Seating at the Ouroboros University Amphitheater
The Amphitheater at Ouroboros University features a horseshoe shaped seating area open to the weather, though the stage and the seating closest to the stage are have a roof but no walls. Behind the stage is a five-story building, built in a Brick Gothic style, home to dressing rooms, costume and prop shops, a small performance hall, classrooms and professors offices.
What People Know
A character visiting Ouroboros University knows the following information about this chapel and cemetery with a successful History, Streetwise or Thievery skill check.
DC 12: The Mentzer Theater is the proper name for the place, though most people just call it ” The Amphitheater.” It is the site of musical performances, displays of magic, plays, operas, shadow plays, ballets (dwarf ones are surprisingly popular), kabuki dance drama and the like – all open to anyone willing to purchase a ticket (1). Technically speaking, the Amphitheater is part of the Department of Department of Histrionics, in the Music College.
DC 14: More than a thousand years old, the Amphitheater has been a part of the city for ages. The roof and theater building are recent additions, more or less, replacing the originals lost centuries ago.
DC 16: Bards and others may learn their craft and practice their skills at the Amphitheater. It is also home to amateur productions, giving students a chance to prove themselves. Jennifer Zamzanoble, noted actress and keen observer, serves as theater director and likes solving mysteries. (2) Musical lessons are available to any proffesion. (3)
DC 18: Zamzanoble hosts “salons,” or gatherings of intellectual, social, political and cultural elites, in part to amuse one another and partly to refine their taste and increase their knowledge through conversation. The nature of these gatherings has drawn severe criticism from the local nobility, who dislike the university in any event.
DC 22: Rogues and others may learn their craft and practice their skills at the Amphitheater and has managed to avoid entanglements with the local thieves’ guild. (4).
The Salon – A Murder Mystery
When the PCs attend a salon at the Amphitheater read this text:
“You are invited to attend a salon at the Amphitheater. It is an enjoyable event, a kind of low-key party featuring good drink, good food and good conversation. The topic of the evening is music and how different races handle music. Eldarin, from the feywild embassy in the city, stare at people when not assuring everyone their music is best as visiting lizard folk talk about their drumming techniques. This is cut short when a brief magical darkness descends on the room. When it lifts, a man lies dead in the middle of the floor, a knife in his back.” (4)
Setup
- Balatro, Human Knife Fighter
- Professor Zamzanoble, 12th level Fighter
- Crudus, Greenscale Marsh Mystic
- The audience, made up of a few dozen eldarin, dwarves, humans, halfings, gnomes and dragon born NPCs.
Twisted in his soul by forces of evil (5), OU student Balatro serves as an agent of pointless chaos and violence. To this end, Balatro murdered Aduro, a songwriter, attempts to blame Crudus, a Greenscale Marsh Mystic and further plots to murder an Iron Dragon, who will give a lecture in a few days. Taking the initiative and successfully investigating the situation will earn the PCs Professor Zamzanoble’s respect and help for a future adventure.
This scenario provides a map of the over-all layout for the Amphitheater. The room in which Zamzanoble conducts the salon is on the second floor and doors lead from it to the balcony. This encounter requires no combat until the identity of the murderer is uncovered – until then it is an investigation, where the PCs accomplish their goals through skill challenges and well used magic.
Features of the Amphitheater
- General Seating: The proverbial cheap seats in the Amphitheater. Attendance at an event in one of these seats costs 1 cp. This area is open to the elements.
- Good Seating: Decent seating in the Amphitheater. Attendance at an event in one of these seats costs 1 sp. This seating section is covered, shielding it from rain and snow, though not winds.
- Stage: The stage is huge, running 32-squares (160-feet) long and by 7-squares (35-feet) deep, except for a curved section in the middle, which runs 14-squares (70-feet) deep. Most performances use only the center.
- Balcony: A balcony over-looks the stage. The balcony permits access to catwalks running just under the roof over the stage and Amphitheater and to the deus ex machinae, a 2-square (10-foot) by 3-square (15-foot) platform which can be lowered to the center of the rounded section of the stage by a series of pulleys and cranks.
- Theater Building: A relatively recent addition to the Amphitheater (6), this large and impressive brick-Gothic building is home to home to dressing rooms, costume and prop shops, classrooms and professors’ offices.
Investigating the Murder
To investigate the murder, the PCs need to speak with people attending the salon, which includes members of all the player races and classes, with a preponderance of bards. There are four groups at the salon; a delegation of eldarin, a group of dwarves, students and faculty from OU and a party of adventurers accompanying Crudus the Marsh Mystic. Salon attendees were in different places across the room when the lights went out and each has their own perspective on the salon and Aduro.
- Eldarin: This includes staff of the Eldarin ambassador – he is not present and they do not have diplomatic immunity. They are attending the salon to explain to people about feywild music and to watch people the way people watch fish in tank.
- Dwarves: A group of professional mime accordion players (7) attending the salon out of friendship with Professor Zamzanoble and to prevent the eldarin from over impressing people with their bell ringing.
- Students and Faculty: While they come from OU, they are not a single group and do not share a purpose, aside from a desire to attend the salon. Balatro is in this group, as was the murdered Aduro.
- Adventures and Marsh Mystic: Among the adventurers are some OU graduates and Crudus the Marsh Mystic, who is a member of the party and seeking a patron, to gain admission to OU. She is an excellent drummer.
Skill Challenge
Level: 7 (XP 1,500)
Complexity: 4 (requires 10 success before 3 failures)
Primary Skills: Diplomacy, Insight, Perception
Diplomacy (DC 14): The PCs use the Diplomacy skill to convince the NPCs of their good intentions. A salon is about people talking to each other in a witty and well-mannered way and the murder has not changed this fact, though the murder has disrupted the evening.
Insight (DC 14): The friction between the dwarves and the eldarin is professional and not personal; several people liked Aduro’s songs but disliked the man personally, though they would not willingly admit this fact. Balatro is a disruptive presence.
Perception (DC 8, 14 & 19): DC 8 to determine the knife in Aduro’s back in one made by lizard folk, DC 14 to learn that Crudus, the Marsh Mystic possesses a dry, musky scent common to large reptiles and DC 19 to detect a scent of cologne on the knife in Aduro.
Secondary Skills: Bluff, Intimidate
Bluff (DC 14): The PCs can convince members of the audience they can be trusted, even if they shouldn’t be, to gain a +1 bonus on Diplomacy checks.
Intimidate (DC 20): Those attending the salon include a number of experienced adventures, whom are difficult to Intimidate, though it is possible.
Conclusion
The PCs receive information based on the total number of success achieved. If they fail, the city guard solves the case but not until after Balatro assassinates the dragon. If they succeed, the PCs determine the murderer before the second murder and make a favorable impression on a number of important people at OU.
Success: If they PCs accumulate 10-success, they are able to determine the identity of the murderer before the city guards can but not before Balatro temporary escapes.
Failure: If they PCs accumulate 3 failures, they do not pick up on clues and alienate people attending the salon to the point they are unable to conclude the investigation.
Additional Points
The PCs learn the following information based on how many successes they manage to obtain during the investigation.
- 0-2: Aduro and Crudus the Marsh Mystic had been arguing sharply earlier in the evening, until Professor Zamzanoble intervened.
- 3: A lizard folk dagger is hilt deep in the back of Aduro. When the lights went out, Crudus the Marsh Mystic was standing to the left of a dwarf mime, and when they came back on she was on the dwarf mime’s right side.
- 4-6: There is a lingering scent on the corpse of peppermint-scented cologne hanging about the corpse. Lizard folk made daggers are available for purchase across the city.
- 7-8: An argument between Aduro and Crudus the Marsh Mystic were not actually that severe, nor does the Mystic possess the ability to create a magical darkness. Balatro goes out of his way to create chaos and trouble for others, centering his life on conflict.
- 9-10: The dwarf mime says the scent of Crudus the Marsh Mystic always stayed near him while Balatro is one of three people in the entire city who likes peppermint-scented cologne (and the other two did not attend the salon).
- 11+: Aduro was killed by Balatro, who then attempted to frame Crudus the Marsh Mystic. Balatro bragged on owning a wand of dragon slaying.
Resolution
As he realizes the PCs are accurately piecing events together, Balatro moves towards a window. He jumps through the window in an excessively theatrical manner and flees into the night once the party accumulates 10 successes. Balatro could be chased down or, at the DM’s discretion, a trap could be laid for him when he returns a few nights later for an attempt to kill the dragon who will be visiting OU to give a lecture. And, sure enough, several nights later Balatro positions himself on the deus ex machinae amid the catwalks, to assassinate the iron dragon (with his wand of dragon slaying) who is giving a lecture on dragon mating rituals (8). Ideally, the PCs could confront him on the platform, which should lower to the stage making for a dramatic combat encounter. (9) Should they prevent the assassination and stop Balatro, Zamzanoble may act as a patron for those in the party wishing to attend OU.
Other Game Systems
Savage Worlds: Appropriate skills include Investigation, Knowledge, Persuasion and Streetwise. At a standard difficulty, a successful skill check reveals the paragraphs above, one paragraph per successful check.
Pathfinder: Appropriate skills include Diplomacy, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (engineering), Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local) and Knowledge (religion). Knowledge (arcane) reveals information only about the wizards’ school. Knowledge (religion) reveals information only about the seminary. Starting at standard difficulty, a successful skill check reveals the paragraphs above, though subsequent paragraphs increases the DC by +1.
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1. This is an ideal location for social conflicts of some kind – the encounter above is an example – and to provide plot points, meetings with contacts and just oddness to color and fantasy world.
2. The theater provides a context for learning bard related skills, even for those who are not bards.
3. Zamzanoble’s courses are among the few places where the feat “Bardic Dilettante” are available.
4. On the sly, the theater provides a context for learning rogue related skills, for those who do not want to deal with those leg-breaking bastards in the local mafia. How long the PCs can go without the leg-breaking bastards in the local mafia catching them is a different issue.
5. There is nothing like good dinner theater.
6. Until recently, Balatro enjoyed a reputation as a respected student, though in recent months he has become a troublemaker and gossip monger. Who know what happened to the man?
7. The Amphitheater is almost 1,000-years old and the “new” theater building is about 100-years old.
8. They are good and in high demand at taverns across the city.
9. The iron dragon manages to make this terribly dull – most of the attendees are there for the following show, a performance by the dwarf mime accordionists.
10. The audience will think its part of the show, and the critics will decry the employment of deus ex machinae as an unnecessary device.
