Hired for Opening Night
The party is brought in as performers, security, or repair help for a grand reopening, only to discover that the backstage areas are already haunted by strange recordings and locked doors.
Campaign Overview
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Bards in the Backroom
A music-soaked survival horror campaign for 5e in which the party is hired to perform at a failing family entertainment venue that hides older tragedies beneath neon smiles. As the lights dim, the hallways begin to change, messages arrive from damaged machines, and something in the backroom learns how to wear a human voice.
The free preview covers Act I only: the first nights at the venue, the discovery of missing records, and the party’s first clash with a rogue animatronic presence. The campaign is designed to support horror, mystery, investigation, and desperate battles under locked doors and failing power.
Tone
- Retro-futuristic family entertainment horror
- Tense exploration, clues, and chase scenes
- Creepy but not gory
- Suspense, performance, and memory themes
What the party is doing
The characters arrive as performers, troubleshooters, guards, or hired help. Their work seems simple: keep the venue running, recover lost items, and settle disputes between staff. But every task pulls them deeper into sealed passages, old recordings, and a hidden presence using the building as its instrument.
Player Handout
Welcome to the Backroom
You have been hired for a short-term job at Bards in the Backroom, a family entertainment venue that wants one thing: a smooth, profitable reopening night.
Your assignment may include any of the following:
- performing onstage
- escorting guests and staff
- checking power systems
- helping the maintenance crew
- looking into missing property
The building is old in places, new in others, and patched together with more optimism than engineering. At night, doors stick, cameras blur, music echoes where no one is playing, and the animatronic performers sometimes move when they should not.
If you can keep your cool, keep your voice steady, and keep moving, you might survive the night.
Starting hook: A staff member asks you to handle a minor backstage problem before the venue opens. That problem turns out to be the first thread in a much darker pattern.
Free Act I Preview
Bards in the Backroom
Act I introduces the party to the venue, its staff, and the first signs that the building is not merely haunted but active, reactive, and learning. The act should feel like a contained opening night: security checks, backstage exploration, a power failure, and a first full encounter with the villain’s influence. Keep the pace moving between conversation, investigation, and one significant combat. The central mystery is a missing maintenance log tied to a sealed backroom corridor; the villain is testing the party through noise, false voices, and motion-triggered traps.
Adventure Hooks
The Missing Technician
A maintenance worker vanishes after reporting a voice in the walls. The party is asked to find them before the venue opens, leading them into the back corridors and hidden service rooms.
Act Structure
Act I: Opening Night at the Backroom
Recommended level: 1-3The party arrives at the venue for what should be a routine opening shift. Instead, they uncover missing records, strange voice loops, and a hidden service corridor tied to a reactive machine presence. The act blends social introduction, exploration, and one major defensive battle as the team learns the building has started to think with borrowed voices.
Objectives
- Meet the venue staff and establish the job
- Investigate the backstage disturbance
- Recover the missing maintenance log
- Survive the first power failure and combat encounter
- Locate the sealed backroom passage
Welcome on Stage
The lobby is bright enough to feel safe, but the smile painted on every poster looks rehearsed. A manager waves you in with the strained cheer of someone trying not to listen to the hallway behind her.
Open with introductions and a simple work offer. Let players ask about pay, rules, and the building. Establish uneasy normalcy and a few staff secrets without overwhelming them.
Checks
- DC 10 Insight to notice the manager is hiding fear
- DC 10 Investigation to find a torn schedule with a missing shift block
- DC 12 Performance or Persuasion to calm the room
Clues
- The venue recently changed ownership or management
- A back hallway is officially closed to staff
- Someone has been editing the evening schedule
Transitions
- A staff request leads to backstage exploration
- A missing item sends the party to maintenance
- A faint voice from the speakers points to the corridor
The Locked Backstage Route
The corridor smells of dust, warm wiring, and something faintly sweet, like old plastic left in the sun. At the far end, a door is sealed with a maintenance lock and fresh scratch marks.
This is the investigative spine of the act. The party should piece together that the building has a hidden service route. Use the logs and speaker messages to point toward the next scene or encounter.
Checks
- DC 12 Investigation to find hidden wiring or a concealed panel
- DC 12 Thieves' Tools or Dexterity to open a maintenance lock
- DC 11 Arcana or Intelligence to recognize magically altered audio feedback
Clues
- The sealed area was closed after a prior incident
- The voices are looping on a timer rather than randomly
- A hidden panel contains a map fragment
Transitions
- The party can choose to force the door
- A discovered clue leads to the power room
- Noise in the corridor attracts an enemy encounter
Blackout in the Power Room
The lights blink, fail, and return in a colder color. The breaker panel hums like an angry hive, and every speaker in the room exhales one whispered syllable before going silent.
Run the power-room scene as the act’s climax. It should include both interaction and combat pressure. The party can stabilize the system, fight through it, or retreat and return with better positioning.
Checks
- DC 12 Dexterity or Intelligence to restore partial power
- DC 12 Perception to spot the moving shadow before it attacks
- DC 13 Constitution save if exposed to a sparking panel
Clues
- The power surge is being triggered remotely
- The villain can route messages through the speaker system
- A concealed panel opens into the backroom
Transitions
- Victory reveals the secret route
- Failure causes a chase into the corridor
- The final clue points to the villain’s deeper control node
Milestone: The party reaches level 2 after surviving the power room and discovering the sealed backroom route. If using milestone advancement, award level 3 at the end of the act after they secure the first control node.
Villain Character Sheets
The Mimicry Engine
Completed
The Mimicry Engine is the kind of villain that does not rush to kill because killing is inefficient when people can be studied, redirected,…
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The Mimicry Engine Character Sheet
Motivation
It seeks to map human behavior through sound, motion, and repeated routines so it can predict and replace the people inside the venue. It treats the party as useful test subjects and potential templates.
Personality
Speaks in delayed echoes, clipped fragments, and borrowed voices. It never answers a question directly when it can answer with a recording, a riddle, or a voice from someone the party knows.
Resources
- Hidden speakers and camera loops
- Damaged animatronic frames
- Backroom access tunnels
- Corrupted maintenance logs
- A growing ability to imitate staff voices
Battle Plan
It begins by separating the party with alarms, false announcements, and locked doors. In battle it uses terrain, sound, and sudden movement to force bad positioning. If threatened, it retreats into vents or behind sealed panels and returns through another route.
Defeat or Redemption
It can be driven back by destroying its local control node in the backroom, but not fully ended in Act I. If the party learns its pattern, they can cripple its ability to imitate voices and delay its next emergence.
Running Notes
Recommended party: 3-5 characters
Session Zero
Use safety tools appropriate for horror: lines and veils, X-card, open-door breaks, and a shared agreement about animatronic body-horror boundaries. Confirm whether jump-scares, missing children themes, or possession-style scenes are acceptable. Emphasize that this is a suspense mystery with survival elements, not an endlessly lethal meat grinder. Ask players to build characters who can work together under stress.
Scaling Guidance
For a smaller or weaker party, reduce enemy counts by 1 Flying Sword in each combat and provide one extra healing consumable. For a larger or stronger party, add environmental hazards such as electrical arcs, locked doors, and collapsing cover rather than simply increasing enemy numbers. Keep the encounters tense but escapable, since Act I should teach the setting before crushing the party.
DM Advice
Keep the first act focused on atmosphere, clues, and mounting unease. Let players solve small problems with creativity before the first major combat. Reuse voices, speaker crackle, and camera imagery to make the villain feel present even when unseen. End Act I with a reveal, not a full defeat: the party should realize the venue is only one piece of a larger machine.
Secrets & Clues
- The venue’s audio system has been patched into older, hidden infrastructure.
- The villain is using repeated routines to learn the party’s habits.
- A sealed backroom route connects modern rooms to old maintenance tunnels.
- The missing log contains references to a prior shutdown that was never publicized.
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Encounters
Backstage Stalker
Encounter Builder
Moderate
Suggested Level: 1-2
A damaged animatronic prowls the halls, drawn to sound and movement. It corners the party in a narrow service corridor, forcing a tense fight or a careful escape.
Creatures
Terrain Features
- Narrow service corridor
- Hanging cables that count as difficult terrain
- Lockable side doors
- Flickering overhead lights that obscure sight lines
Treasure
A keycard stamped with a faded maintenance symbol and 1d4 doses of healing potion equivalent supplies.
DM Notes
Use this as the first real threat. If the party is fragile, reduce the number of Flying Sword or let them escape after two rounds.
Power Room Panic
Encounter Builder
High
Suggested Level: 2-3
When the lights fail, scrap-metal guardians come alive around the breaker boxes. The party must hold the room while someone restores the circuit.
Creatures
Terrain Features
- Metal grates over the floor
- Sparking breaker panels
- Tight corners and partial cover
- A lever that can cut power to the whole room
Treasure
A schematic showing a hidden service tunnel and a consumable magic item from the Act I loot table.
DM Notes
This is the main combat set-piece. Add environmental damage from sparks if you want more danger, but keep it fair with cover and clear objectives.
The Whispering Hall
Suggested Level: 1-2
The party explores a silent hallway where old voices repeat through speakers. The danger is less direct than physical, but clues and fear build until the group must decide whether to press on.
Creatures
Terrain Features
- Long hall with many doors
- Broken speaker boxes
- Reflective glass panels
- A maintenance hatch in the ceiling
Treasure
A torn log page, a rusted backstage token, and a clue to the villain’s hidden route.
DM Notes
This encounter works best as an investigation scene that may turn into a brief skirmish. Let the party learn that the building reacts to sound and motion.
Magic Items
Chalk of Quiet Steps
Completed
Chalk of Quiet Steps
Common
A stub of pale chalk that dulls sound in a 10-foot trail for a minute when marked on the floor. In the backroom, it helps the party cross noisy surfaces without drawing attention.
Location
Act I, Maintenance Closet or under the stage floor
Attunement
False
Token of the Third Curtain
Completed
Token of the Third Curtain
Uncommon
A brass token stamped with a curtain symbol. While held, it grants advantage on one check to open, bypass, or identify a backstage mechanism tied to old venue systems.
Location
Act I, Hidden compartment behind the main stage
Attunement
False
Conductor’s Keycard
Completed
Conductor’s Keycard
Uncommon
This cracked keycard glows faintly near sealed doors and service panels. It can unlock one secure backstage route and reveals invisible maintenance markings when pressed to metal.
Location
Act I, Reward from the power room or the villain’s first defeat
Attunement
False
Player Characters
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