Recommended Party Size: 2-3 players

Estimated Duration: 1-2 threads (one for planning/infiltration, one for execution/escape)

Quest Type: Side Quest (potential for Faction Quest ties with city guard or investigative bodies)

Prerequisites (If any): None explicitly, but a reputation for discretion or prior success in stealthy endeavors might be mentioned by the quest giver.

Objective:

Details: Magistrate Veridian, a stern but fair city official known for her attempts to root out corruption, has approached the party with a highly sensitive and deniable operation. She has strong suspicions that Councilor Alistair Thorne, a wealthy and influential noble, is using his position for illicit gains, siphoning city funds, and engaging in blackmail. Direct investigation has proven fruitless due to Thorne's connections and layers of obfuscation. However, Veridian's informants suggest Thorne keeps a meticulously detailed, coded ledger of his illicit dealings hidden within his private study in his city villa. She needs a discreet team to infiltrate Thorne's villa, locate his study, retrieve this specific ledger, and escape without a trace. Raising an alarm would not only endanger the party but also alert Thorne, allowing him to destroy the evidence and implicate Veridian.

Primary Goal:

• Infiltrate Councilor Thorne's Villa.
• Locate and enter Councilor Thorne's private study.
• Retrieve "Councilor Thorne's Incriminating Ledger."
• Escape the villa grounds undetected.

Secondary Goals:

• Ghost Protocol: Complete the entire mission without any guard or servant being alerted to your presence (no "suspicious" state, no alarms).
• Clean Getaway: Leave no physical trace of your entry or exit (e.g., picked locks re-locked or appearing untouched, no broken windows, no items left behind).
• Silent Neutralization (if necessary): If any guards must be dealt with, use only non-lethal methods and ensure they are not discovered before your escape.
• Opportunity Knocks: Obtain any additional pieces of incriminating evidence from the study (e.g., specific letters, maps of hidden caches – GM discretion).

Failure Conditions:

• A full alarm is raised within the villa (e.g., bells rung, widespread alert).
• Any party member is captured or killed.
• The "Incriminating Ledger" is not retrieved, or is destroyed.
• Councilor Thorne or his household is directly alerted to the break-in before the party escapes with the ledger.
• Any guard or servant is killed by the party.

Location: Councilor Thorne's Villa, a two-story opulent residence in the noble district. It features a walled garden, a main house with multiple rooms, servant quarters, and a well-guarded private study on the upper floor. The study is rumored to have reinforced doors and complex locks.

Timeline: The operation must take place at night. Magistrate Veridian suggests a specific night when Thorne is known to be attending a lengthy out-of-town banquet, reducing the number of awake household staff, though regular guard patrols will remain. The window of opportunity is roughly between midnight and 4 AM.

Difficulty Level: CR 4 (Emphasis on avoiding combat; challenges come from guards, locks, traps, and observation).

Useful Skills/Abilities:

Skills:

• Stealth: Absolutely critical for movement and avoiding detection.
• Disable Device: For locks on doors, windows, chests, and potential traps.
• Perception: To spot guards, traps, hidden items, and hear movements.
• Sleight of Hand: For lifting keys, manipulating small objects quietly, or planting items.
• Acrobatics: For silent movement, balancing on ledges, or navigating tight spaces.
• Climb: For accessing upper floors or alternative entry points.
• Knowledge (Local): For understanding typical villa layouts or noble routines.
• Use Magic Device: If the party finds or brings scrolls/wands (e.g., invisibility, silence).
• Bluff/Disguise (as a last resort): If a minor, isolated encounter occurs and the party thinks they can talk their way out.

Abilities:

• Spells: Invisibility, Silence, Darkvision, Spider Climb, Knock (if used carefully), Obscuring Mist (for distractions or escape), Sleep, Charm Person (risky).
• Class Features: Rogue talents (e.g., Trapfinding, Silent Move), Ninja tricks, Alchemist bombs (for non-detection smoke, not damage).
• Darkvision or low-light vision.

Potential Challenges:

Threats: (GM Note: The goal is for these to be obstacles to sneak past, not necessarily fight. An encounter budget of ~1200 XP, but focused on detection/avoidance.)

• Patrolling Guards: Several (e.g., 2-4) human guards (Warrior 1 or Rogue 1, CR 1/2 each) with established patrol routes in the garden and inside the villa. They might carry lanterns.
• Study Guardian: A more alert or skilled guard (perhaps a Warrior 2 or a Sleuth Investigator 2, CR 1-2) stationed near or within the antechamber to the study.
• Guard Dogs: One or two dogs (CR 1/3 - CR 1, depending on type) in the garden with keen senses (Scent).
• Magical Wards: Alarm spells on key doors/windows, possibly a simple Glyph of Warding (DC 28 Perception/Disable Device) on the study door or the ledger's container.
• Mundane Traps: Pressure plates connected to chimes, tripwires in shadowy corridors, complex locks (DC 25-30) on the study door and on the container holding the ledger.
• Alert Servants: A few servants might still be awake or be light sleepers.
• Environmental Difficulties: Creaky floorboards, loose gravel paths, locked windows, barred grates.

Environmental Factors

Weather: Night. GM can choose:

• Clear Night: Good visibility for guards with darkvision, but also allows players to see further.
• Light Rain/Mist: Dampens sound, might obscure vision slightly for both sides, could make climbing slippery.

Terrain:

• Exterior: Stone walls (possibly with climbable ivy), manicured garden with bushes for cover, gravel paths (noisy), shadowed alleyways.
• Interior: Polished wooden floors, carpeted areas (quieter), furnished rooms providing cover, narrow hallways, staircases. Limited light sources (moonlight through windows, occasional sconce or night-light). Thorne's study is likely well-appointed but secure.

NPCs:

Allies:

• Magistrate Veridian: (See Quest Giver). She can provide a crude sketch of the villa's ground floor layout (based on public records) and known guard shift patterns, but no interior details of private areas.

Enemies: (These are primarily obstacles to be avoided or non-lethally neutralized)

• Councilor Thorne's Household Guards (Human Warrior 1 / Rogue 1).
• Potential Study Guardian (Human Warrior 2 or Investigator 2).
• Guard Dogs.
• (Unlikely to be encountered directly) Councilor Alistair Thorne himself (Aristocrat/Rogue – should be away).

Quest Giver:

Name: Magistrate Elara Veridian

Description: A middle-aged human woman with sharp, intelligent eyes and hair neatly tied back. She wears practical, well-maintained but unostentatious clothing befitting her office. Her demeanor is serious and direct, with an air of barely suppressed frustration at the corruption she fights. She values competence and absolute discretion above all else.

Rewards:

• Experience Points (XP): 1200 XP (total).
• Bonus XP:
• +400 XP for achieving "Ghost Protocol" (completely undetected).
• +200 XP for "Clean Getaway" (no trace left).
• +100 XP for "Silent Neutralization" (if guards were non-lethally dealt with and not discovered).
• +50-100 XP for each significant piece of "Opportunity Knocks" secondary evidence retrieved.
• Gold Pieces (GP): 500 GP (total) base from Magistrate Veridian.
• Bonus GP:
• +250 GP for "Ghost Protocol."
• +100 GP from Veridian for any exceptional secondary intelligence that directly leads to further actionable leads.
• Items:
• From Magistrate Veridian (as an advance or upon completion):
• 2x Potions of Invisibility
• 1x Scroll of Silence
• A set of Masterwork Thieves' Tools.
• From the Villa (if found and not part of the primary target, GM discretion):
• Small pouch of loose coins or minor gemstones in the study (e.g., 50-100 gp worth).
• A bottle of fine, rare wine (worth 75 gp).
• Quest-Specific Item: "Councilor Thorne's Incriminating Ledger."
• Reputation/Other:
• Significant increase in trust and positive reputation with Magistrate Veridian, potentially leading to more high-stakes (and high-reward) missions.
• If Veridian successfully uses the ledger, the party might gain favor with anti-corruption factions within the city.
• Penalties:
• Raising a full alarm: No GP reward from Veridian, significantly reduced XP (if any), and likely a bounty placed on the party's heads by Councilor Thorne if they are identified. Veridian will deny any involvement.
• Killing any guards: Veridian will be displeased, half GP reward, no "Silent Neutralization" bonus. She may refuse to work with the party again.
• Being captured: Severe consequences, potential imprisonment or worse.
• Failing to retrieve the ledger: Minimal XP (for effort, if any), no GP.