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Old 09-23-2017, 11:14 AM   #1743
William
 
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Default Re: Real-Life Weirdness

First excerpt from the New York Times, second from the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 1990: a tradition of macabre feasts, perfect for subjecting a group of players to a refined evening with their rich, powerful, villainous antagonist.

From the NYT, the "Hell Banquet" of the Roman emperor Diometian:

Quote:
...the glowering, paranoid Roman emperor Domitian... a room black from floor to ceiling, lit by low-burning lamps, with each guest’s name engraved on a *tombstone-like stela. The food: of the kind normally offered to the dead, and entirely black. The emperor spoke of mortality as his guests, the city’s leading lights, ate in silence, convinced they were supping at their own funeral... Instead, each was presented with his personal gravestone from the table, which turned out to be made of silver...
From the Oxford Symposium, a Carnival pre-Lenten feast: (warning, contemporary racial term employed)

Quote:
...even the garden.. paths had been gravelled in coal, its little pool edged with basalt and filled with ink, its plantings made dark in cypress and pine. The dining table was decorated with baskets of violets and scabiosa set on its black cloth, while lighting was supplied by chandeliers of votive candles and candelabra putting forth green flames. A hidden orchestra played dirges for guests served by nude negresses, their stockings of silver cloth strewn with teardrops... turtle soup, black Russian rye bread, black olives, caviar, smoked Frankfurt boudin noirs, pourtages of mullet, coulis of truffles, and sauces for game the colour of liquorice and boot-blacking; desserts included chocolate creams, puddings and fruits such as raisins, black cherries and plums; the drinks in dark glasses featured the most deeply colored wines: Tenedos, Roussillon, or Port; all finished off with coffee, walnut liqueur, kvass, porter and stout.
(Minor edit: I learn upon a more thorough reading of the source that the feast described is literary, but that its author threw a similar and indeed even more elaborate Carnival feast for his guests, so I will leave it here as exemplary.)

Last edited by William; 09-23-2017 at 11:26 AM.
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