Adventures

The Sting

Background:
    The Sting is an d20 System™ adventure for 4-6 4th level characters. The characters should contain a higher than usual proportion of rogues and or rogue types, and few mages. This will keep everybody busy throughout the adventure. Because the characters are going to be involved in a con job, make sure that their alignments are appropriate.

Overview:
    The party has been informed of a great con that they can pull. Chular, a local man, has told the party about the con. The con is already set up when the adventure begins. They have set up a fight between one of the party members, and another fighter. The party member is going to take a fall. They have really pumped up his odds of winning to get most people to bet on the other fighter.

    The city that this fight is taking place in should not allow this sort of thing. Some of the party will want to keep an eye out for town guard and keep them away from the fight. The cleric of the party will probably want to stay at the fight to take care of the fighter. The fighter, of course, will be in the ring.

Beginning:
    Some of the party should be patrolling the streets surrounding the fight to keep the guards away. The fighter in the party gets to play out the fight. The cleric should probably stay nearby to keep the fighter in good shape.

    The party should be able to finish up the fight without a hitch. They should have a couple of close calls with the guards patrolling the area. If they do something really dumb, like knock one of the guards out, then there should be more trouble.

Divvying up the money:    
    The party needs to divvy up the money, between themselves, their help and the thieves guild. Chular, Reis - Chular's right hand man, and the party as well as some errand boys are there.

    The party had to make a deal with the thieves' guild in order to run this con. They are to give them 30% of the money they brought in. This is supposed to happen at midnight in the back room of Kellers Pub. They must meet Chular there at a little after 11pm to give him his share. He gets 10% of the money because he gave them the details and helped set the con up.

    At 11:45 a man shows up from the thieves guild. He knows the password and everything and collects the thieves guild share. That person leaves, and a couple of minutes later, at midnight, another person shows up from the thieves' guild to collect their share. The new man will not leave until he has collected the thieves' guild's share. They don't care if someone else took their money.

Who did it?
    During the argument make the party roll to notice something. They will notice that Reis, Chular's right hand man has mysteriously disappeared. It's obvious that he must have had something to do with this scam.

Where is he?
    Now they need to find Reis. They can go looking for him at some of his local hangouts. Chular will know where he hangs out. They will not see him just sitting around, but if they talk to the bartender, and bribe him he will tell them that he is in the back room. After they catch him, they can question him.

    He does not have their money. It was not him that gathered the money from them. He was working with someone else.

On the trail
    Reis can tell them where he is supposed to meet to get his share of the money. The drop-off is supposed to happen in a couple of hours on the other side of town. He was hiding out in the back room of the bar until it was time to go get his money, then he was going to blow town.

    There should be plenty of time for the party to get into position and wait for the drop-off person to come and drop the money off. They can lay in wait for them, and then either jump him or follow him back to his 'masters' place.

    If they jump the guy, he will not give out information easily. It will take some work to get him to talk. If they follow him, make them make rolls to keep quiet and out of site. Although, the guy isn't suspecting that someone will be following him, if they are too loud he will hear them.

Umin
    They end up at Mr. Umin's place. Mr. Umin is a local shop owner, and is known to be a member of the thieves' guild as well. His place is not heavily guarded. The characters can easily get in to see Mr. Umin.

    When they get in to see him, he tells them that he is sorry that he had to take their money, but he needed the money to get his daughter back. Axor, another local thief, with a long time grudge against Mr. Umin kidnapped her and is expecting a large ransom. When Umin found out about the parties scam, he knew where he could get the money to get his daughter back. He hasn't paid Axor yet, and agrees to let the party have their money back if they can save his daughter.

    He doesn't make great money at his shop, and only does the odd thieving job. Axor believes that he has much more money than he really does, and wanted some of it.

Rescue the Fair Maiden
    Umin can tell them where Axor's hideout is. He is against charging in and trying to rescue his daughter, because he is afraid that Axor would simply kill her.

We are leaving this open ended, because it is up to the players how to get the woman back.

Once they get her back, Umin will keep his promise, and return their money.

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'd20 System' and the d20 System logo are Trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast and are used with permission.

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