So I am co-DM of a campaign run by a friend of mine and on Sunday I'll be doing a bit of a one off session. I have some basic ideas but I've never run a session before and I was wondering if I could get some help working out my plot/setting.
I dunno... I just imagine sitting down, starting the session and like 15 minutes in someone says "Well, we found this napkin 5 minutes ago so obviously Richard is the murderer. How long did you think this plot would run?".
So here is a summery of what I've got:
I am playing D20 modern in a setting only slightly more futuristic then our own time.
Our agents are sent to meet a contact who has been keeping an ear to the ground about unrelated events and now has a packet of information to report. The contact's identity is not known but they gave a secret word to identify themselves. In order to place themselves they are offered back stage passes to the show produced in the studio. The show is a magic show, run by Mondo the magician.
Should our agents choose to accept the back stage passes they can watch the show and then go back stage to meet Mondo, where the contact will identify the agents to give them the secret word and the packet. At least one NPC will be watching the stage show, and go to see Mondo.
Mondo has a secret. He is actually only a series of strong suggestions implanted into people via the lighting during his magic show. The shows staff is filled with people who all believe they are Mondo and are helping each other create more Mondos in the audience. Each audience member does not have a 100% chance of turning into Mondo and even then they do, the suggestion is weak. Mondo's primary goal is the create more Mondos and will defend the operation he has thus far set up. He is also a little insane since he is a person who's brain has been tampered with.
Julia is the true contact, and is honestly working the mission given to her by the agency. However, she also has another goal.
Her previous partner and lover was brainwashed by Mondo (although Julia does not know the nature of Mondo's existence) and she is now seeking revenge. However, during that same encounter with Mondo she was given a strong suggestion to not harm Mondo, and her face was also badly burned. Julia has since received enough plastic and reconstructive surgery so that she now looks like a different person (plot-wise this lets Julia think Mondo won't recognize her). She has since been trying to get close enough to Mondo to find a way to kill him (again, Julia doesn't know that killing, who she thinks is, Mondo is actually pointless).
Julia is now attempting to frame Mondo as an enemy of the agency, so that the agency will deem it necessary to kill Mondo. However her suggestion won't allow her to be blatant.
My goal is to get the agents attacked by Mondo, in what Mondo believes, is a good way of keeping his secret safe (even though a more logical option may just be to be more subtle).Once Mondo decided to try and kill the agents, he will mobilize all his resources, including a number of hypnotizers placed through out his studio, to turn the studio into a massive series of lethal illusions and puzzles.
What I need help creating is a plan for Julia that will get the agents to perceptive Mondo as a threat, which will in turn cause Mondo to use his lethal illusions. However, the plan needs to be sly enough that it doesn't seem like Julia wants Mondo dead. Julia can't, for example, ask the agents to kill Mondo. She also can't do something like give the agents an explosive to plant on Mondo.
My original plan was to have the NPC agent brainwashed by Mondo.
Mondo always tries to hypnotize his audience into telling him about suspicious happenings that could effect him. So by the end of the show Mondo would already know about the secret word and packet. Mondo would would then use the word and a fake packet when meeting the Agents. This would quickly cast doubt on the real contact.
Under orders not to tamper with the packet, or to retrieve a fake packet, the agents would have to identify the real contact. I had imagined a climax where Julia holds one of the agents hostage and threatens to kill them unless Mondo is killed.