Noces lyonnaises
Noces lyonnaises (Lyonnais Weddings) is a mini-campaign for the 6th edition of L'Appel de Cthulhu from Sans-Détour.
Details
Author: Thomas Berthier
Appears in: Les mystères de Lyon
Comments / Trivia
Links
Reviews (in French)
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Synopsis
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The background of the mini-campaign concerns a cult to Shub-Niggurath that has existed at the site of Lyon, France, for millennia. Centered on a shrine hidden in the middle of an underground lake within a hill called Fourvière, the goddess has been worshipped in Lyon under various masks, from the Gallish goddess Lug to the Virgin Mary once the Catholics erected a basilica atop the hill. Shub-Niggurath's influence has spread over Lyon thanks to her devotees, who have infiltrated the religious life of the city, including the practice of Spiritism, for which Lyon is the headquarters in France.
However, since Roman times, the Dark Mother's cult has gained competition from other groups who seek to stop the worship of the Dark Goat of the Woods, or else to effect dark rituals that will allow them to unite their own dark gods with her. At the dawn of the 1930s, two of the major rivals to Shub-Niggurath's cult are the Ophites and the Mopses, the former devoted to Yig and the later to the Horned Man, an avatar of Nyarlathotep. Both cults know that in 1930, the stars will be right for them to attempt to stop Shub-Niggurath or unite her with their gods, ending her monopoly over Lyon. However, they are not sure of the precise date or the details of how these rituals must be conducted.
However, their fortunes change with a 15th century book known as l'Elucidaire, written by an astrologer named Simon de Phares, surfaces (after having been kept under wraps by the followers of Shub-Niggurath). Although divided into three sections, the cultists know that the second and third contain magical rituals that will help them accomplish their goals. So when the historian André Morin organizes a conference in the fall of 1930, promising to reveal the secrets of the book, the Mopses and the Ophite strike to get their hands on the manuscript themselves. Meanwhile, Jean Cabrillon, leader of Shub-Niggurath's Lyonnais cult, stands by and lets his rivals make themselves known so he can target them once and for all.
The campaign consists of four scenarios. The first and last scenarios cannot be moved by default, but the second and third scenarios may be played in either order. The first scenario sends the investigators to André Morin's conference on l'Elucidaire. However, rather than revealing the contents of the missing chapters of Simon de Phare's book, the academic instead claims the chapters were never written and then excuses himself from the stage. The investigators try to find out why Morin got cold feet, and in the process discover that the historian had actually gone missing a full week before, paranoid he was being followed. They eventually make the acquaintance of Jean Cabrillon, a rich man who owned the missing chapters before allowing Morin to consult them. The chapters, too, have gone missing according to Cabrillon; he accordingly sets the investigators on the trail of two cults that Cabrillon says are likely behind the theft: the Ophites and the Mopses.
The next two scenarios send the investigators after these two Lyonnais cults. In "Ouroboros," they discover that the Ophites are serpent worshippers. But things are kicked into high gear when a young medium named Pierre Corbin is kidnapped, leaving behind a drawing of an enormous serpent based on a vision he had. Meanwhile, Jean Cabrillon receives an invitation from Bernard Guivre, an antiquarian and centenarian who specializes in Central American objects. The invitation says that Guivre will soon bestow his fortune on his grandson, a young man no one knew existed until that point. The investigators eventually infiltrate the Ophites, discovering that Guivre is their leader. The investigators must rescue Pierre Corbin from being sacrificed to Yig in a ceremony that will restore Bernard Guivre's lost youth (after which he will reenter Lyonnais society as his "grandson").
Infiltrating the Mopses is much more straightforward: The group, once a secret society, has recently burst onto the scene in Lyon by throwing extravagant parties to which anyone may be invited. The investigators convince someone to invite them to one of these soirées, where they learn that there are higher levels within the group that grant access to private events and hidden knowledge. The investigators either work their way up through the ranks of the group, or they locate some members how left months before for mysterious reasons. Ultimately, they discover that the organization worships the Horned Man at debauched sabbaths in the woods at which they sacrifice infants. The investigators must stop them before they strike again.
After stopping the Ophites and the Mopses, the investigators also recover the lost sections of l'Elucidaire. Yet nightmares and strange events in Lyon near the Fourvière hill suggest that something is afoot. Nevertheless, Jean Cabrillon invites the investigators to his daughter's wedding. There they start to suspect something strange is brewing. Indeed, they learn that Cabrillon and his cohorts plan to conduct a ritual to Shub-Niggurath deep in the bowels of Fourvière hill that will see Cabrillon's daughter sacrifice her new husband to Shub-Niggurath. In the bargain, Jean Cabrillon will have his own vitality restored while Shub-Niggurath's power will grow even more potent. The investigators must thus locate the temple in time to stop the bloody ritual and to prevent the dark goddess from getting an even stronger grip over Lyon.
The campaign provides some guidance for how to proceed if the investigators fail one or more of the individual scenarios, or if they only manage to weaken rather than wipe out the cults. Nevertheless, the climax is always supposed to happen in the underground temple to Shub-Niggurath, even if the ceremony there is one of Union (between Shub-Niggurath and either Yig or Nyarlathotep) rather than a simple summoning of the Dark Goat of the Wood.
Scenarios
- Les écrits perdus de Simon de Phares [The lost writings of Simon de Phares]
- Ouroboros
- Sabbats mondains [High Society Sabbaths]
- Devant l'autel de la Grande Mère [Before the Altar of the Great Mother]
