[SPOILERS] Dinner with The Devil

[Dellis]

So! Asking for a bit of GM help^^

I need ideas for a full roleplay session, a "dinner with the devil" 8-hour session, we eat in real as my players role their characters having an amiable dinner with... Chammady.

A bit of backstory. We're in book three, just before entering Delvehaven. My players are a bit obsessed with security, and they've played throughout the AP without even making it public that there WAS a sorta revolutionary group named "Children of Westcrown" in the city, much less their identities.

Nonetheless, they made some waves, and as planned the siblings took note of them. Last session, they won the Hellcaller Cup, and Chammady, of course, went and congratulated with them.

Of course, they felt safe: they usually take part in heroics only when under the effect of Alter Self.

Unbeknownst to them, though, Chammady had a Ring of True Seeing (not an unreasonable assumption, given that she's very rich and lives in a city that's a veritable snake den), so what she saw was a Fetchling, a Tiefling, a Vishkanya and a human trying desperately to seem unassuming.

These were the PCs that had been constantly, if unknowingly, meddling with their plans - so she was very interested in them.

That's why, of course, she invited them for a pleasant dinner.

Enough for the backstory: onto my plea.

I need ideas for the dinner.

My players have surmised that she's a very powerful player in Westcrown, and they suspect she's not entirely friendly.

I'd like the dinner to convey the feeling of being in the lion's den. A very pleasant, very well mannered lion, but one you have to be careful around all the same, and which could chew your head with no forewarning. Tension should be the focus of the evening.

This should be, at the same time, a priceless chance to glean information about the enemy and a situation in which everything they say might destroy every chance they have of righting the wrong in Westcrown. On my side, it is the chance of making them learn a bit more about the "enemy", something that the original AP does not do very well.

Building the emotional foundation, so to speak.

So, ideas:

What should be the dinner's setting? How should I set the tone? Ambient, location, dishes, everything that comes to mind that might help me set the tone I want.

What should happen during the evening? Any specific events which might be cool to have happen during the evening, I don't know a serving boy listening in who is discovered and punished, things like that? Or events which might give the PCs some Info about elements which will become relevant later?

Should Vassindio be there? Should they have a chance to speak of him?

What should Chammady talk about? Obviously she wants to gather as much info about them as she can, but maybe she wants to broach other subjects. Maybe she even offers to help about things the PCs need, to set herself as a benefactor preparing for the inevitable backstab.

I guess what I'm asking boils down to this:

If you were DMing a dinner between Chammady and the players at this point in the AP, what would you do?

[Shaonir]

I did a little of this when Chammady turned up at the Cornucopia Banquet. I had a very scary Serafian hanging around as her bodyguard, and also had Vassindio present, being an absolute... delight... talking about how in the good old days he would have had the players hanged in the street for daring to speak/look/exist at him. He then moved on to talking about a "woman's place", and this allowed me to subtly hint that Chammady was tolerating his ass until the inevitable sibling shanking session.

The tension came from the early revelation that Serafian was the long-lost elven mother of Arael. But that kinda thing might not float your boat.

At this point in the plot, Chammady could perhaps mislead them about Cutlass Cove - tell them some spooky stories about ghosts and pirates that gives them completely the wrong impression, or something else that makes them uniquely vulnerable to the Shadow Beast ambush that waits for them there.

Likewise, some grisly tales about what happened to Sivanshin and Bisby on their Mwangi expedition could set things up nicely for the Delvehaven chapter. I think the horrible things that happened in the jungle really contributed to Sivanshin's decision to embrace the darkness.

Reprimanding/punishing a servant is a good idea, especially if it echoes that childhood episode where Chammady got a handmaid dismissed for picking on Ecarrdian. I think she's always been very good at pointing out people's flaws - a necessity, really, to divert judgement away from her beloved brother. In my game she's something of an Inquisitor, bringing others to repentance and shame (the handmaid from the childhood episode was Janiven's mother, exiled and forced to raise her child on the edge of society).

You could also have the Shadow Beasts lurking around - maybe a scene where they are glimpsed through the windows or outside the door. But of course Chammady has no fear of them, or is deliberately using them to stage something.

Maybe have Vuiper Ghivel there as a guest, and show how he is besotted with Chammady and trying to hide it, while also trying to effect his theological blend of Asmodean and Abadaran beliefs. Good foreshadowing for the last chapter.

The Ghivel townhouse might be a good setting for the dinner that doesn't give too much away. Likewise, the Gargling Gargoyle if you want to keep clear of the Parego Dospera for now. Chammady might also have a VIP section at the Pleatra Slave Market. I did a great scene where I was intercutting the characters' conversations with the sight of slaves being brought in from the Xin-Shalast expeditions and auctioned off to various diabolists and tyrants. Delicious symbolism.

Or you could be too cool for school and have the dinner take place on a luxury barge, floating along the river. That way Chammady could give a guided tour of the outer walls of the Parego, i.e. the king's abandoned castle, the noble villas, Walcourt, etc. I like to drop in as often as I can the story of how Queen Koridanna arrived in Westcrown to subdue its lawlessness and had to choose between a bloodbath and doing a deal with the Council of Thieves. Because that very history is about to repeat itself when General Vourne shows up at the end of the adventure. Likewise, some mention of House Thrune and how it has Pit Fiends on tap will foreshadow the Infernal Syndrome.

And when you're done, you can reuse the dinner barge as the slave barge in Part Six.

As for Chammady herself, I always like to hint at how she is not so much a villain as someone compelled by love. Ecarrdian is all she has in this world, and vice versa, and with their fates so entwined there is nothing they will not do for one another. Perhaps that is a bond AS strong or STRONGER than what the PCs share right now. As such, he sense of loyalty and drive could either be an inspiration or a humiliation to the party.

[MannyGoblin]

Interesting thing I thought of when you brought up the shadow beats. While they won't enter buildings, I can see them trolling people by banging on doors/roofs, piling up dead bodies of people they caught and so on. Nothing too destructive but just making sure people know they are there.