3,422
edits
Changes
no edit summary
As he is hanging, he continues dancing for a long long time.
A time way too long, peasants start screming : "It's the curse !" "The Red Lady La Dama de blanco will take us all !"
He should be dead already, until the soldiers stab him with a spear and he slowly dies.
The crops are rotting, the harvest isn't good.
A '''"Red LadyDama de blanco"''' appears every weeks between friday and saturday near the necropolis.
A '''skeletal violinist''' is spotted sometimes in the cemetery.
(explain that in this period violins don't existe yet, so it's actually a ministrel and his instrument is a Kemenche, an islamic violin)
* Explanations :
'''Ximeno Hernando Locura''' was in love with '''Beatriz''', but his father '''Juan Madraso''' wanted to marry her to the Bourgmestre instead.
So he drowned him and the burried him with him instrument.
But he pretended to drown and survived. He then left his grave to get his revenge.
When Ximeno Hernando was at his worst, an individual approached him and explained him about dancing plagues.
Told him that if he did what he had to, he would get his revenge.
The plan was the following : he would teach Ximeno Hernando how to trigger a dancing plague.
Dancing plagues are a phenomenom of mass hysteria that actually happened several times in european history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania
The individual did the following :
He would offer Ximeno Hernando the Skeletal Psaltery.
He would also give him a chest full of devil's bread. A very pure, very tasty white bread laced with "ergot de seigle" a poisons that makes people delirious.
He would also make sure a battle is triggered between the peasants and the soldiers so Ximeno Hernando has an opportunity to destroy the food reserves, steal food for himself and to bribe people. It's also a good opportunity to lace some food reserves with mandragora.
He also told him to bribe some persons to pretend their body is forced to dance.
The point is to first enfeeble people, by starvation and by poisoning (mandragora and "ergot de seigle").
He also explains him a way for him to see '''Beatriz''', she would have to pretend sleepwalking.
Obviously Ximeno Hernando did not imagine this plan, but the individual asked him to do it anyway to get his revenge.When Ximeno Hernando sees that the inquisition is involved, he doesn't know what to do. And try to scare them away, and if possible make them dance for long enough so he can get his revenge without harming them. (harming the inquisition would mean running for the rest of his life)
That's why he tries to drug them with mandragora and put them in a situation where it's almost impossible to resist the mass hysteria.
Whether he succeeds or not, his goal is not to kill them.
They go to the spot where the skeletal ministrel is supposed to have appeared, in the night between friday and saturday.
They see a red woman white women dancing. Like a ghost.
While she dances '''Prince of Darkness - Fire Emblem'''
She pretends to be sleep walking because the truth is, every weeks, she goes to see her lover. But of course she can’t say that because he’s supposed to be dead.
Action : Where does this white dress come from ? It is the same quality as the handkerchiefs, it was offered by Ximeno Hernando as a gift after he died. But she'll always refuse to admit it and say it was a gift from him from before he died
Action : Where the flowers come from ? Nobody wants to respond. But eventually they know that it comes from an old lover who died.
Action : Ask if she dances always on the same spot. Yes.
Actually she dances where '''Ximeno Hernando Locura''' was burried just after his murder.
The rationale is. They have to meet on this spot. If she’s not followed, then she meets him and they go to a more beautiful place. If she’s followed, she starts dancing and pretend she's possesed or something. To make it look like a ghost story so nobody wants to get involved and stop her.
She have a strange reaction if the players mention him.
If the players dig enough, they learn that '''Ximeno Hernando Locura''' was a ministrel in love with Beatriz.
But he was drowned in the woods near the cemetry then burried in the woods. (Beatriz's father killed him, because the local Bourgmestre was also in love with Beatriz and he wanted her to marry the Bourgmestre) And they broke his Psaltery (Psaltérion en français)
-> He was burried with his instrument.
Action : If the players search XimenoHernando's old broken home. They see is a stock of devil's bread (it's pure white bread). That's the end of ergot de seigle poisonning.
Alternatively (if they search his home too early), there’s nothing of interest in his home, but if they open his grave, the peasants start a search for a place where he might live and they find his hideout and a chest full of devil’s bread.
The soldiers come to the players first and ask them for help.
The head of the guards : Captain Beaudryde Villena, the step brother of the Castellan
The Captain tells them : Regardless of what they want to do, the local castelan doesn't want any troubles with the inquisition.
The peasants fight in a non-cohesive way and loose.
If the players where on this side, the Captain Beaudry de Villena wants to help them. If they know about '''XimenoHernando''' he introduces them to his cousin who lives in the castle.If they don't know about XimenoHernando, he owes them a [[Favour]].
Peasants win :
=Part 3 Dancing Plague=
*'''Normal : Z_Normal-Bruit-Noir'''
'''XimenoHernando''' will trigger a dancing mania in the city : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_maniaYour goal is to find XimenoHernando
*'''The First dancer : Prince of Darkness - Fire Emblem'''
His family follows him and try to cover him for the rain. They seem desperate to help him.
They try to stop him, to wake him up.
In reality this one and the few first ones are actors paid by XimenoHernando. The point being to trigger an actual Dancing mania.
| 30min = There's about five people dancing. People are closing their doors and isolating themselves. '''Music : Prince of Darkness - Fire Emblem'''
Some people try to catch one of them to feed him. A lot of them start coughing, they are completely wet.
}}
The goal is to find '''XimenoHernando's''' hideout (or Ximeno’s Hernando’s new hideout if they already found it the first time)
One by one, people will start to go on the village center and dance.
This is a revenge from XimenoHernando, he wants to starve them, trigger a dancing plague and eventually kill all of them.
Everyone dances, except '''Beatriz'''
He is not at his home, because that's where they found the devil bread.
Action : They ask people who knew Ximeno Hernando if he had a special place to meet '''Beatriz'''
Yes, there was an old broken house in the forest where they used to meet.
They see a lot of withered flowers. LOTS of them, so many varieties.
Empty drawers, empty coffers.
Action : Ask someone who knew XimenoHernando, why so many flowers ? Because he was very found of the language of flowers. That was the way to send him secret messages with Beatriz.
At night, someone put white flowers on them.
They catch the guy, he was a cousin and friend of '''XimenoHernando'''his name is '''Blondel LefolAlonso Locura'''
He says he's doing that to appease '''XimenoHernando''' because he knew the language of flowers very well and those flowers means "calm down" "reconciliation" https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corbeille_d%27argent
Action : Ask him how could we contact/find '''XimenoHernando''' ?
He says : let's put a lot of flowers in the middle of the town, to push him to meet.
Several choices :
The music is very intense here, they have to do much more rolls. But they can't see him.
Action : One of the dancers mimics a violin. When they kill him, Ximeno Hernando appears.
A skeleton wiht a Psaltery, he walks out of the small river.
Now they can see Ximeno Hernando as a squeleton and fight him.
Action : Either the players have a quality Combat (Duel) or They need to find a smart way to kill him.
'''Danse Macabre'''
When hey wake up, they have some vomit at the mouth and they're in the town center. Ximeno Hernando is dead. but he's an actual guy, not a skeleton. His skin is soaked though. And he has a skeletal psaltery.
(part of the village may have burned, if they reached the black rain part, Beatriz may be alive or dead.)
*Then loop this Playlist '''Normal-Prima'''
They take more time to comb the woods and they find XimenoHernando's actual hideoout, they find real food, clothes etc...
Villages start to talk. Some of them where actually paid to pretend a dancing mania. The point was to trigger an actual dancing mania, and it worked.
They find a contract signed in blood between Ximeno Hernando and a certain "L" that details all he has to do to get his revenge.
Some people also knew about Beatriz meeting with him and her way of pretending she was posessed.
A solid proof that he was alive this whole time.
Beatriz and XimenoHernando's accomplices ran away just after the event.
Among his stuff, they find an invitation to a bal masqué called the "Danse macabre"