The Sanguine Inheritance - A campaign spanning the Wretched Belle Ãpoque era (late 19th Century) through to the Wretched Darkness modern era

 A campaign spanning the   Belle Ãpoque era (late 19th Century) through to the  Wretched Darkness  modern era can use the enigmatic "Red Room" entity as the persistent, timeless antagonist. The  Red Room, within the context of The Red Room RPG line, is a recurring symbol of insidious horror, corruption, and sanity loss that manifests across different timelines and settings.

Campaign Title: The Sanguine Inheritance

Core Premise: The player characters in the Belle Apoque era (1870s-1900s) discover a secret society obsessed with an otherworldly anomaly they call the "Crimson Sanctum" (The Red Room). Their actions in that era fail to stop its influence. A new generation of characters (descendants, spiritual successors, or modern investigators) in the present day must confront the legacy of the Red Room as it fully manifests its horror in the modern world.

Phase 1: The Apoque of Madness (Wretched Belle Apoque Era)

Setting:  Paris, 1890s. The city is a hub of art, science, and the occult. Secret societies thrive in the shadows, experimenting with "The Beyond" and forgotten magic.

Player Characters: A mix of bohemian artists, rationalist scientists, aristocratic occultists, and possibly police detectives (using Wretched Apoque source material).

The Threat: The "Red Door Society," a group of wealthy elites and mad scientists, discovers a way to consistently manifest a pocket dimension: The Crimson Sanctum. They believe it to be a source of ultimate power, using its strange properties for their own twisted desires, such as stopping aging or bringing back the dead (with horrific results).

Key Events:

• Investigation: The PCs stumble upon the Society's activities, perhaps a string of strange disappearances, or a lunatic raving about a "room of blood" before committing suicide.
• The Sanctum: The PCs manage to find a physical manifestation of the Red Room perhaps an extra, unmapped room in a grand mansion that changes its appearance to lure victims in (a library for the scholar, an art studio for the artist, a shooting gallery for the soldier).
• The Failure: The PCs attempt to shut down the Society's ritual. They succeed in stopping the primary members but fail to destroy the core anomaly. The Red Room connection is severed but not destroyed, passing into occult history as a legend. The PCs may die, go mad, or dedicate their lives to ensuring the secret remains buried.

Phase 2: The Silent Decades (The Gap)

The campaign jumps forward in time. Historical events like WWI, WWII, and the Cold War happen. The Red Room is largely forgotten, an urban legend whispered in dark corners or mentioned in fragmented diaries and asylum records found by the next generation of characters. Its influence is subtle, causing localized events of madness or strange disappearances.

Phase 3: The Darkness Ascends (Wretched Darkness Modern Era)

Setting:  A sprawling, morally decayed modern metropolis (using the Wretched Darkness core rules). Urban decay, conspiracy theories, and technology provide the backdrop for horror.

Player Characters: A new group of characters with links to the original Ãpoque PCs (e.g., a great-grandchild inheriting a strange journal, a historian finding lost archives, federal agents investigating a cold case that suddenly reappears).

The Threat: A new, ruthless organization (perhaps an offshoot of a government agency or a tech giant) discovers the remnants of the Red Door Society's research. Using modern technology and a complete lack of moral boundaries, they not only reopen the portal but anchor it, allowing the Red Room entity to bleed fully into reality.

Key Events:

• Reawakening: The modern PCs notice a sudden spike in bizarre events people turning up with all their blood drained, or strange "red entities" appearing in dark alleys. They find the old Apoque journals and begin connecting the dots.
• The Full Manifestation:  The Red Room is no longer a single room; it's an entire apartment complex or an office building whose interior layout shifts and changes, a physical, psychological labyrinth that traps victims and feeds on their despair.
• The Final Confrontation:  The PCs must breach the fully realized Red Room manifestation. Unlike the Ãpoque characters who could only disrupt the ritual, the modern PCs have the knowledge from the past and perhaps the advanced tools to permanently sever the link. The final confrontation involves fighting the core "entity" of the Red Room itself, a psychological battle where sanity is the primary resource.