Pirates at the Opera!! (seriously, I need ideas here)

[pennywit]

So, my players are in the middle of Tempest Rising. They've dutifully pursued leads on the Chelish spy ring, but things have taken a ... weird ... turn, partly from player agency and partly because I put out some potential hooks.

The upshot is that rather than find Corlan and prevent the assassination, the players decided to find out why the heck there were dashes beside Endymion Arronax's name. As a GM, I firmly believe that the world moves on with or without the PCs, so Corlan got himself assassinated, and Hell Harbor guards have a msytery.

Meanwhile, the players decided to get the attention of guards (and perhaps Arronax) by killing a bunch of imps and turning them in for a bounty. (Said bounty is detailed in Isles of the Shackles). After a street battle with some INCREDIBLY annoying imps (including one imp who used his Suggestion SLA to force the party alchemist to inventory a banana cart for three rounds), the party hauled their corpses to the guards. In turn, a guard investigator named Inspector Hiram Goldpicker did a nice little dance of checks with the PC captain. The end result was that Hiram gave up a little bit of information about Corlan's murder, and the PCs shared a little bit of their information about investigating the spy ring. The PCs are going to get Sandara to use Speak With Dead on Corlan's corpse ... and Hiram gave them the guards' opera tickets.

The players want to use the opera to get close to Endymion and figure out what his deal is. They went out and bought their fancy duds, and they're headed into the opera.

The opera will be next weekend. And, quite frankly, I'm at a loss as to what to do. I've already decided to structure it loosely around the Ultimate Intrigue rules, with five "social round" opportunities: pre-show reception, Act I, intermission, Act II, and post-show reception.

Aside from that ... I've got really hazy ideas. I could use some help here, particularly on the following questions:

Who's at the opera and what do they want? Both Longbeard and Endymion are in attendance. Who else might be there?

What opera is being performed? Themes, anything!! I'm actually thinking about an operatic version of the players' exploits back in Plunder and Peril, but told from Varossa Lanteri's point of view. (They let her go, BTW. She's since become this NPC who pops up occasionally. It's really fun for me as a GM because the players expect trouble whenever she's there.)

What hijinks and side plots should be available?

On this, I have no idea.

So ... any thoughts would be appreciated because I'm sort of regretting writing myself into "Pirates' Night at the Opera."

[*Khan*]

Pirate Lord Bedu Hanji would properbly be attending both for the Music and to meet business partners for his slave operation.
My players hate him after they visiter Rampore Isles.

For music:
Stravinsky - the rite of spring. Not an opera - but a ballet, but very powerful and primitive with ritual sacrifice of a young woman.
You could tell the players that the young woman sings beautifully and continue to do so, when her ghost rises from her dead body (illusion).

[pennywit]

Nice. I am also thinking of:

A representative from Harrigan's crew, there to have a conversation with Arronax

A ghoul pirate captain (of my own design) who has been off screen for most of the AP and is there to enjoy the oper.

A middle aged goblin who has taken a interest in the PCs. The PC caption is an oversized goblin getting respect from the longhanks, so this fellow is there to curry favor with the PCs.

Two members of the PC crew there on a date.

I like adding Bedu Banjo, although I think I would go with one of his lieutenants instead.

Also leaning toward Longboard.

Would like to get one more who might be a potential ally to the PCs.

[*Khan*]

A bard perhaps? Delemona Burie and Little Shaggard from Lilywhite?
Or maybe Lady Cerise Bloodmourn is out on a "date" or a mission for Tessa Fairwind.

[erucsbo]

Opera: Pirates of Penzance
side plot: there is actually a treasure buried somewhere in the opera theatre. The actors are actually pirates trying to find it (and they aren't the only ones).

[Lathiira]

Interestingly enough, we did an opera scene in our game a while back. My character auditioned and performed, using the opera Maria and Draco for her audition (of Final Fantasy VI fame). The opera was Andaro's Conquest, set in the era of the Thrune Ascendancy right after the Chelish Civil War.

Hijinx: while the rest of the crew attended, someone tried to assassinate Endymion, which the PCs managed to stop.

[pennywit]

It went well; thanks for the suggestions all.

Mostly for comedy purposes, I decided the opera would retell one of the party's earlier adventures (Plunder & Peril) from the twisted perspective of the players' antagonist. The players seemed to enjoy it, although at the end one player was muttering something about wanting to talk to the writer ....

[Errant Mercenary]

Interestingly I also ran into some off the rails Opera adventures! It has been many years, so itll be a bit vague, but I'll try to recount and see if it inspires something, even if youve run it already:

The players went to Hellharbour, also looking to figure out what is going on. I wanted to feature the Opera. I had Longbeard take them in under his wing - seeing their star rise he's happy to invite them over to Endymion's opera and play some politics.
Whilst the party agrees, 2 of them break off before entering. They seek a backdoor entrance to the play.

As the rest of the party get good seats from above to see the play, they notice their usual skulkers are missing. Longbeard is being a good patron and indulging them in what they want, whilst skirting around their questions of politics and allegiances (some social skill roles that answered some of the deals with Arronax). All goes well until the second act of the Opera - the actor troope on stage (the actual hired propaganda assasins..the ghost, the berserker and the other one, who were from the next book in this particular case) is joined by 2 figures they recognise instantly. The party skulkers, having gone backstage, found their way to the troope's quarters and found some incriminating stuff..but got found by the Berserker who gave chase. They all Entered Stage Left, and the play became about trying to survive being chased by a berserker several levels above them, and the rather bored rabble of Hellharbour having a rowdy good time at the chaos happening on stage. Even the wannabe posh of the place were enjoying it, what with them being pirates.
It was frantic, the main party had to excuse themselves to try and head down to the backstage to salvage the situation and create an escape for the 2 others (who luckily were very good at acrobatics and stealth), and regroup.

They'd face the troope later on, having a better idea what they had stumbled on.

Arronax asks around about who disturbed the Opera, and at least he knows who they are. Having a connection is important...even if one that has ruined one of his favourite hobbies. It helped play that they had to win him over as one of the more powerful pirates.

[pennywit]

My group had a pretty good time. They were there trying to gather information on Endymion Arronax. They'd gotten opera tickets from the Hell Harbor guard after bringing in a bunch of imp corpses for the bounty. The whole thing was hilarious. Among other things:

* A pirate insulted the PCs' ship, so the captain invited her outside to settle things. Which led to a really interesting little street fight.

* The ghoul pirate captain interacted with one of the players -- saying things like, "This opera, this performance, exists for one night. It is evanescent, quite like mortality." Creeped out the player, so the player taunted him back and rolled really high on his Bluff roll ... leading the ghoul captain to try to sneak attack him, but for the ghoul to get kicked out of the opera. The player is still proud of himself for this.

* The players seemed to get a kick out of the twisted version of their earlier adventures on stage. Some of the player banter was to die for.