One Last Performance

One Last Performance is the quest that occurs in Session 4 of The Truth, The Eye, and the Beholder.

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT

Previously
While exploring the cultist's cave, the Crew encounters a spell which summons for a band of evil skeletons, which they Crew dispatches. Continuing onward, they come upon a room with a group of youthful orcs, under the command of an adult orc, who are attempting some type of ritual with hostages. The ritual is led by the black-cloaked figure. The ritual requires blood as a catalyst, and the Crew rushes in to defend the hostages. Each kill of an orc simply catalyzes the spellcasting process regardless of the fact that the hostages are rescued. After a grueling battle, the black-cloaked figure completes the ritual, summons a portal, and absconds the battle with his leading orc before the spell blasts the crew.

With luck, the hostages survived, one of whom is the daughter of the Innkeeper from the New Nede Inn, who they were looking for. They take the hostages back to the caravan and continue to Jarthis

Jarthis
The Late-Night Crew comes upon the mining town of Jarthis, the destination of their caravan. The townspeople begin unloading the spices and exchanging it for ore, as per the arrangement. They are greeted by Patches, the town leader who also owns the The Dine-In Theatre, a tavern and entertainment venue that services the town. The local miners only receive one holiday per month, whereupon they can relax in town. The day the Crew arrives is that day, and Patches asks them to work the tavern since he is short of workers. The Crew accepts the deal in return for the local healer to fix up the rescued hostages, who had sustained injuries, as well as for the axle to their wagon, which Marvoticlutz broke in a fit of incompetence.

The Dine-In Theatre is a mess. Humble as it is, and beautiful as the interior is, the dust and filth of the tavern show the fact that no workers have been around for the last month. The Crew has a tough job ahead of them. Patches leaves them to their devices, and allows them to choose how to handle the tasks to be completed, giving them agency to do whatever the Crew feels is needed to be done to complete their tasks before the townsfolk arrived.

The group divides tasks: Maroo for cleaning the kitchen and preparing the meals, Marvoticlutz to clean the bar and pint glasses, Barchibold to clean the tables and serve the drinks, and Jundus to provide entertainment. Marv does a mediocre job before being convinced by Maroo that if he were to clean the kitchen for her, a fairy would appear and give him all the mutton he wants. He proceeds to clean this for her before getting immensely sick from eating a random piece of food he found on the tables, causing him to vomit profusely for the next several hours.

The Love of Theatre
Jundus is busy trying to decide what to perform. He tries to find a place to concentrate, but can't focus. He decides to instead explore his clothing options in the back-of-house, which has many costumes and accessories available. Jundus detects an evil presence, and then begins hearing scratching. He eventually finds a strange amulet which seems to glow, and the scratching continues. He suddenly becomes extremely anxious and paranoid after opening an armoire. He becomes obsessed with putting on his performance, and despite the efforts of Maroo and Barchibold to find a solution to what they determine is some sort of haunting or possession by a ghost, they run out of ideas and decide to allow the ghost to use Jundus to have one last performance.

Antics follow as Jundus' ability to perform well are hampered greatly, exacerbated when Marv breaks one of Jundus' only instruments. Barchi and Maroo disregard the situation and make some delicious food.

Stage Fright
The miners arrive, and the Dine-In Theatre is packed with guests ready for a good show. The hope is that the ghost will have a good performance through Jundus and leave him alone. Maroo mentions the situation to Patches, but he acts surprised by the thought of a ghost, even upset, and quietly drinks alcohol.

After a complication with Marv serving as a waiter, Jundus is prepared to perform. He plays a song on sitar, but it was mediocre and resulted in only a smattering of applause. Jundus then performs a monologue, and the result is worse. His anxiety over his poor performance forces him to run away off the stage. In a fit of paranoia, he returns to the stage, drops the amulet, and performs a spell on it. His spell cracked the amulet, but the hostile crowd hates magic; a quick and stupid dance seems to dissuade the crowd. Again eager to get their attention, Jundus attempts to cast a spell on the necromancy book. Strangely, the book absorbs the spell, much to everyone's confusion.

As Jundus fails his performance and leaves the stage, mortified, Barchibold poorly disguises himself as Jundus, and announces he wishes to wow the crowd with stupid backflips he had been doing all afternoon. His attempt is so phenomenal that the crowd demands an encore. His second attempt has him slipping in Marv's vomit, but he pulls it off as an act of comedy, and drives the crowd to laughter. Marv, drunk and having been thoroughly entertained, attempts his own backflip from the stage. He flops the jump, crashes into his own vomit, and enrages the crowd.

Jundus finally returns and satiates the crowd's anger by telling fat jokes about Marv. Marv is humiliated and retreats to the kitchen. Finding his calling, Jundus continues telling offensive jokes about Marv, and the crowd loves it. He is finally pleased with his performance and retires.

The Amulet and The Armoire
Despite Jundus' great performance, the amulet has not gone away, and the anxiety returns. In frustration, Maroo gets Barchiboldinto the back-of-house and orders him to destroy the armoire. After a few solid smacks, the mirror of the armoire shatters and Jundus' anxiety vanishes.

Frustrated, Maroo leads Patches to the back room and demands to know what his connection to the haunting is. Marv holds him down but they fail to convince him. In a rage, they destroy the amulet, and feel a wave of feeling and emotion released by the spirit. They realize that the ghost is that of Patches' dead wife. He forced her to work to support the tavern, and when they were not able to maintain things, Patches locked her away in the armoire until she died.

As the group argues about how they should punish patches - weighing the options of making him pay for his crimes through death or by taking him to seek justice, Marv places the catatonic Patches in a trunk, closes him in, and locks it. The lock has no key. The majority of the group agree that this is for the best, and they abandon Patches to his fate.