Here we are now, entertain us...

ENTERTAINER (#15/31, #289/365) [POT]

SKILL: 6

STAMINA : 8

ATTACKS: 1

WEAPON: See below

ARMOUR: None

DAMAGE MODIFIER: None

HABITAT: Towns, Plains, Forests, Ruins

NUMBER ENCOUNTERED: See below

TYPE: Humanoid

REACTION: Friendly

INTELLIGENCE: High

An ENTERTAINER is a person who trades on their talent to perform in public, preferably for coin, but sometimes just food, drink or shelter will suffice. They live paradoxical lives, occasionally feted grandly for their abilities but often reduced to virtual penury, performing for the barest hint of a crust. As such this is reflected in their appearance and while their clothes may appear as so much gaudy finery, often they are also tattered and threadbare. All Entertainers will have some kind of basic weapon to defend themselves with; roll on the table below to determine what:

Roll Weapon

1-2 Club

3-4 Dagger

5-6 Shortsword

The number of Entertainers that are encountered can vary widely, from individual solo players to large troupes of performers. Roll on the below table to determine their number:

Roll Number Encountered

1 Solo individual: 1

2-3 Small band: 2-7

4 Minor troupe: 2-12 plus 1-2 wagons, each drawn by 1-3 Horse, 4-6 Ox

5 Major troupe: 3-18 plus 1-3 wagons, each drawn by 1-3 Horse, 4-6 Ox

6 Special. Roll again: 1-2 Circus, 3-4 Menagerie, 5-6 Travelling Players. 4-24 plus 2-7 wagons, each drawn 1-3 Horse, 4-6 Ox

Three-quarters of a Menagerie's Entertainers will be Animal-Handlers while the rest can be determined randomly; each wagon will have a cage housing one monster (which can be rolled for on the appropriate Encounter Table for the current terrain). Three-quarters of a group of Travelling Players will be Actors, with one Playwright, and the rest randomly-determined Entertainers. All of the Circus's performers will be randomly-determined Entertainers.

 To randomly determine the type of Entertainer, roll two dice separately on the table below:

First Roll Second Roll Entertainer Type

1-2 1 Acrobat

1-2 2 Actor

1-2 3 Animal-Handler

1-2 4 Comic 

1-2 5 Escapologist

1-2 6 Fire-Eater

3-4 1 Fortune-Teller

3-4 2 Hypnotist

3-4 3 Juggler

3-4 4 Jester 

3-4 5 Knife-Thrower

3-4 6 Musician

5 1 Playwright 

5 2 Poet 

5 3 Prestidigitator

5 4 Puppeteer 

5 5 Puzzler 

5 6 Singer 

6 1 Stilt-Walker

6 2 Story-Teller 

6 3 Strongman or woman

6 4 Tightrope-Walker 

6 5 Troubadour 

6 6 Ventriloquist 

Numerous groups of travelling Entertainers are known from Titan, including the Carnivale of the Old World, the Circus of Dreams, Oddfellow's Mummers, and the Menagerie of Monsters. It is worth noting that many of these groups do not have the best of reputations however, owing to their vagabond ways or worse. None of them though approach the infamy of the Circus of the Damned, a collection of demonic clowns, jugglers and jesters, who, once summoned from the Pit, took up residence in the third incarnation of Baron Sukumvit's Deathtrap Dungeon, where they tormented any adventurers foolish enough to disturb them.

In some places, such as Ludria (see Adventure Creation System p. 78, p. 158) or Port Blacksand, Entertainers may have settled down to create a more formalized hierarchy of work such as a theatre.  In Port Blacksand there is even a Guild of Entertainers and Artists on Mill Street in the Garden District (see Blacksand, p. 44, p. 56), whose Guildmaster is the noted troubadour Derl Xian, and which is associated with the numerous plays and other productions performed at the Minotaur Inn's theatre.