2,873
edits
Changes
→Crypt
==Teaser==Send to the players before the game : 28th of October 1347, Marseilles (Provence, Holy Roman Empire) His Magnum Opus cost him everything: his fortune, his family, his soul. Under the unholy gaze frozen in clay of his demented masters he works tirelessly. The end is near, his pact is formal. Soon he will be the richest man in Marseille and probably in the whole Empire ! ⚜️⚜️⚜️💀💀💀 28 Octobre 1347, Marseille (Provence, Saint Empire romain) Son Grand Oeuvre lui aura tout coûté : sa fortune, sa famille, son âme. Sous le regard impie figé dans l'argile de ses maîtres déments, il travaille inlassablement. La fin est proche, son pacte est formel. Bientôt, il sera l'homme le plus riche de Marseille et probablement de tout l'Empire ! ⚜️⚜️⚜️💀💀💀 =Intro- Danse Macabre=
* Initial situation :
**Date : 28 October 1347
**Location : Marseilles (Provence, Holy Roman Empire)
Previously, the players have found an invitation for a Masquerade (Bal Masqué) for the Toussaint 31 Oct 1347 !!!! (Fete des morts).
There was a date, but no address on it.
On the invitation, there is a drawing of the Saint Victor Abbaye in the background. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbaye_Saint-Victor_de_Marseille
This is a hint that the ball will happen in Marseille.
And indeed, a ball is organised there, near the docks.
Every year, a Masquerade (Bal Masqué) is organised in Marseille by the church. It happens in the cathedral : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbaye_Saint-Victor_de_Marseille
The point of this danse macabre masquerade The cathedral is to gather all the representatives of the different objectsmostly closed. And have them inscribe on the golden Guestbook (live dBecause it'or) the position of the corpses they gots in construction. In exchange All services are held in one wing which is still openThey build a spire of whichbones, they get their payment. (each gests leave with some giftsto be sure the workers aren't aware that those are bones, some of which are full or gold or made of gold)The pages are torn as soon as they are inscribed (so it doesn't incriminate the chastelain directly)hidden in word and straws
That's why he recruited the Merchant "Coin", the Ministrel "Violin", the deacon "Bishop" etc...
They had the task to kill X people in a very specific way. "Coin" had to buy corpses or sell goods that would kill, "Violin" had to dance them to death, etc....
As a compensation, they got gold, support and a "Bone" item.
If successful, this ritual will multiply the virality of the plague and let it spread through europe.
* Unsolved mysteries :
Why triggering trigger the Black Plague ?Who organises and controls all of this is "L" ? (Where does those "bookBone" objects come from ? someone else ?)
* Historical themes :
Bal des Ardents : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal_des_ardents tragic even where a charivari ended in a fire
Cour des miracles
Orphans
Beggars
Whores
Aumone
Hospital
Cathedral
=Part 1 Cour des Miracles=
* '''Normal : Z_Normal-Cathédrale Silencieuse'''
{{Ambiance Track
| 5min = Visit of the cathedral and infirmary.
| 15min = There's an old man in his bed, with a lady sobbing at his side. She's a whore (she wears very bright colours) and he is her dying father. Her son was taken as well. Her left shoulder is bleeding a strange wound with a strange shape.
When interrogated, she will explain that she was forced to partake in satanic rituals. She remembers particularly the stench of sulfur and the heat. (more infos about her in the scenario track.
| 30min = A Leper come to them asking for Alms. He said he was refused in the Leprosy. He is an actual lepper. He tell the players that orphans are disappearing, he also tell them about people meeting at night in the crypt below the cathedral. When he goes there, he cannot find the door, he points to a wall (an actual wall). He just rememebr wrong. '''When he sees the wall Music : Alone in the Dark Mysteries'''
| 45min = They see a man counting coins. When approached he pretends to be blind. He is a thief. After they finished takling to him, their purse is gone. And so is he. '''When he sees the wall Music : Alone in the Dark Mysteries''' His left shoulder is bleeding a strange wound with a strange shape.
| 60min = They go to their room. The hostel owner have been killed. Stabbed at the left shoulder. '''When they see he is dead : Alone in the Dark Mysteries''' Their stuff have been stolen. When they leave the hostel, it burns. When it burns. '''When they see it burn : Berserk Behelith'''
| 75min = A riot between sailors (ville basse) and soldiers (ville haute) they fight against a new tax instored in the ville haute that tax goods coming from the sea and sold at ville haute. The Lepper is found dead in the riot. '''When they see the dead lepper : Berserk Behelith''' His left shoulder is bleeding a strange wound with a strange shape.
| 90min = They see a vallet feeding an orphan. He runs away and bring them to the trap. ''When they are attacked : Baston Bridgands !''
}}
The players arrive at the cathedral of Marseille. They are Greeted by the ex deacon (évèque) of Marseille : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasbert_de_Valle
He is the Camerier of the pope : E.g. he manages finances for the pope.
He managed to get funds to renovate the cathedraL.
THe current Deacon (évèque) stays in Avignon while the cathedral is being renovated.
The evil cult will pay some poor to take part of their rituals, part of the ritual is to wound them in the shoulder. The wound is the shape of a hare foot, it's the sign of the devil.
The Deacon has a crosier (crosse épiscopale) with a relic inside. A little chesspiece representing a skeleton Bishop.
He greets the players and they talk about the Masquerade that will happen.
As they meet him, he is playing chess against a canon.
The players can make one move.
The game pieces have their specific moves, which are also used for Byzantine (round) chess:
The King moves one square in any direction.
The Counsellor/Queen moves only one square diagonally.
The Elephant/Bishop moves exactly 2 spaces diagonally. It can jump over other game pieces. This means that its movement is restricted to only 8 places on the board.
The Knight moves like the modern chess knight: two spaces forward/backward or sideways plus one space at a right angle (an L-shape). The knight jumps over other pieces.
The Rook moves like the modern one: unlimited movement forward, backward or sideways until it has reached another piece. It cannot jump.
The Pawn moves one square forward when not capturing. Capturing occurs one step diagonally. Unlike modern chess, the pawn does not have the two-square step as the initial move. When pawns reach the other end of the board they are promoted to a counsellor.
He is very cooperative (he's a Trickster).
The Cathedral is being expanded, they want to build some new towers https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbaye_Saint-Victor_de_Marseille#Les_remaniements_d%E2%80%99Urbain_V
He will let them visit if they want except the tower because it's unstable yet.
Worse case scenario if they really want to visit the tower, they see nothing. Bones are hidden inside bricks made of material that can burn but looks like stone.
He want to throw them on the wrong trail. So he tells them about the numerous Oprhans disappearing. In the mean time he will order thugs to kill the players.
He says there is a heretic cult in town who takes orphans.
The point is to lure players into a trap.
They visit the hospice with the deacon.
They see Leppers, old people, beggars, orphans, diseased, wounded soldiers, madman, crippled, prostitutes.
(if the ask the orphans to stop begging, they need to pay, but it doesn't solve anything, just stop the killings)
Action : Ask the orphans where they go beg. See that there is just one street with zero orphan beggars (because that's where they disappear)
Action : Ask the prositute where she met with the person that led her to the statanic ritual.
The prostitute has a lot to say. Her sould is broken since her son got caught and since she partook in the satanic ritual.
She remembers that she was paid by a very wealthy vallet wearing provins blue in a street in Marseille.
Little did he know the horrors she would have to commit to survive.
Then he put a blingfold on her and she walked on pavement, then grass, then some moving stone noise, then crawling underground, then a massive door unlocked and she arrvied in hell.
She cries as she describes hell : The heat, the sulfure. She was like inside a stomach.
There were statues decapitates with weird clay horrors instead of their heads.
There was an assembly of people in black robes. One of them was the master of the ceremony, he was the most cruel. Under his cape there was something like wings. His voice was sweet and seductive, sweet like a knife.
Most prostitutes, orfans and beggars who where brought there died if they refused to submit. She wishes that she had to courage to die, because now her soul is gone because of the horrors she commited.
They made her to horrible things and as a prostitute, she have done disgusting things in the past but nothing of this magnitude. There was rape, but not only, there was murder of childrens, but not only, there was canibalism but that wasn't event he worse of it. She refuses to say what was the worse of it because it broke her sould. (some kind of combination of the three in the wrong order. The point is not to describe gruesome things to the players but to suggest them.)
She cries and want to redeem.
Action : There is a vallet looking through his window all the time. For no reason.
Action : They search his home, he is not here. He left throught the window to go to a nearby home (the two homes are very close.)
The other home is a trap. That's where they are attacked.
A lot of brigans with clubs come to them. ''When they are attacked : Baston Bridgands !''
Combat (Skirmish) or they are wounded before the guards arrive.
=Part 2 Danse Macabre=
* '''Normal : Psychlopean King in Yellow (put in the background with very very low volume : Vampire Dark Waltz)'''
{{Ambiance Track
| 5min = The ball starts with a feast in the cathedral. That draws all the poors. The meat tastes weird. Everyone wears a mask, even the poor. Lots of tables, from rich to poor. Different food on each tables. A very strong feeling of evil. Almost everyone have a wound at the shoulder.
| 15min = A strange noble come to them and ask for a Dance. He insist. If a player dance with him or refuse, he take off his mask and salute. He has the same face of a baron that died a long time ago. A splendid lady that radiates evil takes his hand to ask him to dance (she is the "Lover" of the danse macabre). Later on, the players cannot see him anymore.
| 30min = Their drink have been exchanged with blood. They spit. In their food. They find a card with a skeleton.
"Vous qui vivez: il est certain,"
"Quoique cela tarde, que vous danserez."
"Mais quand, Dieu seul le sait!"
"Réfléchissez à ce que vous ferez alors. "
| 45min = Someone shouts start attacking someone else with his knife. He is a madman : "Is saw them ! Human bodies in the cathedral ! Hundreds of them ! ! I hear their screams ! Don't get any closer !" He is not wounded at the shoulder. He is quickly surrounded by guests with skeleton masks, in particular a monk face hooded with a rosary (chapelet in english) made of bones that radiate evil take his hand and take him away (it's the Priest (curé), also an artifact) and he is taken out of the ball. Never to be seen again.
| 60min = A man with a skeleton mask come to one of the players that have an artifact. He ask him to dance and the player cannot resist. This player is gone until the next phase. He is found unconscious on the way to the cemetry. With a wound on his shoulder.
| 75min = '''Music : Behelit Berserk''' Characters chained together and covered in feathers and oil arrive and scream like monsters.
| 90min = '''Music : Danse Macabre''' The fire starts and the maskerade stops, players are caught in the fire.
}}
The players attend the Masquerade / Charivari / Carnaval. All the Danse Macabre characters will attend.
It's held in part of the cathedral everyone has masks.
They feel some very heavy ambiance.
Action : scan the crowd for artefact bearers, there are clearly lots of them who avoid the inquisitors as much as possible. They are extremely defensive.
For example they see :
A man completely obessed with a small chest hidden by a piece of cloth. The usurer.
They see a couple sitting on a donkey. The man on the back, the lady in front. Followed by a lot of people making a lot of noise. It's a charivari, a punishment because they re-married. The donkey is followed by a man with a walking stick. He radiates evil It's the Hermit.
Some of the guests start to puke blood. A doctor come to them. His face covered with a mask. He radiates evil. He walks them out of the party. They will die the next day.
A Wealthy religious men with a Ring that radiates evil. The cardinal.
A man with Huge arms that radiates evil. The sergent.
Action : follow them, they can see that a weird person (disguised as the grim reaper) give them all a letter.
Action : Either they steal the guy's bag discreetely or take the letter from an artifact bearer who is drunk.
The letter is a name and date in the past and a time. It's the name of a person who died. Raymond II des Baux 1237, he was the lord of Marseille a century ago.
=Part 3 The players attend the Masquerade. The lord greets them then wears a mask.crypt=Something is off. Everyone have similar masks. They stink and they don*'''Normal : Z_Flippant-Gyorgy Ligeti''' without '''01-GyrgyLigetiRequiem'''t speak like nobles.They eat very little and dance like puppets. They are actors.
There is a monk that heard them enter. He hides.
He insult them and say that starts shouting, they are slaves to the lord.He is in fact an ex templar, who is condemned to wear a chains to attone for his sins.He talks about orphans disappearing and he is convinced this will help them prove the lord's guiltkill him quickly.
The key have blood on itletter explaine that the person has few weeks to hold his part of the bargain, he has to kill X people in this exact way otherwise they will come for him.And death will be the last of his worries. Signed "L."
Action : Read the book son the book shelf. One of them will force the user to keep it.
==Scenario Track=Cathedral===They arrive in an annex of the castle. The will fight room by room.See a kitchen, where the orphans are fed.See a jail, where they are kept.See the place where they are killed.See the altar of madness, where their corpse is kept.On the altar, there are sketches of the tower of bones.
They see the ritual happening. They understand that they are in the cathedral.
=Part 4 The tower of bones=
* '''Normal : Baston Skeleton Dance'''
They find the tower of bones. Then a fire starts.
{{Ambiance Track| 5min = The fire starts. The cathedral is on fire. There's a spark of fire on their clothes which start burning.| 15min =The fire is unnaturally strong. They smell strong incense. They see some ritualists falling with candels they recognise some poor they saw before, for example the prostiture. Tha'ts how the fire started.| 30min =Ambiance TrackThe tower burns, revealing skeletal hands in the fire. An artifact bearer drops and starts drooling. The other players can wake him up.| 45min = Incense smell intensifies. They hear souls screaming. they now see clearly that the tower is hiding a spire of entwined skeletons.| 60min = The sound of souls screaming is strong and unbearable. Some heads open and scream fire then the skeleton falls. All the players who have artifact start walking toward the tower, the other players stop them, but they all temporarily insane.| 75min =More and more skeletons start falling from the tower. THe ground is glowing red with skeletons crawling. Parts of the roof caves in. They have to avoid it. | 90min =The tower collapses. Same for the roof of the Cathedral. They are hurt.}} The ritual is accomplished, they start to burn the tower. All the artifacts holders keep chanting, they are at the top of the cathedral.From times to time some people doing the ritual fall. The players try to stop the ritual but to do so they have to climb the cathedral and "Bishop" is there to attack them. As the tower burns, it reveals all the corpses bound in a spiral. Fire pours through the skulls.
They hear horrible sounds, like souls.
Phase after phase the fire become more unnatural and stronger. Start to burn more and more of the cathedral.
Epilogue musics :
*'''Epique entre-scenart gagant 12-Pista de audio 12.mp3Firelink Shrine 1h + Fire sound'''*All the city is fighting the fire for a long time. After hours of fight, the fire is finally tamed. They use large hooks to destroy the buildings around it. But for some reason the fire doesn't propagate at all outside this tower of the cathedral. All the city is helping to clear the fire. In the remnants of the cathedral, they find an ocean of burned bones.In the ocean of corpses, they see a huge iron egg containing lots of half dead people. One of them only is alive, it is an italian sailor. His body is almost entirely burned. He has a big commplicated pattern completely black on his left shoulder. His body is covered in black spots. He explains in latin that their ship was attacked and they where caught in this weird ritual. He caughts a lot. He dies in the same day. The pope is very embarrased that a person very close to him was a heretic, so he decided to change the date of his death, to make sure he couldn''Epique entre-scenart gagant 12-Pista de audio 12t be linked to this incident and made sure nobody could talk about this event.mp3''' (put Since only the tower burned, he decides to rebuild it twice). The sailor is sent to a hospital and dies shortly after there. All the people in the hospital die of the plague. The black plague is releaseed in Marseille ! 1 November 1347 ==Post Game Bonus== Send those to the players as a post game bonus : *'''Fin epique glorieuse 06-Final'''The Cathedral of Marseille : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_of_St_Victor,_Marseille*Then loop this Playlist '''Normal-Prima'''Next scenario Actual picture of the crypts below the Cathedral : Black Plague [http://prima.wiki/images/4/4e/Cathedral_Crypt.jpg] There was an actual events where during a masquerade people coevred themselves in marseille, feathers and oil and killing caught fire (even though it was not at that period) it was later called the "doctorBal des Ardents" ?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal_des_Ardents : [http://prima.wiki/images/4/46/Bal_des_Ardents.jpg]
[[Category:Scenario]]