A Troupe In Trouble

Investigating the sabotage of Les Troubadours Tordants

Master Scribe Sh'arr has organized a meet-up with a former Triumvirate whom he worked with for many years. The purpose of the meet-up is to conclude an exchange of documents the Scribe has conveyed for a very long time. It is a single volume of an illustrated encyclopedia coming from the Eastern Kingdoms.

To conclude the deal, the scribe has organized a show performed by Les Troubadours Tordants and has invited various merchants and friends to the performance for entertainment.

Unfortunately, trouble is brewing, what should be an afternoon of preparation and an evening of enjoyment is now threatened by an unseen actor determined to see this interaction fail.

Spoilers

All PC's please use of discretion and avoid reading the following. It contains some information you have already experienced during sessions, but new information that is defined here as the plot and meant to be discovered in future settings. For your own enjoyment and the fact that sessions are adlibbed I recommend you refrain from consulting further information.

Story Telling

Here is the the main narrative of this side-arc to the Mummy's Mask main quest. The content is describe similarly on what you'd find in modules.

Hook

There should be multiple incentives for the players to respond to the Scribe's request and catch the hook for a Troupe in Trouble:

• Upon exiting the 'second dungeon' (House of Pentheru), the players should have manuscripts they might be looking to liquidate and may decide to seek the scribe as he has bought manuscripts in the past and have a certain trust relationship.
• Some shops are closed, notably the gems vendor, this is a major incentive for one of the player. An artificer who's seeking a valuable gem (material component) to serve as a 'brain' for his mechanical parrot. It just happens the vendor is at the Scribe's house.
• They see a shopkeeper (The Doorknob Sultan) closing his shop indicating he his heading to the Scribe's show and the gem vendor is already there.
• The Scribe may send his errand boy to fetch the PC's and directly request their help for protection since they are so successful adventurers and gain in notoriety.

Act I - Preparations

In the first "Act", player characters get to meet the Troupe. This is a great way to open role-playing opportunities. It may also serve as a narrative motivation for the druid who happens (out of sheer coincidence) to want to multi-class as a bard and needs to raise his charisma stat before being able to as per rules mechanics.

• PC's are led by the servant boy and greeted at the house by the Scribe, who explains the job along with the troupe manager. Hopefully the plyers accept the gig.
• Players first meet, coming down the stairs, the poet along with the signer who are both social butterflies and want to meet new people.
• There's a discussion around Tea, which is unknowingly poisoned with throat-numbing medicinal herbs, which will later affect the signer and PC's should they decide to drink tea. The poet only drinks wine and is unaffected. Dm's adlib decides if the manager/scribe are affected or not but might complexify interactions.
• Next, they meet the staff of the villa who tours them around the place for tactical and logistical purpose.
• On the rooftop they meet the juggler and the lute player setting-up the stage, a great opportunity to introduce the sabotaged rope.
• Players might come across the drummer and stage-hand bringing over supplies from the caravan.

Act II - The Show

Now that some or most of the issues have been resolved, the show must go on! As Player characters set themselves up at different guard posts, the troupe finalises a few preparations and the evening sems to clearly be back on track. here begins the 'Second Act' of this side-quest.

• The final guests arrive and are called to the rooftop to experience a wonderful night of entertainment.
• Before the show actually starts, PC's may notice some neighbours amassing on the rooftops of other buildings wanting to take a peep at the show. There are vines twined around thread around the rooftop offering some privacy but not complete. This is not an immediate threat but may make guests uneasy and render the surveillance job more difficult for PC's. There are many ways to deal with this, confrontation, magic, etc...
• The show starts and the GM should describe the show just enough so the players understand this troupe is exceptional. The players should decide if their characters like the show or not. If asked, they may make a roll such as Wisdom to see if they grasp the artistic beauty.
• The first act of the show succeeds without a hiccup. Not long after the second act starts, If PC's are careful, and make successful perception DC15 checks, they will notice a band of shadows amassing from the north. This is a band of mercenary Sand Orcs that have been contracted to assault the villa and capture the former Triumvir.
• Possible Outcomes:
• Complete Success: The PC's are able to fend-off the attack with minimal perturbations to the show. They may interrogate a mercenary or find a piece of evidence that leads to the final act.
• Partial Success: The assailants were able to breach the perimeter, made substantial damage inside and may have even killed a few guests. However Players were able to kill or fend-off the attackers. They may find a clue or pursue fleeing surviving raid members.
• Utter Failure: The PC's were not able to stop the mercenaries from capturing or killing their target. Depending on the specifics, the GM may opt for the players to find clues to the next act, or even end the campaign if it resulted in Total Party Killed (TPK).

Act III - The Confrontation

After the attack, the players may find information or be lead to the house of Lord Snah Kranhoug ("The Saboteur") having sponsored the attack or more likely to a safehouse. This 'Act III' should be a short one, and the main driver is to provide Players of an explanation of what were the motivations behind the acts of sabotage and the assault on the villa.

• PC's will most likely find their wat to the safehouse in the East Town District. A very small non-descript house with a large basement where interrogations may occur quietly.
• Should OC's be resourceful enough, they may get to the saboteur's home: a medium house also in the North District; one of the few houses still lit this late at night.
• Upon entering the safehouse (or house of the saboteur), there is little to no resistance. The Saboteur was not expecting to be unmasked and did not plan to have his house invaded due to a lack of funds or simply lack of planning.
• PC's are pretty much free to do anything they like. Should there be any surviving mercenaries, they may defend the saboteur (for a fee).
• It's the GM's discretion to handle the results as they see best. However the PC's are likely to learn:
• The sabotage was meant to destabilise the reception, hopefully having to cancel the event. A spy would then follow the errand-boy to find out where the Triumvir was living and kidnap him in his house. Even better scenario would be the Triumvir would have left the event with only his body guard making for an easy target.
• The assault was meant to kidnap the Triumvir from the event, should the above scenario fail, as it was far fetched.
• The ultimate motivation was because he wanted to obtain a Ring of Jjinni Summoning rumored to be in the Triumvir possession.

Epilogue: Conclusion

Depending on the degree of success of the defence, damage to the property, social interactions with guests and also the information gathered by the PC's, the Master Scribe will have a varying degree of gratefulness. The scribe, true to his word will provide the previously negotiated reward for the protection job and may provide a bonus for a job well done. The scribe may also provide information his library is one step closer to be complete.

Storyteller Content

Driving Forces

The Player Characters are invited to the house of the Master Scribe for a favor he needs. Upon arriving, the scribe explains he would like to have the characters arrange security at his domain as he wants everything to go as planned for a show he is hosting tonight. The players are introduced to the Troupe a few members at a time so they have a sense of their personalities and their roles in the show.

Main Actors

Scribe

The scribe wants to make an addition to his library for his studies. As a life-goal, he wants to have a complete library for local history. He has many missing documents some unknown, but some known such as the second tome of a local encyclopedia very well illustrated.

Saboteur

There must not be any relationships between this side-arc and the main quest. Although it would be tempting to link the sabotage with Velriana or the Scorched Hand; this would imply immense research into the scribe and the player characters. At this point in the scenario, the antagonists of the main campaign did not yet single-out the player characters although they took notice. For me, the DM it does not make sense as a deeper thought.

Possible motivation is to smear the reputation of the scribe.

• The saboteur or the organization might have a tooth against the Scribe. Ruining the show may discredit the scribe.
• The saboteur could be motivated to have the book sale fail. There might be something in the books that could reveal something embarrassing or a treasure the saboteur does not want to be revealed.

Possible motivation is to assassinate the Triumvir.

• The whole sabotage thing could be a driver for the Triumvir leave the show early, making it easier for an ambush in the alleys.
• The sabotage could be a source of diversion to have security focus on the failures and make it easier for an assault on the villa. (All-out assault brings a lot of unwanted attention, but, it makes for a great end-of session with a combat opportunity. )
• What would the assassin get out of it?
• They are hired mercs, so they don't really care, they are in for the $$$ and the job underworld fame.
• They took a memento from the person (The Saboteur) who hired them, so they would get paid. This will be a clue for the PC's to walk up the chain.

Possible motivation is to kidnap the Triumvir or a shopkeeper.

• The whole sabotage thing could be a driver for the Triumvir or a guest to leave the show early, making it easier for an ambush. (great for smart criminals wanting a ransom or extract information)

Former Triumvir

The former triumvir is looking to experience the world as a "mere mortal". There is so much he has not experienced while cloistered by his leadership functions. He knows he'll never experience it as common people do, but seeking each mundane experience.

He has at least one body guard along with him while moving in the city. It is a private hire therefore will obey requests even if this could put the life of the Ex-Triumvir in danger.

During his leadership he has accumulated some wealth since he had no occasion to actually spend earnings as everything was provided. He also accumulated some physical, magical and other belongings during his career making exchanging goods for life experience a possibility.

Red Herrings

• Due to his personality, Nikolai the stagehand seems to be acting suspicious. Always hiding from sight, avoiding conversations or groups.
• The villa has a servant boy working the area and has been spotted doing nefarious things. (In reality it was someone else disguised as a servant boy)

Whadi by night by CowWarrior via Midjourney

Encounter: Villa Raid Party

Sand Orc X 5
Hobgoblin X 1 (leader)

This is the raid party hired by the saboteur to assault the villa. The leader is coordinating the attack.

Tactics: The party will sneak from the North section of the villa from the streets. The will shoot a volley of flaming crossbow bolts to cause panic on the rooftop. Then they will assault from the north using their short spears as main weapons. Leaving 2 orks at the south entrance to deal with anybody fleeing.

Their main objective is to kidnap the former triumvir and bring them to a warehouse in the most stable section of East Town.

Modifiers: Add one sand orc per party members above 4, or remove one per member id less than 4.