Big thanks to all players and I hope that you enjoyed meeting my dear friends, Woland and his crew. Special thanks to CNS for the great idea for the plot line. We had planned out a number of possible different outcomes, and it was interesting to see which directions folks decided to go on things. It was heaps of fun on both sides of the screen!
As many of you guessed it was borrowed heavily from a famous Russian book, "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov which I recommend checking out if you enjoyed this story line. It is the somewhat autobiographical tale of the of the censorship he faced under Stalin's communist government mixed with a bit of fantasy and a tale of biblical times. Well worth a read and has many ideas that still ring true in today's world.
Also of note, the Devil's Ball was actually based off of a party that the American Ambassador threw (and Bulgakov attended). From the wikipedia article:
Sadly none of the parties I went to at Spaso house were anywhere near this interesting.On 24 April 1935 Bulgakov was among the invited guests who attended the Spring Festival at Spaso House, the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, hosted by Ambassador William Bullitt. Critics believe Bulgakov drew from this extravagant event for his novel. In the middle of the Great Depression and Stalinist repression, Bullitt had instructed his staff to create an event that would surpass every other Embassy party in Moscow's history. The decorations included a forest of ten young birch trees in the chandelier room; a dining room table covered with Finnish tulips; a lawn made of chicory grown on wet felt; a fishnet aviary filled with pheasants, parakeets, and one hundred zebra finches, on loan from the Moscow Zoo; and a menagerie including several mountain goats, a dozen white roosters, and a baby bear.[citation needed]
The festival lasted until the early hours of the morning. The bear became drunk on champagne given to him by Karl Radek. In the early morning hours, the zebra finches escaped from the aviary and perched below the ceilings around the house.
We'll be moving on to more interesting fun and excitement soon!
