Inheritance - Geist, #8

EVIL LURKS IN THE BLOOD

Rufus is an idle youth content to spend his scholarships on stiff drink and loose company, but even he knows such a life cannot last forever. On the cusp of financial ruin, he receives a letter from his estranged grandfather, Baron Matthias Grünewald, promising him the rustic village of Altstadt and its environs upon the heir's return to the family estate. Against his better judgment, Rufus boards a black coach and is ferried to a far, fogbound stretch of moorland—ever in the shadow of Schloss Fleischberg and the unspeakable horrors therein.

Shortly after his arrival, Rufus discovers that his grandfather has died of mysterious circumstances following an expedition into "the Pit" beneath the old keep. He is soon swept in a labyrinth of rural politics, madness and murderous creatures with the truth of his ancestor's sins at its heart, torn between securing his family fortune and preserving his own life. Though Rufus enlists mercenaries of all stripes to chart the dark corners of the estate, all remain ignorant to the evil stirring beneath their feet—and the apocalyptic threat it poses.

Set four hundred years before the Geist series, Inheritance is both a stand-alone work and a companion piece to Leper Errant, though its passages illuminate a cosmic revelation which pervades more than its own pages imply. Return to the world of Geist under the pall of gothic horror, and witness Rufus in his pursuit of family redemption. No good will come of his endeavors, but will he retain his humanity? Or will he succumb to the darkness that dwells not only in these forlorn halls, but his very lineage as well?