Gilderain Fashion Week

**Gilderain Fashion Week** was a one shot DMed by Shane. The party was hired to provide security for eccentric designer Balthasar Von Strutt at the biggest and most important event of the fashion calendar.

## Background

Gilderain Fashion Week is the biggest and most important event of the fashion year. Thousands of designers, models, journalists, and enthusiasts descend on one of the continent’s largest and most prosperous cities for a lavish week of exhibition and celebration. The centrepiece of this year’s festival would be the unveiling of acclaimed designer Balthasar Von Strutt’s Spring Collection. Von Strutt was the superstar of the fashion world for several years, until he presented several disappointing showcases in a row. Von Strutt finally went into seclusion for several years, after Rogue Magazine deemed his last collection “derivative”. Now, after a six year hiatus, Von Strutt was back, and determined to make his Spring Collection showcase this year his best ever. It was for that reason that he hired F'keek Floor'ooah, Sir Merdon, Pauline, and Theodore Tel-Arama, to provide security, and ensure that his triumphant return to the world of high fashion went off without a hitch.

## Synopsis

The party was instructed to meet Von Strutt's assistant, Rumpert Boe, at Frankel Bridge, from whence he escorted them to Von Strutt's workshop. Von Strutt generally regarded the party with contempt, due to their lack of understanding of the fashion world- with the exception of F'keek, who was wearing a jewel encrusted loincloth which Von Strutt was fascinated by. Von Strutt then unveiled the centrepiece of his collection: a light one-piece floral garment, which he called a rompsuit. He then revealed he had many enemies, but that rival designer and incumbent superstar of the fashion world Spitnuck would be most likely to try to derail his show. At this point, a mannequin in the workshop became animated and attacked the party, though they promptly defeated it. After the attack, Von Strutt told the party that the only other people to enter his workshop were his wife Aera, and Boe, and also that Boe probably hated Von Strutt. The group then went to the pre-show mixer in the Queen's Plaza to look for Boe.

Upon reaching the plaza, F'keek and Merdon surveyed the crowd, while Theodore and Pauline went backstage. They spoke to Aera, who seemed to agree that Spitnuck was the biggest threat. Theodore then failed to glean any information from anyone else back stage as he wasn't charming enough and no one was impressed by his flute playing. The pair then approached Spitnuck, and got his attention when Theodore started inexplicably levitating. Pauline then attempted to goad Spitnuck into revealing his involvement in the plot to kill Von Strutt, but was largely unsuccessful. Instead, Spitnuck and Pauline agreed to a bet, whereby if Von Strutt presented something original at his show, Spitnuck would hire Pauline as a junior designer. Spitnuck was also insulted when Pauline insinuated he would not be capable of successfully carrying out an elaborate assassination. Theodore then went to talk with editor-in-chief of Rogue Magazine, Mermanda Clericly, though failed to learn anything useful before being dismissed.

As the party regrouped, F'keek spotted Boe entering a cellar in an alley just off the main square. The party followed him into the cellar and through a fancy door to an underground hideaway, where they found evidence of experimentation with animated mannequins, and the corpse of the real Rumpert Boe. Figuring that Aera was the only person connected to Von Strutt capable of shapeshifting, the party went to confront her.

Finding Aera backstage, Theodore trapped her in a levitation field, while Pauline shot her in both kneecaps. Aera then used her mysterious magics to assemble a golem-like battle armour around her, composed of mannequins, a torchlit spotlight, a spool of fabric, and a make up sludge. After a battle, the party defeated the golem and Von Strutt arrived behind stage. Aera revealed she wanted to keep him from returning to the toxic world of high fashion, to which Von Strutt replied high fashion was his only true love.

With Aera incapacitated, Von Strutt asked that one of the party model the rompsuit instead. F'keek stepped up to the plate, and gave a catwalk which was good but not great. Spitnuck came backstage after the show, and reluctantly agreed to hire Pauline, as the rompsuit was technically original. Pauline however lied, and told Spitnuck she had been hired by a better designer, Queen Cerith. Spitnuck vowed that he would show Queen Cerith that he was fully capable of both designing clothes better than her and that he could pull off an assassination plot.

In Rogue Magazine's coverage of the event, they deemed that Spitnuck was still on top, but accepted that Von Strutt had made a non-derivative return to the fashion world. F'keek's torso was featured in a picture in the article, which he eagerly showed to everyone in his village.

## Player Characters

* F'keek Floor'ooah
* Sir Merdon
* Pauline
* Theodore Tel-Arama

## Important NPCs

* Rumpert Boe
* Balthasar Von Strutt
* Aera
* Spitnuck
* Mermanda Clericly
* Queen Cerith

## Locations

* Gilderain
	+ Frankel Bridge
	+ Von Strutt's Workshop
	+ Queen's Plaza