INTRODUCTORY NOTE

This adventure is designed to be played by a gamemaster and a single player, not the traditional party of adventurers. It could be adapted for more players, but at heart it is a simple, personal story and works best one-on-one.

THE SETTING

The year is 1748 and the setting for this adventure is the city of Paris. It is the thirty-third year of the reign of King Louis XV, a time of great prosperity, colonial expansion, and rumors of war with England. The city is overcrowded and impoverished, while the court and nobility play at games of power and intrigue on their great estates outside the city.

Despite their background from bourgeois or country gentry families, life for students at the University is hard and frugal. Most are sent to school to raise themselves above their merchant background and to prepare for careers in government service. Allowances are small, housing and food are expensive, and studies leave little time for the entertainments which young men are drawn to and which the city offers in abundance.

The central character for this adventure should be one of these threadbare scholars, though his background, wealth, connections and dedication are up to the player. He should be in his second year of study, with a few friends and connections in the city and in the university community, but not a native by any means.

THE SITUATION

One of the character's closest friends at the university is Alphonse d'Ansigny, a second year student from a fairly wealthy merchant family from Marseilles. In the middle of the school term, the character becomes concerned that Alphonse has missed classes for almost a week. The adventure can begin at this point if the character wishes to take the initiative, or it can begin when Alphonse contacts him.

Should the character go by Alphonse' room at Mme. Lacierde's boarding house there will be no answer at the door. If he asks Mme. Ladierde if she has seen him, she says (with some disdain) that she pays little attention to the comings and goings of her university lodgers. If he decides to stand watch over the room or the entry to the boarding house, he will see many people go in and out, but none he can readily identify as Alphonse, though one figure who leaves and returns only twice is of the right size and build, but his head is obscured by the hood of a large riding cloak. Mme. Ladierde will not let the character into the room, and will chase him off if he becomes a pest.

After about a week of concern over Alphonse, the character finds a note pinned to the door of his own lodgings, written in Alphonse' hand. It reads:

My Dear _____,

I am in dire circumstances and need your assistance with some personal affairs which I will not be able to conclude due to a pressing family matter which calls me out of town. If you could meet me at Pilout's this evening at 8 I would be most grateful. I will await you at our familiar booth in the back of the cafe.

Alphonse

Pilaut's is a cafe which is popular with many students from the university. Unlike most of the finer cafes in Paris which serve their patrons mostly in private booths, Pilaut's has only a few booths at the back and most of the seating is of a more common sort with benches at shared tables, like a German beerhall.

The character should not receive the note too much before 8, so he ought not to have time to do much preparation or investigation before meeting Alphonse.

AT PILAUT'S CAFE

When the character arrives at Pilaut's he will likely glance over towards the booth which he often shared with lphonse in the past. It is a dim booth in the far corner from the entrance. Someone is seated there, but from the front of the cafe he can't tell who it is. As he approaches closer it is still difficult to tell if it is Alphonse and a feeling of apprehension begins to nag at him. The person seated in the booth is wearing a heavy traveling cloak with a hood which hangs well over his face. While Alphonse has a cloak like that, he is given to a bit of vanity and normally wouldn't conceal his handsome features.

But since there are no more likely candidates, the character has to assume that this mysterious figure is Alphonse, disguised for some reason. Perhaps he has gotten into trouble with the gendarmes, or over a gambling debt, or a jealous husband. Regardless, when the character sits down the figure begins to speak, and it speaks with Alphonse's voice, though strangely muffled, as if from a great distance, seeming to fade and become more and more faint as he speaks, pouring words out and accepting no interruptions.

"You know my uncle Gilbert, do you not? No, don't answer. Let me finish while I may. As you are aware, he inherited the family title and estate from my grandfather and after a career in royal service he retired to the old manor house north of Marseilles some years ago. He alwasy fancied himself something of a scholar, a devotee of the mysteries of the past. About four years ago he began excavating around the ruins of an old Roman camp on his land, finding various curios, some of which he sold to collectors and some of which he saved. None were particularly remarkable, mostly old coins, statues of household deities, workmans tools and the like. But in his last few letters he wrote of having made a more significant discovery. Apparently there was a small temple within the camp and he began to discover various votive offerings, statues, jewelry, sacrificial vessels of food and animal bones. In one of his most recent letters he even reported finding a severed, mummified human hand sealed in a earthenware vessel. Letters reporting of his finds have arrived here almost weekly since I have been at the university. Suddenly, about two months ago they stopped alltogether. Then yesterday, much to my surprise, a large package arrived by cart from Marseilles. In it was what appeared to be a child-sized Roman sarcophagus. There was no note or instructions, but in an earlier letter my uncle had mentioned that he might send some items on to me to see if I could find a better price for them among antiquarians here in Paris. Naturally, my curiosity was aroused, so I opened the stone box to see what was within. I had braced myself for some morbid remnant and was pleasantly surprised to find it was merely a thick vellum scroll. Still curious, I opened the scroll and began to read the archaic latin text. And there, my old friend, I was undone. For as I began to read, the lamps seemed to dim, my body became strangely cool and a hideous transformation began to come over me. It was as if the very substance of my body was sucked away into a great, frigid void, until all that remained behind were my spirit and mind. Clearly the words I had read were an incantation of some sort, opening a gate through which I myself was slowly passing. And, my friend, that gate is still calling to me, sucking away the last of me and I am losing the will to resist."

At this Alphonse pulls back his hood and all the character can see within is a seemingly bottomless window onto darkness, lit by faint pinpricks of light that might be distant stars or dust motes catching the light from a nearby lantern.

With his voice barely audible, Alphonse continues, "I leave it to you, my friend. Go to my chambers, take the scroll, find a savant who can make proper use of it, and if it is not too late, have him call me back from this unnatural place. It is so cold here. I will be forever in..." At which point his words become too faint to hear, and a moment later the great traveling cloak falls to the bench, empty, its inhabitant gone.

FULFILLING ALPHONSE'S LAST REQUEST

From that point the question is whether the character will go and seek out a savant first or go to Alphonse's chambers and obtain the scroll. The wiser course would most likely be to seek out a savant first to be prepared for what might be found while obtaining the scroll, but the first instinct of the character is likely to be to go after the scroll and take it directly to the savant.

As a student at the University of Paris the character should have some familiarity with the faculty and is likely to know who among that faculty would have the knowledge necessary to be of help, or at least give some guidance. The faculty member who comes to mind is elderly Doctor Talifieri, an Italian-born Theurgist from the College of Philosophy. The gamemaster may wish to develop the visit to Dr. Talifieri's chambers at the university more, but the basic upshot of that visit is that Talifieri hesitantly reveals that he had a brilliant student who was ejected from the university who has pursued questionable studies on his own and for some years has been serving as a seer and advisor to the wives of wealthy merchants and the ladies of the court. This self-proclaimed savant goes by the name Master Mablieuse and has a rather nice house in the Rue des Munieres.

GETTING THE SCROLL

When he goes to Alphonse's chambers it only takes a few Sous or a very good story to get his landlady, Mme. de Ferier to let him in, though she will hover nearby throughout the visit, so it will be helpful if from the first he makes it clear that he has come to get an old scroll at Alphonse's request, perhaps because he is working in the grand library of the University and cannot come himself, but needs the scroll for reference. This will mostly be above her head, but fits the expectations she has of scholars.

Once they enter their eyes are drawn immediately to a chest in the middle of the room. The lid of the chest is open, and while they cannot see what is inside, if the character is particularly sensitive to psychic emanations he may see what looks like a maelstrom or vortex of psychic energy swirling above the box. Mme. de Ferier seems to see nothing. If the character has virtually no sensitivity to things psychic he ought to be able to go and retrieve the scroll with no danger. If he has enough sensitivity to see the maelstrom (average value or higher), when he goes to take the scroll his mind will be stricken with a strange weakening affliction and he will fall unconscious, to awaken in Mme. de Ferier's chambers, with the scroll gone. When he asks after the scroll he will learn that she sent it on with a messenger to Alphonse at the University (her assumption if the character did not use that ruse). It will then become necessary to get past the acquisitive librarians and steal the scroll from the library where they have added it to the collection.

However, a clever character may realize the danger of the Maelstrom and if he can't take the scroll himself, he can have Mme. de Ferier get it for him, or close the box (once the box is closed he can approach it). That will make obtaining the scroll much simpler.

VISITING MASTER MABLIEUSE

When he goes to Master Mablieuse they find that he lives in a rather nice house in a good part of town. When his servants inform the savant that his visitor is a scruffy student it's unlikely that Master Mabliuse will see him. If the character comes well dressed and presenting himself as if he has some wealth he will get access to the master quickly.

Once Master Mablieuse has heard their story he is intrigued and will invite them to stay for a while and let him study the scroll. If the character is not aware of the psychic maelstrom or neglects to inform Master Mablieuse of it, when Mablieuse opens the box he will be sucked into the Maelstrom and vanish and they'll have go find another savant.

If he is informed he will open the box from a distance with a long stick or have a servant do it for him. Once the scroll is revealed Master Mablieuse will neutralize the Maelstrom with a short incantation.

When asked to see if he can retrieve Alphonse, Master Mablieuse will search his library and return with a book from which he reads several incantations. The title on the spine is in Latin and reads 'Liber Magna Gnostica'. Mablieuse then reports that he is unable to retrieve Alphonse, though he has found him. The only way to retrieve him would be for someone to go in after him with the knowledge to bring them both back through the portal created by the scroll, though he advises that this might not be a very pleasant experience since Alphonse is wandering in a mind-bending realm called the 'Outer Void'.

CONCLUSION

At this point the character is faced with the unpleasant option of a strange voyage into the Outer Void to find Alphonse, or basically writing his friend off.

Master Mablieuse is willing to provide the character with the incantations and devices he will need to seek Alphonse in the Outer Void and perhaps even to return. But he explains that the efficacy of these devices is untested, except by long-dead Babylonian magi. As his price for equipping the character for the trip he wants only the scroll to keep in his personal collection.

Should the character choose to give up at this point, Master Mablieuse will offer him 50 Livre d'Or (a very good price) for the scroll and his silence. If he chooses to go on into the Outer Void he will be trained and prepared by Master Mablieuse and set out about two months later. But that is another adventure..