TOPIC: Horror on the Orient Express - All Rotations

Garuda wrote:
I sure did, my luck is now perilously low!

Saturday 13th Jan 1923

Milan Collector: We know a piece of the Sedefkar Simulacrum was sold to someone from Milan just after Great War. Pierre checks with contacts (dealers and auction houses) for any detail but draws blank. Pierre’s shop later trashed (by someone he upset during his enquiries (failed a pushed skill roll)).

Fenalik: At the library, Remi produces diary of Madmoiselle de Brienne. From an entry June 1789 we learn Le Comte was well liked until became apparent he was evil. Angered the Queen. King’s men raided Le Comte’s home, arrested him and burned down his mansion. Diary spells his name as Fenalicheque. Our research suggests Fenalik appeared out of nowhere, quickly became the darling of the court and his downfall came suddenly. Remi suggests we visit Le Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal at the Bastille which holds records of the period more military and nobility related.

Skinless One: Only association Remi finds is a reference to the work of an anatomist Henri Franyard and the flayed sculpture kept at the École Nationale Vétérinaire d’Alfort (nation school of veterinary surgeons) at 7 Avenue du Général de Gaulle, Maisons-Alfort, near Paris.

Sunday 14th Jan 1923

Fenalik: At the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal we find (i) in an excerpt from the diary of Captain Louis Malon, June 1789; King’s men raided Le Comte’s mansion, scene of an orgy. In basement were torture devices including a Nuremburg Virgin. “It was a dark day when Pfenalik [sic] descended upon Poissy.” Captain Malon gave order to burn the house down with those ‘still below’ in it. Le Comte was arrested and howled as if his soul was burning with his home and trapped guests. Le Comte was taken to his new home (Bastille?). (ii) We also find reference to an inventory of goods taken from Le Comte’s mansion and presented to the Royal Treasury, including an incomplete piece of a statue.

Devil’s Simulare: Remi (working on a Sunday bless him) finds reference to the Devil’s Simulare, a 13th century illuminated Latin manuscript. Anonymous author circa 1260. Bound in Venice 1605. Considered an apocrypha; a work of a mad chaotic. Only known copy of manuscript was kept at San Maria Celeste, Venice (church?).

Poissy: Town circa 20 miles north of Paris.

Ghoul in the Catacombs: We go sight-seeing to the Paris Catacombs. We lose our tour guide when distracted by strange sounds. We come to a locked rusty iron gate. Picking the lock we move beyond. Passage widens and is flanked by neatly stacked piles of bones. In our torchlight we spy a dark, barely human figure with glinting eyes. It growls at us from the darkness. We retreat. The creature doesn’t pursue but whimpers. After passing back through the relative safety of the iron gate we call to it but receive no interest or reply. Our tour guide comes looking for us and shepherds us back to the main passage.

Monday 15th Jan 1923

Fenalik: Remi finds journal of Lucien Rigault, June 1789. Two days after arrest of Fenalik, Lucien suggests to King’s Deputy that the screaming and writhing Fenalik is a madman. As a noble and a madman, he cannot be executed. Instead sent to Charenton (lunatic asylum). Fenalik assaulted fellow inmates and was committed permanently; this is contrary to previous info regards his execution without trial.

Charenton: Remi finds a newspaper article dated just a week ago. 8 Jan 1923: Charenton Hospital mourns the loss of neurologist Dr. Etienne Delpace in a terrible accident. The announcement was placed by Dr. Francois Leroux, Acting Director, Charenton Hospital.

Always love these write ups, they prove to be so useful

Another Bonus/Penalty dice is yours

Garuda wrote:
A couple of minor corrections...

Anatomist Honoré Fragonard

Anonymous Cistercian Monk. A work of a mad Cleric.

Monday 15 Jan 1923 ctd

Charenton Asylum: Founded 1631. We visit Dr. Francois LeRoux, Acting Director. He is guarded about providing information about Delpace’s death but allows us access to hospital archives.
Before we’re lead down to the archives, Hubert Black feigns illness to distract Madame Rognia, LeRoux’s secretary, so that Banks can steal Dr. Delpace’s journal that we spotted amongst some recently boxed personal effects. Archives confirm admittance of Comte Fenalik in June 1789 but there is no other record.

Paul Mandrin: An orderly named Mandrin attracts our attention. We follow him as he exits Charenton.
(i) Mandrin believes Dr. Delplace died because of a fault in an electro-shock machine. He believes LeRoux is coy about admitting this because the machine is manufactured by LeRoux’s own company. Mandrin is concerned that a patient may have died too during electro-shock therapy being administered by Delplace. There is a cover-up in process.
(ii) The last time Mandrin spoke with Delplace, Delplace told him that “In our dreams we speak languages that we have never known. Each of us holds the key to our racial memories. Soon I will have proof.” Mandrin informed us that Delplace was studying a patient that had been moved to Delpace’s private wing.
(iii) A while ago, Mandrin found a colleague named Guimart slumped in the hospital basement, bleeding from a wound to his right wrist. Guimart went mad and was admitted as a patient.

Delplace’s Journal: Guimart of the 4th Ward entered the cellar. Another nurse, Mandrin, discovered Guimart whose wrist was bleeding. Guimart raved to Delplace about being attacked by a dead man. Guimart now a lunatic. Delpace placed Guimart under his care in Room 13. Another journal entry states: “Alas, with Guimart was another man, unknown”. Delplace questioned Guimart about how long had he been keeping the stranger in the cellar? Delpace moved the stranger to his private wing. The stranger is old. He takes no nourishment. "Will electro-shock revive him?" After second application he awoke. The stranger whined in old forms of Greek and Latin. Tales of dark things. “Have we tapped into some form of racial memory?”



More to follow...

Tuesday 16th Jan 1923

Skinless One: At École Nationale Vétérinaire d’Alfort we were admitted to view the gallery of biological exhibits preserved in glass tanks. They included what Remi previously referred to as the Flayed Sculpture – a skinned and preserved horse and rider. Another notable exhibit was that of the half-woman (upper half only) with dog. Both figures were posed in unnatural gestures. Beneath the woman’s left breast was sculpted a mouth, smiling, and within a letter ‘F’, the ‘signature’ of the 18th century sculptor, Honoré Fragonard whose work this is? No other exhibit has this hidden sculpt. Though other exhibits are both impressive and gruesome, the half-woman and dog stand out as particularly strange.

Poissy: Birthplace of Louis IX, who died of cholera on crusade in 1270 and whose body was embalmed during the journey back to France. We journey to Poissy with the intention of staying overnight. Poissy is a town edged by forest and, currently, snow. We take rooms at l’Hôtel Rouen by the train station.

Poissy Town Hall: We discover documents relating to Fenalik’s house. A floor plan, its former location and detail of the house built upon its ruin. The rebuilt house at 6, Encols de l’Ablaye, Poissy is owned by a Dr. Christian Lorien. The plan of Fenalik’s mansion has no basement, but there are stairs drawn that can lead nowhere else but down.

Poissy Church: Notre Dame de Poissy. Has an old and somewhat damaged font that is railed off to stop locals from further chipping away at the font’s stonework. The font, imbued with flakes of the stone are believed to have supernatural healing properties.

Dr Christian Lorien: When we call upon him, Lorien proves a gracious host who invites us in to meet his family, discusses the history of his house and offers us a cooked meal. Lorien lives with his gracious, but arthritic and feeble wife Veronique and his young daughter Quitterie. Lorien has a prominent scar on his wrist and arm (maybe a year old), Veronique has a crippled wrist/hand due to her arthritis and Quitterie welled up in red burn marks on her arms when coffee was accidently spilled on her; though our coffees were not particularly hot.
Lorien seems aware of the existence of a cellar, though there is no obvious access. Maybe something disused/concealed beneath the floor? There is a notable absence of religious icons in this house. The Loriens have lived here about 15 years.
We’re not the only ones expressing interest in Lorien’s house – he received a letter some months ago from a man named Edgar Wellington. Lorien shows us the letter.

Edgar Wellington: Wellington’s letter to Lorien is date 22 July 1922 and written from no.50 Rue St. Etienne, Lausanne, Switzerland. Wellington writes about his interest in a former owner of the house, Fenalik, and a statue that Fenalik owned and kept at the house. Edgar possesses an old scroll related to Fenalik’s statue (does Wellington have the Sedefkar Scroll?) and is keen to trace the statue.


A Thought: Does Guimart’s wrist injury (apparently inflicted by a dead man at the asylum) have any connection to the Loriens’ inflictions? Dr. Lorien’s wrist scar, Veronique’s crippled wrist and hand and Quitterie’s sensitive skin on her arms?

………….....We are invited to return to Lorien's home tomorrow hopefully to look for the cellar.