If the player characters would chase Joe Lakono or his alter ego Orlando Fontaine, he’s a great way to get them through the doors. If they’ve come to really hate Joe, he might summon a waxen assassin to take his form, and send it against one of them, so that they end up chasing his twin through the doors.
Waxen Assassin: (Demon: 6; Chaotic Evil; Survival: 43; Move: 12; Attacks: 1; Damage: d6; Defense: +8; Special attack: 6-yard illusions; Special defenses: immune to weapons, cold; resistant to elements)
The adventure pretty much assumes a waxen assassin or someone with illusory magic, so you’ll want to bring something like that into the adventures before this adventure starts.
The Bird of Paradise
The door to Las Vegas is marked with the symbol of the Bird of Paradise, which is the symbol of the Paradice Island Lounge in Vegas. If they will encounter Joe Lakono in their world before entering Red Jack’s, they might find one of Joe’s matchbook’s with that symbol on it.
A life and death dilemma
As if altering the fabric of time and space is not enough of a moral dilemma, you can add more to suit your game group. In our game group we have one player who can only make it to about a third of the get-togethers. We play little enough as it is, so we can’t cancel the games when he can’t make it.
Since he started playing a little more regularly just a few sessions before I realized the characters were going to enter the Butterfly Halls, I concocted (with the help of Joe Lakono) this little scheme. It helped that the player’s character had been involved in a crime that resulted in a murder.
One way to snap the vines that hold the world together is to force the world to confront two different versions of itself. Joe has set the world shimmering between two realities. In one version of the world, Arun has been executed for murder in the commission of a burglary. In the other version of the world, Arun escaped the authorities.
Joe Lakono (as Orlando Fontaine) used his Watch of the Red Ants to engineer Arun’s double life. Later, he might also give the timepiece to the military leaders of Black Stag as they go to war against the (what they think is a token) army of Illustrious Castle. They need merely twist the red ants backwards to gain a second chance if things go wrong.
If this dissonance continues, the vine will snap, and the world tree will retreat. This world will crumble into the abyss, much like the Dead Rome that the characters saw at the Crossroads.
If the characters ask either Joe or Jack why they keep having these strangely realistic dreams about Arun existing/not existing, he’ll tell them. And he’ll tell them how to solve the problem. If Arun dies when the world isn’t looking, that will solve the paradox. That is, if they let Arun die (or kill him themselves) while on the other side of the doors, they’ll save the world for a little longer. Joe will be satisfied with either outcome.
Watch of the Red Ants
This rusted iron watch is surrounded by a circle of red ants twined among themselves. The watch flips open to reveal rusted gears covered in dust.
When the ants are twisted, they burn red and time flips back to the last choice made that could make a significant difference in the current situation the bearer wants to avoid. The person in control of the watch can then attempt to forge a new path in time. However, both paths still exist, and different people will remember different paths at different times.
Any person can use the watch but once.
