Gothic Earth: Excerpts of a Nightmare

[High Priest Mikhal]

The following is a snippet from the doc that covers RE0 and RE REmake as posted on the Internet by Alexander Dreamfire. The full document will be available for download once I finish the monster entries. And feel free to comment in this thread.

And since I can't find them in my old posts, I'm re-posting my old download links here as I've been forced to move to a different server. All old links are now defunct.
The Gothic Journals Compilation
The Lost Journals Compilation
Masque of the Red Death 1998 rules as used in the fiction
My soulfknife build for Alexander

Into the Fire
Our joy was short-lived. Instead of offering a way out, the path we opened merely led deeper into the bowels of the facility. A church stood at the end of the bridge, though the doors were barred. As I investigated a side area I found a conspicuously raised slate—a trick to unlock the door. When I stepped on it the doors audibly unlatched and Billy was first inside. An altar with hundreds of melted candles on it stood towards the back, but the touch didn’t dispel the feeling of darkness. This place wasn’t holy in the slightest.

None of us were paying attention when we heard a screech, then wings flapping. I looked up in time to see a giant bat as it swooped down and knocked me to the ground. In doing so it also drove me through a pew. Searing pain came from my side.

The others opened up on the creature, bullets tearing holes in its fleshy wings. For a minute it looked like the thing was going to withstand their assaults, then it faltered and fell. The creature was so heavy it smashed the floor and left a small crater. The threat had ended, and suddenly I was well aware of the pain.

A long, thin sliver of wood had pierced my right side and into my large intestine. I pulled it free as Rebecca prepared to patch me up. Unfortunately I didn’t realize she used rubbing alcohol as her disinfectant; I’m violently allergic to all forms of alcohol and not a moment after she began cleaning the wound I became extremely ill. For a few minutes all I could do was retch. Once I was back in control of myself I used a magic unguent to heal the wound and neutralize the poisonous isopropyl. But the damage was done; I was weak and shaking, barely able to stand up. Of course Rebecca was apologizing like crazy, and I told her it wasn’t her fault. I guess I should have told her before.

At the other end of the church we found an elevator, though without a circuit. The thing was on the other side of a wrought iron fence, a locked gate blocking our path. So it fell to Billy to climb over—with me as a boost—and flip the switch. A light over the door of the elevator flickered on and Billy was able to unlock the gate from his side. With that out of the way we packed into the tiny elevator and went down.

Whatever the place had been, it was a wreck when we got there. Parts of the walls were crumbling and debris was everywhere. The only door around led into a library long abandoned. A hole in the ceiling led up, this time Rebecca going. She was the only one of us that could fit. Billy and I waited near the hole, hearing the odd gunshot at times.

Outside we heard something raising up. A portion of the wall had raised up and an all new corridor was revealed. So was another of those leech things. This time we had the means of destroying it—a Molotov cocktail. Once it was dead we found both doors had a lock of some kind. The first had what looked like a combination without a dial, while the other had a bust of Marcus with a strange, leech-shaped indentation underneath. All these leech motifs were beginning to grate on my nerves. Marcus was truly obsessed if he’d go so far with the theme. That led to thoughts that just made me cringe.

Rebecca radioed us and told us to check a dumbwaiter in the library. Waiting was a blue leech charm, a fit for the door. Inside the room we found a few zombies and some bodies, including one holding a green leech charm and a locked door. Unable to open that door we returned to the dumbwaiter.

This time it was Rebecca that could use the charm, as she’d found another door so much like the one we’d just opened. A few minutes later she sent down a dial for a safe—a fit for that other door—and a note with highlighted numbers. It took a little math but the thing offered up the combination. Inside was an opulent office, including a book with this old picture. It turned out to be a diary, detailing Marcus and his studies. The picture was a graduation picture from 1926. The young man pictured was the same one we saw outside the train! Billy was quick to say it was his son, or grandson, but in my gut I knew we saw the resurrected James Marcus. The T-Virus had brought its creator back from the grave.

[MadStepDad]

We most def need to collaberate more. You and I are approaching the same experiment from slightly different angles. I was slightly aware this had been going on, but until I read your MotRD link for 1998 I didn't realize how deep it really is. This is a long time goal of mine as well, the only place we differentiate I guess is by my reliance on D20 MODERN rules, which you said has no place in your game. Why is that? Just out of curiousity.

I REALLY like what you've done with the post-MotRD boxed set history write up. It was something I had glossed over in my own campaign, but it's great to finally see it thought over and written out. Great work, ill Gothic Earth twist on Hitler (he was human all along...) Yeah we somehow need to work together or something because I think we're one of the very rare few carrying the flag for new school Masque of the Red Death. Salute.

peace,

MSD

[High Priest Mikhal]

Well, I look forward to collaboration. And as for why I said d20 Modern has no place, that's largely because I didn't want to go out and buy a whole new system. D&D 3e can be made to work in modern times quite easily and I more or less know the system by heart after all these years. It's easier for me to just go with what exists.

[MadStepDad]

Understandable. But you do know D20 Modern basically IS 3.0. Same thing. Base classes, feats, skill points, you know the drill. Anyways, I guess the next question is what to collaberate ON!

Do you have a live table top game anywhere? Where do you play? Where are you FROM just out of curiousity? Maybe we can expand the history beyond the 1998 cut off in the summary and try to jumpstart some enthusiasm in MotRD again? THey did have a 3.0 revision that came out but I never copped it. But again, nobody is touching Modern Day stuff on that level like we are. So maybe something along those lines? I don't know, but it's too ill NOT to work together on something!

[High Priest Mikhal]

Collaboration may be a long time from now. I'm still working on stats for the monsters for the first Resident Evil-based adventure and maps for the adventure itself (plus changes to the puzzles and monster locations so folks can't cheat by playing the games).

Also the history is expanded--from one man's point of view, at least. That's what the Gothic Journals are. I admit I don't get too much into real world issues, but I also have to work within the Resident Evil universe history as well because that's essentially what MotRD 1998 is: the video games brought to D&D. And since the main protag is intimately tied to the events of (most of) the games, that's where the focus tends to shift.

While I'd like to collaborate on something, I'm afraid I'm still too busy with my own projects. I guess I could write down the core tenets of the crunch and fluff so others could help ::shakes head, rattling sound is heard:: but that means sorting through this dusty piece of gray matter. A topic for another thread, I guess.