Gehnen

Gehnen is a minor villain in Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse.

Role
In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, a group of soldiers allied with the Fascists break into the family house of Xavier Marqués in bringing their bloody war to his house. Commanded by Gehnen, the military smash everything in their path searching for something, probably the Tabula Veritatis. Hernandez, a family’s friend, and Marqués try to escape with “La Maledicció” to the library. Unfortunately, they are shot to death like animals before they manage to escape. Gehnen’s men search their bodies and find the valuable painting.

Years later on the same old house, George and Nico are brought here after gathering some information about “La Maledicció”. They discover that the painting is in fact a coded map to the location of the Tabula Veritatis, an ancient artefact which Father Simeon had claimed could raise the Devil. And for which he, and others, had already been murdered. The map guided them to Catalonia, Spain where this the old house, called Castell dels Sants, is located.

Some time later when George and Tiago Marqués walk into the fireplace to investigate a secret pathway, Nico finds a burnt piece of paper near to it that reads “Wolfram”. As soon as Ramon hears that word he tells Nico he cursed that name forever. It was a mining company run by a murdering swine called Gehnen. During the Spanish Civil War they backed the Fascists and in return, Gehnen was given soldiers to do this dirty work. They came here - brought their bloody war to this house and killed Señor Xavier, Tiago Marqués’ father. Ramon was just a boy but he remembers like it was yesterday. They shot him and his friend Hernandez - like animals. They were searching for something but they only brought death with them. Gehnen then disappeared to library. He spent weeks in there making notes and studying maps. His men crossed the whole of Catalonia searching for something. One day Gehnen just vanished and never came back. A few years later Ramon returned and cleaned the place up. It broke his heart and he locked the library because he could not bear to touch Gehnen's papers. Ramon has kept it locked to honor the memory of Señor Xavier. That evening when he locked it up, Ramon drank to the memory of Señor Xavier. The cellars were well stocked and it was a long night. He hid the key and then forgot where he put it, so it’s been lost since then. Only one crate of bottles was left in the morning and Ramon hasn't touched a drop since. All he can remember is waking up in the old car. Nico needs to find out what Gehnen had been working on in that library.

Already inside the library, a huge trunk in the corner looks interesting. It contains someone's personal possessions, at a guess, Gehnen's. There is an old map at the top with curious markings and scribbles all over it. At a closer look, Nico can see there is a drawing with the same shape as the circles around the Ouroborosin “La Maledicció”. Gehnen thought that pattern in the painting had something to do with a map of Catalonia. They guess they should try to finish what Gehnen started. After discovering that the supposedly location of the tabula is in Montserrat, Richard Langham appears on the scene exposed now as Gehnen’s grandson with Tiago Marqués being held captive. Langham now knows where the Tabula is and plans to take Marqués with him there.

Later in the story in Santa Cova chapel, George and Nico find a secret passage leading to a secret cavity. One short and very dark climb later, they find themselves inside a very dark cave. Seconds later after entering through the entrance, the stone door shuts behind them. George, confident, believes it will open in a minute or two. Unfortunately, this never happens and they are both now trapped. George starts banging the door and screaming for help with no luck. On the other hand, Nico seems pretty calm about this. George suggests Nico to see if she can get the door open while he checks out the dark, evil-smelling cave. George finds a possible source of light near the far wall, lights a match and throws it inside. The entire cavern illuminates and the first thing that strikes their eyes is a dead body lying a few steps from George. They appears to be Gehnen’s remains, who upon seeing he was trapped in a cave with no apparent way out decided to commit suicide by blowing his brains out. Just like them, he'd been trapped.

By taking a closer look to Gehnen’s leathery corpse to figure out how to get out of there, George notices an old black and white photograph of an ancient clay tablet near the cadaver [1]. Someone, presumably Gehnen, had taken the time to translate the inscription. At a glance, the inscription seems to relate to the exploits of someone called the Sun King. Tucked under Gehnen's desiccated arm is an old map with writings in it. George prises the map out of under the arm of the corpse. It looks like Gehnen had scrawled some kind of last testament onto this map (See in Trivia). George believes Gehnen might have left a secret message within his testament. When he holds the map up to a flame, something starts to change. The writing on the map starts to react to the heat. At a guess, George considers the locations on the map might match up with the ones he's marked on his photograph.

Near Gehnen’s body, George discovers an ancient artefact whose shape matches the symbol of the Tabula Veritatis from “La Maledicció”. This has to be it. So Gehnen did find it. It's so small, so innocent looking. Why would Simeon call it evil? Why so many deaths, for this? And why go to such lengths to keep it hidden. Unless it is as genuinely dangerous as Simeon claimed. The question now is, what do we do with it? George guesses that finding the Tabula was the easy part. Figuring out its purpose is a different proposition. A row of symbols are etched onto the top bar of the tabula. These symbols look just like the ones on the photograph of the clay tablet. He wonders if Gehnen's notes on the photograph might help him decode the tabula. By combining both objects, George needs to find a way to decipher the symbols’ meanings.

After decoding the Tabula’s veiled secrets, George and Nico find a way out of the Gnostic Shrine only to find Richard Langham inside the chapel talking to Eva and Tiago Marqués.