Call of Cthulhu: The Curse of Black Teeth Keetes - RPG Review
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- An urgent telegram sends the heroes to a strange and lost island where they must face off against monsters, undead, and a dark god, as they hope to rescue their friend and recover a pirate's treasure. While possible for 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu, the scenario is designed and best-suited for use with the Pulp Cthulhu mod.
You can find the adventure on DriveThruRPG here: www.drivethrur...
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HANDOUTS
My handouts and maps I made for my own group when we played this adventure can be found here if you'd like to use them for your own group: drive.google.c...
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Guest starring Jack the NPC
![Tee Grizzley - Robbery 8 [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/34_vkNV6wrU/mqdefault.jpg)
Wow! Thanks so much for the generous review, and I'm super stoked that you ran my adventure! I love all of the modifications that you made, and that you felt inspired to add on to what I had created. What a wonderful fun video as well (I loved the Jack the NPC parts). You just made my week! My month!
Thank you for a fun adventure.
Congrats Perry!
Sounds like a great scenario, Perry!
nice adventure tho.
i'm gonna use it for some 'mysterious' shadowrun. since i introduced a phantom that can revive the dead to zombies lately... yeah that's from an official 30 nights and 3 days - but this fits so well together, that i can be used :D
This seems like a fun adventure. Well done!
'Hold on *insert NPC name here*, we're coming to save you!' Is one of my favourite recurring moments through Seths CoC videos.
I was expecting "Our good friend... **checks notes** HOWARD WINCHESTER", but it's good not to overplay a gag, I guess.
I assume Seth means a “golden brazier”… a “golden brassiere” would be, uh, something else.
golden brassiere is worth getting your hands on...
I was thinking the same thing. No wonder people were so interested in it.
Literally decades ago, I had a DM describe how we found a "golden chest beneath a burning bassiere"...it has stuck with me all these years.
Just makes me think of Bette Midler singing about Otto Titsling and Phillip de Brassiere.
Flippin' Beaches… I know what's going to happen and I still tear-up!
BRAE-zi-er (a metal cage to hold a fire) vs bra-ZEER (usually not metal, holds something else) kept catching me throughout :-)
"You best be believin' in ghost stories, Jack. You're in one."
Ms. Swan.
@@dubuyajay9964 Ms. Jack
While there's absolutely no reasonable chance that the gunpowder or cannonballs on that ship would be viable anymore(damp island air and all that), it would absolutely be a super pulpy thing for the player characters to have the cannons off of that ship wheeled out to the ritual site and manned by pirate zombies (or the PCs!) to defend the players while they're performing that ritual.
Who is to say that the magics of Mama Fle didn't somehow manage to protect at least ONE barrel of gunpowder from the ravages of the environment!? :)
Is there a plausible reason why Winchester might have brought a barrel of black powder to the island with him? Like maybe demolitions of some sort which dynamite wouldn't be as good for? Because you could have it where the PCs find this barrel of powder in the abandoned camp, and then later find an old cannon and some balls or grapeshot on the ship, somehow manage to lug that back to the camp, and then shoot shamblers with it.
Or.... building on the idea of other shipwrecks on and around the island, one of those might be more recent with a shipment of powder which was sealed in wax-coated barrels or something (clearly I have zero knowledge of old-timey black powder transport), and some of that managed to survive. So now the PCs have to plunder the pirate ship for the cannon, then plunder another wreck for the powder.
@@SSkorkowsky After some internet research to refresh my fading memory, black powder was commonly shipped inside a linen bag which was placed inside a water-tight barrel or keg, which could be waxed or treated with linseed oil for added moisture resistance. Black powder stays viable for a long time as long as it stays dry (loaded firearms have fired after decades of hanging on a rack, for ex) but I'm not sure about a couple of hundred years. By the 19th century boxes (often made of copper for shipboard use) were also in use, and were even better at keeping out moisture, but I'm not sure how far back that went - likely not to the age of piracy.
Black powder (as opposed to smokeless powder, TNT, guncotton, etc) could plausibly be used for engineering jobs where you want a slower-burning explosive that applies pressure but less of shock, ie when you're concerned about something shattering rather than being dislodged relatively whole.
The powder, if you use the other shipwrecks idea, could be from a Civil War era ship that was carrying supplies but sailed into the Ghost Island. Still old powder, but less than 100 years, and nicely sealed in the copper boxes.
@@SSkorkowsky That would absolutely work.
I'd totally suggest setting this one off the coast of Cape Cod. Lot of pirates in the northern atlantic made their homes on the cape and its islands. There's even a pirate museum out here.
Now Whydah want to give away our secrets matey aargh. Lol
@@timd4524 HAH
Could go for Cornwall, if you're keeping the accent! Devon accent's close enough for Americans, but your pasty gets renamed and jam after the cream means you get less cream!
@@Wraithing there's gotta be a pirates of penzance joke to be made somewhere here...
@@tooawesomepeoples1 lol
I see what you did there with that Dweller in the Depths, you added the "Octopus" from the deleted ending of the Goonies, very nice idea.
Yes. Yes I did.
Ha! I just got that as well. Noice.
Damn! Should have seen that, but I missed it! Very nice, nonetheless!
3:42 "... forever light a golden brassiere..." That sounds painful.
Jack the NPC really is the icing on a very fine cake.
I like the continuity, with Jack dropping his flask in the Upside Down; and not being able to find in it Pirate Cove.
The Secret Island Base is a great idea.
I once said "brasiere" instead of "brazier" and my table hasn't let me forget it. You mispronounce something ONE TIME
@@ContradictoryNature 😂😂😂
I would definitely emphasize the "tables have turned" aspect of recruiting the zombies for that last fight. I'd probably make that POW roll to control them something trivially easy for the PC with the highest POW. Going from being threatened by both zombies and dimensional shamblers to using zombies against the shamblers is both incredibly satisfying for the PCs, and makes them feel smart for winning a battle tactically instead of flailing through the climactic battle.
Plus, the zombies are consumable, so it's not a permanent power fantasy, the sort of thing that wrecks the flavor of pulp cthulhu.
The way I would run this is to reveal Mama Fle be the real villain who led the pirates there and accidentally get trapped, awakens to have the NPC’s finish the ritual.
Then have the players use their hps and mps to close the portal
Possible neat addition; have the Right Path line up from the center of the island to a specific star in the sky. Perhaps Alrischa, the star that makes up the point of the Pisces constellation.
I like the addition of the Right Path - it clarifies how the island is only _almost_ removed from the world and how the adventure could even happen.
Additional note: a French-style letter e with the grave accent - moving downward from left to right - indicates that the sound is an open-mid front vowel, like the 'e' in 'bed'. So it's Mama Fleh, not Mama Flay. I mention this because of the potential danger in mispronouncing the name of an Elder God and earning its ire.
Love your videos, keep up the great work!
More like Mama Bleh!
I'll go.
Seth's CoC reviews are like comfort food to me now. Just a soothing dose of RPG guidance.
Like the "secret base" idea, very Pulp indeed. "Champions of the Phantom Island" is a fine name for a team of adventurers. :)
Plus since it is tenuously connected to the real world, some incident (or even a regular phenomenon) could cause the Phantom/Ghost Island to phase to somewhere else on the world.
It reminds me of Thunderbirds Tracy Island
Under 100 gang; earliest I've been to a Seth video, sweet!
I was actually on RUclips when you posted!
I was half expecting Jack to return to the Upside Down just to retrieve his flask.
Wait! Hold on, don’t save the world yet! We gotta… uh… Howard! We gotta get Howard! Yeah. Don’t worry, I’ll go. I, uh, remember how to… get around… there. 😐
On a real note, great review. I especially love your small tweaks to fill in an adventure to make it truly larger than life. Great quality.
I would have died laughing if you'd posted an image of Anne Ramsey as Mama Fratelli... er, I mean Mama Fle.
I love how this adventure seems to be a cross between the Goonies and the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
The bit about the PCs using the island for their own purposes could be employed as an interesting feature of a CoC campaign set in the modern day. The contemporary era PCs are recruited by an organization of Mythos fighters, who keep a secret base or even a small town on an island found on no map.
A mist-shrouded isle, where those who understand the Mythos can shelter in a community, pool resources, gain protection from other entities (the presence of the trapped eldritch god ironically makes it off limits for other eldritch gods, who won't encroach on its "territory"), and share information. Have things like mental hospitals, where therapists can give those who lost Sanity targeted care, rather than leaving them in the hands of well-meaning but ignorant regular psychological institutions. Maybe their own version of Miskatonic University...indeed, you might say that the original M.U. was destroyed sometime between the 30s and present day, with the survivors moving to the island to hide from whatever destroyed the university in the first place.
The island would be dotted of forts with heightened security. Mostly to defend the statues sealing the evil on the island, but also doubling as repositories for the most dangerous artifacts or knowledge. The last line of defense being undead pirates, who stand eternal vigil around the statues. The modern PCs are told not to worry about the undead pirates.
Standing over it all would be the head of the organization and guardian of the island. It's the previous player character who resealed it all those years ago, now immortal and possessed of considerable insight. Parting the mists as needed to allow folks on and off the island.
You can use this place as a hub of information or a way to gather supplies. A spot to recover from injuries or regain sanity. A place to lie low, if they get in trouble from the law or from enemies. A place to relocate NPCs who saw too much or who can't go back to a normal life anymore. A pool of people from which to recruit helpers or replacement PCs (who can be assumed to know at least something of the Mythos, making them ideal for bringing in mid-campaign). Or a community to retire to if a PC has reached the (non-fatal) end to their character arc.
Or, better yet, use the island as an adventure setting unto itself. You could spin all sorts of long-term storylines involving spies from rival organizations, encroaching eldritch forces, escaped monsters, corrupting artifacts, or spirals into insanity.
Secret Delta Green HQ?
Huh... you know , jack haves a good point on a badass way to retire a investigator linked to the island.. in faaaaaact x3...
I loved that part myself!
Mama Flay? Evil runs in bloodlines in Lovecraft. Now you need an April Fools game where a celebrity chef is slowly converting people to Cthuloid slaves to work in his chain of pop-up kitchens. The authorities haven't caught him because he has a regular staff of cultists with food handler's permits, and the restaurants only last a weekend or so before closing up and reappearing somewhere else.
Whatever you do, don't order the fried calamari! Or the seared scallops! :D
Good camp horror movie pitch
THE FISH IS MADE OF PEOPLE. FISHPEOPLE!
If you run this and the players succeed on the casting, it could make for a great base for a Cthulhu Endtimes campaign.
The jazz-age caster is still on the island keeping the wards going, unaware that the rest of the world has fallen and the new endtimes PCs find a journal that points them towards the last safe zone from the mythos. Now the PCs have a staging ground to possibly fight back.
This adventure seems so freaking cool. The idea at the end reminds me of your Damorin series with the weapons but on a much bigger scale. It's really awesome and god I hope I get to run/play through this and more pulp Cthulhu adventures one day. Have a damn good day Seth :D
It's like Scooby Doo on Zombie Island for adults and with guns and even more creepy stuff.
I have a couple of ideas regarding the shipwrecks around the iand and justifying "Black Teeths" name. With the ships you could have it where all the players see is bits of the ships like browkn masts or sections of the hull. That way they have the feeling of a spooky ghost island without accidentally causing them to distract themselves with a fruitless search. If you want to go further with that you could say there is only one wreck that is worth searching. In that wreck the players could find a diary foreshadowing the shamblers or zombies on the island.
In regard to captain "Black Teeth" I was surprised the Module didn't include why he was called "Black Teeth". When the players find Black Teeth's skull I would add that the skull still had a few onyx teeth that the captain put in to replace lost teeth.
I thought he was called that cause his teeth had blackened and died while he was alive. Not too unusual in the dentist-less past
Wait a second...a golden brassiere? What kind of rpg mods have we resorted to here?! Mama Fle is a wild one!
Good places to put this adventure would include (but are not limited to): Florida Keys, Southeast Asia, off the north coast of Africa, or even off the east coast of Africa. All these places are traditional hotbeds of pirate activity and fishing (some are still active pirate hotspots today).
How about the Great Lakes? :D There were in fact pirates on the Great Lakes, including "Calico Jack" Rackham(!) and "Roaring" Dan Seavey in the 1900s. A mysterious invisible island might explain why Lake Superior never gives up her dead...
Madagascar?
Missed half of what Seth was saying because I was trying to read his shirt
Always a good day when Seth posts a new video
I love Jack's rambling at the end of the video. Helps gives an idea for how a player can integrate this character into the great adventure.
All I was thinkin was Dresden Files
His thing about "setting up an heir to be the next guardian" is really just another way of saying "make arrangements to become an adventure-starting NPC for someone else's party."
- What's your retirement plan?
- Become the eternal guardian of an otherworldly portal on Skull Island.
This should always be presented as a choice when starting any new job
Was desperatly waiting for another Seth Vid. Gotta get my inspiration to find a new One Shot adventure.
Seth, always a pleasure to watch/listen to your videos. Unfortunately, this one is just a reminder of how much I want to start up a call of Cthulhu group. Always love your evenhanded reviews and advice videos. Your old “dealing with” Videos are on re-watch with me.
I love that you chose a self published author's work to review on your channel. Class act! Onwards to 100K subscribers!
I like the typo in the text shown at 3:49. "Sweat Mary Jane" (pot that makes you perspire heavily).
Never heard that pot makes you sweat, and I smoke a lot of it. Seems like bad info.
I've been re-watching the series and I just finished it so it's nice to see a new one come out right as I completed it! Thanks for everything you do.
That is one pulpy-pulp pulp adventure premise. Wow. I’d be embarrassed to cheese it up like that. But I guess that’s why I’m bad at making pulp adventures even if I love reading them
We just ran this adventure yesterday! An excellent introductory adventure for our new campaign. Thank you very much for your advices and handouts. They were very helpful! Thank you for all your videos ;)
Amazing! I'm so glad you enjoyed my little adventure. And yes, Seth's additions were awesome! Thanks!
@@perrygrosshans8537 Thanks to you for this nice adventure ;)
Now as a GM I would have informed the person with the dagger that a specific number of zombies had to join in the ritual dance. And it would suggest to them if they were not enough zombies it could show them a ritual killing to make enough zombies to complete the number. That way killing too many guards would be an "unknown" hazard.
I would let the dagger wielder mull that over until they decided whether to tell the party or just create zombies.
If they jumped to creating zombies of their fellows without discussing it with them... I'd make them do a sanity check as the dagger inform them that because of all the crashed ships, there were more zombies they could just create from the already dead. The sanity hit was for realizing they were about to commit murder when there wasn't a need.
A golden brassiere?! That must have cost a lot from Victoria Secret.
Made my day. Let's not kink shame undead pirate captains though
I totally want to add a mutant insane pirate who really isn't all that bad just to
1. Give a NPC pirate that can tell them off the crew, monsters etc and 2. I can have "Sloth."
OK, now you have to explain this: What is wrong with a Ketch? Why do you prefer a Schooner?
It has to do with my making the ship larger. The ship I used for the game when they found it was 3-masted.
lol "pilot a boat." I'm not sure if that was intentional, but that was a great way of illustrating how little Jack knows about sailing.
That's what comandeering a vessel is called, though. You pilot a vessel, either through air or water. EDIT: Or on water, since through water would imply submarines. EDIT2: Submersibles, not just submarines.
Yes More Pulp Cthulhu!
Really enjoyable sounding adventure, Jack's suggestions at the end were very cool too... I reckon this adventure could be adapted to a lot of other settings too, for those not playing Cthulhu.
"Fishing boat" the sweet mary jane. Jack: yeah sure "fishing" and there is only water in this flask
Oh yeah, the background when Jack is sucked into the Underneath!
I was hoping:
content ends, cut to Jack's setting - but it's empty.
...
after about three seconds a ragged white tear forms in midair with a sound like the scream of tortured metal at the bottom of a well. Jack catapults out backwards and hits the floor hard, frenetically pumping the trigger of his empty pistol while bellowing nonsensically. As tear snaps shut with a pop Jack slowly realizes he's back. His suit is torn and creased, but he groans back up, coughs, stows his pistol, runs a finger around his collar and adjusts his tie while shrugging his jacket in to place and then - he triumphantly hoists his flask, which never left his hand, "Ya, know - ." An odd look passes over his face, a cross between a suppressed hiccough and indigestion. After a moment, his eyes roll back as he slowly folds up into a heap with a sigh and passes out, snoring deeply.
By far the best "You Know" outro you've done. :)
As always, top notch review and you got us all itching to play some Pulp Cthulhu!
I love the foggy island background when Jack is speaking. Very cool!
I appreciate the continuity of the saga of Jack's dropped flask!
❤ 🐙
*Edit : Awesome review , i love the idea of a secret island base for the pulp heroes .*
Nice! Seth knows that both bronze and iron cannons were in he during the age of sail.
As always a pleasure to listen. Thank you very much for this review, Seth!
Perfect adventure to convert to traveller for my pirates of drinax campaign.
Great and thorough walkthrough. Sounds like it has a lot of potential I may try to the adaptation for dungeons of the dragons
Have you ever considered giving a look at the Lancer system? I love it to bits and it would be cool to get your opinion on it
Perfect timing!
Nova Scotia was a center for British privateers if you want to move this to Canada
Wow! I just caught up on your last couple months of uploads and then you grace me with another one today. Thanks! :)
Really cool review Seth I found the suggestions really helpful this adventure sounds like an amazing gift idea ! I'm curious if you have any other pirate themed Cthulhu type adventures you might recommend?
Perhaps someone else mentioned it already, and if so, I apologize for being redundant. But the whole hidden island with zombie pirates sounds a lot like the premise of Amazon's New World game. That being said, I do have to say that this game sounds much more fun than the computer game. :P
So this is going to sound absolutely silly but I ran a CoC campaign on Martha's Vineyard, where a pirate crew wound up hiding some treasure and a Deep One land sinking machine in a pocket dimension that used life force to maintain it, and could only be entered by approaching the gates of a local cemetery by following a path between the headstones of crewmembers. They wound up taking a pirate from the pocket dimension out with them, who then dissolved into dust. The players walked away mostly emptyhanded, except for the one who had the idea to stuff his pockets with loot.
I promise I hadn't even heard of this. There were a lot of other things like diving for treasure and an octopus monster hiding in a pile of scrapmetal in a junkyard, as well as a local deep one cult but it's funny how it rhymes with this scenario.
Jack's ending opportunity spiel not only would make for a good way to retire a character, but if group starts a new organization, now you got potential for a new story tying into a past one.
Wow Jack had a lot to say this time... and it sounded like some great idea too.
Pronunciation police reporting for duty! Brazier is pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable. You pronounced it as you would pronounce “brassiere” 😆
Anyway, great video as always!
pirate zombies? or zombie pirates... Doubt there were a bunch a zombies hanging around that decided to become pirates b/c they had nothing better to do...
Hey off topic but I just finished Redemptor of the Valducan series of yours on audible. Great stuff. I'll start the next really soon.
Good to hear. Glad you liked it. Which book you looking to go with next?
@@SSkorkowsky Hey thanks for responding. I'm starting mountain of daggers in the Tales of the Black Raven. Probably because I love the work of R.C Bray. He is awesome I listened to the entire Mountain Man series. The Valducan series had me hooked in the first 10 minutes. Anyway just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your books. I also love your RUclips channel of course. You do great things!! Thank you.
R.C. Bray did a fantastic job with my stuff. He's a wonderful reader and a great guy. His performance in The Expeditionary Force series is simply wonderful. If you've never listened to those, I highly recommend them.
Remember, it's not whether you win or lose; It's if you protect all existence from life draining flying jellyfish elder gods.
Now where did I put Jack's flask? I need another drink.
So awesome when there is a new Seth Vid!
This video was just what the doctor ordered after a lousy day.
The "Sweat" Mary Jane...... wonder what the bloke who named the vessel after this lady really meant.
Um...Was that a golden brazier or a golden brassiere? Either one is fine with me.
Oh, and good job on the video, as usual. Very informative and entertaining.
I’m thinking you’d need two skulls if it was a golden brassiere . . .
It always gives me a little jolt when he calls it a brassiere, too!
I was today years old when I realized Jack’s flask has an octopus/Cthulhu head on it.
I think this adventure could be easily converted to a fantasy pulp game,like Conan or Beasts and Barbarians.
Great review! Sounds like a really cool adventure
Ok. Totally running this in my next campaign
Somebody should really do something with the Moche civilization and their art style. Severed heads, humanoid-spider hybrids with fangs dripping blood, Moche art is made for horror roleplaying.
Definitely want to run this scenario. 😃
I read all zou book and look foreward to read next one :-D.
Were Marshal, Will, and Holly there? Skeestack? Dinosaurs? Pylons?
Oooops I'm very late to the party. Hello Seth! Enjoying the chilly weather? I hope it sticks around as long as possible.
Watching this episode from a hospital bed, having just had my gallbladder removed. Pretty sure there's a skin beast hiding in the shadows of the corner of my room.
The boat is actually named the Sweat Mary Jane... not Sweet Mary Jane. (3:48 under the Aug 12, 1931 entry.) Must be a hot boat!
I enjoy these reviews so much thanks Seth !!!
07:38. What about the bug-eyed guy with Shingles from Innsmouth? He seems to have practically born for a life at sea! 🦈🐡🐠🐟
17:10. *Cue Chucky's "Damballah" Chant.*
Part of me was so hoping for a sight gag when Jack couldn't find his flask just to have it in Seth's hand 😂
Or Mike's. Realities blending and all that.
It's a long sail from Kingsport to the waters near Peru, perhaps Olmec instead, with all those rounded figures?
It is a long sail. Especially in the days before the Panama Canal. That's why the pirates teleported to the island off the coast of Kingsport. They didn't sail it.
When can we expect some more of your beautiful ad&d reviews?
Sounds like an awesome module
I would like to play it
@Seth can you post Jack's Pulp cthulhu stats I have his call of cthulhu stats but would love to put his upgrade Pulp stats the way you have him.🙏🙏🙏 lol
3:41 I was going to make a joke about next-level bra burning, but the internet beat me to it
A new Seth day is always a good day!
As a side note the good ship 'Sweet Mary Jane' at 3:49 was actually written as "Sweat Mary Jane". Is it bad that I kinda like that?
It made the Arkham run in less than 12 parsecs.
"In less than 30 SAN."
Yaaay - Seth's back!
(Spoilers) I think the Shamblers teleported the ship into the cave to trap the ship- it says on the Peterson's Abominations page that Shamblers like using that trick to hunt.
Or the "Sweat" Mary Jane, as seen around 3:47... ;)
Don't deny it. You kept pausing the video to read Seth's shirt.