amethal said:
What is the relationship between that druid guy (Lee?) and Torrent?
What is the relationship between that druid guy and the government of Lyceum?
Lee was a mentor for Torrent. Not in a direct, "I teach you your class abilities" sort of way, but more like, "You're at Lyceum studying, and you worship a sea god, and I like the sea, so I'll help you out as best I can."
How are the PCs supposed to find out
a) about the special ability of the Wayfarer's ship,
b) that it can be turned off
c) why it has been turned off
d) where the controls are?
The DM should make sure they know whatever is necessary for the scene to work. It's as easy just telling them as much whenever they first visit the Wayfarer ship. It's the sort of knowledge anyone in Seaquen would have heard.
Like, "You take a ferry to the Wayfarers Theater Ship, a massive galleon whose hull is painted in swirling red and gold fire patterns. The wayfarers are masters of planar magic, so normally their ship teleports from port to port, but because of strange and dangerous disturbances in planar magic, they have deactivated that ability. Word is that, ever since Coaltongue died, if you teleport you catch on fire."
Then if anyone asks for more info, allow Knowledge (arcana) checks.
Am I right in thinking the PCs get out of the theatre but nobody else in the audience does? How does that happen?
I made a point of saying you can make that scene as simple or as complicated as you like. The simple version is that one of the heroes (or failing that, Katrina) says, "Hey, Giorgio sure looks suspicious heading up on deck like that. Let's check it out." The heroes get up there, and Giorgio realizes he's been spotted, so he seals the portal that leads from the deck to the theater.
The complicated version is, "Hey, Giorgio sure looks suspicious. I'm going to go talk to NPCs X, Y, and Z and try to convince them to stop watching the play to follow my hunch. If that's successful, we'll all head upstairs and deal with it." And again, once they're on deck, Giorgio seals them off, but if the heroes brought a few high-level mages with them, the fight is over much more quickly.
Heck, the heroes might even shout, "Fire!" in a crowded theater, trying to get everyone up on deck. That too will stop Giorgio's plan. It doesn't have to be a combat encounter. It's just that if the heroes decide to investigate alone, it probably will turn into one.
And if the heroes decide, "This play looks cool. I'm not going outside in that rainstorm just because a flamboyant rockstar of a mage is going upstairs for a smoke break or something," then Katrina calls them idiots, goes up by herself, and probably manages to set the deck on fire, but figures out a way to stop the bad guys.
