[DF] General Adventure Workshop Thread

[ajardoor]

8. The Lair
The Orange Fears Beer Hall provides an excellent front for the secret society - most of their regular patrons are members.
There are two secret entrances to the lair - one is around the very back of the beer hall, a seemingly dead end backalleyway, which requires a Search-4 roll to find. The other is accessed from the inside of the beer hall, and guarded by thugs.
Going inside reveals a very rowdy and bright atmosphere, one suiting a hangout for sailors and strong working class men. At the back of the tavern/inn are a few private rooms, each blocked off from the main common room by curtained doorways.
Just through one of those curtained doorways are the two murderers, Uther and Astrof, who are currently lying low by hiding out in the lair and guarding one of its secret entrances in the beer hall. They are both armed, although both are down 1d-1 HP due to the wounds Reina gave them with her dagger. If the PCs have discriptions of the men, the party recognises them. The second the murderers get the slightest suspicion that the party thinks they are involved with anything, they take action - Astrof casts a Wall of Silence spell over the doorway into the beer hall and Uther draws his broadsword. They try to surprise the party by first distracting with idle chatter. Interrogating them successfully will get a confession that they were hired to kill Reina and the secret entrance in this room they were guarding. The hidden entrance will otherwise require a Search-2 roll to find.
The secret entrance in the beer hall leads to the robing chambers while the one in the backalleyway leads to directly to the meeting chamber.
If the party is in the robing chamber, they find the door they entered and the only other door out of the chamber are designed to lock automatically when closed and will not unlock until the other door is opened and closed. On the left wall is a wardrobe filled with blue hooded robes, all capable of fitting a SM+0 creature.
Once out of the robing chamber, the party will find a passageway that comes to a fork. Taking the left path, which is more brightly lit, will take them to the meeting chamber. The right path leads down to the leaders' office, but they come across the Guardian Statue (stats in NPCs and Enemies section) blocking the path halfway there, which will not let them pass without a fight (although PCs disguised in robes will not be attacked automatically).
In the meeting chamber, the party (unless they raised the alarm and the secret society would know something's up) will find a crowd of 20 thugs in blue hooded robes listening to a man dressed in a gold and red striped hooded robe and jade face mask standing on a raised platform. In front of him is an executioner with a two-handed sword in his hands and a tied-up and gagged man on the floor. The leader will proclaim that the helpless man has failed the secret society by failing to prevent the riots from destroying valuable assests. He will be killed by the executioner, (who is Preslo, unless he was dealt with at the end of the chase), unless the PCs stop him. The room is large, but mostly empty and lit by several brazziers on the far wall.
If the man is executed without incident, the meetings will end there and the thugs will leave the lair one at a time (half of them through the backalleyway entrance). The leader will go to the leaders' office.
The leader in the jade mask is Wade Quipper (stats in NPCs and Enemies section), who will blame the murder and the gold mine scheme on Trey Quipper if interrogated.
The leaders' office is extremely fancy and large room, full of decorations, tables and shelves of books and folders, and lit with four laterns at each corner. The carpet is a rich red linen number, and the far wall shows off a brilliant tapestry with the Quipper family crest in the middle of it.
As the party enters the leaders' office, they walk in on Davo Quipper (stats in the NPCs and Enemies section) holding a rapier to the chest of Trey Quipper (stats in the NPCs and Enemies section). On the floor in a pile of blood is the dead body of Turril Quipper.
Spotting the party entering, Trey shouts for help, and that Davo murdered Turril. Davo responds by turning to attack the party. Trey starts out the fight unarmed, but will take several turns to grab a longsword off a nearby desk and join in on the party's side. If Davo is wounded to half his maximum HP, he will attempt to barge his way past and escape the lair.
If the party wins and Trey is still alive, he thanks the party and offers them a high position in the secret society. If the PCs refuse, he tries to bribe them with $6,000 in jewelry from a small strongbox on a desk in the room. If they refuse a second time, Trey makes a big show of shrugging it off, letting them go and then immediately making plans to flee the city.
Searching the room will let the party find automatically the strongbox of jewelry and a few important looking logbooks. If the PCs examine the logbooks or take them from the room, Trey will forcibly try to stop them, attacking if necessary. The logbooks are extensive accounts of many illegal rackets of the Quipper family and the secret society - in other words, damning evidence that the Quipper faction are traitors to the city and its baron.

Denouement for The Lair
Whatever the party decides to do here will end the adventure and affect the ultimate outcome of the investigation. Be sure to keep track of all the major NPC's fates and what the PCs decide to do with the leaders of the secret society and their logbooks.
Be sure to make the concluding portion of the adventure as tense and interesting as you can make it. Feel free to use different enemies than generic thugs, if you feel that would stop it from being dull and predictable. Perhaps the secret society have a few elementalists or demon summoners on their payroll?

Holes in The Lair
The end choice to join the secret society is the main branch of the adventure's conclusion. Keep in mind that the party may assault the lair with the help of the proper authorities - which would turn this section into a much more combat heavy part. Combat with the Guardian Statue could be a problem, if the party has little way to effectively fight a construct. Killing all the leaders of the secret society, capturing them all or having them get away will have impact on the future of the campaign world, as would exposing the secret society and bringing the murderers of Reina Warsh to justice. If the party never finds the lair, they don't solve the murder - it's that simple.