Curtain Call is the first Eberron one-shot adventure for D&D 5th Edition written by Keith Baker, Robert Adducci, and Wayne Chang. Joining us for this run through the adventure were Balkris the kalashtar barbarian, Fie the changeling warlock, Reckoner the warforged fighter, Rufio the hobgoblin rogue, and R. Sativus the gnome wizard.

Max Murlock was a con artist who seduced the noble ladies of Sharn’s upper quarters by posing as a darkly handsome inquisitive. But this time he had gotten in over his head. His mark, a beautiful young noblewoman named Nora ir’Roole, was seemingly convinced by his act and implored Max to learn the fate of her missing husband, a man named Drevan ir’Roole. Drevan was last seen at the Half Pint Tavern in Lower Dura which he visited every month or so, with the peculiar ritual of renting out the whole establishment for his private use. Max knew when he was out of his depth, so he called upon his old associate, a half elf bounty hunter named Serinna who specialized in extramarital affairs. He beseeched her to help him in his task and offered a hefty reward if she could find out what had happened to the missing noble… and make sure Max got the credit for it.

Little did Max know that Serinna was just one of several personas used by a changeling warlock named Fie who had made a dark pact with a powerful witch known as Sora Kell. Fie had her own reasons for taking on this assignment. Donning the persona of Serinna the bounty hunter, she called upon her contacts across Sharn and gathered together a party of skilled adventurers from all walks of life. Among them were Balkris, a nobleman of House Vadalis with anger management issues who was striking out on own with his three loyal butlers; Reckoner, a warforged soldier from distant Karrnath with an unusual head shaped like a dragonborn; Rufio, a hobgoblin rogue and would-be inquisitive who dreamed of having his own sailing ship; and R. Sativus, a gnome wizard from the Eldeen Reaches who was trying to make a name for herself as a collector and broker of illicit information.

Together, they followed Max Murlock’s lead and went to the Half-Pint Tavern to pick up the missing noble’s trail. The Sharn city watchmen stationed there were easily convinced to leave the crime scene to the “real inquisitives”. Upon entering the establishment, signs of a struggle were clear in the upturned tavern. Broken furniture, fragments of porcelain, and spots of dried blood were scattered here and there. A trail of blood led to the back door. Rufio searched the place and found Drevan ir’Roole’s purse cast aside in a corner of the bar containing his identification papers and a large sum of gold and platinum pieces worth 211 galifars.

But the crucial clue came in the form of a scrap of cloth retrieved by R. Sativus’s rat familiar. Balkris recognized it as a piece of torn glammerweave. He even knew where it had come from. The mark of the maker spelled out the name of Davandi, a well-known gnome tailor in the upper city.

The party followed the blood trail out the back entrance, but it vanished in the middle of the alley. However, a beggar on the street informed them that a man who was unconscious had been carried away by a large, foul smelling fellow and his three accomplices, all of whom were wearing red robes and white theater masks.

Having acquired several leads, Serinna was replaced by another of Fie’s personas – a half elf bard named Renaldo – as the party headed to the upper city, hoping to inquire at Davandi’s tailor shop about their recent sales of glammerweave. On the way, they saw a pedestal with a large mirror which allowed the wealthy citizens of the upper city to get a glimpse of life in the lower quarters of Sharn. Everyone but Balkris was aghast that the nobles of Sharn had such gall. They saw several well-to-do-looking gnomes near the mirror, including a young gnome woman carrying a large ledger. She refused Renaldo’s offer to help her carry the cumbersome book and scurried off down the street. Inside the mirror, R. Sativus saw the scene of a local artist in the lower city painting a large mural of a halfling slaying a giant. The artist explained that the halfling represented the working class people and the death of the giant symbolized the inevitable collapse of the bourgeois and their capitalist society.

Arriving at Davandi’s tailor shop, the party met the owner of the establishment, the gnome tailor named Davandi. They soon learned that information always comes with a price in Sharn. After some negotiation, Davandi eventually parted with his information for the contents of Balkris’ personal purse, which held 25 gold galifars. He revealed that an expensive piece of glammerweave, enchanted with the illusionary scent of lavender, had been sold to a very tall and muscular patron from a local theater troupe performing at the Art Temple, an upscale theater for experimental performances in the Upper City. Davandi didn’t know the real identity of his patron who had only given an alias – the cryptic nickname “Echo”.

Reckoner recalled that Echo was a codename used by a mysterious agent recorded in the logs of the Silver Codex, a unique warforged who carried in his memory banks a list of the personnel files of the Brelish armed forces. Reckoner had briefly encountered the Silver Codex in a tavern shortly after the war while he was searching for his commanding officer. Now the adventurers grew more concerned and wondered what dark conspiracy they had gotten mixed up in.

The party came to the Art Temple theater to find the front entrance ajar. The sound of a low rumbling issued from within, as if several voices were chanting in unison. The adventurers snuck inside and arrived at the great hall whose walls and seats were covered with the magic of illusion. As they entered the hall, the illusory magic was activated as if triggered by the presence of audience members, filling the hall with figments of black and white cats everywhere across the floor.

And beyond the figments, they saw upon the stage the solid shapes of four individuals clad in red robes and wearing white porcelain masked with strange red glyphs painted upon them. The tallest of the figures was wearing a shifting glammerweave robe with a small tear upon it. He held aloft a jagged and vicious looking ceremonial dagger. Beneath him, lying prone upon an altar, was Drevan ir’Roole, disheveled but recognizable thanks to the identification papers found in the Half Pint Tavern.

Having seen all the tell-tale signs of a ritual sacrifice, the heroes leapt into action! Balkris, Reckoner, Rufio, and Renaldo fought off the cultists while R. Sativus snuck onto the stage and rescued Drevan ir’Roole from the altar. In the ensuing battle, they uncovered the identity of the large figure clad in glammerweave. His mask was struck off in the course of the melee, revealing the hideous face of a warforged encased in rotting flesh!

Reckoner faced his grotesque kinsman with his shield and warhammer, intent on protecting his comrades. After a fierce duel, the flesh covered warforged was laid low by many blows. It lunged at Drevan ir’Roole with the last of its strength but failed to reach him. With their leader and most of their members dispatched, the last of the cultists surrendered and the battle was won.

Yet the heroes were disturbed by the hideous chanting of the cultists. For the leader among them had spoken in common for all to hear. “Fear reveals truth… Fear reveals truth…” the flesh covered warforged had said again and again. And Rufio saw too late the golden winged sphere that popped out of the chest cavity of the fallen warforged. It was a final messenger, a device that recorded the final moments of warforged soldier’s life. And it had flown out of the theater beyond the party’s reach.

When Drevan ir’Roole came to his senses, he revealed that he had been a member of a cult in his youth which worshipped a mysterious entity known only as the Shaper of Nightmares. Many years later, his past, and fellow cult members, had caught up with him. But thanks to the heroic efforts of the adventurers, he had been saved. Yet his survival was bittersweet, for his beloved Nora had betrayed him. It seemed that she was only interested in confirming her husband’s fate in order to inherit his wealth. Now that he was alive, she had skipped town with the contents of Drevan’s safe deposit box in the Kundarak bank. Max Murlock was devastated, not only because Nora had left him but because the seemingly innocent young lady had played him for a fool. But such was the nature of Sharn the City of Towers where few things are as they seem. For Balkris, Fie, Reckoner, Rufio, and R. Sativus, this was the curtain call on the first chapter of their journey.