Something has been amiss in the city's theaters as of late. The local bards have long done a respectable job of keeping the audiences entertained, weaving high concepts with skillful performances. But lately, a new set of bards, and their illusionist cohorts, have captured the crowd's attention. Compared to the theater's usual fare, their work is hackneyed and poorly plotted, with unskilled acting, bad special effects, and unsatisfying resolutions. Worst of all, the audiences like their work more, and these upstarts are far more profitable than the city's decent bards! Clearly, there must be some dark secret behind the success of these newcomers, and it's up to the city's true artists to find out what it is and expose the conspiracy!

Or maybe the city's bards have just become too hopelessly pretentious and derivative. It's hard to tell. But investigate it they must! Failure is not an option! Victory, or...well, they'll have to get day jobs or something.

Original cover image generated by NightCafé . Master story list here .