Achtung Cthulhu 1939 - first play test notes and thoughts

Over the last six months I've been working on the first of a series of projected Achtung Cthulhu one-shot adventures. These are really tournament adventures, one for each year of the Second World War. The working title for the first scenario is 1939 and I still don't have a final title for it.

The premise of the first adventure, which takes place in December 1939, is that the player characters are part of a secret mission by the Kriegsmarine (German navy) to the Outer Hebrides to test out some experimental radio direction finding equipment. I'll summarise the action below and include some notes and observations, some of them in italics, including my final opinions.

Seehofer

Oberleutenant Michael von der Leyen, an officer in naval intelligence and the son of a WW1 submarine commander, and Midshipman Rudiger Seehofer, are briefed at Kiel on the mission. They must land on the remote island of Lesser Morr at the edge of the Outer Hebrides and set up a radio direction finding position inside a ruined 16th century castle, working with the submarines U51 and U56 to locate and monitor Allied convoys in the Irish Sea. The mission is intended to last for 14 days, after which they will be picked up by the U56.

The sailors are to pose as Norwegian sailors, and are given false Norwegian identity papers, as well as cyanide pills should it be impossible to evade capture. They are instructed not to let their code books and the equipment fall into enemy hands and to also try to avoid contact with the locals.

The team is to be bolstered by two sailors from the U51, Helmut Hagedorn and Horst Scholz. The U51 will be delivering the sailors to the Outer Hebrides. Also accompanying the mission is Hauptmann Ludwig Steinmeier, also of military intelligence, although von der Leyen quickly deduced he had nothing to with the navy.

Note - at this stage I produced a map of the island, which had been photographed from the air by aerial Condor naval recon earlier in the war. I deliberately left off key locations, but this was an opportunity to use Photo Interpretation, an Achtung Cthulhu skill, to pick out further details, like the crofter's hut and the stone circle. Only von der Leyen and Seehofer were in the briefing, but neither noticed anything unusual. This was a good opportunity for the players to ask further questions on the mission and its objectives. Von der Leyen also used Institutional Lore to work out that Steinmeier was not part of the regular German navy.

The U51 makes an uneventful trip between the Orkneys and Faroe Islands, avoiding the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow, and dropping the team on Lesser Morr. I used the Command skill, another novelty from Achtung Cthulhu, to measure the success of von der Leyen's effort to command the crew of the dinghy, and get it to land safely on one of the beaches on the rocky western shore of the island. A Luck roll determined the weather conditions and the quality of the surf upon landing - this could have been a lot rougher, but the dice were kind.


The sailors carted their equipment up to the ruined castle on the northern tip of the island, which their superiors had identified as an ideal location to set up their radio. It was possible to use the modern flagpole on the ruin (installed about 20 years earlier) to run up the radio antenna without it being noticed. The radio equipment was quickly established and was operational before dawn, with the first test signals successfully exchanged with the U51.

The sailors found an iron grill in the floor of the castle - only one tower was standing. The Germans initially chose to camp in the lowest room in the keep, although it was very cold and draughty. In the night, von der Leyen was awoken to see Steinmeier squatting in a corner of the room muttering to himself and facing the wall. A strange flickering glow was coming from the corner. Von der Leyen could not hear what he was saying. Eventually the light went out and Steinmeier came over to wake von der Leyen for his turn at guard duty.

The castle sits at the northern tip of the island with good views.

In the morning work began in earnest monitoring Royal Navy radio traffic. The Germans quickly identified a convoy preparing to leave Liverpool and alerted the U51. Von der Leyen and Hagedorn removed the grill in the floor and explored the small network of rooms under the castle, finding the body of a woman concealed under some flagstones. Her heart had been cut out and she had been left there for a year or so. They also discovered four camp beds and three knapsacks, plus some camping equipment and clothing, including both men's and women's clothing. A copy of the Times was found with the date 20 December 1938.

Among the abandoned belongings they also uncovered a book about the religion of the ancient Picts and a notebook with hand written notes in Latin and sketches of what looked like a stone circle. An effort at translation by Seehofer revealed the notes to be speculation about a ritual of some kind. It was at about this point they discovered that Hauptmann Steinmeier had vanished.

Seehofer meanwhile had started hearing odd conversations breaking in on the radio traffic, but in a language he could not understand...

Hagedorn climbed up to the roof of the keep to see if he could spot Steinmeier, but there was no sign of him. He could see some smoke coming from the other side of the island, however. The sailors decided to investigate, although it was starting to sleet. Taking their weapons, they proceeded across the island in the face of biting winds. En route Hagedorn spotted a figure moving around in the bracken and heather towards the south of the island. He was dressed in what  looked like tweed and was wearing a hat, but it did not look like Steinmeier. It was also at this point that they heard an aircraft approaching from the north.

Trouble from the air.

The Germans took cover in the gorse. Several Hide and Fieldcraft rolls were fluffed but the spotter in the Royal Navy flying boat which flew over the island rolled a 92 on his Spot Hidden so the party went undetected. Skirting the crag at the centre of Lesser Morr, but now in view of the village across the straits on Greater Morr, the sailors approached what looked like a crofter's cottage on the easter side of the island, from which the smoke was issuing.

The flying boat is here to remind the sailors they are on a military mission in enemy territory. There is scope here for them to be detected and for there to be a follow up investigation from the authorities. Luckily for them, the crew of the flying boat rolled badly. I did do some research on the strength of the garrison at Stornoway in 1939, and at this stage in the war there were relatively few aircraft there - Britain was still gearing up for the Battle of the Atlantic. But I reasoned there would be a small number of flying boats operating between Scotland and Ireland, patrolling the Irish Sea.

The sailors approached the croft - all they could see initially was some sheep, and hear a dog barking. They knocked on the door and when it was opened by an old man, he had a Schmeisser machine pistol rammed in his face by Seehofer and was shoved into the house. As the Germans entered, they discovered three small children aged between five and 11 sitting round a table eating porridge...

Next time - Where has Captain Steinmeier got to?