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[CoC: HotOE] Vive la Révolution
2017-Sep-02, Saturday 18:32
As the investigators left Constantinople, they were joined by a woman sent by Sir Douglas, who told them that she had been dispatched to help them with their mission. They quickly secured tickets to the Orient Express, but as they were going to board, the conductor stopped them and asked them about "stowaway" they had dealt with. He said there was an old journal found in the coffin and handed it to the professor, who opened it and noticed it was dated 1795, written in the same style as the journal they had found in Paris. Excited and eager to learn more of Le Comte, the professor began to stranlate the old French for the others:Dramatis Personae
At the entrance to the Paris Catacombs, five soldiers were on guard duty, watching the reburial of bones from the city's cemeteries into the catacombs. They were there to keep orders to prevent looting, since many were starving and had little respect for the dead or the priests who accompanied them. Renault stood at the entrance, supervising his men, along with Beaumains and Pressi, while Dupois held a lantern within the catacombs and Babin kept an eye out for trouble in the streets. Babin did not notice anything brewing, but found a flier entitled "What is the Third Estate?" crumpled in the street. With a contemptuous glance over the text, he crumpled it further and threw it to the ground.
The royal physician, one Rigeau, gestured and shouted at the workers to sort the bones from the skulls, occasionally running out of breath. The task proceeded without incident when suddenly, a clattering of hooves announced a red carriage speeding through the streets heedless of anyone in the way. The soldiers nearby shoved as many workers out of the way as they could, but the carriage crashed into and through the workers that Beaumains recognized as a carriage often seen on the western forest roads, always traveling at that speed. As it passed, the soldiers saw a well-dressed man kissing the neck of a woman. He locked eyes with Babin as he passed, and for a moment, time seemed to stand still. Then the carriage was gone, and the workers stood up and, with imprecations, went back to work.
After a time, Dupois noticed that the workers were muttering about restless spirits. Rigeau demanded that Renault force the workers to continue, and Renault gathered his men and set to search the close catacombs, leaving Beaumains to watch the entrance. Down a stair, each man took a lantern and set out to search. In the dark, Renault noticed yellow eyes in the dark. He shouted at the figure to approach, but it loped off deeper into the catacombs with a doglike gait. Pressi and Dupois stayed in the catacombs, and the others returned to the surface and ordered the workers back to work. Renault did not mention what he had seen to Rigeau.
Closer to dawn, Captain Malon rode up and swung off his horse. After Babin gathered the men, the captain told them that he needed them to investigate a murder because he did not trust the police. As the others left, the captain pulled Renault aside and told him that he wanted to know what was being printed.
On the way, the soldiers noticed a crowd gathering outside a bakery, muttering and working their way to a riot. Renault appealed to their common decency, but they would have none of it, jeering at the obvious aristocrat. Beaumains argument about Parisian solidarity was more persuasive, however, and with grumbling the crowd dispersed. Some time later, the soldiers arrived at the printing press and found a crowd outside, muttering and shouting, and the landlady staring off into nothing. Renault asks her what she saw, and she explains that she was awakened by a white carriage and an aristocrat in black demanding that he see the printer. The aristocrat suggested she remain in her room and lock the door, and she did, especially when she heard horrific sounds coming from the printer's room. She did not remember the noble's appearance, only his dark eyes. On the ground was a white handkerchief, monogrammed M.A., and stained with blood.
Inside the press, the room stank of blood. A headless dog, the head close by, remained by the door. The printer's entire family was hanging from the rafters, their throats slashed and paper stuffed into their mouths. Nearby were bloodstained buckets, and the printing press bore paper that had been overprinted, the pamphlets about the Third Estate that now bore a message in blood: KNOW YOUR PLACE. Renault took one of each pamphlet and put them away. As the others were debating what could have happened, Dupois shushed the soldiers. He gestured to a cabinet, and opened it to find a puppy cowering inside. Dupois picked it up and took it with them as Captain Malon rode up and ordered the soldiers to report. His face went white when he saw the handkerchief, and he ordered the soldiers to report to Versailles on June 4 to testify.
The next day, the soldiers assembled and journeyed to Versailles to make sure they and enough time, arriving on the morning of the 4th. A line of carriages was parked nearby, one of which was white with red trim. Dupois asked the surly servant standing near the carriage who it belonged to, and they had a surly-off until passing servants revealed that belonged to one Comte Pfennelik. With that news, Renault told Dupois to lay off, and they continued on toward the palace. Passing aristocrats discussing the rumors of the day, Pressi noticed his enamorata Melodie in the distance, and they exchanged longing glances before Renault let his men free until their appointed time came. From rumors, they learned that Pfennelik was German and had recently arrived, and was already a favorite of the queen, hosting parties in his estate at Poissy. The servants had more dire news, talking of Le Comte's cruelty toward his servants and how he would watch the floggings they received.
When the Captain arrived, they entered Versailles and were led to a small room with Doctor Rigeau. The soldiers gave their account of the murders, and when they were finished, Rigeau said that Pfennelik was a danger to the crown. Before he could say more, they was a scream and chaos outside the door. A servant burst in and spoke to Rigeau, who revealed that the dauphin was dead of consumption. Through this bustle came striding Le Comte, who locked eyes with Babin and smiled when the soldier dropped his gaze. He idly commented on the boy's death, and wondered aloud about whether Rigeau's exhumations of graves had infected him, before saying he would comfort the queen personally and striding away. When Renault told this to the Captain, Malon said that his strategy of getting Le Comte banished would no longer work, and he ordered them to go to his mansion at Poissy and find evidence of his guilt in something--anything--relevant.
On the trip down to Poissy, the soldiers felt like they were being watched, and they made discrete inquiries when they arrived. An old woman told Beaumains that she wanted to be left alone, speaking with palpable fear, but they found a cobbled road leading to the estate. After dark, the soldiers made their way to the mansion. It was surrounded by a high wall, with a wood within the wall, so that the estate was only visible over the trees. They scrambled over the wall and found a profusion of roses among the trees, even in blacks and greens and royals blues, and blackberries growing in abundance. Pressi pricked himself on a blackberry, and the wound took much longer to scab over than he would have thought.
Close to the mansion were statues: Icarus with bat wings, Cupid biting the neck of Psyche, Death garbed as a nobleman, and a fanged Madonna preparing to bite the head of the child, enough to trigger an investigation by itself. Close to the house, the gardens cleared out, and the soldiers ran across toward the house. Pressi and Dupois noticed movement and did not run, and a moment later a footman noticed and moved toward them. As he ran, the soldiers who had remained hidden dogpiled him, knocked him out, and tied him up and gagged him, throwing him into the brambles afterward. This close, they noticed that noble carriages were arriving and waited for the commotion to cease. They took a moment to reconnoiter the house and orient themselves, and peeked through the windows. The nobles in the room were eating and drinking enormous amounts of food and liquor and looking at a man in the center of the room, dressed as Marie Antoinette, and being whipped by a woman dressed as Louis XVI.
Suddenly, the doors at the end of the room swung open and Le Comte entered the room. As the doors closed, Le Comte told the whipping to continue. Now it was no longer a game. The woman chased the man around the room, whipping him viciously, and then the nobles moved in and began to kick him. After a time, Pfennelik stepped in and helped the man up, and he was taken away. The crowd followed Le Comte as he took the woman's hand and entered the ballroom. When the room emptied, Renault ordered Pressi and Dupois to search the room for evidence. Pressi scrambled in and grabbed the Marie Antoinette wig that the man was wearing, the passed it to Dupois tried to find where the man had been taken. He saw blood in the hall, but there was enough blood that he wasn't sure which was the most recent blood, so he abandoned the search and exited the mansion.
The other three soldiers looked into the ballroom. There were no chairs, which was odd, and the ceiling fresco was a depiction of the Fourth Crusade's siege of Constantinople. On the stage was the body of the dauphin, but on a closer look, they saw it was a dwarf, dressed in the dauphin's clothes and made up to look dead. Pfennelik entered and told the dwarf, whom he named Dietrich Zane, that it was time for the "Music from Beyond." Zane protested, but eventually and seemingly against his will, he picked up a violin and began to play a shrieking note until another woman suggested a wedding march and placed the hand of the woman dressed as King Louis in Pfennelik's. Le Comte glowered and told Zann to play, but left the room, and soon the party dispersed. The soldiers noticed that as the nobles left, they were handed gilt envelopes, and Dupois stole one as the soldiers snuck away.
In Versailles after their report, Captain Malon decided that they would invade during the invitation's date and disrupt the so-called "Carnival of Animals," giving them a private room to plan. As they were planning, Dr. Rigeau arrived with some information--at a royal dinner, he noticed that Le Comte had a strong reaction to something in the food, and had brought powdered ingredients with him. He suggested that they throw the powder in Le Comte's face, and then departed.
When the time came, the soldiers led fifty men into the forest and camped outside Poissy. Scouts reported back that Le Comte's footmen took vast quantities of animals into the estate, and then slaughtered all of them in front of the mansion and took the heads into the estate. When the guests arrived, they were told to remove their wig and given a bloody head to wear. The nobles then entered the estate on all fours. By the time of the raid, the mansion was a madhouse full of what might as well be animals. Nobles were scampering around like animals, drinking from troughs of wine, braying, and among them only Pfennelik walked upright. At the signal of a bird call, the soldiers set ladders to the wall and marched toward the mansion from four sides.
After a short battle, the soldiers rounded up the nobles and began to search the mansion. Zann and the woman with him were trying to escape, and Renault and Dupois corralled them and ordered them to sit with the others. They said that Pfennelik was "below," and when the soldiers searched the house they did not find him, though they found a flayed figure in the foyer--a preserved cadaver in papal robes--pillows everywhere with dried bloodstains, and other horrors. With every other area searched, they descended to the cellar. Down steep steps past a stone passage lined with prison cells filled with corpses, they found a rook filled with corpses chained to the wall. Coffins served as tables, covered in scrolls with Arabic writing, and in the center was a statue that captured the light and shimmered sickeningly. Dupois took one look at the statue and stared blankly into space, unsure where he was, and Babin heard a faint moaning from the statue. Then smoke descended into the room from above!
As the smoke clears, Pfennelik was suddenly there, snarling and lunging at Beaumains! Beaumains throw Rigeau's powder into Le Comte, and he staggered backward as the soldiers charged. He laid into them, dealing terrible wounds, but did not seem to take any damage in return, but the statue began groaning as the battle started. Babin turned and took his axe to the statue, followed by the other soldiers. As the weapons hit the statue, Pfennelik recoiled in agony, and the. The statue broke into pieces, Le Comte's limbs twisted into impossible angles, and as he screamed in agony without end, Captain Malon ordered the soldiers to collect everything within and seal the cellar door, and when the evidence was removed from the house, he ordered the mansion burned. Le Comte's madness obviated the need for a trial, and he was incarcerated indefinitely in Charenton.
When the revolution came, Beaumains deserted from the army, but the others remained loyal and were there when the doors were barred at the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs and when the Bastille was stormed. They all lived, but that was not the end of their story.
To be continued...
I don't have much comment about this one. It moved at a pretty quick pace because we didn't really have that much time in the session, so a lot of the combat was elided across, but from the perspective of our present characters we already knew the raid was successfully and most of what had happened there. It's that Part II that I'm curious about--what else is there to know?
- Serjant Thierry Renault
- Soldat Jean Dupois
- Soldat Michel Beaumains
- Soldat Christophe Pressi
- Soldat Etienne Babin
At the entrance to the Paris Catacombs, five soldiers were on guard duty, watching the reburial of bones from the city's cemeteries into the catacombs. They were there to keep orders to prevent looting, since many were starving and had little respect for the dead or the priests who accompanied them. Renault stood at the entrance, supervising his men, along with Beaumains and Pressi, while Dupois held a lantern within the catacombs and Babin kept an eye out for trouble in the streets. Babin did not notice anything brewing, but found a flier entitled "What is the Third Estate?" crumpled in the street. With a contemptuous glance over the text, he crumpled it further and threw it to the ground.
The royal physician, one Rigeau, gestured and shouted at the workers to sort the bones from the skulls, occasionally running out of breath. The task proceeded without incident when suddenly, a clattering of hooves announced a red carriage speeding through the streets heedless of anyone in the way. The soldiers nearby shoved as many workers out of the way as they could, but the carriage crashed into and through the workers that Beaumains recognized as a carriage often seen on the western forest roads, always traveling at that speed. As it passed, the soldiers saw a well-dressed man kissing the neck of a woman. He locked eyes with Babin as he passed, and for a moment, time seemed to stand still. Then the carriage was gone, and the workers stood up and, with imprecations, went back to work.
After a time, Dupois noticed that the workers were muttering about restless spirits. Rigeau demanded that Renault force the workers to continue, and Renault gathered his men and set to search the close catacombs, leaving Beaumains to watch the entrance. Down a stair, each man took a lantern and set out to search. In the dark, Renault noticed yellow eyes in the dark. He shouted at the figure to approach, but it loped off deeper into the catacombs with a doglike gait. Pressi and Dupois stayed in the catacombs, and the others returned to the surface and ordered the workers back to work. Renault did not mention what he had seen to Rigeau.
Closer to dawn, Captain Malon rode up and swung off his horse. After Babin gathered the men, the captain told them that he needed them to investigate a murder because he did not trust the police. As the others left, the captain pulled Renault aside and told him that he wanted to know what was being printed.
On the way, the soldiers noticed a crowd gathering outside a bakery, muttering and working their way to a riot. Renault appealed to their common decency, but they would have none of it, jeering at the obvious aristocrat. Beaumains argument about Parisian solidarity was more persuasive, however, and with grumbling the crowd dispersed. Some time later, the soldiers arrived at the printing press and found a crowd outside, muttering and shouting, and the landlady staring off into nothing. Renault asks her what she saw, and she explains that she was awakened by a white carriage and an aristocrat in black demanding that he see the printer. The aristocrat suggested she remain in her room and lock the door, and she did, especially when she heard horrific sounds coming from the printer's room. She did not remember the noble's appearance, only his dark eyes. On the ground was a white handkerchief, monogrammed M.A., and stained with blood.
Inside the press, the room stank of blood. A headless dog, the head close by, remained by the door. The printer's entire family was hanging from the rafters, their throats slashed and paper stuffed into their mouths. Nearby were bloodstained buckets, and the printing press bore paper that had been overprinted, the pamphlets about the Third Estate that now bore a message in blood: KNOW YOUR PLACE. Renault took one of each pamphlet and put them away. As the others were debating what could have happened, Dupois shushed the soldiers. He gestured to a cabinet, and opened it to find a puppy cowering inside. Dupois picked it up and took it with them as Captain Malon rode up and ordered the soldiers to report. His face went white when he saw the handkerchief, and he ordered the soldiers to report to Versailles on June 4 to testify.
The next day, the soldiers assembled and journeyed to Versailles to make sure they and enough time, arriving on the morning of the 4th. A line of carriages was parked nearby, one of which was white with red trim. Dupois asked the surly servant standing near the carriage who it belonged to, and they had a surly-off until passing servants revealed that belonged to one Comte Pfennelik. With that news, Renault told Dupois to lay off, and they continued on toward the palace. Passing aristocrats discussing the rumors of the day, Pressi noticed his enamorata Melodie in the distance, and they exchanged longing glances before Renault let his men free until their appointed time came. From rumors, they learned that Pfennelik was German and had recently arrived, and was already a favorite of the queen, hosting parties in his estate at Poissy. The servants had more dire news, talking of Le Comte's cruelty toward his servants and how he would watch the floggings they received.
When the Captain arrived, they entered Versailles and were led to a small room with Doctor Rigeau. The soldiers gave their account of the murders, and when they were finished, Rigeau said that Pfennelik was a danger to the crown. Before he could say more, they was a scream and chaos outside the door. A servant burst in and spoke to Rigeau, who revealed that the dauphin was dead of consumption. Through this bustle came striding Le Comte, who locked eyes with Babin and smiled when the soldier dropped his gaze. He idly commented on the boy's death, and wondered aloud about whether Rigeau's exhumations of graves had infected him, before saying he would comfort the queen personally and striding away. When Renault told this to the Captain, Malon said that his strategy of getting Le Comte banished would no longer work, and he ordered them to go to his mansion at Poissy and find evidence of his guilt in something--anything--relevant.
On the trip down to Poissy, the soldiers felt like they were being watched, and they made discrete inquiries when they arrived. An old woman told Beaumains that she wanted to be left alone, speaking with palpable fear, but they found a cobbled road leading to the estate. After dark, the soldiers made their way to the mansion. It was surrounded by a high wall, with a wood within the wall, so that the estate was only visible over the trees. They scrambled over the wall and found a profusion of roses among the trees, even in blacks and greens and royals blues, and blackberries growing in abundance. Pressi pricked himself on a blackberry, and the wound took much longer to scab over than he would have thought.
Close to the mansion were statues: Icarus with bat wings, Cupid biting the neck of Psyche, Death garbed as a nobleman, and a fanged Madonna preparing to bite the head of the child, enough to trigger an investigation by itself. Close to the house, the gardens cleared out, and the soldiers ran across toward the house. Pressi and Dupois noticed movement and did not run, and a moment later a footman noticed and moved toward them. As he ran, the soldiers who had remained hidden dogpiled him, knocked him out, and tied him up and gagged him, throwing him into the brambles afterward. This close, they noticed that noble carriages were arriving and waited for the commotion to cease. They took a moment to reconnoiter the house and orient themselves, and peeked through the windows. The nobles in the room were eating and drinking enormous amounts of food and liquor and looking at a man in the center of the room, dressed as Marie Antoinette, and being whipped by a woman dressed as Louis XVI.
Suddenly, the doors at the end of the room swung open and Le Comte entered the room. As the doors closed, Le Comte told the whipping to continue. Now it was no longer a game. The woman chased the man around the room, whipping him viciously, and then the nobles moved in and began to kick him. After a time, Pfennelik stepped in and helped the man up, and he was taken away. The crowd followed Le Comte as he took the woman's hand and entered the ballroom. When the room emptied, Renault ordered Pressi and Dupois to search the room for evidence. Pressi scrambled in and grabbed the Marie Antoinette wig that the man was wearing, the passed it to Dupois tried to find where the man had been taken. He saw blood in the hall, but there was enough blood that he wasn't sure which was the most recent blood, so he abandoned the search and exited the mansion.
The other three soldiers looked into the ballroom. There were no chairs, which was odd, and the ceiling fresco was a depiction of the Fourth Crusade's siege of Constantinople. On the stage was the body of the dauphin, but on a closer look, they saw it was a dwarf, dressed in the dauphin's clothes and made up to look dead. Pfennelik entered and told the dwarf, whom he named Dietrich Zane, that it was time for the "Music from Beyond." Zane protested, but eventually and seemingly against his will, he picked up a violin and began to play a shrieking note until another woman suggested a wedding march and placed the hand of the woman dressed as King Louis in Pfennelik's. Le Comte glowered and told Zann to play, but left the room, and soon the party dispersed. The soldiers noticed that as the nobles left, they were handed gilt envelopes, and Dupois stole one as the soldiers snuck away.
In Versailles after their report, Captain Malon decided that they would invade during the invitation's date and disrupt the so-called "Carnival of Animals," giving them a private room to plan. As they were planning, Dr. Rigeau arrived with some information--at a royal dinner, he noticed that Le Comte had a strong reaction to something in the food, and had brought powdered ingredients with him. He suggested that they throw the powder in Le Comte's face, and then departed.
When the time came, the soldiers led fifty men into the forest and camped outside Poissy. Scouts reported back that Le Comte's footmen took vast quantities of animals into the estate, and then slaughtered all of them in front of the mansion and took the heads into the estate. When the guests arrived, they were told to remove their wig and given a bloody head to wear. The nobles then entered the estate on all fours. By the time of the raid, the mansion was a madhouse full of what might as well be animals. Nobles were scampering around like animals, drinking from troughs of wine, braying, and among them only Pfennelik walked upright. At the signal of a bird call, the soldiers set ladders to the wall and marched toward the mansion from four sides.
After a short battle, the soldiers rounded up the nobles and began to search the mansion. Zann and the woman with him were trying to escape, and Renault and Dupois corralled them and ordered them to sit with the others. They said that Pfennelik was "below," and when the soldiers searched the house they did not find him, though they found a flayed figure in the foyer--a preserved cadaver in papal robes--pillows everywhere with dried bloodstains, and other horrors. With every other area searched, they descended to the cellar. Down steep steps past a stone passage lined with prison cells filled with corpses, they found a rook filled with corpses chained to the wall. Coffins served as tables, covered in scrolls with Arabic writing, and in the center was a statue that captured the light and shimmered sickeningly. Dupois took one look at the statue and stared blankly into space, unsure where he was, and Babin heard a faint moaning from the statue. Then smoke descended into the room from above!
As the smoke clears, Pfennelik was suddenly there, snarling and lunging at Beaumains! Beaumains throw Rigeau's powder into Le Comte, and he staggered backward as the soldiers charged. He laid into them, dealing terrible wounds, but did not seem to take any damage in return, but the statue began groaning as the battle started. Babin turned and took his axe to the statue, followed by the other soldiers. As the weapons hit the statue, Pfennelik recoiled in agony, and the. The statue broke into pieces, Le Comte's limbs twisted into impossible angles, and as he screamed in agony without end, Captain Malon ordered the soldiers to collect everything within and seal the cellar door, and when the evidence was removed from the house, he ordered the mansion burned. Le Comte's madness obviated the need for a trial, and he was incarcerated indefinitely in Charenton.
When the revolution came, Beaumains deserted from the army, but the others remained loyal and were there when the doors were barred at the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs and when the Bastille was stormed. They all lived, but that was not the end of their story.
To be continued...
I don't have much comment about this one. It moved at a pretty quick pace because we didn't really have that much time in the session, so a lot of the combat was elided across, but from the perspective of our present characters we already knew the raid was successfully and most of what had happened there. It's that Part II that I'm curious about--what else is there to know?
