helped them to positions of power during the old dynasty. Now the Lords are mostly forgotten, but the Great Opener may still use his powers for those who call him. In Gallia, the Hulden are followers of the Great Hunt, lead by a vengeful local deity. The Teutates show another way that the reach of Glaaki has spread from Britannia towards the heart of the Empire. In Africa, the cult of Tanit worships the Shining Trapezohedron despite the best efforts of the Romans to stamp it out. The Vagi are desert nomads who have surrendered their souls to the Black Wind. They all inspire some interesting plots and ideas, and placing them by geographic area allows the Keeper to combine the cults for added fun and complications.
Chuma Invictus is the first of the three adventures, and is probably the most cinematic, complex and potentially difficult to run. The players get to take a nice boat trip up the Nile from Alexandria to Meroë in the land of the Kush. The investigators will need to have some official connection to travel with the diplomatic trading mission, but there are also two individuals with their own goals. Things begin to turn deadly, and then weird as dreams seem to infect reality, and the boat heads further towards its mission. Investigators will need to stay alert to work out what is happening and who is behind it, but as long as they stay sane and alive to the end they have a chance to thwart a god and return the Nile to reality. The bad guy uses a particularly powerful spell that keeps him one step ahead of any investigation, but smart players should figure it out from the symptoms. I’ve passed on my copy of the Cthulhu Invictus monograph that had the first two adventures, but I’m fairly sure this adventure has been expanded from its original publication.
Morituri Te Salutamus is an adventure set initially in Rome, centered around the disappearance of women of all classes. The investigators should get involved after a day at the Circus Maximus, leading to an unusual gladiator’s school, a cult closed to most men and a final confrontation at a fine estate. This is a pretty straightforward adventure, which can be run as an introductory Invictus adventure, or be added to by an experienced Keeper for a more complex game. The investigators can gain a useful patron and get in well with the Roman establishment.
The final adventure, Bacchanalia is set in Carthage. At a lavish dinner for Titus Domitius Orestes, upper or lower class investigators will hear interesting rumours and make useful contacts, before a shocking scene ends the party early. The investigators might be hired to follow this up, or begin investigations on their own account. A rumour of the revival of an ancient sacrificial cult should also gain their interest. All the threads eventually lead to a secret grotto. where an appalling rite is being carried out. Complete success will be difficult, and investigators may have to flee the province with their lives and sanity. I like the way this adventure provides plenty of leads, several of which have no relevance to the adventure but which can be expanded on now or in the future.
VERDICT:
Companion is a slightly misleading title for this book, as the majority of the pack is the three adventures, and the five cults only take up ten pages.
However, CI Companion is a good package and well-worth getting for the quality of the adventures. The cults are all well-thought out and provide some great plot ideas. It would have been good to see some ideas for stringing the adventures into a campaign, but if you introduce a strong Patron from either of the last two adventures you can then easily send a group to investigate the other adventures. Recommended for any Invictus group.
IR#31
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Chad Bowser
United States
Kernersville
North Carolina
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Red Wine Pie wrote:
Companion is a slightly misleading title for this book, as the majority of the pack is the three adventures, and the five cults only take up ten pages.
Thanks for the review Eric. Glad you enjoyed it.
The name wasn't my choice of names. I had originally titled the book Cultorum Externum, but some thought the fully Latin title would be a turn off for people so they decided on "The Cthulhu Invictus Companion" at the last minute.
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DMSamuel
United States
Ithaca
New York
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For the record, I like your title better. 
cjbowser wrote: ...at the last minute.
Ah yes, the time when bad decisions are made...
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Chad Bowser
United States
Kernersville
North Carolina
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And, Chuma Invictus is greatly expanded over what was in the monograph. Morituri Te Salutamus is pretty much unchanged.
And another thing... the handouts were inadvertently omitted from the printed book. You'll find them on Chaosium's website at http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?products_id=655...
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Eric Dodd
New Zealand
Martinborough
Wairarapa
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I notice this hasn't stopping the "other" Invictus companions from having Latin titles... still they're monographs, I suppose.
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Chad Bowser
United States
Kernersville
North Carolina
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Red Wine Pie wrote: I notice this hasn't stopping the "other" Invictus companions from having Latin titles... still they're monographs, I suppose.
Chaosium exerts no editorial control over monographs. The authors can call them whatever they want. And, those titles are "Latin" titles not Latin titles. 
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