The cold January air of Paris carried with it the scent of decay and institutional disinfectant as the investigators stood before the imposing facade of the Maison Nationale de Santé—the Charenton Asylum. Its Italian-style architecture loomed against the grey sky, windows like empty eyes watching their approach. Somewhere within these walls, over a century ago, the Comte Fenalik had been confined for crimes that even now defied proper description.

Arthur Zorba’s scarred face remained impassive as they entered through the visitor’s entrance, though his fingers unconsciously traced the shrapnel marks on his cheek—a nervous habit that had developed since their encounter with the withered roses and that grotesque marble limb. The receptionist’s polite French did little to ease the oppressive atmosphere that seemed to press down upon them like a physical weight.

Per Oskarson had prepared meticulously for this meeting, his letter of introduction from University College London clutched in his hand like a talisman. The Swedish scholar’s decades of experience with the supernatural had taught him to recognize the signs of places touched by darkness, and this asylum reeked of it. When they were led through corridors that echoed with distant, muffled sounds—screams or laughter, it was impossible to tell—he noted how the newer administrative wing tried desperately to mask the ancient malevolence that seeped from the older sections of the building.

The waiting room of the director’s office presented a facade of normalcy with its psychological texts and professional atmosphere. Yet Arthur’s keen eye caught something amiss—open crates filled with the detritus of a dead man’s career, including a journal bearing Dr. Delplace’s name. While Per attempted to engage the formidable Madame Regnat in conversation, Arthur’s fingers worked with the precision of his military training, liberating the journal from its temporary resting place.

Dr. François Leroux emerged from the inner office like a spider from its web, and Per felt his skin crawl at the sight of him. There was something fundamentally wrong about the man—beyond the unseemly haste with which he had claimed his predecessor’s position. His thick glasses reflected the light in a way that obscured his eyes, and when Per mentioned Comte Fenalik’s name, the temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees.

The meeting was a disaster. Per’s carefully rehearsed arguments crumbled under Leroux’s icy scrutiny. Each attempt to persuade, to establish credibility, to gain access to the archives met with increasingly hostile resistance. It was as if the asylum itself was rejecting them, expelling them like foreign bodies from a diseased organism. As they were escorted out—past the secretary’s knowing smirk, through corridors that now seemed to stretch longer than before—Per couldn’t shake the feeling that they had narrowly escaped something far worse than mere rejection.

Outside, Arthur produced the stolen journal with grim satisfaction. Under the grey Parisian sky, he translated Delplace’s final entries, his voice growing increasingly strained as the horror of the words became clear. The neat, clinical French dissolved into barely coherent scrawls describing Guimart—found by the nurse Mandrin in an unspeakable state, dying with his right arm bearing wounds that defied medical explanation. The final entry, dated mere days before Delplace’s death, spoke of “ancestral memories awakening” and “the simulacrum asserting its will through flesh.”

The shift change at the asylum provided unexpected opportunity. Among the stream of exhausted orderlies and nurses fleeing their daily confrontation with madness, Arthur’s practiced eye picked out a man whose fresh facial wounds marked him as different. Paul Mandrin moved like one haunted, seeking solace in cheap wine at a nearby café.

Walter Lake approached with the confidence of his calling, his clerical collar a beacon of supposed comfort in the gathering darkness. Through Arthur’s translation, they wove a web of half-truths and genuine concern, plying Mandrin with good wine and sympathetic ears. The nurse’s resistance crumbled as the alcohol loosened his tongue, revealing a tale that confirmed their darkest suspicions.

An orderly, found bleeding to death from impossible wounds to his right arm. A man who had since fallen into a catatonia that resembled no known medical condition. And throughout Mandrin’s rambling account, one phrase repeated like a litany: “There may be demons in this building.”

As the wine bottles emptied and the café’s warmth became oppressive, Walter’s suggestion of an exorcism found purchase in Mandrin’s desperate mind. The nurse, seeking any explanation for the horrors he had witnessed, agreed to smuggle them into the asylum under cover of darkness.

The sun was setting as they made their preparations, casting long shadows across the Parisian streets. The asylum waited for them, its windows now glowing like eyes in the dying light. Whatever had happened to the orderly—whatever connection existed between his wounds and the marble arm they had recovered from beneath the Lorien estate—they would soon discover.

And in the depths of that ancient institution, where the mad Marquis de Sade had once been confined, where Comte Fenalik had spent his final years raving about living statues and cosmic horrors, something stirred in anticipation of their return.

Session Notes

Session Notes - Horror on the Orient Express

Recap of Previous Events

  • In the Lorien backyard, Arthur Zorba stood apart from the group, chain-smoking and refusing to look back at the subterranean horror of the lost catacombs
  • Arthur busied himself building a crate to avoid returning below
  • The group’s goal was to extract a human-sized stone arm tangled in glowing roses dripping with black ichor, likely part of the cursed simulacrum
  • Arthur remained above while Per, Viola, Claire, and Walter descended to the catacombs
  • The roses pulsed faintly with dread
  • Claire used a looped rope to catch the arm and freed it with firm tugs
  • Once freed, the roses withered, their glow faded, and the crypt plunged into darkness
  • The arm was secured in Arthur’s crate and felt unnaturally heavy and oppressive
  • Viola insisted on carrying it, reasoning that if it affected her like it affected Arthur, she would be the least threat to the group
  • When Christian Lorien asked questions, Arthur and Viola offered half-truths and urged him not to descend
  • Christian’s curiosity won out - when guided below, he found the crypt transformed with its once-living roots limp and dead
  • Christian agreed that some truths were best left buried

Return to Paris

  • Back in Paris, normalcy felt brittle
  • The crate containing the arm was hidden in their hotel
  • The investigators regrouped with Remy and Etienne
  • Remy and Etienne had engaged in socialist protests the previous day where another student was shot by police
  • They had tracked down material at the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal - records of the raid on Fenalik’s estate and its aftermath
  • A manifest of valuable art from the estate mentioned a sculpture of the human form, damaged during removal from the cellar below the manor
  • The Comte Fenalik himself was noted as imprisoned in the Charenton Asylum in Paris
  • An obituary from January 8th in La Croix newspaper revealed Dr. Etienne Delplace, director of the asylum, had recently passed away

Knowledge About the Asylum and Dr. Delplace

  • Arthur had never heard of Dr. Delplace despite the obituary claiming he was world-renowned
  • Claire had maybe heard the name but had no detailed knowledge
  • Walter, with his psychoanalysis background, knew of Delplace and the Charenton Asylum
    • Charenton was a well-known, well-regarded asylum in Paris
    • Applied state-of-the-art knowledge for helping the mentally ill
    • Had a fairly good rate of healing patients, especially those who could pay
    • The asylum was hundreds of years old (last home of Marquis de Sade)
  • Per, being in the psychology field, was familiar with Delplace’s work
    • Delplace did research trying new techniques that may not have strong scientific support
    • Used electroshock therapy and behavioral treatments
    • Had interest in ancestral memory to help people recover
    • Not wildly out of line with contemporary norms
    • Published about 70% cure rate for paying private clients
    • Per suspected there was a nice part and not-nice part of the asylum

The Devil’s Simulare

  • Per mentioned still hoping to find a copy of this 13th century manuscript
  • It was an illuminated manuscript in Latin written by an anonymous Cistercian monk around 1260
  • Later bound as a book in Venice in 1505
  • Considered apocrypha and the work of a mad priest, not good Christian text
  • The only known copy is kept in the church of St. Maria Celeste in Venice

Visit to Charenton Asylum

  • The group decided to visit the asylum (Maison Nationale de Santé)
  • It was an enormous structure in Italian style on large grounds
  • They entered through a visitor’s entrance and met a receptionist
  • Arthur introduced Per Oskarson to the receptionist in French
  • Per explained he was doing historical research on the case of Comte Fenalik
  • The receptionist said approval was needed from the director
  • They were led upstairs to wait for the acting director
  • In the waiting room, they noticed:
    • The director’s nameplate had been removed from the door
    • Several open crates containing books and items from the previous director’s office
    • The secretary, Madame Runyar, was bulky, wore glasses, and watched them icily
  • Arthur attempted to snoop in the crates (barely succeeded with 6 luck spent)
  • He spotted “Journal of Dr. Delplace” at the top of one crate
  • Per attempted to distract the secretary with poor French while Arthur used stealth
  • Arthur successfully filched the journal and put it in his overcoat pocket

Meeting with Acting Director François Leroux

  • Dr. Leroux appeared - late 50s/early 60s, thick glasses, balding
  • Per explained his research into historical cases of extreme mental illness
  • Specifically interested in Comte Fenalik, committed in 1789
  • Per attempted psychology roll to read Leroux (failed badly)
  • Leroux grew uncomfortable with Per’s staring
  • Leroux refused access to the archives, citing privacy concerns for families and descendants
  • Per presented a letter of introduction from University College London
  • Per failed persuade roll, then pushed and critically failed
  • Leroux became insulted and escorted them out of the building

Reading Delplace’s Journal

  • Back at the hotel, Arthur translated the journal for the group
  • January 3rd entry: “I think he can hear me through the walls. I know that this is a fantasy, but when I lie in my bed, I can hear him calling to me”
  • January 4th entry: “I know that there is something wrong with room 13. But how can I prove it? How can I tell the board?”
  • Journal was only half full, presumably his last one
  • First mention of someone named Guimart

Planning Next Steps

  • The group discussed various approaches:
    • Breaking in at night
    • Forging paperwork to visit a patient
    • Getting someone committed to gain inside access
    • Bribing staff members
    • Finding staff outside work hours
  • Walter made an idea roll (succeeded) and thought of:
    • Forging paperwork from a patient’s family
    • Getting someone committed (easy to do, harder to get out)
    • Pursuing staff outside work hours for information

Finding Paul Mandrin

  • The group waited outside the asylum for shift change
  • Arthur spotted a worried-looking orderly with a fresh scar on his face
  • The man went straight to a café across the street and ordered wine
  • No one was seen with obvious right arm injuries
  • Arthur and Walter approached the man
  • Arthur brought a nicer bottle of wine to share
  • The man introduced himself as Paul Mandrin (the nurse who found Guimart)
  • Mandrin revealed:
    • He’d been injured by a violent patient last week
    • He recently found an orderly terribly injured and bleeding to death from his arm
    • The injured orderly would have died if not found
    • The orderly had gone mad and was now incommunicative
    • The orderly was now a patient but no one could speak with him
  • Walter suggested the orderly might be possessed by demons
  • Offered to perform an exorcism as a certified exorcist
  • Both Arthur and Walter failed charm rolls
  • Despite failures, Mandrin was convinced to let them in
  • Mandrin expressed he didn’t want to work there anymore after this incident
  • He agreed to let them into the asylum