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[Introduction]
[History] [Location] [Game
Aids]
Hermann
Schreibach's first three children were born in the makeshift shack
erected on the hill above his fields of hops and barley. They were
baptized in the spring from whose crystal-clear waters he hoped to
brew his fortune. His fourth child and only daughter was born in the
newly-built manor. She was baptized Elsa Bornhilde Schreibach.
In a time and place highly
unfavorable to female education, Elsa bore the burden of
intelligence. As more sons followed, she was left almost entirely in
the care of her nanny. By this time the fields were being worked by
less-fortunate German immigrants, but Elsa's nanny was of slave
descent. Elsa applied herself to the only studies available to
her-languages, the harpsichord and voodoo.
As she grew, there was no society
and no acceptable suitors. Her mother tutted anxiously about her
unwed state while imposing behavior that further lessened her
chances. Unresisting, Elsa continued with her strange curriculum,
pouring into it all her passion, all her ability, and spending
endless hours down by the spring.
Perhaps she discovered something
that took her over the edge. Perhaps a suitor did arrive, bringing a
dark gift. Whatever the case, Elsa is now around 150 years old.
While outwardly its fortunes
prospered, the family decayed under the burden of this ageless
"Aunt," who after a few decades was simply the most
experienced, most powerful member. She never killed a relative-her
family was very important to her-but she manipulated them to ensure
her own survival. Those who knew could not leave, and there could be
no newcomers. Her last blood relative died eighty years ago.
By that time, Elsa had placed the
bulk of the family's dealings with the city firm that became Golding
Investment Brokers. If someone were to gain access to the firm's
archives and investigate the Schreibach account, the fact that the
family representatives have always been women with the initials
"EBS" and strangely similar handwriting would gradually
emerge. So too would the fact that these women make all purchases,
even clothing, through the medium of the firm, and that their
personal adviser, always a Golding, has always visited them at the estate.
The fact is that the entire estate
is set up to keep the changes in the outside world at bay. The fields
are tended and the beer brewed because that is how things were in
Elsa's childhood. Since the extinction of her family she has made no
attempt to overcome her isolation, and has instead slipped gradually
into a delusion that despite the passing of time, everything is still
the same.
In recent years, however, the
estate's security system has been completely renewed. The current
Golding acquired for Elsa the services of Josephine Laplaisir, a
Haitian ex-military attaché. Uniquely suited to the position,
she now heads the small number of living humans on the staff.
The rest, of course, are zombies.
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