```col-mdflexGrow=2.5===# Outline# Introduction > [!read-aloud] **Read Aloud** > > > > You are working a shift on the North Gate. Merchants and travellers have been passing through all day, but it is now mid afternoon, traffic has slowed down somewhat, and it is nearly the end of your shift. > > A solitary figure is spotted on the road in the distance, approaching the city on foot. As the figure gets closer, you see it is an old woman somebody that you recognise. You remember her leaving the city a few weeks ago after falling out with Lord Tograf because of her refusal to stop breeding dangerous animals. You notice that she has a baby red dragon perched on her shoulder, which is explicitly forbidden. > # Act I The woman will try to gain entry to the city, and whatever the PCs do she will find a reason to start verbally abusing them. This will culminate with her cursing the PCs and then disappearing in a cloud of smoke. The curse: **<center>“A curse! A spot upon your head,Rainbow colours ... then you're dead!”</center>**The PCs will notice they all have a red spot on their forehead.In fact, there is no curse the whole thing is a prank. The old woman is actually Count Jasper in a magical disguise, and the dragon is an illusion. The dot is harmless; it will however, change colour over the course of this adventure, to orange, then yellow, then green, then blue, then purple, then black then it will disappear.# Act II A nearby fellow guard, come to take over the PCs' watch, can, if necessary, spell out that this curse seems to suggest they are going to die unless they find a cure, quickly. There are a few places the PCs could go to for help. However, Count Jasper has spent the past few days going about the city in disguise, spreading a rumour about a new curse that is "going around". The rumour: This new curse can be broken by drinking a shot of * **Owlbear** * urine stirred with a twig from an * **Awakened Tree** * .Wherever the PCs go (most likely a healer or the nearby Temple of Esteem), they could hear this rumour. Note however, that it is Lyza's day off and she is out of town, “training a new horse”. Healers/clerics might try to remove the curse, but they will fail. The count has even placed a book in the city library entitled "How to Remove Curses" which describes just this one curse in (suspiciously specific) detail and its supposed cure.If the PCs go to The Giggling Gargoyle, Porky will be visibly upset to see his friends have been cursed, and will keep telling them how sorry he is. He will however, not repeat the rumour (though one of his customers could).If they investigate the history of the old woman they can find out where she lived before she left, and her neighbours will describe her as a sweet old lady who had an unfortunate obsession with deadly creatures. They never saw any evidence that she had magical abilities. She mainly bred giant centipedes and scorpions, but she left the city when she acquired a dragon egg and Lord Tograf refused to let her keep it. The neighbour doesn't think it was a real dragon egg. He thinks the people who sold it to her were con artists.# Act III If the PCs approach Count Jasper at his mansion, they will find the front door unlocked. In the entrance hallway though, is a ![[1237905]]|Rug of Smothering (MM p20) that attacks uninvited visitors.Count Jasper is actually waiting for the PCs inside, and he will pretend to be keen to help. He will repeat the rumour if the PCs have not heard it yet, and tell them the owlbear and the awakened tree are no longer in the escape dungeon, but that The Giggling Gargoyle has a bottle of owlbear urine behind the bar. Regarding the Awakened Tree, he tells them it has been moved to the private gardens by the South Gate.Alternatively, if they try to break into the escape dungeon, they will find the entrance locked. The door has a carved dragon's head on it, painted red, and a riddle carved into the wood of the door: **<center>"If you touch me you feel pain. I eat, I dance, I go out in the rain.”</center>**As soon as anyone says the word "fire" there will be a click, and a blast of fire will issue from the dragon's mouth, doing 1d10 1d10 damage to anyone standing in front of the door. Afterwards, Count Jasper will magically appear (“to investigate”) and tell them the same info described above.# Act IV At the South Garden, the gates are locked, and a notice outside says: **<center>To enter, say your name and purpose.</center>**When a PC says “your name and purpose” the gate will open. If they do not solve this riddle, they can climb over the wall with a DC15 athletics check. The wall has spikes on it though, so a failed roll will result in 1d6 1d6 damage.Inside the garden are several ![[1236663]]|Awakened Trees and ![[1236792]]|Awakened Shrubs (MM p317)which will attack any intruders. A PC can grab a twig and escape on a DC15 dexterity check (with disadvantage if they have to climb back over the wall again). Each failing of this check will result in 1d6 1d6 clubbing damage.# Act V In The Giggling Gargoyle , which is quite busy, an unusually surly Porky will demand one gold piece each per shot of "OB". If any PC drinks it, the curse will not be lifted; instead, two things will happen in succession:[dc]1.[/dc]From the shadows in back of the room, Count Jasper (disguised as the old woman again) will step forward, laughing at the PCs and declaring them fools. He will then cast off the disguise and reveal himself, before babbling on about how there never was a curse, and that now Porky lost the bet. “That stupid half orc said that nobody would ever come in and drink a shot of OB but he was wrong!”[dc]2.[/dc]Lyza will enter the bar and start furiously berating the Count. How dare he pull this stunt on her people? And what's this about a fire trap/Rug of Smothering? ...someone could have been killed!While this is going on, the PCs will have a last chance to salvage a victory. Jasper has left his goblet of wine unattended on the bar, next to the bottle of OB. Porky will notice this, and wink at one of the PCs and gesture towards it. If the PCs (aided by a distraction from Porky and/or Lyza if necessary) can sneak some OB into the wine and trick Jasper into drinking it, they can each earn an * **Inspiration Point** * (DMG p240). Jasper will howl in fury and storm out of the bar. When he has left, everyone will laugh. If the PCs decline to drink the OB, because they suspect something is up, the old woman/ Jasper will still appear, but will be angry and refuse to accept that Porky won the bet, muttering something about cheating before storming off. Again, there will be laughter and inspiration point, and Porky will give the PCs free beer all night.``````col-md![[plots/the-city-watch/table-of-contents|Table of Contents]]```