Doctor Emile Carreau

Role Surgeon, composer, cult experimenter Nationality French Status dead Age 44

Surgeon, Anatomist, and Devotee of the Société Harmonique

“Science is but the scalpel of revelation.”

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Identity & Station

• Name: Doctor Émile Carreau
• Age: 44
• Profession: Surgeon and anatomist; lecturer at the École de Médecine de Lyon
• Public Role: Respected physician known for “charitable research into childhood illness.”
• Private Role: The Société Harmonique’s vivisectionist — responsible for the transformation and disposal of human subjects in Mathilde_Savarin’s service.
• Alignment: Fanatic loyalist to Mathilde_Savarin; believes her “harmonic theory of the body” is the key to transcending mortality.

Physical Description

A gaunt man with hollow cheeks and neatly barbered dark hair receding at the temples. His hands are clean but trembling — the hands of a surgeon who works too much, sleeps too little. He wears spectacles with round brass rims that catch the candlelight like coins. His dress at the ball is immaculate, almost militarily precise: a black tailcoat with a gray waistcoat and a silk cravat pinned by a small gold brooch in the shape of a stylized larynx — the cult’s private symbol of “the Voice within Flesh.”

When he smiles, it is automatic and joyless.

Personality

Detached, analytical, and eerily calm. Carreau considers pain an illusion of the unenlightened mind — a primitive misfiring of nerves that can be “tuned away.” He regards his atrocities as scientific study: “The flesh is an instrument. I merely learn how to retune it.” He rarely raises his voice, even when confronted; his composure is more chilling than rage.

Despite his intellect, he is not creative. His genius is methodical — the cold precision of a man who perfects horrors others conceive.

Public Reputation

Carreau is well known among Lyon’s medical elite. He runs the Hôpital de la Charité, where he is said to perform “therapeutic procedures” on orphans and the poor. No one questions his methods because:

• He publishes under a veneer of philanthropy.
• He donates generously to civic health funds.
• He provides cheap medicines to soldiers’ widows.

The Church, particularly Abbé Ferrant, publicly praises him as “a man who brings God’s mercy through the knife.”

Private Reality

Beneath the hospital, Carreau maintains a sealed anatomy theater — his “Laboratoire Harmoniqué.” There, he experiments on abducted children and prisoners, attempting to “attune the human frame to divine resonance.”

• The successes become the Ciimbri — childlike revenants used as cult servitors.
• The failures — those whose bodies collapse under the strain — are rendered down into “nutrient substrate” to feed the Chakota, whose needs are “nutritional and harmonic.”
• He records every experiment in a meticulous ledger bound in human skin, calling it Corpus Harmoniae.

Beliefs

Carreau’s philosophy merges anatomy and mysticism:

“Each organ is a note. Each body, a chord. When properly tuned, the soul may sound the music of creation.”

He believes the Chakota is a divine chorus, an embryonic “choir” made of perfected flesh. He speaks of the children as “transcended vessels,” not victims.

Role at the July 3rd Ball

Carreau attends as Savarin’s escorting physician, claiming to be “monitoring her health” after long rehearsals. He hovers near her most of the night, rarely speaking except to whisper brief observations. When the Blue Sash Incident erupts, he is among the first to cross the floor — ostensibly to “tend the injured servant,” but actually to recover evidence. He ensures the servant’s blue sash (bearing the Three Rings motif) is discreetly removed before others can examine it.

Later, when the champagne-bearer collapses, Carreau kneels, checks the pulse, and declares coolly:

“A seizure. The body resists perfection in the unworthy.”

Those nearby hear it as detached medical commentary. A successful Listen or Psychology roll reveals the phrase carries devotional reverence.

If investigators attempt to speak with him, he will be polite but dismissive:

“The body deceives. You’d be astonished how often the heart continues long after the mind has fled. Fascinating, is it not?”

Hooks and Discoverable Clues

Connection to Savarin

• Mathilde_Savarin considers him indispensable — “my precision instrument.”
• Carreau interprets her compositions as physiological blueprints: each note a frequency to reshape life itself.
• Their collaboration fuses music and medicine into a single atrocity — the making of the perfect choir.

Knowledge & Capabilities

• Surgery (with occult knowledge): 85%
• Medicine 70%
• Occult 75%
• Music (Composition) 80%
• Intimidate 65%
• Spot Hidden 60%

Key Dialogue

On his work:

“A human heart, when struck at precisely the right frequency, ceases to beat and begins to sing. The body is an instrument. We are merely learning to play it.”

On failed subjects:

“The last one bled from the ears, yes. But he improved before the end. His final breath was perfectly pitched. Worth the cost.”

On the investigators:

“Fresh minds always carry a unique resonance. I wonder what note they would produce if properly tuned.”

Keeper Notes

• Carreau is the bridge between human horror and Mythos horror.
• The investigators’ discovery of his laboratory or victims should be the emotional nadir of the Lyon chapter.
• If confronted directly, he will attempt to reason with them: “You are witnessing evolution. Don’t you wish to ascend?”
• If cornered, he uses a small syringe of paralytic alkaloid — meant for vivisection subjects — to escape or silence witnesses.
• Carreau is not a character to be redeemed or reasoned with. His worldview is internally consistent and horrifying.
• He should never be encountered in prolonged social combat. The investigators will either confront him in ritual context (dangerous) or avoid him entirely (wise).
• He is dangerous primarily as a presence—the embodiment of what Mathilde_Savarin’s Choir represents
• If captured or cornered, he will attempt suicide rather than face interrogation
• Do not allow him to become a “villain to defeat”—he is a symptom of larger corruption

SAN Exposure

Investigators who witness his work, learn the details of his experiments, or see the results of his surgeries should make SAN checks (1/1D6 or 1D6/1D20 for severe discovery).

Future Use

• His notes can later be used by the investigators (or Order scholars) to reconstruct the Chakota’s vulnerabilities — particularly its dependence on rhythmic resonance to maintain cohesion.
• His eventual death may occur either in his laboratory (consumed by his “children”) or during the excavation finale, attempting to “present the perfected choir” before Mathilde_Savarin.

Campaign History

Carreau operated from the Orphans’ Hospital, where he performed surgical modifications on abducted children — inserting steel rods into their throats to create the cult’s choir. He held over a hundred children captive in the wards above, with five in cages in his basement laboratory: two already operated on, three awaiting surgery. Two of the three were Delaroche’s children, held as leverage against the police commissioner.

Death: During the Orphans_Hospital_Raid, the investigators found Carreau in the middle of surgery on a child. Emma_Wentworth shot him. Jacob stabbed him with a sword, pinning him to the ground. The sight of Carreau’s body triggered Marina’s temporary insanity — she saw her brother where Carreau lay — and she shot Jacob dead.

Connections to Other Files

• Mathilde_Savarin — His ritualistic partner
• Hopital_de_la_Charite — His base of operations
• Maison_du_Corbeau — Where the Soirée occurs
• Victoire_Lenoir — A willing subject of his “harmonic conditioning”
• The_Soiree — The ritual event where he operates

Relationships

• Allied with Mathilde Savarin — Co-conspirator; designs instruments for her experiments
• Leads Hopital de la Charite — Director of the hospital; uses it for occult experiments