Café de Nuit

Feel free to leave any comments you may have on "Quartier Rouge" here. I'll be adding a few of my own (author's notes and whatnot) as things go, including a larger one once the entire story is done illustrating the source of my ideas.

(I'll give you a hint--the bare bones of the plot are actually drawn from another TSR source. Bonus points for you if you can guess what before the end.)

I like the story! Your portrayal of the witty repartee and conversation is very fresh - just what I thought the Core's more modern societies might hold. Also, the descriptions you have of the people slide effortlessly among their conversation. Great writing, and I hope to see more!

We're lucky this didn't take place in Mordent itself. If we were truly loyal to the British roots of Mordent, then the poor soul would have woken up from a drunken party handcuffed to a train with no clothes on, as has often happened at British stag parties. Usually this leads to him losing his dignity, his wife-to-be, and his former "best friends" in one single evening.

Chapter IV (which I just posted a moment before writing this) was definitely the most troublesome of the six, taking about three different drafts before I even got started, and I'm still not particularly satisfied with it. I'm not sure that I've sufficiently conveyed the impression of the still, all-but-abandoned night streets in the Old Quarter.

The plot, meanwhile, is taking shape. Actual clues!

Excellent writing. I have no clue about either the TSR source or the case itself, but the story is great.

Now that the final chapter is posted, I thought I'd share some of the backstory behind "Quartier Rouge." If you're at all interested in the story and haven't finished it yet, you should read it first before continuing, because there are SPOILERS here.

...

Still here? Okay:

The original inspiration for this story comes from an old AD&D 1st Edition product, The Book of Lairs. This consisted of one and two-page encounters with various creatures, for a DM to drop into a campaign (indeed, some even in an established adventure). Most of them were straightforward enough, but the "Gargoyle" encounter (written, I believe, by James R. Ward), caught my attention. A murder mystery in an urban setting, but one solved through a "wilderness" skill (essentially tracking the murderer) and one where the "killer" was a monster out for food rather than a madman with a scheme framed in human terms.

(I wonder now if Clark Ashton Smith's "The Maker of Gargoyles" was part of the original author's inspiration for this story, though I hadn't read it back then, and the positive resolution of the encounter by heroic PCs is of course no part of Smith's story.)

I actually wrote it into a story sometime around 1990, making it into a mystery starring Jocelyn Altariel, a half-elf Sherlock Holmes of his fantasy world. The less said about that the better, but it is where Alec's last name comes from.

The idea to turn it into a Ravenloft story came after I got a copy of Gazetteer III last year. The presence of Alanik Ray in Port-a-Lucine was probably the triggering act. The "Gargoyle" encounter has more than a little of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" in it (murder mystery committed by non-sentient creature), and the idea of turning it into that kind of case, set in a crumbling, decaying Paris-like society, solved by a Dupin analogue. It got moved south to Chateaufaux simply because I couldn't have it in Port-a-Lucine or I'd have to explain why Alanik Ray hadn't solved it long before Jocelyn and Renard came to investigate (and "he was out of town on another investigation" seemed like such a cop-out...).

For those of you who have read this far, thanks, and I hope that the story has managed to at least entertain you for a while.

I remember the Book of Lairs. Now that I think about it, I even remember running the gargoyle scenario. Cool!

An excellent story, Sylaire. Great job!

This is good. Better even.

The writing style is clear and entertaining, and the murder mystery had an interesting twist. At first I was kept thinking "Ghost", then "Duelist's Ghost", but when it mentioned roof I was "Something that can fly? GARGOYLES!!!"

Loved the story, can't wait to see what you come up with next.

Just finished reading the story. Really, really, good writing here. I love the wry word-play between the two main characters, and the ending is worthy of Arthur Conan-Doyle. I especially liked the cultural snobbery and friction between the Dementlieu and Mordent characters.

The only reservation I had with the story was that I was expecting a sting in the tail, something to shock or give unease to the reader (this being Ravenloft, after all, where nothing is a complete victory for the forces of good). Turns out there wasn't one - the story progresses to a largely happy ending. That having been said, the setting and characterizations are great and I really felt like the characters were in Victorian Dementlieu!

Very good. It had me wondering up to the end, and I like how you turned an old 1st ed. encounter into a whole story. Although M. Renard claims not to have the deductive capability of Alanik Ray, he certainly seems to channel something of Sherlock Holmes - especially in his habit of keeping his poor compnion in the dark.

Also, you are a much better writer than I ever will be, and I hate you for it.

Just wanted to thank everyone for all the kind words! It definitely puts a smile on my face to know the story was appreciated.



Yep, a smile. ^_-

Brilliant. Many thanx.

A further adventure of the pair?