Danse Macabre Part 2

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Intro

  • Initial situation :

Since last time, players are looking for Eugène Clavicule, the Skeleton Merchant.

They are contacted by a local contact (Dr. Pierre Therici) who says that some corpses seems to disappear in Valfranc.

  • Explanations :

Actually Eugène Clavicule is a person or an organisation quite powerful in Valfranc.

They sell drugs and poisons, they also produce counterfeit coins.

Their operation is structured as follow :

Their HQ and main hideout is in the subterranean catacombs of Valfranc.

That's where they produce the poisons and drugs as well as store them. They also store their profits there.

Their main reseller is a the fortune teller.

Their most sold product is some poisons that local merchants buy to shoot in each other's legs.

Another very profitable operation is the counterfeiting of silver coins.

They blackmail a powerful local templar and force him to ask his close friends to counterfeit coin at night.

They sneak some iron into the minting room through a hidden tunnel and dilute it in very small quantities into all the coins being minted. They then steal some silver and dilute it in large quantities to produce the counterfeit coins at night.

Those coins are used to finance their last activity : Corpse trafficking.

The Doctor Theobald Shuplice is one of their men who will look for anonymous corpses at the obituary department of the local medical university.

He will then pay for their funerals in coffins rather than common graves.

He will then exchange those coffins with coffins full or earth and store the corpses before shipping in a secret cave.

Being anonymous to begin with, those missing corpses are much less likely to be discovered.

At the end of the scenario, players should understand completely the operations of Eugène Clavicule, with very few unsolved mysteries.

  • Unsolved mysteries :

Only few mysteries are unsolved at the end of the scenario :

-Why did Eugène buy corpses ? To ship where ? For what reason ?

-How did the templar die so suddenly ? How did he blackmail him ?

-Is Eugène a person or an organisation ?


Part 1 The obituary department

  • Normal: Normal Département Nécrologique

Corpses disappear, players must find where before it's too late.

The university has a funeral home (place where the dead are put right after the death) In this funeral home are transferred all the dead on the public highway, to check for new epidemies Then a necropsy is done without opening the corpse Then is made a mortuary toilet called thanatopraxis before casketing

Ambiance track

  • 10min-Some students pass in all the rooms to spread smoke. It's called fulmigation. The point is to try to disinfect.
  • 30min-Teachers are found studying an open corpse. This is illegal and considered heresy. Players can choose to prosecute them or not.
  • 45min-There is a currency that only serves during the fair. The penny of the Vale. The currency is minted by the Templars of the area. It's a privilege given to the city, as to avoid currency problems during the fair.

At this point, their contact informs them that Eugène Clavicule has reserved a booth for the fair.

  • 60min-A medical monster moves on the streets. He is heavily deformed. He was invited by professors to be examined.
  • 75min-A person wakes up during his necropsy and dies right after. Explain that, in the middle age, it was very hard to know if someone was dead or not.
  • 100min-

At the end of the atmosphere track, if the players still haven't found the cave. Their contact understands that the doctor Shuplice gave counterfeit coins each time he paid for funerals. They have to start investigate that immediately.

Penalty if they reach the end of the atmosphere track : They won't get reinforcements.

Scenario track

Their goal is to find out what's going on in this obituary department. If they discover the origin, they have reinforcements.

Their contact, Dr. Pierre Therici found a coffin filled with earth. No corpse inside. That's very suspicious. This coffind belongs to an anonymous, he was found dead on public roads and nothing could identify him. Very likely just vagabond.

Action -> See the doctor who did the necropsy.

Dr. Ambroise Prasé is the doctor who did the necropsy (autopsy without opening of the corpse)

Necropsy revealed nothing. It is not unusual in the middle age. He had no relatives so normally had to be buried in a mass grave.

But a generous donor paid for the funeral in an individual coffin. Dr. Theobald Shuplice is the name of the donor.

If they ask : indeed he pays for a lot of anonymous to be buried. If they open those graves, all corpses are missing. All those coffins were traded with coffins full of earth.

Theobald Shuplice come every week. He will be back soon. Action: Follow him discreetly or attack him.

If follow him discreetly. They find his office. And his accounting book, where they can find the address of a cave he rents. Lots of documents in his office, but they are all encrypted. The writing matches that of Eugène Clavicule (found in the previous scenario)


If they attack him or torture him. He will not tell them anything. On himself they can find a letter. He's about to resign. He works in the university's administrative department. Then they can find his office and his accounting book.

Another way to solve this is if a player hides inside a coffin. He will then be transported to the cave.

Once they open the door to the cave. The smell is crushing. They all vomit unless they have a quality to prevent that.

Once they open the door : Gaunter O Dim Witcher 3

The cellar is filled with about fifty corpses ready to be shipped. But all documents are encrypted. No way to know where they should be shipped and why.

There are also money chests full of silver coins. A huge fortune in fact in silver pennies of the Vale. Very suspicious.

Why buying corpses ? Where to ship them ? This scenario doesn't answer this mystery.

Reward for completing the scenario track successfully : reinforcements, one soldier per person.

Part 2 Black Silver

Normal (before arriving at the Templars): Normal Departement Nécrologique

Normal (once arrived at the Knights Templar): Normal Commanderie Templière

After leaving the scene, they realise that those silver pennies have a strange black hue. They suspect it's a counterfeit and will have to try and understand who is responsible for their creation.

Ambiance track

  • 15min-A person comes to buy his pennies of the Vale at a Templar desk. The templar inspects each coins he is given one by one to see which ones have been slimmed down by filing them on the edges (to steal some gold out of them).

He accepts some of them and refuses some of them. He's very muscular. He then gives a deposit slip. It's an encrypted document with a seal. Later on, this document can be used to withdraw pennies of the Vale.

  • 30min-They see Templars training by fighting each others. Their fight is very brutal. At the end of the fight a prayer the bells ring. With they bleeding faces, they put their robes on and go to pray.

This scene illustrates how Templars are both harmless monks and deadly warriors.

  • 45min-Templar Ceremony. They hear a hammer that strikes three times.

Launch the music Watchmen(OST 2009) - Pruit Igoe and Prophecies All the templars are drawn to a room where they have their annual meeting. Players are not allowed in. The players have until the music reached 3:30 to do anything they want in the templar buildings. Because the building is completely empty.

Once the music reaches 3:30, they see all the templars leaving their ceremony. After the ceremony, many people come out. Many religious people, powerful people. Professors. Merchants. But also Nobles. Towards the end of the procession there are four people wearing masks and surrounded by soldiers. Those people are too powerful to be recognised.

This scene is used to illustrate the power of the templars, all power people are part of their organisation.

  • 60min- Music : Lacrimosa

Players are locked in a room. Behind there is a man with a mask. It's the Jean de la Maison de Dieu, but they can't recognise him. He tells them to leave him alone. He tries to convince them to stop the prosecution. He begs them even. If they try to bash the doors, he leaves. They can't get him.

  • 75min-Players are shot at by a crossbow. Explain that in the middle age, crossbows are prohibited weapons against other Christians.

Bolts should feel very impressive and powerful, destroying furnitures and all. Either the players find a good way out or one of them is injured.

Penalty if they reach the end of the track : Jean de la Maison de Dieu pass near them and seems very panicked. He then runs away. Players runs after him. He dies mysteriously and his corpse is cold. There's no witnesses to this scene, so players are accused of killing this Templar, and they must keep a low profile for the rest of the scenario because templars are searching for them. After the end of the scenario they will have to explain themselves to the inquisition

Scenario track

There is a real fortune in coins piled up in a chest. Only coins of black silver. Counterfeit coins of the upcoming fair.

Their goal is to discover who made them.

Those coins are minted every year by the local Templar commandery. It's a privilege given by the king to the city. The goal is to avoid currency change problems during the fair, so everything is bough and sold in this neutral currency.

The counterfeits are good except for the metal, which is a bit dark.

The metal is a mix of little bit of silver and a lot of another metal, hard to identify it.


If one of the player has Eye of the Detail or if they ask an expert, they can see that the counterfeits' artworks are perfect. To a point where they think that the "Punch" (the piece of the minting machine that holds the artwork) has been used for those fake coins.

Action: Players can get to visit the local templar commandery

Change music once they are in the templar buildings.

Everyone is in brown coats, some in white coats (the nobles ones). All have a red cross on their clothes. It is a large fortified building. The decoration is military but rich.

What is strange with this place is how immensely wealthy they are, but they are still monks, so they try to hide their riches. This results in incredibly clean clothes and rooms. Also glass windows in some rooms. Great quality candles etc...

The head of minting will do his best to help them.

The "Punches" are still in place on the minting machines. (Counterfeiting comes at night.)

Access to the room is strictly controlled. No entry or exit without being controlled. There's very tight accounting of how much silver gets in and how many comes gets out.

Action: There is a hatch hidden on the ground. Under a box. Eye of the detail doesn't spot it, unless players specifically search for a hidden door.

This is where counterfeiters come in or out.

It's a tunnel that lead to the outside.

They find iron bars inside the tunnel also.

Basically, the counterfeiters added some iron in very small proportions to all the genuine coins, and used this way to steal some real silver. Then they mixed a bit of silver and a lot of iron to make fake ones.

But those bars of iron couldn't get in the templars building without being noticed.

Who bought them ? Why ?


Those templars are one of the very first to circle their wheels with metal. (an important innovation in the middle age)

That's what the metal is supposed to serve for.

But the templar Jean de la Maison de Dieu increases the amount of iron being ordered and stores the surplus in the storage.

Once they come to talk to him, it is raining, he's at a balcony.

It is raining, it is very cold.

As soon as he sees that they are coming to him, he panics. He refuses to let them approach.

He shouts at them to stay in the distance and implores them, lots of templars are looking.

He tells them he had no choice and zero hope to survive if he didn't cooperate.

He then suddenly dies and falls from the balcony. Music Gaunter O Dim Witcher 3

Insist on how strange his death is.

He is alive, then he just dies and fall on himself like a puppet who lots his ropes. He then falls from the balcony, but the height didn't kill him, he was dead before.

His corpse is already cold. (but it's raining and cold outside, so it's strange but plausible)

In his office, lots of letters written by Eugène Clavicule, but encrypted. It's a proof he was a tool and accomplice.

How did he die ? This scenario doesn't solve this mystery.


Reward for completing the scenario track : Lots of people are witness to him jumping. So the players are not accused of his murder.

Part 3 The Valfranc trade fair

Normal: Gwent Full Mix Witcher 3 then Normal Commanderie Templière

Creepy 1 (meeting with the fortune teller): Normal Horreurr Cérulée

Creepy 2 (alternative): Flippant, le diable est dans la boite


The Valfranc trade fair is a major economic event in the region. Merchants from all around the world attend to sell goods. It is the heart of economic activities in the city if not the region.

Eugène Clavicule has a booth at the fair. Booths are very expensive. The players have to investigate.

When the players arrive at his booth. It is completely empty. The table is there, the umbrella is there (both are provided by the city) but the booth is empty !

Their goal is to find Eugène Clavilcule.

Ambiance track

  • 15min- Music : Gwent Drink Up, There_s More! Witcher 3

There's an iron cross where prices are being hung. The fair decides the prices of different commodities. The Clothes Merchants Guild decided a very high price for sheets. Everyone is angry about it, it creates a scandal. The crowd hoes them. The soldiers arrive to evacuate them.

  • 22min - A tavern is evacuated because a merchant is found dead poisoned in the tavern
  • 30min-Music : Gwent theme 1 Witcher 3Fight of the dragon and the lizard. Every years, two team fights :

One has a lizard toy made of wood on the top of a pole. The others have a dragon. They try to steal each other's flowers attached to their neck. Their jaws can be mechanically animates. The dragon team made their dragon breathe fire. (by pressing on a pulveriser throwing alcohol, then igniting it) Some people catch fire and jump in a fontain. It makes everyone laugh, people drink a lot, there are a lot of people singing.

  • 45min-Players are attacked by bullies.

They are in the same lane as a merchant, who is carried away by the bullies or killed on the spot.

  • 52min-A merchant sleeps on his stall, he is dead.
  • 60min-Music : Access the Animus (debut rapide)A knife thrower throws knives and kills his accomplice. He continues to launch knifes aggressively on him until the guard stops him. He seems possessed.

The crowd is shocked. Then his accomplice wakes up and laughs.It was a joke. Music : Gwent Drink Up, There_s More! Witcher 3

Everyone laughs harder and drinks even more.

  • 67min-A merchant runs towards the players and dies in their arms.
  • 75min-Music : Gwent theme 1 Witcher 3There is a procession of people with pork masks.

Drunken people fill the streets, it becomes the feast of fools. They carry a guy on a tank he is huge, drinking alcohol constantly. He's barely moving. During the procession, a merchant is attacked by an assassin with a death mask. The assassin then turns against the players if they try to intervene.

  • 90min-

A person with a death mask comes to see them and offers them a drink. He insists. They are surrounded by brigands with small daggers. The character pretends to be Eugene Clavicule. He tries to bribe them, to stop their search.

Once he sees that it doesn't work, they start attacking them.

During the fight, they all receive poisoned daggers.

They are all poisoned. They'll feel unweel until the rest of the scenario, they can't use any mind based talents.

They see of their assaliants run away and reach the entrance of their hideout.

Penalty if they reach the end of the ambiance track : They are poisoned. They can't use any mind based talents.

Scenario tracks

Their goal is to find Eugène Clavicle

But his booth is empty !

Action: There is someone who constantly watches the booth. People who stop at the booth and then look in the crowd can see him and come to him.(proof that they know the trick)

Action: Pretend or pay someone to pretend to be a customer.

The vigil will then lead them to the fortune teller.

Music at the fortuneteller's hideout : Flippant, le diable est dans la boite

He knocks at the door and say

"Eugene friends"

The fortune teller opens and greets them.

Her house is full of strange items.

Potions, charms, books, animal parts. Some live rats in cage also.

She invites them to pick a card, so she can know them better.

They have a choice between all those items, show the players the picture associated with it. And have them write on their character sheet which item they are associated to :


Others : http://www.lamortdanslart.com/danse/France/Paris/dm_paris06.htm

http://www.lamortdanslart.com/danse/France/Paris/dm_paris07.htm

http://www.lamortdanslart.com/danse/France/Paris/dm_paris11.htm

http://www.lamortdanslart.com/danse/France/Paris/dm_paris13.htm

http://www.lamortdanslart.com/danse/France/Paris/dm_paris17.htm

Each players must chose an object that define him. This object will follow them during the campaign.


Choice: Then she offers them to read their future with a mirror. They can accept or refuse.

Mirror made of bone. She pours on black and red liquid on it and read the pattern.

She reads and see her own future : she understand what the players are. She takes a step back and drinks a poison and dies.

If they refuse that she reads their future of if they manage to stop her of cure her, she does not die.

Anyhow, she won't talk, torture is useless too.

In her home, they find : Powders, poisons. Some live rats in cages.

Organs.

And a long list with names and dates. hundreds of names. Those she sold to.

A trunk full of clothes

Action: Search these clothes. they see children's clothes. Or search the book, they find a child storybook.

Actually she has a child ! The little Aimery

Once they discover that, the child comes knocking at the door.

If she is alive, letting her know that they know she has a child gets her to talk immediately.

If she is dead, they can interrogate the child, he knows that some bad people visit her mother frequently and he know their base.


The child explains that the potions are brought by someone coming out of a door under the church.

Under the church there is a cave. That's the entrance of Eugène's Hideout.


Part 4 The Catacombs

Normal: Normal Bruit Noirs

Creepy: Quake

They have found the entrance of Eugène's hideout. But how to find his actual location ? The cave leads to the undergrounds of the city, hundreds of kilometres of galleries. How to find a path ?

Their goal is to find and kill Eugène.

Ambiance track

(As usual, but more than usual. If the players are advancing well and the ambiance is good enough already, no need to apply those events)

  • 15min-Mad laughter in the distance. Impossible to track
  • 30min-Stream of smoke fills the room. Impossible to know where it comes from. Players coughs. The smoke stays a very long time.
  • 45min-Small earth quake surprises them. Their torches and candles fall and are extinguished. They feel people passing near them with no sound. But when they turn on the light. Nothing.
  • 60min-Two mad mans with skeleton costumes jumps at them bare handed. one of them vomits streams of blood and dies trying to attack them. The player on whom he vomited blood will have delirious visions until the end of the scenario.

The other runs away at incredible speed, he's bleeding. The players can follow his bloody footsteps until the room with the "accountant"

Penalty for reaching the end of the ambiance track : One player is delirious.

Scenario track

Their goal is to find the Eugène Clavicule and kill him.

They found a basement below the church. But. This basement is connected to the city's catacombs.

Much like Paris' catacombes, it's a huge maze of galleries, kilometers of chaotic tunnels.

Without a way to guide them, it's impossible to know where to go.

At each step, they need to find a trick to know where to go next.

They have few trump cards if the players have the following talents :

Hunter : The player can follow tracks, so he can chose once to just use his ability to find the next room. Only once.

Eye of the detail : If the player specifically asks for tracks on the walls of markings made by crates. He can go to the next room.


Room 1 : The church's basement

The ground is both wet and dusty, so there's no visible footprints.

Action: Look at the black marks on the ceiling made by torches flames to find the right gallery and go to the next room.

Room 2 : The theater

After a while, a black mushroom covers the ceilings. So the traces are no longer visible.

They arrive in a very high room with a lot of candles. They are off. And weird sculptures that make no sense on the walls.

The room is filled with a stock of drugs. This is obviously part of the stock of Eugene but not everything. There's also alcohol and costumes.

There is a small platform in the middle of the room. (she used to do a show)

The candles are poisonous candles, like in the monastery or the first scenario.

This room is used for two purposes : Stock drugs. And make dark orgies. In the dark orgies, newcomers are drugged, and a dark theatre play is done on stage.

There are far too many possible exits. Impossible to find tracks on the ground or the ceiling.

Action: If they light the candles, the weird sculptures make a very clear picture: An army of small skeletons that forms a big skull. The mouth is one of the possible exits.

Ambiance room

While walking the gallery before the next room they pass by a pound filled with crystal clear water. They see stairs underwater. They can't explore too deep.

Room 3 : The laboratory

They arrive in an underground alchemy laboratory.

There is a big stock of weird ingredients. And a stock of poisons. This is obviously part of the eugene stock, but not everything. There are also many parchments with bumps (in brail?)

There is an old blind man working.

He forgets everything.

The players understand that torture is useless on him. And killing him will serve even less.

The old man introduces them to the new potions. He asks them to pay.

Action: Tell him they have no money left. And that they need to go to eugene to pay for it. He then tells them where to go.

If the players don't find this action. After 10 minutes of talking to him he insults them incoherently and asks them to go to Eugène, he then tells them how to go.

Ambiance room

They see a message at the entrance of a room: Stop. This is the empire of death.

In the next room they enter a room with macabre engravings on the walls.

An army of the dead that forces people to join to their ranks : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thetriumphofdeath.jpg

Room 4 : Treasure room

They arrive at the eugene treasure room.

Chests everywhere filled with counterfeit money. Heaps and piles of money.

There is a very very fat man chained to a table with registers. It's the accountant. He was chained on this seat for years, never using his legs.

He immediately understands what's happening and yells for help.

His cry for help is ignored, torture is useless because he doesn't know where to go. Because he is chained to his seat and has been brought here chained, he doesn't know the path to the next room.

This is most of Eugène's stock of coins. But obviously he stocks much more riches somewhere. And he is not there himself.

The account books are encrypted.

Action: He's screaming for help. But that does not help. Eugène doesn't care if he dies. If instead of screaming for help they ask him to give the names of the customers. Or to decrypher the account books. This could be dangerous for Eugène. So a person dressed with bones comes and kills the accountant with a crossbow bolt. Then tell the players to follow him to find eugenes. Insist on the damage the blot does to the chair and table. It is a forbidden weapon with formidable power. If the players killed the accountant by mistake. After 10 min in the room a person arrives to see what the noise was and propose them to follow him.


Ambiance room

From this point on, Music : Quake

They arrive in a room with a weird macabre scene. Skeletons have been arranged in a strange scene. The skeletons are actual dead human skeletons, but they can stand up because of straws and wax used to give them a frame. The skeletons eat each other, they dance, they build. They play cards, they mix : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Follower_of_Jheronimus_Bosch_Christ_in_Limbo.jpg This room is actually gargantuan. So wide that it is impossible to see the ends. In the midst of the statues, they see countless of followers of Eugène. With skeleton costumes. They walk on four feets, and wield a bone like a mace. They seem completely mad and slowly surrounds the players. They scream like animals and randomly attack players. The exit is obvious at the other end of the hall. If the players have soldiers, they can try to pass protected by the soliders. This will work. They will take some soldiers and the players will hear them scream for a long time.

If the players have fighting skills related to skirmishes, they can keep them at distance and pass.

If they have none of that, they have to find a way to pass. Or get beaten.

Room 5 : The guardian

They arrive in the catacombs. Skulls and bones everywhere. In fact, the roof is smaller and smaller and they have to crawl in a sea of bones.

There is before them a black knight with skulls that blocks their way. He has a huge weapon and is very fast. This man is waaaay too big.

He is in a room with a very high ceiling and some drops of water on him. Some light from the outside lights the room.

The players are crawling, but this room stands in the way. The exit is obvious at the other end of the room.

Action: It's up to them to find a way to defeat him or pass by him. If a player has a combat quality in relation to duels, he can blind him. But impossible to defeat him.

Room 6 : Eugène

Music Haunter O Dim

They then arrive on the treasure of Eugene Clavicle. Gold. But also skulls. Hoars of golds and precious items.

There is a skeleton sitting on a chariot. He has dirty shoes and wet clothes but he doesn't move.

If the player touches him, he falls appart. They killed Eugène Clavicule !

After the skeleton falls Music : Danse Macabre

The players have a series of choices

First of all. What do they do with the treasure ? The players can have any items they dream of. Ask them what item they would dream of. It's there.

Same for the gold. They can take it if they want or give it to the inquisition.

The skeleton has a coin made of bone in the hand. This coin is obviously very precious. In the back of the room there is the engraving of the merchant with the same coin http://www.lamortdanslart.com/danse/France/Paris/dm_paris09.htm

Regardless of what they do. One of them carries the coin outside of the tunnels.

Even if they decided to leave it there. one player will realise he took it with him.

Once they leave the tunnel, Epilogue.


Prologue

Epilogue 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

The players can decide to keep some of the treasure or turn it to the inquisition. The player who carried the coin out of the tunnels have a strong urge not to give it to the inquisitoin and refuses to do it. Hiding it if necessary.


Searching through the eugene documents, they find one that says where the corpses were to be delivered. For next scenario.

In the aftermath of this event. They gain the talent "Prowess" more explanations in the next scenario.

After couple of days. They all have a strange dream.

During the dream Music Behelith

In their sleep. Skeletons bring them bone objects related to the object they chose to represent them while with the fortune teller. The player who carries the coin has his object changed to "coin".


All players gain one talent except the player who holds the coin. He gains two.

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