Here we come to the final part of our Let’s Read of the third Hell’s Rebels adventure, “Dance of the Damned”. With the “regional support” missions complete, the Rebellion’s stats can grow to their maximum values. We’re almost at the point where things get real serious in Kintargo.

The revolution starts with a party.

Part 5: The Ruby Masquerade

Barzilai Thrune has been organizing a grand masquerade ball to be hosted at the Opera House ever since the start of this adventure. He advertises it as a way to reconcile with his critics and to show everything is fine in Kintargo, but of course it’s a dastardly trap. After the PCs close the Menador Gap he steps up his time table and announces a date for the event. He might also end up doing it on his original schedule if the PCs take too long to complete that key mission.

His plan is to use a troop of dottari and disguised devils to massacre the ball’s attendants at the party’s climax, and doctor the evidence to blame the Silver Ravens. This will give him an official excuse to begin hunting them down in earnest.

Barzilai sends invitations to every noble or other prominent citizen he knows does not support him. He’s not stupid enough to believe the PCs would attend if he invited them directly, so he makes invitations relatively easy to acquire by other means as well.

It’s at this point that the private investigator Tayacet Tiora makes contact with the PCs. Barzilai had hired her to look into the Silver Ravens, and it’s even possible they ran into her in previous adventures if the GM decided to use that scene. This time, she’s found out enough to become convinced the PCs are in the right, and she comes to warn them that the Masquerade is a trap. Her recommendation is for the PCs to not attend, but she promises to help if they insist.

Simply not going is certainly an option. It ensures the safety of the PCs but lets the trap spring on the innocent guests unopposed. The book also contemplates the possibility that the PCs will want to break into the Opera House early, which is actually a good call. The same security forces will be present and they will be patrolling more aggresively, but there will be no bystanders. The PCs would miss out on a few extra hob-nobbing opportunities but would be in a much better tactical position.

The rest of the adventure assumes the PCs do attend, however. It should be fairly easy to get invitations for the whole party plus any allies they wish to take. Tiora will also attend in this case, and be ready to help if necessary.

The Masquerade starts at 9 PM, and whatever day is most convenient for the GM. The PCs should have ample time to prepare for this one, growing the rebellion and aiming their NPC teams at the Opera House to provide information. It’s even possible to plant an infiltrated saboteur among the guards. With good rolls they should have a pretty good idea of the security inside the place, and an extra ally on the inside.

Party Mechanics

The actual ball is a bit of a skill challenge in the same vein as the Vyre banquet. There’s an official dress code: outfits should include the color red, everyone must wear a mask, and both should be fancy. Fortunately they can pass anything up to medium armor and shields as part of the costume, but it’s definitely worth it to have it adorned and to splurge on extravagant masks. These give bonuses to social skills during the event.

Just like we had Banquet Points in Vyre, here we have Masque Points. PCs start with an amount between 4 and 16 depending on how fancy their costumes are. NPC allies they bring with them also affect this total. The ball is split into half-hour segments, and each PC can perform one of several available actions during this span of time. Some of these actions cost Masque Points, some can be used to acquire more with good skill rolls.

Unless the PCs have been making an effort to ingratiate themselves with the noble houses during “strategic” play, this is their last real chance to do so before things heat up. The Kintargo-aligned house heads should all be here, so the party’s socialites can identify them and chat them up. Having to do this now does add a layer of complication to the procedures, which is why I like the idea of introducing this element early in the campaign instead and let players make their own interaction opportunities.

Opera House Layout and Security

The Opera House has three floors and an extensive basement. The main seating areas had all of their seats removed to host the ball. Most guests stay on the ground floor, but the nobles gravitate towards the second floor balcony because they like to look down on commoners.

The first two floors have a lot of backstage areas off to the sides, and the third floor and basement are all “backstage”. Many of these areas were converted in living spaces for Barzilai and his staff. All backstage areas are off-limits to party guests, so PCs need to be sneaky when exploring them.

There are a total of 22 dottari in the house, half of which attend to the guests while wearing smiley masks. The other half stands in reserve, waiting for the trap to spring. The dottari here use the same stats as the Menador soldiers, with slightly different gear. This means the PCs should be able to handle small groups of them just fine - the challenge is doing so without raising an alarm.

There is also a troop of devils in here: two bone, six bearded, and a single erinyes. One of the bone devils, Crizmerkis, has a few class levels on him and is wearing an illusory disguise to look like Barzilai. The real Thrune has relocated to the temple of Asmodeus, and does not appear in this adventure. The other bone devil is in the orchestra pit, using his illusion magic to provide the music for the ball. The remaining monsters are scattered through several side rooms.

One of the rooms also contains suspended cages for Barzilai’s pet cockatrices, which can be released at the press of a switch. Unless the PCs or an ally break the switch, these creatures will be released when the trap is sprung.

Finally, there are a bunch of secret rooms in a sub-basement that used to belong to the original Silver Ravens. Barzilai is using them to stash his treasures and house his “prize” henchthings. Former Mayor Jilia Bailinus sleeps here as a vampire, and the long-missing singer Shensen is also here as a statue.

There are a couple of additional secret chambers Thrune’s lackeys haven’t been able to find, and which contain valuable Silver Ravens stuff. This includes the crypts for the original Ravens, which confirm their fates and the fact that Jackdaw, the last remaining member, might still be alive. And it also includes the musical score for the Song of Silver, a potent ritual that will greatly help the PCs in the climax of the rebellion.

Using rebellion actions the PCs can arm themselves with plenty of information before going in: a Covert Action can give them the map to the whole building, even the secret-secret chambers with a good enough roll. And a Sabotage action can place an infiltrator among the dottari. Once the PCs link up with the infiltrator during the party, they can learn the composition and location of the place’s entire security detail, devils included. The saboteur can also break the cockatrice release switch.

There are several rooms that are noted as being rarely visited by both guests and patrols, which makes them perfect places to hide bodies. So yup, time to Assassin’s Creed it up.

“Delving” the Masquerade

I would say those covert actions are so vital that the GM should push for them to happen if the players have been neglecting that aspect of the game. The PCs are on the clock here and every little advantage helps.

The party starts at 9PM. At 10PM, they have a special “Dance of the Damned” event that takes up half an hour. At midnight an unmasking ceremony happens and Crizmerkis springs the ambush with the aim of killing every single guest in the house.

PCs should carefully manage their masque points, with some of the party making an effort to mingle and gain more while the rest spend them on exploration actions. It’s important that the minglers manage to maintain the point total above 0, and that the explorers avoid raising a general alarm. Either of these things will cause Crizmerkis to spring the trap immediately.

Participation on the dance is optional, but winning the contest gives a ton of Masque Points so the minglers will want to participate. This leaves them with 5 other segments on which to decide their actions before the trap is sprung.

Explorers who refuse to take part in the contest have 6 segments on which to act. Their priority target here should be taking out the dottari, because they’re weaker and have less means of raising the alarm (several of the devils are telepathic and can do so instantly). The less enemies there are at midnight, the easier the final fight will be. Looting and detailed exploration of the basement should wait until after the main ambush force is defeated. There are a few extra monsters down there that will not take part in the ambush, so they can be safely ignored for the moment.

The Stroke of Midnight

At midnight, Crizmerkis (disguised as Barzilai) will stop the music and make an ominous speech. During the speech, the dottari will split into 11 pairs and stand guard over every one of the building’s exits, locking those doors in the process. Attacking them before the speech is done will cost the party a bunch of Masque Points but will give them a surprise round and a tactical advantage.

The gist of the speech is that the guests present here have graciously volunteered themselves to help maintain public order, by being massacred so the blame can fall on the Silver Ravens and Barzilai can go after them. As soon as it ends, the devils attack.

There are 300 guests in the house, not counting the PCs. The “spare” bone devil and the erinyes will focus on slaughering them, while the bearded devils and Crizmerkis will come for the PC directly. Most of them will be disguised as good outsiders using illusions, but additional summoned devils and such will not have disguises on. The PCs can draw the attention of the bone devil and erinyes by engaging them in combat. If cornered, Crizmerkis might summon the vampire Jillia Bailinus to help.

This is why killing the dottari early helps: if there are less of them, they’re going to leave some of those exits unlocked and unprotected. The PCs must open the exits so guests can leave: 1d6 guests escape every round for every unlocked exit. With no open exits, 2d6 of them die every round to sheer crushing crowd pressure. Those two devils kill even more per round if left alone. If you’re using GURPS, read “every round” as “every six seconds”, otherwise things might get a little impossible here.

Results and Consequences

The event will go down in history as the Ruby Massacre. Whether the PCs or Thrune are blamed for it depends on how well they do in this final fight.

If the PCs win the big fight they should have plenty of time to explore the rest of the opera house. They’ll get to fight a pack of hellhounds being used as guard animals in the basement, find Vampire Jilia’s coffing and stake her, and find Shensen and the Song of Silver. There’s also a lot of other cool loot to be had, including a scroll of resurrection that can be used to bring the former Mayor back to life after she’s destroyed as a vampire.

If the PCs loose, they’ll find themselves waking up inside a cell in Castle Kintargo. Either way as soon as they leave the opera house we transition directly to Volume 04, where we go full Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

Notes and Impressions

The book makes that final battle sound quite difficult, particularly if the PCs didn’t prepare for it by coming into the party armed and taking out some of the opposition ahead of time. Even if they did, it’s going to be hard to save all the bystanders. Dungeon Fantasy delvers should have it a bit easier because the GURPS version of these opponents won’t have HP in the triple digits, but it’s going to be tough even for them.

The same emphasis on etiquette from the Vyre banquet is present here, but here it makes less sense given the surrounding context. The Silver Ravens only get diplomatic/strategic benefits from thwarting the ambush if they have more than 20 Masque Points by the time the ambush starts. I guess this is supposed to represent the final impression left on the survivors about who is to blame for the massacre, but it feels odd to have the party save these people in a very obvious manner and not be recognized for it. I’d say that saving the heads of the noble houses at least should be more than enough to get them on-side for the next adventure, if that hasn’t happened yet.

If the PCs have been buttering up the nobles on their own initiative prior to this point, then the best strategic decision they can make is to break into the opera house days before the ball, preferrably during daylight hours so the vampire isn’t a factor. All the same enemies will still be there, but the whole party can focus on exploring the area and taking them out. They’ll completely forfeit the possible diplomatic rewards from the Masquerade, but not having to split their focus between delving and socializing or rescuing bystanders is more than worth it.