Heartbreak Heist

3-4 hours 3-5 players

Tagline: Some treasures can't be stolen, only given.

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The Hook

The infamous "Cupid's Fence" runs a black market in crystallized emotions: heart gems surgically removed from victims who can no longer feel love. Tonight, she's hosting an exclusive auction at The Weeping Pavilion, a floating mansion suspended above the city. Your party has been hired by a desperate wife to infiltrate the event, find her husband's stolen heart, and escape before the Fence realizes you're not buyers.

But as you dig deeper, you'll discover the truth: the Fence isn't evil, she's broken. A fallen celestial who once helped mortals find love, she fell for a mortal man and watched him die. Unable to bear the grief, she cut out her own heart. Now she collects hearts, studying them, trying to understand why love hurt so much.

What Players Will Experience

This is a heist with heart, literally. Players will navigate social deception, moral dilemmas, and tense infiltration as they work to recover a stolen emotion. Combat is possible but not required; clever parties can complete the entire adventure through roleplay, investigation, and smart planning.

The adventure builds to a confrontation that asks hard questions: Is the Fence a monster or a victim? Can a heart be returned to someone who chose to give it away? And what would you sacrifice to feel again?

What GMs Get

• Complete, ready-to-run package: prep in 30 minutes or less
• Scene 0 gathering scene for party coordination
• Full NPC profiles with motivations, secrets, and voice notes
• Multiple resolution paths: combat, negotiation, heist, or emotional confrontation
• Scalable encounters for different party sizes and playstyles
• Detailed maps of The Weeping Pavilion (player and GM versions)
• Handouts and props including auction invitations and heart gem descriptions

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What's Inside

Scene-by-Scene:

1. The Commission: Meeting the desperate wife, Elena Voss
2. Preparation: Gathering intel, acquiring disguises, planning the approach
3. The Pavilion: Infiltrating the floating mansion during the auction
4. The Vault: Locating and recovering the stolen heart
5. The Reckoning: Confronting the Fence and choosing how this ends

Key NPCs:

• Elena Voss: The desperate wife, hiding her own secrets
• The Cupid's Fence: A fallen celestial consumed by grief
• Aurelius Crane: The trapped auctioneer who knows too much
• The Heartless: Previous victims, now emotionless shells

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Features

• Runtime: 3-4 hours
• Players: 3-5
• Levels: 4-6
• Combat: Moderate (2-3 encounters)
• Themes: Love, loss, grief, moral complexity
• Includes: Full NPC profiles, battle maps, player handouts, 4 possible endings

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Perfect For

• Groups who love roleplay and moral dilemmas
• GMs who want a complete, ready-to-run experience
• Players who enjoy heists with emotional stakes
• Tables that appreciate tragic, complex villains

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Content Advisory

This adventure explores themes of grief, loss, and emotional manipulation. It handles these subjects with care, nothing gratuitously dark, but players should be prepared for emotionally resonant storytelling. We recommend a Session Zero check-in about comfort with romantic tragedy themes.

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"She doesn't collect hearts because she's cruel. She collects them because she's forgotten what they're for."

"The auction begins at midnight. By dawn, either love wins, or it dies forever."

"Some cages are gilded. Some are made of grief."