EMERALD CROWN
Andrew D. Gable
Subject: DG: More on EH-France
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999 22:26:05 -0500
OK. Now that I'm officially part of the EH bandwagon, here's a few ideas
I've got so far.
First, I'm gonna try to work in some stuff about Marcel Pettiot (briefly
referenced in the CoC book). A World War 2-era French doctor, owned a
warehouse and his home, both in Paris. Supposedly an enemy of the Nazis,
although IMHO it's likely he was allied with them. The police found
remains of 63 bodies in his warehouse. I might work in something about
his being a Karotechia operative, a liaison with ghouls - maybe he was
providing the ghouls with bodies or something.
Second, this should be a decent opportunity to throw in some ideas on
the lycanthropy-ghoul relationship since the area around Lyons has a
pretty high concentration of "real" werewolf reports from the Middle
Ages. I could pretty easily throw in some stuff on the Beast of
Gevaudan, etc.
And a few questions:
- To MIB - any thoughts or preferences on linking of the France chapter
to those immediately preceding or following?
- In CAS' stories (or later ones), was it ever said or implied where
Averoigne was located? Might throw in a stop-over.
- Anyone else know about the Celtic sculpture called the "Tarasque of
Noves"? A wolf-type thing with room for a severed head in the bottom. A
similar sculpture was also found at Linsdorf (?), probably somewhere in
the France-Germany disputed region. What's the fate of these sculptures?
Can't find any websites on either of them. Think I might make them ghoul
altars or something. Worship-places of Mordiggian.
Andrew D. Gable
Sent: 16 January 1999 06:38
Subject: DG: Emerald Hammer: France
Here's my preliminary summary of what happened Karotechia-wise in WW2 France:
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In Aktion Sweynheym, launched in summer of 1941, the Karotechia entered into a
quasi-alliance with French ghouls. The ghouls would be given corpses in return
for information on various occult and Mythos texts and their locations. One of
the Frenchmen captured was Dr. Marcel Pettiot of Paris. He was arrested by a
local branch of the Gestapo and briefed by Karotechia officials, including Olaf
Bitterich, on the goals of the operation. The Germans made Pettiot a deal:
serve us, and go free. He readily agreed and returned to Paris soon after.
He bought a warehouse and embarked on his end of the mission. He murdered
over sixty Frenchmen, using their bodies as bartering chips in his dealings
with the ghouls. Pettiot made periodic reports to the Karotechia officials
giving them the ghoul-relayed information. In February of 1944, the ghouls
told Pettiot of the whereabouts of the Gothic Necronomicon. He relayed this
to the Nazis, who procured the volume early that March.
By that point, the Karotechia's primary objective - to locate the "lost"
translation of the Arab's book - was completed. Information was leaked
to Parisian authorities, and Dr. Pettiot was arrested. He was executed
by guillotine in 1946.
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That's all I have really so far, except for some hazy ideas on what will
come in the present. These thoughts involve the fate of Pettiot's body,
a second Karotechia operation along the lines of Sweynheym, and a lengthy
stop-over in Averoigne, with a "Tarasque" statue being stolen from a
museum at Vyones (which isn't Lyons, BTW: CAS places Averoigne between
Tours and Moulins, which puts it a good distance northeast of Lyons).
All of this mixed up with some good old-fashioned Fate activity and
ghoul factionalism/treachery! Still thinking about how to work in that
Dreamlands angle, though.
BTW, I'll probably have to move the chapter's action from Lyons to somewhere
else - Paris, maybe, or Orleans.