Highland Terror here is nearly a good horror scenario. It proceeds along a lot of the pathways established by Call of Cthulhu: there’s a bit of investigation, a series of settings, international travel, some ancient lore that gives a pivotal clue. It turns into a bit of a dungeon crawl at the end, but so do a lot of early CoC scenarios. And it involves the Loch Ness Monster, which is cool, because Nessie is cool.

The thing is…well…look at this cover painting. Ignore the fact that the monster is attacking the boat because one of the fishermen snagged it on its line. Just take in the monster for a minute. Remind you of anything?

Yea, that’s an otter. A demonic otter with fangs and an elongated neck, but an otter all the same. Nessie is an otter.

I don’t hate that. The more I think on it, it is a cool riff on Nessie theories (a lot folks think the photos of the monsters are actually a group of otters that happen to be floating in a line). And I love the cover art. But I can’t imagine trying to sell a giant otter monster to my group of players.

So close to cool, Chill! So close!