A CENAR TECO
Summary
August 21, 1968. Prague. As the forces of the Warsaw Pact bear down upon the Czechoslovak capital, the Estates Theatre is hosting the premiere of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, unaware of the invasion outside. Unbeknownst to all, this production of Don Giovanni has been infected by the taint of Hastur. If successful, the entire opera house, and perhaps the opera itself, will become suffused with the madness of the King in Yellow. GRU-SV8 has only a vague idea of what is going on inside the theatre, but they know that time is running out. A team of operatives have been dispatched to stop the performance.
The Agents
All Agents in this mission are GRU-SV8 operatives that are fluent in Russian and Czech. Most SV8 members are Russian GRU agents, though they can be drawn from agencies and nations from across the Warsaw Pact.
Briefing
12:54 PM. The Agents, dressed in their best formal wear, cram into the back of a Ural-375 barreling down the streets of Prague. Sitting across from them is a chainsmoking Stasi man named Günter, who hands them earplugs, PB silenced pistols, garrotes, and a list of six names:
- Pavel Maděra, stage director.
- Jan Krška, conductor.
- Jiří Vašek, playing Don Giovanni.
- Milan Feldek, playing Il Commendatore.
- Jozef Löw, set designer.
- Zdena Vostrá, costume designer.
In five minutes, Don Giovanni will begin at the Estates Theatre. The list must be checked off before it finishes. After that, they will stop the performance. They must not look at the stage or listen to the music.
One Agent is given a walkie-talkie. If they are unable to stop the performance, they will turn it on and say the word ‘Moldau’.
The truck shudders to a stop outside of the theatre’s gilded Neoclassical facade. The area is eerily empty compared to the crowded streets throughout the rest of Prague. Three hundred bicycles lie around the entrance.
The Targets
During the late 1950s, a poorly translated and abridged copy of Le Roi en jaune enjoyed a brief stint of notoriety among select circles of the Czech intelligentsia. The targets read that copy ten years ago, and have unknowingly become tainted by its influence.
There is no security in the theatre, and none of the targets have combat training. The secret is that it doesn’t matter how stealthy the Agents are. As soon as the opera begins, there is nothing they can do, short of killing all targets, to stop the performance. (Not to say that drawing attention is without consequences- the stagehands and ushers will try to restrain anyone causing a disruption.) An Agent could shoot a performer on the stage, only for an audience member to climb up and take their place. If any of the Agents are enthralled, they might be the replacement.
Pavel Maděra (Director)
- Description: A middle-aged man with receding hair and thick eyebrows.
- Schedule: Spends the entire performance seated in the back row. He gets up twice: once to use the restroom during Act 1, and to smoke outside during intermission. He is the only person who leaves the building.
Jan Krška (Conductor)
- Description: A wiry, wild-eyed man with a shock of graying hair.
- Schedule: In the orchestra pit. Difficult to get alone. A brief window opens at intermission, when he retreats to his office.
Jiří Vašek (Don Giovanni)
- Description: A bearded man with a bony, angular face.
- Schedule: Onstage for the majority of the performance. (Make a luck roll to determine whether Vašek is onstage or offstage.)
Milan Feldek (Commendatore)
- Description: A large, bald, older man with a bushy mustache.
- Schedule: Enters the stage ten minutes in and exits soon after After that, he returns to his dressing room and is killed as soon as he sits down. When the agents find him, he lies seated, head hanging back, with two gold coins (Austrian ducats, dated 1787) over his eyelids. No visible cause of death. An autopsy would find his vocal cords have been removed.
Jozef Löw (Set Designer)
- Description: A thin, balding, bespectacled man.
- Schedule: He moves between seats throughout the performance, surveying the stage from different angles.
Zdena Vostrá (Costume Designer)
- Description: A severe woman with curly graying hair.
- Schedule: Act 1: In an office backstage. Act 2: A box on the third floor.
The Performance
The performance begins the exact moment the Agents enter the Estates Theatre.
(Consider playing music from Don Giovanni during the session.)
Madness in the Opera
If an Agent suffers temporary insanity, they become enthralled, removing their earplugs and wordlessly walking towards the auditorium. An empty seat is waiting for them. Ending this compulsion requires another Agent to restrain them and cover their ears.
Act 1
If any Agent breaks protocol and looks at the stage, they observe a visually striking but seemingly normal opera performance. The sets, costumes, and effects blend the baroque and decadent with the grisly and surreal.
Encounters
- An usher attempts to guide the Agents to their assigned seats. His requests grow increasingly desperate and insistent.
- A man stops passersby to ask “Does anyone know what they’re saying?”
- An Agent spots one of their Bonds, who covers their face with a playbill to avoid eye contact. (1/1D6 SAN)
- A confused Russian soldier wanders the hallways.
Entr’acte
Much of the audience remains in their seats, but the lobby and hallways are crowded. Reality holds, but is being torn and stretched.
Encounters
- Smiling women hand out papier-mâché masks to theatregoers. By Act 2, half the audience is wearing them.
- Bright calliope music echoes out of a maintenance closet.
- An empty pedestal stands in the lobby. It was not there before. The plaque reads ‘IL COMMENDATORE’. The Agent is filled with unease. (0/1D4 SAN)
Act 2
The Theatre shudders in anticipation as the Finale approaches. Shadows dance. Geometry and architecture are less reliable than before.
During Act 2, Agents may encounter half-real manifestations of Hastur’s influence. At the Handler’s discretion, these ‘shadows’ are either impossible to kill or can be destroyed instantly, being made of glass, cloth, or paper.
Encounters
- Raucous laughter and heavy footfalls echo from the ceiling.
- A drunk at a urinal, his face caked with white makeup and syphilis scars.
- A hallway is filled with canaries from a large, broken birdcage.
- A half-naked woman plays the violin, her face wrapped in a golden sheet.
The Statue
Anyone in the auditorium when this scene begins must make a POWx5 check or be compelled to watch.
Halfway into the second act, the curtains open on a large bronze statue, green with rust, atop a pedestal in a graveyard. The statue depicts a voluminous, empty cloak, like that worn by Il Commendatore at the beginning of the opera.
For the first part of the scene, the Statue only stands in the background. The sight of it provokes a 0/1 SAN check. Later, the Statue sings with dead Feldek’s deep, rumbling voice. (1/1D6 SAN). At the end of the scene, the Statue nods its head. (0/1D4 SAN).
From this point on, there is no way to stop Hastur’s infection from spreading, short of calling in ‘Moldau’.
The Finale
Don Giovanni holds a feast in a labyrinthine palace covered in dying vines. There is a knock at the door. The Statue bursts through, a living cloak of rippling, corroded metal, a vast cityscape of mausoleums behind it. Anyone inside the auditorium must make a successful POWx5 check or be unable to look away, taking 1D6 SAN damage for every thirty seconds they keep watching. They can make another POW check to resist if shaken or injured.
The Statue invites Don Giovanni to dine with him. He boldly accepts and takes its hand. He collapses, wracked with chills. Every audience member stands in unison.
The Statue demands that Don Giovanni repent. He refuses. This happens five times. Each time, the audience shudders horribly. At the fifth, the Statue lets go and vanishes. From offstage, a chorus of black-robed figures with white masks descend upon Don Giovanni as they both sing of endless torments. They tear him limb from limb, but the gore is made of ribbons and strands of red paper.
The audience writhes. When the curtains close, all have been replaced by antique wooden mannequins. The opera house is a burnt out and abandoned wreck. Surviving Agents have two parallel sets of memories- their actual recollections, and a vague idea of wandering aimlessly through an abandoned building. The latter becomes stronger over time.
Success
If all targets have been eliminated before the Statue appears in Act 2, the performance comes to a halt and the curtains close halfway through a scene. After thirty minutes, the audience files out of the theatre in a daze, not sure what they watched or why they were there.
“Moldau”
If the Agents radio in with ‘Moldau’, Soviet artillery begins shelling the theatre two minutes later.
Stat Blocks
Targets
STR 9 CON 9 DEX 10 INT 14 POW 12 CHA 12
HP 9 WP 12 SAN 42 BREAKING POINT 36
SKILLS: Alertness 40%, Art (Opera) 70%, Disguise 30%, Foreign Language (Italian) 30%, Foreign Language (German) 15%, Foreign Language (Russian) 20%, Occult 10%, Persuade 40%, Unnatural 1%
ATTACKS: Unarmed 40%, 1D4-1
Stagehands/Ushers
STR 13 CON 12 DEX 12 INT 11 POW 10 CHA 10
HP 12 WP 10 SAN 45 BREAKING POINT 40
SKILLS: Alertness 50%, Art (Opera) 30%, Athletics 50%, Persuade 35%, Unarmed Combat 55%
ATTACKS: Unarmed 55%, 1D4
Theatregoers
STR 10 CON 10 DEX 9 INT 10 POW 9 CHA 10
HP 10 WP 9 SAN 45 BREAKING POINT 36
SKILLS: Varies, but mostly upper-middle class professionals. Most have one skill (often Accounting, Art, Bureaucracy, or Law) at a 50 or 60%, and a few others at 30% or 20%.
ATTACKS: Unarmed 40%, 1D4-1
Special Thanks
A big thanks to my friends Ben, Ian, and Parger for helping in the writing process, and bongoshaftsburi, iceytheknight, pelipowers, nomad64_, and boomforeal for playtesting. Additional thanks to Sammy J and everyone who submitted stuff to the Star Chamber. Shoutout Thomas Ligotti and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Credits
A Cenar Teco was written by Hobocop for the 2025 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NVM8o-mA64WEEj2plZVPIulQbT6hjvDeTbRAmLW-Naw/edit