Lairs of Evil (Gothic Places)

[The Lesser Evil]

A thread for locations on Gothic Earth to be described, as per Lady Ligeia's idea.

What ideas does everybody have?

[Lady Ligeia]

Here is your own House of Usher description:


The House of Usher
Wrecked House, possible sinkhole of evil, ethereal resonance, or phantasmagoria
Biography: What exactly happened on that fateful night when the House of Usher collapsed is still uncertain; however it took with it the last surviving members of the Usher family line. The only survivor, a family friend of the Ushers, spoke only tales of madness and terror, and is now old and feeble or dead.
Current Sketch: The House now lies in smoldering ruins, never examined further because of its infamous reputation. However, recently some nosy investigators have decided to examine the collapsed house to get the true picture.
Forbidden Lore: The ruined mansion seems to have taken on a decayed but sinisterly aware atmosphere, and the surrounding populace gives it a wide berth. Rumors of strange, unexplained noises like incoherent rambling still persist. Nearby gravesites sometimes witness unknown vandalisms where the coffins look like they have been broken from the inside out.
(Source: Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher)

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

The Isle of White
Over the course of history, the people of Britain have seen the Isle of White as little more than a glorified prison or asylum. The most unbalanced, unsavoury characters were condemned to live out the rest of their lives here and died violent deaths that harboured hatred that carried on to the next life. Rumours of hauntings and the reputation of the isle spread far and wide across the British mainland, in return, these tales and odd extracts of folklore fuelled the fire that burned in the heart of the cursed isle itself.

Situated off the southern coast of England, this tiny island is home to one of the most powerful phantasmogoria found on the face of Gothic Earth. It is common to stumble upon some supernatural effect of be faced with some phantom vision of a former inhabitant of the island. Many medium and psychics flock to the island each year in hopes of solving whatever mysteries the island may hide from the living, however, many such individials who enter the isle often come away effected in some way by their experience, forever changed by some unseen force at play.

Rampant Geist and Ghost activity has been found on the island, but the same haunting has yet to be encountered more than once, even by the same investigator. Such mysteries may never be solved, but some incidients that have proved to be harmful to innocent people may lean evidence toward some malicious force.

[Dr Bloodworth]

The Gray Freighter
The Gray Freighter is caught in a supernatural doldrum -- a calm patch of sea -- in the Pacific Ocean. Believed to be a Japanese vessel, those who board the freighter, usually after the plaintive voice of the Gray Sailor begs for mercy, swiftly find that the entire ship is covered in a dusty gray mold. The mold is sentient, and once inside the ship its fungoid inhabitants (treat as zombies with Plant traits) will attempt to overpower the individuals, forcing them to ingest some of the diabolic mold and become, like them, a fungoid zombie.

-- Altered version inspired by "The Voice in the Night" by William Hope Hodgson and the film drawing its inspiration from that story, the Japanese movie Matango AKA Attack of the Mushroom People (1963)

[Dr Bloodworth]

The Cave at Tsavo
Along the banks of the Tsavo River in British East Africa is a small cavern system. For years, the cave had been used as a lair by man-eating lions. By the time Col. J.H. Patterson discovered the cave in 1898 while on the trail of two particularly vicious lions, the cave was strewn with the bones of countless dead men and animals. The lions were slain, but according to the natives, "the place of slaughter" will not remain quiet for long.

Forbidden Lore: Indeed, the natives were right. Man-eaters continue to plague Tsavo, and have for millennia. The cavern is home to a chemosit, a spirit of the hunt corrupted and made vicious by the Red Death. The cavern also beckons to predatory animals, witch doctors, or any of the sort who desire solitude. Once there, they are assaulted by the chemosit, which in game terms is an odem (Denizens of Dread) whose possession compels the host to acts of violence and savagery. The odem may fragment itself, and can possess 1-3 hosts at any one time.

The Red Death may have corrupted spirits of the hunt in other lands, and thus places like Tsavo may appear far from Africa. In particular, the native tribes of America have legends of caves, grottoes, and especially dark woods that are home to cannibal spirits called wendigo which may be chemosit under a different name.

Spellcasters possessed by either chemosit or wendigo are weakened as the bestial aspects of their nature take over -- only spells used to enhance the self are still able to be used (thus, no magical attacks or healing are possible).

-- inspired by The Maneaters of Tsavo by Col. J.H. Patterson and the film The Ghost and the Darkness