All The World's A Stage

August 7, 2015

While Cress examines the amulet, they are scried upon.  Cress doesn't think it was that powerful and manages to put an illusion in front of it.  They mess around as normal and eventually go to sleep.  They wake up when they hear people outside their door.  There is a quick scuffle as members of the Red Manits hired some local help to find the amulet.  The group plays dumb, the Red Mantis apologize and leave.  

The group has a lot of preparation to do for their shows.  Cress needs components and talks about a few scrolls now that they have some coin.  Grohlyn needs better clothes,, which Lazarus helps him with.  Lazarus gets his own wardrobe update as well.  Cress and Lazarus talk about local legends and Cress decides to use that as the basis for a big story.  They find out Trinia is the person who has the square they have in the morning.  They talk with her and she's fine with the arrangement, as well as sharing the afternoon time, which is too hot to do much.  

The groups first performance is unlike what crowds have seen in a long time!  They surprise many with illusions around the story, as well as the other performances, and end up doing very well.  Their informal patron, Aunt Mathilda, also gives them a large tip.  The night before, Lazarus and a few others went out and Lazarus bought from a known guild member a new violin.  The group is wondering if this is what is giving them such a big turn out and lots of coin!  Whatever it is, they don't care and are happy to have earned as much as they did.  This gets them thinking about the next performances.  While they are out celebrating their success, Cress is back at their rooms and the Red Mantis comes back, finds the amulet, and takes it from him after beating him up.  

They end up scaling back for the next day.  They do some okay performances but start going around talking up the final days' performance as a really big one.  They successfully negotiate a better spot in the North Point and are expecting a huge turn out.  They are not disappointed but neither are the customers.  The group puts on quite a show!  Cress did get a scroll to make the illusion of a red dragon instead of blue and has it "breathe" flames over the crowd, with the feeling of heat on it.  They invited Trinia and her group to help, and they agree as they know they will make a bit more.  She stumbles a little but it makes the group look even better.  Trinia is quite embarrassed and flirts with Lazarus to try and get a second chance.  Lazarus accepts her apology and all is well.  

The group is in their new place, guild backed rooms with three bedrooms and a common area, the next morning.  Most are woken up when criers start shouting in the streets and hallways.  "The King is dead!"  The group wonders what this means for the guild and for them.  

Lazarus wakes up just before Trinia does and she bolts upright in the bed.  There was noise outside that woke them up.  As Lazarus looks over, Trinia is covered in blood, blood that is neither hers nor Lazarus'.  And then she pulls out the amulet they had stolen from Gaedren from under her.  She can only stare at it and Lazarus.

GM Notes

• The adventure is tied into the Harrow Deck and so I'm using one I have to go with the group.  The bard, Lazarus, uses it in his act and the player has it at the table.  The idea is for them to draw every session and get a minor boon or drawback every time.  
• The performance they described was awesome!  They really did well in terms of researching history to use for their performance.   It also gave me a chance to work in history and background into it and it became relevant.  
• I still haven't decided what I'm going to do for advancement/xp.  I'm leaning toward slow advancement because I want to add more in at certain parts of the AP without worrying if they are going to be too high of a level for the later parts.  
• I do enjoy how I get to customize the AP but still use the ideas set out by someone else.  It's like having a couple of other DMs to get ideas from.   

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