Berlin Wicked City Remix 3: Scenario 2 Part 2
(warning, spoilers for the second scenario of Berlin, Wicked City)
OK. Let us talk about Golems. This is the best idea of the second scenario and is barely explored. When I read about Grunau, Grau, Gregorius, and Belshazzar creating celebrity look-alike dolls, magically turned into golems, to make money and collect bodily fluids for rituals, I thought it was an amazing idea worthy of its own scenario.
Yet, the only in-game content we get (excluding the Anita golem used to summon Astarte/Abizou) is Erma Core, a golem-prostitute resembling a young Marlene Dietrich. She serves merely as a quest giver, pointing investigators toward Belshazzar by giving them one of his dolls.
The investigators must find the doll’s maker to uncover the conspiracy. Erma, who knows **everything** about what is happening, gives vague clues to sustain the mystery, later providing an info dump on defeating Astarte/Abizou. After this, she is destined to be killed “off screen”, and the characters can do nothing about it.
Despite the writer’s great ideas, Erma becomes a weak plot device. The first time I ran this scenario as written due to time constraints, but I was dissatisfied with Erma’s character.
Moreover, the author suggests an investigator could unknowingly be a golem but doesn’t explore how.
I decided to explore both opportunities further.
In the following paragraphs, I will try to sketch this idea. I realized that including all the details would be like writing a full scenario, so I will try to focus on the main points of the idea, and let you fill in what is missing.
The prostitution ring:
In my version of the scenario, the celebrity look-alike prostitution ring results from Albin Grau and Gregorius’ most successful magic experiment. In 1923, Grau discovered “Sefer HaGolem” (The Book of the Golem) by Rabbi Shimon ben Eliezer (you can make this book available to the investigators in Grau’s apartment or Gregorius’ shop). The manuscript detailed how to create a golem.
Grau and Gregorius agreed the ritual was feasible but required difficult-to-obtain items: a lifelike clay doll and sufficient human bodily fluids. They knew Belshazzar’s skill in creating lifelike dolls but found him very expensive. Grau, bankrupt due to the “Nosferatu” lawsuit, and Gregorius, whose bookshop “Inveha” was not yet popular, sought help from the wealthy and occult-o and sex-ritual-obsessed Baron Grunau. They convinced him to finance their experiment. Belshazzar built the doll, and they performed the ritual in his cellar. This created their first golem, Erma Core, resembling Marlene Dietrich. To their surprise, she could speak German without an accent, had general knowledge, and traces of memories, but was otherwise confused like a child.
They took time to figure out what to do with Erma. They wanted to study her and do more experiments but needed money to sustain her and make more dolls, as well as more bodily fluids for their rituals. Realizing Erma’s docility, they conceived the idea of a celebrity lookalike prostitution ring, convincing themselves it was ethical since the golems weren’t truly human.
Over the next year, they produced more golems and learned about them:
-Personalities and vague memories are defined by the bodily fluids used.
-Golems are unaware of their nature, believing to be human.
- Using a single person’s fluids makes a golem believe it is that person, accessing many of their memories. Gregorius theorized this could resurrect the recently deceased, while Grau insisted golems lacked real consciousness.
- Fewer donors made purer, more independent, and harder-to-control golems. They created over 20 golems in the following years, each resembling a 1920s actress.
How does this backstory affect the scenario? We can create events introducing the prostitution ring and Albin Grau. In my campaigns, one investigator always lived in an apartment building where a “luxury” prostitute could reside, involving the players that way. Another option is having them investigate a puzzling case for a police friend in need.
New scenario starting scene - The disappearance of Esther Schwartz
Esther Schwartz, who looks like film star Pola Negri, lives in an apartment building. Most tenants assume she’s a prostitute, but she keeps a low profile with no more than 3 or 4 visitors a day. She is friendly and polite but very shy and insecure.
One quiet evening, screams and sounds of violence, furniture, and glass breaking come from Esther’s room (one or two weeks before Anita Berber’s cabaret performance). If an investigator lives in the building, introduce Esther a session earlier. When the screams start, ask if they want to help. By the time they reach Esther’s door, all sounds stop, replaced by an eerie silence.
If an investigator is present, ask if they want to break the door. If not, they will learn this later: A neighbour (or the investigator) breaks in and finds a shocked man in his fifties, in underwear, trying to dress. A chair and full-body mirror are broken, suggesting a fight. On the floor, what appears to be a naked woman’s body is actually a ceramic doll with a cracked head leaking pink fluid.
The man, Heinrich Gruber, claims the girl left, leaving the doll in bed with him. He broke the doll in anger, for not getting a proper service. In reality, Esther laughed during intercourse, triggering Gruber’s unstable rage, leading him to fatally attack her, killing her, which reverted her to a porcelain doll. Gruber tries to leave without being questioned, possibly leaving money to appear credible. If not caught at this point, he will be difficult to track later.
If no investigator lives in Esther’s building, a police friend calls them, confused by the disappearance of a woman who left a broken doll resembling her, with no trace of her registration.
Investigating the prostitution ring:
If Gruber is stopped or tracked, he can be interrogated and will admit hiring a prostitute through Kinostar Escort, but insists the girl ran away, leaving the doll. He is lying but confused and unable to explain what happened.
Through Gruber or by investigating the room, the investigators learn about Kinostar Escort (a card for the service can be found in the apartment). The room suggests Esther had her own life: books, movie posters, and possibly a journal detailing her life, suffering, fear, and loneliness. She refers to Grau and Gregorius as her “the fathers” but not by name.
Albin Grau shows up when the investigators are searching the room. He came to check on Esther. Seeing or hearing about the broken doll disturbs him (he’s surprised the golem reverted to clay upon death and feels conflicted about his belief that golems aren’t people).
Pretending to be a customer shocked by Esther’s disappearance, he acknowledges being an artist and occultist. If possible, he has heard about the pursuits of the investigator in the occult. He tries to shift the conversion towards occult experiences (omitting the dolls) and eventually invites the investigators to the Weisse Maus to watch Anita Berber, arousing their suspicion and curiosity. This is on purpose: he wants to know more about them.
The investigators have a few days to investigate. They can call the escort service, talk to Erma, locate her, or hire one of the girls, possibly Erma, to interrogate her. Golems know their “creators” but not by name. If asked about occultism, they mention being taken occasionally to Baron Grunau’s mansion for sex-magic rituals. Similar rumors can be heard from occultist contacts of the investigators - women that look like actresses appearing at sex rituals at Grunau’s house.
They can investigate Belshazzar, who will feign ignorance about the dolls. If they get him to talk, he admits making life-size dolls for Grunau. They can also break into his house and find the designs and paperwork for the dolls. All clues point to Grunau, known as an extravagant and Not very competent figure in the occult scene of Berlin, and often out of town. By now, the Weisse Maus performance should occur, shifting focus from the golem prostitution ring to the Anita Berber case.
Now, we catch up to the scenario as written. Albin Grau meets the investigators at the Weisse Maus. Anita dances, and the orgy starts. The next day, Grau asks them to investigate Anita’s power, diverting them from the prostitution ring. If they skip the performance, Grau contacts them later to ask them to interview Anita. They meet Anita and Chatin-Hoffmann, attend his piano recital, enter alternate Berlin, and possibly die, allowing for more golem subplot insertion.
If investigators refuse to interview Anita and focus on the prostitution ring, they may be attacked and killed by Grunau’s hired thugs, leading to a variation of the next scene (Grunau sees their death as an opportunity to try to create doppelganger golems and calls Gregorius ).
Death and Resurrection
Chatin-Hoffmann sent the investigators to Alternate Berlin as part of an experiment. This resulted in more than expected (likely due to Anita channeling Astarte’s energies). At the recital’s end, investigators are found unconscious or dead (depending on what happened to them in Alrernate Berlin). If unconscious, they are sent home by cab.
If dead, Chatin-Hoffmann panics and contacts Gregorius, who proposes an experiment: create a doll resembling the deceased, fill it with their bodily fluids, and bring it to life. The ritual works, and the investigator is replaced by a golem doppelganger (unknown to the player). The golem is nearly identical to the original, but with the word TRUTH tattooed on their neck. It will revert to a porcelain doll if killed. Investigating years later reveals a 3-day unaccounted period after the recital.
At this point, Grau, Gregorius, and Chatin-Hoffmann start discussing summoning Astarte/Abizou through Anita, but Anita leaves Berlin before they can agree. Chatin-Hoffmann follows his wife, while Grau and Gregorius focus on other activities. This leads to a 2-year jump in the narrative, starting the second part of the scenario.
The second part of the scenario
You can actually run the first scene almost as written. Although the whole idea of the little doll as a message to send the investigators to Belshazzar’s house still doesn’t make much sense to me. I prefer to have Erma call one of them at home, and simply tell them that “They tried something that went very wrong at the doll maker Belshazzar's house, maybe you can stop it before it is too late. They summoned…”. If they have met her before, they recognize Erma’ voice. “Sorry, I have to go. It is not safe. I will contact you again when I can.” (Yes, this is still a cryptic message, but this time the excuse is simple she is being monitored and cannot tell the whole story).
From this point on, the investigators can follow the investigation more or less as rewritten.
Nonetheless, I would remake the second encounter with Erma. As written, it is overly scripted, it includes an info dump, and then kicks the players out of the scene with an NPC that tells them that Erma is a saint and that she is going to be killed and nobody can do nothing about it. Talk about railroading.
Instead of that, let the investigators get this info dump (if you think it is necessary) through a letter received one or two days later.
I personally prefer to convey the occult information abou Abizou through Gregorius under coercion, or through a journal Gregoriis keeps in the office at hosmhis store, or by Grau, who enthusiastically talks about it like a madman.
And if you want the investigators to meet Erma, let her give them an address (either by phone call or letter/postcard) and explicitly ask for help. This can be an interesting side quest. She is in an apartment owned by Grunau, guarded by an armed thug hired from a Ringverrein by Grunau. The reward for saving Erma is that she may tell to the investigators some bits she heard from Gregorius and Grau in one of Grunau’s “parties” related to the summoning of Abizou. Helping her build a life outside of the influence eof her creators may also develop into an interesting side story.
Let Chatin-Hoffmann hide in a hotel somewhere in Berlin (it never made sense that he asks Erma for protection). Gregorius can know where he is. A journalist contact of the investigators can know where he is.
The rest of the scenario should be ok more or less as is.
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