Hey scoundrels! Help me brainstorm a little something for tomorrow’s session?
My group is a crew of shadows (The Lilies), mostly focused on second-story work. Just about everything they’ve done so far has followed a distinct format: sneak in > evade patrols > fill as many sacks as you can carry > run away. And of course, the shit almost always hits the fan somewhere in there.
They’ve decided to do something a little different this week. They’ll be attending the Barristers Ball, an annual event honoring Duskwall’s lawyers, solicitors, magistrates, etc. It’s really just an excuse for the city’s elite to gather together and rub shoulders while showing off to the commoners that gather outside for the festivities. Almost like a red carpet event.
The Lilies have invitations, so it’ll almost certainly start as a social score. They’ll meet some notable NPCs, learn a bit more about the upper classes, etc. They don’t have a specific mark in mind yet (just that there will surely be something worth pinching among all those rich bastards), but I’m thinking their allies in the Hive might approach them. The Hive will want some blackmail planted on someone, or maybe strange listening devices planted in the meeting rooms on the upper floors. That part’s relatively easy to figure out (though of course I’m open to suggestions).
The Lilies have been rubbing the Wraiths the wrong way for a while now ( – 2 status, and on the verge of – 3), and I’m thinking this might be a good opportunity to put them into direct conflict. I figure the Wraiths are also going to hit the Ball, and the Lilies will have to either avoid them while doing their own thing, or confront/interfere with them. The Wraiths have just finished forming an alliance with the Dimmer Sisters, so they have arcane backing now — and I want to use this score to bring that new alliance to the forefront of my players’ attention. Any ideas for what the Wraiths would be after, and how the Dimmer Sisters fit into it?
I have a loose idea that the Dimmer Sisters could help them blow the power to the place, plunging the ball into darkness at some point (probably on an ominous clock at the start of the score)… It seems like that could make for a really interesting scene, as the Lilies then have to maneuver through the panicking guests to complete their score or interfere with the Wraiths. But I want to make sure to have a goal in mind for the Wraiths/Sisters.
Any ideas?
Maybe Hulls are used as servants on the party, and they want to temper with the soul vessel inside one of them, to free the ghost or exchange it.
Maybe they want to use a ghost door to enter a room that doesn’t exist anymore in the real world.
Maybe they want to steal an ancient book that contains pre-cataclysm rituals.
Maybe one of the guests is a vampire, and the ghost that is the rightful owner of the body wants it back.
“Wow! I can’t believe that the barrister got his hands on the Heart of Kotar! And no doubt he’ll be eager to show it off to the upper-upper class. I hear the Circle of Flame is going to try to see if they can get their hands on it, most likely through sweet talking and galavanting with the barrister himself. The Hive almost certainly won’t want that to happen, considering they’re enemies and all.”
“Not only them, but I hear the Sisters are taking an interest in the Heart as well. There are rumors it can be used to stop the heart of another without touching them, or keep one’s own heart beating long after it should have stopped. Apparently the Sisters actually believe such nonsense. Thank the devils they never leave their property, it’d be terribly awkward otherwise, to say the least. I just hope they haven’t sent a liaison in their place.”
“Oh my, that would be most unfortunate. Imagine if the Sisters had promised someone they would use the Heart for whatever their liaison would chose before keeping it for themselves. That could lead to something terrible indeed, if the Heart actually had some power.”
“Hahahaha. Yes, well, best not to dwell on the what-ifs, especially not on such a grand night as this. Let’s head into the Ball. I hear the way they prepare fish here surpasses even our own chef’s cooking!”
I find it useful to remember that historically jousts and festivals were also business conferences for nobles. At the dinner tables and in the back rooms they quietly managed their conflicts and negotiated their deals while the peasants gawked at the spectacles.
Now, with security at its height, on neutral ground, is the time for some principles to meet and deal face to face instead of through the endless proxy back-channel negotiations.
Given your parameters, I’d likely do something like this:
The Dimmer Sisters are hosting the event, guaranteeing neutral ground and sharply quelling any hostilities or unpleasantness that crops up at the festivities.
The Wraiths have been working like dogs to ingratiate themselves with a few key barristers, and they are poised to move in as the “fixers” for an entire neighborhood to handle the off-the-books dirty work for them. This is their coming out party, where they officially apologize to those they were forced to get crosswise with, and where their allies cement those alliances to move forward with this new extra-legal resource.
The Hive thinks this is terrible, they don’t want to seal up the infighting and information leaks in the current feudal barrister squabbles as each influential company hires its own amateur operators. They prefer the permeable noisy mess.
So their agents are placed to identify contracts and messengers. Their forgers have templates ready, and power-grabbing verbiage at the tip of their pens. The Hive has been studying the soap opera relationships, and is ready to inject some drama from false messages.
So they’ve got two contacts with the Hive, that’s all they can give up if/when they’re caught. Meanwhile, they’ll get missions to start fights, seduce targets, pick pockets to swap messages or steal significant trinkets, and otherwise disrupt the show of unity between all these skittish factions. The less effective this show of unity is, the more embarrassed the Dimmer Sisters will be, and the less likely the Wraiths will get the exclusivity they need to go up a tier.
The party is a three day marathon, starting with a pet showcase, with conspicuous consumption for costumes and trainers and the like for pets, and games and judging. The second day is, of course, a masquerade because that’s the most fun ever. How do you keep it from being a cliche? The masks are gems that are glued to the forehead, and you must attune to them and spend a stress to activate the electroplasmic visage. It takes another successful attune to see through someone else’s mask. And only cheaters use fabric as well as electroplasm.
Then there’s the third night, where teams are selected at random by an albino bat touching bone beads in a ring of abacus walls, each bead with a name. The teams conduct seances to wake ghosts from stones at their table, and woken ghosts go up a tier, until all the successfully woken ghosts form a kind of Greek chorus of witnesses as the Dimmer Sisters contact a surprise guest. Spirit Wardens will be on hand to make sure nothing too untoward happens.
So, after the second night there’s a chance to get in a session of vice before the final night, not a full down time but a chance to clear some stress.
The Hive suspects that the Sisters will summon forth the Triune Spirit of the founders of the Barristers in the form they now take, shifting the rules to grant them power and riches and siphon away the court’s authority to make it an organ of a new aristocracy. If the Founders are summoned, then that symbol will unite the Barristers–and the Hive is desperately trying to figure out the conditions of the ritual so they can subvert or prevent it.
If it requires lineage, all the big families will have reps at the party. If it requires arcane ingredients or foul altars, the Dimmer Sisters have all that at hand. Chances are good human sacrifice will come into play, so keep a weather eye and a light touch.
It’s going to be a long weekend.
A simpler version; a master artist is unveiling the masterpiece painting of the Founders, rendered with their bone and blood incorporated in the paints in the old traditional way.
The Dimmer Sisters have hired the Wraiths to get it, because they can leverage it to make the Barristers more compliant. The Hive has hired the Lillies to steal it, because they have a grudge against the artist, who must be punished.
What nobody knows is that the artist is a mad adept who put astrological sigils into the painting, and when the clock strikes midnight the Founders will have a portal to rise into the world and punish the Barrister houses who picked their legacy clean like vultures on a carcass.
Hot damn, ya’ll rock! Love the idea of hulls as servants at the party — especially since the crew hasn’t interacted with hulls yet, so it’ll highlight the extreme wealth of the event nicely. Also really dig the Heart of Kotar angle, as the crew took a negative status with the Circle at crew creation.
And Andrew, as usual, is a goldmine. The idea that the Ball has some insidious purpose behind the scenes while the common rabble is gawking at the finery is fantastic! I love the idea that the Dimmer Sisters are behind it all, merely using the Wraiths to their own advantage to set the stage for some dark ritual with all of Duskwall’s upper crust present.
I would buy a book of these brainstorming plot ideas, most definitely
Riffing on the hulls, it could be fun to have the Festival of Lumens, where no light is allowed save luminescence added to the trim work (to prevent falling in the dark) and masses of candles draped over hulls, nets of wax and wicks. So the hulls move sedately about, probably with trays in their torsos and their arms uplifted, festooned with candles that servants replace as needed.
The high table is lit with the spent wax from the candles, which glows in the dark for up to three days with stored light.