Courtesy RPGNow
The Abbey is a resource book for the Dark Ages setting of Call of Cthulhu. It consists of three parts. The first is the titular Abbey, St. Bartholomew's Abbey in the year 962 AD. It acts as a home base of sorts for Dark Ages investigators. The second section is an overview of 10th century France, where the Abbey is located. The third section provides an organization, The Order of the Sword of Saint Jerome, an organization that was featured prominently in the Cthulhu Now scenarios compiled in Unseen Masters.
The first section provides plenty of plot hooks, NPCs, and adventure seeds to flesh out a Dark Ages campaign. It doesn’t provide specific details however, as befitting a Dark Ages campaign where paranoia and ignorance run rampant. Is one NPC a werewolf or just eccentric? Is another a feral child or a creature of the Dreamlands? The answers are up to the Keeper.
The second section details France's history. The most useful to a campaign is the list of common male and female names and an accounting of the "perils of the road" – basically, random encounters, Dark Ages-style.
The crowning piece of The Abbey is the section on the Order of the Sword of Saint Jerome. Much has been written about the Order, primarily from a Delta Green perspective. I'm particularly wary of just turning a knightly order into what amounts to secret agents with swords. Their treatment in The Abbey is considerably more nuanced, but still daring enough to allow players to play characters who will stop at nothing to stop the Mythos.
Neatly designed, edited, and filled with useful illustrations, The Abbey is head and shoulders above the average monograph. It sets the stage for an excellent Dark Ages campaign and is a must for any Keeper who isn't sure where to begin.
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