Gertrude Von Strumph

Template:NON PLAYER CHARACTER

**[WARNING: This page contains spoilers for the first episode of the At the Mountains of Dadness campaign. If you have not finished this episode, be warned.]**

> *"Would you like to see the film?"*
>
>

Gertrude Von Strumph is an NPC from At the Mountains of Dadness. She is an editor who works for Father's Own Pictures. She is very dedicated to her work and is easily irritated. When the party meets her in Chapter 1 of the sidequest, she has been corrupted by The Doodler's chaos and turned into a monster.

## Ch. 1 - Casting Call of Cthulhu

**[WARNING: This summary contains descriptions of intense body horror and gore. Read at your own risk.]**

After the party investigates Joseph Joseph Abrams' apartment, they go to Gertrude's editing suite in an attempt to retrace the missing director's steps.

When they arrive, Hildy Russet reveals Gertrude's name to the rest of the group and tells them about her notorious reputation. Apparently, a PA once interrupted her while she was editing, and she threw coffee all over them. Robert Wilson sadly reveals that he was that PA.

When the group opens the editing suite door, they find Gertrude working furiously over her moviola in an otherwise dark room. She does not respond when they open the door or call out to them. When Hildy shines her flashlight in Gertrude's direction, they can see blackish liquid with the consistency of blood oozing from cuts in her eyes and trickling down her body.

Gertrude finally addresses the group. When she turns to look at them, they see two small film reels bolted into her eye sockets. As the reels quickly spin, the sharp edges of the film are cutting up her eyes and cheeks, causing more black liquid to spill down her face. Gertrude opens her mouth and film starts to spew out of it. In a warped and horrifying voice, she asks the group, "Have you come to see the film?"

Gertrude begins choking up more film and pulling it out of her throat, slicing it open from the inside. Stud, thinking that she's choking on the film, runs over to Gertrude to try and help her. Hildy follows.

Stud grabs the film and tries to pull it out of her mouth, but it doesn't budge. Gertrude grabs Stud's arm and rambles to him about the inherent chaos that comes with editing physical film. She says,

> *"You know what's beautiful about film? The imperfections, the scratches, the hairs, the flecks of dust. As you edit, it begins to be all you see. You're initially given this film, and it's pristine and clean, and you think, 'Ah, this'll be perfect.' But the more you work on it, the more the imperfections begin to worm their way in. The horrible, pure randomness of it. Would you like to see the film?"*
>
>

Hildy tells Stud to get away from Gertrude, but she doesn't let go of Stud. Gertrude insists that he sees the movie. Hildy tries to persuade Gertrude by saying that they want to wait for the real premiere before seeing the movie, but she fails. Gertrude unhinges her jaw and temporarily blinds Hildy with a bright light coming from the back of her throat.

Meryl runs into the room and does a flying kick at Gertrude's head. He injures her, but she still keeps her hold on Stud. She grabs him by the neck and tries to force his face down into the moviola's opening where the razor-sharp film is exposed. Stud tries to knock the moviola over, but critically fails. She jams his head into the moviola and the film reels slice out his eyes, permanently blinding him.

Finally, Stud successfully kicks over the moviola. Gertrude lets go of him and hurries over to the machine to try and fix it.

Meryl flicks his lighter on and throws it at the biggest pile of film he sees. The fire immediately spreads, quickly lighting Gertrude on fire. Meryl grabs Stud and gets both of them out of the room. Before she flees the scene entirely, Hildy stops in the doorway and snaps a picture of Gertrude as she burns alive and screams in agony.