From reading the prior posts I'll set some rules for myself
* No live exhibits
* No super stuff, all mundane
* Limited space
* Some congruent with a early Victorian England.
And off we go!
Hall of Animals
A hall filled with (stuffed due to the no live exhibit rule mentioned) exotic animals from other domains – blood hawks, tigers, a goblyn, pinned butterflies, etc. The animals are posed in lifelike poses and occasionally are placed in a small ‘natural environment’. (eg: The tiger is lying on a rock with some bones, a monkey swings from a branch)) And pride of the show in the middle – a small elephant from Siri Raj!
If the PC’s happen to wander in there during the night, it could get very creepy very fast as numerous sightless glass eyes follow their movements. And did that 10’ Kodiak just move….
Hall of Minerals
A lot of display cases of various minerals and gems carefully ordered. Ranging from pretty quartz to gemstones (fake, but they look real), small ingots of various metals, geodes and crystals. And if kids are well behaved they are even allowed to touch a real gold ingot (under supervision)! To stir things up a little you could have a real hag’s eye from Tepest and a Blaustien sapphire
A little boring, but if the PC’s are doing their job, they might accidently bump into a petty thief trying to steal stuff. Another hassle when the mummy of AmunSomeOne is chasing them.
Hall of Science
Displays of technology from basic tools to the ‘latest’ in modern technology – though some of the ‘modern’ machines are downright weird. Throw in some typical steampunk/mad science things – primitive voltaic piles, spinning
Wimshurst machines, bubbling flasks and have a you hit with self-professed scholars.
You could also include oddities like the 'mechanical woman' from the Hour of the Knife adventure, or some of the really
weird inventions from the period - and these are the sane ones.
The World of Books
Books, scrolls, stone tablets and more. Glass cases containing a large array of written texts – from history books before Ravenloft, beautifully illustrated religious texts, stone tablets with undecipherable script. Noting magical or cursed, but there are some oddities – like the book whose ink glows faintly (phosphor in the ink), a stone table whose script looks different when view at differing angles (
Tabula scalata), or even a ‘flick book’ type
kineograph.
Clothes of the Core
Given the location you have placed your Paridon (Richemulot, Dementlieu and Mordent) and that two of these are the major ‘Culture Centres’ of RL have an exhibition of mannequins dressed on the latest fashions and displays. Throw in some other historical things such as spinning wheels and looms to show how clothing techniques changed, and maybe even an experimental mechanical loom to show off. And mannequins are always creepy
Of course this exhibit is sponsored by a textile manufacturer.
The Rooms of Mystery
A round the same time as the real great exhibition, England also has a big fad for ‘supernatural’ stuff. Taro readings, ghosts and séances, horoscopes, crystal balls etc. There is no reason why Paridon would have something similar. A room filed with various displays ‘fortune telling’ devices from across the domains – runes, cards, bones, rattles, astrological charts and the like. Displays on mesmerism, hypnosis, phrenology and more speculative pseudoscience (though not so pseudo in R-Loft).
Have some big shaman masks, odd tools and other ‘voodoo’ like devices to boost the ambience about the dark and mysterious supernatural. And maybe even offer free horoscope consultations for that extra cash from the rubes.
I have some more ideas, but I'll let others speak err post as well.
Note: I just realised that Paridon is a combination of PARIs and lonDON.
Someone sent me a postcard picture of the earth. On the back they had written, "Wish you were here."
