Secretary for Public Entertainment Claudius Vardemaar seeks citizens to assist in the celebration of this glorious event. Interested parties should report to the Imperial Ampitheatre in the Boulevard.
The party are instructed to retrieve one of the plays star performers who disappeared at some point in the night. As they head across the city they run into several planar incursions but eventually find the herald in a pub they often frequent where they stayed after proclaiming the imperial truth the night before. As the party escort the actor back towards the amphitheatre a shadow seems to gradually fall over the sun and the busy streets fade away until the party find themselves in a quiet empty city. Figures appear around the party and silently attack them but are eventually driven off.
Elias makes the parties clothes look like the wrappings of their attackers and they carry on through the silent streets. Meanwhile Nessa asks the shroud what is going on and gets only laughter in response. The party soon encounter another group but are able to persuade them they are the group just beaten. Elias and Rekha head off with the actor whilst Ophrey stays behind talking long enough for one of the original group to show up and get rumbled. Rekha goes back to attempt to help but eventually leaves leaving Ophrey in the darkness.
Elias and Rekha return to the amphitheatre with the actor where they are treated to lunch. They meet the actor due to play the emperor and Elias swiftly goes off him persuading Claudius to use a Golden puppet from the props cupboard which he fixes instead. Ophrey arrives later claiming to have died and returned. She lures the actor to a cupboard where they are knocked unconscious and replaced by the shadowy figures whom she is allied with.
After lunch the party are dispatched to break up a demonstration against the lifting of the edict. Rekha is disguised to look like the herald in the hopes that she might get kidnapped leading the party to the source of the problem. The demonstration appears to be against the lifting of the edict which speakers claiming that the silent regent does not have the power to lift the edict in the emperor’s absence. Arguments erupt and it soon gets violent with Elias fighting waves of protesters whilst Rekha allows herself to get kidnapped in the melee.
Afterwards Elias and Ophrey realise they have no way to track Rekha and are eventually forced to wander the district until they hear the tell tale crashes that indicate a fight has broken out. Rushing in they find Rekha trashing a tea house and swiftly defeat the guards/patrons. In the back room the party find the entire acting troupe their faces completely blank as they have been stolen by some magic. The party realise someone has replaced the entire troupe and attempt to head back but are met on the way out by another group of cultists whom they swiftly beat. As they fall however an Erosion weaver enacts a death curse throwing the whole party deep into erosion. Here the party struggle to get back to the mortal plane and whilst Elias and Ophrey make it they both bleed to death whilst Rekha’s familiar goes on a rampage through Telemere.
Returning to the amphitheatre the party find the play already in full swing. Heading to the prop cupboard they find Claudius knocked out and tied up next to the emperor puppet that Elias made earlier. The party swiftly strategize about a way interrupt the play without making it look like the emperor was beaten. They eventually decide to pretend that the actor is playing a body double of the emperor who will be beaten by Rekha’s barbarian before the true emperor the golden statue puppeted by Elias comes on beats rekha and gives an appropriate Edict lifting supporting speech. In addition Ophrey uses an embrace so that the words of the false emperor get twisted even as he speaks them. This all actually works.