Masque Of The Red Death.pdf

Adventures on Gothic Earth

A Ravenloft ® Campaign Setting Expansion

Authors:

Jackie Cassada, Claire Hoffman, Carla Hollar, Harold

Johnson, Rucht Lilavivat, Nicky Rea, Andrew Scott

and Peter Woodworth

Developers:

Jackie Cassada and Nicky Rea

Editor:

Dale Donovan

Managing Editor:

Andrew Bates

Credit Art Director:

Richard Thomas

Layout and Typesetting:

Ron Thompson

Interior Artists: Talon Dunning, Jeff Holt, Marcio

Fiorito, Brian LeBlanc, Jeremy McHugh, Claudio

Pozas and Beth Trott

Front and Back Cover Designer:

Ron Thompson

Additional Thanks

Based on the Original Dungeons &

Dragons® rules created by E. Gary Gygax

and Dave Arneson and the new Dun-

geons & Dragons game designed by

Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Wil-

liams, Richard Baker and Peter Adkison.

Special Acknowledgements

Andria Hayday (1st ed. design)

Bruce Nesmith (1st ed. design)

Tracy and Laura Hickman (original

concept)

Wm W. Connors (original Masque

of the Red Death design)

the d20 System logo, and Wizards of the Coast and its logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast Inc., a subsidiary

of Hasbro Inc., in the USA and other countries, and are used by Arthaus under license.

PRINTED IN CANADA

Introduction

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter Seven: Madness and Mystery

182

Chapter One: A History of Gothic Earth

Chapter Eight: A Practical Guide to the Nineteenth Century

193

Chapter Two: An Atlas of Gothic Earth

Appendix I: The Villains of Gothic Earth

216

Chapter Three: Character Creation

Appendix II: Monsters in the World

237

Chapter Four: Money and Equipment

120

Appendix III: Lairs of Evil

256

Chapter Five: The Magic of Gothic Earth

136

Appendix IV: Adventures in Gothic Earth

268

Chapter Six: Combat

173

Index

286

Masque of the Red Death

Introduction

Let us go hence: the night is now at hand;

The day is overworn, the birds all flown;

And we have reaped the crops the gods have sown,

Despair and death; deep darkness o’er the land…

— Ernest Dowson, “A Last Word”

Introduction

The last decade of the 19th century stretches out before us, a beacon to a new and inviting

future. I think of all that we have accomplished and feel no small sense of pride in our

humanity. Gone are the nights that we must spend at the mercy of the implacable darkness.

Gas and electric lights brings the brightness of the stars to our streets and our homes. No

longer do we need to wait for letters to arrive by fragile posts; we can send our news to one

another by telegraph wire or by Bell’s innovative telephone. Our leisure time has greatly

increased by new mechanisms that have shortened the hours we spend in labor at home and

in the workplace. New entertainments are emerging to fill those expanded leisure hours.

Each day, it seems, men of science (and, I am told, some women of science) are

unlocking new doors into the realms of discovery. Cures for many diseases that have long

plagued society are emerging from the laboratories of these dedicated scientists.

Yet even as I sit here in my study on this last evening before the advent of the 1890s, I

cannot wholly rejoice in the works of men. For there are things that yet exist that most men

have no knowledge of, forces that defy science and reason, entities whose natures are best

described in terms such as “nightmares,” “bogeymen,” and, yes, I dare say the word —

“demons.”

I first learned of the darkness at the core of the world’s energies from a group of

courageous individuals, among them one Abraham Van Helsing, known as a great

scholar, scientist and humanitarian. What many do not know is that Dr. Van Helsing

is also a crusader, a soldier — no, rather, a commander — in a clandestine war against

things so horrible that few would believe or admit of their existence.

Yet these “things” do exist. And they are symptomatic of something even worse,

something that Van Helsing and his colleagues name the Red Death.

Why do I, an old woman with most of her life behind her, write now of subjects over

which I have no control? Certainly, if those who have already spent lives, fortunes and

reputations in a war between light and darkness could not defeat their greatest foe, I can

cause no real harm to any such megalithic beast.

Yet knowledge is a fragile thing, and records so easily destroyed. So, too, are the

bearers of this wisdom tracked down and obliterated. Van Helsing has begged me, in the

name of a greater duty to humanity, to put those things he has told me, and other bits of

truth I have since learned from my own observation, into writing in the hopes that those who

come after us can meet this hideous evil being armed with more than just weapons and spells.

They can face their enemy with knowledge and truth.

I write this for all these reasons, but, above all, I write this for my brother Abraham,

who fears he will not have the time to tell his own tale.

Here follows a history of the madness and horror that has entered the world and that

now stands poised to make its great move to crush all that is good and institute a reign of

terror and bloodshed. Here is the tale of the Red Death, what we know about it, what it

has done, what we fear it may do and where its strongholds — those we know of — lie.

May all who stand for the light, whether they be gods, goddesses, science or faith,

witness the truth of my words, given unto you this 31st day of December 1889.

Miriam Van Helsing

Masque of the Red Death

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