Danse Macabre Part 9

Teaser

Send to the players before the game :

13th of October 1233 (Unknown Location, Arabian Desert)
Lost among pillars of sand,
The mad king’s wail his only friend.
A millennia-old evil stirs and wakes,
As the world descends into endless madness.
⚜️⚜️⚜️💀💀💀

13 Octobre 1233 (Lieu Inconnu, Désert d'Arabie)
Perdu parmi les piliers de sable,
Avec le roi fou comme seul compagnon.
Un mal millénaire, endormi et redoutable,
Bientôt plongera le monde dans une folie sans fin.
⚜️⚜️⚜️💀💀💀

Explanations - The Mad King

- Explanations :

- Unsolved mysteries :

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- Historical themes :

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Intro

- Initial situation :

• Date : 13th of October 1233
• Location : Near Tortose, County of Tripoli, Crusader States

Music : Farewell Hyrule King - The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker then (loop) Chant of the Templars - Da Pacem Domine (Ensemble Organum)

The inquisition finally managed to decypher most of the archives of the ten crowns sect in Marseille that was found in the Des Beaux Castle.

Amongst other, they found a diary written by Roncelin de Fos.

For this whole episode, the players will play Templars under the orders of Roncelin de Fos in 1233 to 1242. They will obey and follow him for the whole scenario.

They can keep 4 of their feats plus Faith. Warn the players that there will be some fighting, not a lot but some.

Those who have Bone Artifacts are Knight Templars in this scenario and can keep 6 Feats plus Faith, the others are Templar Sergents (no noble) and can keep 4 of their feats plus Faith.

Those who have the Kight Templar Feat also have 6 feats and play one of their ancestors.

The book starts as such :

"I have resolved to pen a thorough account of the events that have transpired, so that future brethren of the Order may learn from my experiences. This record shall serve not only to preserve the extraordinary miracles I have witnessed but also to document the curse that has shadowed me ever since. 

It all began on this fateful day, the 13th of October 1233, in the desert near the city of Tortose in the County of Tripoli"

Part 1 Of Templars and Assassins

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90 min	TODO : Caravanes marchandes Muslim jewels and hand patterns Roman and/or GReek building ??? Some medieval dishes and drinks form islamisc, some fruits from the middle east, like pomegrenade and dates Christianlocals look exactly like muslim locals, they have been here for centuries Coups de soleils découverte pour les joueurs from the age of twelve to twenty years with Courage Bains et hygiène Falconry, street animals Pilgrims from chirstendom respected by the locals lots of foreign ships buying stuff The note was pinned to his pillow with a dagger, with someone planted in his entourage The coins are minted by Christians but are in Arabic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_of_Tripoli

- Music Normal : TODO ISLAMIC NOT TOO CREEPY MUSIC

The Dead Caravan

Led by Roncelin de Fos, the players have been chasing a group of bandits that attacked several caravans in the region.

With the blessings of the Amir of Homs, they have been chasing them for days deep inside the desert in Muslim territory.

Despite their differences, Crusaders and Muslims could agree on chasing bandits.

After days of chasing, in the distance they see some dead camels and bedoin corpses.

Most of them have been burned and have traces of a fire sword.

How to find the bandits they are chasing ? There is some strong wind blowing so traces disappeared completely.

Action : Search the caravan / check if anyone is alive.

One of the bedoins is still alive.

He explained that they We were attacked, by shaitans, evil jinns or ifrits. One of them had a crown, like an evil king. Probably Iblis himself.

They are headed for the Al-Qaryatayn Oasis.

The Templar chaplain drink from one of the waterskins found on the caravan, and it contains blood instead of water. All of their waterskins were contaminated with blood. To make sure they can't drink it in case they are still alive.

Some merchants of Al-Qaryatayn paid the Templars for protection and safe passage. So they have to help.

The Pillagers

As they arrive near the village, night is falling and they see flames in village.

They hear a fight between the villagers and the pillagers, they seem to be Christians and scream in French.

As they arrive in the village, they see a child's corpse nailed to a wall in the form of a cross. And two pillagers nailing his mother next to him in the same way.

As they see the players, they start running away.

Action : Anything meaningful to stop them before they alert their leader.

At the center of the village the pillagers throw dead corpses into the oasis to contaminate it. It is followed very thoroughly by a lot of toads. An army of small toad eyes. Very strange that there would be so many toads here. The Templar chaplain is very surprised that there would be toads here.

At the center, they see a tall hooded figure with a crude crown.

Music for the Battle: (loop) Baldurs Gate 3 OST - Raphaels Final Act (Long Version)

He has a scroll case in one hand and a templar sword in the other, he wears a rusty Crusador chainmail.

He seems to laugh in a very deep and very slow voice. He says : "I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!" — Luke 12:49 and he sets his templar sword in Flames.

Combat (duel) and if they didn't stop him from being warned before, then also in the same time a Combat (skirmish)

Once defeated he breaks a vial of alcohol on himself and try to self immolate.

"Fear your Lord, For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”

Action : Anything meaningful to extinguish him. Like cover him in sand.

Music : Behelit - Berserk

Now that they see him closer, he seems to be a former Knight templar. His entire outfit is templar except his cloak and he made a weird crown with bits of wood on his helmet.

On him they find a very strange scroll case.

This scroll tube is made of clay but covered in arabic writings, there's a strange broken lead seal on the scroll case.

Action : if anyone has Knowledge or Polyglot : The arabic writings are prayers of protection from what's inside the tube. One the tube is also inscribed the Seal of Solomon for protection. The lead seal is a templar seal on one side and a seal from an unknown family on the other.

Inside there's a very long dark parchement which seems to be the rubbing (frottage en français) of a piece of chalk over some ancient and unreadable runes. There's a text in Arabic written below each lines, like a translation.

Action : Knowledge (cryptography or heresy) or Polyglot the original text is in Hieratic which is normally undecipherable and there's a translation in Arabic but it's very hard to understand.

Ask the players : Who tries to read it ? Make a list of all players who collaborate to try to read it, this is very important, even if they don't have the feat but "tried" to read it, it counts.

With skilled work and restraint
it will ascend from the Earth to Heaven
and descend to Earth from Heaven.
And within itself is the power of the highest and of the lowest,
within it is the light of lights,
therefore darkness flees from it.
Power of powers.
It can conquer every subtle thing,
and penetrate everything gross.

And it goes on and on very difficult to understand

The Nightmare

Music : Eternal Darkness OST - Temple Insanity

All the players who read the text are themselves in this vision following Roncelin, the others are ghosts incapable of doing anything. If nobody read it, then they are all ghosts.

They are all walking deep inside the desert.

Their waterskins are full of sand, they didn't drink any water for days.

One of them has the black scroll in his hand.

They are not able to talk at all.

Action : He opens it, it is a map. They follow it.

They walk for days and past by many corpses of many different cultures, most of which they do not recognise.

Some of which are clearly ancient Greek or Ancient Romans, ancient Egyptians also.

Some have very very strange clothes.

Action : All known cultures are respresented, but some are unknown, from the future perhaps ? Or unexplored continents ?

They arrive in the ruins of a City with very high pillars carved inside a mountain.

They are greeted by an dark giant in rags with a crown under his rags. His seems to laugh with a very deep voice and very slowly.

Action : Knowledge (heresy) : They recognise إرَم ذات العماد Iram ḏāt al-ʿimād / Iram cité des piliers / Iram of the Pillars and the king would be Shaddād bin ʽĀd. Explain that this king was mad and defied god, which is why his city was destroyed by wind and flames.

He points in a certain direction.

Music : (loop between) Eternal Darkness - Insanity Ambient Noise 'The Mansion' and Eternal Darkness - the Cathedral Insanity Ambient Noise

They arrive in an underground chamber with a forest of dark pillars.

Each engraved with Hieratic filled with gold.

In the middle of the room is a book whose cover is made of bones on a pile of skulls.

As they enter the room, the entire city behind them starts burning.

Action : Touch the book.

They instantly wake up in sweat in their beds.

At the end of this nightmare, all those that tried to read the book previously gain : ⛧ Whispers of Madness Add it to their charcter sheets and give them few minutes to read the effect. Then they all start the Insanity Timer. Explain them the rule to be sure they all understood.

The Attack

Music : (loop) Chant of the Templars - Da Pacem Domine (Ensemble Organum)

The next day, a meeting is called by Roncelin de Fos to talk to all the templar of the commanderie of Tortosa.

He seems obsessed with the scroll and can't stop reading it.

Each Templars enter one by on the Temple. Only the players which are actual Templars (not sergents) can be part of this scene, there others are outside. if none are Templars, then none are present.

The Templar Guardian of the Threshold hold his blade on his chest asking for the password.

"Give me the first word and I will give you the second" says the guardian of the Threshold.

Each persons says "Basileus"

Then the Guardian says "Philosophorum"

Then they reply "Metallicorum"

And one by one they enter this way.

One by one they are called by the Grand Master and they have to sign by getting up then placing their right hand on their left shoulder "Present, Grand Master"

(Actually call the players one by one)

"My brothers, since we form the circle and the number, I declare open the council of the Temple of Tortosa."

Roncelin opens his hood and knocks the table three times with his index and middle finger.

"Brothers, I wish to speak."

The Grandmaster allows it.

He then explains about the scroll they found and the weird dream they apparently shared.

Pick one of the players : They think they heard and slow voice like laughter in the distance.

That's when the Assassins attack.

Music Battle : Access the Animus (debut rapide) then Z_Batson-Brigands !

Some servants enter the room by force and scream : “Nothing is true, everything is permitted !”

Explain that this is the rallying cry of the Assassins and that since they are in Syria they had lots of problems with them.

Combat (skirmish)

One of the Assassins has a black mask with a crown, he scratches himself like crazy. His skin is clearly covered with red spots, he has been deouvred by Lices and periodically he scratches himself like crazy.

His blade is clearly covered in poison, how to fight him ? Action : Either something meaningful, or Combat (duel) or wait that he scratches himself to kill him.

After the battle some of them manage to run away, and the scroll is GONE ! It was all a diversion to steal it.

Detail : the chaplain examines the corpse of the Assassin and he is disgusted that he is covered in Lices (poux et puces)

Impossible to capture any of them, they either fled, died or suicided.

The Trail

Roncelin is furious that the scroll has been stolen ! He wants them found and how is it possible that some of their servants from several years have fought them !

How to find them ?

Have a player write down that from now on they have with them Roncelin with the feat “Knowledge” and they have Sergents with the feat “Guards !”

Action : What is the identity of those assasins ? 4 servants, 5 unknown who entered by Stealth

By asking the families of any of those, they see the families got much richer (it was customary for the assasins to pay the son in case the assasin is killed)

People who knew them from a long time are shocked

They were paid with a bag of Mongolian gold.

This is very strange, we are far far away from the Khannate.

Action : There’s only one merchant which has the protection from the Khan in Tartus (he has a Paiza) Or any other logical way to find the merchand, like Outlaw wisdom

(Actually he is in the employ of the assasins and using their influence he got his Paiza.)

He sells all sorts of goods, especially Carnelian Beads (perles de cornalines)

When they meet this merchant, he explains that he didn’t have choice, it was either help or die.

He accepts to lead them to their lair Old Man of the Mountain /Shaykh al-Jabal, the fortress in the mountain.

On the way to the mountain

As they climb up the mountain, a group of Syriac monks is attacked by Assasins. Just by approaching, the Assassins run away.

Actually those monks are Assasins with the trickster feat. They follow the player for "protection".

After some time, they attack the merchant and kill him than disperse (unless the players don't let them follow them)

They don't put up a fight, they kill him then disperse.

“Nothing is true, everything is permitted !”

As he dies he says : The entrance is at this corner and dies, unless healed.

How to find the entrance of the hidden fortress ?

Action : Either they somehow saved the merchant or Any meaningful feat, otherwise it’s in a place where you don’t see the entrance by the road, if they climb they see the rest of the road. The entrance is only visible by an elevated angle.

As they climb the mountaint, one of the Templar sergents who accompanied them was actually an assasin trickster and he pushes one of the players to his death (chose a player who still has faith if possible)

And starts to laugh slowly in a very deep voice, then pushed the player.

(The sargeants were recruited from the local historical Christians (from before the crusades) Syriaques)

Action : Unless the players have a meanign feat to avoid it a player is gravely wounded.

The Fortress in the Mountain

Music : Z_Flippant - Dark World

As they open the door to the Fortress in the Mountain, thousands of flies fly out.

Detail : The Templar Chaplain complains : So many flies, it is uncanny

The fortress is empty but there's a terrible stench of death.

Dead Assassins everywhere in the entrance. They seemed to have fought each others.

They walk through a weirdly decorated room that smells very strongly of Hashish.

Lots of dead Assassins and dead slave girls.

One of them is barely alive.

"The King, the mad king. They couldn't stop him. He is upstairs."

Apparently some Assassins weren't killed, they committed suicide in the most gruesome way, one piereced his own eyes with daggers, one set fire to himself.

As they walk through the dining hall they see lots of dead Assassins hooked to the ceiling.

They climb up the tower and arrive at the throne room.

The Old Man in the mountains is waiting for them there. And there's a dead hooded figure with a crown on his head, he was pierced by lots of scimitars.

The Old Man in the mountains talks to them and proposes some tea and tries to calm them down.

He explains that he knew rumours of the scroll of the mad king and couldn't let it stay in the hands of the Christians.

He wanted it for himself, but quickly madness spread in his ranks so he destroyed it, and it cost him dearly, they are too late.

His goal is to try to negotiate that the players just leave them be and forget about the book.

Of course the tea is poisoned using an “assasin’s teapot” meaning that when he pours some in his glass it's not poisoned, when he pours it in theirs, it is poisonned.

Action : The first player who drinks the tea become Drowsy due to the poison.

They easily kill him and in this Assassin’s hideout, they find the burned pages and the scroll box.

Now that they have more time to identify the seal, they realise that it’s the Seal of Barral 1er des Baux, so they decided to ask for his help, since Roncelin know him.

Part 2 Of Guelfes and Gibelins

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90 min	XXXXX Cathars are still alive [1](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si%C3%A8ge_de_Monts%C3%A9gur) Le 12 avril 1229, Toulouse doit se rendre pieds nus, en chemise, devant le portail de Notre-Dame Taurelli de Strata (1235) envoyé de l’empreur 1236 Siège du château de Mornas : Barral est excomunié par l’archevêque d’Arles. Roncelin sera fait maitre en provence le Maître en Provence entre 1248 Les statuts secrets des templiers : http://www.lesfilsdelavallee.fr/index.php/fr/traduction-des-statuts-secrets-publies-par-le-professeur-merzdorf

- Music Normal : Z_Normal-Commanderie Templière

The Dark Templar

The book goes on to explain that the journey to meet Barral was very long and they lost many men on the road due to brigands, disease and the bad weather.

The whole crew was haunted by what they had read and sleep was very scarce.

As they met Barral, he explains that he never saw this scroll and this is not his seal but indeed it looks like it because it is one of his distant relatives.

Action : Ask more about the distant relative. He explains that it was a relative he barely knew who lived in a small Templar wine estate nearby, he brings them there.

If the players ask what this distant relative’s name is, say that it was not written in Roncelin’s book, so they don’t know.

They go to the small fortified farm that the cousin was holding with a small vineyard and some cattle.

‘’’Details : When they approach the estate they realise that all the cattle is dead !

The chaplain part of the group figures it out and says to Roncelin that he should stop, the lord is angry.’’’

Exodus 9:3-6

"The hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses, donkeys and camels and on your cattle, sheep and goats.” 

As they approach a peasant rushes to lock the gates and run inside.

‘’’Music : Alone in the Dark Mysteries’’’

The farm then starts burning. The noise of the fire sounds like a very low pitched sow laughter.

Action : Any meaningful way to get past the gate as quickly as possible.

The players run inside the farm, the fire started in the stables, but they can still stop it.

Of course the servant who started the fire is nowhere to be seen.

Action : Any meaningful way to stop the fire. If not they can just try to run inside the fire and get stuff in his home.

His room is suprinsingly empty and tidy.

Action : On the roof there’s a trapdoor leading to a hidden top floor. They can clearly see that one floor is missing from the outside.

His hidden room is full of Alchemical instruments, his roof is full of a Danse Macabre.

They also find a lot of maps that seem to indicate the location of a mythical city very deep into Ayyubid territorry.

Action : Knowledge (heresy) : They understand that it is the lost city of Pillars.

It is really too risky to go there now, but if they agree to help Barral, he will use his political sway to get them safe conduit that deep inside enemy territorry.

He knows someone who knows someone who has a big favor from the Sultan and could call it in.

Conquest

Barral accepted to help, but only if Roncelin helps him in return to defeat his current enemies.

Barral explains that the Guelfes are his mortal enemies, they have been stealing all of his estate since he is a stanch supporter of the Gibelin, to those who don’t know, the Guelfes are those in support of the Pope and the Gibelins are those in support of the Emperor, the two main powers of the holy roman empire.

Since the “true faith” was rejected by the church, the Count of Toulouse lost a lot of land to the House of France and was excommunicated, he had to personally go barefoot kneeling in front of the gate of Notre-Dame and make an oath to obey the church and carry the cross in order to get his excommunication revoked.

Action : Knowledge (heresy) : He means the Cathar faith. Barral is secretly a Cathar.

In the process Barral lost all his lands, but now with the help of an envoy from the emperor himself he intends to get his lands back. And to hell with excommunication.

Part 3 The City of the Pillars

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1.1

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Epilogue

Epilogue musics :

• Firelink Shrine 1h + Fire sound
• Then loop this Playlist Normal-Prima

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