Circus of Sorcery
This is a custom encounter that was originally created for DnD by u/FillinInTheGaps, under the title Rakshasa Horror Picture Show. It has been converted for SW5e by J_Elliot.
What you need to know.
This encounter leans heavily on the Sorcerer of Tund found on page 4 of this adventure. We highly recommend you read up on what the Sorcerer is capable of before you attempt to run this encounter.
The Sorcerer can be a deadly encounter for parties below level 9.
Because of this, we will provide several options for both lower and higher level parties.
The stat blocks for all the creatures that aren't included in this adventure can be found in Scum and Villainy 2.0.
Welcome to the Circus
The Sorcerers of Tund are an ancient, reclusive order of Sith sorcerers who are highly skilled in deception, illusions, and shapeshifting. The Sorcerer in this encounter has been driven mad by his explorations of the Dark Side. He has decided that the only way for him to increase his power is by devouring the life Force of other beings. Unfortunately, he is charismatic and cunning enough to carry out this scheme.
In our encounter, the Sorcerer has built a travelling circus around himself. This circus feeds his vain need for cheering crowds, surrounds him with a protective barrier of powerful humanoids and creatures, and allows him to easily charm his victims to separate them from the crowd, allowing the Sorcerer to kidnap them and drain their positive emotions and sanity.
It is impossible for the average humanoid to escape the charming allure of the Sorcerer's performance. As members of the town enter the circus tent they find themselves unable to leave. They remain cheering in their seats until the Sorcerer releases them from his spell. During this time, the Sorcerer's minions will loot the town, and find several victims to be sacrificed to the Sorcerer. This process could take anywhere from a few days, to a week if the town is large enough.
Encounter Hooks
Hook 1: Homecoming
Your adventurers return home after a long adventure. As they see the town in the distance, they can see the raised red and white circus tents on the outskirts of their home.
If they enter the town
"The usually busy streets of (Town Name) are strangely empty. The cry of shopkeepers peddling their wares, and the smiles of familiar faces are gone..."
If your adventurers investigate the noise, you can have them encounter several members of the circus looting different stores and homes around town. They could also be carrying unconscious or bound victims as well. All of the looters are dressed in circus apparel. Ruffians wear trapeze garb and masks, and the Gamorreans are in tutus. Flesh Raiders have painted on smiles, and the Hutt sports a giant smiling face on his belly, as well as different bells and chimes hanging all over his arms, and shoulders. Depending on your party's level and experience, you can use the following encounters:
Town Encounters
| Level | Enemies |
|---|---|
| 1-3 | Leader: 1-2 Flesh Raider Chieftains. Minions: 2 Ruffians and 1-3 Flesh Raiders. |
| 4-6 | Leader: 1 Gamorrean Guard. Minions: 2 Flesh Raider Chieftains and 3 Flesh Raiders. |
| 7-10 | Leader: 1 Gamorrean Enforcer. Minions: 2 Flesh Raider Chieftains, 1 Ruffian, a Hutt Wrestler, and 2 Flesh Raiders. |
| 11+ | As listed above, but with a Reek (Adult) serving as a pack mule. |
The Leaders and intelligent minions of the groups will attempt to flee if the combat begins to look deadly, using rooftops and their circus training to escape back to the circus. You can have your party rescue some survivors, or have some townsfolk come out of hiding later to reveal the following news.
I'm so glad you're here!
Most of the town is trapped at that circus! I don't know exactly what's going on, but anyone who has gone hasn't come back! I was too scared to go myself, but that's when these circus freaks started showing up. They've been breaking into homes and taking the goods right out of the shops! You have to put and end to this!
Hook 2: Festival/Celebration
Life Day, Boonta Eve, Empire Day, feasts thrown after a massively successful military campaign. There are countless celebrations royalty, politicians, and crime lords can throw in your worlds. What better to liven up a celebration than a circus!
The show is about to start!
As you make your way through the packed streets of the town, you hear all manner of hoots, shouts, and sounds approaching from down the road. Glancing over you see street performers blowing fire with dancers spinning and flipping behind them. A man in a red coat, wearing a tall black hat stands on the shoulders of a fambaa and calls to the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen. It is my pleasure to invite you all to the greatest show on this side of the galaxy!" His voice continues booming over the crowd as people begin smiling at one another and joining the parade leading out of town to the bright, red and white circus tents.
The tent opens wide as the townsfolk make their way inside. Children run ahead of parents, couples laugh and point, and the show does not disappoint. Everything seems to be normal until the man in the red coat and top hat walks back out. He steps into the center of the ring, raises his hands over his head and shouts "Is everyone having a good time!"
Have your players make a DC 13 Charisma saving throw. On a success, they are aware that a powerful Dark Side spell has washed over the room, but are themselves unaffected. On a failure, they rise to their feet with the rest of the crowd and begin clapping and cheering.
Party members who resisted the spell may wake up their fellow party members, but the townspeople are stuck in an endless loop of cheering and clapping. Their eyes are beginning to gloss over, and if enough time passes they will begin to pass out and collapse from exhaustion, only to wake up a few hours later to begin cheering again. As the players look back to the circus ring, the man in the red coat and top hat has disappeared.
Welcome to the Show
However the players encounter the charmed townspeople, they will notice that a band of flesh raiders begin making their way through the crowd, and no one reacts as they move through. Some of the flesh raiders begin picking up members of the crowd who they deem to be "good choices" for their master. One raider walks up to an older cheering man and grabs him as well. If the party does not interfere, they walk back down to the center of the circus with their cheering captives, heading into a back room attached to some of the bleacher seating. Once inside that room they will lock the "good choices" in the cage, and then begin to eat the old man.
If the party interferes, the flesh raiders will fight unless they think they are outmatched. They will attempt to escape with their victims into the backstage room, snarling and shouting for help. Or they may attempt to climb up the tall poles in the center ring to escape from the players.
Here are several encounters for you to use as your players make their way through the rest of the circus, weather going outside and exploring other tents, making their way into the backstage area, climbing up into the rafters, or entering into an area of your own creation.
Acrobats
A team of three Trandoshan Acrobats are quite nimble and highly organized. Their goal is to slow down and capture the party, not to kill them. Use the Trandoshan Warrior stat block, with the additional features described below.
Rope Experts
An Acrobat may make a free grapple check against a creature after hitting it with a melee attack. They may add +2 to their grapple check for each additional Acrobat that is within 5 feet of the target. On a success, the target has a pair of manacles wrapped around their hands or feet.
Targets whose feet have been manacled can only move 10 feet during their turn, unless they succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw. If they attempt this saving throw and fail, they fall prone and have their speed reduced to 0 for the rest of the turn.
Targets whose hands have been manacled have a -2 penalty to attack rolls with one-handed weapons, cannot wield two-handed weapons, and cannot make use of a tech focus.
To escape from the manacles, you must use the key found on the lead acrobat, or use an action to make a DC 15 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check or a DC 18 Strength (Athletics) check.
Siamese Twins
The Siamese Twins are a terrifying combination of brains and brawn. The twins have taken on the personas of Big Brother and Little Brother. Big Brother is tremendously tall and sports the strength, size, and durability of 10 men, but is as dumb as a bag of bricks. Little brother is nothing more than a thin flap of bones and skin joined to Big Brother's neck and face. However, he has a deadly intellect, and boasts impressive techcasting abilities because of it (his tech focus is a computer chip implanted in the side of Big Brother's neck). The two protect and keep each other in check. You could say they are a deadly duo!
The amazing Siamese Twins!
A large form stands before you, its face a disgusting mixture of mouths, ears, noses, and extra skin. One large eye sits close to the center of its face and is fixed on you. Two smaller eyes on the left side of its head, where an ear would normally be, dart around the room. One mouth, pulled off center, breathes heavily through large, square teeth. Another smaller mouth, this one wrapping around its neck, smiles, revealing small, sharp teeth.
“This is Big Brother, and I am Little Brother. It's a pleasure to meet you… Shall we have a little play time Big Brother?!”
Siamese Twins
Large humanoid, chaotic balanced
- Armor Class 16
- Hit Points 85 (10d8 + 40)
- Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 20 (+5) 12 (+1) 18 (+4) 17 (+3) 16 (+3) 10 (+0)
- Damage Resistances kinetic and energy, unless flanked (see Weak Spot below)
- Senses passive Perception 16
- Languages Galactic Basic, Gamorrean, Huttese
- Challenge 6 (2300 XP)
Techcasting. The Siamese Twins are a 5th-level techcaster (tech save DC 14, +6 to hit with tech attacks). The Siamese Twins have 22 tech points and know the following tech powers:
1st-level: absorb energy, expeditious retreat, flame sweep, flash
2nd-level: magnetic hold, mirror image, paralyze humanoid
3rd-level: debilitating gas, vertical maneuvering
Two Heads. The Siamese Twins have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and knocked unconscious.
Wakeful. When one of The Siamese Twins is asleep, its other head is awake.
Weak Spot. When the Siamese Twins are flanked (at least two enemies of the Twins are adjacent to them and on opposite sides or corners of the Twins' space), the Twins' resistances are removed.
Actions
Multiattack. The Siamese Twins make two Smash attacks, or make one Smash attack and cast a tech power.
Smash. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 5) kinetic damage.
Clown Car
4-8 energy spiders, under the control of the Sorcerer, pour out of a small, brightly colored airspeeder. The spiders all have clown faces painted on their backs. For an extra challenge, you could have spiders continue to pour out of the car each round until the car is destroyed.
Knife Throwing
One party member is flung across the room by a small tractor beam and strapped to a large wooden disk that begins spinning uncontrollably. The player stuck to the disk takes 1d4 + 2 psychic damage every round, and the only way to release them is to successfully hit targets located around the trapped player's head, arms, legs, and groin. The AC for these targets is 10, 15, 20, and 25, and they must be hit with the vibrodaggers mysteriously provided on a table as soon as the first player is trapped.
Exotic Wild Beast
A large beast is released from a cage and must be slain or calmed down by the players.
Dancing Gamorreans on Giant Balls
Gamorrean enforcers roll in and begin attacking the players. For an added challenge, you can give them an extra 10 feet of movement and a free disengage action while they remain on their giant ball. They can be knocked off their giant ball with a successful grapple, shove, or trip, or after taking 15 damage or more from a single attack.
Trapeze
Ruffians, flesh raiders, Trandoshan warriors, or another enemy of your choice, pepper the party with blaster bolts and rocks as they swing from the trapeze. The players can attempt to climb up to the trapeze ropes while being attacked, or you could add in a canon the players can use shoot up to their attackers.
Giant Contortionist
The players enter an area filled with large, hanging, beautifully embroidered strips of fabric. Descending from above, a Gorax moves around from one strip to another and attacks the party. The gorax may make grapple checks at a target that is standing within 10ft of the fabric, and on a success can pull them into the air with it. If a gorax is too high a CR for your party, you may use a group of humanoid contortionists to accomplish the same encounter at a lower CR.
The Grand Finale
After enough of his side shows have been defeated, the man in the red coat and black hat reappears in the center ring, his red eyes burning with anger. It is at this point that the ringleader will reveal himself as a Sorcerer of Tund.
Using his mastery of illusion magic, the Sorcerer will transform the center ring into a different landscape: A burning forest, a watery shoal during a vicious storm, a large open scene in space. Each of these illusions will be made more real by stage hands moving props, and stages around the center ring. They will burn oil to create fire for the forest stage, they will move large vats of water during the sea stage, and they will swing large balls hung from the trapeze to play the part of asteroids in space. These stage hands are hidden by the illusion magic, but will able to be hit by area of effect powers.
During the illusion battles, a spotlight will remain on your party and the Sorcerer, and the crowd will cheer and clap as big blows are struck by both sides.
As the Sorcerer is dealt damage, he loses his ability to maintain concentration on charming the crowd. When all of the crowd is freed from his grasp you can have him continue to attack the party, or attempt to flee if you wish him to return during a later session.
For lower level parties, we recommend having the whole crowd wake up after the Sorcerer takes a certain amount of damage, ranging from 35-70 depending on your party's level. At this point the Sorcerer will snarl and curse the party, swearing that he will return to destroy them later, and use improved phasewalk to escape.
Sorcerer of Tund
Medium humanoid, chaotic dark
- Armor Class 16
- Hit Points 110 (13d8 + 52)
- Speed 40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14 (+2) 17 (+3) 18 (+4) 13 (+1) 16 (+3) 20 (+5)
- Skills Deception +10, Insight +8
- Damage Immunities kinetic and energy from unenhanced weapons
- Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
- Languages Galactic Basic, Sith
- Challenge 13 (10,000 XP)
Limited Force Immunity. The sorcerer is immune to force powers of 6th level or lower unless it wishes to be affected. It has advantage on saving throws against all other force powers and force effects.
Innate Forcecasting. The sorcerer's innate forcecasting ability is Charisma (force save DC 18, +10 to hit with force attacks). The sorcerer can innately cast the following force powers:
At-will: affect mind, force mask, force push/pull, mind trick, probe mind, sense emotion
3/day each: coerce mind, force camouflage, force sight, phasewalk, sense force
1/day each: dominate mind, improved phasewalk, true sight
Actions
Multiattack. The sorcerer makes two Draining Touch attacks.
Draining Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) necrotic damage, and the target is cursed if it is a creature. The force curse takes effect whenever the target takes a short or long rest, filling the target's thoughts with horrible images and dreams. The cursed target gains no benefit from finishing a short or long rest. The curse lasts until it is lifted by remove curse or a similar power.