If you know me, you’ll know that I am by and large a musical theater fan. Heck, all you have to do is look back at some recent posts and you’ll find another There’s an Adventure in That! based on another musical. This particular seed we’ll be looking at is an idea that I’ve had for some time, and I’m very happy to be bringing it to Gamer Nation Con 007. And I wanted to talk about it a bit and based on the source I’m adapting it from, talk about my thought process behind some of the decisions I made.
Regardless of how you feel about it, it’s impossible to deny that Phantom of the Opera is an absolute classic of the musical theater world – it’s the longest running show on Broadway by a wide margin with over 13,500 performances. And it doesn’t appear like it will be going anywhere anytime soon. And so I’ve long been thinking – there has to be an adventure in that show somewhere.
When working with roleplaying games and especially high fantasy roleplaying games, it can be very easy to look at the more supernatural aspects of the show and play those up – the Opera House really is haunted. The Phantom actually is a ghost or a demon or whatever you may choose. But ultimately, the show explores themes and facets of humanity and the idea of “What actually makes a man a monster?” It’s not the facial deformity that Erik was born with that makes him a monster, but rather his character – “This haunted face holds no horror for me now/It’s in your soul that the true distortion lies” as Christine sings to Erik at the climax of the show.
And despite being objectively beautiful and popular, numerous other characters harbor ugliness of their own and show it throughout the show – Carlotta is jealous of Christine, Raoul is insistent on his own world view being correct (until he can no longer deny it) to the point of gaslighting Christine, the woman he says he loves, etc. So I wanted to tap more into that direction than just making it a monster hunt. And so, I came up with this plotline –
A young nobleman who made his fortune in the import/export business has his eyes on some waterfront property in a major port city. The ruins of an old opera house that was destroyed by fire a decade ago occupy the spot. This noble wants to destroy the ruins and build new warehouses and docks to expand his business in the city. But the city council is hesitant to allow him to do so – because the opera house is haunted by a demon. The old opera house itself was actually built atop some catacombs and the legend states that a portal to the Abyss was opened down there, summoning a demon who has claimed the entire thing as their domain. Anyone who went to investigate this claim or try to defeat this demon either disappeared entirely or pieces of them were found in the waterways in the following days. The council decided that it was easier for them to just ban anyone from trying to explore the opera house in the first place. But this nobleman has been undeterred – and so he has made the city an offer. He would fund the building of a new opera house in the heart of the city. And in exchange, he would get the land deed for the old one and be allowed to do what he wanted with it. The idea of not only one, but two lucrative business contracts that the city would not have to pay for was too good an opportunity to pass up, and so the council agreed.
In truth, there is no demon that haunts the tunnels below the old opera house. Instead, the catacombs actually connect to some long abandoned dock warehouses a short ways from the city – perfect for moving illicit cargo in and out of the city. And so a black market smuggler with magical talent and a flair for the dramatic came up with the story about the demon in an effort to keep people away from the old opera house after he discovered the waterways. And it worked – sure he had to kill several people in the course of getting the story to stick, but that is the price you pay to have a monopoly on black market trading in a port city. Needless to say, he is not a fan of the idea of this noble coming in and eyeing “his holdings” as he sees it.
The PCs are brought into this because the star singer that the noble brought in to perform at the opening of the new opera house has gone missing – he believes it to be the work of a local gang that the smuggler was using to harass the building project and so he sends them off to assault one of their safe houses that he has tracked down. Instead, they find some of the smuggler’s men “taking care of” the gang to ensure that they don’t reveal what they know about the smuggler to authorities about the truth of the matter. And in doing so, they are pulled into an investigation of who these new attackers were and a mysterious half mask symbol that one of them carries. Investigation leads them to finding out about the story of the demon beneath the opera house and the realization that this demon must have been the one to take the singer.
But the truth of the matter is quite different. While socializing with the citizens one night, the singer actually chanced to meet the smuggler in a tavern, and the connection between them was instant. She eventually confided in the smuggler that she didn’t actually want to be a singer – the high society life was boring and fake. Instead she wanted a life of adventure and excitement, intrigue and a bit of danger. And eventually, the smuggler told her about his operation. And so, when they PCs investigate the opera house, they do not find a demonic monster to slay and a damsel in distress to rescue. Instead they find two lovers, one who has killed before to keep a secret. And they will both likely do so again.
This plot lets you take the story in a number of different ways. Being that I’m developing it for a 3-4 hour long convention slot, it involves less investigation and more conflict with the smuggler being a real villain – but for a home game, it could be stretched over several sessions, and the players could maybe find a way to end this without bloodshed (or at least with a minimum of bloodshed).
And so there you have it. I’m really looking forward to running this for a couple of tables in the coming days and making some additional refinements from there. And who knows – maybe some day in the near future it might be available for you to run for your own tables. Until then, look sharp. And remember to keep your hand at the level of your eye.
Ben Erickson
