got about halfway through before a divorce in the player group brought the campaign to an

abrupt end. I would like to run it again if circumstances allow.

It can get long, The story is divided into nineteen separate chapters. However, some of them
are optional: one happens in a pocket dimension, one happens in the Dreamlands, and there
are three historical stories that happen in other Call of Cthulhu game settings (Gaslight,
1893; Cthulhu Dark Ages, 1204; and Cthulhu Invictus, 330). In my experience, each chapter
took about three to four three-hour sessions to complete.

The main plot is that the players are put on the path of finding and re-assembling the six
pieces of a cursed, mysterious statue called the Sedefkar Simulacrum (head, torso, and four
limbs). Two factions want the statue; a skin-oriented cult of Nyarlathotep, and a vampire
recently awoken from a long slumber. Both factions figure out they can use the PCs as tools,
and carefully follow them as the investigators take all the risks and do all the legwork to
assemble each piece.

Finding each piece requires visiting a city on the route of the Orient Express, from France to
Constantinople. So it works quite well if you are a Keeper who likes giving each location a
unique sense of place, and if your players enjoy travel roleplay (My PCs also really really
enjoyed the Milan chapter because they got to throw fascists into the sea). You absolutely
want to make sure they speak a spread of languages so they can communicate with the
locals.

Overall, I had a lot of fun running it but here are my gripes:

- The 330 scenario was so historically inaccurate it made my teeth hurt. It presumes the
majority of the Roman Empire was Christian, which was emphatically not the case (it was 15-
25% at most). It also has the investigators play not only Christians, but soldiers, which
was emphatically not the case in 330.

- The 1204 scenario is set during the Sacking of Constantinople, and asks the PCs to play
soldiers in the Venetian army. It includes a note to the effect of "Hey even though all the
other Venetian soldiers are busy war criming, try not to let your PCs rape or murder any
civilians."

I rewrote both scenarios. The 330 PCs are a more representative mix of pagan (and one
secret Christian), while the 1204 PCs were native Romaioi working for Empress Eudokia in
hiding as her agents and spies. The plot is roughly the same in each, but the PCs and their
reasons for doing stuff are different.

My other gripe is how the women are treated. All the leading NPCs, from the mentor who
sets the PCs on their path to the two main antagonists, are dudes (as is the tertiary
antagonist, the Jigsaw Prince who decides to fuck with the PCs for fun). Women only really
occur in stereotypical roles. So instead of having them deal with Count Fenalik the vampire, I
changed it to Erzebet Bathory.
Minor gripe: there is a soundtrack that goes with the game but a lot of the songs sound the
same. Just use Syrinscape.

My major piece of advice is that each chapter is only a sketch. Don't rely on it entirely for
story. Moreso than most mods, just use it as scaffolding for the adventure. Expect to spend
at least 3-4 hours prepping each chapter to get the most out of it.

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I also wouldn't be able to tell you the major differences between the one I ran and the 1991
version, I ran the 2014 one. It's one of the first modules Chaosium released after coming out
with 7th edition, so the production values are... not great. They're certainly not up to the
level of the new edition of Masks of Nyarlathotep. A lot of the art is clearly public domain
photographs and the handouts like telegraphs are fairly basic.

As far as skipping the historical scenarios: mostly what you'd lose is a historical perspective
as players on the history of your antagonists. The 1204 chapter gives you insight into the cult
you fight, the Brotherhood of the Skin. The 330 chapter lets the investigators witness the
transformation of the vampire they'll later have to face. I think you could easily skip the
other scenarios; they're fun but not plot-critical.

The changes I made:

1204:

- Altered the PCs to be residents of Constantinople. I made a displaced Frankish tumbler,

- As published, they work for Count Baldwin, who tells them there's a Satanic treasure in the
city and asks them to go find it. In my alteration, the investigators are all part of Empress
Eudokia's secret spy network. As the Sack of Constantinople unfolds, she receives
information that there's a cursed artifact in the city. She has one of her agents, Julius, a
eunuch/trans man, summon the PCs to the nunnery where she's hiding and charges them
with finding this artifact and disposing of it so that God will bless the city again. The rest of
the story unfolds roughly as written, with the PCs of course reporting back to the Empress
instead of Count Baldwin. I did write into my notes to give them the chance to stop some of
the atrocities, like coming across some Venetians looting a church.

330:

- The investigators were a pagan Pannoian scout (implied tie to the Balkans chapter), a secret
convert to Christianity who covered his conversion up by serving as a physician, a veteran on
the verge of retirement, and a lapsed Christian archer.

- The pagan giving the legions trouble is the priestess Unwen. Other than that, the scenario
unfolds as written.