Introduction
For this heist-themed one shot, given the nature of the adventure involves the PCs knowing about the heist and formulating a plan, I did not think it would make sense for folks to go in completely cold. Accordingly, see below for information your character would be aware of, and the protocol for explaining how they have prepared for the heist beforehand. As always, let me know if any questions.
Background
Your character is a part of a team assembled by a mysterious benefactor for a particular high-stakes heist job where your special skills are necessary for success. The target: a retired professional gambler turned casino owner named Quentin Togglepocket. Mr. Togglepocket is the owner and proprietor of the Afterlife Casino, a nine hells-themed casino which recently opened just three miles north of the nearest city. The client is Mr. Togglepocket’s former gambling partner Verity Kye, a tiefling who at one time had worked with Quentin to save their winnings from running the Three Dragon Ante professional circuit to eventually open their own casino. Quentin betrayed Verity and ran off with their savings, resurfacing a few years later as the owner of the Afterlife. Now, Ms. Kye has hired your team to help her get back at her devilish former partner by stealing all of the gold out of the Afterlife vault. More importantly, Verity wishes for you to humiliate Mr. Togglepocket by stealing a golden Erinyes statuette which Quentin plans to use as the grand prize for the Grand Minauros Invitational – an ultra high-roller Three Dragon Ante tournament which the Afterlife is hosting next week. Ms. Kye has offered a handsome cut of the profits from the heist loot to each of you, should you succeed in ransacking both the vault and stealing the statute.
Intel
Verity has provided both a bag of holding, as well as a hand drawn map of the Afterlife casino she pieced together from her own reconnaissance of the establishment. Your benefactor has not verified its accuracy. The bag of holding should be held by one of you (decide amongst yourselves) and is a convenient way to make off with the large volume of gold in the vault.
The Afterlife casino itself is housed inside a large cavern, with a river running through the casino floor which Quentin re-named to the “River Styx.” The river runs the length of the construct, ending in a large drop-off waterfall with a fancy restaurant seated beneath it.
We have acquired the following additional information about the casino through reconnaissance:
- The only entrance into the casino is by boat, ferried in by an employee playing the part of “Charon” that day. There are no other reliable entrances into the large natural cavern.
- The casino only employs tieflings to stay on theme
- Doors to employee-only areas have a bright-green trim and are magically locked. We understand the employees have some means of being able to enter through these doors.
- There are magical security mirrors throughout the casino which have been marked in red on your map. Images reflected in the mirrors are also shown on the mirror’s magical “twin,” located in the Afterlife security room.
- We do not know where the statuette will be on the day of the tournament, but expect it will be in a secured area – perhaps in the vault with the casino’s earnings.
- The tournament will be taking place on the day of the heist. There are exactly eight well known high-rollers who have been invited to participate.
Preparation
The heist will be scheduled for 7:00 PM on Thursday, December 28, 2023. Ahead of that, I leave you to prepare how your plan to complete the heist, along with how much information you wish to share with me as the DM. I encourage you to plan with each other as much as you want, since your characters are all presumably acquainted before the job.
In-game, you will have a week before the day of the heist. At any point, you can tell me what you think your character is doing to prepare, and I can roll as needed for that outcome. Honestly go crazy with whatever you want to do – you can case the building, try to get more information, try to obtain some helpful items or try to track someone down ahead of time. Whatever you want to spend that time doing. Not necessary, but I give you that opportunity for additional creativity and fun if you want it.
Since this is a one shot, I do not plan to “juice” anything on the back end to force a success. The challenge will be unique and I intend to play it straight.
While obviously combat can occur, for this particular adventure it will be good to have characters who can maneuver an RP/skill based challenge. Brute force is of course, always an option, but a team of all muscle does not a balanced party make for this kind of one-shot.
Let me know if any questions, and I leave you to prepare.
