So the PCs in my group, in an effort to win a minor noble’s favor, are trying to engineer a blackmail situation on another noble, by having one of their OTHER noble friends host a party… that noble being Lord Scurlock, with whom they enjoy +2 status.
So while I definitely have some plans of my own, I’m curious about any ideas from the community: what’s a party at Lord Scurlock’s like?
What’s your Lord Scurlock like? What’s been established so far in the fiction?
Look to history – especially slanderous rumours and exaggeration- for ideas.
Google the hellfire club, rumours about parties hosted by French kings, Catherine the Great, etc. and see if anything inspires you.
Look at modern politically biased rumour gossip magazines, and see what they report about their opponents. E.g. the private island hosting underage sex parties that Trump is alleged to have attended.
I don’t want to make assumptions about what sort of topics you want to role play, though.
A string quartet plays a delicate melody in the spacious, tiled foyer lit by blue lanterns. Young nobles mill about, vying for attention. The older ones are distancing themselves from the center of the room, jockeying for position among future and past business partners.
There is a lot of “old money” here. None have as much as Scurlock though. And no one has seen him. But almost no one doubts he is there. They know he is rarely visible, but never absent. No, he’s standing on the darkened balcony, his eyes scanning the guests.
A rosie cheeked woman twirls on the smooth tiled floor before him, happy and carefree- dancing alone. She implores the guests standing against the wall to join her, but they politely decline.
No one is aware he is watching. Scurlock tilts his glass of wine at her. It refills immediately, but with blood, not wine. From the fireplace in the next room, a raspy voice affirmed: “She’ll do..”
The contract they’d drawn up earlier materializes before him, and Scurlock immediately regrets suggesting her. It will be.. complicated, he thought. She is, after all, my associate’s daughter- and a Strangford at that.
No matter. he thought, coldly. Scurlock smirked without even looking over his shoulder and drinks deeply to sign the contract. He knows the demon will collect his soul if he refuses. His signature is placed for him with his very essence, and Setarra flashes a mouthful of bloody teeth. The demon and the contract vanish in puff of black smoke, and Scurlock quietly straightens his 500-year-old jacket as he descends the stairs.
When the PCs organised a party in our game I briefly described a few NPCs and their social groups, then asked the players to describe the party (as their PCs were involved in setting it up) – then the guests were getting bored and the PCs had to improvise entertainment or whatever depending on their goals.
It kept the party focused on the PCs and their action, while making things easier for me.
Masked ball and a murder.
Actually, this being the second session, it occurs to me there could be a solid opportunity to use the party as an OOC introduction to some of the broad types of supernatural entities of the setting: entertainment in three acts as Lord Scurlock summons and binds a ghost, a demon, and a horror in that order, with a bit of time between summonings for the PCs to get their work done before being interrupted by the festivities.
AND a masquerade!
Some of my own brainstorming:
One never sees any servants in Lord Scurlock’s estate. Music wafts in as if from a nearby chamber, unreachable. The banquet table is always stocked, although food and drink only seem to appear when nobody is watching.
Inviting a captain of the City Watch (or perhaps an Inspector?), as well as well-placed representatives of a few of the PCs’ enemies, should make things interesting. And test their mettle as potential future “business partners”, of course. But mostly just make things interesting.
“Nowhere is forbidden to my guests, by ancient compact, but explore the upper and lower levels of the house at your own peril.” Rumor has it the manor is a labyrinth built to confuse the ghosts of Scurlock’s many enemies (and, slightly more hushed rumors add, many victims as well). Are such unfortunate souls still trapped within? What might one learn from them, if one were bold enough to disregard the warning?
Our Lord Scurlock loves cats. And not house cats.
Death Jaguars and Dread Tigers