| Contents |
| Scene Summary • Script Summary • Trivia |
| Dark Roads | |
|---|---|
 60px  | |
| Chronicle | DC Chronicle |
| Game Date | December 18, 1833 |
| Real Date | March 3 - August 20, 2020 |
| Characters | Adrian Mosele Arend Kemp Rafael Dinescu |
| Locations | University of Vienna |
| Previous Scene | None |
| Next Scene | See the Children Run (Raven) |
| Content Warnings | Death, Torture, Transphobia |
| Original Scene | Dark Roads |
Dark Roads is a scene from the DC Chronicle featuring Adrian Mosele, Arend Kemp, and Rafael Dinescu. It depicts Rafael killing Adrian after a professional rivalry over medical science, after which he travels to the Carpathians, changing gender and identity several times, in response to a summons by a mysterious lord.
Scene Summary
Adrian performs an operation on a patient with a withered arm in an operating theater at the University of Vienna, watched by several doctors, professors, and students; he uses electrical equipment to demonstrate his theories about being able to rehabilitate muscles and limbs with electricity, but the experiment causes the equipment to burn out and badly injure the patient. He exhorts his audience to continue pursuing this new line of medicine as well as seeking donations from noble patrons, but Rafael, watching from the seats, interrupts to decry his methods and claim that natural herbal remedies and therapies are a better avenue for experimentation, winning converts among some of the spectators.
Several months later, Rafael sits in his study, reading over a letter from his patron about the healing properties of various plants with his shirt off, displaying the healing signs of a recent double mastectomy. Adrian, drunk on wine, bursts into his office to propose a scientific partnership, but begins needling Rafael when he sees his bandages, insinuating that he knows what those injuries are from as Rafael hastily dresses. Rafael cuts a curare plant with a scalpel and then stabs Adrian with it, fatally poisoning him, and taunts him about his theories as he dies, breaking his neck to ensure that he does not recover. He then pours more wine on the floor and calls for help, making the murder look like the result of a drunken accident.
Later, Rafael meets with the rector, Arend, who confirms that Rafael has been cleared of suspicion in Adrian's death and asks him for any remaining information he might have about the man's work, although Rafael continues to aver that Adrian's research was barbaric and medically useless. Rafael announces that he will be leaving to answer family obligations in the Carpathians, over Arend's protests, claiming that his family needs him and that he can do more good to the medical community by becoming wealthy and influential than by merely remaining in Vienna for research.
Rafael then travels by carriage down the Danube, meeting with associates to discuss philosophy in Budapest before vanishing into the city. He takes on the guise of a Moldavian baker and travels down the river to the village of Hort, where he bribes the town guards with bread, claiming to have lost most of his wares to political dissidents along the way. She then reinvents herself as the beautiful cardsharp Sabina, who gambles with several men in a tavern and steals their horses after a brief fight in which she cuts one of their faces with a scalpel. Later, he resurfaces as a noble who sells the horses to a stablemaster in Rodna before continuing to travel into the mountains.
She finally arrives in the Carpathians near the village of Putna, where she finds a small hamlet surrounding a mountain lake in the heart of the forest. She hears a code phrase called out by a contact and answers it with a code phrase of her own, after which she is permitted to enter a dark crack in the mountain, descending into a tunnel system underground.
Script Summary
The script summary for this scene pares it down to only dialogue and action directions, allowing for a quicker and easier read through what was actually said and done by the characters. Click on the "Expand" tag to the right to view the entire script summary for this scene.
In the distance, a pirate ship heads toward a small boat. Quincy watches the boat as he approaches and tightens the laces on his clothes. He sneaks aboard and ties up and gags a guard before winking and going up the stairs.
Adrian is working in a medical operating theater at the University of Vienna, operating several machines while his assistant puts needles into the arms of a patient with a withered arm. A small audience of medical practitioners and students watches from the seats around the theater. Rafael Dinescu is among them.
 ADRIAN: As you shall see, my machine has limitless possibility in reversing the effects of muscle degradation. xpanding on Galvani’s work in medical electricity, we shall introduce electrical therapy as an effective force in modern healing methods. I shall now send stimulus to the patient’s arm, which will be painful despite employing morphium, but over time this will restore the strength to the limb.</ref> |
Rafael removes his glasses and polishes them, then puts them back on. Adrian pulls a switch.
ADRIAN: Watch carefully the arm, as there is quite a reaction.</ref> |
He pulls another lever. The patient's arm jerks and he screams as the room fills with smoke from the machines. The patient's skin begins to blacken and he goes rigid, and Adrian throws a switch to cut the current. The patient collapses and the spectators murmur.
ADRIAN: Colleagues, you all understand the precarious nature of this science. We have all seen how impressive electro-stimulation is. It brings to life dead flesh. It can kill. However, the potential IS here to save countless lives and improve the quality of our care. Our soldiers, injured in combat, might eventually again rise to defend this fair country with renewed strength.</ref> |
Adrian takes questions from the audience and continues to tout his theories as well as soliciting donations.
 RAVEN: This is all promise with no providence, Dr. Mosele. You ask these men to find more patrons. More investments. Muscle rehabilitation can be achieved naturally, through chemistry and herbology, at far less cost and far wider availability. The research must simply be completed!</ref> |
He slaps his hand on the wall surrounding the theater.
RAVEN: Plants such as rosemary, ginger, curcumin, primrose, and arnica, when distilled, can fight inflammation and allow for the use of injured limbs. When supplemented with a maritime diet or salmon from our rivers these can restore health over time. Hashish from South Asia has shown benefits as well. Yes, rehabilitation using these methods takes time and effort, but there is more to health than quick fixes. We resemble torturers more than scientists, running voltaic forces through living flesh because it does something, never mind the usefulness. How much longer can we humor Dr. Mosele and his mad science?</ref> |
Several members of the audience move toward Rafael and begin asking him questions instead.
That spring, Rafael sits in a small room, a smoking pipe beside him, with bandages around his torso. He drinks wine and picks up a pen, looking it over. He pulls out a half-written letter and reads it.
 LETTER: ...most of the interest follows Brown and Cullen's research out of Scotland. It is imagined that within the stimulation and sedation of the body we can create situations of tailored healing from a good number of infections and diseases. I find my research building upon these principles to seek remedies for the afflictions of the mind that have long been a mystery. The early reports support my theories and I am seeking aid of local institutions in finding promising similar cases that might benefit from any new advances. I stimulate the mind with chicory, tea, coffee bean and the mate holly as I attempt to grow large samples of Paullinia-cupana which creates a strong energizing effect. The derivatives of the coca leaf are most useful, but I can personally attest to the problematic nature of such substances. They often occupy the mind long after they are necessary for medical benefit...</ref> |
Adrian bangs the door open. Rafael grabs a shirt from his chair and hastily puts it on.
ADRIAN: It's time we speak, Dinescu! It is time to put our differences aside...</ref> |
He closes the door.
RAVEN: Mosele, I have never met a man blessed with so much intellect and so little sense. Whatever you want, it will wait.</ref> |
He points toward the door.
ADRIAN: Are you injured, Dr. Dinescu? However could it have happened?</ref> |
Rafael goes to the window and pulls down the blinds. He takes a scalpel from the windowsill and cuts a plant growing there, causing it to bleed sap.
RAVEN: Leave now, Mosele... you're drunk.</ref> |
Adrian advances on Rafael and drinks from a bottle of wine he is carrying.
ADRIAN: I had come to convince you that a study in organic and mechanical science might yield world-titling results, Dinescu, but now I'm concerned about your health. 've seen 'wounds' like that before that require bandaging as I've rummaged through the morgue for subjects. A rare condition, as most have difficulty living with the ordeal...</ref> |
Rafael spins around and stabs Adrian in the hand with the scalpel, causing him to drop the wine bottle, which shatters. Adrian staggers.
RAVEN: I've barely been able to get a strand or two of the curare to grow in that pot; likely that last cut will destroy my efforts. What a shame. The poison is fast and neuromuscular, Mosele; fighting it is the cause of the pain you're feeling. Do you feel an icy sensation around your heart? I've heard of it and it can herald death. Perhaps blink if you're feeling that? For science? No?</ref> |
He crosses to Adrian and grabs him by the hair, tilting his head back and kissing him.
RAVEN: I will miss the contempt I felt for you, Adrian. You deserve far worse.</ref> |
Adrian sags to his knees. Rafael drags him by his hair until he runs him into a chair, breaking his neck and paralyzing him. Rafael retrieves the chair and opens a bottle of wine, pouring it on the ground around Adrian, and then puts the bottle in a cupboard. He pokes at Adrian's face until he dies, then pats his head and steps over him toward the door.
RAVEN: Help! Help! Mosele has gotten drunk and had an accident! Help! He cannot breathe!</ref> |
In the summer, Rafael meets with Arend in his office at the university. Arend drinks some coffee as Rafael sits across from him.
AREND: The matter seems to have been resolved for city and family alike, Dr. Dinescu. I did not find your absolution unlikely, given the circumstances. I imagine this eases your burdens…</ref> |
RAVEN: No, an investigation made sense and I have my studies, I hardly noticed it.</ref> |
Rafael reaches for an ashtray and matches, lighting a cigar.
RAVEN: I can leave now, at least. I need to go home for a while to handle the matters of my family estate.</ref> |
AREND: Leave? Doctor, there are those who would come to Vienna to inquire about your work. Some would come to work beside you, sir, and you have seen how quickly this progresses one's work. Why put that aside?</ref> |
RAVEN: I’ll advance my field more with the luxuries I will get from being wealthy, Kemp. The ability to travel and wealth that allows for plenty of time seems a finer end to work towards. My father is old and requires me besides, so there is no need struggling for the right words to convince me. They simply can’t be found.</ref> |
Kemp puts his coffee down too hard and spills, cursing before cleaning it up with a handkerchief.
AREND: Any final thoughts on Mosele’s work you wish to share? Beyond your analysis for me earlier in the year? We’ve yet to find the bulk of his notes, but he wasn’t the tidiest.</ref> |
RAVEN: I suppose only that we should stop looking to the new and mysterious for answers more easily found in the familiar. Voltaic response, the idea of channeling what amounts to lightning into a person, sounds daring enough to be whispered over the world over. Its practical, current uses in medicine are next to nothing. Give science time to decide the possibilities of bottling energy. Let it discover how to do so wisely. We needn’t waste money wagging tongues better used to make life better, Kemp. Mosele was a drunken fool and you shouldn’t trust his ilk with university funds again..</ref> |
Later in the summer, Rafael is traveling by carriage along the Danube River. When he reaches Budapest, he meets with a colleague and spends the evening discussing philosophy. Rafael then disguises himself as a Moldavian baker and travels down the river selling bread until he reaches the village of Hort, where he uses the last of his wares to bribe the guards for entrance. Later, she again disguises herself as Sabina, a thief who cheats several tavern-goers at cards before stealing their horses, wounding one of their faces with a blade when they try to stop her. She then reappears as a noble, selling his horse in Rodna before traveling into the mountains.
Raven emerges near Putna in the Carpathians, traveling several miles on foot past several villages, where she finds a small village. She is met by a villager who calls out a code phrase, which she answers before entering a crack in the side of the mountain and descending into a tunnel system.
Trivia
- The "lord" Rafael receives a letter from and later goes to visit is a Tzimisce elder, who later becomes her sire.
- The plant Rafael uses to poison Adrian is curare, a South American herb used as a poison for blow-dart hunting among indigenous peoples; it was poorly understood in Europe at the time and would have been considered exotic and difficult to recognize.
- The "dissidents" mentioned several times by various people around the Carpathians refer to the growing Romanian nationalist movement, which during this time was struggling to become independent of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, which were both fighting for control of the region.
- The small village near the mountain in the Carpathians that Raven passes through is a community of Revenants serving the local Tzimisce.