Gothic Earth

These isolated game sessions take place in the same world as the primary game, but involve different characters and stories. See the Storyline for the main plot.

game session #12
played on October 24, 2009

Awakening on an island off of Florida's gulf coast that was home to an abandoned Civil War-era naval fort, five strangers discovered that their passenger ship had sunk and they were now the prey of a mad Russian named Zadoff who hunted humans for sport. With a distraction from Delilah the courtesan, the team defeated Zadoff's manservant Ivan, and Nell the nurse discovered machine gears inside his body. Thorwald the thief helped them break into the lighthouse, but they had to fend off Ivan a second time, and Joseph the soldier took a nasty fall from the fortress's roof. This time, the group seized upon the idea of using Ivan's enchanted jewelry with the power to control the elements. They defeated him a third time and acquired a third key, giving them access to the underground cistern. Annabelle the field guide attacked Zadoff with his own wooden furniture, defeating him soundly. The group found a Civil War ironclad submerged in a getaway tunnel and used it to escape to safety, keeping their enchanted jewelry. (more detail)

in attendance:
• Aaron Shurtleff as Joseph Clayton
• Amy Austin as Delilah Greenfield
• Jackie Mason as Nell Cunningham
• Kelly Lee as Annabelle McDowell
• Matthew Preston as Thorwald LaRue

game session #24
played on January 27, 2010

In a quest to be the first explorer to reach the North Pole, famous Swedish adventurer Greta Nordahl commissioned an expedition by hot-air balloon that would traverse the frozen Arctic. Guided by her young navigator Arvid Liedholm and assisted by grizzled manservant Olaf Gren, Nordahl set out in the balloon, but it was quickly discovered to be leaking air and carrying too much weight. The trio made a series of attempts to drop needless weight, but lost the ability to steer in the process, and crash somewhere in the Arctic Circle, with no choice but to walk hundreds of miles home. Arvid's fatigue-induced hallucinations and Greta's admission of overconfidence despite known dangers made their journey harder. After Olaf spared a baby polar bear, its father came to their rescue: A talking beast named Iorek who explained that his race, the panserbjørne, hid this far north from humans. In exchange for the golden meteorite they had found, Iorek showed them the currents that would carry them home. (more detail)

in attendance:
• Dana Whitcomb as Greta Nordahl
• Jon Schiller as Arvid Liedholm
• Kelly Lee as Olaf Gren

game session #39
played on June 21, 2010

In the summer of 1692, rumors of witchcraft disturbed the village of Salem. The lawyer Philip English arrived to find his missing niece, and gained the help of a trio of good-natured witches. Martha Corey and Sarah Good, joined by new member Rebecca Good, explained that they were members of the Circle, a secret society that used magic to protect humans from harm. They looked for their missing friend Sarah Osburn, discovering in her journal that a creature named Zemlak from a realm called Ravenloft wielded influence over the town. After defeating a slave who worshipped Zemlak and attacked them, they turned the woman over to her owner Samuel Parris, town reverend and leader of the Circle. Following the missing teenager's trail into the woods, they defeated a will-o'-the-wisp, and found the girl and the corpse of Sarah Osburn tied up in an occult ritual. Suddenly, the police bore down on them and arrested them for witchcraft and related crimes. (more detail)

in attendance:
• Aaron Shurtleff as Rebecca Nurse
• Kelly Lee as Martha Corey
• Nathan Quam as Philip English
• Raquel Quam as Sarah Good

game session #40
played on June 28, 2010

Dragged before a judge, Philip English reluctantly bowed to pressure and agreed to prosecute Martha Corey, Sarah Good, and Rebecca Nurse for witchcraft. They prepared their cases separately, the women seeking evidence of their alibis, and Philip looking for a way to divert suspicion to someone else without seeming to. The women used an invokation to erase Philip's memories of their earlier spell-casting, making it harder for him to argue effectively. After a long day of examining witnesses on the stand, the group retired to their cells, where the astral projection of Sarah Osburn helped them deduce that Zemlak, in the guise of Samuel Parris, was behind it all. Freed of their physical bodies, they hurried to Parris's basement, finding the demon Zemlak in his lair. The witches succeeded in sealing him in an unbreakable magic trap, but not before suffering magical injuries. Though Zemlak was contained and the town was safe at last, they were trapped on the astral plane forever. (more detail)

in attendance:
• Aaron Shurtleff as Rebecca Nurse
• Kelly Lee as Martha Corey
• Nathan Quam as Philip English
• Raquel Quam as Sarah Good

game session #51
played on October 15, 2010

Mystic Sylvia Seybert, scientist Ella Hashagen, priest Conover Larkin, and mysterious Wiley Tibbetts were hired to exorcise a ghost from a haunted mansion in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The more rooms they explored, the more they learned about the convoluted secrets of the Van Laaden family, and the more attacks they suffered, from a wheelchair that tried to shove Sylvia down the stairs to kitchen knives that flung themselves at Ella. Sylvia soon deduced that wood was the common element in their paranormal experiences, and hints in the family history directed their attention to the massive oak mantle running through three rooms, imported a century earlier from Scotland. When they attacked it, they were nearly killed in a violent telekinetic counter-attack, but they managed to draw out Gwenc'hlan, an evil druid once melded to the oak tree by the wizard Merlin. Removed from physical contact with the wood in the house, the villain was easily defeated and set on fire by Father Larkin, and the Van Laaden home was at peace at last.

in attendance:
• Denise Sawicki as Wiley Tibbetts
• Kelly Lee as Sylvia Seybert
• Matthew Preston as Ella Hashagen
• Steve West as Conover Larkin

game session #78
played on October 14, 2011

Several agents of Die Vächtern convened in Paris: Occult expert Renee Dumont, assassin Martina Von Rank, explosives expert Pierre Bouchez, and smooth-talking team leader Luther Schumacher. Informed that someone calling himself 'the Phantom' had threatened to attack the audience attending that evening's performance of Faust at Palais Garnier, the city's premiere opera house, they sprung into action. Pierre's clever plan with a staff jumpsuit got them backstage, where they learned of a young ingenue poisoning the prima donna with the phantom's help. In the flooded underground tunnels below the building, Luther devised their escape from a sinking cage. They tracked the phantom underground to Notre Dame, where they learned that he was Quasimoto, the disfigured bell-ringer. As he taunted them from a rainy rooftop perch, seeking to be punished for his sins, the group debated the morality of killing a helpless man, until Martina ended the debate by shooting him down. Die Vächtern rewarded them handsomely, but seemed bothered that Quasimoto turned out not to have any supernatural powers after all.

in attendance:
• Chris Lemler as Martina Von Rank
• Joanna Woods as Renee Dumont
• Justin Woods as Pierre Bouchez
• Kelly Lee as Luther Schumacher

game session #93
played on March 26, 2012

Businessman Félix Benítez drove into a Puerto Rican village just as a mob was forming outside the brothel owned by Isabel Oppenheimer. The townspeople blamed her den of sin for causing children to disappear around town for the last few days. Félix and Isabel pledged their help to the distraught mother of a missing boy. Rumors around town said that crying was heard just before the children were taken, leading to fears of La Llorona, a weeping ghost searching for her missing children. When they came upon an exsanguinated dog, Isabel and Félix began to suspect that the chubacabra, a notorious "goat-sucker" was involved. Following a ghost on the beach, they learned that the school was in trouble, which led them to a confrontation with the monster itself, a quill-covered lizard who tried to bite Isabel's neck. When Félix tracked it to the lighthouse, they managed to shoot it to death, just before it could break into the childrens' hiding place inside. They said that a crying woman had led them to this safe place. The village forgave Isabel because she found their children, while Félix took the chubacapra's corpse for a sideshow exhibit that would make him richer.

in attendance:
• Evie Totty as Isabel Oppenheimer
• Kelly Lee as Félix Benítez

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