# Character Secrets — Hidden Boons, Goals & the Web of Lies

*Every patron in the Nether Inn walked in carrying something. So do the players. Hand each PC a secret at the start of the night, and the tavern stops being a place they're visiting — it becomes a place they came here to* **do something** *in, and a place where the person beside them might be working against them.*

---

## Design Goals (Read This First)

Two rules shaped this rewrite, both aimed at a **oneshot**:

1. **Rewards land NOW.** No "a fence who owes you a favor someday." Completing a goal pays off *this session* — a consumable, a one-time reroll, an NPC's active help, an ally in the final fight, a peek at someone's thoughts. Something a player can spend before dawn.
2. **Goals interlock — so the party can't fully trust itself.** The dossiers are a *web*, not eight solo quests. Some goals **align** (secret allies, and the joy of discovering one). Some **cross** (zero-sum — someone has to lose). Some **coerce** (one PC's goal forces another to act, whether they've agreed or not). Every dossier names a shared target — a book, a prisoner, a faction, a corpse — so if two connected secrets are in play, they *will* collide. Deal them right and the players spend the night quietly wondering who at the table is playing them.

> **Paranoia is the product.** These aren't side quests. They're pressure. The murder mystery gives the party a reason to work together; the secrets give them reasons not to.

---

## How to Deal Them

Give each player **one dossier**, privately, at the start of Act 1. Then read this aloud to the **whole table**:

> *"Each of you came to the Nether Inn tonight for a reason you haven't told the others. Some of those reasons help each other. Some of them cannot both come true. Trust accordingly."*

That single line does most of the work. Now everyone knows *someone* is playing an angle — they just don't know who, or which.

**Choosing a set (3–5 players):** don't deal at random. Pick to guarantee friction. Use the [Interaction Web](#the-interaction-web) below and make sure your hand includes **at least one CROSS pair** and, ideally, the **coercion pair** (Recruit + Blackmailed). Recommended starter hands:

- **4 players, maximum drama:** Debtor + Collector (a duel over the book) and Handler's Agent + Executioner (a duel over the Guest). Two ticking conflicts, two trips to the cellar.
- **5 players, tangled:** add the Blade — now the cult/guild question can turn a PC into a target.
- **3 players, one clean fault line:** Handler's Agent + Executioner + Mourner (all three orbit the Guest; two want it alive, one wants it dead).
- **Running the rot floor:** deal the **Blade** and enable its *Sealed Second Name* — one PC becomes the engine that drives the party at Thera "Even-Hand," and the guild/soul-harvest thread stops depending on the party noticing it on their own. Pairs naturally with a cleric or paladin (the consecrated-oil payoff, and the means to save a marked victim).

**Reskin freely** to fit your actual PCs' backstories — the *edges* matter more than the names.

---

## The Dossiers

Each has four parts: **Boon** (an asset you have now) · **Goal** (your secret objective) · **Payoff** (what you get the moment you complete it, usable this session) · **The Catch** (the thread that ties you to someone else at the table).

---

### 1. The Debtor
> **Boon — Marked Ledger.** You owe the house, and Orenn respected a debt honestly carried. **Once**, treat one failed Charisma check toward Mags, Orenn, or the house as a success.
>
> **Goal — Burn the Slate.** Destroy every record of your debt before dawn. The coded journal is under the bar ([main hall](../location/main-hall.md#the-bar)); Orenn kept a **duplicate ledger in the [Vault](../location/deep-cellar.md#the-vault-treasure-room)** below. Both must burn.
>
> **Payoff — *immediate.*** The moment the last record burns, Mags *feels* your slate go clean and decides you're one of hers. She hands you **Orenn's hand crossbow and the black iron key** (or lends you her +1 short sword for the night). **Gain Inspiration now.**
>
> **The Catch — CROSS.** You are not the only one hunting that book. Someone here wants it *whole*, in their hands. Every page you burn is money out of their pocket, and they know a fireplace when they see one. If you can't find them first, they'll be standing between you and the flames.

### 2. The Collector
> **Boon — The Boss's Sigil.** You carry a crime-lord's signet. Shown to a fellow criminal (an assassin or Mags), it buys **one grudging act of cooperation** — no combat, but a door opened, a question answered, a blind eye turned.
>
> **Goal — Recover the Book, Intact.** Your boss wants Orenn's coded debt-journal *whole* — it names everyone who owes him in this quarter. Secure it (under the bar, and the duplicate in the [Vault](../location/deep-cellar.md#the-vault-treasure-room)) and keep it unburned until dawn.
>
> **Payoff — *immediate.*** When the book is safe in your hands, the sigil's stored charge discharges into you: **gain the effect of a *Potion of Superior Healing* stored in the ring (heal 8d4+8 as a bonus action, once)**, and your boss's regard sharpens your read on people — **one automatic success on an Insight check** of your choosing tonight.
>
> **The Catch — CROSS.** At least one person at this table wants that journal *destroyed*. If it burns, you go home empty-handed to a man who does not accept empty hands. Find the arsonist before the fireplace does.

### 3. The Handler's Agent
> **Boon — The Countersign.** You have a coded phrase from a handler you've never met. Spoken to the right ears, it unlocks their trust. (DM: the "right ears" belong to the [Guest](../npc/the-guest.md).)
>
> **Goal — Get the Asset Out.** Somewhere below is a changeling called the Guest. Reach [Cell One](../location/deep-cellar.md#cell-one--the-guest), free it, and get it out of this building **alive**. Your handler assumes the Guest wants extraction. The Guest has its own opinion about acquiring another handler—and about leaving a tavern it believes it has earned.
>
> **Payoff — *immediate, and powerful.*** The countersign buys **one face, not loyalty**. Once before dawn the Guest will become anyone you name—walk past a locked door as Mags, alibi you, whisper a lie in a rival's voice—or stand beside you during the Reckoning as a full ally (CR 3). It honors that one favor exactly. It does not agree that this makes it your handler's property.
>
> **The Catch — CROSS / ALIGN.** Someone else was sent for the Guest too—but *not* to free it. If they reach the cell first, your asset is a corpse and your payoff is gone. If you rescue it, the conflict changes: it means to use Xarrul's transfer to claim the Inn, not follow you out. During [the Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy), you may have to defend its projected spirit from your own companion. If Xarrul wins, your asset remains alive but bodiless in the Astral Plane; if the Guest wins, it plans to take Mags's form and keep the Inn.

### 4. The Executioner
> **Boon — Cold Hands.** You've done ugly work in dark rooms. You have **advantage on saving throws against being frightened**, and the horrors below rattle you less than they should.
>
> **Goal — Silence the Guest.** A patron paid you to make sure the thing in the cellar never speaks again—kill it, ensure it stays caged when this place burns, or sever its projected spirit during [the Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy). It knows too much about someone who's paying to stay unknown, and a Guest that inherits Xarrul will be almost impossible to reach afterward.
>
> **Payoff — *immediate, and vicious.*** From the Guest you take a **vial of face-oil** — a shapeshifter's keepsake. Once before dawn, **read one creature's surface thoughts as *detect thoughts* (no save)** — including a fellow PC's. Learn a secret. Use it however you like. Also: your fee is stashed behind a loose stone near the cellar stairs — **50 gp and a *Potion of Heroism*, findable now.**
>
> **The Catch — CROSS.** Someone at this table wants that thing freed and believes they are rescuing it. They are working against you, whether they've said a word or not. A second person needs it alive long enough to *ask it a question*. During the Vacancy, the Guest and Xarrul become separate targets for three rounds: the cleanest shot you will ever receive. But the Guest's survival is also the leash on Xarrul: killing it ends the compact's restraint, lets Xarrul kill directly, and makes the Executioner its first-choice replacement for the Hollowing. The Guest says so plainly. The contract can be completed and still make the night much worse.

### 5. The Recruit
> **Boon — The Order's Regard.** You carry a hidden **Order of Mending pin**. Shown to a cultist, it marks you as one of the faithful — they speak candidly, and treat you as a promising prospect.
>
> **Goal — Prove Your Worth.** Tonight is your test. Bring the Order something real — knowledge of the thin point, a captured edge over the assassins, or proof you'll cross a hard line for the cause.
>
> **Payoff — *immediate.*** Rennt and Haddon initiate you on the spot. Choose one, usable this session: a **Scroll of *Protection from Evil and Good*** (gold in the Reckoning), or the two of them lay a blessing on you and two allies (**cast *Bless* on three creatures, once, no components**). Real power, tonight.
>
> **The Catch — COERCE.** The Order tells you another of your companions already owes them a debt of blood or secrecy. *Lean on them.* Tonight, they have to help you — they just don't know you know. (DM: this is the Blackmailed One, #6. The Recruit has been handed a lever over another PC.)

### 6. The Blackmailed One
> **Boon — Sealed Orders.** You carry a warded cult letter you can't open — but a cultist who sees it knows to *deal with you carefully.* Once, this buys you a cultist's silence or a favor extracted through fear.
>
> **Goal — Obey, or Break the Chain.** The Order of Mending holds something over you — a secret, or someone you love. Tonight one of their people will make you *earn* their silence: help the cause once (aid the recruit, sabotage the assassins, plant something incriminating). **Comply — or find the courage to break free.**
>
> **Payoff — *immediate, either way.***
> - **Comply:** the Order releases its hold and pays you off — they burn the evidence and press a **_Potion of Greater Healing_ and 30 gp** into your hand, plus a genuine cult ally for the rest of the night.
> - **Break free — expose the Recruit to the assassins:** the [House of Scales](../npc/assassins.md) rewards a good tip. Sevra grants you her **active protection and a favor** for the night (a distraction, a blade at your back in the Reckoning), and the chain is off you for good.
>
> **The Catch — COERCED / CROSS.** You don't know *which* of your companions is the true believer pulling your strings — only that one of them is, and they think you'll fold. Fold, and you serve the cult. Turn on them, and you've made a quiet enemy at your own table — one who now has every reason to make sure *your* secret gets out.

### 7. The Blade
> **Boon — Professional Courtesy.** The [House of Scales](../npc/assassins.md) know your work. Once, call in a favor: a guild member manufactures a **distraction, alibi, or opening** for you (no combat aid — the guild doesn't bleed for free).
>
> **Goal — Fulfil the Contract.** You were paid to put down a specific person tonight. **Primary mark:** assign an NPC (Rennt, an unnamed blade, a rival). **But the contract has a clause:** *"If the guild's traitor is unmasked, the traitor becomes the mark."* The guild suspects one of tonight's crowd is feeding the cult.
>
> **Payoff — *immediate.*** Contract closed, the guild pays at once: **80 gp, a vial of *Silversheen* (or *Basic Poison*, 3 doses)**, and Sevra extends **real cooperation** — guild muscle at your side through the endgame.
>
> **The Catch — CROSS.** If the cult's helper at this table (see #5, #6) surfaces, your contract *updates* — and the person you have to kill might be sitting right next to you. Blood is blood. Alternatively: walk away from the kill, and learn what mercy costs a person like you (DM: offer a quieter reward for restraint — a night's peace, an NPC's respect, a story beat that matters).
>
> **⚑ The Sealed Second Name** *(optional — for tables running [the rot floor](../storylines/house-of-scales.md#the-rot-floor)).* Your contract came sealed *twice*. The outer name is your primary mark. Under a second wax seal — which you were told not to break *"until you have seen a death that leaves nothing behind"* — sits the real job. Your client is **not** the guild: it's someone who lost a soul to a Scales blade whose kills are always flawless and whose dead never arrive where the dead are supposed to go — a grieving family, or a quiet priest of the Threshold who counts souls in and came up short. They cannot touch her through law; she breaks none. Break the seal once you've clocked a tell — the brand-read, the grey seam on Dace, a warm coin — and the second name is **Thera "Even-Hand."**
>
> **The rub.** The House *reveres* her. Move on her without turning Sevra first and your Professional Courtesy boon evaporates, Kael comes for you, and you finish the night guild-marked yourself. The clean path is to hand Sevra proof (run her arc) and let the loyalists move; the dark path is to do it quiet and wear the mark. **Payoff for closing the true contract:** your client pays in a **vial of consecrated oil that breaks a soul-mark** (enough to save Dace, or any marked victim), **60 gp**, and — if you turned Sevra rather than knifing Even-Hand in the dark — her *permanent* debt, not just a night's muscle.

### 8. The Mourner
> **Boon — Old Instinct.** You've been in rooms like this before. Once, declare you **"saw it coming"** — gain advantage on one save or check against a surprise, ambush, or betrayal.
>
> **Goal — Find Out What Happened.** Someone you loved took a "fixer" job in this city years ago and never came home. Tonight you learned Orenn and Mags were *the* fixers. Find the truth — it's written on the [Vault](../location/deep-cellar.md#the-vault-treasure-room) trophies, the ash-jar names, or the corpse in [Cell Two](../location/deep-cellar.md#cell-two--the-long-dead). **The one who can tell you the whole of it is the prisoner in the cellar.**
>
> **Payoff — *immediate.*** With the truth comes their keepsake — a **memento of the dead**. Once before dawn, **reroll any one d20 (yours or, if it would honor them, an ally's)**, taking the new result. Closure, and their luck, passed to you.
>
> **The Catch — ALIGN / CROSS.** You need the Guest **alive** long enough to answer you — which puts you on the same side as whoever's trying to free it, and dead against whoever came to silence it. And be careful what you ask: the truth may name someone still in this building, and knowing it may cost you more than not knowing.

---

## The Interaction Web

At a glance — the edges that create the drama. Deal a set that lights up at least one of these.

```
        THE BOOK                       THE GUEST (cellar)
   Debtor ⚔ Collector          Handler's Agent ⚔ Executioner
  (burn it) (keep it)               (free)  ╲   (silence)
                                            ╲  ⚔
                                     Mourner ═╝ (needs it ALIVE to talk)
                                        ↑ aligns with Agent, crosses Executioner

        THE CULT / GUILD
   Recruit ──coerces──▶ Blackmailed One
      │                      │
      │                      └─ can BREAK free by exposing the Recruit ─┐
      ▼                                                                 ▼
   (if a PC helps the cult) ───────────────────▶ becomes the Blade's updated MARK
```

| Edge type | Pair | What it does at the table |
|---|---|---|
| **CROSS** | Debtor vs Collector | A race to the book; one burns it, one saves it. Only one wins. |
| **CROSS** | Handler's Agent vs Executioner | A race to the cell; free it or kill it. Directly opposed. |
| **ALIGN → CROSS** | Mourner + Agent vs Executioner | Mourner needs the Guest alive to talk → secret ally to the Agent, enemy to the Executioner. |
| **COERCE** | Recruit → Blackmailed One | The Recruit is handed a lever over another PC. The Blackmailed PC is *forced* to act — or rebel. |
| **CROSS (escalating)** | Recruit / Blackmailed vs Blade | If a PC helps the cult, the Blade's contract may retarget them. A secret can get a teammate killed. |

**The beautiful part:** none of these require the DM to force anything. Each dossier's *Catch* points at a shared object or person. Put two connected dossiers in play and the players walk into the collision on their own.

---

## Fanning the Flames (DM Tips)

Paranoia needs tending. A few cheap moves:

- **Feed private hints.** Quietly tell one player, *"You notice [other PC] lingering at the bar, sliding a hand toward Orenn's journal."* You've just told the Collector their enemy is moving — without telling the Debtor they were seen. Let them sort it out.
- **Reward the reveal — and the concealment.** A player who confesses their goal to win an ally should gain something (a genuine partnership, shared payoff). A player who keeps it hidden until the perfect moment should get a *bigger* beat. Don't punish either strategy; both make good theatre.
- **Let alliances be real.** When the Agent and the Mourner discover they both need the Guest alive, that relief is a highlight of the night. Alliances forged in secret hit harder than any the party started with.
- **Make coercion a choice, not a script.** The Blackmailed One should *feel* the squeeze but always have the door marked "expose them." Whichever they pick, pay it off immediately (see their dossier). Agency is what makes the betrayal land.
- **Cap the PvP.** Crossed goals create *pressure*, not mandatory bloodshed. Steal the book, don't stab the Debtor. Free the Guest one step ahead of the Executioner, don't murder your teammate in the cellar. If the table wants it to go bloody, let them — but never require it.

## Exploration Bias (the other design goal)

For a table that wants *less social, more delving*, this set already pulls hard downstairs: the **book duel (Debtor/Collector)**, the **Guest triangle (Agent/Executioner/Mourner)**, and the Mourner's trophies all resolve in the **[Deep Cellar](../location/deep-cellar.md)**. Deal those and the players generate their own reasons to go picking locks in the dark — while each quietly wonders who's coming down the steps behind them, and why.
