Author Topic: "Friends and Countrymen" [Pinned up notices]  (Read 2333 times)

Le murmure

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"Friends and Countrymen" [Pinned up notices]
« on: July 21, 2016, 05:35:28 PM »
"Found pinned up around Port-a-lucine, dotting the various alleys and streets of the city, as well as the mist camp. hanging upon the tree, these notices begin to appear"

 "Friends and countrymen:

I have both seen a pair of horrible phantasms haunting our fair republic. One lurks without, whilst another lurks within. The one without? The detestable regime of the tyrant-king Vlad Drakov. The one within? Corruption.

My trial was presided over by a magistrate named Gaston de la Vigne. I imagine most of you are unfamiliar with this magistrate’s exploits, so allow me to elucidate. Whenever there was a custody hearing concerning a pair of orphaned children (they are now in the care of Elias and Tabitha Cal’Raheal), Gaston de la Vigne had the gall to solicit a bribe from me. I gave him not a single solar, and even brought up what happened to the man who appoints magistrates all over Dementlieu, Councilor Dominic D’Honaire – alas, my complaint fell on deaf ears.

Personally, I find it remarkably convenient that the same magistrate I condemned for crookedness was picked to preside over my ‘trial’, if you can call it that.  Even more convenient, the prosecution was headed up by none other than the Vicomte de Roissy. So why did I plead guilty to the charges they brought forward? Why did I say my claims to the title of Baron de Corbie and Viscount de Valais were falsified, when in actuality, nothing could be further from the truth? The answer, my friends, is a simple one.
It was made clear to me in the gaol of the Gendarmerie that I would either plead guilty to the charges brought before me, or I would feel Madame Guillotine’s cold embrace. The prosecution had no evidence to present at that trial, because they did not need evidence. The magistrate was already a purchased man, the verdict a foregone conclusion. In order to escape with my life, I had to forsake my birthright.

In the courtroom, they called what I did not only ‘treasonous’, but antithetical to what the republic stands for. What, then, does it stand for? Who, then, is the model aristocrat? The Vicomte de Roissy? Let me tell you some interesting facts about the Vicomte de Roissy, things you might not have been aware of.

Before my trial, he let Magda, his so-called ‘bodyguard’ and mistress, a woman who was not a part of either the Gendarmerie or the Company of the Fox, down into the jails, so that she could thrash a man who was later released without being charged with any crime. He disobeyed direct orders coming from the Council of Brilliance during the Chateau de Chantres campaign, smuggling the children of the dissident lord across the border into his homeland of Richemulot instead of seeing them delivered to Port-a-Lucine. He stood idly by while a Darkonian woman named Vera, who was his friend, beat up a man who was born and raised in Port-a-Lucine. He has permitted caliban and foreigners to roam the streets uncontested, allowing them to enter the Gendarmerie and perform the duties of the gendarme.

I am no pretender. I am the son of Ernest Voclain, bastard of Leon de Coursay, and son to Marceline Voclain, distant relative of the former Vicomte, Vincente de Valais. A conspiracy most foul sought to strip me of my power, and perhaps the conspirators have succeeded in doing that. But they have not stripped you of your power, of your agency.
You must take your country back!


« Last Edit: July 21, 2016, 05:37:27 PM by Le murmure »

Delete Me

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Re: "Friends and Countrymen" [Pinned up notices]
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2016, 07:49:24 PM »
[These notices have been.. noticably removed, leaving nothing but a shred to whatever they were nailed to, remaining. ]
Delete Me.

Le murmure

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Re: "Friends and Countrymen" [Pinned up notices]
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2016, 04:01:59 AM »
"Found in Port-a-lucine"
[As night falls across the city, the notices which have been stripped are replaced, more numerous and in greater quantities, in every nook and cranny.]

Le murmure

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Re: "Friends and Countrymen" [Pinned up notices]
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2016, 05:15:15 AM »
"These flyers begin to appear even as far as Barovia, from the Village to Vallaki itself, more are also replaced in the mist camp"

 "Friends and countrymen:

I have both seen a pair of horrible phantasms haunting our fair republic. One lurks without, whilst another lurks within. The one without? The detestable regime of the tyrant-king Vlad Drakov. The one within? Corruption.

My trial was presided over by a magistrate named Gaston de la Vigne. I imagine most of you are unfamiliar with this magistrate’s exploits, so allow me to elucidate. Whenever there was a custody hearing concerning a pair of orphaned children (they are now in the care of Elias and Tabitha Cal’Raheal), Gaston de la Vigne had the gall to solicit a bribe from me. I gave him not a single solar, and even brought up what happened to the man who appoints magistrates all over Dementlieu, Councilor Dominic D’Honaire – alas, my complaint fell on deaf ears.

Personally, I find it remarkably convenient that the same magistrate I condemned for crookedness was picked to preside over my ‘trial’, if you can call it that.  Even more convenient, the prosecution was headed up by none other than the Vicomte de Roissy. So why did I plead guilty to the charges they brought forward? Why did I say my claims to the title of Baron de Corbie and Viscount de Valais were falsified, when in actuality, nothing could be further from the truth? The answer, my friends, is a simple one.
It was made clear to me in the gaol of the Gendarmerie that I would either plead guilty to the charges brought before me, or I would feel Madame Guillotine’s cold embrace. The prosecution had no evidence to present at that trial, because they did not need evidence. The magistrate was already a purchased man, the verdict a foregone conclusion. In order to escape with my life, I had to forsake my birthright.

In the courtroom, they called what I did not only ‘treasonous’, but antithetical to what the republic stands for. What, then, does it stand for? Who, then, is the model aristocrat? The Vicomte de Roissy? Let me tell you some interesting facts about the Vicomte de Roissy, things you might not have been aware of.

Before my trial, he let Magda, his so-called ‘bodyguard’ and mistress, a woman who was not a part of either the Gendarmerie or the Company of the Fox, down into the jails, so that she could thrash a man who was later released without being charged with any crime. He disobeyed direct orders coming from the Council of Brilliance during the Chateau de Chantres campaign, smuggling the children of the dissident lord across the border into his homeland of Richemulot instead of seeing them delivered to Port-a-Lucine. He stood idly by while a Darkonian woman named Vera, who was his friend, beat up a man who was born and raised in Port-a-Lucine. He has permitted caliban and foreigners to roam the streets uncontested, allowing them to enter the Gendarmerie and perform the duties of the gendarme.

I am no pretender. I am the son of Ernest Voclain, bastard of Leon de Coursay, and son to Marceline Voclain, distant relative of the former Vicomte, Vincente de Valais. A conspiracy most foul sought to strip me of my power, and perhaps the conspirators have succeeded in doing that. But they have not stripped you of your power, of your agency.
You must take your country back!



LeviShultz

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Re: "Friends and Countrymen" [Pinned up notices]
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2016, 12:57:09 PM »
[Passersby happening upon the Vistani encampment within the mist might see a man, in a long, blue military jacket, removing many of these notices. Else where, such as the Tser pool of Barovia, these flyers seem to have blown away...or were removed by unseen hands]   

"A no wisdom ranger is literally unwise."

Calliope

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Re: "Friends and Countrymen" [Pinned up notices]
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2016, 02:45:43 PM »
[In the streets between the Governors Hotel and the Theatre de la Cathedrale, several such posters are defaced by a single Mordentish word: "Liar!"]


Just the bang and the clatter as an angel hits the ground

Le murmure

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Re: "Friends and Countrymen" [Pinned up notices]
« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2016, 05:59:00 AM »
[Once more the notices find themselves refreshed within Port-a-lucine, speaking of corruption and betrayal most foul. Foreigners
given power over the Dementlieuse people, their own beaten in the streets by a Darkonian, prisoners by a Barovian. The flyers
find themselves scattered once more to alleys and along streets, as night fell none were seen, but when the sun began to rise
once again, they appeared.]

Song of Danta

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Re: "Friends and Countrymen" [Pinned up notices]
« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2016, 09:43:18 AM »
Rather than the flyers being torn down, they are given some company in the form of a short story. It reads as though it was meant for children. One might assume that it was written by a father, or a caretaker to children, in fact...

Quote
THE TALE OF ANSELME VOCLAIN

Once upon a time, there was a fat man named Anselme Voclain.

Anselme loved spices. Anselme loved fine wine. Anselme loved coins. But most of all, Anselme loved himself.

He talked so loud and so long about himself and how great he was that people were afraid to to put a silencing apple in his piggy little mouth.

One day, he decided that he was so wonderful, and so genius that he deserved a title of nobility. So, off to court he went to ask the council to make him a baron. The men of the court asked for proof.

Anselme ranted! He raved! He hollered! He howled!

The judges were afraid of being hit in the head by a wayward sack of coins, and so, Anselme was named a baron.

Overnight, the baron found that many people loved him as much as he loved himself! Ladies fell in love with his wealth and power him, and men wanted to impress him. He told lots of nice stories to anyone who would listen. About the injustices he had suffered. About how the people in power were bringing the city to ruin.
People were afraid of making the baron angry, even if they knew that he was spouting nonsense.

When the baron got angry, it was like watching a little boy throwing a tantrum.
He would rant! He would rave! He would holler! He would howl!

Nobody would ever do anything to stop him because they were afraid that he would hurt their families or take their coin if they spoke up.

The baron got more coin and more power.

One day, some good and just people in the city were able to prove that he had been lying about his claim to nobility.
They didn't rant! They didn't rave! They didn't holler! They didn't howl!
Anselme was publicly disgraced, and everything had was taken from him.

But he still wouldn't shut up!

He couldn't be seen any more, so instead, he wrote. He wrote his rants. He wrote his raving. Nobody really cared, though, because instead of doing anything useful, Anselme was whining like a sissy girl.

The people laughed. They giggled. They clapped. They jeered.

After a month of this, Anselme was offered employment in a circus troupe on the part of his comedic success. He left the country, and to this day, blows his tail all around the circus rink, and imitates a honking sow in heat perfectly.

THE END
« Last Edit: July 23, 2016, 11:04:24 AM by Danta »

Le murmure

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Re: "Friends and Countrymen" [Pinned up notices]
« Reply #8 on: July 24, 2016, 04:44:58 AM »
[Once more as darkness descends, new flyers are revealed to the public, appearing through the Quartier Publique, the Quartier Marchand, The Ouvrier and the Quartier Savant, speaking of the Vicomte de Roissy's love of foreigners over his own people, and the heinous crimes he allows them to escape with.]

They say you can judge a man easily, based on the company they keep. So what does the company the Vicomte de Roissy keeps say about him?

While it remains something of an open secret from most, the Vicomte de Roissy keeps on a retainer, a man by the name of Cyrus Gallant. This man, whom you will note is auctioning goods today without any sort of permit or written agreement in our fair city, has been given carte-blanche to do as he pleases by the Vicomte, including but not limited to selling items the common-folk in Dementlieu would be arrested for, stomping around the city in plate-mail, dressed in a manner befitting a brute, and most heinous of all, cold-blooded murder in the name of his foreign and outlandish deity. Not Ezra, or anything the Dementlieuse people might be capable of relating to, but instead to a faith originating from beyond the Mists – the only thing to which he answers to.

You see, a man by the name of Arthur Greenworth decided to visit fair Port-a-Lucine on business. Rumor had it that this man was none other than Elric Wilcus, a despicable man who performed foul acts, many of them associated with the dark arts, in the name of his own foul and debased faith. Rather than see this man arrested, questioned, and then put on trial, the Vicomte de Roissy elected to have this vigilante claim Elric Wilcus’ life, in full view of a crowd of people in the Bullseye. You see, the Vicomte de Roissy only cares for the rule of law whenever it happens to suit him. Otherwise, he tasks a ruthless killer with butchering them, in front of a throng of horrified citizens. For now, the Vicomte de Roissy has not turned this dangerous fanatic on the people of Port-a-Lucine, but all the control the Vicomte believes he has over the man, one can only keep hold of a mad dog on a leash for so long. I have known for some time that Cyrus Gallant has wanted to claim my life over the ‘despicable’ and ‘evil’ acts I have committed. Monsieur, I certainly invite you to try, and prove to all what you are – a simple-minded zealot, with no place in polite society.

But he’s far from the only one who has been allowed a place in Port-a-Lucine for too long – Magda, the ‘bodyguard’ of the Vicomte de Roissy, has, since her arrival in Port-a-Lucine, been nothing more than a blackguard and a bully. I have personally witnessed her threaten countless individuals, many of them men of integrity, men of honor. They could be high-born or of common birth, it did not matter to them. Yet for some curious reason, the Gendarmerie seem to turn a blind eye to what she does. Just how many men and women have met their end at the hand of Juste’s uncouth Barovian lover? We honestly may never know.

What, then, of the newest addition to House Marceaux? What can we say of the hideous creature that is Vera, the Vicomte de Roissy’s newest retainer? Freakish eyes, and skin that shines when the sunlight hits it? The woman has claws, and yet for some reason, this woman is chosen to serve one of the most ‘prestigious’ houses in Dementlieu. Let it not be forgotten that this woman’s former place of employment was at Club Envie, a house-of-ill-repute. Let it not be forgotten that this woman’s values fly in the face of what is proper.

How do the aristocrats of this city live with themselves? Those of you who genuflect when the Vicomte de Roissy walks by and yet spit on my name, know that I am not the pretender – rather, it is YOU! The people are not fools, and they see through this charade. Know that in time, I shall be vindicated, as House Marceaux collapses likes like the house of cards it always was.

~ Anselme de Coursay, the true Baron de Corbie and Vicomte de Valais

P.S.: I find it amusing that whoever wrote that little tale attached to some of my flyers felt the need to write in the style of a children’s bedtime story. What does it say when the aristocrats of this city, most of them too cowardly to leave their name below what they’ve written, treat those lesser than they like errant children in need of constant babysitting, instead of as fellow citizens with needs and concerns?
« Last Edit: July 24, 2016, 06:52:03 AM by Le murmure »

Bellerose

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Re: "Friends and Countrymen" [Pinned up notices]
« Reply #9 on: July 24, 2016, 10:46:37 AM »
-The notes have withered away-
« Last Edit: April 16, 2017, 10:40:34 PM by Journaliste »

Le murmure

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Re: "Friends and Countrymen" [Pinned up notices]
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2016, 04:03:58 PM »
[The notices from Anselme find themselves refreshed, around the coastal city]
« Last Edit: July 25, 2016, 04:06:13 PM by Le murmure »