This immediately made me think of a book I read recently detailing how New England was the only part of the U.S. to homegrow its own vampire legends. (The book is Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England's Vampires, and it's really interesting. I'm interested in vampire folklore, though I don't like most of the vampire fiction I've read.)

The author comes up with a number of reasons why this is the case, but all in all it's a perfect setting for magical doctors, and you could probably work the terrorists and the gold in somewhere. (Not sure about the Renaissance, though, unless it's an alternate history.)