Circus Arrested { Plot }

Plot: The Circus Arrested

Summary: A bunch of members of the Circus got arrested a few weeks ago, and are essentially being held for ransom. The remaining members need to pull together and figure out a way to get a lot of money ASAP, because the herald is arriving this evening (near end of game) to collect, and things will get unpleasant for the captives if he isn't paid off.

Description

This is a loose description, and needs refining. But I think it works well as backstory for the game.

About three weeks ago, the Circus was playing outside a mid-sized town, run by a strict and slightly corrupt nobleman. Despite Payne's explicit warnings, someone tried to run a grift, and it backfired badly. All the members of the Circus who were in town at the time were rounded up and thrown into gaol. A message was sent to the ones who were outside out town (the ones who are in-game), outlining the "bail" (really, everyone is clear that it is a ransom), and saying that life in the prison wasn't pleasant, and would get steadily worse if it was not paid soon.

So now, the Circus has a major problem. They need to raise a goodly chunk of money quickly, and they are at half-staff, making that especially difficult. This has made them a bit desperate, and that leads into a variety of other plots.

From a metagame POV, this plot works nicely on several levels. It gives the Circus a sense of urgency, as well as giving them a reason to pull together, when their other plots are apt to pull them apart. It gives them a reason to accept into their ranks (on a temporary/probationary basis) a lot more people than they would normally contemplate bringing in at one time -- that gives us a way in for a number of other characters. And it provides an in-game reason why half the characters from the Circus are Just Plain Not Here, saving us from the possibility of needing to do a bunch of NPCs.

Darker: Nice! Two things to keep in mind: 1. If they resolve the "need money" plot, they ought to still have reasons to stick around; 2. If there are any other characters in-game (a) wealthy enough that the sum required would be a pittance, and (b) have that wealth readily accessible, this plot has the potential to short-circuit very quickly. (I mean, I'd hope that such a character would ask for something in return for the money, but predicting player decisions...well, you know how it is.)

Justin: 1) Good point. Maybe we'll say that the town nobleman's emissary will be arriving here tonight to collect the ransom -- that gives the GMs control of the pacing there, and means that they can't leave here. 2) Yes, pretty clearly a danger. If Gil decides to Deal With The Problem, it's pretty much dealt with. I doubt we can completely control that, but we might be able to write Gil to be a little conservative about making the offer. Should he not make the offer, there's a backup plan of offering some sort of treasures from Amagog's Castle instead.

We probably should make use of Moxana in the backstory here. It's entirely plausible that she knows about the Castle: she's a contemporary of Sarah, more or less, and might well know the location of the Castle from the olden days. She could have steered the Castle? here, in that indirect way she does.

Embi plans to use the Clockwork Crystal as the ransom. This might well work, if we decide it's appropriate and necessary, but we should be open to other plans to deal with it. Gil might give them the money, or simply resolve to lean on the nobleman. Or they might find something else in the Castle, if they choose to search it -- Amagog certainly had some modest riches in there.

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Characters In Game: Artie Dimo Embi Helen Krosp Marie Maxim Oggie Payne Sarah Zeetha

All Characters: Artie Dimo Embi Helen Krosp Marie Maxim Oggie Payne Sarah Zeetha

GM Notes

One of the most straightforward plots in the game, which worked pretty cleanly in both runs. The Circus have motivation to engage in a certain amount of treasure-hunting. The one treasure that really solves their problem is the Castle's wine cellar -- specifically, the Chateau Sturmhalten 1768 is the finest vintage ever brewed, unimaginably valuable. No one has possessed more than half-a-dozen bottles of it in the past century, and there's an entire case in the Cellar, which Amagog lifted from the winery via the Mirror shortly after it was made. Four bottles is an ample ransom for the Circus, and the remainder, even quickly fenced, is valuable enough for the Circus to live comfortably off of for a year.

Embi has the Agility skill that allows him to explore the Castle relatively freely, and Payne has the knowledge of wines to recognize the vintage's value. If they put that together, they should realize they have a solution. If not, allow them to use other properties of the Castle for ransom, within reason. Note that the Clockwork Crystal by itself it a poor ransom -- von Markheim is something of a troglodyte, and unlikely to consider it more than a toy.

Considerations for Next Time

While this plot worked decently well, it was a bit flat and ordinary. At the least, the Circus folk need more to do. It had the negative effect that the players really wanted to mount a rescue expedition, which was quite a reasonable desire but would tend to derail their plot; I had to actively sabotage that in the first run, which I don't like doing.

Note that the main purpose of this plot was to explain why only a few members of the Circus are present. We might accomplish that in a very different way, if we rewrite the Succession plot. If, instead of being in search of Marie, she has been summoned back to Holfung-Borzoi, and permitted only a small retinue, that could explain it in a very different way. It could provide a non-threatened reason why the rest of the Circus are several days' ride away -- indeed, they might simply be traveling in a business-as-usual way, while this small expedition deals with the succession problem. In which case the Circus folk would need new plots, but that's okay: we could come up with better ones for them, including some sort of scam on the local nobility, needing to put on a play short-handed for some reason, and other personal ties and plots.