"Splendid! I think I've got a stronger grasp on your stories now," Fallenta says.
OOC:
You have gained 1 Production Point.
With the basic framework of the opera settled on, Fallenta is eager to get started on writing—a process that will take time. As she writes, though, there’s still plenty you can do to help, and foremost on that list is to secure a venue for the opera.
Fallenta already has a venue chosen, but there’s a problem with it. Her choice is the famous Kintargo Opera House, as a significant premiere hasn’t taken place there since before Barzillai Thrune took control of the city nearly 10 years ago. After a time under the stewardship of the Silver Ravens, the opera house has spent the last few years under the care of Songbird Hall, Kintargo’s largest temple of Shelyn.
Further complicating things is Fallenta’s continued desire for her presence to remain secret. She wants to wait to announce the premiere of the opera until they have the venue locked down and she at least has a completed first draft—so as to prevent competitors from beating her to being the first new premiere at the famous theater.
It thus falls to you to speak to high priest Zachrin Vhast to secure the Kintargo Opera House for the upcoming premiere. While Fallenta trusts Zachrin with the knowledge that she’s writing and directing the opera, she impresses upon you that you should only mention her to the priest if you have to. It’d be best if they could secure a general "reservation" for the venue, pending further information. She expects you to lean into the fact that it’s about your own adventures and to rely upon your reputations to help convince Zachrin.
However, a wide range of poets, artists, directors, bards, and the like tend to court Zachrin, and he’s constantly being bombarded with requests to perform in one of the many venues the church controls (beyond the opera house and Songbird Hall, the church maintains well over a dozen smaller venues throughout the city). As it turns out, Zachrin will soon be hosting a fete at the Kintargo Opera House to celebrate several of the city’s painters and sculptors. Fallenta produces invitations to the fete for each of you, explaining that it’s a great opportunity to not only impress Zachrin, but to start building your reputation among the city’s artists! Once the party is over, you should be able to get a private audience with Zachrin to secure the opera house as a venue—and the better impression you make at the fete, the better the chances you'll have of success.
Fallenta also notes that most of the attending artists are bringing samples of their work to be put on display during the event, and that at the end of the event, Zachrin intends on running an auction for all of those in attendance to purchase artwork. Submitting a work of art isn’t a requirement to attend, but it’s a great chance for the artistic among you to show off your talents!
The fete in question is scheduled to take place in a week, so you should have 7 days to rest, recover, and prepare. Fallenta suggests that the you dress in your adventuring gear to help sell that you're heroes but simultaneously encourages you to "gussy up" and add flourishes to your outfits to impress.
Zahchrin Vest is a public figure, so it is easy to gather information about him. He’s a friendly man and well-known for his philanthropic works; he also takes pride in boosting awareness for talented but relatively unknown artists, which means that you might find yourselves at a slight disadvantage when pitching your proposal, being relatively well-known heroes already. While Zachrin never openly supported the rebellion during Barzillai’s rule, he was in a delicate position as the leader of the only non-evil church in the city allowed to openly worship—once the rebellion succeeded, he and his flock have been instrumental in helping Kintargo recover and find itself.
OOC:
You can learn more about the fete itself by wandering Kintargo for 4 hours and attempting a Diplomacy check to Gather Information.
A PC who wants to create artwork to display at the fete and to place in the end-of-party auction can do so by taking the Create a Work of Art downtime activity below.
[ +- ] CREATE A WORK OF ART (DOWNTIME, MANIPULATE)
A PC crafts a unique work of art in the days leading up to the party. This work of art must be visual and physical, such as a painting or sculpture, and should be something small enough that it’s easy to carry. A PC who has already created such works previously can opt to select one of those items. Submitting a work of art they didn’t create is risky, since if anyone recognizes the PC as a fraud claiming someone else’s work as their own, not only will that artwork be removed from display and the auction, but the PCs’ reputation will suffer.
A PC who Crafts a new work attempts a DC 30 Crafting check each day they work on the art (to a maximum of 7 days); these checks accrue Victory Points. If the PC reaches 5 Victory Points, they’ve completed a modest work of art and can choose to stop there and finalize the piece, or they can choose to continue working in hopes of achieving 10 Victory Points to create a masterwork of art. A PC who fails to create a modest work, or who attempts to move on to a masterwork and fails to reach 10 Victory points ends up with an incomplete work. If at any time the PC goes below 0 Victory Points, they fail, and inspiration leaves them—they can’t create a viable piece of art for the show at all in whatever remaining time they have. Later, when a PC Brags about Artwork or when a PC attempts to Bid on PC-created Artwork, incomplete works increase the DCs by 5, while masterworks decrease the DCs by 5.
The Crafting check to Create a Work of Art doesn’t set the artwork’s value—that’s determined at the auction.
