Descartes’s Circle

Descartes was a vampire illusionist who came into possession of a magical staff know as the Mansion of Solitude. The staff contained an extradimensional mansion inside of it. This structure allowed vampires to sustain themselves from the enchanted food within without the need for drinking blood. A number of reformed vampires took up residence in the staff where they could avoid feeding on living people. Unfortunately the staff was found by Descartes. He wanted to use the magical item for his own nefarious purposes, but he couldn’t as long as it was occupied.

Descartes found his solution with Terroc and his band of adventurers. Descartes disguised his nature with illusion spells and entered Shalemstead. He hired Terroc to clear the staff of vampires. The mage and his companions entered the Mansion of Solitude and destroyed all of the reformed vampires with a magical mace. They emerged, but were betrayed by Descartes. The evil vampire fled west from Shalemstead to a ring of stones where his coffin was protected by his thralls. Terroc followed and defeated Descartes. The vampire ran away once more taking the Mansion of Solitude with him, but his place of power and his cult of followers were destroyed.

I’m Isaac

Welcome to the GoCorral website! I’m Isaac Shaker and this is a place for me to write about D&D and occasionally other topics. I host a podcast called Setting the Stage that interviews different DMs about their campaigns. I’m currently focused on completing the Cimmeria campaign setting and turning it into a book.

Setting the Stage Podcast

83 – Call of Cthulhu's Garden (Hem and The Sprouting) Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

Hem tells us about their actual play campaign, The Sprouting. Within the world of The Sprouting, Earth's history diverged during the 1800s when an eldritch horror was summoned into our reality. The horror lay in wait for centuries, building up a secret army of plant monsters. In 2020, the plant monsters struck, ruining infrastructure and attacking population centers across the world. One hundred years have passed and our heroes learn that the next stage of the plant apocalypse has begun…We also discussed some of the difficulties and pleasures of actual play podcasts and how the RPG community varies internationally (Hem is in Iceland).If you want to try listening to The Sprouting its available on all major podcast platforms. You can learn more on The Sprouting's website.For other shows produced by Hem check out Blighthouse Studio's website.Hem mentioned The Lucky Die actual play show of theirs several times which used D&D 5e.And the broader network of Fable and Folly has their website too.Check out the Setting the Stage website!Want to be on the show? Fill out this survey.Join our Discord!Support Setting the Stageon Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
  1. 83 – Call of Cthulhu's Garden (Hem and The Sprouting)
  2. 82 – Tarot Ghosts (George and Fears & Fortunes)
  3. 81 – Biopunk 2287 RPG (Seiya and Synesthesia Synthetica)
  4. 80 – Dynamic RPG Countries (Travis and Tetara)
  5. 79 – Dragon Age Degenerates (Zoe from Degenerates with Dice)