No, your eyes don’t deceive you: there is one more canon Gabriel Knight story, a comic written by Jane Jensen herself for the first game’s twentieth anniversary. With illustrations by Elisa Pavinato and colouring by Bruce Brenneise, you can read the whole thing here.
Given that the story takes place after Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, and coincided with the release of the first game’s remastered edition, I suspect it was written in the hopes of renewing interest in the franchise and continuing the games (the last one ended on an open note, after all).
But since this came out back in 2015 and there’s been no word since on Gabriel’s future, it would seem the attempt was unsuccessful. So let’s just enjoy Temptation on its own terms…
Six months after the events at Rennes-le-Château, Gabriel isn’t up to much – just hanging out by himself at Schloss Ritter. But the knock at the door inevitably comes, and it’s Frau Schmidt from the post office. (In an example of Jensen’s amazingly good grasp of continuity, Schmidt was mentioned in the novelization of The Beast Within).
She tells him about her brother Jan Josef, who runs a guest house near Wolfach Forest. He’s been having some difficulty with his guests, who occasionally fall ill with some mysterious malady. It hasn’t been a source of too much trouble until recently, when a pregnant woman lost her baby unexpectedly.
Frau Schmidt believes the cause of the trouble is something in the forest, and so Gabriel agrees to stake out the place. The next we see him, he’s watching a hooded figure approach the window of his room at the guest house, one that he chases into the forest.
Throughout all this, he’s accompanied by internal dialogue that’s all criticism, at odds with his heroic proactivity, though there’s eventually a twist over who’s really providing this commentary. After Gabriel disposes of the specter that’s been haunting the guest house, he turns to find Baron von Glower watching him.
The whole thing is very much a character study of where Gabriel’s mind is since we last saw him, and it’s not a particularly happy place. His loneliness makes him vulnerable, and he’s full of self-doubt. Grace has left, Gerde has gotten married, and Mosely is still working in New Orleans. What’s a Schattenjäger to do?
It all ends on a rather odd note: in the midst of his haunting by von Glower, Gabriel notices a blazing light that resembles a falling star in the sky, and realizes that he saw one just like it a few weeks ago – at about the same time von Glower started talking in his head.
Whatever the answer, we have yet to find out. When Gabriel returns home he finds a dead sheep on his doorstep, and whatever Jensen had planned next is only vaguely hinted at in the closing words: “Something was happening. Something new.”
What’s the connection between the lights in the sky and von Glower’s appearance? Who left the sheep carcass on Gabriel’s front door? Does it have anything to do with the fact that Schattenjägers traditionally undergo only three quests during their lifetimes? Will Grace ever return? Is another Schattenjäger case on the way? As of yet, we have no idea.
Miscellaneous Observations:
The details in the artwork is pretty cool, especially the stone lion at the foot of the staircase, which is exactly the same as the one in the game itself. Also, we get to see the kitchen of Schloss Ritter! (Hey, if you grew up with these games, that’s more exciting than it sounds).
The specter haunting the guest house (which is called a seelenfresser) is genuinely disturbing, so don’t read if you’re in the house alone at night!
Grace, Mosley, Malia and even von Zell all get namedropped, but perhaps the most interesting development is that Gerde got married and moved out – I suppose her mourning period for Wolfgang came to its end.
For continuity geeks, the Schattenjäger dagger and medallion are both present and accounted for.
So it’s not much, more a taster than anything resembling a meal, and yet – it’s Gabriel Knight, it’s Jane Jensen and it’s something. If they ever get the go-ahead for a fourth game, I’ll be first in line to play it.
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