While life in Venice plods along at its usual pace, a revolution has taken hold in France. All of Europe is watching as the fate of the monarchy unfolds. But more to the point, some private interests are taking a direct hand in how matters play out.
One such interest is Olivier d’Anjou. More information on him and his cohorts is already available here, but to sum up why a duke and prince du sang of France is acting against the monarchy, he has a fairly ugly history with the rest of France’s nobility, and he has more to gain if he can install a friendlier king than past ones have been to him. If he can’t do that, he’d rather see it all blown to hell.
Olivier’s end goals are either to ensure the abolition of the French monarchy or, failing that, to place Louis Stanislas, to whom he was a childhood friend, on the French throne.
The Story So Far
Since January 1792, Olivier has been gaining contacts. You might recall the Carnival masquerade he threw. That’s what it was for, at least in part. One useful contact he made around that time is Robert Castle, son of the British ambassador, who first learned of the possible existence of an ”iron chest” that was being used to store secret correspondence between the last king, Louis XVI, and his contacts on both sides of the revolution.
Armed with that information, one of Olivier’s most trusted allies located an individual who was familiar with the location of the chest. As of late June 1792, the contact had sent them both the location of the chest and the name of a contact who could assist them. There was a bit of a hiccup with how that went. For an illustrative example of how things have been unfolding and how they’ll probably proceed, check out this thread on what happened.
Future Plans
Next, Olivier has to obtain the chest. He has a merchant ship captain he trusts already who would transport the chest. (At this point, Olivier doesn’t have a good idea of the size of the chest/cabinet; he’s assuming it can be transported, which isn’t really the case.)
So, he needs to get into the place where the chest is hidden, which is Tuileries Palace. On that his information is correct, but he has a few problems:
- neither he nor his close allies the Kitanovski siblings can safely get into Paris, much less the palace;
- even if he could get into it, the palace is where the king is being held; and
- he doesn’t yet know where in the palace the chest is hidden.
Keep in mind that this is a tiny side subplot; it isn’t meant to distract from the main focus of the board, which is Venice in its decline. But it is something that I do want to see played out, and given the amount of interest in the French Revolution on the board, I’m sure we can pool our resources.
Let me know by replying here or by message on Discord if you’re interested in providing any of the following:
- characters who may have connections to the Paris Commune; —Done!
- characters who may be working toward the same goal (we can work out if/how they work together);
- characters who may be interested in hindering the Revolution and opposing Olivier’s efforts (but keep in mind that this is all happening in secret, at least for the moment);
- NPCs for an upcoming thread which will take place IC on 10 August 1792, in Paris; and
- any further ideas regarding the Revolution.
Also, just as a note, if you have a French nobleman character who is supporting the Revolution/working against the monarchy, I am specifically going to ask you what your nobleman stands to gain from that, considering that if the Revolution succeeds, s/he loses her/his title, lands, income, and status. (This is why I explained Olivier’s motives near the top of this post.)
This is a story that is going to play out regardless of the responses I get or don’t get, so if you prefer to just read the threads as they pop up, that’s an option too. ^.^
If you’ve read this far, thanks and congrats.
