Delta Green Campaign: Our Ladies of Sorrow [Part 2]

 

The team reconvenes at the breakfast to plan out the day. HORATIO comes in late, smelling of cigarettes and with a half drunk 4Loko in his hand. JETHRO and HORATIO volunteer to canvas the other residents of the Three Sisters, and to see if they can take a look at the sealed apartments of the 4th and 5th floors. WALLADA decides to do some research on the Three Sisters Building while she waits for a response from Kurt Winter. QASIM and Bravie will head to secure the Green Box before QASIM meets with the coroner to take custody of Ryder's corpse. 

HORATIO and JETHRO get to the Three Sisters a little bit before 7 am and decide to make their presence known to the building superintendent Todd Beach. The Agents inform him of their investigation into the death of Frank Ryder and say that they'll need access to the sealed floors. Clearly torn between being intimidated by two officers of the law and his employer, Todd Beach demurs and says he'll have to call the building's owner first and that they should talk to her. HORATIO enthusiastically agrees through gritted teeth as the balding man retreats back into his apartment. 

Soundtrack of Our Ladies of Sorrow

Book One, House of Shadows:

• General Ambience: Stars of the lid - Austin Texas Mental Hospital (Part 1, 2, 3)

• Three Sisters Ambience: Kreng - Tinseltown
  
  
• Three Sisters Sealed Rooms: Stars of the Lid - Central Texas
  
  
• Maddie Mercer's Apartment: Sisters of Mercy - Temple of Love
  
  
• The Cemetery near Lake Calaveras: William Basinski - Silent Night 
  
  
• The Green Box: William Basinski - A Red Score in Tile
  
  
• The Song from the 5th Floor: Amelita Galli-Curci - Solveig's Song
  
  
• Primary Sonic Inspiration: Thom Yorke - Suspirium 

Our Ladies of Sorrow Master Post

 

Our Ladies of Sorrow is a 2009 Call of Cthulhu campaign written by Kevin Ross that I've owned for 12 years but have never even attempted to run, as is the sad tale of most of the RPG material I've accumulated over the years. I remember it getting a great deal of acclaim at the time, noted for standing out among most Call of Cthulhu material for using something quite divergent from the mythos as its main focus; the Ladies of Sorrow first written of by Regency England opium addict Thomas de Quincey and the inspiration of Dario Argento's Suspiria, the first part of his "Three Mothers" trilogy of horror films. It is a decidedly more occult flavor of campaigns. 

Despite the acclaim I recall it receiving, I don't think I've heard of or read anyone's account of having run or played in it. So I decided to change that. Choosing to run this as a Delta Green campaign, one with my own rather idiosyncratic interpretation of the setting, I plan to see if it lives up to the hype. I intend to write up each session as a play report and then offer a critique on each scenario within the book and the experience of running it. 

I also plan to throw in a few interlude scenarios unrelated to, and thus not included in, the Our Ladies of Sorrows book. I plan to give them the same treatment. 

So, with the preamble out of the way, let's start the show.

Book One, House of Shadows: 

• Clues and Player Resources
• Green Box
• Session 1
• Session 2
• Session 3
• Soundtrack 
• In Review

Interlude, The Highways of West Texas:

• Briefing 

Delta Green Campaign: Our Ladies of Sorrow [Part 1]

 Our Ladies of Sorrow

House of Shadows

It is October 14th, 2009 in San Antonio. An ad-hoc assemblage of Agents wait in a diner whose prices do not match either the service or décor. They are:

• Agent JETHRO: Colt Buchanan of the Texas Rangers  
• Agent HORATIO: Special Agent Terrance Delacruz of the FBI
• Agent WALLADA: Professor Isabella Fernandez 
• Agent QASIM: Naazim Dugal, DoD Social Worker
• Inspector Bravie Soto: Compliance Inspector of the National Indian Gaming Commission

They've been assembled here by a gin soaked louse of a federal agent they only know as LAMBERT. One of his many assets, an old man named Frank Ryder, is afraid of something and LAMBERT has put together this cell as a wellness check on a trusted asset who knows where the bodies are buried.

Our Ladies of Sorrow: Clues and Player Resources for House of Shadows

 

Contents of the Law Office of Darnell Guerra

Here are the (slightly edited) contents of the Law Office of Darnell Guerra, the Green Box Frank Ryder was custodian of for LAMBERT. The items listed have not been thoroughly inspected. 

Arkheologorodok Session Prep: Special Regime #1