Danse Macabre Part 1
Send to the players before the game :
11 December 1344,
Abbey of Neuberg (Austrian Alps)
The Duke Friedrich II von Habsburg just died at the age of 17.
It is the third Duke of Austria to die mysteriously in our Abbey!
The families are denouncing a plot by Leopol II, their rival, but we both now better.
They tried to lock away their curse but how long can you run from the Devil?
Intro
- Link to the musics : All Playlists https://app.box.com/s/slbcnytj3qhkv6pjy5docwmiazgefehs
- Unique musics : https://app.box.com/s/rjmns82tw4994hyx7t5ob507775ii9pe
- Before the game starts, while making characters and stuff, loop this playlist Normal-Prima
- Qualities :
Each player chooses a quality in the list. He will succeed all his attempts in relation to his quality. For all other rolls, it's a die.
==>Category:Feats and +1 Feat explains the mechanics.
- Initial Situation
- Date : 16 December 1344
- Location : Neuberg Abbey (Austria)
Friedrich II von Habsburg died in the Neuberg Abbey the 11 December 1344 at the age of 17. His death is very suspicious because he was the last member of this branch of the House of Habsburg. The Pope wants the inquisition to investigate, because it is the third member of this family to die within few years in this abbey. Otto der Fröhliche in 1339 then Leopold II von Habsburg in August 1344 and now Friedrich II in December. Their rival Rudolf IV made it very clear to the pope, that he doesn't want any noise. The pope can investigate, but no conclusions can be made public. Officially, they died of illness and that's it. In particular, he disarmed the city, made sure all the soldier of this branch of the habsburg were transferred back to Vienna.
This abbey is also the place where the archives of the Societas Templois are kept.
Characters :
- Abbot Albrecht, a writer
- Father Superior Rodolphe, the book binder (the evil one)
- Father Superior Arnaud (French), the illuminator he is on a trip to Avignon
- Brother Galeazzo (Lombard), the doctor
- Brother Conrad, the friend and confessor of Friedrich II (crazy)
- Brother Eudes, the cook
Presentation of the library: Music Edward Cisorhand
It is a large Benedictine monastery dedicated to theology. The greatest of sciences.
3 levels of library plus the archives of the Societas Templois.
Description of the monsatery: Great towers, yellow stone. Path difficult to access need to go through a rope. 2500m of altitude. Very small city of Neuberg and the big Abbey. Beautiful view in the mountains.
There's two "tracks" one advances with the time, no matter what the players do. It's the "atmosphere track" One advances only with the player's actions. It's the "scenario track" If the "Atmosphere tracks" ends before the players finish the scenario track, there's a consequence.
The actual time on the atmosphere track is flexible. No problem to delay a bit or go a bit faster on the indicative times.
- Explanations
Father Rodolphe "The Abbot" with a bone diptych. His contract is to kill three Dukes and ship two fingers of their left hand plus kill 100 monks. He poisons the Dukes then replace their fingers after their death. For the monks he uses poisoned candles.
Day 1
- Normal music (when nothing is happening) : Z_Normal-Commanderie Templière
| Ambiance Track | |
|---|---|
| 5 min | It's extremely cold, there's a very strong noise, it's a snow avalanch far in the montains. |
| 15 min | Everyone stops to go to pray. If they go : they notice lots of people missing. |
| 30 min | All Axes of the monastery are gone. |
| 45 min | Dead animal before their door |
| 60 min | Sinister sound, like a sinister laugh, actually it's a squeaky door |
| 75 min | Some books on the floor. They are completely unreadable. |
| 90 min | Someone locks players in a room by knocking down a piece of furniture, broken piece of furniture. When they go out, the bridges are sabotaged |
Purpose: To determine if it is suicide, murder or heresy. In order to call reinforcements. Soldiers came with them and for lack of evidence will return.
Action : Ask to see the body of Friedrich II von Habsburg :
- Brother Galeazzo (Lombard), the doctor
Music When they analyse the body : Z_Normal-Cathédrale Silencieuse Small body in a red white red flag. His hands are joined and his eyes are closed. Lots of incese burning around him.
Action : Check eyes and mouth His eyes are completely red and his tongue is swollen. He was clearly poisoned but could be suicide.
Action : Analyse poison or medicine : The Composition of Death, red copper, nitric acid, verdigris, arsenic, oak bark, rose water and black soot
Action : Ask to see the body of Friedrich II von Habsburg : Open his hands Music Danse Macabre Two of his fingers are missing, the middle finger and ring finger are missing. The doctor didn't notice this when he got the corpse. They were removed after his death. Clearly a murder ! A soldier will remain in reinforcement.
Action : Ask to see the body of Otto der Fröhliche or Leopold II von Habsburg : They both wear leather gloves the same gloves. Below their glvoes you can see that their two fingers have been replaced. It looks like a heresy but it's not a good enough proof.
Action : Inspect the gloves There's a coat of arm with what appears to be a tree with two trunks and black wings. (if knowledge or knowledge heresy) That's the coat of arm of a Pagean ! Definitely a heresy ! A soldier will remain in reinforcement.
Action : Ask around in the monasteries if anyone know those coats of arms :
Study and topologies of known heresies (title of the book) The book lists various known heresies. Ex: The church that burned 25 times
Ex: The chewing vampire
Other actions:
-Low signal (something they can discover, but not realted to the the scenarion track:
Many people put their room badly Other books are a little illegible too
- Abbot Albrecht the superior father who worked the garden and found the body.
-Brother Conrad (scribe mad) he repeatedly wanted to confess something important but didn't have time. He has a book under his arm all the time. It's the books !
-Brother Eudes (cook), the cook who met him last at meal (but silent)
Rooms are messy for many people.
Either way, when they discover that : Someone locks players in a room by knocking down a piece of furniture, broken piece of furniture. When they go out, the bridges are sabotaged
Day 2
- Normal : Z_Normal-Département Nécrologique
- Creepy Music (when something creepy happens) : Flippant le diable est dans la boite (when a player is poisoned)
The small town is accessible only by a mountain path with a passage through a rope because the main road is blocked. Especially with the perpetual torrential rain falling. It has been cut. The players are stuck here.
| Ambiance Track | |
|---|---|
| 5 min | ??? |
| 15 min | Laud bell. The pigeon loft is emptied. Weak signal (something they can discover): Toxic mushrooms are gone |
| 30 min | Tierce bell. The box that contained their sceals has disappeared. |
| 45 min | Sext bell. A player receives poison in one glass. He has one action. He need to decide to vomit. Otherwise stay feverish in bed. |
| 60 min | Vespers bell. The food, clothing and old candle storage building burned. In the rubble there is a burnt monk with a metal torch. |
| 75 min | ?? |
| 90 min | Compline bell. Players' door is nailed and the room is smoked |
Aim: To determine the level of danger. (from 0 to 5)
For the moment there is only one murder, so not what to call the cavalry. The level of danger is 1 if they proved the murder, 2 if they proved the heresy.
There is a high rate of abstention from prayers. 5% +1 index
Many people no longer tidy their room 10-20%. +1 index
Some scribes write completely unintelligible. 5%. +1 index
When one of them gets poisoned : +1
+2 other stuff, theirs to find
From 5 clues, they can call the cavalry. Who in any case will come after the facts.
Either way, at the end : Players' door is nailed and the room is smoked
Day 3
- Normal : Kin Amar
- Creepy : Ligeti
For each bell, there will be a kill. The players have to find a way to stop this.
Morning Bell 4:00 AM Matins bell: A person found with an ax in the skull. No clues.
| Ambiance Track | |
|---|---|
| 5 min | They see a guy go down the halls with a wagon and say he's going to plant cereals and fruits. He distribute books on the floor |
| 15 min | Bell of 5:00 Lauds bell: A person found with an ax in the skull. No clues. |
| 30 min | Attack: As players take a flight of stairs, someone pushes a cabinet up the stairs. The cabinet will soon fall and they have little time to react. It's up to them to find a way to block it. For example, plant something on the stairs.
Very difficult to go down the stairs quickly enough, the nearest door is closed. But possibility of stalling something in the corner to block.
Great chance that a player will be seriously injured and stay to bed.
If they can catch the guy who did that, he takes them for demons and is insane. |
| 45 min | 7h00 Prime bell: Brother Conrad says "It's the Books" and wants to burn all the books. The players have the choice to let him burn the books or not. |
| 60 min | 9h00 Terce bell: Death Ambience: Brother Galeazzo has visions and starts to be insane |
| 75 min | 12h00 Sext Bell: Death Players hear voices calling them. They start to go insane themselves |
| 90 min | 15h00 None bell: Death Death of Brother Galeazzo. From this point on, everyone is insane, nobody responds or help them |
Main actions:
The players have to propose plans.
Those do not work :
-Close the work rooms
-Close everyone in their rooms and do some rounds, or put people in different peasant rooms.
It does not stop the dead
-Put everyone in the yard or in the mountains and watch each other
After an hour the rain turns into snowy fog. The clouds are coming down. There is a dead person and this creates panic. There remain the other options.
- Put everyone in the 4 reading rooms and monitor each other.
Jumps to the intro of the next sessions
Other actions:
-If players do research, it takes at least 4 hours. They find several hidden axes at different places, but there are probably others left.
Day 4
- Normal and Creepy : Quake
The players spend the night in the library with all the other monks, all candles are light in the room.
In the morning they are all intoxicated and paralysed, there is smoke on the ground.
For this scene Music: Behelith Father Rodolphe tries to assassinate a player in the night. Dense smoke in his room. Father Rodolphe walks between them slowly asking an insistent question, but impossible to answer: You eat our food. You kill our brothers. You steal our books. You cut our bridges. Do you have any politeness? What do you have to say for your defense? I'm listening to you. Answer. Then stab him.
Players know it's Father superior Rodolphe (mad book binder).
Players must stop Father Rodolphe and have him executed. And discover what happened in the monastery.
When they wake up, most of the monks are gone. The rest are either dead or asleep deeply. All the books have disappeared from the libraries.
| Ambiance Track | |
|---|---|
| 5 min | They find bloody books all over the hallways. With a piece of flesh in it. Then they find the same guy that was planting books. But now he's "feeding" them. |
| 15 min | Father Conrad (mad scribe) (crazy) wants to burn the monastery.
He tries to convince the players to help him. Madness 1 players start to Hear voices. |
| 30 min | Father Raymond (crazy gardener) (crazy) is in the corridor exploded under a piece of furniture that fell. He was running away from something. Madness 2: Hear voices, tremble. |
| 45 min | Fruits! A bunch of monks took all the food, all the spices, all the salt, all the chemicals of the pharamceuticals and piled them in a big basin of water and it is put to the food to die of it. Two of them are dead. The food is inedible. More food than for 48h by rationing , the monks continue to eat. |
| 60 min | There are monks crying in a corner. He discovers his face, he has no lips, no cheeks and no tongue and bleeds abundantly. When asked who did this he wrote: "Rodolphe devil" |
| 75 min | Players discover that they all have blood on their hands. They do not know where. Madness 3: Hear voices. Tremble. People talk to them in permissance. -1 has all your rolls. |
| 90 min | ??? |
Other actions: Action, Go see Father Galeazzo: (If Father Galeazzo (doctor) alive and if not burned the books) Father Galeazzo (doctor) is found hanged at home. On his table he has an open book on the page of an inhaling poison that drives people crazy. He has a broken candle he was analysing. It's a way to tell the players where the problem come from.
Action visit Father Rodolphe's cell: Father Rodolphe (mad binder) (crazy) covered his cell with candles. He is afraid of the dark. But of course he's not there.
Main actions:
If they try to go to the level 4 of the library, there's a grid preventing them from going up. It's closed. They need to find Father Albrecht to open it.
Behind the gate they can hear a voice chanting.
Father Albrecht has disappeared. How to find the father Albrecht?
It's his garden time. Players must find his usual schedule. And they will find it in the garden. He may also see that he is missing his gardener outfit in his room.
When they arrive at the top of the tower Music Gaunter o Dim
Go to the top of the library in his workstation behind the grid of the most secret books. There is a huge volume with jaws, Father Rodolphe (mad binder) worked there for a long time and attached knives and bones to this big book.
The big book is readable, but it drives crazy if a player reads it.
The tower is covered with candles. Players do not feel well.
Father Rodolphe reads the book aloud. It disturbs the players even more. At every step, they have to roll high or go crazy.
He is in a reading cage in the middle of the room with the book. To them to find a way to kill the Rodolphe father. -Drawing the grid does not work. -Pick through the grid is too difficult. -To turn off all lights is the right solution. -Possible to simply flee.
Once they turn off all the lights, it scares father Rodolphe and he fall on his own book. Turn off the light in real life when this happens. Then play the music "Behelit"
He is dead.
Finish to describe the scene.
Epilogue
In the cage, Father Rodolphe had kept some letters he received. Nothing unusual in his letters, except that the writing becomes more and more confused.
They find one letter though that is very unsual
When reading the letter Music Danse Macabre
Sir, It is with satisfaction that I learn your taste for our candles. I am delighted with your new order. Know that my institution knows how to treat its good customers generously, you will no doubt appreciate my new merchandise. Your devoted Eugène Clavicle, the skeleton merchant PS: You will be pleased to learn that I will hold a booth at the Valfranc fair this year. Feel free to visit me on that occasion.
As soon as the game is finished, put those musics :
- Epique entre-scenart gagant 12-Pista de audio 12.mp3
- Epique entre-scenart gagant 12-Pista de audio 12.mp3 (put it twice)
- Fin epique glorieuse 06-Final
- Then loop this Playlist Normal-Prima
They have Three main choices :
- Keep Albrecht as the head of university yes or no
- Keep the Library open, yes or no
- Burn the forbidden book, yes or no
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