The Café of the Broken Heart

A Dreamhounds of Paris scenario seed by Adam Gauntlett

In which the Surrealists must decide whether a friend is worth going to the wall for.

This scenario, and the character of Achille Flamant, is inspired by stories that first appeared in Leonard Merrick’s A Chair on the Boulevard, published 1921, available via Project Gutenberg.

A Card Arrives

Each Surrealist receives a cabinet card, a photographic portrait card with personal information on the reverse, usually given to introduce someone. The photograph is an uninspired copy of Man Ray’s work, and the reverse has the following inscribed:

Monsieur Achille Flamant, Artist

Forewarns you of the

Death of His Career

The Internment will take place at the

Café of the Broken Heart

On December 31st.

Valedictory N.B. – A sympathetic costume. Victuals will be appreciated. 7 p.m.

The characters recognize the name. Achille Flamant is the son of a rentier, a bourgeoisie who lives on his investments, who has subsidized his son’s artistic adventures. The father’s patience has run out. Now the boy must go to work as a secretary for one of his father’s friends.

Flamant is not a strong talent, and never has been. Andre Breton expelled him from the movement some time ago, accusing him of sympathizing with capitalists and desiring material success, rather than artistic merit. This is true, as far as it goes; Flamant’s father insists on material success, and Achille is too weak-willed to resist. There were some who regretted it, as Achille is a pleasant young man, but no amount of pleasantry excuses lack of talent. There is no silk purse to be made out of this sow’s ear.

The Café of the Broken Heart, near the Cemetery of Montmartre, is a homely little place with an impressive collection of funerary art, photographs of funeral parades, and ephemera that (Cthulhu Mythos, 1 point clue) is reminiscent of ghoulish found object art. It is owned and operated by M. Pitou, a man of exceeding height and mournful expression, who is himself part ghoul – a fact known to very few.

Attendance Is Not Mandatory

Dreamhounds who do not attend move straight to the House of Suicides scene. Their lack of attendance drives Flamant to despair, and he relinquishes his artistic ambitions, and his life, altogether. This creates the dreamscape Rue Sombre, where Flamant’s dream finally dies. The next time they see him will be at the House of Suicides, now a permanent Dreamlands locale, with Flamant swinging from the rafters with the rest of the Putrefacto.

An Evening at the Broken Heart

A scattering of surrealists and fringe members show up, bearing food, mostly out of curiosity. Potential instability loss 3, fraternizing with an expelled surrealist. Salvador Dali is the only one of the core group who attends, mostly out of curiosity, and if the Dreamhounds weren’t there his attendance would be very brief – assuming Dali is not being played by one of the group.

Dali suspects that something’s up with Flamant. “He seems almost … inspired, tonight. I doubt he’ll ever be a talent, but this threat hanging over him fans the flame – such a little spark, it is.”

Flamant’s behavior at the gathering is serene, a new calmness having taken possession of him. He is dressed in his best, and spends much of the evening making presents of his possessions, giving away his favorite books, art, and other things. Those with Evidence Collection, Medicine or similar might guess that Flamant contemplates suicide, and is preparing for the end.

  1. Pitou has a secret. He can trace his bloodline to Nicholas Flamel, who guards the oneiric gate to the Dreamlands that exists in Paris’ catacombs. There is an entrance to the catacombs in the Café cellar, and for the last few weeks Flamant, who knows the secret, has been begging Pitou for an introduction. Tonight Pitou gives way, and guides Flamant through the catacombs to the gate. Flamant manages to persuade Flamel to let him through, and from there Flamant creates the Rue Sombre, and the House of Suicides.

The Dreamhounds might overhear Flamant talking to M. Pitou, see them sneaking down to the catacomb entrance, or know through Occult, Cthulhu Mythos, Dream Lore or similar that the connection exists. If so, they can follow the two as they go to see Flamel. Otherwise the next encounter with Flamant will be in dreams, at the Rue Sombre. They will be drawn to their friend’s last spark of genius, though they arrive as things are at their worst.

The Dreamhounds may be able to influence the situation, if they realize Flamant contemplates suicide. Card Reading, preferably with a rosy outcome for Flamant, helps his state of mind. Inflating his opinion of his art, Seduction, or similar, helps. He’ll still go to the Rue Sombre, but with a better frame of mind to resist temptation.

The Rue Sombre

At the end of the evening, Flamant goes with M. Pitou to Flamel’s oneiric gate. It’s Flamant’s first visit, and in his current state he has only one response to the sudden change in his circumstances: he creates a quiet, moonlit Parisian street, at one end of which is a house that is being rebuilt. There is no door, the roof is off, and the rafters have been exposed. This is the House of Suicides.

From each rafter hangs a corpse. They are similar to Putrefacto, in that it requires a Difficulty 4 Health rolls to go near them. Those who fail suffer +2 to all Difficulty checks thereafter in the scene. However unlike the usual type, they are not dressed like priests or authority figures, nor do they have donkeys. They are dressed exactly as Flamant is dressed, and they have his father’s voice. [Putrefacto N=P+2].

These represent Flamant’s current state of mind, and were accidentally created by him as part of the House of Suicides. Their role is to persuade Flamant to join them, swinging from the rafters, and there is a rope set aside for him as well as a chair to reach it. If successful, Flamant becomes a Putrefacto, and the House of Suicides becomes a permanent presence in the Dreamscape, perhaps threatening other artists.

This becomes a Dreamscaping battle between the Putrefacto and the Dreamhounds, with Flamant as the prize. Whenever the Dreamhounds try to prevent Flamant’s suicide, either through blatant Dreamscaping or by General abilities augmented with Dreamscaping, the Putrefacto use their Strangle ability, but this is an altered version from the norm: they use their hangman’s nooses, swinging them round a Dreamhound’s neck and dragging them up to hang.

Outside the House, ghasts gather, peeping in through the windows. They can’t believe their luck – so many edibles, just hanging there for the taking. As the Dreamhounds battle, the ghasts chatter among themselves in ghastly echo of the party at the Café only a short time before. One imitates Dali, or some other prominent party guest, making sarcastic comments about the Dreamhounds’ progress or lack thereof. The ghasts will not engage in combat; they’re far too cowardly for that.

If the House of Suicides becomes permanent, ghasts haunt it always, creeping from somber chamber to somber chamber, snacking every so often and commenting on the lackluster qualities of the lives prematurely snuffed out at the end of a rope.

If the Dreamhounds managed to raise Flamant’s spirits at the party at the Café, then the Difficulty of all tests in this scene is reduced by -2. Otherwise Difficulty is standard, unless the Dreamhound failed the Putrefacto test, in which case it is higher.

The Dreamhounds may decide to abandon Flamant to his fate. After all, it’s his lack of talent that got him here; whatever happens next is his own doing. In that event the House of Suicides becomes permanent, and adds to its collection of corpses whenever it can. Whenever it adds more corpses than the building can hold, the building expands. Given time, its many halls and rooms may spread over a vast distance. It is as capable of killing Dreamlands residents as artists, and a truly massive House might contain all manner of strangled curiosities.

If Flamant is saved, his artistic career is at an end and he suffers dream-death. A shadow of his artistic self is cast adrift, wandering the Dreamlands, and if that shadow ever dies in dream then it becomes a Putrefacto. His mortal form forgets the Dreamlands, and goes to work as a secretary. The Dreamhounds may be able to sponge the price of a meal off him now and again, in memory of former happiness.

Achille Flamant

Physical: slight, fair, perpetually strokes a bare lip in hope it will encourage his moustache.

General: Art-Making 4, Athletics 3, Fleeing 6, Health 5, Instability 2, Sanity 3. For purposes of this scenario only he has Dreamscaping 10, used involuntarily to create the House of Suicides, but he cannot spend that pool on any other dream-scape.

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