Palais Lobkowitz

Aristocratic Palace; Event VenueElegant chaos; masked anonymity; potential confrontation

Overview

Palais Lobkowitz is a major aristocratic residence that hosted the Grand Masquerade ball on the evening of August 8, 1814 — the pivotal social event of the Vienna chapter, where the investigators exposed Adler and the Brotherhood’s Wächter attacked in front of two hundred witnesses drawn from Vienna’s elite. See the Session 8 and Session 9 updates below for the full, played account of the ball and its catastrophic aftermath.

Key Points

• Date: August 8, 1814 (evening)
• Type: Masked ball; anonymity permitted both investigation and risk
• Attendees: Vienna’s elite, diplomatic corps, military officers, wealthy merchants, cult members in disguise
• Key Moments:
  • Initial arrivals and unmasking
  • Supper and social gathering
  • Confrontations between the party and cultists
  • Romantic subplot (Sternberg)
  • Overheard conversations and intelligence gathering
  • The Wächter attack, the destruction of the ballroom, and the public exposure of the Brotherhood (see Session 8/9 updates below)

Session 8 Update — Catastrophic Damage (Night of August 8, 1814)

The Grand Masquerade at Palais Lobkowitz was the venue for the worst public security incident of the Vienna Congress. By the close of Round 2 of the Wächter attack, the palace’s ceremonial spaces had suffered damage that will require months of repair and that has been witnessed by perhaps two hundred members of European aristocracy. The palace itself is a primary witness to the night.

Physical Damage

The Stained-Glass Window — Destroyed

The first Wächter entered the main ballroom by dropping through the stained-glass window above the dance floor. The window — a major piece of the palace’s architectural inheritance, almost certainly by a named master and almost certainly irreplaceable — has been shattered. Glass is across the dance floor in a ten-foot radius. Several of the early casualties are guests cut by falling shards before the Wächter even moved.

The Chandelier — Collapsed

During Anna’s performance earlier in the evening, the Engine-resonance frequency caused the main chandelier to vibrate audibly, and during the subsequent chaos and the Wächter attack the chandelier collapsed. Several thousand crystal drops are now on the dance floor. The brass armature is bent. At least one guest is canonically beneath it.

The Refreshment Tables — Wrecked

Adler’s flight along the length of the refreshment tables, with Sasha in pursuit, scattered plates, glasses, decanters, and silverware in a continuous trail down one side of the ballroom. Champagne and wine are pooled on the parquet. Multiple servers have been knocked aside.

The Withdrawing Room — Crime Scene

The second Wächter is in the withdrawing room standing over a guest it has torn in half. The room itself is intact but the contents are not. Anyone entering after the fact is walking into a scene of physical evidence that cannot be cleaned up before morning.

Glass — Everywhere

The Engine resonance during Anna’s performance shattered multiple wine glasses around the room — ordinary table glasses on the supper sideboards, decorative pieces in the alcoves, perhaps the goblets in the ceremonial display. The damage from the resonance event alone (before the Wächter ever appeared) was already remarkable; the subsequent chaos has made it look like a riot.

Casualties on Site

Confirmed dead at the close of Round 2:

• Mikhail — Russian Imperial Guard officer, decapitated by Wächter 1 on the dance floor, body remains where it fell
• At least one civilian guest — torn in half by Wächter 2 in the withdrawing room
• An unknown number of additional civilian casualties — guests crushed in the panic, cut by falling glass, or struck by the falling chandelier

Confirmed wounded:

• Vladimir (Russian officer) — physically uninjured but in shock, on his knees vomiting on the ballroom floor
• Multiple civilians with cuts from the stained-glass entry

Status uncertain for many named NPCs: Countess von Thun, Lady Honoria Lyndhurst, Major Thurner, Sternberg, and dozens of unnamed members of Vienna’s elite.

Witnesses

This is the most consequential aspect of the masquerade catastrophe. Vienna’s high society is now collectively a witness to:

• An inhuman creature dropping through a stained-glass window into a ballroom
• That same creature decapitating a Russian Imperial Guard officer
• A second creature tearing a civilian in half in an adjacent room
• A respected musician (Kapellmeister Friedrich Adler) deploying these creatures via a tuning fork in his coat pocket
• That musician fleeing the scene pursued by Russian officers

Among the named witnesses already established in canon: Kaunitz (calmly walking toward the terrace, unsurprised), Countess von Thun (Vienna’s senior salon hostess), Nikolai Volkonsky and his surviving officers, the Russian delegation more broadly, the British delegation including Honoria, Thurner of the Order, Sternberg (who saw the Wächter immediately after issuing his duel challenge), and the assembled aristocracy of perhaps a dozen European powers.

The Brotherhood’s secrecy is broken in a single night. Whatever happens between now and August 15, the Vienna chapter is operating in a city where every major political and social actor either witnessed the event personally or has heard about it from a witness within hours.

Authority Response (Anticipated)

By dawn on August 9:

• Vienna’s police authorities (likely Vogel’s Geheimpolizei among others) will have been called to the palace
• The bodies — Mikhail, the torn-in-half guest, any other casualties — will be in the hands of Vienna’s surgeons within twelve hours. Wächter biology will be examined.
• The Russian delegation will demand answers about Mikhail’s death
• The Lobkowitz family will be in shock and will be asking who allowed this event to be hosted in their palace
• The diplomatic implications of a public mass-casualty event during the Congress are catastrophic — at minimum, every delegation will be locking down its members and re-evaluating what is happening in Vienna
• The Geheimpolizei’s compromise (Vogel’s position) becomes harder to maintain. Vogel may attempt to suppress evidence. He may also be forced into actions that expose him.

Session 9 Update — The Fire, the Bodies, the Second Window (Night of 8 August into Dawn of 9 August 1814)

The additional damage from Session 9’s resolution of the masquerade combat:

Burned Wächter Corpses

Two of the three Wächter were killed by Varrio using a snatched wall-torch and burning coat-tail improvised as a flint. One Wächter corpse lies on the parquet of the ballroom, another across the doorway of the withdrawing room — both charred, both visibly non-human under the scorched keratin, both still steaming when the Geheimpolizei arrived. The smell of burnt flesh and brass is through the ballroom as dawn rises. The parquet is scorched in two large patches that will not polish out.

The Second Broken Window

Adler’s flight and subsequent hamstring by Georgiana did not breach a window; however the party’s carriage exfiltration went out through the service entrance and clipped a tall side window on the stable court. Broken glass in the courtyard is a minor addition to the overall damage. Nikolai’s coachman later apologised to the Lobkowitz steward.

The Chandelier

The main chandelier’s crystal debris remains on the floor, unswept, as of dawn. The servants cannot enter until the police are done.

Adler’s Carriage

Adler’s Brotherhood carriage left the palace courtyard before the party gave chase. It contained at minimum the third Wächter and a dormant Vektor (see Harmonische Wachter Session 9 update). The coachman was not captured. The carriage’s destination is unknown but almost certainly the University or a Brotherhood safe-point.

Bodies Taken Into Custody (as of dawn 9 August)

• Mikhail — headless Russian officer; Russian delegation has already demanded the body
• Torn-in-half civilian guest — in the withdrawing room; identification pending
• Two burned Wächter corpses — in Austrian state custody; will be examined by University surgeons within twelve hours
• Additional civilian casualties — the falling chandelier, the stained glass, the panic — exact count pending morning return

The Scene at Dawn

Palais Lobkowitz at first light on 9 August 1814 is not a palace. It is a crime scene. The stained-glass window is open to the sky. The ballroom is lit by a mix of dawn and the lanterns Vienna’s police have brought. Two Wächter corpses smoulder under sheets. The parquet is scorched. The chandelier is on the floor. The refreshment tables are wrecked. A Russian officer’s headless body has been covered but not removed. The smell is glass, blood, burnt scale, spilled champagne, and smoke.

The Lobkowitz family are not at the palace. The major-domo is. He is giving statements.