Berlin The Wicked City Remix 3 - Scenario 2, Part 2

 

(Warning: spoilers for the second scenario of Berlin: The Wicked City)

Okay. Let’s talk about golems. This is the best idea in the second scenario—and it’s 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 (aside from 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’s happening, gives vague clues to sustain the mystery, then later delivers an info dump on defeating Astarte/Abizou. After that, she’s destined to be killed “off screen,” and the characters can do nothing to stop 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—I felt dissatisfied with her character.

Moreover, the author suggests that an investigator could unknowingly be a golem but doesn’t explore how.

I decided to take both ideas further.

In the following paragraphs, I’ll try to sketch out what I did. I realized that including all the details would essentially be writing a full scenario, so I’ll stick to the main points and let you fill in the rest.

The Prostitution Ring

In my version, the celebrity look-alike prostitution ring results from Albin Grau and Gregorius’s most successful magical experiment. In 1923, Grau discovered the Sefer HaGolem (The Book of the Golem) by Rabbi Shimon ben Eliezer (you can place this book in Grau’s apartment or Gregorius’s shop). The manuscript detailed how to create a golem.

Grau and Gregorius agreed the ritual was feasible but required hard-to-obtain ingredients: a lifelike clay doll and a sufficient quantity of human bodily fluids. They knew Belshazzar’s skill in creating lifelike dolls, but he was expensive. Grau—bankrupt from the Nosferatu lawsuit—and Gregorius, whose bookshop Inveha was not yet successful, sought help from the wealthy, occult- and sex-ritual-obsessed Baron Grunau. They convinced him to finance the experiment. Belshazzar built the doll, and they performed the ritual in his cellar. The result was Erma Core, resembling Marlene Dietrich.

To their surprise, she could speak German without an accent, had general knowledge, and retained faint memories—but was otherwise confused and childlike.

They needed money to sustain her and make more golems, along with more bodily fluids for the rituals. Realizing Erma’s docility, they conceived the idea of a celebrity look-alike prostitution ring—rationalizing that the golems weren’t truly human.

Over the next year, they produced more golems and learned the following:

• Golem personalities and vague memories are shaped by the bodily fluids used.

• Golems are unaware of their nature and believe they are human.

• Using a single person’s fluids makes the golem believe it is that person, with access to many of their memories. Gregorius theorized this could resurrect the recently deceased, while Grau insisted golems lacked real consciousness.

• Fewer donors produced purer, more independent—and harder-to-control—golems.

They created over 20 golems in the following years, each modeled after a 1920s actress.

How This Affects the Scenario

This backstory allows us to create events introducing the prostitution ring and Albin Grau. In my campaigns, one investigator always lived in an apartment building where a “luxury” prostitute resided—an easy way to draw them in. Another option is having them investigate a puzzling case for a police friend.

New Scenario Opening: The Disappearance of Esther Schwartz

Esther Schwartz, who resembles film star Pola Negri, lives in an apartment building. Most tenants assume she’s a prostitute, but she keeps a low profile—no more than three or four visitors a day. She is friendly, polite, but shy and insecure.

One quiet evening—about a week or two before Anita Berber’s cabaret performance—screams and the sounds of violence and breaking furniture erupt from Esther’s room. If an investigator lives in the building, introduce Esther in a prior session. When the screams start, ask if they want to intervene. By the time they reach her door, all sound has stopped, replaced by an eerie silence.

If an investigator breaks in, they find a man in his fifties in his underwear, trying to dress. He seems to be in shock. A chair and full-body mirror are broken. On the floor lies what appears to be a naked woman’s body—but it’s actually a ceramic doll with a cracked head, leaking pinkish-white fluid.

The man, Heinrich Gruber, claims the woman left and left the doll in her place. In anger, he broke it. In truth, she laughed during sex, which triggered his rage, and he killed her by smashing a chair over her head. She reverted into a porcelain doll. He’ll try to leave quietly, possibly leaving money to appear credible.

If no investigator lives in the building, a police contact calls them about the bizarre case of a missing woman—leaving behind only a broken doll that looks like her.

There is no official record of Esther’s identity.

Investigating the Ring

If Gruber is stopped or found later, he admits hiring a prostitute from Kinostar Escort. He insists she ran away, leaving the doll in her place. He is clearly lying but deeply confused.

It is relatively easy to make him confess what he has done, either through guile or intimidation. Given that there is no body, it will be very difficult to charge him with murder. Which means that the investigators may have to let a man who effectively beat up and kill a woman get away with it. Or they may decided to take justice in their own hands. Either way, we are walking on difficult ethical ground.

The doll contains bodily fluids (mostly sperm and blood) from multiple people. On the back of its head is the Hebrew symbol for truth, and on its right foot, Belshazzar’s maker stamp. (This doll offers the same clues as the one given by Erma in the original scenario.)

The investigators may find a Kinostar Escort card in the apartment. Esther’s room also suggests she had a life: romantic novels, literature, movie posters, and perhaps a journal expressing her fear, loneliness, and confusion. She refers to Gregorius and Grau as “the fathers,” never by name.

Albin Grau shows up while the investigators are there. He came to check on Esther. Seeing or hearing about the broken doll disturbs him (he didn’t expect the golem to revert to clay).

Pretending to be a concerned client, he admits to being an artist and occultist. If possible, he’s heard of the investigators' interest in the occult. He’s friendly, talkative—and lying. He steers the conversation toward occult matters (omitting the golems) and eventually invites them to the Weisse Maus to see Anita Berber. He’s probing them.

(If no one saw him at the apartment, he visits the investigators' home to ask about Esther and steer the conversation.)

Before the meeting at the Weisse Maus, the investigators have time to dig deeper. They can contact the escort service, talk to Erma, or hire one of the girls (perhaps Erma) and interrogate her. Golems know their “creators,” though not by name. They mention attending sex-magic rituals at Grunau’s mansion. Similar rumors circulate in occult circles—actress-like women at strange parties.

Belshazzar will feign ignorance. If pressed, he admits to making life-size dolls for Grunau. A break-in at his house reveals doll designs and contracts. All clues point to Grunau, an extravagant but not especially respected figure in Berlin’s occult scene, often out of town.

Soon after, the Weisse Maus performance should occur, shifting focus from the prostitution ring to Anita Berber.

Rejoining the Published Scenario

At this point, things align with the written scenario. Grau meets the investigators at the Weisse Maus. Anita performs. The orgy begins. Next day, Grau asks them to investigate Anita’s power—diverting attention from the golems. If they skip the performance, he contacts them later. They meet Anita and Chatin-Hoffmann, attend the piano recital, enter alternate Berlin, and possibly die—allowing more opportunities for golem subplot insertion.

If they ignore Anita and pursue the ring, they may be attacked by Grunau’s thugs. If an investigator is killed, Grunau sees an opportunity: he asks Gregorius to try making a doppelganger golem, leading to the next session.

Death and Resurrection

Chatin-Hoffmann sends the investigators into Alternate Berlin as part of an experiment. Due to Anita channeling Astarte’s energies, it goes too far. If the investigators die, Chatin-Hoffmann panics and contacts Gregorius. They attempt an experiment: create a doll of the deceased, fill it with their fluids, and animate it. It works. The investigator returns as a golem doppelganger—unknown to the player. They are nearly identical, except for the Hebrew truth symbol tattooed on the neck. They revert to a porcelain doll if killed.

Later investigation may reveal a three-day blackout following the recital.

Grau, Gregorius, and Chatin-Hoffmann discuss summoning Astarte/Abizou through Anita—but Anita leaves Berlin before they can act. Chatin-Hoffmann follows her. Grau and Gregorius move on. Two years pass.

The Second Part of the Scenario

You can run the first scene mostly as written. I never liked the little doll message that sends the investigators to Belshazzar, it feels contrived. I prefer having Erma call one of them:

“They tried something that went very wrong at the dollmaker Belshazzar’s house. Maybe you can stop it before it’s too late. They summoned…”

If the players have met her, they recognise her voice.

“Sorry, I have to go. It’s not safe. I’ll contact you again when I can.”

Yes, it’s still cryptic—but it makes sense: she’s being watched.

From here, the investigation can follow the rewritten flow.

Still, I’d revise the second encounter with Erma. As written, it’s overly scripted: she info dumps, then vanishes, with another NPC declaring her saintly and doomed, while the players are powerless to intervene. That’s railroading.

Instead, let the investigators receive her message (if needed) via letter a few days later.

Personally, I prefer to deliver occult information through Gregorius under coercion, or via a journal found in his store, or from Grau, who rambles about it like a madman.

If you want Erma to appear, let her give the investigators an address (by phone or postcard) and explicitly ask for help. She’s hiding in an apartment owned by Grunau, guarded by a Ringverein thug. If they rescue her, she can tell them what she overheard at Grunau’s rituals. Helping her build a life outside her creators' control can become a rich subplot. In one of my runs, one of the investigators married her.

Let Chatin-Hoffmann hide in a Berlin hotel (it never made sense for him to hide with Erma). Gregorius or a journalist contact may know his location—he’s a minor celebrity, after all.

The rest of the scenario should run more or less as written.

Links to posts in the Berlin The Wicked City series:

Part I - Campaign overview and The Devil Eats Flies

Part II - Dances of Vice and Ecstasy

Part III - Dances of Vice and Ecstasy (cont.)

Part IV - Shrekfilm

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