Paradise and its Curators

There's a place in Porte Noire where the dead dance with the devil underneath bright neon light and that place is called Paradise.

All art in this post by Jeremy Mann.

Take a hundred circuses and drape them over a chunk of city. Then spread them out and fill in the openings with burlesque dancer stages, brothels, jazz shops, bars and clubs of a 100 stripes, love hotels, casinos, and massive magician performance centers and you crafted its form. It's Las Vegas meets New Orleans meets Dubai and its a Paradise in all ways.

Now fill it in with the desperate souls of the dying. Why would these people come to this particular stretch of Porte Noire?

Roll a 1d8 on the below.

1. Love. They believe a forbidden love denied to them can be found or reached in Paradise.
2. Escapism. They lived their entire life wanting to escape into another's, and they lose themselves here in Paradise.
3. Addiction. They were addicted to something (sex, drugs, alcohol, dance, performing) and they've come here to finally sate or kill it.
4. Pleasure. On their death bed they wanted just one more night of pleasure and insanity.
5. Power. These dead needed to control others, or to manipulate them, or to pimp them out, and they've come here to rule.
6. White Knight. They need to protect the exploited in one way or another, and here they are trying to do so still--because the one they need to protect isn't here.
7. Passion. They were performers themselves before death caught up to them, and they want to either continue growing as such or complete their opus.
8. Loneliness. Lose yourself amongst flesh and blood, o' dying soul. Lose yourself and find others just like you.

Of course these wayward sons and daughters are just as dangerous as everyone else in Porte Noire. Each person you meet in Paradise shares a common sin. I will enjoy myself even at the expense of others. How many dancers have been chained to the will of a noble knight who treats them as toys and he the toy owner? How many magicians have been shown tricks by wizards and sedirs and hougans and brujas and then made into slaves to serve their lusts? See that man there, in the corner now, a 40 in his hand. See that in life he was a famed poet of Subari, those Desert and Reef kingdoms of legend. Know that now he has followed his addictions into damnation. He will do anything for a  drink, and he has sold his pen and his words to a jazz manager who has devil horns sprouting from his head and skin the color of blood and hooves of black volcanic glass and that calls himself a tiefling or warlock or savior.

Paradise is a place of magic and beauty but underneath it is a slave empire dedicated to pleasing masters and then audiences. These masters mask themselves or take on fanciful titles and they universally are referred to as Curators. They are well-known, the lot of them, and have their own politics between them. 

Below are 10 (though you can have far more in your Porte Noire) for your convenience. 

1. The Black Lotus, a master-class burlesque dancer who can spread venom through your veins with a kiss or caress.
2. Godgiven, a pimp who owns the King's Service love hotel and who was the advisor to a warlord in life.
3. In dark recesses rules the Vampyr, a masked thing that deals in both bloodsport and favors.
4. See Cloth-of-Gold in her dress of sunlight, and know that everything she touches turns to gold, and know that all such metalwork must pass her eye before it is cursed and sold.
5. La Llorona wanders the streets and all who do performance or live art without proper stages must go silent when she passes or else lose their throats.
6. And now Maestro, a man who appears as a demon, who is one of the most famous jazz managers in Paradise.
7. Matron Tenbinza comes from a place where magic is drug, and where flesh fuses with metal. She rules both orphanages and brothels.
8. Quiet Thunder is an old man whose Blues can send a thousand men deeper into the afterlife should they listen to it. All other such musicians swear to him.
9. Belle Baptiste, or the Butterfly, is another burlesque dancer and a rival of the Black Lotus. Whereas the former is subtle, the latter is all flash and panache.
10. Shed Skin made a pact with a demon and fled to Porte Noire when he died. Here he uses his tricks to control the various magicians, teaching them new things while keeping himself nice and hidden.

You're walking down the streets of Paradise and you're seeing things you've never once believed possible. In life you were a farmer and knew not of what electricity or steam was. Or perhaps you wer someone who visited the stars and forgot what home looked like. In Subari there are no burlesque dancers and in whatever fantastic world you're from you've never once seen a magician do things like this.  But always remember the dangers. A knife is in your hands while in Paradise but the blood is on the hilt, not the blade. You can destroy yourself easy here, and when you fall so does everyone else around you.

Roll a d10 for where you are on the Paradise Locations Table, then a d10 on the What You See Table, and then a d6 on the Danger Abounds Table. 

Paradise Locations Table

1. A bar whose neon sign is in the shape of a woman and that has no name.
2. A live jazz performance on the side of the street. A thick crowd is gathered.
3. A theatre where half the actors are clearly kidnapped people and the other half demons in disguise.
4. An opera house where they paint their faces to look like black skulls.
5. A burlesque festival where some of the women have wings, several arms, or mystical tattoos.
6. A brothel where either a man or woman with eyes that shine like stars catcalls you.
7. An arena hidden in the alleyways where men fight to the "death" with pistols and garrote wires.
8. A magician house where the main act is going on. You see an ambush of 50 tigers on stage, a woman in a bird cage above them, and a man dancing through it all.
9. A casino where all the dealers have eyes like snakes, or forked tongues, or scales underneath their buttoned shirts.
10. Create your own location.

What You See Table

1. A crying man or woman begging for someone to help them find their lost child.
2. Orphans picking the pockets of rich-looking carousers.
3. Two magicians having an argument in the streets. One pulls out a gun and another a gris-gris. 
4. A rakshasa holding someone down and preparing to devour their throat. To anyone else, even other party members, they see the illusion of a couple sharing drinks.
5. Someone with a shadow in the shape of a monstrous crow following a child. The child is unaware of this person.
6. Dancers walking together towards their destination. One of them is bleeding from their eyes and desperately trying to escape the manacles they are in.
7. A riddlemaster saying he will trade secrets to those who can break his riddles, and curses to those who can't.
8. Giant pornographic statues where someone is vehemently resisting a mob lynching.
9. A Curator whispering riotous plans to their gathered entourage.
10. Create your own.

Danger Abounds Table

1. Your life is in danger. Someone or something is wanting to eat, kill, enslave, or violate you.
2. Your sin is triggered. Whatever sins you have, you'll want to indulge or relive them here.
3. Your death wish has a competitor. Whatever you wanted that brought you here has someone else in this place looking for it.
4. You have a debt to pay. Someone here is looking to collect a favor from you and won't take "No," for an answer.
5. You're lost. You are in a piece of Paradise hard to reach, and you might not be able to leave.
6. You are threatened by magic. A Hoodoo Man, Hougan/Mambo, Bruja, or something worse is preparing to curse you.