Sadly, once more, the notes remaining in the Archive for this Chapter are very limited but my research has unearthed a surviving daguerreotype.
Chapter seven.
A fine night in gay Paris!
In which a House Warming Party includes Games of, Squeak Piggy Squeak, The Emperor’s Cat and Hunt the Boggart!
Dramatis Personae:
From Left to Right:
Inspector Jurgen Scheuringer - A Detective from Homburg
Leutnant Maximilian von Ström, of the Austro-Hungarian Lancers
Madame Coffin-Chevalier - A French Lady
Frau Elsa Berg - An Nursing Austrian Sister of the Order of Cassandra
Baron Friedrich von Dunkelheim - A Viennese Art Historian & Famed Mountaineer
Katerina, Grafin (Countess) von Ulmfeld from Bavaria
Ruprecht , Ritter von Schlan, of the Austro-Hungarian Diplomatic Corps
Lady Louisa Fitzgerald - A British Widow & Traveller
Louis LeBrun - A French Inventor
Madame Marie-Louise LeBrun - A French Seamstress & Louis's Cousin
Also present but not pictured in the daguerreotype were
:
Captain Alan Horatio Montgomery - A British Steamship Captain
Captain Kenneth Campbell, of the British Black Watch regiment
Lady Power O’Donahue - An Anglo-Irish Adventuress
October 31st 1871
The Countess shocked many of her acquaintances by selling off the remainder of her Deceased Husband’s estates. This gave her enough available assets to purchase a more suitable, and hopefully safer, new home for herself and Erich. After examining Many Properties, she settled on a large, well-appointed town house on the newly re-furbished Boulevard St. Mjchel in Gay Paris.
Many friends attended the elegant House Warming dinner party held by the Countess. Throughout the evening, there were intermittent loud clatterings and shouts from the kitchen. Finally, the somewhat volatile French cook ran out of the kitchen screaming and vowing never to return. Sadly, this meant that the evening’s sumptuous meal was left without a dessert!
Other strange goings-on occurred, such as the walls suddenly started dripping with damp and the candles kept blowing out when there was no draught.
Eventually, the source of these and the kitchen mishaps were traced to a boggart who had moved into the premises whilst they were vacant.
Despite all of this commotion, the Countess and her guests pluckily continued with rounds of party games. ‘Squeak Piggy, Squeak’ proved most popular, largely as it involved several of the Ladies sitting on the laps of the Gentleman. Of course, a strategically placed cushion prevented any social embarrassment, as the Countess pointed out, “We may be in Gay Paris, but some standards must be kept!”.
The following day, after a night disturbed by bangings, creakings, water-filled pans above doorways, flying crockery and broken chamberpots, the guests set about removing the Boggart from the premises. They dressed with their clothes inside out, and when one of the maid’s returned from the Ironmongers, they scattered Iron Filings in many nooks and cranny throughout the house. All of this was enough to send the Boggart fleeing out into the street muttering dark words about Mistreatment and Revenge.
Host’s notes:
This Chapter ran in Autumn 1997 as an In-Character Dinner Party and was expanded with a single follow-up tabletop session expanding themes that had been brought up at the party.
Worthy of High Merit: Me, for surviving the verbal onslaught of the assembled company when it was discovered that due to an administrational cock-up (or the interference of a Boggart), I had brought another savoury dish when I was delegated to bring the dessert!
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