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The Culinary Conspiracy: Finding Jimmy Pesto

Underworldcomedic Lv. 4 · 3 players

The Culinary Conspiracy: Finding Jimmy Pesto

The party descends into the Underworld to recruit Jimmy Pesto, the General of Pestilence masquerading as a celebrity chef, for their own criminal enterprise. Along the way, they'll navigate a web of rival food critics, health inspectors, crime bosses, and sentient kitchen disasters to convince the plague-touched maestro to abandon his current restaurant and join their ranks.

culinary chaosvillain recruitmentcrime and commercedark comedy

Read Aloud

The stench hits you first—a bilious cloud of overripe vegetables, spoiled meat, and something indefinably *wrong* that burns the back of your throat. You've descended deep beneath the city proper, into the Underworld's most notorious district: the Gutways, where the sewers flow as rivers and restaurants double as fronts for every criminal enterprise imaginable. Flickering bioluminescent fungi cast sickly green light across cramped alleyways lined with rusted metal pipes that weep a constant dribble of murky liquid. Above your heads, creaking signs advertise establishments like "The Putrid Spoon" and "Dysentery's Delight." You spot your target: "Pesto's Plague," a garish restaurant with a door that seems to be made entirely of what was once a beautiful wood, now warped and diseased-looking. The smell is somehow even worse coming from inside.

Description

The party has arrived at the entrance to Pesto's Plague, Jimmy Pesto's restaurant in the Underworld. The establishment is a monument to culinary decay and criminal enterprise: the building itself appears to be slowly rotting from the inside out, with walls that seem to ooze with an iridescent slime. Strange spore clouds drift from the kitchen vents. A line of hardened Underworld denizens waits outside, desperate for a reservation. This is clearly a popular establishment despite (or because of) its horrifying aesthetic. The party needs to find a way inside, past a suspicious Imp hostess named Skitterfang, and locate Jimmy Pesto himself, who runs the kitchen. The question is: will they try diplomacy, deception, violence, or chaos?

DM Notes

This is the party's entry point into the adventure. The tone should be absurd and darkly comedic. Skitterfang, the hostess, is paranoid about reservation lists and health inspectors. If the party tries to waltz in claiming they have reservations, have her demand names that aren't on her meticulously organized (yet stained) reservation book. For DC checks: DC 12 Deception to convince her they're important critics; DC 13 Intimidation to bully their way in (but this might alert Jimmy or worse, bring out the hired muscle); DC 10 Sleight of Hand to swipe the reservation book. Alternatively, they could try to sneak around to the kitchen entrance. If they choose violence immediately, have Skitterfang flee and trigger the arrival of three Thugs (MM, CR 1/8 each) in 1d4 rounds, which would be a deadly encounter at level 4. Strongly encourage creative solutions. No early combat is desired; this is a setup scene.

Read Aloud

You manage to get past the hostess stand (however you manage it), and you're immediately hit with a second, even more powerful wave of smell. The dining area of Pesto's Plague is a carnival of culinary horror: the walls are papered with rave reviews from food critics whose names you don't recognize, all of them written in what appears to be blood or possibly just ketchup (you can't quite tell). Every other diner is openly glowing with an ethereal, sickly aura—clearly enchanted or poisoned in some delightful way. The silverware on the tables appears to be actively corroding before your eyes. Most disturbing of all, the diners seem to be having the time of their lives. Waiters move between tables with practiced grace, each one sporting a severe underbite and yellow skin—clearly not native to the Material Plane. And in the distance, visible through a high window in the kitchen, you catch a glimpse of him: a middle-aged man in a chef's whites and a chef's hat, standing over a cauldron that's actively bubbling with sentient green liquid.

Description

The party is now inside Pesto's Plague proper. They can observe the restaurant's operations: it's simultaneously horrifying and highly successful. The patrons are a mix of crime bosses, minor devils, corrupted city officials, and adventurers of questionable morality. The party gets their first good look at Jimmy Pesto through the kitchen window, but they cannot simply walk up to him—he's surrounded by his kitchen staff (including a Myconid named Chef Spore who works the pantry) and his employer, a devil named Vex'thar who oversees the operation. There is also a health inspector present, taking bribes from various staff members. The scene is comedic chaos. The party can try to approach Jimmy directly, but they'll need to navigate the dining room, avoid Vex'thar's attention, and deal with the possibility that the health inspector might try to interrupt them for suspicious behavior. Skill Challenge: The party needs to reach the kitchen without causing a scene (DC 12 Stealth or Deception for each PC). A failure means the health inspector notices them and demands to know who they are.

DM Notes

This scene is about observation and social navigation. The party should get a sense of who Jimmy Pesto is: a man who loves his craft more than he cares about the morality of his customers or employers. He's engaged in conversation with his sous chefs about the "terroir of plague" and whether the current batch of miasmic spores is "too aggressive for the pallet." He's eccentric, passionate, and utterly indifferent to the fact that he's cooking for criminals. For the skill challenge: allow any reasonable approach (Deception, Stealth, Persuasion if the party tries to befriend a waiter, etc.). If they fail two checks, have the health inspector, a nervous gnome named Gleep Gnackfoot, approach them and demand to see their credentials. He can be bribed with 50 gp or convinced with a DC 14 Deception check. Alternatively, if the Wizard has Disguise Self or similar magic, allow that to bypass this entirely. Combat should only occur if the party explicitly picks a fight with Vex'thar or the kitchen staff.