Les Petites Bêtes Soyeuses

Points Arising for January 1677

Players' deadline for February 1677 is 24th October 2025

Roy Bleasdale has a fascinating note on his press item (for which many thanks, Roy).

Rather than a letter, I wrote Morgane Le Fay's defence in the form of a pamphlet. Curiously, my first attempt was to use the 'The age of enlightenment' approach, and propose the idea that witchcraft belongs with superstitious medieval peasants and is ridiculous in the modern age. Searching for period details revealed a Witchcraft case involving Madame Montvoisin, or just La Voisin, accused of being involved in black masses and providing love potions to Louis XIV's mistress, Madame de Montespan. As so often happens, real life outdoes fiction.

TTT did, of course, use influence to convict Morgane. JiT, LR, and ZvT used favours against conviction and the ladies of Paris contributed some funds. Ahem. Totting these up, the die roll required for conviction was 14 (on 2d6), a convincing not guilty!

Thanks to Jason Fazackarley, Charles Burrows and Tim Macaire for their contributions to the trial report.

It's been a while since there was a challenge to vote on, so let me recap. All characters except members of the principals' own and friendly regiments may vote for or against the challenge. If the majority of votes is in favour, the duel proceeds as normal. If not, the challenger (TCdS) loses some SPs.

The current (NPC) Minister of State's term will expire at the end of February. Anyone who wants the job should apply with their February orders. Otherwise, the position will be filled by another NPC - ditto the vacant appointment as Minister of War.

Absent friends

The following did not get orders to me and suffered the consequences.

HJ No orders from Bruno Giordan - 1 turn missed.

IP Grégory Meurant continues to be floated.

Farewell

It's the end of an era! Neil Packer apologises for missing the last couple of turns. He writes that "Life is getting very busy ... and ... En Garde! and various other games have had to take a back seat." Noooo!

I don't have the archive to hand to check when Neil joined LPBS, but it was a good many years ago. Your input will be missed, Neil, and please do come back to us when you feel able to.

Notes

It is worth sending orders in even if they're a day or two late: it's possible I can still action the orders and will probably be able to use any press. It also reassures me that you're still out there.

Orders (and press) should be emailed to the LPBS orders e-mail address - you'll get an automated response when the message arrives in my mailbox. Please give your name and your character's name and specify actions in full detail. If you want a query answered before the deadline, please use the main LPBS email address.