Danse Macabre Part 3

Intro

• Initial situation :

County (Compté) : "Champagne"

Viscounty (Vicomté) : "Valfranc"

Castellany (Châtellenie) : "Vilmaison" local Castelain (Chêtellein) : "Chevalier de Vilmaison"

Town : "Souspenelles"

There's a little water stream in the town

Music : (fast start) Light of the Seven (EP 10 Trial scene) The Corpses from Valfranc were to be shipped to a little town called "Souspenelles". When the players arrive there, they quickly find a warehouse, quite isolated from the rest of the town that smells really strong. When they arrive, a guy locks the warehouse and starts to burn it.

After 00:39 (music time) they manage to bash the doors.

The guy screams : "Sweet Satan, invite me, for I have accomplished my duty !" Then suicides by hanging himself among the other corpses. The warehouse used to store about a hundred dead bodies. But now it's empty. Except for a dozen villages hanged. The trail ends there.

After 03:40 (music time) the fire stars spreading to the forest with an incredible power.

All the village come to try to stop the fire. They throw water and earth at it until it stops.

The villages say that it's all because of the

When the other peasants see that, they say. It's the skeletal minstrel, he'll damn us all. They say there have been sights of a skeletal minstrel every weeks, near the cemetery.

• Explanations :

Oldaric Lefol was in love with Evelyne, but his father wanted to marry her to the Bourgmestre insetad. 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. He paid some people to pretend a dancing plague, and it worked. He also poisoned the food reserves with ergot de seigle, so they have to throw their reserve and starve.

• Unsolved mysteries :

Why corpses where shipped there ? What happened to them ? Who gave him this Psaltery ?

Part 1 Midnight Dance

• Normal : Departement Necrologique
• While they see her dancing

The players will try to hunt down this skeletal ministrel and kill it.

Ambiance track

• 10min It's been a long summer with heavy rain, they see crops rotting. Some peasants still trying to collect some, they search through the crop for non rotten grains.
• 30min They hear screaming from inside a hut "You will dance, you will all dance!"

(a peasant have been poisoned with ergot de seigle.) They visit the hut : The hut is made of clay and straws, no windows. Inside the hut, a third of the area is penned off for the animals, which live in the hut with the family. A fire burn in a hearth in the centre of the hut, so the air is permanently eye-wateringly smoky. Furniture is a couple of stools, a bed of straw, and a few cooking pots made of clay. They are cooking leaves and mushrooms as well as rotten grain, there's a board skull. The peasants beg the players not to report. That they didn't hunt the animal, it was carcass, hunting is forbidden for peasants. The penn is almost empty, only one very thin sheep remains.

• 45min A crazy peasant come to the players and attack them with a mace. "You will dance ! You will dance ! We will all dance !"
• 60min There's a child lost in the woods. His parents tried to get rid of him. But he came back.
• 75min A Priest gathered lots of people in a large hut. They all start laughing incontrolably and say "We will dance, all of us !"
• 100min

The village is starving, something to illustrate that Some crazy wanderers threaten people that they will dance (can happen only after the angrry peasant mob) Some wandereres become crazy Actually Oldaric Lefol gives them some bread. Since everyone is starving, they always accept. Actully it's poisoned with ergot de seigle. So they get crazy. ILLUSTRATE MORE THE LIFE OF PEASANTS IN THE MIDDLE AGE

Scenario Track

While she dances L'autre bout du monde ? Eros ?

Some Local Peasants see the players open the warehouse and say : It's all because of the Bourgmestre's daughter and her damned skeletal lover, she'll damn us all.

A yong lady, called Evelyne Toffea, the Bougmestre's Guillaume Toffea young bride wakes up every saturday morning t go dance in the woods until sunrise.

She dances every week in the woods. With withered red tulips in her hairs. She had a bucket of withered red tulips in her chamber. If they have the right feats or roll high, they hear a very faint music. But too distant to trace.

Then she goes back home.

She is sleepwalking, so if the players wake her up, she wakes up, no problem.

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 Oldaric Lefol was burried just after his murder.

She have a strange reaction if the players mention him.

If the players dig enough, they learn that Oldaric Lefol was a ministrel in love with Evelyne.

But he was drowned in the woods near the cemetry then burried in the woods. (Evelyne's father killed him, because the local Bourgmestre was also in love with Evelyne and he wanted her to marry the Bourgmestre) And they broke his Psaltery (Psaltérion en français)

Actually Evelyne's father did this. And then burried him right here and then, with his instrument.

Action : If the players dig the grave of the lover, they only find the broken instrument inside. -> He was burried with his instrument.

He was ministrel for the local Castellan, he used to play Psaltery (Psaltérion en français)

Once the father learns that the grave is empty. He is angry and go to the woods with a bunch of peasants with torches to go kill the ministrel. He see a ministrel in the woods and chase him.

At some point, they are attacked by a flock of wolfs. Either one of the players have Combat (Skirmish) or one of the players is wonded. At the end of the skirmishe, Evelyne's father is found drowned, hammered by a large stick. (the same way he killed oldaric) There are clear footsteps, but impossible to follow. So Oldaric isn't dead !!!

That's the last time Evelyne wakes up at night. Because now Oldaric is angry at the whole village he'll poison them with poisonous bread.

(Optional :)

Wanderers are looking for seasonal jobs Saisons des vandanges.

There's a monastery where the vagadons are welcome. The players can go there. They'll see that several vagabons are delirious and numb (egort de seigle does that). The players discover that, the vagabons eat much less recently.

In fact, Oldaric's servant ( a guy piad by Oldaric) comes every night and distributes "the devil's bread".

The players need to discover that and ambush the guy. He leads them to an abandoned house in the forest where the bread is stored. The players burn it.

Now Oldaric is really angry.

Part 2 Peasant revolt

The population is starving and refuses to pay the tax, the "Champart" (tax of 1/6 of the harvest) They beat the taxman "champarter" ("champarteur" in French) nearly to death and kick him out. They cry "Champarteur, chapardeur, champarteur, chapardeur" Obviously, there'll be a fight the next day.

The soldiers come to the players first and ask them for help. The head of the guards : Captain Beaudry The Captain tells them : Regardless of what they want to do, the local castelan doesn't want any troubles with the inquisition.

If they refuse. The peasants do the same. The head of the peasants, the Bourgmestre : Guillaume Toffea

The peasants want to defend the local grain storage unit. The soldiers will attack the next day.

The players can pick a side, if they win the fight, they gain a different gain. If they pick the losing side, no advantages. If they refuse to pick a side, they gain nothing.

If one of the players is Rich or has a Great Network, he can pay the taxes and it counts like a peasant win.

At each step, they need to find a good idea to win. If they win more than 3 phases, their side wins. If one of the players have the Combat (Battle) ability, give him the answers to each phase.

70 soldiers, 30 Bows, 1 Cavaliers (the captain) plus 1 Knight in armor (the Castellan) vs 350 peasants, 50 bows

• Step 1 : Preparations, Timer : 15 min

Peasant side : The peasants have no weapons, only clubs, pitforks and flails. To help them : Turn their scythe into Guisarme or make shield

Soldier side : Poison the well or burn some houses.

Ambiance : Some peasants leave with their goods. They take refuge in nearby villages. Some peasants mock them and stone them when they leave.

• Step 2 : The two armies are facing each others, constant flux or arrows Timer : 15 min

Peasant side : Make sure to organise them in lines. Propose a smart plan of attack. Soldiers side : Make a sound battle plan

Ambiance : One soldier/peasant seems terrified, you can hear him pee on himself. There's dreadful silence but you can hear some people praying. The Castellan has a dark armour with a salamander on the helmet.

• Step 3 : Charge of the soldiers, Timer : 15 min

The cavaliers disperce the archers. The line of soldiers well organised lance/shied+mace charge the peasants. A separate contingent of soldiers prevent a move from the back.

Peasant side : Check where breaches happen, collect troops at the right spots, then redirect them in the holes.

Soldiers side : Either concentrate the troops in one spot to pierce or collect a distribute the troops and reinforce the holes.

Ambiance : From time to time, the cavaliers charge in the melee and destroys enemy lines. There a guy who fell on the floor, he's stamped by the troops and cries.

• Step 4 : The peasants start to drive the soldiers back. They regroup next to the Siege weapon that was concealed in a nearby forest. So the soldiers decide to destroy the store hours to punish them or lead them to yield.

A small trebuchet (Couillard) starts shooting around the grain house. Trying to aim at it. It break a house in one shot.

Peasant side : Shoot burning arrows at the Couillard. Or any other smart way to destroy it.

Soldiers side : Help the Couillard aim right, if one of the players has a related capacity. Prepare a burning projectile instead of a rock one, the fire spreads to the storehouse.

Ambiance : Some people are trying to hold their house together.

Result. If the players have 3 win out of 4. Their side wins. If not, the other side wins.

Soldiers win : The Bourgmestre is taken captive and he yields or the storehouse is destroyed. The peasants fight in a non-cohesive way and loose.

If the players where on this side, the Captain Beaudry owe them a favor. And grants them one soldier per person.

Peasants win : The Captain fall off his horse. He's quickly surronded and yields.

If the players where on this side, the Bourgmestre owe them a favor. They can collect anytime.

Ambiance : Some people from the losers are moaning on the ground and some peasants come to collect their weapons and clothes. Stabbing some of them. Very few dead in the end.

Part 3 Dancing Plague

Oldaric will trigger a dancing mania in the city : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania

One by one, people will start to go on the village center and dance. This is a revenge from Oldaric, he wants to kill everyone in the village then raise them.

Everyone dances, except Evelyne

They read through inquisition regsitry, it seems to have happened before. Long time ago in a not related setting. It's a disease for the soul, nothing magical.

Action : Search oldaric's home. The place have been trashed by Evelyne's father, as a way to make him run away. Nobody lives there. They see a lot of withered flowers. LOTS of them, so many varieties. Barils even. Anything of value was stolen. Empty drawers, empty coffers.

Action : Ask someone who knew Oldaric, why so many flowers ? Because he was very found of the language of flowers. That was the way to send him secret messages with evelyne.

After a certain time, if they don't find a solution. They see all dancers have white flowers.

Action : Spy to see who puts them At night, someone put white flowers on them.

They catch the guy, he was a cousin and friend of Oldarichis name is Blondel Lefol

He says he's doing that to appease Oldaric 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 Oldaric ? He says : let's put a lot of flowers in the middle of the town, to push him to meet. Several choices : Corbeille d'Argent : "calm down" "reconciliation" Anagallis  : "appointment" Cyprès : "grieving" , "ethernal friendship" Nemophile : "Forgiveness" Red Tulip : "eternal love" Achillée : "War" Rhododendron : "Danger" (check that all those flowers grow in france)

(IF EVELYNE IS KILLED, THIS STARTS at the end of this track) Once they do that, the little water streams starts to be filled with withered https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycoris_(plante) It means deaths. Eros Necropsique - La voix

Actions : Some flowers got caught in the sides of the water stream, so they can go upstream and see where he dropped them. Also he droppped some flowers on the ground by mistake at this spot.

It comes from a house. Bourgmestre's house.

The table is set in fine silver cutlery.

On the table there's a withered flower Anagallis means "appointment"

On the table, there's a pitcher of hypocras (spiked with mandragora)

The players have to drink it. They then fall asleep.

Ambiance : More or more people go dance, then the entire village. Some scream and moan like zombies. they fall when they are tired but keep dancing on the ground. One of them is wonded, he dances and damage his wound. Babies cries as their mother went dacing and left them alone. The remaining villageers are angry and hang Evelyne for revenge. The next day, the village is empty, everyone dances. All playres roll, the one with the lowest result dances also (that's the punishment for not ending the track). In the meantime he can play the Bourgmestre, who helps the players.

Part 4 The appointment

The players go to the Bourgmestre's house, where the table is set. Wine is served. A mix of Hippocras mixed with Mandragora. To meet him, they have to drink. They fall asleep.

They're now drunk and start hallucinating.

They see all the candles are lit. Even though they werent. And they move, like someone is breathing.

In lightning, they see the player that has the coin have a skeleton hugging him on the back

The sky is completely dark. Not even a star on sight. And light is much less bright than usual, less and less bright. Within hours, their torches light won't light anything.

Some withered flower petals fall. Flower that means death.

They can hear clearly someone playing Psaltery.

Effect of the music : Step 1 Get the "Stupid" quality. Step 2 Dance

Action : They either have to have great willpower or cover their ears in any way. Otherwise, they start having effects of the music.

They are drunk, really hard to find their way in the streets of the village.

Action : Either one of them can focus, or they will spend a lot of time to find and of they roll two insanity rolls. One way, is to wait until someone starts dancing and follow him.

Finally they find the town center.

Most people are crawling on the floor trying to dance. Some are still walking.

They speak one by one telling a poem.

WRITE THE POEM The poem means : The poor poet have been treated unfairly. And he's about to have the revenge that was promised to him. But some strangers are here and he doesn't want or need to harm the strangers. So please stranger. Go away.

There's a black rain, and they feel very cold. Their need to roll or loose their mind.

Action : One of the dancers mimics a violin. When they kill him, Oldaric appears in his true form.

A skeleton wiht a Psaltery, he walks out of the small river. Now they can see Oldaric 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. he dodges all their attacks. His shadow doesn't move though. They should strike where his shadow is.

Whent hey wake up, they have some vomit at the mouth and they're in the town center. Oldaric is dead. but he's an actual guy, not a skeleton. His skin is soaked though. And he has a skeletal psaltery.