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

 

Arkheologorodok Soundtrack

 

Locations

• The Hanger
• Perturbator - Miami Disco
• Serial Experiments Lain - Cyberia Theme
• The Gulag Mine and the Archaeology Lab 
• Valentina Goncharova - Symphony of Wind
• The Bone Zone
• Vasily Kashnikov - Rotting Stones 
• The Flooded Bunker 
• Aphex Twin-#4
• Sewers
• Brian Eno - Calcium Needles
• Brian Eno - 2 Forms of Anger
• The Silo
• Hildur Guðnadóttir – Corridors
• The Complex
• Cities Last Broadcast - Glossolalia
• The Battle Caverns
• Hildur Guðnadóttir – Pump Room
• The Morgue
• Vasily Kashnikov - Gears of Law
• The Southern Ruins
• Theodor Bastard - The Shaman from Downtown
• The Treaty Grotto
• Theodor Bastard - Children Are Burying the Doll
• Dead Can Dance - Bylar 
• The Underground Kibbutz
• Shmerke Kaczerginsk - Yid Du Partizaner
• The Conjuration and Thaumaturgical Research Lab
• ProtoU - Chamber of Visions
• The Shkola Granat/Neo-Nazbol HQ
• Chicago Research - Club Music Vol. 1
• Chicago Research - Club Music Vol. 2
• Filmmaker - The Love Market 
• Autechre - Foil
• CounterDogma's Hidden Gallery
• Lisa the Pointless OST - E|STRAY|S
• The Zdhanov Park Ruins
• Cities Last Broadcast - Electricity 
• The Parlor 
• Mica Levi - Lipstick to Void
• Mica Levi - Meats to Math
• The Array
• Valentina Goncharova - Insight 
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R Soundtrack - The Brain Scorcher
• Deep Earth Intrusion Zone
• ProtoU - Vessels of God
• The Gay Reich
• Bill Brown - Military Suspense
• The Abattoir 
• Fixions - Putrid Waves
• Arkheologorodok, Topside 
• Day 
• Vasily Kashnikov - Utroba Main
• Kino - Pack of Cigarettes (instrumental)
• Vasily Kashnikov - Steppe
• Night 
• Vasily Kashnikov - Utroba Night
• Vasily Kashnikov - Panic Routine
• Civil Disruption
• Vasily Kashnikov - Military Administration
• Fixions - Pavement Rebellion
• Fixions - Shooter
• Fixions - Mother Russia Bleeds
• Dawid Hallmann - Demonstration
• The KGB Tower at Malevich Square
• Floor One, Nizhneye Tsarstvo
• Vasily Kashnikov - Delusionist
• Floor Two, Labirinty
• Arseny Avraamov - Symphony of Industrial Horns
• Lucas Pope - Papers Please Theme 
• General Combat 
• Vasily Kashnikov - Uprava Army Admin Main
• The Derro Lair and Combat 
• MGMT - Little Dark Age 
•  Susumu Hirasawa - Baiyou
• The Celluloid Kraken (phases 1-4)
• Takayuki Aihara - Fifth Chapter ~ In the Sky Part 1
• Takayuki Aihara - Fifth Chapter ~ On the Ground Part 1
• Takayuki Aihara - Fifth Chapter ~ In the Sky Part 2
• Takayuki Aihara - Fifth Chapter ~ On the Ground Part 2
• Floor Three, Kletka
• Vasily Kashnikov - Air Castle
• Arseny Avraamov - March of the Worker's Funeral
• Vasily Kashnikov - Shop Music
• Floor Four, Svetelka
• Vasily Kashnikov - Higher than the Sky
• Assault on the Bath House
• Fixions - Night Brawlers
• Fighting the Vor
• Fixions - Dance of the Rusty Nails
• Fixions - Hardcore Velocity
• Fixions - Killing Pool
• Fixions - Incursion
• NOVOST Tower
• Cruelty Squad OST - Pyrexia | Office
• Cruelty Squad OST - Apartment Atrocity
• Cruelty Squad OST - Sacrificial Mission
• RENDERER - INTERNET OF EARS

Factions 

• The Red Ordo
• The Bayan Mongol - A Black Horse
• Anthem of the Tuvan Republic - Olonbayar Gantomir
• The Gopniks
• Hard Bass School - Narkoman
• The Neo-Nazbols
• Chris & Cosey - At the Gates of the Ancient City
• Chris & Cosey - Reeducation Through Labor 
• Запрещенные барабанщики и ЧЕ ДАНС - Делайте бомбы
• The Bratva
• Vasily Kashnikov - Twyrin/Andrei Kabak Remix
• Krasnaya Zvezda 
• Dawid Hallmann - Leningrad
• Astrophysics - USSR Anthem Synthwave Mix
• The Saburovs
• Vasily Kashnikov - Rust and Blood
• Земля русская (Православный патриотический гимн)
• Vasily Kashnikov - Song to Bodho
• Bloodborne OST - Cleric Beast
• The Thanatologists 
• Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre
• The Cosmos Project
• The Materialists 
• Lumina Solis – Лыжи
• Alexander Mosolov - Iron Foundry 

General Combat 

• Dog Based Combat 
• Ariel Motto - Rottweiler 
• Cop Based Combat 
• Dawid Hallmann - Provocateurs 
• Fixions - Black Racers
• Earthy and Undead Combat
• Vasily Kashnikov - Mad Mother Earth
• Vasily Kashnikov - River of Phlegm
• Dawid Hallmann - Shoe of Khrushchev
• Sergei Prokofiev - Aleksander Nevsky V. The Battle on the Ice

General Ambience and Holding Music

• Ilya Alekseevich Shatrov - On the Hills of Manchuria
• Dmitri Shostakovich - Waltz No. 2 (Slowed + Reverb)
• Vevil - Astronomia 
• Huma Huma - From Russia with Love
• Sergei Prokofiev - Aleksander Nevsky VI. Field of the Dead
• Computer Sounds
• Fixions - Where the Wild Doses Grow
• 12 Hours of Powerline Noise from Serial Experiments Lain
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Brain Scorcher zombification session
• G-Broadcast
• Coconuts - Silver Lights
• Megalith - Agnus Dei
• Living Failures
• Hamlet Gonashvili - Tsintskaro
• Pinwheel
• Gravelord Nito
• 영원한아들 ETERNAL SON : 친애하는 지도자 DEAR LEADER

Arkheologorodok Special Session Prep

 

All Debts Will Be Paid Off

Big news, the Neo-Nazbols have dug a secret tunnel into the rear of the Gay Reich. Petra has had a backdoor into their servers and communications for a while now, and apparently they got everything they needed from the dig site to conduct a ritual to summon something terrible to exact revenge. Galdikas has already finished the retrovirus to kill the minions and with Yezhov's intel it can be released into Fran's lab before you get there. That should help even the odds.