Help with fleshing out a BIZZARE feywild situation?

[HoboKnight]

Hey, guys,

my party is currently in a Feywild, more specifically, in a massive settlement, ruled by an Archfey of shrubberies. Yeah, an entire city is hedge/shrubbery, and sort of on a side note - it is also a major trading hub for the region. In the settlement, my party got on a bad side of a hag who tried to frame them with a murder. She failed spectacularly(not one of the smarter hags, I guess) and during the entire commotion, hedge guards popped on the scene, arresting everyone, meaning party, hag in question, sister of a murdered woman who thinks party dwarf did it, a small family of goblins and a cleptomanic elven noble who filled his sack with gin, found in a shrubbery tavern, where the party was staying.

Party expects to be escorted to a court, use Zone of Truth and be done with it. But this is a rather chaotic setting, so: Guards did not arrest them because they keep the peace, but because one of the guards does some sort of pretend play to be a Material Plane guard. Guards are actually taking care of two things: making sure no one does anything bad to shrubberies and making sure no one disrespects the Archfey.

So, guards are now taking the party to "someone in charge". In this case, this is a sentient cat (sort of chesire cat) with a theater of its own. Bringing some interesting bufoons to a play can bring all sorts of benefits in this town and guards know it. My plan is for the cat to be a director, prepping the stage, cutting out all the non-suspensful parts(Zone of Truth, other sane and drama-breaking elements) and making one hell of a show from it. Who loses the head? Well...? Does anyone? Should I even introduce an execution in this play - perhaps a troll executioner with a massive blade who actually lops off a head of persons who perform most poor in this paly? Murdered woman's sister wants revenge. Goblin family are actually tourists and just want to be done with all the red tape and the kleptomaniac noble wants to get drunk (and have a shag if possible).

How should I go about it and what other NPCs should be present - the audience, of course - elves, satyrs, centaurs, gnomes, occasional goblin and a troll. Perhaps a number of casters with Greater Illusion abilities?

The theatre is a closed space of about 100x100 ft with all sorts of wooden beams crisscrossing the space under the cieling, where director cat can hop around and boss the play.

Super fun part is, only 1 party member speaks Sylvan - the others could be framed as retarded lost souls, seen as clueless idiots. Perhaps masks are found for everyone?

There should be little point and logic in it, but lots of entertainment, chaos and insanity.

thanks!

[icefractal]

Sounds interesting. Some things to think about -

1) What would convince the cat to rule in the party's favor? Better speaking? More dramatic choices? Is there a way for the PCs to realize this?

2) It sounds like in fact, the PCs could just get out of the theatre and be fine, since there's no charges against them in any kind of organized system. Is this true?

3) Even if #2 is true, they won't necessarily realize it. Therefore, what happens if the "trial" goes against the PCs and they decide to fight their way out, potentially killing one or more of the fey there? Would doing that screw up future events too much? If so, be prepared to signpost that pretty clearly.

4) Conversely, the PCs might play along too much if they think the trial is more legit than it is. Be careful about choices that should be self-evidently bad (like obeying "Well your speech was boring, go have the executioner decapitate you") because it's possible the players might think this is some kind of dream-logic thing and actually do it, then be pissed at the result.

5) How aware are the other accused parties (the hag especially) that this "trial" is basically improv on the cat's part? Is she still trying to ensure the PCs take the fall, or at this point is she just concerned about getting away safely herself?

[HoboKnight]

Splendid questions, let's go over them.

Sounds interesting. Some things to think about -
1) What would convince the cat to rule in the party's favor? Better speaking? More dramatic choices? Is there a way for the PCs to realize this?

Exactly this: better performance. My players are pretty darn smart and should figure this rather fast.

2) It sounds like in fact, the PCs could just get out of the theatre and be fine, since there's no charges against them in any kind of organized system. Is this true?

This is true. The only problem remains sister of a murdered woman, who is after a dwarf.

3) Even if #2 is true, they won't necessarily realize it. Therefore, what happens if the "trial" goes against the PCs and they decide to fight their way out, potentially killing one or more of the fey there? Would doing that screw up future events too much? If so, be prepared to signpost that pretty clearly.

Will do. Actually, I'm pretty sure this is already clear to the party.

4) Conversely, the PCs might play along too much if they think the trial is more legit than it is. Be careful about choices that should be self-evidently bad (like obeying "Well your speech was boring, go have the executioner decapitate you") because it's possible the players might think this is some kind of dream-logic thing and actually do it, then be pissed at the result.

Their OOC Insights are quite epic, so not much worry about that.

5) How aware are the other accused parties (the hag especially) that this "trial" is basically improv on the cat's part? Is she still trying to ensure the PCs take the fall, or at this point is she just concerned about getting away safely herself?

She wants to get away. She realizes, she botched the situation and should take much smarter approach to dealing with PCs.

[NRSASD]

I really like this! If I may suggest, instead of a troll-with-an-axe executioner, have the execution method be something that involves dropping the guilty party. Like through a trapdoor or into a giant cooking pot. You can hype it up as the most terrifying pit of DESPAIR, and when a character gets thrown in, they discover it’s empty and completely harmless. However, the cat and their associates expect the condemned to “die horribly” by screaming dramatically etc.

And if they don’t cooperate, have the executioner try to feed them their lines.

On another thing, appoint “lawyers” to the court to represent the various parties. The lawyers make arguments not based on any kind of law, but on what they think the audience and the cat will find most entertaining, happily lying and speaking over their clients in pursuit of the most insane story.

[Black Jester]

. My plan is for the cat to be a director, prepping the stage, cutting out all the non-suspensful parts(Zone of Truth, other sane and drama-breaking elements) and making one hell of a show from it. Who loses the head? Well...? Does anyone? Should I even introduce an execution in this play - perhaps a troll executioner with a massive blade who actually lops off a head of persons who perform most poor in this paly? Murdered woman's sister wants revenge. Goblin family are actually tourists and just want to be done with all the red tape and the kleptomaniac noble wants to get drunk (and have a shag if possible).

How should I go about it and what other NPCs should be present - the audience, of course - elves, satyrs, centaurs, gnomes, occasional goblin and a troll. Perhaps a number of casters with Greater Illusion abilities?

You could probably run the play as a campaign within the campaign, following something like an Improv Shakespeare rule. The PC's bodies remain in a comatose state, while their "souls" are transported into Theaterland and have to find a way out. You can treat this like a trial by ordeal: "if the strangers are truly innocent, they will be able to solve survive this riddle."

Run the theater play as if all other characters are fully unaware that they are in a play. They monologue their feelings, fully unaware that the player characters might hear them. Travelling anywhere requires loudly intending to go where you want, and then step through a door. People who are mortally wounded loudly proclaim their imminent death and curse their murderers or claim undying love for somebody else. There is a chorus of masked singers who will bring news and sing about things happening at other places where the PCs aren't.

To solve the theatre play, the characters must a) get fully onboard with this silliness (his feline majesty demands to be taken seriously), come up with an entertaining plot and solve the inner- world problems of the play: There are, of course, lovers divided by fate that should be united by the end - either in marriage, or in death. Somebody thirsts for bloody revenge for a betrayal most foul. Two guys reappear frequently and seem to wait for somebody or something who never comes. The women of the town refuse to have any sex, until the crisis is solved. There is a god who could solve everything, but his machine has been broken.

You can probably afford to make it silly (as long as the players enjoy this romp) and over the top, especially if you keep the play as a relative short intermission. The stakes could probably be nebulous, but the cat might be able to condemn actors who have failed his vision to a fate worse then death: They are polymorphed into clowns.

[Slipjig]

Provide the PCs with a court-appointed lawyer who immediately tries to confess on their behalf, throw them at the mercy of the court, and immediately start pleading mitigating circumstances about the terrible conditions the PCs were raised in, how they aren't mentally competent to know right from wrong, and eventually pleads insanity (unless the players fire him and take over their own defense).

I wouldn't stick to the language thing, unless the one Sylvan-speaking character is COMICALLY unsuited to serving as the party Face. If the scene is going to run for a while, you want everybody able to participate. Maybe have subtitles magically appear in front of anybody speaking? Or, better yet, have the magical translation not be 100% accurate. Maybe... any time someone uses a word with an L in it, their statement is reversed in the subtitles? And if they use a P, it translates into an insult of the Cat's mother?