Café de Nuit

I've just now begun some notes for this domain, having finished reading Carnival of Fear last night. Very little here beyond a name for the new darklord and some notes gleaned from the novel text.

Warning again: SPOILERS


L’Morai
The Lord
• The Lion Tamer (This is what I call the strange cat-headed humanoid one of the boys sees holding the amulet at the end of the novel--is he a freak, a tabaxi?)
The Law
• The Council of L’Morai
• the logoliths
• freaks, trials, tattoos

The Land
• city in a river valley
• Vinrouge River
• farms
• heathlands
• birch woods
• mountains
• isthmus on seacoast, connecting to Core?
• temperate or oceanic climate


Citizens & Freaks
• language likely very similar to Mordentish
• money:
copper ducre
silver lorin
gold realvoire
• cultural level Renaissance with no sulfur resources to make gunpowder? The domain includes such things as phaetons and guillotines and (I think) printed books. I'm not sure about the streetlamps mentioned in the novel but they could be oil or gaslight. Marie had no trouble obtaining a good supply of flammable oil when she needed it. Soldiers carry bows, spears, or polearms, swords. Wire-drawing machines implied.
• a priest is mentioned once but religion is not well-defined in the novel. Likely few or no spellcasting clerics.
• minor healing magic/herbalism exists, seems accepted
• wizard magic may be illegal/restricted




outdoor encounters
common
• stag
• brute squad or the Heath Patrol

rare
• fugitive (normal or freak)
• wolf

I think the Lion Tamer will always looking for new freaks and attractions to add to the Carnival, as he rebuilds and restocks after the disastrous revolution of the novel. He might hire some evil gypsies to kidnap demi humans or employ spells to summon strange creatures from other worlds.

The Lion Tamer, as you've referred to the unnamed cat-faced man by, that's pretty ingenious, as it carries forward the manipulative relationship between previous Circus Masters and their circus freak charges so well- the Puppeteer pulled the strings of his followers like puppets. The Juggler would have kept them in the air, and now the Lion Tamer dominates his inferiors like they were less-than-human animals- although perhaps highly dangerous ones.

I do wonder if the current Circus Master- whomever bears the cursed ruby pendant- is the true darklord of L'Morai. (Due to the mysterious nature of L' Morai and the mysteries implicit in the Carnival of Fear narrative, it seems like a lot of what we know about the domain is subject to interpretation). On the one hand, the Puppetmaster at least seemed to shown abilities rarely capable of a figure who isn't a darklord- nigh indestructibility and the ability to reanimate hundrrds of soldiers at once. On the other hand, it does seem odd that something like a darklord mantle could be handed over or bequeathed- especially since the former circus masters apparently go on to populate the Council of L'Morai- not even succumbing to death from old age. Marie didn't ever seem to have done anything to warrant being a darklord- only accepting the pendant under extreme duress.

Although alternate darklord candidates present themselves- Juron Cygne, the Puppetmaster, or even the totality of the Council, I wonder if it might be the cursed ruby pendant itself- having captured the malice or wrath of one or both of the Cygne brothers. This would make the Circus Masters only placeholder bodies for the pendant to influence, hence explaining the changes in personality of the Puppetmaster's warnings and the Juggler's manifestation.

I do think that it is plausible that in some sense the amulet , which the novel implies may contain the soul of the Juron's brother, is the true Darklord. It requires a vessel to act upon the world.


Or it could all revolve around Juron, who remains alive if the Puppet Master was telling the truth-- and I think he was.The serial curse of the amulet is part of his curse as a Lord.

The current Carnival Master may be a sort of demilord or lieutenant.

As you say, it is a weird domain. But I really like it.

I am glad you like "Lion Tamer."

It's great that you're doing this and I love L'Morai and Carnival of fear, but the truth is every time I think of that penultimate scene of the book where Marie in chains is facing that long gauntlet of townsfolk with their cruel tools ending at the scaffold, the executioner, and the guillotine, I remember an old piece of 70s schlock called 'Breaker! Breaker!' starring Chuck Norris as a trucker who rides into a corrupt town looking for his brother, manages to anger the townsfolk who set upon him lynch mob style, only to be beaten down to the last by his martial arts skills. The movie, as I said, is schlock, but it's the only movie where I've seen a martial artist defeat an entire lynch mob which, according to martial arts scholars, is entirely possible for a martial artist of sufficient skill. Now this scenario would clearly not work for Marie, but I would still like to see the same lynching scene happen in L'Morai, but this time, to an outsider martial artist, who slips his/her chains(or perhaps uses them as weapons), beats down every person in the gauntlet, breaks all their tools, marches up the scaffold, punches out the executioner, smashes the guillotine frame, picks up the guillotine blade, strides back to the council member who offered them the amulet, and uses the blade to cleave the amulet clean in two. Maybe I read too many comic books, but I'd love to see this happen just for the sake of novelty and possibility. But that's just me.

METAL!!!

Seriously, though, that sounds like a movie so bad it is good. I will look for it.

ewancummins wrote:As you say, it is a weird domain. But I really like it.

Yeah I like it a lot too.

As to the rest of the post, I would not forget to add the "living death" as the punishment to citizens who make any violations of the constricting Statutes of l'Morai. There's also the Grand Charter of l'Morai (mentioned on p. 133-134 if interested), which prevents noncitizens (such as freaks) being unable to voice accusations against citizens on their own. And although the Council of l'Morai may interpret the Statues of l'Morai, they must ultimately bow to mobocracy as far as presumption of guilt/innocence in the legal system goes.

The issues with gendermerie of l'Morai and the gunpowder is similar to the issues of the gendermerie of Dementlieu and that it's kind of an edition thing: any gunpowder in 2nd edition is assumed to be magical smokepowder. So I would default to treating l'Morai the same as whatever you do for Dementlieu and other such domains.

As far as the name of landmarks go, to my knowledge the valley was simply referred to as Valley l'Morai, the heathland referred to only as "the black heath", and the forest with all the graves referred to as "the forest of a thousand graves", though those last two were never capitalized or really given proper names.

Encounters: You can probably add centipedes to the encounter list, as the jail cells beneath the Council Hall are described as being infested with them (p. 111-114).

Regarding freaks and demihumans, the pre-rebellion carnival of l'Morai had both dwarves and what was described as ogres. It seems a little bit uncertain how many of these were genuine nonhumans or were just people changed via the living death. A place called Helms Deep (p. 163) is mentioned where the dwarves came from, though where or what this place is uncertain. As far as exotic monsters go, there is an old oliphant cage mentioned in the Carnival of Fear book that seemed a leftover from a time before the Carnival stopped traveling and settled near the City. So I can see the Lion Tamer roping in some nonhumans and exotic creatures from beyond the city, although perhaps in a fashion to augment the main body of freak performers conscripted from the victims of the living death.

Dwarves and ogres could work, yes. They should be either freaks/carnival performers or creatures that hide from mankind in the woods or under the mountains. My impression was that nonhumans in L'Morai are in the Carnival or else would be hunted down and destroyed.

Monstrous centipedes (of tiny size in 3E) or centipede swarms sound like a good fit for the dungeons, sewers, and derelict cellars of L'Morai, and perhaps for the forest floor in certain dark woodland areas.


I could adapt something I developed for a free product, which didn't make word cut. The centipede's venom has a commercial use for perfume makers. 'Pede wranglers hunt the crawlers with sacks, risking bites to collect a bounty.
Instead of a compound used by parfumiers, maybe in L'Morai it is used to flavor cheese or as an ingredient in a particular medicine.

outdoor encounters
common
• stag
• the Heath Patrol or hunters


rare
• fugitive (normal or freak)
• wolf

urban encounters

common
• citizen
• gendarme

rare
• brute squad
• centipede *


* These venomous vermin live in the dungeons under the Council hall, in the sewers, and in abandoned cellars, but occasionally turn up in other places.

GEOGRAPHY
Notes gleaned from skimming the novel again


The city of L'Morai fills two adjacent valleys--through one of which, at least, flows the Vinrouge River. The city is located more than five miles distant from the Carnival site. People walk the Heath Road to get to the Carnival, as not everybody can afford a carriage or a horse, so it's not likely too far.
L'Morai has four of five bridges. It seems to be a large city and impressive-looking, with buildings rising up the slopes of the valley in either side.
Council Hall is fortresslike.
The city has, or had, a college and a library. I imagine it still has these.
The river runs white and roaring even in the heart of the city. Swollen with mountain meltwater or rains of the season (late summer, maybe)?
It seems likely to me that such a strong current would be tapped for power if the locals have the technology do that. If the city sits along a fall line or series of cataracts, maybe there are watermills?


The Heath Road connects the city with the Carnival site. Riders of the Heath Patrol come upon the Marie and her friends as the latter return from the woodland graves early in the morning. Morcastle shades his eyes to see the riders leaving the road and crossing the grass to reach them.
So the woods must be west of the Carnival.

The Carnival is on the heathlands, a region of moors, hills, bogs, grasslands that gives way to a birch forest to the west, an indeterminate distance but not far, as the searchers covered the distance, searched the woods for graves, and returned in a night.

'Valley L'Morai' runs north of the woods. A tarn borders forest and heath on the south.

Hermos passes through the woods and into mountains, then a broad valley, and looks down into part of LM'orai, the city. This means the city is north of the Carnival.
So the Heath Road probably runs more or less north to south. That fits with the description of Morcastle shielding his eyes from the sun as he , Marie, and Hermos return in the early morning after searching the woods, which we know lie to the west. The guards left the road and were coming from the east with the sun behind them, low in the sky.


Page 290 describes the way out of the country. Hermos slips out of the Arena by night and quickly gets to the woods across the heath. He goes south, passing that lake/tarn, down around the rim of a basin, through rocky country to the seacoast. A narrow finger of land with steep sides, about a mile long, spans the sea to a 'broad continent. I'm guessing the latter maybe the Core.

I imagine the whole domain is not very large.

The city must have farms, so those are probably located in the same valleys that hold the settlement. I'd add some hamlets and thorps.


The river must begin and end someplace, although either headwaters or mouth might be lost in the Mists, depending on how the domain is shaped and placed on the map.

What else?

That 'bridge to freedom' was southeast of the Carnival, as Hermos made the final hill ascent toward the pinking sky when he caught sight of the sea and the way across.
This suggests the lands of L'Morai are a sort of mountain and plateau/upland dominated peninsula somewhere along the western side of the Core. The Sea may be the Sea of Sorrows.


This is assuming one interprets the unnamed continent as the Core. It could be something else. The Core is pretty small in most versions.

I'll need to enlage this domain a bit.

L'Morai had its own calendar, with 1693 seeming to match up with 740 of the Barovian Calendar, based upon Carnival's given date of Hermos and the freaks' arrival in Darkon:

http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/wiki ... i_Calendar

Regarding your talk about the Lion Tamer gathering nonhumans for exhibition, I found a reference on pg. 2-3 where domestic/native demihumans were, as of the time of Joron Cygne, considered "wild fair folk" to be exterminated and/or caught up and locked in cages to be put on display in freak shows, though foreign, "civilized" demihumans like Ferin Irongrod might be tolerated if they had appropriate skill to offer. So there you have some in character motivation/rationalization for why it's justifiable to the people of L'Morai to lock up nonhumans and put them on show.

An option could include the Puppetmaster, roaming the core after the Carnival, wishing to take it back into his grip.

A burned charred black creature, 8' tall and very thin.

Joël of the FoS wrote:An option could include the Puppetmaster, roaming the core after the Carnival, wishing to take it back into his grip.

A burned charred black creature, 8' tall and very thin.

Interesting idea- I could see the Puppetmaster being banished from the Council until he got back the escapees. However, recapturing them (and beating Isolde) might be an uphill battle considering it's something the Falkovnian military couldn't do. I imagine the Puppetmaster would have to spend a considerable amount of time making allies, building up schemes, and gathering resources for such a coup- a Puppetmaster-Gentleman Caller team-up in scheming could be quite insidious.

IMO Juron Cygne is the true Darklord of L'Morai. The later council members are powerful undead that he can control when he so wills it, which isn't often, as it takes effort and he can do so to only one at a time. Unlike most undead they have no real hatred towards living beings, particularly freaks. There is a circular pattern. The freaks rise up and either escape to the Mists or die, The citizens will eventually riot as there is no carnival, the Statues of l'Morai are wiped from the books except for very few crimes such as murder and rape, every week at least one new law is passed. The number of laws and freaks keep climbing until the next cycle. All those who wear are unaging, undying members of the council. Blind Marie is a member of the council . Although Hermos "killed" her she arose again the next day. The person who found the pendent will be compelled to give it back to Marie after the next person is turned into a freak as she is the new Carnival Master.