Midnight in the Bazaar

Небольшое приключение с официального сайта, за авторством Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.


Midnight in the Bazaar

A 45 minute (or less) 13th Age demo
The characters have finally tracked down the vile instigator of the evils that have befallen the city of Glitterhaegen. Now, they’re about to confront him in the great marketplace just as he puts his scheme into motion.

Character Creation
The pregenerated characters have their ability scores, attacks and spells pre-selected, as well as brief notes on how each power works. What they don’t have are:
Full Icon Relationships
Backgrounds
One Unique Things
For Icon Relationships, all the characters have a 1-point positive relationship with the Emperor – they’re a band of adventurers and troubleshooters with a good reputation.
Each player now chooses their remaining Icons. Use these as a guideline to pick the nature of the bad guy. If there’s a clear majority for one villain, then the bad guy works for him and uses the appropriate theming and mooks.

What’s Going On?
A mysterious foe has done something evil in the city. The nature of the threat depends on who the bad guy’s working for:
  • Lich King: There’s a necromancer in town, the Grey Rat, stirring up the catacombs and awakening the dead. The characters have spent weeks crawling through dungeons and hunting zombies. The necromancer seems to be concentrating on the tombs of the wealthy families.
  • The Grey Rat’s secretly interrogating the dead; he’s searching for the location of the fabled Bank of the Dead, a secret treasury managed by undead merchants who rise once a century to make long-term investments.
  • Orc Lord: An orc army approaches from the west, and there’s a Traitor in the city, trying to weaken Glitterhagen’s defences before the siege begins. Many have already fled the city.
  • The Traitor is secretly a pirate captain – by sparking panic, he’s forcing all the rich nobles to flee by ship, and his pirate armada’s going to sweep in and loot the laden refugee ships
  • Diabolist: The characters were hired to investigate a spate of possessions and strange events, and they’ve learned that the one thing all the victims had in common was that they bargained with a mysterious merchant – a Soul Broker – in the marketplace.
  • All those souls are going to get used in a ritual to invoke a demon of greed.
Now, the characters are on the verge of tracking down their foe in the Grand Bazaar.

Scene Setup
Ask a player who got a 5 or 6 on an Icon roll how their Icon ally helped them find the villain. (If no-one got an appropriate 5 or 6, then go for the most suitable background and ask the player how they tracked down the villain).

If you can, use the other 5s or 6s now – maybe hand out a +1 weapon or some other benefit. Put any outstanding 5s and 6s in front of the players and explain that they can use them in the game if they can think of something suitably cool.

Next, go around the table, focusing on players who didn’t get Icon benefits, and flesh the scene out with leading questions.
  • The Bazaar is a huge open-air market square. Lots of booths and tents. What’s the biggest landmark in the Bazaar?
  • How do you arrive in the Bazaar? Are you going for speed or stealth as you pursue your quarry?
  • Something’s happening in the Bazaar that’s going to be an obstacle. What is it?
  • The guard in the Bazaar are unusual in some way. How so?
  • You’ve got a bad feeling about this. What’s worrying you?
  • The villain’s somewhere in the Bazaar, moving through the crowds. The characters arrive and hunt for him, using whatever tools or clues they’ve established. After a few minutes’ hunting, they spot the villain approaching an ornate purple tent. As they move to stop him…

A Note On Timing
Intro, Character Setup, Basics – 15 minutes
Lead into first fight – 5 minutes
First fight – 15 minutes
Lead into second fight – 5 minutes
Second fight – 10 minutes

The Grey Rat (Lich King villain):
The ground of the bazaar suddenly collapses. The old city catacombs run under the bazaar – they run under everywhere – and undead creatures swarm out. The Grey Rat scurries down into the catacombs. To get to him, the characters must fight through the skeletal horde.

Bazaar Fight
3 PCs 4 PCs 5 PCs 6 PCs
Skeleton Warriors 2 2 3 3
Decrepit Skeletons 5 10 10 15

Skeleton Warriors
2nd Level Troop [UNDEAD]
Initiative +8
Vulnerability: Holy
Spear +8 vs. AC – 6 damage
Resist Weapons 16+
AC16
PD 14 HP 26
MD 11

Decrepit Skeletons
1nd Level Mook [UNDEAD]
Initiative +6
Vulnerability: Holy
Spear +6 vs. AC – 3 damage
Resist Weapons 16+
AC 16
PD 14 HP 7 (mook)
MD 10

Once the undead are defeated (or bypassed), the characters can search the tent and find a map of the catacombs, clearly drawn by interrogating the dead. He’s pinpointed the location of the Bank of the Dead beneath the city. It’s located directly beneath the Well of Foresight, and there’s an old tradition that various trading houses throw copies of their annual reports down the well.
The characters then pursue the villain into the catacombs, following him to the vault of the Bank of the Dead. There are lots of coffins containing slumbering bank-liches, and lots of gold. The characters can either battle the villain and his Decrepit Skeleton horde, or else change the most recent financial reports to awaken the Dread Bankers.

Bank Fight
3 PCs 4 PCs 5 PCs 6 PCs
Grey Rat 1 1 1 1
Decrepit Skeletons 0 5 10 15

Grey Rat
2nd Level Triple-Strength Caster [Humanoid]
Initiative +7
Staff +7 vs AC – 15 damage
C: Death Curse +7 vs. PD (all nearby foes) – 7 damage, creates one Decrepit Skeleton per hit
Ratform (1/battle) – turn into a rat. Turns into a rat, avoiding one attack and disengaging.
AC 18
PD 12 HP 70
MD 16

The Traitor (Orc Lord villain):
Suddenly, orcs emerge from the purple tent and start hacking and slashing. Most of the orcs are illusions, but there are a few orc warriors who are real and solid. The Traitor pops into the tent and flees through the sewers.

3 PCs 4 PCs 5 PCs 6 PCs
Orc Berserkers 2 2 3 3
Illusionary Orcs 5 10 10 15

Orc Berserkers
2nd Level Troop [Humanoid]
Initiative +5
Greataxe +7 vs. AC – 8 damage
Dangerous: Crit range increases by 3 unless staggered
AC 16
PD 15 HP 30
MD 13

Illusionary Orcs
1nd Level Mook [Illusion]
Initiative +3
Axe +6 vs. AC – 6 damage
Illusion: A partially damaged illusion is destroyed
AC16
PD14 HP7 (mook)
MD10

The orc attack starts a panic in the market. People hurry down to the docks towards the ships, and the great exodus begins. It’s clear that anyone who has a ship to go to is leaving the city.
The Traitor ran into a sewer entrance. Pursuing him through the sewers, the characters find their way to an exit on a waterside warehouse. There, they see a ship departing, its sails filled by a magical wind. The traitor’s standing at the tiller. The characters need to leap on board or otherwise stop the ship from leaving the harbor, or else the Traitor will send in his pirate fleet!

The Pirate Captain
2nd Level Triple-Strength Wrecker [Humanoid]
Initiative +8
Cutlass +7 vs AC (2 attacks) – 13 damage
Natural even hit: Swashbuckle! The captain moves, making the target vulnerable until they move to counter.
Miss: 6 damage
Ring of Illusion: When the captain is staggered, he adopts the illusion of one of the player characters.
AC 18
PD 16 HP 90
MD 12

The Soul Broker (Diabolist villain):
The Soul Broker ducks into a strange curiosity shop down a side street – but when the characters try to follow him, the purple tent comes to life and attacks. Demonic imps pour of it, while the tent itself flails at them with viciously sharp tentpegs and whipping guy-ropes.
3 PCs 4 PCs 5 PCs 6 PCs
The Tent 1 1 1 1
Demon Imps 0 5 10 15

The Tent
2nd Level Triple-Strength Blocker [Construct]
Initiative +5
Ropes +7 vs. AC – 7 damage
Natural 16+: Target is grabbed
Engulf +7 vs. PD (grabbed targets only) – engulfed victim takes 10 ongoing damage
AC 18
PD 16 HP 90
MD 12

Demon Imps
1st level Mook [Demon]
Initiative +5
Claws +6 vs. AC – 4 damage
Mockery: If a character misses an attack on an imp, he takes 3 damage
AC 16
PD 11 HP 7 (mook)
MD 16

Soul Broker
2nd Level Triple-Strength Caster [Humanoid]
Initiative +7
Staff +7 vs AC – 15 damage
C: Madness +7 vs. MD – 14 damage, and target is Confused (save ends)
Pigeons from Hell – free +7 vs AC attack on all nearby foes, 5 damage
AC 18
PD 12 HP 70
MD 16

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