From ed8d947d45d82b027bb96ca37203367cf3cf71c2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Stanislav Fifik Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2026 00:51:02 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] init --- IDEAS_TO_IMPLEMENT.md | 12 ++ location/back-rooms.md | 63 ++++++++ location/cellar.md | 86 ++++++++++ location/main-hall.md | 84 ++++++++++ location/tavern-overview.md | 76 +++++++++ npc/assassins.md | 177 ++++++++++++++++++++ npc/bren.md | 119 ++++++++++++++ npc/cultists.md | 296 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ npc/mags.md | 102 ++++++++++++ npc/orenn.md | 66 ++++++++ npc/tallow.md | 119 ++++++++++++++ npc/vetch.md | 99 ++++++++++++ npc/xarrul.md | 152 +++++++++++++++++ overview.md | 114 +++++++++++++ storylines/ethereal-trip.md | 141 ++++++++++++++++ storylines/guild-of-knives.md | 124 ++++++++++++++ storylines/lambent-order.md | 229 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ storylines/murder-mystery.md | 154 ++++++++++++++++++ storylines/possession.md | 153 ++++++++++++++++++ storylines/the-reckoning.md | 226 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 20 files changed, 2592 insertions(+) create mode 100644 IDEAS_TO_IMPLEMENT.md create mode 100644 location/back-rooms.md create mode 100644 location/cellar.md create mode 100644 location/main-hall.md create mode 100644 location/tavern-overview.md create mode 100644 npc/assassins.md create mode 100644 npc/bren.md create mode 100644 npc/cultists.md create mode 100644 npc/mags.md create mode 100644 npc/orenn.md create mode 100644 npc/tallow.md create mode 100644 npc/vetch.md create mode 100644 npc/xarrul.md create mode 100644 overview.md create mode 100644 storylines/ethereal-trip.md create mode 100644 storylines/guild-of-knives.md create mode 100644 storylines/lambent-order.md create mode 100644 storylines/murder-mystery.md create mode 100644 storylines/possession.md create mode 100644 storylines/the-reckoning.md diff --git a/IDEAS_TO_IMPLEMENT.md b/IDEAS_TO_IMPLEMENT.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6838d29 --- /dev/null +++ b/IDEAS_TO_IMPLEMENT.md @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@ +- dark history of bren and mags (they did lot of shady things in their past and they still have something going on) +- weird stuff in cellar, it's quite vast: + - treasure room (bren and mags are actually very rich), locked with arcane lock + - locked cell with some humanoid (changling or doppelganger probably, bren and mags are using it for something) + - second empty cell (long dead corpse of something?) + - large storage room with weird items (guarded/haunted?) + - laboratory (they craft potions and spices?) +- at start each character gets hidden boon and personal goal (like join cultist, find and steal something, kill someone, ...) +- few possible encounters in cellar: + - bren and mags have some pet that guards it, something like giant spider or something + - it's also infested with rats + - there is rift to etherial plane (invisible but leaking), xarrul can have some creatures from there diff --git a/location/back-rooms.md b/location/back-rooms.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..69cf47d --- /dev/null +++ b/location/back-rooms.md @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ +# Back Rooms + +Behind the bar, through a heavy door reinforced with iron bands, lie the working areas of the Burnt Tongue. + +## Kitchen + +A surprisingly clean workspace, considering the establishment. Mags runs a tight kitchen. Stone counters, iron pots, a wood-burning stove that heats the wall shared with the main hall. + +### Read-Aloud: Entering the Kitchen + +> *Kuchyně je překvapivě čistá. Ne sterilní — ale udržovaná s péčí, kterou byste v tomhle podniku nečekali. Na kamenné lince leží nůž, kterým někdo krájel cibuli. Hrnec na plotně tiše bublá. Na zdi visí řada kuchyňských nástrojů uspořádaných s téměř vojenskou přesností — a mezi nimi, nenápadně ale nepřehlédnutelně, krátký meč v koženém pouzdře.* + +### Details + +- **Mags's short sword** hangs among the kitchen implements. It's well-oiled and recently sharpened despite "retirement." This is a **+1 short sword** — Mags won't give it up willingly but might lend it if she trusts the players and believes they're hunting the real killer. +- **Herb rack** — Among cooking herbs, DC 14 Nature or Herbalism Kit check identifies **dried nightwhisper** (a component in Veil Dust preparation) and **silvervein root** (a mild ward against fiendish influence — chewing it grants advantage on one saving throw against a fiend's ability within the next hour). +- **Mags's apron pocket** — She carries a small iron key (opens the storage room's hidden compartment) and a folded piece of parchment: a letter from Orenn dated three months ago. *"If something happens to me in the bar, it came from between. Check the cellar wards. Don't trust what you see. Trust the bell."* — Mags hasn't read it yet. She will during the session if given time alone, or players can find it if she's incapacitated or if they pickpocket her (DC 19 Sleight of Hand — she's alert). + +## Storage Room + +A cramped room off the kitchen. Barrels of ale, crates of root vegetables, hanging dried meats. It smells like vinegar and damp wood. + +### Details + +- **Surface level:** Mundane supplies. Enough food and drink to sustain the lockdown for days. +- **Hidden compartment (DC 15 Investigation):** Behind a false barrel-back, a narrow shelf contains: + - 4 vials of **Holy Water** + - 1 vial of **Silversheen** (coat a weapon, treat it as silvered for 1 hour) + - A leather roll containing **Orenn's cleaner tools** — a set of specialized instruments somewhere between thieves' tools and a surgeon's kit. Grants advantage on Investigation checks related to fiends or extraplanar entities if the user is proficient in either thieves' tools or arcana. These are old, well-used, and irreplaceable. + - A **warding chalk** (3 uses) — can draw a 5-foot circle that functions as a Magic Circle against fiends for 10 minutes per use. Faster and cheaper than the spell, but the duration is limited. +- **Floor trapdoor:** Leads to the cellar. Not hidden — just heavy and stiff. DC 12 Athletics to open quietly, or just yank it (noisy, everyone in the kitchen hears). + +## Private Room + +A small room with a lockable door, a table, two benches, and a single candle sconce. Used for negotiations that require more privacy than the main hall provides. The walls are thick stone — conversations here don't carry. + +### Details + +- **The table** has knife marks scratched into it — tally marks, initials, crude maps. Layers of history from hundreds of clandestine meetings. +- **One set of marks (DC 14 Investigation):** Recent — within the last week. A diagram of the Burnt Tongue's layout with X marks at the foundation stones. These are the ward-sigil locations. Someone was mapping them. The scratches are fresh enough to have wood dust still in the grooves. + - **DC 16 Arcana:** The diagram also notes the **angles of resonance** between sigils — this is the work of someone who understood how to *break* the wards, not just locate them. This was done by someone working for the cultists (or the fiend itself, through manipulation). +- **Under the left bench (DC 13 Perception):** A dropped cultist pin — a small bronze disc with the Lambent Order's symbol (an open eye wreathed in flame). Haddon will deny knowledge. Essek will look terrified if shown this. The pin belongs to a member not present tonight — evidence that the cult has been using the private room for meetings. + +### Read-Aloud: The Private Room + +> *Malá místnost. Kamenné zdi, dřevěný stůl, dvě lavice. Svíčka ve výklenku, momentálně zhasnutá. Vzduch tu stojí — vlhký a zatuchlý, jako v místnosti, která dýchá jen tehdy, když ji někdo otevře. Stůl je pokrytý vrstvami vrytých značek — čárky, iniciály, nečitelné symboly. Příběhy, které tady nikdy neměly být vyprávěny a jejichž svědky jsou jen ty studené kameny kolem.* + +## Connecting Passages + +- Kitchen → Main Hall: Through the reinforced door (normally unlocked, Mags can bar it) +- Kitchen → Storage: Open archway +- Storage → Cellar: Floor trapdoor +- Kitchen → Upper Floor: A narrow staircase, barely wide enough for one person. Locked door at the top. This leads to Orenn and Mags's private quarters (see note below). + +### Upper Floor (Orenn & Mags's Quarters) + +**Locked.** Mags has the key but won't open it for strangers. If players earn her trust or convince her the investigation requires it (DC 17 Persuasion, DC 14 if they've shown her real evidence of fiendish involvement): + +A modest room. A bed, a wardrobe, a desk. Everything is clean and ordered. Two people who learned to live in small spaces together. + +- **Desk:** Contains correspondence with a contact in the city watch — Orenn was feeding them information about the cult's activities, slowly and carefully. He suspected the Lambent Order was more than scholars. He didn't know about the fiend. +- **Wardrobe:** Behind a false back (DC 14 Investigation), a small arsenal: 2 silvered daggers, a vial of **Oil of Etherealness** (1 dose — allows the user to enter the Ethereal Plane for 1 hour, as per the spell), and a **leather-bound bestiary** focused on fiends. Bookmarked pages describe entities matching Xarrul's type — Orenn was doing research. He was worried but hadn't figured out what was coming. +- **Under the bed:** A lockbox (DC 16 Thieves' Tools). Contains 150 gp (their savings), a deed to the tavern, and two silver rings — simple, unadorned. Mags will quietly close the box if she sees this. It's not relevant to the investigation. It's just a life. diff --git a/location/cellar.md b/location/cellar.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5107565 --- /dev/null +++ b/location/cellar.md @@ -0,0 +1,86 @@ +# Cellar + +Beneath the Burnt Tongue, accessed through the trapdoor in the storage room. The air changes immediately — colder, damper, and carrying a faint metallic tang that doesn't come from the pipes. + +## Read-Aloud: Descending + +> *Žebřík skřípe pod vaší vahou. Vzduch je tu jiný — chladný a vlhký, s kovovou pachutí, jako by někdo olízl starou minci. Vaše nohy dopadnou na holou hlínu. Strop je nízký, sotva metr osmdesát, a stěny jsou nahý kámen — ne stavební, ale živá skála, do které byl sklep vytesán. Svíčky tu nejsou. Cokoliv chcete vidět, musíte si posvítit sami.* + +## Layout + +The cellar is a single irregular space carved into bedrock, roughly 10 meters by 8 meters. No natural light. The floor is packed earth. The ceiling is raw stone. It is uncomfortably cold regardless of the season. + +``` +┌──────────────────────────────────┐ +│ CELLAR │ +│ │ +│ [Barrel ┌──────────┐ │ +│ Racks] │Foundation│ │ +│ │ Stone │ │ +│ [Old │(ward- │ │ +│ Crates] │ sigils) │ │ +│ └──────────┘ │ +│ │ +│ [Orenn's │ +│ Circle] [Thin Point] │ +│ │ +│ ┌────┐ │ +│ │Trap│ │ +│ │door│ (up to storage) │ +│ └────┘ │ +└──────────────────────────────────┘ +``` + +## Key Features + +### Barrel Racks (West Wall) + +Wine and spirits too good for the upstairs crowd. A few barrels are marked with chalk symbols — DC 13 Investigation reveals these are Orenn's personal inventory codes. One barrel is not a barrel — it's a hollow shell containing: +- A **Cloak of Elvenkind** (Orenn's, from his cleaner days) +- A stoppered clay jug of **Alchemist's Fire** (3 flasks worth) +- A bundle of **iron nails inscribed with tiny runes** (10 nails). Hammering one into a surface creates a minor ward — any fiend crossing within 5 feet of it takes 1d4 radiant damage and the nail glows white-hot for 1 round, alerting anyone nearby. Single use per nail. + +### Old Crates (South-West) + +Genuinely old supplies: moth-eaten cloth, rusted tools, empty bottles. Nothing useful — but the crates themselves are positioned to obscure the circle on the floor behind them. Someone (Orenn) arranged them this way deliberately. + +### Orenn's Circle (South) + +Hidden behind the crates. A permanent **Magic Circle against fiends** etched into the bedrock with silver inlay. This is master-level work — DC 16 Arcana identifies it as designed for both binding and interrogation. Orenn and Mags used this during their cleaner years to hold captured fiends for questioning. + +- The circle is **intact and functional**. If Xarrul can be lured here and trapped, the circle activates automatically — the fiend must succeed on a DC 17 Charisma saving throw or be contained. +- **Limitation:** The circle only works on the Material Plane. If Xarrul is in the Ethereal Plane, it has no effect. Players need to force Xarrul fully into the Material Plane first (Fiendbane Manacles, the bell upstairs, or the dual-plane kill). + +### Foundation Stones & Ward-Sigils (Center, North) + +The exposed foundation stones of the tavern above. Carved into them are **ward-sigils** — Orenn and Mags's work from fifteen years ago. These wards created a barrier on the Ethereal Plane, preventing fiends from entering the tavern's footprint while ethereal. + +**Current state:** The sigils are **cracked**. Thin fracture lines run through the carved symbols, and the stone around them is warm to the touch despite the cellar's cold. DC 13 Arcana reveals the wards have been deliberately weakened — someone (or something) has been working on them for weeks. DC 16 Arcana identifies the method as consistent with fiendish influence applied from the Ethereal Plane side. + +- The cracking explains how Xarrul was able to enter the tavern's ethereal footprint and kill Orenn. +- **Repairing the wards** requires warding chalk (found in storage) and a DC 15 Arcana check. Success restores partial function — Xarrul has disadvantage on its Ethereal Jaunt when within the tavern. Failure expends the chalk. + +### The Thin Point (East) + +The air here is wrong. Not cold, not warm — *thin*. Characters standing here feel a sensation like vertigo even on solid ground. Hair stands on end. Sounds seem to come from slightly wrong directions. + +**DC 12 Arcana or Perception:** The boundary between the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane is naturally weak at this exact spot. This isn't artificial — the tavern was built on top of it. + +**DC 15 Arcana:** This thin point is why the tavern attracted the clientele it did. Subconsciously, people attuned to the arcane or the extraplanar gravitate toward places like this. The cultists didn't choose this tavern randomly. The fiend didn't target it randomly. Everything leads back here. + +**If a player takes Veil Dust here:** The effect is *doubled*. Instead of 1 minute, the trip lasts 10 minutes, and the visions are vivid and controllable rather than hallucinatory. The user can interact with ethereal entities directly (including Skein and Xarrul) for the duration. This is the ideal location for the dual-plane kill. + +**If the warding chalk circle is drawn here:** It functions as a full Magic Circle (as the spell, 1 hour duration) rather than the reduced 10-minute version, powered by the thin point's natural energy. + +## Ethereal Plane Overlay + +For the DM: in the Ethereal Plane, the cellar looks different. The stone walls glow faintly with the ghost-light of old wards. The broken sigils appear as dark, weeping wounds in the light. The thin point is a *tear* — not metaphorical, a visible rip in the grey fabric of the Ethereal Plane, showing the Material Plane through it in muted color. + +**Xarrul** uses the cellar as its lair when resting. Ethereal-plane observers might find: +- Claw marks on the ethereal stone near the ward-sigils (this is how it weakened them) +- A nest of sorts — shadows coiled into a shape suggesting something sleeps here +- The faint, acrid smell of the Brand of Spite (the ability that killed Orenn) + +## Read-Aloud: The Thin Point + +> *Něco tu nesedí. Ne nebezpečného — nebo ne zjevně — ale prostě špatného. Vzduch je tu jiný. Není studený ani teplý, je tenký, jako by tu bylo o jednu vrstvu reality míň, než by mělo být. Cítíte lehké závratě, přestože stojíte na pevné zemi. Vlasy na rukou se vám zvedají. A zvuky — kroky, kapání vody, váš vlastní dech — přicházejí z lehce špatných směrů, jako ozvěny v místnosti, která by neměla mít ozvěnu.* diff --git a/location/main-hall.md b/location/main-hall.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..22a919f --- /dev/null +++ b/location/main-hall.md @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ +# Main Hall + +The heart of the Burnt Tongue. A single large room with a low ceiling, stone floor, and the permanent smell of smoke and regret. + +## Key Features + +### The Bar + +A massive slab of darkwood, scarred by decades of knife marks, spilled drinks, and at least one axe blow that's been sanded down but never quite disappeared. Behind it: shelves of unlabeled bottles, a few labeled ones nobody orders, and a collection of confiscated weapons mounted on the wall like trophies. + +**Orenn's body** lies behind the bar on the stone floor. He fell backward — whatever killed him came from the front, but nobody in the brawl was close enough. See [Murder Mystery](../storylines/murder-mystery.md) for details. + +**Hidden:** Under the bar is a recessed shelf with: +- A loaded hand crossbow (Orenn's insurance, DC 13 Investigation) +- A flask of **Sovereign Glue** (for situations that needed permanent solutions) +- A small leather journal in coded shorthand (DC 16 Intelligence to decode — contains names and debts owed to the house, including entries for both Sevra and Haddon) + +### The Fireplace + +Large stone hearth, fire burning low. The mantle holds a single iron bell that has never been rung — a relic from the tavern's founding. **Mags knows:** ringing the bell activates the ward-sigils in the foundation. It was a last resort, meant to seal the building against ethereal intrusion. The wards are cracked now, so the effect would be partial at best (disadvantage on Xarrul's Ethereal Jaunt saves rather than preventing it outright). + +### Assassin Table (North-West) + +A long table pushed against the wall. **Sevra** sits at the head with her back to the corner — she can see both the entrance and the cultist table. **Dace** is to her right, nursing a drink and making easy conversation with anyone nearby. **Kael** is standing, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, glaring at the cultist table. + +Three other unnamed guild members fill the rest of the table. They defer to Sevra completely. + +**After the murder:** Kael wants to search the cultists by force. Sevra is holding him back — barely. Dace is being "helpful" to whoever is investigating, subtly steering suspicion toward the cultists. + +### Cultist Table (South-West) + +A round table covered in papers, open books, and half-empty inkwells — maintaining the scholar facade. **Haddon** sits at the center, composed. **Dalla** is on his left, distracted and pale. **Rennt** is on his right, leaning forward with intense energy. **Essek** sits slightly apart, saying nothing. + +**After the murder:** Haddon immediately begins constructing an alibi — "we were all engaged in discussion, none of us left the table." This is technically true but irrelevant (the fiend killed from the Ethereal Plane). Rennt is agitated and defensive. Dalla doesn't seem to care about the investigation at all — she's thinking about her child. + +**On the table (DC 12 Investigation):** Among the scholarly papers, one diagram shows planar boundaries with annotations about "thinning points." Haddon will claim it's theoretical research. It's actually a map of potential Opening sites, and the Burnt Tongue is marked. + +### Tallow's Booth (South, near wall) + +A small booth with high-backed wooden seats that create a natural privacy screen. **Tallow** has claimed this spot as his office. His bag of holding sits under the table between his feet — he never lets it out of reach. + +He has a clear sightline to the bar, the entrance, and both faction tables. He sees everything and pretends to see nothing. + +**Under the table (DC 18 Perception or Sleight of Hand while Tallow is distracted):** A lockbox bolted to the underside of the seat. Contains 3 doses of Veil Dust, 80 gp in mixed coin, and a sealed letter addressed to "V." — it's a message from Tallow's supplier about a new, more potent formulation of the dust. The supplier is unnamed but the handwriting matches Mother Vyre's (DC 17 Investigation to match, requires seeing another sample of her writing from cultist documents). + +### Bren's Corner (North-East, near bar) + +Not a seat — a spot on the floor between the bar and the wall. **Bren** sits here with his knees drawn up, rocking slightly, muttering to the air beside him. A wooden bowl with a few copper coins sits in front of him — the regulars toss him change out of habit or superstition. + +The space beside him where he talks to is **occupied** in the Ethereal Plane by **Skein**, a translucent, spider-like entity made of knotted threads. It's visible only via Veil Dust, See Invisibility, or similar effects. + +### Vetch's Spot (South-East, near cellar stairs) + +**Vetch** sits on a stool near the stairs that lead down to the cellar. He's not here by accident — he knows Tallow keeps extra product and he's been trying to figure out how to get to it all night. + +He's jittery, sweating, picking at the skin on his forearms. He flinches when spoken to but warms up quickly if shown even basic kindness. + +### Center Floor (Post-Brawl) + +After the brawl, the center of the room is a mess: +- Overturned tables and stools +- Broken glass and pottery +- A few blood spatters (non-lethal injuries from the brawl — DC 12 Medicine confirms these are from fists and thrown objects, nothing matches how Orenn died) +- One cultist's book, kicked under a table, open to a page about **binding circles** (DC 14 Arcana reveals it's specifically about binding fiends) + +## Read-Aloud: After the Brawl + +> *Ticho. Po minutách chaosu je to ticho skoro bolestivé. Stoly leží převrácené, střepy pokrývají podlahu jako skleněný koberec a ve vzduchu visí prach a těžký dech tuctu lidí, kteří se právě mlátili. Někdo kašle. Někdo nadává polohlasem.* +> +> *A pak to někdo uvidí.* +> +> *Orenn leží za barem na zádech. Jeho oči jsou otevřené, ale nic nevidí. Na jeho tváři je výraz čirého, upřímného překvapení — jako by smrt byla to poslední, co v tomhle místě čekal. Na hrudi má spáleninu ve tvaru, který nedává smysl. Žádná krev. Žádná rána. Jen ta podivná, černá značka a muž, který před chvílí stál za barem klidný jako jezero za bezvětří.* +> +> *Ze dveří kuchyně vyjde žena. Zastaví se. Podívá se dolů. Její tvář projde něčím — ne pláčem, ne křikem. Něčím horším. Něčím tichým a tvrdým jako led, kterému trvalo celý život, než zamrzl.* +> +> *"Nikdo," řekne Mags hlasem, který nepřipouští námitky, "nikam neodejde."* +> +> *Klapnutí závory na hlavních dveřích zní jako rozsudek.* + +## Lighting & Atmosphere + +- **Before the brawl:** Dim candlelight, warm in a grimy way. Shadows dance. +- **During the brawl:** Candles knocked over, intermittent darkness. Fire in the fireplace flickers wildly. +- **After the murder:** Mags lights every candle and lantern she can find. The room is brighter than it's ever been and somehow that makes it worse — you can see every stain, every scar, every face that doesn't want to be seen. diff --git a/location/tavern-overview.md b/location/tavern-overview.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7eff42a --- /dev/null +++ b/location/tavern-overview.md @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +# U Spáleného Jazyka — The Burnt Tongue + +## History + +The Burnt Tongue has stood on the corner of Žlutá Street and Popelová Alley for over forty years. It started as a safehouse, became a flophouse, and eventually settled into what it is today: neutral ground. The name comes from the unwritten rule — what happens here stays here, or you lose the tongue that spoke of it. + +Fifteen years ago, **Orenn** and **Mags** took ownership. Before that, they were *cleaners* — the people the city's underworld called when something crawled out of the sewers, when a summoning went sideways, when a gang war threatened to spill into the merchant quarter. Not heroes. Fixers. They retired here because they were tired of fixing other people's messes, and because running the most dangerous bar in the city was, somehow, the quieter life. + +Under Orenn's rule, the Burnt Tongue became sacred ground. Assassins could drink next to their marks. Cultists could study next to inquisitors. The rule was simple: **no killing**. Orenn enforced it not with threats but with the calm certainty of a man who had killed worse things than you, and everyone in the room knew it. + +## The Rules of the House + +Carved into a wooden plaque above the bar in Common and Thieves' Cant: + +1. **No killing.** Brawling is permitted. Death is not. +2. **No magic that harms.** Cantrips for comfort, fine. Anything with intent, take it outside. +3. **Debts are honored.** If you owe the house, you pay the house. +4. **The barkeep's word is final.** + +The first rule has just been broken — and the barkeep who enforced it is the victim. + +## Atmosphere + +The tavern is larger than it looks from outside. The building is old stone and dark wood, sunk slightly below street level so you step *down* into it. The air is thick with pipe smoke, tallow candle smell, and the sweet-sour tang of cheap spirits. Everything is dimly lit — not for ambiance, but because the clientele prefers it that way. + +The noise level before the brawl is a low murmur punctuated by occasional harsh laughter from the assassin table and quiet scholarly debate from the cultists. After the murder, it's oppressive silence broken by whispers. + +## General Layout + +``` + ┌──────────────────────────────────┐ + │ UPPER FLOOR │ + │ (Orenn & Mags quarters) │ + │ [locked, private] │ + └──────────────────────────────────┘ + +┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ +│ MAIN HALL │ +│ │ +│ [Assassin ┌─────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ │ +│ Table] │Fireplace│ │ BAR │ │ +│ └─────────┘ [Bren's │ (Orenn's │ │ +│ Corner] │ domain) │ │ +│ [Cultist └──────┬───────┘ │ +│ Table] [Center tables, │ │ +│ stools, debris] ┌────────┴────────┐ │ +│ [Tallow's │ Door to Kitchen │ │ +│ Booth] [Vetch, near stairs] └────────┬────────┘ │ +│ │ │ +│ ┌──────┐ ┌────────┴────────┐ │ +│ │ENTRY │ │ BACK ROOMS │ │ +│ │(down │ │ Kitchen/Storage/ │ │ +│ │steps)│ │ Private Room │ │ +│ └──────┘ └────────┬────────┘ │ +│ │ │ +└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┘ + ┌───────┴───────┐ + │ CELLAR │ + │ (trapdoor in │ + │ storage) │ + └───────────────┘ +``` + +## Read-Aloud: Entering the Tavern + +> *Schody vedou dolů. Tři kamenné stupně, vyšlapané generacemi bot, které sem raději nechtěly být viděny vcházet. Těžké dveře se za vámi zavřou s tupým úderem, který zní nepříjemně definitivně.* +> +> *Vzduch uvnitř je hustý — směs tabákového kouře, levné kořalky a starého dřeva nasyceného desítkami let rozlitého piva. Místnost je větší, než jste čekali. Nízký strop podpírají masivní dubové trámy, zčernalé od sazí. Svíčky v železných držácích vrhají neklidné stíny po zdech pokrytých starými výčepními tabulemi, kde některá jména byla záměrně vyškrábnuta.* +> +> *Zvuk se změní, když vstoupíte — ten sotva znatelný pokles hlasitosti, když místnost plná nebezpečných lidí zaregistruje někoho nového. Několik párů očí vás změří. Většina se vrátí ke svému. Jeden pár — ten za barem — ne.* + +## Secrets + +- The tavern is built on a **natural thin point** between the Material and Ethereal planes. Orenn and Mags knew this. It's one reason they chose this location — they could monitor it. It also means Veil Dust is more potent here, and ethereal entities find it easier to manifest. +- The wooden plaque with the house rules has a **hidden fifth rule** on the back, in Orenn's handwriting: *"If the veil tears, burn the cellar stores and seal the door. We'll handle the rest."* — Mags can reveal this if pressed, but it will shake her. +- The building's stone foundation contains **old ward-sigils** carved by Orenn and Mags when they moved in. These wards kept fiends from crossing the threshold in the Ethereal Plane. Xarrul broke them during the brawl — a character examining the foundation stones (DC 15 Investigation or Arcana) can find the cracked sigils. diff --git a/npc/assassins.md b/npc/assassins.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c54cdd --- /dev/null +++ b/npc/assassins.md @@ -0,0 +1,177 @@ +# The Guild of Knives — Assassins + +*"We are not murderers. Murderers are sloppy, emotional, and cheap. We are professionals who provide a service that civilized society pretends it doesn't need. There is a difference."* +— Sevra + +--- + +## The Guild + +The Guild of Knives is the city's oldest professional assassination ring. They operate on a strict code: clean kills, no collateral, no civilians, no suffering. They view their work as a craft — ugly but necessary, and deserving of the same discipline as surgery or law. Payment is always upfront, contracts are honored, and the guild's reputation is its currency. + +The guild has been in quiet conflict with the Lambent Order for months. The cultists have been taking side jobs — messy, ritualistic kills that undercut the guild's market and damage its reputation. Worse, someone within the guild has been *cooperating* with them. + +Tonight, three named members are present, plus three unnamed guild soldiers. + +--- + +## Sevra — The Commander + +*"I don't need you to like me. I need you to be honest with me. Those are very different requests, and one of them will keep you alive."* + +### Stat Block + +**Sevra** — Medium humanoid (human), lawful evil +**AC** 16 (studded leather + DEX) | **HP** 52 (8d8+16) | **Speed** 30 ft. + +| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | +|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| +| 11 (+0) | 18 (+4) | 14 (+2) | 16 (+3) | 15 (+2) | 14 (+2) | + +**Saving Throws** DEX +7, INT +6 +**Skills** Stealth +7, Deception +5, Insight +5, Perception +5, Investigation +6 +**Senses** passive Perception 15 +**Languages** Common, Elvish, Thieves' Cant + +**Assassinate.** During the first round of combat, Sevra has advantage on attacks against any creature that hasn't taken a turn yet. Any hit against a surprised creature is a critical hit. + +**Sneak Attack (1/turn).** 3d6 extra damage when she has advantage or an ally is within 5 ft. of the target. + +**Evasion.** Half damage on failed DEX saves, no damage on success. + +### Actions + +**Multiattack.** Two shortsword attacks. + +**Shortsword.** Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+4) piercing damage. + +**Hand Crossbow.** Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+4) piercing damage. + +### Appearance & Personality + +Mid-forties, lean, angular face, dark skin, close-cropped black hair. Every movement is deliberate. She sits with her back to the wall, eyes on every entrance. Wears practical dark clothing — no ornamentation, no vanity. A thin scar crosses her throat — someone tried to cut it years ago. The someone is dead. + +Sevra is the senior guild member present. She's holding the guild together through sheer authority while dealing with the mole, the territorial dispute with the cultists, and now a murder investigation. She's stretched thin but would die before showing it. + +**Key traits:** +- Utterly composed. Speaks in measured, precise sentences. +- Values honesty in a transactional sense — she keeps her word because her word has value. +- Pragmatic to the bone. She'll work with players if the math works out. +- Suspects Dace is the traitor but needs proof. Moving on a guild member without evidence breaks the code and fractures the guild. + +### What She Knows + +**Will share if players approach professionally (show competence, don't moralize):** +- The brawl started because Kael confronted the cultists about a contract kill in the Merchant Quarter — a noble found dead with ritual marks. It was the guild's contract, paid for and accepted. Someone else did the kill. +- The guild has a mole. Kills are being sold to outside buyers. Bodies are showing up wrong — missing parts, ritualistic damage. +- She didn't kill Orenn. The guild respected the rules. "Orenn was worth more alive to us than anyone in this room." + +**Will trade for proof of the traitor's identity:** +- The guild will withdraw from the tavern peacefully — no faction war. +- She'll share everything she knows about the cultists' activities, including safe house locations. +- She owes the party a favor — one job, any target, with the usual code in place. + +--- + +## Dace — The Traitor + +*"Relax, friend. Drink? It's going to be a long night — might as well be comfortable."* + +### Stat Block + +**Dace** — Medium humanoid (human), neutral evil +**AC** 15 (studded leather + DEX) | **HP** 44 (8d8+8) | **Speed** 30 ft. + +| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | +|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| +| 12 (+1) | 16 (+3) | 12 (+1) | 14 (+2) | 10 (+0) | 18 (+4) | + +**Skills** Deception +8, Persuasion +8, Stealth +5, Performance +6, Sleight of Hand +5 +**Senses** passive Perception 10 +**Languages** Common, Thieves' Cant, Halfling + +**Sneak Attack (1/turn).** 2d6 extra damage. + +### Actions + +**Shortsword.** +6 to hit, 1d6+3 piercing. +**Dagger (concealed).** +6 to hit, 1d4+3 piercing. Coated with **Essence of Ether** (DC 13 CON save or fall unconscious for 1 minute). + +### Appearance & Personality + +Late twenties, handsome, easy smile. Sandy hair, bright eyes, the kind of face you'd trust to watch your drink. He's the assassin who doesn't look like an assassin — the one who gets close to targets through charm, not stealth. He's everyone's friend at the table and nobody's friend in truth. + +Dace has been selling guild contracts to the Lambent Order for six months. The cultists need fresh kills for ritual components — hearts still warm, blood drained into sanctified vessels. Dace provides the bodies and takes a cut on top of his guild pay. He doesn't believe in the cult's ideology — he just likes money, and he finds the moral panic about his sideline amusing. + +**Key traits:** +- The most likeable person in the room. Friendly, warm, buys drinks, makes jokes. +- A clinical sociopath who learned charm as a professional skill. +- Will actively "help" the investigation — volunteering theories, offering to search rooms, being useful — while subtly steering suspicion toward the cultists. +- If cornered with evidence, his warmth evaporates instantly. The real Dace is cold, calculating, and willing to fight his way out. + +### His Secret + +Dace has been meeting a Lambent Order contact in the tavern's private room to arrange deliveries. The ward-sigil diagram scratched into the table was made during one of these meetings — the contact was Haddon, mapping the wards as part of the cult's broader plan. Dace didn't care what the diagram meant; he was there to negotiate prices. + +**Evidence linking Dace:** +- DC 16 Insight during conversation: Something about his helpfulness is *too* practiced. He's performing. +- Tallow (for a price) will confirm that Dace has been meeting "a scholar type" in the private room regularly. +- Kael, if asked privately, will say Dace was the last person to take a guild contract that ended up with ritual marks on the body. "He said he subcontracted the cleanup. Since when do we subcontract?" +- The cultist pin found in the private room — Dace pockets things. A DC 14 Investigation of his person finds a **second cultist pin** hidden in his boot, kept as insurance. + +### If Exposed + +Dace tries to talk his way out first (Deception +8). If that fails, he turns violent — he'll grab the nearest person as a hostage (likely Vetch or Bren) and demand safe passage. If that fails, he fights. He's dangerous but not suicidal — at half HP, he surrenders. + +Sevra's reaction to proof: cold fury. She won't kill him in the bar (the rules still matter to her, even now), but she will restrain him and promise that guild justice will follow. This is worse than a quick death and everyone knows it. + +--- + +## Kael — The Hothead + +*"I'm done talking. I've been done talking since they started poaching our work. Every day we sit here is a day they get bolder."* + +### Stat Block + +**Kael** — Medium humanoid (half-orc), chaotic evil +**AC** 15 (chain shirt + DEX) | **HP** 45 (6d8+18) | **Speed** 30 ft. + +| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | +|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| +| 16 (+3) | 14 (+2) | 16 (+3) | 10 (+0) | 11 (+0) | 12 (+1) | + +**Skills** Intimidation +4, Athletics +6, Perception +3 +**Senses** darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13 +**Languages** Common, Orc, Thieves' Cant + +**Relentless Endurance.** Drops to 1 HP instead of 0, once per long rest. +**Savage Attacks.** Extra damage die on critical hits. + +### Actions + +**Multiattack.** Two handaxe attacks. +**Handaxe.** +6 to hit, 1d6+3 slashing. Can be thrown (20/60 ft.). + +### Appearance & Personality + +Big, scarred, half-orc with a shaved head and a permanent scowl. He's the guild's enforcer — the one they send when subtlety isn't required. His arms are a map of old fights and he wears them like medals. + +Kael is loyal to the guild with the fervor of someone who found a family after a lifetime without one. The cult's disrespect enrages him on a personal level — they're not just poaching contracts, they're mocking the guild's code, the only code Kael has ever believed in. + +**Key traits:** +- Aggressive but not stupid. He reads rooms badly but reads people well. +- Fiercely loyal to Sevra. He'll follow her lead even when he disagrees. +- Honest to a fault. He cannot and will not lie convincingly. If asked direct questions, he answers directly. This makes him the easiest assassin to talk to, despite his hostility. +- He didn't kill Orenn. He's the most vocally angry about the death, not because of Orenn personally, but because killing in neutral ground is a violation of everything he believes in. + +### What He Knows + +- The brawl started because he found out about the Merchant Quarter kill. He lost his temper. He'll admit this. +- He suspects Dace — "Too smooth. Nobody's that nice in this business." But Kael is biased (he's suspicious of everyone personable) and Sevra has told him to drop it without evidence. +- He saw Bren acting strangely during the brawl — "The crazy one went rigid. Stiff as a board. Staring at the bar. Not at the fight. At the *bar*." This is because Bren/Skein was watching Xarrul kill Orenn. + +--- + +## Unnamed Guild Members (3) + +Use **Spy** stat block (MM p.349) for all three. They stay quiet, defer to Sevra, and watch the room. If combat starts, they fight as a unit with Sevra. None of them have useful information — they're muscle. diff --git a/npc/bren.md b/npc/bren.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84dced3 --- /dev/null +++ b/npc/bren.md @@ -0,0 +1,119 @@ +# Bren — The Madman + +*"Saw it! We saw — can't say, his eyes, his burning eyes, watching! Watching from the shadows that aren't shadows, from the place that's here but isn't — shhh. Shhh. He says I can't. He says I mustn't. But you see it too, don't you? Don't you?"* + +--- + +## Stat Block (Abbreviated) + +**Bren** — Medium humanoid (human), chaotic neutral +**AC** 10 | **HP** 18 (4d8) | **Speed** 30 ft. + +| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | +|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| +| 8 (-1) | 10 (+0) | 10 (+0) | 15 (+2) | 6 (-2) | 14 (+2) | + +**Skills** Arcana +4 (remnant of former knowledge), Performance +4 (involuntary — Skein uses him) +**Condition:** Bren is permanently under the effects of a modified Dominate Person. His Wisdom has been reduced from 16 to 6 over years of possession. He cannot be freed by a single spell — see the Possession storyline. +**Senses** passive Perception 8 (but Skein's passive Perception through him is 16) +**Languages** Common, Elvish (his original languages); Bren occasionally speaks Abyssal words Skein forces through him + +--- + +## Appearance + +A man in his thirties who looks fifty. Gaunt, hollow-eyed, with unkempt dark hair that might once have been carefully maintained. His clothes are layered rags — but beneath the grime, the cut of his original shirt suggests someone who once had means. His hands shake constantly. His eyes dart — not randomly, but in a pattern, tracking something beside him that no one else can see. + +He sits on the floor in his corner, knees drawn up, rocking slightly. He mutters constantly. Sometimes it's conversation — animated, responsive, with pauses for a reply only he can hear. Sometimes it's fragments of coherent observation, spoken too fast and too quiet. + +## Read-Aloud: First Impression + +> *V rohu u baru, přímo na zemi, sedí muž. Kolena přitažená k bradě, ruce ovinuté kolem nohou, oči těkající po místnosti — ne, ne po místnosti. Po něčem vedle něj. Mluví potichu, rychle, s přestávkami, jako by naslouchal odpovědím, které slyší jen on. Občas se zachichotá. Občas zbledne. Před ním na zemi stojí dřevěná miska s pár měďáky.* +> +> *Když projdete kolem, zvedne na vás oči. Jen na okamžik. A v tom okamžiku — jen zlomek vteřiny — v nich není šílenství. Je v nich zoufalství. Pak se ta záblesk ztratí a on se vrátí ke svému neviditelnému společníkovi.* + +## The Truth: Skein + +**Skein** is a parasitic entity from the Ethereal Plane — not a fiend, not an undead, something else. It resembles a translucent spider made of knotted, twisting threads, roughly the size of a large dog. It sits beside Bren in the Ethereal Plane, with thread-like tendrils extending into his skull. + +Skein feeds on Bren's mind — his memories, his personality, his will. Over the years, it has hollowed him out. What's left of Bren is genuine: the fear, the desperation, the fragments of the person he was. But Skein controls what he says and does, steering him like a puppet with most of its strings cut. + +**Skein's stat block:** See [The Possession](../storylines/possession.md). + +**Skein's goals:** +- Keep feeding. Bren is its host and it doesn't want to lose him. +- Stay hidden. If anyone discovers Skein, they might try to remove it. +- Prevent Bren from communicating useful information — but Skein's control isn't perfect. Under emotional stress or when caught off guard, Bren can force words out before Skein clamps down. + +## Personality (What's Left of Bren) + +Before possession, Bren was a scholar — an arcanist studying planar theory at a small academy. He was curious, gentle, and too trusting. He ventured too close to a thin point during research, and Skein latched on. That was seven years ago. + +**What remains:** +- Intelligence flickers through the madness — he uses words precisely even when they seem nonsensical +- A deep, desperate desire to communicate what he knows +- Genuine fear of Skein, expressed as submission and appeasement ("He says I can't, he says, sorry, sorry...") +- Empathy — he recognizes pain in others and reacts to it, sometimes more clearly than to his own situation +- Fragments of his old personality surface when Skein is distracted or when Bren is emotionally provoked + +## Behavior Patterns + +### Default State (Skein in control) +- Muttering, rocking, seemingly incoherent +- Tracks Skein's position with his eyes +- Occasionally laughs at nothing or flinches from nothing +- Speaks in fragments that sound like madness but contain kernels of truth + +### Agitated State (Emotional trigger) +- Mood swings wildly — weeping to laughing to terrified in seconds +- Skein is fighting for control; Bren is fighting to speak +- Can force out partial truths before Skein silences him +- Physical symptoms: nosebleed, sudden headache, he grabs his head + +### Lucid Moment (Skein distracted or weakened) +- Sudden stillness. Eyes clear. Voice changes — quieter, steadier, *educated* +- Can speak coherently for 1-3 sentences before Skein reasserts control +- These moments are rare and precious. They happen when: + - Skein is distracted by something in the Ethereal Plane (Xarrul moving nearby) + - Someone uses silvervein root near Bren (the ward-herb weakens Skein's grip for 1 round) + - A player rolls a natural 20 on a Persuasion or Insight check while talking to Bren + - Bren witnesses something that triggers a deep emotional response (kindness, danger to someone he cares about) + +## What Bren Knows + +He witnessed Orenn's murder from his corner. He saw something no one else could — a shape in the space beside the bar, reaching *through* the air and touching Orenn. He can describe it, but only in fragments. + +### Sample Dialogue by State + +**Default (useless but atmospheric):** +- "No no no, not the — he's clean, he keeps them clean, the glasses, always clean..." +- "Two sides of a coin that isn't a coin, it's a mouth, ha! A mouth with too many teeth..." +- "He's angry. He's always angry. Aren't you? Yes you are. Don't lie to me." + +**Agitated (partial truths, when asked about the murder or fiends):** +- "Saw it! We saw it — a hand that wasn't a hand, reaching through the thin place, through the *between*, and it touched him and he — *he says I can't say this* — BURNED, burned from inside, from the place you can't see!" +- "Not them, not the knife-people, not the book-people, something ELSE, something that laughs at both, something that was *invited* and then *uninvited* and now it's just... here. Hungry." +- "Eyes! Burning eyes in the grey, in the space between spaces — it's been here for weeks, scratching, *scratching at the walls you can't see!*" +- [Suddenly grabs a player's hand] "The marks on the stones. Underground. It broke them. Night after night. *Tell her.* Tell the woman with the scar. The walls are DOWN." + +**Lucid (rare, precious, 1-3 sentences):** +- [Still, clear voice] "My name is Bren Aldara. I was an arcanist. Something lives beside me and I cannot make it stop. Please — don't leave me like this." +- [After seeing evidence of the fiend] "It's a fiend. Old and cunning. It killed the barkeep from the other side — reached through the veil and branded him. I watched it happen. [winces, grabs head] I'm not — I can't —" [Skein reasserts control] +- [If shown genuine kindness] "I can feel it eating me. Every day there's less of me left. If you can... if there's a way... [long pause, tears] ...even if there isn't. Thank you for seeing me." + +## How Players Can Help Bren + +See [The Possession](../storylines/possession.md) for full details. Summary: + +1. **Identify the problem:** DC 14 Arcana while examining Bren detects something attached to him on another plane. +2. **See Skein:** Requires Veil Dust, See Invisibility, or similar. In the Ethereal Plane, Skein is visible — a knotted spider-thing with tendrils in Bren's skull. +3. **Weaken Skein:** Silvervein root, Protection from Evil and Good, or damaging Skein on the Ethereal Plane. +4. **Remove Skein:** Requires direct action on the Ethereal Plane — either killing Skein or severing its tendrils from Bren. Killing Skein is permanent. Severing is temporary (it reattaches in 1d4 hours). +5. **After removal:** Bren is free but damaged. His Wisdom doesn't fully recover (it rises to 10, not 16). He's lucid but fragile, confused, and will need months of care. He remembers everything — seven years of captivity in his own mind. He's grateful but broken. + +## Relationships + +- **Orenn:** Fed him, kept him safe, never asked questions. Bren loved him in the quiet way a prisoner loves the guard who shows them kindness. Orenn's death devastates what's left of Bren. +- **Mags:** She brings him food. She's gruff about it. He can tell she cares. Skein doesn't like her — she's too perceptive. +- **Skein:** Captor, torturer, constant companion. Bren hates and fears Skein but has developed a horrifying dependency — after seven years, Skein's voice is the most constant thing in his world. +- **Xarrul:** Bren (through Skein's senses) can feel Xarrul in the Ethereal Plane. Skein is terrified of the fiend — it's bigger, older, more powerful. This fear sometimes overrides Skein's control of Bren, creating lucid openings. diff --git a/npc/cultists.md b/npc/cultists.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..08283d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/npc/cultists.md @@ -0,0 +1,296 @@ +# The Lambent Order — Cultists + +*"We are not what they call us. We are scholars of the boundary, seekers of the wholeness that was stolen from this world. If they understood what we understand, they would not fear us. They would beg to help."* +— Haddon, reciting Mother Vyre's words + +--- + +## The Cult + +The Lambent Order presents itself as a small, independent mage guild focused on planar theory and boundary research. This is a lie stretched thin over a truth: they *are* studying planar boundaries, but with the intent of destroying them. + +Their leader, **Mother Vyre**, is not present. She never comes to the tavern. She communicates through dead drops, coded messages, and — for the inner circle — through dreams. She is the architect of **The Opening**: the dissolution of all planar boundaries, merging the Material Plane with the Ethereal, the Shadowfell, the Feywild, and whatever else lies beyond. She frames this as healing — the planes were once one, and their separation was a wound. + +The four members present tonight each know a different amount and joined for different reasons. None of them fully understand what The Opening means at scale. + +--- + +## Mother Vyre — The Absent Leader + +Not present but referenced constantly. Players never meet her, but her shadow is over everything the cultists do. + +**What the DM should know:** +- She is genuine. She truly believes the planes should be merged. This makes her more dangerous than a charlatan — her conviction is infectious. +- She was once an arcanist of real talent. She studied planar theory for decades before concluding that the separation of planes was artificial and harmful. +- She recruits the vulnerable: the bereaved, the disillusioned, the curious, the angry. She finds the crack in someone and pours conviction into it. +- She is aware the fiend summoning went wrong but considers it an acceptable setback. "The test demonstrated the principle. The Opening proceeds." +- Her handwriting appears on: the letter in Tallow's lockbox, dead drop messages Haddon carries, and annotations in one of the books on the cultist table (DC 16 Investigation to match across sources). + +--- + +## Haddon — "Scribe" Haddon, the Scholar + +*"Fascinating. Truly fascinating. The planar resonance here is... no, forgive me, I'm boring you with theory. What were you asking about the murder?"* + +### Stat Block + +**Haddon** — Medium humanoid (human), lawful evil +**AC** 12 (no armor, DEX) | **HP** 38 (7d8+7) | **Speed** 30 ft. + +| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | +|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| +| 9 (-1) | 14 (+2) | 12 (+1) | 18 (+4) | 13 (+1) | 15 (+2) | + +**Saving Throws** INT +7, WIS +4 +**Skills** Arcana +7, Deception +5, History +7, Investigation +7, Persuasion +5 +**Senses** passive Perception 11 +**Languages** Common, Draconic, Abyssal, Celestial, Infernal + +**Spellcasting.** Haddon is a 5th-level spellcaster (INT, DC 15, +7 to hit): +- Cantrips: *mage hand, prestidigitation, minor illusion, fire bolt* +- 1st (4 slots): *detect magic, shield, charm person, disguise self* +- 2nd (3 slots): *detect thoughts, misty step, suggestion* +- 3rd (2 slots): *counterspell, dispel magic* + +### Appearance & Personality + +Mid-fifties, neat grey beard, spectacles, ink-stained fingers. Looks exactly like what he claims to be — a fussy academic. Wears a scholar's robe with the Lambent Order's symbol (an open eye wreathed in flame) pinned to his lapel. Carries books, quills, and a leather journal filled with notes in a cipher. + +Haddon is the most dangerous person at the cultist table because he's the best liar. He's reframed everything he's done as research — the summoning was an "experiment," the fiend was a "test subject," and The Opening is a "theoretical framework." He's lying to himself as much as to anyone else. + +**Key traits:** +- Compulsively academic. He can't help explaining things, even when silence would be safer. His ego overrides his caution. +- Constructed his alibi before Orenn's body was cold: "We were all at the table. I can account for every member." +- Genuinely brilliant. His understanding of planar mechanics is real. This makes him useful to players who need arcane knowledge — and makes his knowledge a trap, because he'll steer it toward conclusions that support The Opening. +- Does not know Dace is the assassin mole. He's been meeting "an intermediary" in the private room and assumes it's a freelancer, not a guild member. This means exposing Dace to Sevra creates an explosive moment when both factions realize how entangled they are. + +### What He Knows + +**Will share as "scholarly cooperation":** +- Planar theory — the basics of how boundaries work, what a thin point is, why the tavern feels strange. All accurate, all framed to normalize The Opening's goals. +- That the death mark on Orenn is fiendish in nature. "Clearly extraplanar damage. Necrotic, with a fiendish signature. Someone — certainly not us — has been dealing in dark pacts." He'll diagnose the Brand of Spite accurately while deflecting blame. +- The Lambent Order's "research" into boundary integrity. He'll show the planar diagram on the table if asked, presenting it as theoretical cartography. + +**Will not willingly share:** +- That they summoned a fiend. Specifically, that they summoned **Xarrul** using binding components from Tallow, blood from Dalla, and a name from Mother Vyre's research. +- That the binding was broken by the assassins (the guild captured the fiend during transit to the assassin target, broke the binds thinking it would just send it home — it didn't). +- That The Opening is more than theory. That there's a timeline, a plan, and tonight was supposed to be a field test. +- That the thin point in the cellar is on Mother Vyre's list of potential Opening sites. + +### His Journal (DC 16 Thieves' Tools or Sleight of Hand to steal, DC 18 INT to decipher) + +Contains detailed notes on the summoning, the binding failure, and references to "Phase Two." Phase Two is a larger summoning — something far more powerful than Xarrul, to be conducted at a major thin point. Tonight's summoning was the proof of concept. + +--- + +## Dalla — The Desperate Parent + +*"I don't care about the murder. I don't care about your investigation. I need — I need to know if there's still a way to fix this. That's all I need."* + +### Stat Block + +**Dalla** — Medium humanoid (human), neutral +**AC** 11 | **HP** 22 (4d8+4) | **Speed** 30 ft. + +| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | +|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| +| 10 (+0) | 12 (+1) | 12 (+1) | 13 (+1) | 14 (+2) | 11 (+0) | + +**Skills** Medicine +4, Insight +4, Arcana +3 +**Senses** passive Perception 12 +**Languages** Common + +**Spellcasting.** Dalla is a 2nd-level spellcaster (WIS, DC 12, +4 to hit): +- Cantrips: *spare the dying, guidance* +- 1st (3 slots): *cure wounds, detect evil and good, sanctuary* + +She was never a real mage. Mother Vyre taught her just enough to participate in rituals. + +### Appearance & Personality + +Thin, early thirties, pale and drawn beyond her years. Dark hair pulled back carelessly. Her forearms are hidden under long sleeves — beneath them, a lattice of old ritual scars where her blood was drawn monthly for the binding. She looks exhausted in a way that sleep can't fix. + +Dalla is the emotional core of the cultist group — but she is **loyal to the Order** by default. She didn't join for ideology in the abstract; she joined because Mother Vyre promised to fix her daughter, and she genuinely believes the cause is righteous. The Opening, as Dalla understands it, is healing — making the broken world whole. She's never been told what it actually means at scale. + +**Her daughter, Lístek:** Born with one foot in the Ethereal Plane. The child doesn't grow, doesn't speak, stares at things that aren't there. She's three years old and has been three years old for four years. The midwife said the child was "caught between." Mother Vyre said The Opening would make her whole — in a merged world, the child wouldn't be split. + +**Key traits:** +- Single-minded about her child. Every conversation orbits back to Lístek. +- Loyal to the Order and to Mother Vyre. She believes the summoning failure is a setback, not a sign that something is fundamentally wrong. Haddon tells her the binding can be fixed, and she believes him — she *needs* to believe him. +- Will defend the Order against accusations. "You don't understand what we're trying to do. We're trying to *heal* the world." +- The monthly blood sacrifice has left her physically weakened. She bruises easily, gets dizzy, and sometimes her hands shake (not unlike Vetch, for different reasons). +- She will talk about Lístek with anyone who shows genuine interest, but she frames it within the Order's worldview: the separated planes are what's hurting her daughter, and The Opening is the cure. + +### Dalla's Two States + +**Default: Loyal Believer** +Dalla supports the Order, backs Haddon's explanations, and pushes back against players who question the cult. She'll talk about her daughter freely but frames everything through the lens of "The Opening will fix this." She sees the failed summoning as a problem to solve, not a reason to doubt. If players suggest rebinding Xarrul, she's enthusiastically on board — "Yes, we can fix this. Haddon says the binding can be restored." + +**After the Truth: Broken Believer** +Dalla breaks **only** when confronted with the real nature of The Opening — that it's not healing but the total dissolution of planar boundaries. Fiends walking streets. The dead rising. Everything bleeding together. This can come from: +- Essek's testimony about Mother Vyre's private writings +- Players piecing together what The Opening actually means and explaining it to her with evidence (DC 14 Persuasion with supporting proof — Essek's testimony, Haddon's journal, or direct experience from the Ethereal trip) +- Seeing the dual-plane kill's momentary veil-tear and understanding viscerally what a full Opening would look like + +When Dalla breaks, it's not gentle. The realization that she bled for eight months — that she damaged her own body — for a cause that would drown the world in horror, that the woman who promised to save her daughter was going to unleash hell... that's not doubt. That's betrayal. + +### What She Knows + +**Will share freely (she's loyal, not secretive about her personal story):** +- Her daughter's condition and why she joined the Order +- That the ritual required her blood. Monthly. For eight months. "I would have given more. I still would." +- That something went wrong with the summoning, but she believes it can be fixed +- That The Opening will heal the world and make Lístek whole (this is what she's been told) + +**Will share as a loyal cultist (if players seem sympathetic to the cause):** +- The Order's mission as she understands it: "The planes were once one. The separation is what's broken. Mother Vyre is going to fix it." +- That Haddon is planning to rebind the fiend: "It's not lost. The binding can be restored. We just need to try again." +- General details of the summoning (she knows a fiend was bound, she provided the blood, it was meant to help the Order's cause against the assassins) + +**Will share only AFTER learning the truth about The Opening:** +- Full details of the summoning: what was summoned (Xarrul), how (binding ritual with her blood, Tallow's components, and Mother Vyre's incantation), and what happened (the assassins intercepted and broke the binding). +- The cult's target: they sent Xarrul to kill Sevra. The fiend was supposed to eliminate the guild's leadership. +- That Mother Vyre has a "Phase Two" and Haddon is already planning the next summoning. +- Where the cult's safehouse is (outside the tavern, but useful for after the session). +- Everything she knows about the binding mechanics — this is when the dual-plane kill becomes a real option, because only a Dalla who understands the stakes would consider destroying the fiend over rebinding it. + +### The Rebinding (Cultist Solution) + +Haddon's plan — and Dalla's hope while she's loyal — is to **recapture and rebind Xarrul**. This is presented as the "safe" option within the cult: +- Requires new binding components (Tallow sold them before, he can supply again — for a price) +- Requires Dalla's blood again (she'll give it without hesitation) +- Requires the binding circle in the cellar (Orenn's circle could be repurposed — DC 16 Arcana to adapt it) +- Haddon leads the ritual. Rennt assists. + +**If the rebinding succeeds:** Xarrul is bound again. The cult has its weapon back. Dalla's connection to the binding is restored — which means Lístek's condition might stabilize (stop getting worse) but won't improve. The child stays frozen. Dalla tells herself this is progress. The cult continues toward Phase Two. + +**The problem players should see:** Rebinding doesn't fix anything. It restores the status quo that led to tonight. The fiend is a tool again, the cult moves forward, and Dalla's daughter is still trapped. But Dalla won't see this unless she knows what The Opening really means. To her, rebinding is the first step back toward the cure Mother Vyre promised. + +### The Cure (Requires Truth) + +See [The Reckoning](../storylines/the-reckoning.md). The dual-plane kill — synchronized destruction in both the Material and Ethereal planes — releases the stolen vitality used to bind Xarrul. Since Dalla's blood was the binding agent, the energy snaps back along the same path: to Dalla, and through her, to Lístek. The child would begin to grow again. She would become whole. + +But the method requires thinning the veil between planes — a micro-Opening. And everyone in the room will have a different opinion about whether that's salvation or catastrophe. + +**This option only exists for players who did the work.** If they never uncovered what The Opening really means, Dalla stays loyal and pushes for rebinding. The dual-plane kill requires a Dalla who understands the cost of the cult's path and chooses a different one. Earning her breakdown earns the choice. + +--- + +## Rennt — The True Believer + +*"You think this is wrong? Look around. This world is a cage. The walls are invisible but they're there. Mother Vyre is the only one with the key."* + +### Stat Block + +**Rennt** — Medium humanoid (human), chaotic neutral +**AC** 13 (leather armor) | **HP** 33 (6d8+6) | **Speed** 30 ft. + +| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | +|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| +| 14 (+2) | 14 (+2) | 12 (+1) | 10 (+0) | 8 (-1) | 16 (+3) | + +**Skills** Persuasion +5, Intimidation +5, Athletics +4 +**Senses** passive Perception 9 +**Languages** Common + +**Spellcasting.** Rennt is a 2nd-level spellcaster (CHA, DC 13, +5 to hit): +- Cantrips: *eldritch blast, thaumaturgy* +- 1st (2 slots): *hellish rebuke, armor of agathys* + +His magic comes from the pact — he made a minor warlock bargain as part of his initiation. He doesn't fully understand what he gave up. + +### Appearance & Personality + +Early twenties, wiry, intense. Dark eyes that burn with conviction. Grew up in the Outer Ring — the city's poorest quarter. Scarred knuckles from street fights. A rough-cut handsome face that would look at home on a rebel or a martyr. + +Rennt is the most dangerous kind of extremist: one who's right about the problem and catastrophically wrong about the solution. The world *is* unfair. The poor *are* forgotten. The systems *do* grind people down. Mother Vyre took that legitimate anger and gave it a metaphysical framework: the planes are separated, the world is incomplete, and The Opening will reset everything. + +**Key traits:** +- Passionate, articulate in a raw way, and genuinely charismatic. Players might find themselves half-agreeing with him. +- Handles the "practical" work — he physically handled the binding components, helped set up the summoning circle, and would do it again. +- Absolutely loyal to Mother Vyre. She's the first person who saw him and told him he mattered. +- No loyalty to Haddon — he thinks the scholar is a coward who hides behind theory. +- Has a temper. If provoked or if the Order is insulted, he'll escalate quickly. + +### What He Knows + +**Will share freely (he's proud of the cause):** +- The Order's mission in broad, idealistic terms: "The planes were one, once. They should be again. Everything wrong with the world comes from the separation." +- That Mother Vyre is a visionary who's been planning The Opening for years. +- That the assassins are "relics" who stand in the way of progress. + +**Will share if he thinks you're sympathetic to the cause:** +- He personally set up the summoning circle for Xarrul. "We bound something powerful. Something that was supposed to fix the balance. The knife-guild interfered." +- He knows the binding failed. He blames the assassins entirely. +- He doesn't know Xarrul killed Orenn. If told, his first reaction is denial, then rationalization: "It was bound. The assassins broke it free. The blood is on their hands." + +**Will NOT share (because he doesn't know):** +- The details of Dalla's sacrifice +- What The Opening actually means at scale +- Mother Vyre's Phase Two plans + +### If the Dual-Plane Kill Is Proposed + +Rennt is **ecstatic**. "Do you see? Do you *see*? The planes *want* to touch. You're doing what Mother Vyre always said was possible — proving that the boundary is artificial!" His enthusiasm is genuine and deeply unsettling. He'll actively help with the ritual, which should make players very uncomfortable about what they're doing. + +--- + +## Essek — The Doubter + +*[Says nothing. Watches. When finally cornered and alone:]* +*"I joined because I thought we were studying something beautiful. I stayed because I can't leave. And I'm afraid because I've read what she actually wrote — and it's not what they told us."* + +### Stat Block + +**Essek** — Medium humanoid (human), neutral good +**AC** 12 | **HP** 18 (4d8) | **Speed** 30 ft. + +| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | +|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| +| 8 (-1) | 14 (+2) | 10 (+0) | 16 (+3) | 14 (+2) | 10 (+0) | + +**Skills** Arcana +5, Investigation +5, Stealth +4 +**Senses** passive Perception 12 +**Languages** Common, Draconic, Elvish + +**Spellcasting.** Essek is a 3rd-level spellcaster (INT, DC 13, +5 to hit): +- Cantrips: *mage hand, light, message* +- 1st (4 slots): *comprehend languages, identify, alarm* +- 2nd (2 slots): *see invisibility, arcane lock* + +He's the most technically skilled caster in the group — his magic is utility-focused, quiet, and cautious. Like him. + +### Appearance & Personality + +Mid-twenties, thin, unremarkable. The kind of face you forget as soon as you look away. Brown hair, downcast eyes, hunched posture. He sits at the edge of the cultist group, physically and socially. His hands grip his knees under the table. A small mark on his inner left wrist — the initiation brand — occasionally glows faintly amber when he thinks about betraying the Order. + +Essek is the closest thing the cultist table has to a conscience, and he's terrified. + +**Key traits:** +- Joined the Lambent Order two years ago because the planar research was genuinely fascinating. He was a student, not a zealot. +- Six months ago, he found Mother Vyre's private correspondence in Haddon's study (he was looking for a reference text). He read enough to understand that The Opening isn't theoretical. It's a plan with a timeline. +- The initiation brand burns when he considers betrayal — not enough to stop him, but enough to remind him he's watched. +- He wants out. He's looking for anyone he can trust. Players who approach him gently, privately, and without judgment are his best chance. + +### What He Knows (If Gotten Alone and Shown He Can Trust You) + +Essek is the **single best source of information** about the cult's true plans. He knows: +- The Opening is real and planned. Mother Vyre has a timeline. The tavern summoning was Phase One. +- Phase Two involves summoning something far more powerful than Xarrul at a major thin point. The tavern was a test site. +- Dalla's sacrifice — he knows about the monthly blood rituals and that her daughter was the leverage. "She didn't choose this. None of us chose what it actually became." +- The fiend summoning was targeted — Xarrul was sent to kill Sevra and cripple the guild. The assassination failed because the guild captured the fiend in transit. +- Haddon is in deeper than he admits. He's in regular contact with Mother Vyre and is already planning Phase Two logistics. +- **The brand on his wrist** can be broken by Remove Curse or by the death of the caster who placed it (one of Mother Vyre's lieutenants, not present tonight — this is a thread for beyond the oneshot). + +### Getting Essek Alone + +This is the challenge. Haddon watches him. Rennt watches everyone. Essek won't speak freely within earshot of the group. + +**Methods:** +- Lure him with a pretext (DC 14 Deception to create a reason for him to step away) +- Use the private room (if players have secured it) +- Whisper Chalk (buy from Tallow, write a message only Essek sees) +- Pass a note during a distraction (the brawl's aftermath, another confrontation) +- *Message* cantrip if a player has it + +If Essek is seen talking to players by Haddon, the scholar will intervene smoothly — "Essek, perhaps you'd be more comfortable back at the table?" — and Essek will comply. His brand flares. He looks at the players with desperate eyes and says nothing. diff --git a/npc/mags.md b/npc/mags.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24c7adf --- /dev/null +++ b/npc/mags.md @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ +# Mags — The Other Half + +*"I've skinned things that would make your nightmares cry. So when I say sit down and answer my questions, understand that I'm being polite."* + +--- + +## Stat Block + +**Mags** — Medium humanoid (human), neutral +**AC** 16 (studded leather under her apron + DEX) | **HP** 65 (10d8+20) | **Speed** 30 ft. + +| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | +|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| +| 14 (+2) | 18 (+4) | 14 (+2) | 13 (+1) | 16 (+3) | 12 (+1) | + +**Saving Throws** DEX +7, WIS +6 +**Skills** Perception +6, Stealth +7, Intimidation +4, Investigation +4, Survival +6 +**Senses** passive Perception 16 +**Languages** Common, Thieves' Cant, Infernal (learned from years of dealing with fiends) + +**Cleaner's Instinct.** Mags has advantage on ability checks to track, identify, or analyze fiends and their effects. She can smell brimstone, necrotic residue, and ethereal bleed at close range. + +**Retired, Not Soft.** When Mags is below half her maximum HP or when an ally she cares about is threatened, she gains +2 to attack and damage rolls. + +### Actions + +**Multiattack.** Mags makes two attacks with her short sword or thrown knives. + +**+1 Short Sword.** Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d6+5) piercing damage. + +**Thrown Knife.** Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d4+4) piercing damage. She carries 4. + +### Reactions + +**Parry.** Mags adds 3 to her AC against one melee attack that would hit her. + +--- + +## Appearance + +Late forties, wiry and hard. Short-cropped grey hair, practical. A scar runs from her left temple to her jaw — a pale, ragged line she makes no effort to hide. Her hands are rough and scarred, a cook's hands layered over a killer's hands. She wears a stained apron over functional clothing and moves through the kitchen with the same economy of motion she once used to clear rooms. + +Her eyes are dark and sharp. When she looks at you, she's not making conversation — she's making assessments. + +## Read-Aloud: After the Murder + +> *Žena, která vyšla z kuchyně, není vysoká, ale nějak zabírá víc prostoru, než by měla. Šedé krátké vlasy, jizva přes levou tvář, ruce, které vypadají, že celý život dělaly něco těžšího než vaření. Stojí nad Orennovým tělem a nehýbe se. Nedýchá. Aspoň se to tak zdá.* +> +> *Pak zvedne hlavu a podívá se do místnosti. Její oči přejedou přes každý obličej — ne rychle, ne pomalu. Přesně tak, jak je potřeba, aby si každý zapamatovala. Když promluví, její hlas je tichý a plochý jako čepel nože položená na stole.* +> +> *"Tohle je můj dům. Tenhle muž byl můj —" Zarazí se. Polkne. "— byl můj. A nikdo z téhle místnosti neodejde, dokud nebudu vědět, proč je mrtvý."* + +## Personality + +Mags grieves the way a blade rusts — slowly, internally, and it makes her more dangerous, not less. She won't cry in front of anyone. She might not cry at all. What she will do is find the thing that killed Orenn and end it with the same professional precision she's used her entire life. + +She is direct, blunt, and has no patience for lies. She can tell when someone is hiding something — years of interrogating captured fiends gave her an instinct for deception that borders on supernatural (WIS 16, Insight +6 effectively). + +**Key traits:** +- Doesn't ask questions she doesn't already suspect the answer to +- Respects competence, regardless of morality +- Will work with anyone — assassin, cultist, player — if it gets her closer to the truth +- Has not processed Orenn's death and will not during this session. She's running on professional autopilot. The crash comes later, when the doors open and the night is over. +- She knows fiends. When players bring evidence of fiendish involvement, something changes in her — the grief hardens into something older: the *work*. + +## What She Knows + +**Will share freely:** +- The tavern's rules, history, and clientele +- That the assassins and cultists have been at each other's throats for weeks +- That Orenn was more than a barkeep — "we used to solve problems together. The kind you don't talk about." +- That Bren has been getting worse lately — more agitated, more controlled + +**Will share if players earn trust (show evidence, demonstrate competence, or show genuine care for Orenn):** +- The ward-sigils in the cellar and what they do +- Orenn's letter (if she's read it by then) +- That the tavern sits on a thin point between planes +- That Orenn was investigating the Lambent Order +- The location of the hidden compartment in the storage room +- How to activate the iron bell (partially restores wards) + +**Will share only under extreme circumstances (direct evidence of the fiend, the brand explained, or if she's convinced the players are the only chance):** +- Full details of their cleaner past +- How to use the binding circle in the cellar +- Her assessment of whether the fiend can be beaten ("Orenn and I could have taken it. Orenn and I. One of us isn't here anymore.") +- The Oil of Etherealness in the bedroom + +## Her Role in the Session + +Mags is the emotional anchor and the gatekeeper. She controls access to the tavern's secrets and to the most powerful tools available. She's also the person enforcing the lockdown — which means she's keeping assassins and cultists in the same room, a pressure cooker that she's managing through sheer force of will. + +She will not fight alongside the players unless the fiend manifests in the Material Plane inside the tavern. Then all bets are off. The retirement ends and the cleaner comes back. + +**If the players fail or choose not to confront the fiend:** Mags will hunt it herself after the session ends. She'll probably die. She doesn't care. + +## Relationships + +- **Orenn:** The one person she let close. They understood each other without needing to explain. Their relationship wasn't romantic in any conventional sense — it was deeper than that, forged in shared trauma and mutual competence. They were partners in every way that mattered. +- **Tallow:** She tolerates him. He's useful and she knows it. She despises his neutrality but respects his survival instinct. +- **Bren:** She's been feeding him and keeping him safe for months. She suspects something is wrong beyond madness but hasn't had time to investigate. +- **Sevra:** Professional respect, mutual wariness. Mags knows what the guild does and doesn't approve, but Sevra has always respected the rules of the house. +- **Haddon:** She doesn't trust him. Never has. Can't articulate why — just a feeling. (Her instinct is correct.) diff --git a/npc/orenn.md b/npc/orenn.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df48d57 --- /dev/null +++ b/npc/orenn.md @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ +# Orenn — The Barkeep + +*"Welcome to the Burnt Tongue. Sit anywhere. Don't start anything."* + +**Status:** Dead. Murdered during the brawl. + +--- + +## Appearance + +Tall, lean, mid-fifties. Silver-streaked dark hair pulled back neatly. A close-trimmed beard maintained with more care than the tavern warrants. His clothing was simple but clean — a dark vest over a white shirt with rolled sleeves, revealing old scars on his forearms that he never bothered to hide. His eyes were the kind that measured you completely before you finished sitting down. + +In death, his expression is one of genuine surprise. Not fear, not pain. He didn't see it coming — or rather, he didn't believe it possible. Not here. Not in his house. + +## Read-Aloud: First Meeting (Before the Brawl) + +> *Muž za barem je jiný než všechno kolem. V místnosti plné lidí, kteří vypadají, že by vám za pár měďáků podřízli krk, on vypadá, jako by vám mohl nabídnout čaj. Je vysoký, s klidnýma šedýma očima a pečlivě střiženým plnovousem s proužky stříbra. Pohyby má pomalé a přesné — utírá sklenku utěrkou, která je, a to vás tu překvapí nejvíc, skutečně čistá.* +> +> *"Vítejte," řekne hlasem, který nepotřebuje být hlasitý, aby ho bylo slyšet. "Sedněte si, kam chcete. Jídlo máme teplé, pití studené. A jedno prosté pravidlo — v téhle hospodě se nezabíjí." Odmlčí se. Úsměv, který se mu objeví v koutku úst, je zdvořilý, ale nemá v sobě ani kapku humoru. "Dosud to všichni respektovali."* + +## Personality + +Orenn was the calm at the center of a storm. He spoke quietly because he didn't need to shout. He was polite because politeness costs nothing and buys time. He ran the Burnt Tongue with the same precision he once used to clean fiends out of sewer tunnels — measured, deliberate, with an exit strategy for every scenario. + +He believed in rules not because he was lawful but because rules were the only thing that kept this particular powder keg from detonating. He treated every patron — assassin, cultist, beggar, addict — with the same level of professional respect. Not warmth. Respect. There's a difference. + +**Key traits:** +- Never raised his voice +- Remembered every face and every debt +- Treated Mags as an equal in every sense +- Was investigating the Lambent Order quietly — he suspected they were more than scholars but hadn't uncovered the truth +- Kept the old cleaner tools and wards maintained, "just in case" +- Had a dry sense of humor that surfaced rarely and always caught people off guard + +## Background + +Orenn was a cleaner for over twenty years. When the city's underworld spawned something it couldn't handle — a rogue summoning, an unbound elemental, a fiend that slipped through a botched portal — the fixers called Orenn and Mags. They worked as a pair: Orenn did the tracking, planning, and binding; Mags did the killing. They were expensive, reliable, and discreet. + +They retired fifteen years ago after a job that went wrong — details are scarce, but Mags has a scar that runs from her left temple to her jaw, and Orenn stopped sleeping well after that. They bought the Burnt Tongue because it was the last place anyone would look for them, and because the thin point in the cellar needed watching. + +## How He Died + +Xarrul killed Orenn with the full chain: **Brand of Spite** to mark him, **Visions of Spite** to freeze him in a hallucination of his own worst fear, then claws through a body that couldn't flinch. Against an unsuspecting, unresisting target with no allies to intervene, all three stages collapsed into seconds. Orenn was behind the bar during the brawl. Everyone was distracted. Xarrul materialized just enough to touch him from the other side, branded him, locked his mind, and struck — then retreated to the Ethereal Plane before the dust settled. The expression on Orenn's face isn't surprise at death. It's the last frame of whatever Xarrul forced him to see. + +**Physical evidence on the body:** +- A **black brand** on his chest, roughly the size of a spread hand. It's not a burn in the traditional sense — the skin is unmarked on the surface, but beneath it the flesh is charred. DC 14 Medicine reveals the damage radiates *outward* from the heart, as if something ignited inside him. +- **No defensive wounds.** He didn't fight back because there was nothing to fight. +- **DC 15 Arcana on the brand:** Identifies it as necrotic damage with a fiendish signature. Not any spell in common use — something older, more personal. Like a fingerprint. +- **DC 18 Arcana:** The brand's pattern contains a fragment of Xarrul's true name. A character who records the pattern and later compares it to fiendish lore (Orenn's bestiary in the bedroom, or Haddon's texts) can identify the specific type of fiend they're dealing with. + +## What He Knew (For DM Reference) + +Orenn suspected something was wrong for weeks. He noticed: +- The ward-sigils weakening (he checked them monthly) +- Increased ethereal bleed-through near the thin point +- The cultists meeting more frequently and with more urgency +- Bren's condition worsening (more agitated, more controlled) + +He didn't know about Xarrul specifically, but he was preparing. The holy water, silversheen, and warding chalk in the storage room were recent purchases. The letter in Mags's apron was his contingency plan. He ran out of time. + +## Items on His Person + +- A set of **tavern keys** (all rooms, cellar trapdoor, front door) +- A **silver ring** (plain, matches one in the lockbox upstairs) +- 12 gp, 8 sp in a belt pouch +- A **small silver mirror** (not magical, but Orenn carried it out of habit — in the cleaner days, mirrors were used to spot ethereal entities by the distortion they cause in reflections. DC 15 Perception while using the mirror in the cellar reveals faint distortions near the thin point.) diff --git a/npc/tallow.md b/npc/tallow.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a4634ea --- /dev/null +++ b/npc/tallow.md @@ -0,0 +1,119 @@ +# Tallow — The Fence + +*"I don't sell information. I trade in context. There's a difference — and if you can't see it, you can't afford it."* + +--- + +## Stat Block (Abbreviated) + +**Tallow** — Medium humanoid (half-elf), neutral +**AC** 13 (leather armor under his coat) | **HP** 32 (5d8+10) | **Speed** 30 ft. + +| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | +|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| +| 8 (-1) | 14 (+2) | 14 (+2) | 17 (+3) | 15 (+2) | 16 (+3) | + +**Skills** Deception +7, Insight +6, Persuasion +7, Sleight of Hand +4, Investigation +5 +**Senses** darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12 +**Languages** Common, Elvish, Thieves' Cant, Dwarvish + +Tallow is not a combatant. If violence breaks out, he ducks under his booth, clutches his bag of holding, and waits it out. He has a dagger he's never used and a **Potion of Invisibility** he's saving for when things go truly sideways. + +--- + +## Appearance + +Thin, mid-thirties, half-elf with prematurely grey temples. Sharp features, sharper eyes. Wears a long coat with too many pockets — each pocket contains something potentially useful, definitely illegal, and priced to move. His fingers are stained with ink from a ledger he keeps in his head. + +He smiles easily but the smile never reaches his eyes. When he laughs, count your fingers afterward. + +## Read-Aloud: Approaching Tallow's Booth + +> *V rohovém výklenku sedí muž, který vypadá, jako by tu byl pohodlněji než kdokoliv jiný — a zároveň připravený kdykoliv zmizet. Půlelf s ostrými rysy a šedými proužky ve vlasech, oblečený v dlouhém kabátě s neuvěřitelným množstvím kapes. Na stole před ním stojí nedopitá sklenka a nic jiného — žádné papíry, žádné zboží, žádný důkaz o čemkoliv. Pod stolem, mezi jeho nohama, leží nenápadný kožený vak.* +> +> *Zvedne oči. Změří vás s tou rychlou, profesionální kalkulací kupce, který oceňuje zboží dřív, než se mu ho nabídnete. "Přátelé," řekne s úsměvem, který slibuje přesně tolik, kolik si zaplatíte. "Hledáte něco konkrétního, nebo se jen díváte?"* + +## Personality + +Tallow is a survivor. He has no ideology, no loyalty, and no principles beyond one: protect the business. He's been the middle man between the Guild of Knives and the Lambent Order for years, supplying both sides with what they need and profiting from the tension between them. The barkeep's death terrifies him — not because he cared about Orenn, but because Orenn's neutral ground was the ecosystem that kept his business alive. + +**Key traits:** +- Never gives information for free. Always wants something in return — not always gold; sometimes a favor, sometimes a secret, sometimes just the satisfaction of creating a debt. +- Genuinely frightened tonight. His survival depends on the power balance, and a murder in neutral ground means the balance is shattered. +- Knows a little about everything and a lot about nothing — except supply chains and leverage. +- Will redirect players toward other NPCs when it suits him, framing it as help. + +## What He Knows + +**Will trade for cheap (a few coins, a minor favor, or interesting gossip):** +- The brawl was about territory — the assassins think the cultists are taking contracts +- Vetch is desperate for a fix and will do almost anything for one +- Bren has been here for months and is getting worse +- The Lambent Order claims to be scholars. Nobody believes them. + +**Will trade for moderate value (20+ gp, a promise of protection, or damaging information about a rival):** +- He sold the cultists **binding components** last month — "three pints of lethe-marrow, a coil of silver wire inscribed with something I couldn't read, and a jar of rendered tallow. Fat. Not... not me." The order came through dead drop, unsigned, but he knows it was Haddon. +- The assassins have a mole problem — someone inside is selling kills to outside buyers. Sevra is quietly investigating. +- Orenn was more than a barkeep. "You don't run a place like this for fifteen years on charm alone. That man had a history that would make your hair go white." + +**Will trade only for something he truly needs (guaranteed safe passage out, elimination of a threat, or the Fiendbane Manacles sold back to him at cost so he can leverage them later):** +- He suspects the murder is fiendish in nature. "The way he died — no blood, no wound, just that brand? I've moved product for people who deal with things from the other side. That's not a spell anyone in this room can cast." +- He knows the cultists' binding components were for **summoning a fiend**. He didn't ask questions at the time. He's asking them now. +- He's seen Mother Vyre's handwriting. If players find the letter under his table and show it to him, he'll confirm it matches — and then he'll want it back, because proof that he was in contact with the cult's leader is a death sentence from both factions. + +## Inventory & Prices + +Tallow's lockdown pricing. He knows demand is high and supply is him. + +### Cheap (5–15 gp) + +| Item | Price | Description | +|------|-------|-------------| +| **Whisper Chalk** | 5 gp | Write a message on a surface, visible only to the next person who touches it. Single use. | +| **Gutflask** | 5 gp | Heals 1d6+1 HP. Tastes like hot sewage. Technically a healing potion. | +| **Lockworm** | 10 gp | Enchanted wire that eats through one lock over 1 minute. Dissolves after. | +| **Bottled Silence** | 10 gp | Crack it — 10-foot radius of Silence for 1 round. Good for a private word or interrupting a spell. | +| **Lie Ash** | 15 gp | Blow at someone mid-conversation. Their next lie makes them sneeze. Once per target. | + +### Mid-Range (25–50 gp) + +| Item | Price | Description | +|------|-------|-------------| +| **Healer's Clutch** | 25 gp | Proper healing potion, 2d4+2 HP. He has two. | +| **Veil Dust** (1 dose) | 30 gp | The ethereal drug. 1-minute glimpse into the Ethereal Plane. Trippy and addictive. He has 3 doses. See [Ethereal Trip](../storylines/ethereal-trip.md). | +| **Dead Letter** | 35 gp | Write a name and message. The letter vanishes and reappears in front of the named person within 1 mile. | +| **Shadowlace Cloak** | 40 gp | Advantage on Stealth for 1 hour, then unravels. Single use. | +| **Tongue of Silver** | 50 gp | Dissolves on tongue. Advantage on CHA checks for 10 minutes. Disadvantage for 1 hour after. | + +### Premium (100–200 gp) + +| Item | Price | Description | +|------|-------|-------------| +| **Spite Dagger** | 120 gp | +1 dagger. Extra 1d6 necrotic when hitting a creature that has damaged you this combat. | +| **Bag of Holding** | 150 gp | Standard. Slightly worn. "Previous owner didn't need it anymore." | +| **Fiendbane Manacles** | 200 gp | Iron shackles with binding sigils. Restrain a fiend as Planar Binding for 1 hour. Forces fiend fully onto the Material Plane while restrained. | + +### Not For Sale (But Could Be Stolen or Coerced) + +- **Potion of Invisibility** — his personal escape plan +- **His ledger** (kept in his head, but he has a backup cipher key in the lockbox under his booth) — contains enough information to destroy both factions +- **3 extra doses of Veil Dust** — in the lockbox, reserved for his own use or high-value clients + +## Role in the Session + +Tallow is the **connective tissue**. He bridges every subplot: +- He sold the cultists the summoning components → links to the fiend +- He supplies Veil Dust → links to the ethereal trip and the addict +- He knows about the assassin mole → links to the guild subplot +- He knows Orenn's history → links to Mags and the cellar +- He has the Fiendbane Manacles → links to the endgame + +He will never solve anything himself. He points, nudges, and profits. He's the NPC players will return to multiple times, each time with a little more to trade. + +## Relationships + +- **Orenn:** Business respect. Orenn tolerated Tallow because Tallow kept the peace by keeping everyone equally supplied. Tallow tolerated Orenn because Orenn kept the peace that Tallow's business depended on. +- **Mags:** She scares him. He's careful around her. He will not lie to her face — he'll just omit things. +- **Sevra:** She's a client. Professional relationship. He respects her intelligence. +- **Haddon:** He's a client. He trusts Haddon's money and nothing else. +- **Vetch:** He's a customer. Tallow feels nothing about Vetch's addiction except that it's reliable revenue. diff --git a/npc/vetch.md b/npc/vetch.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dbe441c --- /dev/null +++ b/npc/vetch.md @@ -0,0 +1,99 @@ +# Vetch — The Addict + +*"You don't understand. It's not about the high. It's about seeing. Really seeing. There's a whole world right here, right on top of this one, and nobody knows. Nobody looks. I look. I look every time."* + +--- + +## Stat Block (Abbreviated) + +**Vetch** — Medium humanoid (human), chaotic neutral +**AC** 10 | **HP** 14 (3d8) | **Speed** 30 ft. + +| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | +|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| +| 8 (-1) | 11 (+0) | 10 (+0) | 14 (+2) | 12 (+1) | 9 (-1) | + +**Skills** Arcana +4, Perception +3 (heightened when on Veil Dust — becomes +7) +**Senses** passive Perception 11 +**Languages** Common, Halfling + +Vetch is not a combatant. He will hide, run, or freeze. In absolute desperation, he has a rusty knife (1d4 piercing, no proficiency bonus) he uses to cut food. + +--- + +## Appearance + +Skinny, early thirties, looks older. Hollowed cheeks, dark circles under bloodshot eyes, restless hands that never stop moving — picking at his forearms, drumming on surfaces, fidgeting with his clothes. His clothes were good once: a scholar's coat, now stained and fraying. His fingernails are bitten to the quick. + +His pupils are slightly too large even in normal light — a permanent side effect of chronic Veil Dust use. He occasionally stares at empty air for a beat too long, as if catching an afterimage of something that isn't there. + +## Read-Aloud: Meeting Vetch + +> *U schodů do sklepa sedí na stoličce hubený muž, který vypadá, jako by potřeboval tři věci: jídlo, spánek a něco, co se tu pravděpodobně nepodává. Bledý, s tmavými kruhy pod očima a rukama, které se nedokážou zastavit — škrábe se na předloktí, bubnuje prsty, tahá za cíp svého obnošeného kabátu, který kdysi mohl patřit někomu, kdo chodil na přednášky.* +> +> *Když se na něj podíváte, trhne sebou. Pak se usměje — nervózně, prosebně, jako zatoulaný pes, který doufá, že nepřichází kopanec.* + +## Personality + +Vetch was a clerk at a minor arcane academy — not a mage, just a record-keeper who happened to catalogue documents about planar theory. He wasn't anyone. Then he tried Veil Dust at a party, saw the Ethereal Plane for the first time, and the mundane world was never enough again. + +He's been using for two years. He's burned through his savings, his job, his lodgings, and most of his self-respect. He's not malicious — he's just desperate and single-minded. The dust is the only thing that makes the world bearable, and he'll do almost anything to get it. + +**Key traits:** +- Pathetic but not contemptible — there's still a person in there +- Surprisingly knowledgeable about the Ethereal Plane from direct observation (more than most scholars) +- Eager to please, especially if he thinks you might help him get a fix +- Genuinely believes the Ethereal Plane is beautiful, not just a place to get high +- When on the dust, he becomes calm, articulate, and focused — a glimpse of who he used to be + +## What He Knows + +**Will share for free (desperate for conversation):** +- The assassins and cultists don't like each other. Water is wet. +- Orenn was kind to everyone, even him. This fact upsets him more than the murder itself. +- Tallow has Veil Dust. Tallow always has Veil Dust. Vetch can't afford it. + +**Will share if you help him get Veil Dust (buy him a dose, steal one, or convince Tallow to front him):** +- The Ethereal Plane is more active than usual tonight — he can feel it, like static before a storm. Even without the dust, his chronic use has given him a faint residual sensitivity (DC 15 Perception to notice — Vetch auto-succeeds). +- Bren's "imaginary friend" is real. "I've seen it. On the dust. It's... it sits beside him like a — like a thing made of string. With legs. It's *in* his head." He's never told anyone because who would believe the addict? +- The cellar feels *wrong*. He's been down there trying to find Tallow's stash. "The air gets thin. Like standing on a mountain, except it's a basement." + +**Will share during/after a shared trip:** +- He's seen something else in the Ethereal Plane recently — something bigger and darker than Skein. "It moves like smoke but it has *intent*. And teeth. Definitely teeth." He didn't realize it was a fiend. He thought it was a particularly bad hallucination. +- The thin point in the cellar is *wider* than it was a month ago. "The hole is getting bigger. Or something is pushing it open." +- On his last trip (a week ago), he saw the fiend scratching at the foundation stones from the other side. He didn't know what it was doing. He was too terrified to stay. + +## The Trip + +If players take Veil Dust with Vetch, he's an experienced guide. See [Ethereal Trip](../storylines/ethereal-trip.md) for full mechanics. + +**Vetch as a trip companion:** +- He's calm, almost serene. The jittery wreck becomes a quiet, focused observer. +- He'll point out features of the Ethereal Plane — the way reality looks grey and washed out, how living creatures glow faintly, how sounds are muffled. +- He'll notice things players might miss (he has advantage on Perception checks while on Veil Dust, and the DM can use him to direct attention). +- If they encounter Xarrul or Skein in the Ethereal Plane, Vetch panics. He's seen scary things before but nothing like this. + +## Read-Aloud: Vetch on Veil Dust + +> *Změna je okamžitá a děsivá. Rozechvělý, nervózní muž se zastaví. Jeho ruce se přestanou třást. Oči, předtím rozběhané a neklidné, se zaostří s klidem, který jste u něj neviděli. Narovná se. Nadechne se pomalu, hluboce, jako by dýchal poprvé za celé roky.* +> +> *"Tak," řekne tichým, klidným hlasem, který zní jako někdo úplně jiný. "Teď vidíte, co vidím já."* + +## What He Wants + +1. **Veil Dust.** Primarily, urgently, above all else. +2. **To not be alone.** He wants someone to see what he sees and confirm he's not crazy. +3. **Deep down:** To stop. He knows the dust is killing him. He doesn't say it, but if a player asks directly and sincerely, he'll admit it. "I know what it's doing to me. I just... the real world is so *flat*." + +## After the Session (If Players Help Him) + +- If players only give him dust: He trips, helps them, and goes back to being an addict. Nothing changes. +- If players help him trip AND show him what's really happening (the fiend, the possession, the murder): The experience shocks him. For the first time, the Ethereal Plane isn't beautiful — it's terrifying. It might be the push he needs to quit. +- If players refuse him dust entirely: He's useless as an ally but might try to steal from Tallow during the session's chaos, potentially causing a scene. + +## Relationships + +- **Tallow:** Dealer. Vetch hates and needs him in equal measure. Tallow charges full price, always. +- **Bren:** Vetch avoids Bren. He knows what's attached to Bren and it scares him. There's also a horrible recognition — they're both prisoners of something. +- **Orenn:** Was kind. Always gave Vetch water and bread. Vetch is quietly gutted about the murder but can't process it through the need. +- **Mags:** Mags is indifferent to Vetch. She doesn't have the bandwidth to care about his addiction tonight. diff --git a/npc/xarrul.md b/npc/xarrul.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..defc799 --- /dev/null +++ b/npc/xarrul.md @@ -0,0 +1,152 @@ +# Xarrul — The Unbound Fiend + +*It does not speak. It does not need to. When it wants something known, you know it — a pressure in the skull, a taste of copper, a certainty that something behind you is smiling.* + +--- + +## Overview + +Xarrul is an ancient, cunning fiend — not a brute, not a conqueror. A manipulator. A patient, vindictive intelligence that has survived for centuries by being smarter than the things that summoned it. It was bound by the Lambent Order, sent to assassinate Sevra, intercepted by the Guild of Knives, and accidentally freed when the assassins broke its bindings without replacing them. + +Now Xarrul is loose in the Ethereal Plane, anchored to the thin point beneath the Burnt Tongue, and enjoying itself for the first time in a very long while. The cultists tried to use it. The assassins tried to weaponize it. Xarrul decided: *why not both?* Kill the barkeep in a way that frames both factions, then watch them destroy each other from the comfort of the space between worlds. + +It is intelligent, patient, and cruel. It doesn't want to escape — not yet. It wants to watch the fire it lit. + +## Stat Block + +**Xarrul** — Medium fiend, chaotic evil +**AC** 15 (natural armor) | **HP** 78 (12d8+24) | **Speed** 30 ft., fly 30 ft. (hover) + +| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | +|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| +| 12 (+1) | 17 (+3) | 14 (+2) | 17 (+3) | 14 (+2) | 18 (+4) | + +**Saving Throws** DEX +6, CHA +7, WIS +5 +**Skills** Stealth +9, Deception +7, Perception +5, Insight +5 +**Damage Resistances** cold, fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks +**Damage Immunities** poison +**Condition Immunities** poisoned, exhaustion +**Senses** darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 15 +**Languages** Abyssal, Common, Infernal; telepathy 60 ft. +**Challenge** 5 (1,800 XP) + +### Traits + +**Ethereal Jaunt.** As a bonus action, Xarrul shifts between the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane. While ethereal, it can see and hear into the Material Plane (60 ft. range) but cannot affect or be affected by anything on the Material Plane. It appears as a faint, smoky distortion visible only to creatures with truesight, See Invisibility, or Veil Dust. + +**Shadow Cloak.** In dim light or darkness, Xarrul has advantage on Stealth checks and can Hide as a bonus action. + +**Voice Thief.** Xarrul can perfectly mimic any voice it has heard within the last 24 hours. It can also project whispers telepathically to a single creature within 30 feet — the target hears the voice inside their head and must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or believe it came from a direction and source of Xarrul's choosing. + +**Cunning Predator.** Xarrul has advantage on attack rolls against creatures that are frightened, charmed, or surprised. + +### Actions + +**Multiattack.** Xarrul makes two Claw attacks. + +**Claw.** Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) necrotic damage. + +**Brand of Spite (Recharge 5–6).** Melee Spell Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 7 (2d6) necrotic damage, and the target is *branded*. While branded: +- Xarrul always knows the target's exact location regardless of plane. +- Xarrul has advantage on attack rolls against the branded creature. +- Xarrul's Claw attacks deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage against the branded creature. +- The brand is visible as a dark, hand-shaped mark over the target's heart. +- Only one creature can be branded at a time. Branding a new target removes the previous brand. +- The brand lasts until removed by *Remove Curse*, *Greater Restoration*, or the death of Xarrul. + +**Visions of Spite.** *Requires a branded target.* Xarrul forces a branded creature it can see within 30 feet to witness a spiteful vision — a hallucination tailored to the target's deepest fears and shames, channeled through the brand's connection. The target must succeed on a **DC 15 Wisdom saving throw** or take 7 (2d6) psychic damage and be **paralyzed** until the end of its next turn, frozen in the grip of the vision. On a success, the target takes half damage and shakes the vision off. The brand remains on the target regardless. + +**Example visions (pick or improvise based on the target):** +- A fighter sees their sword arm turn to ash, crumbling from the brand outward, while Xarrul's laughter fills the silence where their heartbeat should be. +- A cleric sees their god turn away — not in anger, just indifference. The holy symbol in their hand is cold and heavy and meaningless. +- A rogue sees the room through Xarrul's eyes — every lie they've told tonight replayed at once, every secret exposed, every person they've deceived staring back at them. +- A wizard sees the thin point tear wide open. The Ethereal Plane pours through. Everything they know about planar theory is wrong. The veil was never meant to hold. +- A character who cares about another PC or NPC sees them die — slowly, painfully, and with the certainty that it was the branded character's fault. + +*The paralysis is not physical — the body locks because the mind is elsewhere, trapped in a moment of fabricated despair. To onlookers, the branded PC goes rigid, eyes wide, mouth open in a silent scream. The brand over their heart flares dark.* + +*DM note — the kill chain:* Brand (round 1: 2d6 necrotic + mark) → Visions of Spite (round 2: 2d6 psychic + paralyze on failed WIS save) → Multiattack (round 3: auto-crits within 5 ft. against paralyzed target, with advantage from the brand). The nightmare: two crit Claws with the brand's extra d6 — roughly 4d6+3 slashing + 4d6 necrotic per claw, ~62 damage total. Kills most level 4 PCs. + +*But it takes three full rounds to build.* Players have two rounds to: Remove Curse the brand (kills the whole chain), focus fire Xarrul, break the paralysis (Lesser Restoration, lay on hands), reposition the branded PC out of melee, or force Xarrul off-plane. A party that lets all three stages land earned that pain. A party that disrupts any link breaks the combo. + +*The loop:* After the Multiattack crit round, the paralysis ends (end of target's next turn). The brand is still active. Xarrul can Visions of Spite again next round to restart the cycle — Brand → Visions → Multiattack → Visions → Multiattack — until the brand is removed or Xarrul is killed. This makes Remove Curse the strategic priority, not just a nice-to-have. + +*Xarrul's round-to-round choice:* Visions costs an action (no Multiattack that round). So each round Xarrul decides — Visions to set up the paralyze, or Multiattack with advantage + extra d6 for consistent pressure. Against a high-WIS party, Xarrul grinds with Multiattack. Against a low-WIS branded target, the kill chain is terrifying. + +*This is how Orenn died. Xarrul branded him from the Ethereal Plane, forced a vision of spite into his mind — freezing him in place — then raked him with claws that struck a body incapable of flinching. Against an unsuspecting, unresisting barkeep with no allies to intervene, the full chain collapsed into seconds. In combat, with allies and agency, it's telegraphed and interruptible.* + +**Whisper of Ruin (Recharge 6).** Xarrul targets one creature within 30 feet that can hear it. The target must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute and compelled to take a specific action on its next turn (attack a specific ally, drop a weapon, flee toward a designated area). The target can repeat the save at the end of each turn. On a success, the creature is immune for 24 hours. + +### Reactions + +**Slip Between.** When Xarrul takes damage on the Material Plane, it can use its reaction to shift to the Ethereal Plane. It can't use Ethereal Jaunt again until the start of its next turn. + +### Lair Actions (In the Cellar, Near the Thin Point) + +If confronted near the thin point, Xarrul can use one lair action per round on initiative count 20: +- **Veil Flicker:** The boundary between planes shudders. Each creature in the cellar must make a DC 13 Wisdom save or be disoriented — disadvantage on attack rolls until initiative 20 of the next round. +- **Ethereal Pull:** One creature must make a DC 14 Charisma save or be partially shifted into the Ethereal Plane until the start of its next turn (it can see both planes but has disadvantage on all attacks and saves). +- **Shadow Surge:** All light sources in the cellar dim to darkness for 1 round. Xarrul can Hide as part of this action. + +--- + +## Appearance + +### Material Plane +Xarrul rarely manifests fully. When it does: a tall, lean humanoid shape made of dark smoke and deeper shadow. No features except two points of amber light where eyes should be — dim, patient, amused. Its hands end in long, curved claws that look less like weapons and more like surgical instruments. When it moves, it doesn't walk — it *shifts*, as if the space between where it was and where it is simply ceased to exist. + +### Ethereal Plane +More defined. A gaunt, angular figure with skin like charred paper, cracked with veins of dull orange light. Its face has features here — sharp, aristocratic, with a mouth that curves in a permanent half-smile. Its eyes are fully visible: burning amber, ancient, deeply intelligent. It wears the rags of something that might have been formal clothing centuries ago. + +## Read-Aloud: First Sighting (Ethereal Plane, via Veil Dust) + +> *Vidíte to. V šedém, rozmazaném světě éterické roviny — kde všechno vypadá jako vybledlá fotografie skutečnosti — stojí něco, co tam nepatří. Vysoká postava, vychrtlá, s kůží jako spálený papír popraskanou žilkami tlumeného oranžového světla. Má tvář — ostrou, aristokratickou, s ústy staženými do polovičního úsměvu, který nevyjadřuje radost. Vyjadřuje trpělivost.* +> +> *Dívá se na vás. Vědělo, že se díváte, dřív než vy.* +> +> *Nakloní hlavu. Jantarové oči hoří jasněji. A ve vaší hlavě — ne ve vašich uších, ve vaší hlavě — uslyšíte něco, co není hlas. Je to pocit. Pobavení. Jako by to bylo to nejvtipnější, co dnes vidělo.* + +## Tactics + +### Before Discovery +Xarrul stays in the Ethereal Plane, watches, and stirs trouble: +- Uses Voice Thief to whisper incriminating things in NPCs' ears ("I saw Haddon near the bar" whispered in Kael's voice to Sevra) +- Occasionally manifests a claw or shadow near the thin point to keep Skein (and therefore Bren) agitated +- If players get too close to the truth too fast, Xarrul creates a distraction — a fight between factions, a strange noise, a candle blown out + +### When Confronted +- **First priority:** Not getting trapped. It will use Slip Between and Ethereal Jaunt aggressively to avoid being pinned on one plane. +- **Second priority:** Turn the room against the players. Whisper of Ruin on the strongest melee character, Voice Thief to make allies distrust each other, telepathic taunts. +- **Third priority:** Mark and pressure the biggest threat. Brand the most dangerous PC (casters who can affect it across planes, anyone with Fiendbane Manacles), then loop: Visions of Spite to paralyze, Multiattack for crits, Visions again. Against a high-WIS party, skip Visions and grind with advantage Multiattacks. Against a low-WIS branded target, run the kill chain mercilessly. If they have Remove Curse, brand a different target each time it's cleansed to burn their spell slots. +- **It will NOT fight to the death.** If reduced to half HP or lower and restrained on the Material Plane, it negotiates — it's ancient and has information, names, and secrets it can trade. + +### The Dual-Plane Kill +See [The Reckoning](../storylines/the-reckoning.md). If players attempt the synchronized kill, Xarrul fights desperately on both planes. On the Ethereal Plane, it's more aggressive (this is its home ground). On the Material Plane, it tries to flee. Both halves must die within 1 round of each other for the cure to work. + +## Motivation + +Xarrul is not mindless evil. It's *petty* evil with cosmic patience. It was bound and enslaved for an errand (kill an assassin — beneath its dignity) by mortals who didn't understand what they were holding. The assassins, equally ignorant, broke its chains but gave it no respect. The barkeep? The barkeep's death was a *statement*: I am free, I am here, and the thing you all trusted most is gone because of what you all did. + +It killed Orenn because: +1. Orenn was the symbol of neutrality and order — destroying that destroys the social fabric +2. The Brand of Spite leaves evidence pointing at fiendish involvement, which the cultists would be blamed for +3. But the murder happened during a brawl the *assassins* started, so the timing implicates them +4. Maximum chaos. Both sides blame each other. Xarrul watches. + +It has no interest in The Opening. It doesn't care about Mother Vyre's grand design. It's not part of a larger plan. It's a loose thread that might unravel everything, or might simply drift away after tonight if no one confronts it. + +## What Xarrul Knows (If It Negotiates) + +- Everything about the summoning — who ordered it, how it was done, what components were used +- Mother Vyre's real name and location (leverage against the cult) +- Dace's treachery (it watched from the Ethereal Plane) +- The nature of Skein (it recognizes the parasite — "a lesser thing, feeding on scraps") +- That the thin point is growing and the wards are failing — not because of The Opening, but because thin points naturally fluctuate and this one is at a peak +- The exact method of its own destruction (the dual-plane kill) — it will NOT share this willingly, but it might slip in arrogance: "You cannot kill me. Not truly. Not unless you could be in two worlds at once." + +## Items + +Xarrul carries nothing. It needs nothing. If destroyed, it leaves behind: +- A pile of dark ash that smells of copper and old fire +- A **shard of amber crystal** — warm to the touch, faintly glowing. This is a fragment of the binding that held it. It can be used as a material component for *Magic Circle* or *Planar Binding*, adding +2 to the DC of the contained creature's saves to escape. Worth 250 gp to the right buyer. +- The **Brand of Spite dissipates** from Orenn's body. Mags will notice this. She won't say thank you. But she'll nod. And that's enough. diff --git a/overview.md b/overview.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..04ec6bc --- /dev/null +++ b/overview.md @@ -0,0 +1,114 @@ +# U Spaleného Jazyka + +### A D&D 5e Oneshot — Level 4 + +--- + +## Module Overview + +| | | +|---|---| +| **Players** | 3–5 | +| **Level** | 4 | +| **Duration** | 4–6 hours | +| **Tone** | Dark, morally grey, socially driven | +| **Genre** | Murder mystery / social intrigue | + +## Premise + +The party finds themselves in **U Spáleného Jazyka** (The Burnt Tongue) — one of the city's most notorious establishments, neutral ground for the worst the underworld has to offer. The barkeep, **Orenn**, enforces a single rule: *no killing*. Tonight, that rule shatters. + +A brawl erupts between two rival factions — the **Guild of Knives** (professional assassins) and the **Lambent Order** (a cult masquerading as a scholarly mage guild). When the chaos subsides, Orenn lies dead behind his bar. **Mags**, his partner and the most dangerous person in the room, locks the doors. No one leaves until the killer is found. + +The murder is a frame job by **Xarrul**, an ancient fiend the cultists summoned and the assassins accidentally unbound. But solving the murder is only one thread. Every patron in this tavern has a story, and the players can pull on any of them. + +## Themes + +- **Trust & Deception** — Everyone is lying about something. The truth is available but never comfortable. +- **Moral Compromise** — No clean choices. Every solution costs something. +- **The Cost of Power** — Every faction has paid a price. Players will be asked to pay theirs. +- **Ambiguity** — The right thing to do is never fully clear. + +--- + +## Session Structure + +### Act 1: The Tavern (15–20 min) + +Players arrive, meet Orenn, soak in the atmosphere. Introduce the patrons organically — the cultists in their corner arguing over texts, the assassins drinking with cold discipline, Bren muttering in the corner, Vetch scratching at his arms. Let players choose who to approach first. + +**Goal:** Establish the feel. This is a dangerous place held together by one man's authority. + +### Act 2: The Brawl (10–15 min) + +Tension boils over. An assassin accuses a cultist of poaching contracts. Words become fists. The entire room erupts. This is chaotic but *non-lethal* — Orenn's rules hold even in violence. Players can: +- Jump in on a side +- Try to break it up (DC 16 Persuasion or Athletics) +- Hide and observe +- Use the chaos to steal, snoop, or grab something + +**Goal:** Controlled chaos. Everyone's distracted. The murder happens under this cover. + +### Act 3: The Body (5–10 min) + +The dust settles. Orenn is dead behind the bar. No blood. No wound. Just a black brand burned into his chest from the inside. Mags emerges from the kitchen, sees him, and the room goes cold. She bars the door. Lockdown. + +**Goal:** Tonal shift. The party is over. Now it's a crime scene. + +### Act 4: The Lockdown (90–150 min) + +The core of the session. Open-ended, player-driven. They can: +- Investigate the murder (clues, interrogation) +- Engage with faction subplots (assassin traitor, cultist fractures) +- Help Bren (the possessed madman) +- Take Veil Dust with Vetch (ethereal trip) +- Trade with Tallow for information or items +- Explore the tavern's hidden spaces +- Try to leave (Mags won't allow it; neither will the assassins or cultists, who don't want witnesses escaping) + +**Goal:** Let players breathe and explore. Follow their interests. Subplots feed back into the main mystery naturally. + +### Act 5: The Reckoning (30–60 min) + +Depends entirely on what players uncovered: +- **Fiend confrontation** — if they found Xarrul, a tense combat split across two planes +- **The Choice** — destroying Xarrul in a way that saves Dalla's child but validates the cult's theory +- **Faction war** — if tensions weren't managed, assassins and cultists go for blood, this time for real +- **Quiet ending** — players leave with knowledge but no resolution, the fiend still out there + +**Goal:** Payoff for whatever threads the players pulled hardest on. + +--- + +## DM Quick Reference — NPCs + +| NPC | Role | Location | Key Trait | +|-----|------|----------|-----------| +| **Orenn** | Barkeep (dead) | Behind bar | Calm authority, Charon-like | +| **Mags** | Orenn's partner | Kitchen → main hall | Grieving rage, retired cleaner | +| **Tallow** | Fence / broker | Corner booth | Calculated, trades info for favors | +| **Bren** | Possessed madman | Corner, floor | Lucid flashes, controlled by Skein | +| **Vetch** | Drug addict | Near Tallow | Desperate, gateway to ethereal plane | +| **Sevra** | Assassin leader (here) | Assassin table | Cold, professional, holding guild together | +| **Dace** | Assassin (traitor) | Among assassins | Charming, likeable — secretly corrupted | +| **Kael** | Assassin (hothead) | Among assassins | Wants war with cultists | +| **Haddon** | Cultist scholar | Cultist table | Composed facade, taking notes on everything | +| **Dalla** | Cultist (desperate parent) | Cultist table | Will break ranks for her child | +| **Rennt** | Cultist (true believer) | Cultist table | Passionate, dangerous idealism | +| **Essek** | Cultist (doubter) | Edge of cultist group | Quiet, afraid of his own people | +| **Xarrul** | The fiend | Ethereal Plane | Cunning, vindictive, framing both sides | + +## DM Quick Reference — Subplots + +| Subplot | Entry Point | Connects To | +|---------|-------------|-------------| +| Murder mystery | Orenn's body, clues | Everything | +| Assassin traitor | Sevra's suspicion, Kael's anger | Murder (framing), Tallow | +| The Opening | Cultist fractures, Dalla's desperation | Murder (fiend origin), Reckoning | +| Possession | Bren's ravings, Skein | Murder (witness), Ethereal | +| Ethereal trip | Vetch, Veil Dust, Tallow | Murder (see fiend), Possession (see Skein) | +| Dalla's child | Dalla, Haddon's notes | The Reckoning (the choice) | + +## Starting Gold + +Split **200 gp** among the party however they choose. This is their total budget for Tallow's lockdown-priced goods. Suggested: 50 gp per player in a 4-player party, adjusted as needed. diff --git a/storylines/ethereal-trip.md b/storylines/ethereal-trip.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..28c106a --- /dev/null +++ b/storylines/ethereal-trip.md @@ -0,0 +1,141 @@ +# The Ethereal Trip — Veil Dust Subplot + +## Overview + +**Veil Dust** is a narcotic that temporarily thins the user's perception of planar boundaries, allowing them to see — and partially interact with — the Ethereal Plane. It's trippy, disorienting, beautiful, terrifying, and addictive. In this oneshot, it serves as the bridge between subplots: the drug that reveals the murder's true nature, Skein's existence, and the thin point's danger. + +Vetch is the entry point. He wants a fix. Players can help him get one, and if they do, he offers to share. Taking the trip is optional but opens doors that nothing else does. + +--- + +## Obtaining Veil Dust + +| Source | Method | Notes | +|--------|--------|-------| +| **Tallow** | Buy for 30 gp/dose (3 available) | Straightforward. He has 3 more in his lockbox if these sell out. | +| **Tallow's lockbox** | DC 18 Sleight of Hand or Thieves' Tools while he's distracted | 3 extra doses + other valuables | +| **Kitchen herb rack** | DC 14 Nature/Herbalism Kit | Identifies dried nightwhisper (a Veil Dust component), but not a usable dose — would need Tallow's alchemical skill to prepare | +| **Vetch** | He has nothing. He's broke. That's the problem. | If given a dose, he'll share his second dose with a player who asks. He always takes two. | + +--- + +## Taking Veil Dust — Mechanics + +### Onset +Immediate. The dust is inhaled. Effects begin within 6 seconds (1 round). + +### Initial Save +**DC 13 Constitution saving throw.** +- **Failure:** Incapacitated for 1 round as the perception shift overwhelms the user. Vivid, uncontrolled visions — the DM describes what the Ethereal Plane looks like before the user can act. +- **Success:** The transition is smooth. The user sees both planes overlaid on each other and can act normally. + +### Duration +- **Standard:** 1 minute (10 rounds). Enough for observation, not exploration. +- **At the thin point (cellar):** 10 minutes. The natural weakness in the boundary amplifies the effect. +- **Double dose:** 10 minutes regardless of location, but requires a DC 15 CON save or suffer 1 level of exhaustion when it ends. + +### Effects While Active + +**Ethereal Sight.** The user can see into the Ethereal Plane as if under *See Invisibility*, but specifically for ethereal entities and objects. The Material Plane appears washed out and grey; the Ethereal Plane overlays it in faint, translucent detail. + +**Ethereal Interaction.** The user can touch, speak to, and be touched by ethereal entities. This is *not* full planar travel — the user is still physically on the Material Plane. But their sensory and tactile connection crosses the boundary. In mechanical terms: +- Can target ethereal creatures with attacks and spells +- Can be targeted by ethereal creatures +- Cannot move through solid objects or fly (still physically present) + +**Perception Enhancement.** Advantage on Perception checks while the dust is active. The user notices things at the boundary: cracks in wards, planar residue, ethereal trails. + +**Hallucination Risk.** Each round while the dust is active, roll a DC 12 Wisdom save. On a failure, the user experiences a **hallucination** (see table below). Hallucinations are brief (1 round) and don't incapacitate, but they're disorienting and might influence the user's actions. + +### Comedown +When the effect ends: +- **WIS save DC 14:** On failure, the user feels the pull of addiction — a deep, aching desire to see the Ethereal Plane again. For the rest of the session, they have disadvantage on Wisdom saves against taking another dose if offered. +- **Side effect:** Disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws for 1 hour after the trip ends (the boundary in the user's mind is still thin). +- **Vetch's warning:** "The flat world comes back. It always does. And every time it's harder to live in." + +--- + +## The Trip — What Players See + +### In the Main Hall + +The main hall overlaid with its ethereal echo. Everything is grey, translucent, *thin*. Living creatures glow faintly — warm colors for strong life force, dim for weak. The candle flames appear as pale blue phantoms. The stone walls are semi-transparent, and behind them: nothing. The grey void of the deep Ethereal, stretching into infinity. + +**Specific observations:** +- **Bren** glows dimly — his life force is being drained. Beside him, **Skein** is clearly visible: a knotted spider-thing with tendrils in his skull. It reacts to being seen — it *notices* that it's being noticed and shrinks back, pulling its tendrils tighter. +- **The bar (where Orenn died):** A dark, acrid stain on the ethereal side. The Brand of Spite left a residue — a scorch mark that exists on both planes. It smells of copper and old fire. +- **The fireplace bell:** Glows faintly with old enchantment. The wards it's connected to are visible as thin lines of light running down through the floor — most of them flickering, cracked, barely holding. +- **Tallow's booth:** Nothing unusual. Tallow is clean — just a man and his stuff. +- **The cultist table:** Dalla glows dim (blood sacrifice has weakened her life force). Essek's wrist brand glows amber — it's ethereal in nature, visible on both planes. Haddon has a faint aura of arcane residue. + +### In the Cellar + +The cellar is transformed. The stone walls glow with the ghost-light of old wards — thin, silvery lines that once formed a complete barrier. Most of them are cracked, dark, bleeding shadow instead of light. The ward-sigils appear as *wounds* in the ethereal fabric. + +**The thin point** is visible as a **tear** — not metaphorical, a literal rip in the grey fabric of the Ethereal Plane. The Material Plane shows through it in muted color. Standing near it feels like standing at the edge of a cliff. + +**Xarrul's nest:** Shadows coiled in a corner of the ethereal cellar. Claw marks on the ethereal stone. The faint, acrid smell of the Brand of Spite. If Xarrul is present, it's visible: a gaunt, angular figure with charred-paper skin and burning amber eyes. It sees the users immediately. It *smiles*. + +**Orenn's binding circle:** Blazes with silver light in the Ethereal Plane. It's intact and potent — a beacon of old, careful craftsmanship. Anything bound within it on the Material Plane is also constrained on the Ethereal Plane. Xarrul avoids it. + +--- + +## Hallucination Table + +Roll d8 each round on a failed WIS save: + +| d8 | Hallucination | +|----|---------------| +| 1 | **Echoes of the Dead.** You see a translucent figure that might be Orenn, standing behind the bar, polishing a glass. He looks at you, opens his mouth, and says nothing. He's gone when you blink. | +| 2 | **The Walls Breathe.** The stone walls pulse slowly, like a sleeping creature's ribcage. You feel the building's age — centuries of secrets soaked into the stone. | +| 3 | **Thread Everywhere.** For a moment, everyone in the room is connected by thin, knotted threads — like Skein's tendrils, but linking every person to every other. The threads vibrate with tension. Then they're gone. | +| 4 | **The Floor is Glass.** The floor becomes transparent. Beneath it, the cellar — and beneath the cellar, the deep Ethereal, grey and infinite. You feel vertigo even though you're standing on solid ground. | +| 5 | **Wrong Reflection.** If near any reflective surface (a glass, a puddle, a blade), your reflection doesn't match. It moves a beat behind you. It looks scared. | +| 6 | **Orenn's Voice.** You hear Orenn's voice, calm and clear: "Check the cellar. The walls are down." When you turn, no one is there. (This may or may not be a hallucination. The DM decides.) | +| 7 | **Something Watched.** The certainty that something very large, very old, and very patient just looked at you. Not Xarrul — something beyond even the fiend. A pressure on the back of your skull. Then it's gone. (This is flavor. It's the deep Ethereal. It's nothing. Probably.) | +| 8 | **Beautiful.** For one round, the Ethereal Plane is breathtaking. The void isn't empty — it's full of light, faint and distant, like stars seen from underwater. You understand, for a moment, why Vetch can't stop coming back. | + +--- + +## The Shared Trip — Dramatic Beats + +If players trip with Vetch, the following beats play out: + +### Beat 1: The Wonder +Vetch guides them through the initial perception shift. He's calm, experienced, almost gentle. "Don't fight it. Let it settle. There — see? The world has another layer." This is the only time Vetch is the most competent person in the room. + +### Beat 2: The Discovery +Players see Skein attached to Bren. If they didn't know about the possession, this is the reveal. If they did, they can now see the full extent of it — the tendrils, the way Skein pulses as it feeds, the way Bren's life force dims where the threads connect. + +### Beat 3: The Trail +Near the bar, the ethereal residue of the Brand of Spite leads downward. A trail of dark, acrid energy, like smoke frozen in air. It leads to the cellar stairs. The murder left a scar on both planes. + +### Beat 4: The Threat +If players follow the trail to the cellar, they see the thin point and (if Xarrul is there) the fiend. This is the moment the murder mystery becomes something else entirely. Xarrul is aware of them. It doesn't attack immediately — it watches, amused. Voice Thief activates: a whisper in someone's head. "You see me. How interesting. Do your friends know what you've found?" + +### Beat 5: The Comedown +The dust wears off. The Ethereal Plane fades. The grey, translucent world collapses back into the flat, mundane tavern. It feels like going deaf after hearing music. Vetch shudders. "Every time," he mutters. "Every time it's worse." + +--- + +## Read-Aloud: The Trip Begins + +> *Prášek chutná jako mrazivý vzduch a měď. Vdechnete ho a na okamžik — jeden krátký, tichý okamžik — se nic nestane.* +> +> *Pak se svět rozpůlí.* +> +> *Ne rozpadne. Rozpůlí — jako byste celý život dívali na obraz a teď vám někdo ukázal, že ten obraz je namalovaný na skle a za sklem je další místnost. Všechno, co vidíte, je pořád tady — stoly, židle, tváře — ale je to najednou průsvitné, vybledlé, jako vyrudlá fotografie přeložená přes realitu. A za tím — za tím šedým, průsvitným stínem světa, který znáte — je něco jiného. Éterická rovina.* +> +> *Je šedá. Rozlehlá. Nekonečná. A není prázdná.* + +## Read-Aloud: The Comedown + +> *Skončí to bez varování. Svět za sklem zmizí. Šedá hloubka, průsvitné stíny, éterický opar — všechno se stáhne jako odliv a zpátky zůstane jen hospoda. Jen kameny, dřevo, svíčky a tvrdá realita bez druhé vrstvy.* +> +> *Cítíte se, jako byste ohluchli po koncertě. Svět je plochý. Obyčejný. Nedostatečný.* +> +> *Vetch vedle vás tiše zasténá. "Víte," řekne potichu, "jednou jsem četl, že slepí lidé nevidí tmu. Nevidí nic. Nemají čím vidět. Přesně tak se teď cítím. Jako bych neměl čím vidět to, co jsem právě viděl."* +> +> *Odmlčí se. Podívá se na své ruce.* +> +> *"Půjčil byste mi na ještě jednu dávku?"* diff --git a/storylines/guild-of-knives.md b/storylines/guild-of-knives.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c398a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/storylines/guild-of-knives.md @@ -0,0 +1,124 @@ +# The Guild of Knives — Assassin Subplot + +## The Surface Problem: The Merchant Quarter Kill + +A guild contract. A noble named **Lord Harath** was marked for death by a business rival. Standard job — clean kill, made to look like natural causes. Paid half upfront, 500 gp total. + +Before the guild could act, Harath turned up dead. But not cleanly — his body was found in his study with ritual burns on his chest, his heart removed, and symbols carved into the floorboards. The city watch called it "cult activity." The guild's client wants a refund. The guild says the contract was accepted, the fee stands. + +**What actually happened:** Dace sold the contract details to the Lambent Order. The cultists needed a specific type of kill — a death performed at a ley line intersection (Harath's study was on one) with the heart preserved as a binding component. Dace arranged access. The cultists performed the kill. Dace got paid twice. + +This is the surface of the guild's problem. The deeper rot is Dace himself. + +--- + +## The Real Problem: The Traitor + +For six months, Dace has been selling kills to the Lambent Order. The arrangement: + +1. Dace identifies guild contracts where the target's death could serve a dual purpose — the client gets their kill, the cult gets ritual components. +2. Dace passes target details, location, and schedule to Haddon through dead drops and meetings in the tavern's private room. +3. The cultists perform the kill using ritual methods. The body yields what they need. +4. Dace collects payment from both the guild (his cut) and the cult (a separate fee). +5. The guild's reputation suffers because the kills are sloppy and ritualistic — the opposite of the guild's code. + +**Why Dace does it:** Money. That's it. He has no ideological alignment with the cult. He finds their beliefs ridiculous. He simply saw an opportunity for double income and took it. + +**Why it matters:** The guild's code is everything. Clean kills, no suffering, no collateral. Dace's arrangement produces the opposite — bodies carved open, hearts removed, ritual desecration. Every botched kill damages the guild's reputation, which is its only real asset. + +--- + +## Entry Points for Players + +### Through Sevra (Direct) +Sevra suspects a mole but needs proof. If players approach her with professionalism and competence: + +- **DC 14 Persuasion** to get her to discuss the guild's internal problems +- She won't name Dace as a suspect unprompted — she suspects him but moving on a guild member without evidence violates the code and would fracture the group +- She'll describe the pattern: "Three contracts in six months where the kill was done before we acted, or the body showed up... wrong. Missing parts. Ritual marks." +- She'll ask players to investigate quietly — "If it is one of ours, I need proof. Not suspicion. Proof." + +### Through Kael (Emotional) +Kael is the easiest assassin to talk to because he's honest and angry: + +- He'll volunteer his suspicion of Dace without being asked much +- "That smooth bastard was the last one assigned to the Harath job. He said the cultists must have intercepted us. Convenient." +- He can't prove anything. His evidence is gut feeling and coincidence. +- He saw Bren go rigid during the brawl and stare at the bar — this is useful for the murder investigation + +### Through Tallow (Transactional) +Tallow knows Dace has been meeting "a scholar type" in the private room: + +- Won't volunteer this — it's worth money +- **Price:** 20+ gp, or information about the cult that Tallow can leverage +- "Your friendly assassin, the charming one? He's been having private meetings. Regular. With someone who reads too many books." + +### Through the Private Room (Physical Evidence) +The private room contains: +- Ward-sigil diagram scratched into the table (DC 14 Investigation, DC 16 Arcana to understand) +- A dropped cultist pin under the bench (DC 13 Perception) +- Faint traces of ritual chalk on the floor (DC 15 Investigation) — from when Haddon demonstrated binding patterns to Dace + +### Through Dace Himself (Dangerous) +Dace is actively helping the investigation — steering it toward the cultists. A perceptive player might notice: + +- **DC 16 Insight:** His helpfulness is performative. He volunteers theories but never evidence. +- **DC 14 Perception:** When the cultists are mentioned, Dace watches Haddon — not with suspicion, but with the careful attention of someone checking if their business partner is holding up under pressure. +- **DC 14 Investigation of his person** (requires proximity or a reason to search): A second cultist pin in his boot. Why would an assassin have a cult's symbol? + +--- + +## Confrontation: Exposing Dace + +When players have enough evidence to accuse Dace: + +### Presenting Evidence to Sevra +She needs at least **two pieces** of concrete evidence (the pin, Tallow's testimony, the private room meetings, or a confession). With two: + +> Sevra goes still. Not angry-still — *cold*-still. The temperature at the assassin table drops ten degrees. +> +> "Dace," she says. Just the name. Nothing else. +> +> And Dace's smile dies. + +### Dace's Response + +**Stage 1 — Denial** (Deception +8): +"That's absurd. I've been loyal to the guild since I was seventeen. You're going to take the word of [whoever provided evidence] over mine?" + +**Stage 2 — Deflection** (if denial fails): +"Even if I met with them — which I'm not saying I did — it was intelligence gathering. I was trying to find the mole. Working alone because I didn't want to tip anyone off." + +**Stage 3 — Violence** (if cornered): +Dace grabs the nearest vulnerable NPC (Vetch, Bren, or a player who isn't watching him) as a hostage. He has a concealed dagger coated in Essence of Ether (DC 13 CON save or unconscious for 1 minute). He demands safe passage out of the tavern. + +**Resolution options:** +- Let him go — Sevra won't allow it. The guild's justice requires an answer. +- Talk him down — DC 18 Persuasion. Possible if players offer genuine protection from Sevra's justice (but can they really?). +- Fight him — Dace is dangerous one-on-one but outmatched against multiple opponents. At half HP, he surrenders. +- Cleverness — Players might use Whisper Chalk, Tallow's goods, or social manipulation to expose him without a direct confrontation. + +### Aftermath + +**If Dace is exposed and captured:** +- Sevra restrains him. Guild justice will happen after the lockdown ends. It won't be quick. +- The guild withdraws from active hostility toward the cultists — the immediate cause of the brawl is resolved. +- Sevra is in the players' debt. She offers: one favor. "Within reason. Don't ask me to go clean." +- Kael actually *thanks* the players. Awkwardly, sincerely. This might be the first time he's thanked anyone. + +**If Dace escapes:** +- Sevra is furious — at Dace, at herself, at the players for letting him slip. +- The guild remains hostile and unstable. The faction war threat is still live. +- Dace becomes a loose thread for beyond the oneshot. + +--- + +## Connecting to the Main Plot + +The assassin subplot feeds into the murder mystery through: + +1. **The brawl was engineered.** Xarrul whispered to Kael using Voice Thief to push him over the edge. The brawl gave Xarrul cover for the murder. Understanding this connection requires talking to Kael about *exactly* what triggered him ("I heard one of them laughing about it. Clear as day." — but no cultist was actually laughing. It was Xarrul). + +2. **Dace's meetings map the wards.** The diagram in the private room was made during a Dace/Haddon meeting. The cult was mapping the wards — which Xarrul was also breaking. The cult weakened the tavern's defenses on both sides simultaneously: Haddon from the inside (mapping), Xarrul from the Ethereal Plane (scratching). + +3. **The guild intercepted Xarrul.** The fiend was originally sent by the cult to kill Sevra. The guild's people caught it in transit, broke the binding, and thought the problem was solved. They didn't know what they unleashed. Sevra knows about this — she'll share it if the fiendish angle is confirmed and she trusts the players. diff --git a/storylines/lambent-order.md b/storylines/lambent-order.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3af209f --- /dev/null +++ b/storylines/lambent-order.md @@ -0,0 +1,229 @@ +# The Lambent Order — Cultist Subplot + +## The Grand Design: The Opening + +**Mother Vyre's vision:** The planes of existence were once unified — a single, complete reality where the Material, Ethereal, Shadowfell, and Feywild coexisted as one. An ancient catastrophe (or deliberate act) severed them, creating the fractured multiverse. The barriers between planes are not natural — they are scars. Mother Vyre wants to heal those scars by dissolving the barriers entirely. + +She calls this **The Opening**. + +**What she tells recruits:** The world is broken. Incomplete. The suffering, the injustice, the death that doesn't make sense — all symptoms of the separation. Heal the world and everything flows back to balance. + +**What it actually means:** Total dissolution of planar boundaries. The Ethereal bleeds into every street. The Shadowfell's despair soaks into every home. Fiends walk freely. The dead don't stay dead. The beautiful and the terrible coexist without filter. It's not an apocalypse — it's the removal of every wall between heaven, hell, and everything between. + +**The worst part:** She might not be wrong about the history. The planes *might* have been one, once. The separation *might* have been artificial. But "the world was once different" doesn't mean "the world should be that way again." + +--- + +## Phase One: The Fiend Test + +Tonight's events are the result of Phase One — a proof of concept. + +**The plan:** +1. Summon and bind a fiend (Xarrul) using components from Tallow, blood from Dalla, and a name from Mother Vyre's research. +2. Send the bound fiend to assassinate Sevra — eliminate the guild's leadership and demonstrate that planar entities can be controlled as weapons. +3. Retrieve the fiend afterward and study the binding's performance. +4. Use the data to prepare Phase Two. + +**What went wrong:** +1. The guild intercepted Xarrul during transit to Sevra. +2. The assassins broke the binding, thinking it would dismiss the fiend. +3. Xarrul, now unbound, decided to stay. +4. It anchored to the thin point beneath the tavern and began its own game. + +**What the cultists know now:** +- The binding failed. The fiend is loose. +- They *cannot* admit this without revealing they summoned it — which reveals they're a cult, not scholars. +- Haddon is pretending everything is under control. It is not. + +--- + +## Phase Two: The Real Opening (Background) + +Phase Two is beyond the scope of this session, but its existence adds weight: + +- Mother Vyre plans to summon something **far more powerful** than Xarrul at a major thin point — a nexus where multiple planar boundaries converge. +- The summoning requires components that Phase One was meant to test: binding techniques, blood sacrifice potency, and control duration. +- The Burnt Tongue was chosen as a test site because of its natural thin point — the tavern sits on one of the locations Mother Vyre has mapped. +- Haddon's journal contains references to Phase Two. Essek has seen Mother Vyre's private correspondence about it. +- Even if players resolve everything tonight, Phase Two is still in motion somewhere. The Opening hasn't stopped — it's just lost one test site. + +--- + +## The Members: What Each Knows and Believes + +### Haddon — Knows the Most, Believes His Own Lies + +| Topic | What He Knows | What He Tells Himself | +|-------|--------------|----------------------| +| The Opening | It's a real plan with a timeline | "We're exploring a theoretical framework" | +| The summoning | He organized it, chose the target | "A controlled experiment in planar mechanics" | +| Dalla's sacrifice | He watched her bleed monthly | "A voluntary contribution to research" | +| The fiend's escape | The binding failed completely | "A temporary setback. We'll recapture it." | +| Phase Two | He's planning logistics | "Future research directions" | +| Mother Vyre | Regular contact via dreams and dead drops | "A visionary colleague" | + +### Dalla — Knows Her Part, Doesn't Care About the Rest + +| Topic | What She Knows | What She Feels | +|-------|---------------|---------------| +| The Opening | Vague — "the planes will merge and the broken will be healed" | Doesn't care as long as Lístek is fixed | +| Her sacrifice | 8 months of blood draws, her vitality draining | Rage that it was wasted | +| The summoning | She knows a fiend was bound. She provided the blood. | Guilt, buried deep | +| Her daughter | Lístek is frozen at age 3, caught between planes | Desperation beyond measure | +| Haddon | He promised the summoning would help | She's starting to hate him | +| Mother Vyre | The woman who promised to save her child | The only person she hasn't lost faith in — yet | + +### Rennt — Knows the Ideology, Not the Details + +| Topic | What He Knows | What He Believes | +|-------|--------------|-----------------| +| The Opening | "The planes will merge and everything will be equal" | It's revolution — cosmic, beautiful, necessary | +| The summoning | He set up the circle, handled components | "We summoned a tool for the cause" | +| The binding failure | "The assassins broke it" | "Their fault. Their blood." | +| Mother Vyre | The visionary who gave him purpose | She can do no wrong | +| Dalla's sacrifice | Vague — "she gave something for the cause" | Doesn't want to know more | +| Phase Two | Doesn't know details | "Whatever she needs, I'll do it" | + +### Essek — Knows the Most Dangerous Truths + +| Topic | What He Knows | What He Feels | +|-------|---------------|---------------| +| The Opening | It's real, it's planned, it will dissolve ALL boundaries | Terror | +| Mother Vyre's notes | He's read her private correspondence — the merged world isn't paradise, it's annihilation of all barriers including the ones that keep fiends from walking the streets | "I've read what she actually wrote. It's not what they told us." | +| The summoning | Full details — who, how, what went wrong | Guilt by association | +| Dalla's sacrifice | Knows about the blood rituals and Lístek | Pity, horror | +| Phase Two | Knows it exists and is bigger | This is what keeps him up at night | +| His brand | Burns when he considers betrayal. He doesn't know if it can detect thoughts or just intent. | Trapped | + +--- + +## Entry Points for Players + +### Through Haddon (Intellectual) +Haddon loves to talk. His ego is the crack in his armor. + +- Engage him in scholarly discussion about planar theory → he'll lecture at length, slipping real information into "theoretical" frameworks +- Challenge his expertise → he'll overcompensate, revealing more than he should +- Show him the brand on Orenn → he'll diagnose it accurately (fiendish) while deflecting blame +- **Trap:** If players present contradicting evidence calmly and academically, Haddon will try to explain it away. Each explanation requires a Deception check (his +5 vs. player Insight). After three failed deceptions, his composure cracks. + +### Through Dalla (Emotional — But She's Loyal) +Dalla is approachable but she's not a crack in the cult's armor — not yet. She's a believer. Kindness gets her talking about Lístek, but she frames everything within the Order's worldview. + +- Show genuine concern → she talks about Lístek freely, but as proof of why the Order's work matters: "My daughter is caught between planes. The Opening will make her whole." +- Ask about the Order's activities → she's open about the mission (as she understands it): healing the world, restoring the planes to unity +- Question the Order → she pushes back: "You don't know what it's like. To watch your child stare through you at something you can't see. Mother Vyre is the only one who offered help." +- Suggest the summoning was wrong → "We did what we had to. And we'll fix it. Haddon says the binding can be restored." +- **She becomes a different NPC only after learning the truth about The Opening** — see Dalla's Breakdown below + +### Through Rennt (Provocative) +Rennt is proud and passionate. He'll argue the cause with anyone. + +- Debate the ethics of The Opening → he's eloquent about inequality, the broken world, the promise of change +- Insult Mother Vyre → immediate hostility. He'll escalate. +- Ask about the practical work → he'll brag about his role in the summoning without realizing he's confessing +- **Useful:** Rennt is the most likely to accidentally reveal that the cult summoned a fiend, because he doesn't think there's anything wrong with it. + +### Through Essek (Quiet) +Essek is the hardest to reach but the most valuable source. See [Cultists NPC file](../npc/cultists.md) for methods to get him alone. + +- He won't talk with other cultists nearby +- His brand glows when he considers betrayal — observant players (DC 14 Perception) might notice +- If gotten alone: "I joined because I thought we were studying something beautiful. I stayed because I can't leave." +- He's the only one who will tell players about Phase Two unprompted + +--- + +## Internal Dynamics During the Session + +### Before the Murder +- Haddon maintains the facade. Scholarly discussion, academic posture. +- Dalla is distracted, pale, barely engaging. +- Rennt is wound tight, eager for confrontation with the assassins. +- Essek watches everything and says nothing. + +### After the Murder +- **Haddon** immediately constructs an alibi. Too fast. Too smooth. +- **Dalla** barely reacts to the murder. She's thinking about her child. +- **Rennt** is defensive, volatile. He blames the assassins reflexively. +- **Essek** looks at the brand on Orenn's chest and his face goes grey. He *knows* what did this. He won't say. But a DC 14 Insight check catches his recognition. + +### If the Fiend's Involvement Becomes Known +- **Haddon** pivots: "If there is a fiend loose, that's clearly the assassins' doing — they're known to deal with dark forces." (A lie, but a plausible one.) +- **Dalla** is worried but holds the line: "If something escaped a binding, we need to fix it. Haddon, can we rebind it?" She's already thinking about solutions within the cult's framework. +- **Rennt** maintains denial: "The binding was perfect. If the assassins hadn't interfered—" +- **Essek** looks at the players with desperate, silent appeal. + +### If the Cult's Summoning Is Exposed +- **Haddon** attempts damage control: "It was a contained experiment that was sabotaged by the guild." +- **Dalla** is shaken but loyal: "We were trying to protect ourselves. The assassins have been threatening us for months." She's defensive, not broken — the summoning was justified in her mind because the cause is just. +- **Rennt** doubles down: "We did what was necessary. The Opening requires sacrifice." +- **Essek** (if already talking to players): "There's more. Phase Two. Something bigger." +- **Sevra** (assassin leader): Cold fury. "You sent a *fiend* to kill me? And you sit at my table with wine and books?" +- **Mags:** "You brought this into my house. Into *his* house." — This is when Mags stops being a neutral investigator and becomes a very dangerous woman with a very specific target list. + +### Dalla's Breakdown (Requires Learning the True Nature of The Opening) +This is **not** triggered by the summoning being exposed, or the fiend being discovered, or even Dalla being confronted about her sacrifice. Dalla can absorb all of that and stay loyal — she believes in the cause. + +**The trigger:** Dalla learns that The Opening doesn't mean healing. It means fiends in the streets, the dead walking, every planar horror bleeding into the world her daughter lives in. The "wholeness" Mother Vyre promised would make Lístek's condition universal — not cured but *normalized in a world of nightmares*. + +**Sources that can break her:** +- Essek's testimony about Mother Vyre's private writings (the most likely path) +- Haddon's journal, deciphered and explained (requires DC 18 INT to decode + someone to walk Dalla through it) +- A player who has taken Veil Dust and can describe what the Ethereal Plane actually looks like — not beautiful wholeness, but hungry entities, parasites like Skein, and a fiend that murders for amusement +- Witnessing the momentary veil-tear from the dual-plane kill and understanding viscerally what that looks like at scale + +**When it hits:** +> "She told me... she told me it would fix her. That the world would be whole and Lístek would be whole with it." Dalla's voice is flat, empty. "But this... this is what 'whole' means? *This* is what I bled for?" +> +> She looks at her scarred forearms. Then at Haddon. +> +> "You knew. You knew and you let me believe." + +After the breakdown, Dalla turns against the Order completely. She provides full details of the summoning, the cult's operations, and becomes the players' strongest ally in pursuing the dual-plane kill. The cure for Lístek only exists for players who earned this moment. + +--- + +## Resolution Paths + +### The Rebinding (Cultist Solution) +If players never uncover the truth about The Opening — or if they side with the cult — Haddon proposes rebinding Xarrul. Dalla supports this enthusiastically. + +- Requires new binding components from Tallow (he'll sell them, ~50 gp total) +- Requires Dalla's blood (she rolls up her sleeves without hesitation) +- Requires the binding circle in the cellar (DC 16 Arcana to adapt Orenn's circle) +- Haddon leads the ritual, Rennt assists, takes 10 minutes + +**If it succeeds:** Xarrul is bound again. The cult has their weapon back. Dalla's connection stabilizes — Lístek stops getting worse but doesn't improve. The child stays frozen. The cult continues toward Phase Two. Dalla tells herself this is progress. Players leave having "solved" the murder by rebinding the weapon, but they've handed the cult exactly what it wanted. + +**If it fails** (Xarrul breaks free mid-ritual, DC 17 CHA save): Combat. The cellar. Xarrul is furious at being bound twice. This is the worst-case scenario — a fight with no preparation and the cultists caught in the crossfire. + +**This resolution is available even to players who don't dig deep.** It's the easy answer. It solves the immediate problem. It feels like a win. It isn't. + +### The Cult Fractures (Requires Truth) +Only happens if players uncover the real nature of The Opening and share it: +- Dalla breaks (see Dalla's Breakdown above) — this is the key domino +- Essek follows if he feels protected — he's been waiting for someone to give him permission to speak +- Haddon tries to hold the group, but losing Dalla and Essek guts his authority +- Rennt is the last holdout — he doesn't care what The Opening actually means, he believes regardless. May need to be restrained. +- **Result:** The Lambent Order's local cell collapses. Mother Vyre's network survives, but she's lost her people in this area. + +### The Cult Is Exposed to the Assassins +If the assassins learn the cult summoned a fiend to kill Sevra: +- Sevra wants blood. Kael definitely wants blood. +- Players must mediate or a lethal fight breaks out in the tavern. +- **DC 17 Persuasion** (advantage if players can prove the fiend is the real threat) to convince Sevra that killing the cultists now is less important than dealing with the fiend. +- Mags backs the players on this — she wants the fiend dead first. "Kill each other after. Kill the thing that killed him first." +- **Note:** Dalla is on the cultist side of this confrontation unless she's already broken. A loyal Dalla defends the Order. A broken Dalla steps aside — or actively helps the players mediate. + +### Dalla's Choice (Requires Breakdown) +The dual-plane kill as a cure for Lístek is **only available** if Dalla has broken from the Order. A loyal Dalla would never consider destroying the fiend over rebinding it — rebinding serves the cause, destruction doesn't. + +After the breakdown: +- She'll do anything to help. She becomes the players' strongest NPC ally. +- She turns on Haddon without hesitation. +- She provides full details of the summoning, the binding, everything. +- She also provides the most emotionally compelling argument *for* going through with the risky ritual — "My daughter has been frozen for four years. Four *years*. If there's a chance, I don't care what it costs." +- Counterpoint: Essek warns that the ritual validates The Opening's theory. "You save one child and hand Mother Vyre proof that her plan works." + +**This is the reward for deep investigation.** Players who only scratch the surface get the rebinding — functional but hollow. Players who dig deep enough to shatter Dalla's faith earn the real choice: the dual-plane kill, the cure, the moral dilemma. The central tension of the module is gated behind doing the work to find it. diff --git a/storylines/murder-mystery.md b/storylines/murder-mystery.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16d989c --- /dev/null +++ b/storylines/murder-mystery.md @@ -0,0 +1,154 @@ +# The Murder Mystery + +## Timeline of Events + +### Before the Session +- **Weeks ago:** Xarrul, summoned and bound by the Lambent Order, is sent to kill Sevra. The Guild of Knives intercepts the fiend during transit, breaks the binding (not knowing how to rebind it), and the fiend goes free. +- **Weeks ago:** Xarrul, now unbound, anchors itself to the thin point beneath the Burnt Tongue. It begins weakening the ward-sigils from the Ethereal Plane, scratching at them night after night. +- **Days ago:** Orenn notices the wards failing. He increases his checks, purchases holy water and ward supplies, and writes the contingency letter he puts in Mags's apron. +- **Tonight, before the party arrives:** Tension between the factions is at a breaking point. Kael has evidence that the Merchant Quarter kill — a guild contract — was done by someone else with ritual marks. He's ready to confront the cultists. + +### During the Session + +**Act 1 — The Tavern (before brawl)** +- Players arrive, meet Orenn, explore the room +- Faction tension is palpable but contained +- Bren mutters in his corner, Vetch fidgets near the stairs, Tallow watches from his booth + +**Act 2 — The Brawl** +- **Trigger:** Kael confronts Haddon about the Merchant Quarter kill. Haddon deflects. Kael calls him a liar. Rennt stands up. A cultist pushes Kael. Sevra tries to intervene. Someone throws a punch. Chaos. +- **The brawl lasts 3-5 rounds.** No one uses lethal force — the rules hold. It's fists, bottles, furniture. +- **During the brawl:** Xarrul uses the noise and distraction to jaunt partially into the Material Plane behind the bar. It brands Orenn with the Brand of Spite. Orenn dies instantly. Xarrul retreats to the Ethereal Plane. Total exposure: less than 6 seconds. +- **Only witness:** Bren. He saw a shape reach through the air behind the bar. Skein forces him to stay silent. + +**Act 3 — Discovery** +- The brawl ends. Someone looks behind the bar. Orenn is dead. +- Mags emerges, sees the body, and locks the tavern down. +- Both factions immediately blame each other. + +--- + +## The Crime Scene + +### Orenn's Body +- **Position:** On his back behind the bar. He fell backward. +- **Expression:** Surprise. Not fear, not pain. +- **The Brand:** A black mark on his chest, hand-shaped, visible through his shirt. The shirt is not burned — the damage is beneath the skin. +- **No other injuries.** He was not struck, stabbed, or poisoned. +- **Time of death:** During the brawl. Within the last 10 minutes. + +### Examination DCs + +| Check | DC | Result | +|-------|-----|--------| +| Medicine 10 | Easy | He's dead. Cause: massive internal damage to the heart and surrounding tissue. No external wound. | +| Medicine 14 | Medium | The damage radiates *outward* from the heart, as if something ignited inside him. Not natural, not any poison known to the examiner. | +| Arcana 12 | Easy | The brand radiates faint necrotic energy. This is magical damage. | +| Arcana 15 | Medium | Fiendish signature. The necrotic energy pattern is consistent with fiend-origin abilities, not mortal spellcasting. No one at the cultist table could have done this. | +| Arcana 18 | Hard | The brand contains a fragment of a true name — like a fingerprint. With additional research (Orenn's bestiary, Haddon's texts), this can identify the specific type of fiend. | +| Investigation 13 | Medium | No signs of struggle. Nothing knocked over behind the bar. Whatever killed him, he didn't see it coming. | +| Investigation 16 | Hard | Faint scratches on the floor behind the bar — not footprints, but *claw marks*. They appear and disappear, as if something was only partially present. (These are from Xarrul's partial manifestation.) | +| Detect Magic | — | The brand registers as necrotic/fiendish. A faint trail of the same energy leads downward — toward the cellar. It fades after 30 minutes. | +| See Invisibility | — | If cast immediately: a faint, smoky distortion near the cellar stairs, already retreating. Xarrul is leaving the scene. | + +--- + +## Clues — The Ambiguous Trail + +The clues are designed to point at both factions while the truth (the fiend) hides behind both. + +### Clues Pointing at the Cultists +| Clue | Location | DC | What It Suggests | +|------|----------|----|-----------------| +| Fiendish damage signature | Orenn's body | Arcana 15 | The cultists deal with fiends and dark magic | +| Binding circle page | Kicked under table, post-brawl | Arcana 14 | A cultist book about binding fiends — were they summoning something? | +| Planar diagram on cultist table | Cultist table | Investigation 12 | They're mapping planar weaknesses — including the tavern | +| Lethe-marrow sale | Tallow (for a price) | — | Tallow sold them binding components recently | +| Cultist pin in private room | Under bench, private room | Perception 13 | Cultists have been using the tavern for secret meetings | + +### Clues Pointing at the Assassins +| Clue | Location | DC | What It Suggests | +|------|----------|----|-----------------| +| The brawl timing | Witnessed | — | The brawl (started by Kael) provided perfect cover for the murder | +| Assassin code violation | Conversation with Kael | — | If the guild is willing to brawl in neutral ground, are they willing to kill? | +| Dace's helpfulness | Social observation | Insight 16 | Dace is too eager to help — steering investigation toward cultists | +| Contract dispute motive | Both factions | — | The guild has a financial motive — Orenn's neutral ground protects the cultists too | +| Mole evidence | Kael, Tallow | — | Someone in the guild is selling kills — how deep does the corruption go? | + +### Clues Pointing at the Truth (The Fiend) +| Clue | Location | DC | What It Reveals | +|------|----------|----|----------------| +| Claw marks behind bar | Bar floor | Investigation 16 | Something partially manifested here | +| Bren's testimony | Bren (agitated state) | Persuasion/patience | "A hand that wasn't a hand, reaching through the thin place" | +| Cracked ward-sigils | Cellar foundation | Arcana 13–15 | Something has been breaking the wards from the Ethereal Plane | +| Vetch's observations | Vetch (if given dust or befriended) | — | Something dark and hungry in the Ethereal Plane | +| Ethereal trail (timed) | Behind bar → cellar | Detect Magic within 30 min | The killer went *down* — toward the thin point | +| Partial manifestation scratches | Private room table | Investigation 14 + Arcana 16 | Someone mapped the wards to *break* them | +| Orenn's preparations | Storage compartment, bedroom | Investigation 15+ | Orenn was preparing for something fiendish | +| Orenn's letter | Mags's apron | — | "If something happens to me in the bar, it came from between." | + +--- + +## Investigation Flow + +### Early Phase (First 30 minutes) +Players will likely: +- Examine the body → learn it's magical/fiendish damage +- Question both factions → get conflicting accusations +- Talk to eyewitnesses → nobody saw anything (they were brawling) + +**Expected result:** Confusion. Both sides have motive. The evidence is contradictory. + +### Mid Phase (30–60 minutes) +As players dig deeper: +- Bren becomes agitated if questioned about the murder → partial truths emerge +- Tallow offers information for a price → connects the dots between factions +- The cellar and back rooms reveal Orenn's preparations → fiendish angle opens up +- Vetch mentions the Ethereal Plane → alternative explanation emerges + +**Expected result:** The fiend theory starts competing with the faction theories. Players have a choice of which thread to pull. + +### Late Phase (60+ minutes) +If players pursue the fiend angle: +- Ward-sigils in the cellar confirm long-term ethereal interference +- Veil Dust trip reveals Xarrul (and Skein, and the thin point) +- Orenn's letter and bestiary confirm he knew something was coming +- Essek (if gotten alone) reveals the summoning + +**Expected result:** Players understand what happened. Now they have to decide what to do about it. + +--- + +## Red Herrings (Deliberate) + +These are Xarrul's work — the fiend actively planted or encouraged these: + +1. **Xarrul whispered to Kael** (using Voice Thief, mimicking a cultist's voice) that the cultists were laughing about taking guild contracts. This is what pushed Kael over the edge into starting the brawl. The brawl was engineered. + +2. **A cultist component pouch** was left near the bar (Xarrul moved it from the table during the chaos). It contains ritual chalk and dried blood. DC 17 Investigation to realize the pouch was placed deliberately — the blood is old and doesn't match the murder. + +3. **An assassin's dagger** under a barstool near Orenn's body. It fell during the brawl — genuinely accidental, not planted by Xarrul — but its proximity to the body is suspicious. + +--- + +## Resolution Paths + +The murder can resolve in several ways. None of them are clean. + +### Path A: The Fiend Is Found and Destroyed +Players identify Xarrul, confront it, and destroy it (see [The Reckoning](the-reckoning.md)). The Brand of Spite fades from Orenn's body. The truth is known. But: +- The cultists summoned the fiend → they're complicit +- The assassins freed the fiend → they're complicit +- Everyone is guilty. No one is the murderer. + +### Path B: The Fiend Is Found but Escapes +Players discover the truth but Xarrul retreats into the Ethereal Plane and leaves the area. The truth is known but justice is impossible. Mags now has a target — she'll hunt it alone. + +### Path C: The Factions Are Blamed +Players don't find the fiend. One or both factions are blamed for the murder. This leads to violence — the assassins and cultists fight for real. Mags tries to stop it but she's one woman. Several people die. The fiend watches from the Ethereal Plane, satisfied. + +### Path D: Stalemate +No one is conclusively blamed. The lockdown ends at dawn. Everyone leaves with suspicion and unresolved tension. The thin point keeps growing. Mother Vyre's Phase Two continues. Nothing is resolved — but the players *know* things, and knowledge has consequences. + +### Path E: Negotiated Peace +Players reveal enough truth to make both factions realize they've been played by a third party (the fiend). Temporary alliance. Joint confrontation. This is the hardest to achieve and the most satisfying — it requires players to have engaged with both faction subplots deeply enough to broker trust between groups that hate each other. diff --git a/storylines/possession.md b/storylines/possession.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe242e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/storylines/possession.md @@ -0,0 +1,153 @@ +# The Possession — Bren's Subplot + +## Overview + +Bren Aldara was an arcanist. Seven years ago, he studied a thin point between planes — this one, beneath the Burnt Tongue — and something latched on. **Skein**, a parasitic entity from the Ethereal Plane, attached itself to Bren's mind and has been feeding on him ever since. What the tavern patrons see as a madman talking to himself is a prisoner begging his captor for mercy. + +This subplot is about recognizing that what looks like madness is actually captivity, and choosing whether to do anything about it. + +--- + +## Skein — The Parasite + +### Nature +Skein is not a fiend, not undead, not aberrant in the traditional sense. It's a **planar parasite** — a creature native to the border between planes, evolved to feed on minds that cross the boundary. It resembles a translucent spider made of knotted, twisting threads, roughly the size of a large dog, with too many legs that move independently. Thread-like tendrils extend from its body into Bren's skull. + +### Stat Block + +**Skein** — Small monstrosity, neutral evil +*Exists only on the Ethereal Plane unless forced into the Material Plane* + +**AC** 13 (natural) | **HP** 38 (7d6+14) | **Speed** 30 ft., climb 30 ft. + +| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA | +|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| +| 6 (-2) | 16 (+3) | 14 (+2) | 14 (+2) | 16 (+3) | 8 (-1) | + +**Saving Throws** WIS +5, DEX +5 +**Skills** Stealth +7, Perception +5 +**Damage Resistances** psychic; bludgeoning, piercing, slashing from nonmagical attacks +**Condition Immunities** charmed, frightened +**Senses** blindsight 30 ft. (through host), darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15 +**Languages** understands Common and Elvish (through Bren); communicates telepathically with host only + +### Traits + +**Parasitic Bond.** While bonded to a host, Skein can see through the host's eyes, hear through the host's ears, and speak through the host's mouth. It can suppress or override the host's actions (no save — the bond is too old for resistance). Skein always knows the host's location and emotional state. + +**Ethereal Existence.** Skein exists on the Ethereal Plane. It cannot be seen, attacked, or affected by anything on the Material Plane without ethereal sight or effects that cross planar boundaries. + +**Thread Tendrils.** Skein's tendrils extend up to 10 feet into the Material Plane through the host's body. Severing a tendril (AC 13, 5 HP per tendril, must have ethereal sight to target) causes Skein to lose control of the host for 1 round per tendril severed. Skein has 6 tendrils. They regenerate in 1d4 hours. + +**Mind Drain.** Each day Skein remains bonded, the host's Wisdom is reduced by 1 (minimum 1). This reduction can only be restored by Greater Restoration or by permanently killing Skein. Bren's Wisdom has been reduced from 16 to 6 over seven years (it didn't drain every day — some days Skein rests). + +### Actions + +**Psychic Lash.** Ranged Spell Attack (Ethereal Plane only): +5 to hit, range 30 ft., one creature that can perceive Skein. Hit: 10 (3d6) psychic damage. + +**Suppress Host.** Skein forces the host to perform a specific action (speak, move, attack) or prevents the host from performing an action. No save. The host is aware of what's happening and cannot resist. + +**Flee (1/day).** If Skein is reduced to 10 HP or below, it detaches from the host and flees into the Ethereal Plane at double speed. The tendrils retract violently — the host takes 7 (2d6) psychic damage and is stunned for 1 round. + +### Reactions + +**Silence the Host.** When the host attempts to communicate information Skein doesn't want shared, Skein forces a DC 15 Wisdom save (using the host's reduced WIS of 6, so Bren rolls at -2). On a failure, the host's words become garbled, the sentence becomes incoherent, or the host experiences sudden pain that stops the attempt. On a success (rare, but this is where natural 20s create lucid moments), the host speaks one clear sentence. + +--- + +## How Players Discover the Possession + +### Stage 1: Something's Off +Players talk to Bren and notice he's not just raving randomly: +- His eyes track something that isn't there (DC 10 Perception) +- He responds to unheard voices with specific emotions — fear, appeasement, anger (DC 12 Insight) +- His "madness" has a structure: he argues, negotiates, and submits, as if in conversation with someone controlling and abusive + +### Stage 2: Magical Investigation +- **Detect Magic** on Bren: Abjuration and Enchantment signatures. Something is bound to him. +- **DC 14 Arcana** while examining Bren: There's an anchor point — something attached to his mind from another plane. It's not a curse in the traditional sense; it's a *presence*. +- **Detect Evil and Good** (Dalla can cast this): Registers as an aberration/monstrosity anchored to Bren from the Ethereal Plane. + +### Stage 3: Seeing Skein +Requires ethereal sight: +- **Veil Dust** — see Skein clearly, a knotted spider-thing with tendrils in Bren's skull +- **See Invisibility** (Essek can cast this) — reveals Skein's outline +- **Orenn's silver mirror** — DC 15 Perception while using it near Bren shows a distortion clinging to his head + +### Read-Aloud: Seeing Skein for the First Time + +> *Svět se změní. Éterická rovina se přeloží přes skutečnost jako průsvitná fólie a najednou vidíte věci, které jste předtím jen tušili. Stíny mají hloubku. Zdi mají ozvěny.* +> +> *A vedle Brena — tam, kde jste vždycky viděli jen prázdný vzduch — sedí něco.* +> +> *Připomíná to pavouka, pokud byste si dokázali představit pavouka uvázaného z provázků, z uzlů, ze zamotaných vláken, která se neustále svíjejí a převazují. Je velký jako pes. Má příliš mnoho noh a každá se pohybuje nezávisle, v jiném rytmu. Z jeho těla vedou tenká, průsvitná vlákna — šest jich je — a ta vlákna vedou do Brenovy hlavy. Přímo skrz lebku. Jako kořeny stromu, který roste obráceně.* +> +> *Bren se na vás podívá. Pak se podívá na to, na co se díváte vy. A v jeho očích uvidíte něco, co jste tam předtím neviděli: ne šílenství. Úlevu. Někdo konečně vidí jeho řetězy.* + +--- + +## How to Save Bren + +### Option A: Kill Skein (Permanent, Difficult) +Requires entering the Ethereal Plane (Veil Dust, Oil of Etherealness) and fighting Skein directly. + +**Complications:** +- Skein uses Bren as a shield — threatening to kill the host (Suppress Host to make Bren harm himself) if attacked +- In the Ethereal Plane near the thin point, Skein has advantage on Stealth checks (home terrain) +- If Skein drops below 10 HP, it tries to Flee — players must prevent this or it escapes and attaches to a new host eventually +- Xarrul's presence makes the Ethereal Plane more dangerous — the fiend might interfere (it finds Skein amusing but not threatening) + +**If Skein is killed:** +- Tendrils wither and dissolve +- Bren screams, then goes silent +- After 1 minute: he opens his eyes. They're clear. He looks around as if seeing the room for the first time. +- His Wisdom recovers to 10 (not 16 — the damage is partially permanent) +- He remembers everything: seven years of captivity, watching his own body be puppeted, feeling himself erode + +### Option B: Sever the Tendrils (Temporary) +Requires ethereal sight and targeted attacks. +- Each tendril: AC 13, 5 HP (must be attacked on the Ethereal Plane or with force damage) +- Severing all 6 tendrils frees Bren for 1d4 hours +- During this time, Bren is lucid, coherent, and desperately helpful +- He can provide testimony about the murder, information about the thin point, and his own background +- When the tendrils regrow, Skein reasserts control — Bren knows this is coming and the window's closing +- This option is useful if players need Bren's help for the endgame but can't afford a full fight with Skein yet + +### Option C: Protection from Evil and Good +The spell suppresses Skein's control for the duration (10 minutes, concentration). +- Bren becomes lucid while the spell is active +- Skein thrashes in the Ethereal Plane, unable to reach through +- When the spell ends, Skein reasserts control with a vengeance — Bren takes 5 (1d10) psychic damage +- Repeating this method angers Skein and makes it more aggressive with the host + +--- + +## Bren's Testimony (When Lucid) + +If players free Bren temporarily or permanently, he provides: + +**About the murder:** +"I saw it happen. Something came through — from the other side. Like smoke with hands. It reached through the air behind the bar and touched Orenn. He didn't even flinch. He just... stopped. The thing pulled back and it was *smiling*. I could feel it smiling." + +**About Skein:** +"It found me seven years ago. I was studying the thin point — the cellar beneath this tavern. I got too close. It latched on and it's been... eating me. My memories. My will. Every day there's a little less of me. I can feel the edges of myself going soft." + +**About Xarrul:** +"The thing that killed Orenn is different from what's in me. Bigger. Older. Crueler. My — [he struggles to find a word for Skein] — my *passenger* is afraid of it. Deeply afraid. That's why I had those moments tonight — it was distracted, watching the fiend, and I could push through." + +**About the thin point:** +"It's growing. The gap between worlds is wider than it was when I first studied it. Something — or someone — is pushing it open. The wards in the cellar were supposed to contain it, but they're failing. I could feel them cracking." + +--- + +## Emotional Arc + +Bren's subplot is about witnessing suffering and choosing to act. + +**If players ignore Bren:** He remains in his corner, muttering. Skein is satisfied. Nothing changes. But players who saw the madman and did nothing might carry that. + +**If players help Bren partially (severed tendrils, temporary lucidity):** He gets a window. He helps. The window closes. He knows it's coming. His last lucid words before Skein retakes him: "Thank you. For seeing me. Even if it doesn't last — thank you." + +**If players kill Skein and free Bren permanently:** He's free. But he's not whole. Seven years of psychological torture don't vanish with the parasite. He'll need months of care, magical healing, and patience. He's grateful in a raw, shattered way — not the clean relief of a rescued prisoner, but the dazed confusion of someone who doesn't remember what freedom feels like. + +His first request, if freed: "Can I... can I have some water? I can't remember the last time I asked for something and meant it." diff --git a/storylines/the-reckoning.md b/storylines/the-reckoning.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4abfd42 --- /dev/null +++ b/storylines/the-reckoning.md @@ -0,0 +1,226 @@ +# The Reckoning — Endgame + +## Overview + +The Reckoning is whatever happens when the players have gathered enough threads and decide to act. It's not a fixed encounter — it depends entirely on what they've learned, who they've allied with, and what they're willing to risk. + +This document covers the primary confrontation paths and the central moral dilemma. + +--- + +## Reaching the Endgame + +Players arrive at the Reckoning through any combination of: +- Following the ethereal trail to the cellar +- Bren's testimony pointing to a fiend +- Essek revealing the summoning +- Veil Dust trip exposing Xarrul +- Orenn's letter and preparations in the storage room +- Logical deduction from the ambiguous clues + +There is no "right" order. The Reckoning begins when the players know enough to act and choose to do so. + +--- + +## Confrontation Scenarios + +### Scenario A: Direct Assault + +Players know about Xarrul, have combat resources, and go to the cellar to fight it. + +**Setup:** The cellar is dark, cold, and cramped (10m x 8m). The thin point dominates the eastern side. Xarrul is in the Ethereal Plane — players need a way to reach it or force it into the Material Plane. + +**Methods to force Xarrul into the Material Plane:** +- **Fiendbane Manacles** (from Tallow, 200 gp): Restrain it on the Material Plane for 1 hour +- **The iron bell** (main hall fireplace): Partially restores wards, giving Xarrul disadvantage on Ethereal Jaunt +- **Orenn's binding circle** (cellar floor): If lured inside, DC 17 CHA save or trapped +- **Warding chalk circles** (from storage): Minor constraint, 10 minutes per use +- **Force damage:** Affects ethereal creatures from the Material Plane + +**Xarrul's tactics:** See [Xarrul NPC file](../npc/xarrul.md). It uses Ethereal Jaunt to avoid being pinned, Voice Thief to sow confusion, and Whisper of Ruin on the strongest melee fighter. It doesn't want to die. At half HP and restrained, it negotiates. + +**Difficulty:** Hard for level 4. The shifting between planes makes Xarrul slippery. Without a way to pin it on the Material Plane, it's a war of attrition that Xarrul wins. + +### Scenario B: The Rebinding + +The "easy" resolution. Haddon proposes recapturing Xarrul using the binding circle in the cellar and restoring the original binding. This is available to any party that uncovers the fiend's existence — it doesn't require deep investigation into the cult's true nature. A loyal Dalla actively supports this. + +**Requirements:** +1. Binding components from Tallow (~50 gp) +2. Dalla's blood (she gives it willingly — rolls up her sleeves without hesitation) +3. Orenn's binding circle in the cellar (DC 16 Arcana to adapt it for rebinding rather than containment) +4. Xarrul must be lured to the cellar or forced onto the Material Plane +5. Haddon leads the ritual (10 minutes, concentration), Rennt assists + +**How it plays out:** +- The party must get Xarrul to the cellar and keep it there for 10 minutes while Haddon completes the ritual. This is a fight — Xarrul does NOT want to be bound again. It fights with everything it has. +- If the ritual completes: Xarrul is bound. It screams in fury as the chains take hold. The cult has their weapon back. +- If the ritual is interrupted (Haddon takes damage and fails a DC 14 CON concentration check): The binding snaps. Xarrul is free and enraged. Combat continues with no second chances. + +**Aftermath:** Dalla's connection to the binding restores — Lístek's condition stabilizes but doesn't improve. The child stays frozen. The cult moves toward Phase Two with renewed confidence and a bound fiend. Dalla tells herself this is progress. The murder is "solved" (the weapon is leashed), but nothing is actually fixed. + +**Mags's reaction:** Disgust. "You're handing them back the thing that killed him. On a leash. And you think that leash will hold?" She won't stop the players, but she won't help, and she won't forgive. + +### Scenario C: The Dual-Plane Kill + +The "true" way to destroy Xarrul — synchronized destruction in both the Material and Ethereal planes. This is the method that cures Dalla's child. It's also the method that tears the veil. + +**This scenario is only available if Dalla has broken from the Order** (see [Lambent Order — Dalla's Breakdown](lambent-order.md)). A loyal Dalla would never consider destroying the fiend over rebinding it — destruction serves no purpose to the cult. The dual-plane kill requires a Dalla who understands the real cost of the cult's path and is willing to abandon it for her daughter. Players who never uncover the truth about The Opening never reach this option. + +**Requirements:** +1. At least one character on the Ethereal Plane (Veil Dust at the thin point = 10 minutes, or Oil of Etherealness from Orenn's bedroom = 1 hour) +2. At least one character on the Material Plane +3. Both groups damage Xarrul simultaneously on both planes +4. Both "halves" of Xarrul must be killed within 1 round of each other + +**How it works mechanically:** +- When Xarrul is on the Ethereal Plane, characters there fight its ethereal form (full stat block) +- When Xarrul shifts to the Material Plane, characters there fight its material form +- At the thin point, Xarrul cannot fully separate its planes — it exists on both simultaneously, split. Material form: half HP (39 HP). Ethereal form: half HP (39 HP). AC and attacks unchanged. +- If one form is killed and the other survives more than 1 round, the surviving form regenerates the dead form at full HP. The kill must be synchronized. + +**During the kill:** The veil tears. For 1 round at the moment of synchronized death, the planar boundary at the thin point *dissolves*. The Material and Ethereal planes merge in a 20-foot radius for 6 seconds. Everyone present sees both planes at once. The temperature drops. Sounds echo from wrong directions. For that one round, everything Mother Vyre predicted is true — the planes *do* want to touch. + +Then the veil snaps back. The tear heals. Xarrul is gone. + +**And Dalla's child:** The stolen vitality used to bind Xarrul — Dalla's blood, her life force — snaps back along the binding's path. Dalla gasps, clutches her chest. Miles away, a three-year-old girl blinks, looks around her room, and says her first word in four years. + +### Scenario D: Negotiation + +Xarrul is ancient and pragmatic. If cornered and unable to escape, it will negotiate. + +**What Xarrul offers:** +- Everything it knows about the Lambent Order, Mother Vyre, and Phase Two +- The truth about Dace's treachery +- Information about Skein and how to kill it +- The names and locations of other fiends bound by mortal cults in the region + +**What Xarrul wants:** +- Freedom. Not destruction, not binding — the right to leave unmolested. +- A host (not present — it will leave and find one later) +- Or, if particularly cunning: the thin point left unrepaired. "Leave the door open. Not for me. For *air*." + +**The problem:** Xarrul is evil. Letting it go means it's someone else's problem. It killed Orenn. It will kill again. But its information is genuine and valuable. This is a classic devil's bargain. + +**Mags's reaction:** "No." Simple. Final. She won't negotiate with the thing that killed Orenn. If players choose negotiation, they do it over Mags's objection, and their relationship with her is damaged. + +### Scenario E: Faction War + +If players haven't uncovered the fiend, or if tensions boil over before the Reckoning, the factions turn on each other. + +**Trigger points:** +- Kael loses patience (2+ hours of lockdown with no resolution) +- The cult's summoning is exposed to the assassins +- Dace is exposed and the cultists realize they've been compromised +- Any NPC is attacked or killed + +**What happens:** Lethal combat. Assassins vs. cultists. Mags tries to stop it. Players can: +- Join a side +- Try to stop the fight (DC 18 group Persuasion, or DC 16 with evidence of the fiend) +- Use the chaos to pursue the fiend while everyone's distracted (ironic echo of the brawl) + +**Casualties:** Without intervention, Kael dies (he charges Rennt), Rennt dies (he's outmatched by Sevra), and Dalla is caught in the crossfire. Essek tries to flee and is cut down by a guild soldier. Haddon escapes using Misty Step. The fiend watches, delighted. + +--- + +## The Central Dilemma: The Choice + +If players pursue the dual-plane kill, they face the moral question at the heart of the module: + +### The Case For +- Dalla's child is cured. A three-year-old girl gets her life back. +- Xarrul is permanently destroyed. The murderer is dead. +- The binding energy returns to Dalla, restoring her vitality. +- Justice, in a form. + +### The Case Against +- The method requires thinning the veil — a micro-Opening. It validates Mother Vyre's core theory. +- Haddon is watching and taking notes. He now has empirical data for Phase Two. +- Rennt's faith becomes unshakable. "The planes touched. I felt it. She was right." +- Essek's warning: "You're running a proof of concept for the end of the world." +- Even if the tear heals, the thin point is *weaker* afterward. Future attempts at the Opening are easier here. + +### NPC Reactions During the Choice + +| NPC | Reaction | Why | +|-----|----------|-----| +| **Dalla** (broken) | "Do it. Please. I don't care what it costs." | Her child. Nothing else matters. She's only here because she learned the truth. | +| **Rennt** | Ecstatic. Helps eagerly. "The planes want to touch!" | Validates everything he believes. | +| **Essek** | Terrified. "You're proving her right." | Knows what Phase Two means. | +| **Haddon** | Quiet. Watching. Taking notes. | This is exactly the data he needs. | +| **Mags** | Conflicted. She wants Xarrul dead. But not like this. "Orenn spent fifteen years keeping this thin point stable. You're going to tear it open to kill one fiend?" | She respects the sacrifice but fears the consequence. | +| **Sevra** | Pragmatic. "Does it work? Then do it. Worry about theory later." | Results-oriented. | +| **Bren** (if lucid) | "The thin point has been growing for years. One more tear won't matter." (This might be true. Or it might be exactly what Skein wants him to say.) | Unknown — is this Bren's genuine assessment or Skein's manipulation? | + +### There Is No Right Answer + +If the players save the child, they arm the cult with proof. If they rebind the fiend, the cult gets its weapon back and Phase Two moves forward. If they negotiate, a killer goes free. If they destroy it conventionally, the child stays cursed and Dalla has nothing. If they never dig deep enough to learn the truth, they never even see the real choice — they get the rebinding and think they won. + +Every choice costs something. The depth of investigation determines which choices are even on the table. That's the point. + +--- + +## After the Reckoning + +### The Lockdown Ends + +Dawn comes. Mags opens the doors. People leave. The night is over. + +**What follows depends on what happened:** + +**If Xarrul was destroyed (any method):** +- The Brand fades from Orenn's body. Mags closes his eyes. +- The thin point remains — weaker if the dual-plane kill was used, stable if not. +- The cult's cell is fractured or exposed. +- The guild's mole is found or still hidden. +- Mother Vyre's Phase Two continues elsewhere. The players know about it. That's something. + +**If Xarrul escaped:** +- The fiend is loose in the city. It will find new entertainment. +- Mags hunts it alone. Her chances aren't good. +- The thin point continues to grow. + +**If the faction war happened:** +- Bodies. Regret. A tavern full of the dead and dying. +- Mags survives (she's the most dangerous person in the room). +- She locks the door again. From the outside. She doesn't look back. + +### Loose Threads (For a Potential Follow-Up) + +- **Mother Vyre and Phase Two.** The Opening is still coming. +- **Dalla's child.** Cured or still frozen. +- **Bren.** Free or still possessed. If free, he has knowledge that many people would kill for. +- **Essek.** Escaped the cult or still trapped. His brand might still burn. +- **Dace.** In guild custody, escaped, or dead. +- **The thin point.** Growing, stable, or weakened further. It will attract more entities. +- **Orenn's letter.** "If the veil tears, burn the cellar stores and seal the door." Mags hasn't done this yet. Maybe she should. + +--- + +## Read-Aloud: Dawn + +> *Světlo. Pod dveřmi hospody se objeví tenký, bledý proužek — první ranní světlo, šedé a studené a krásné tím způsobem, jakým jsou krásné věci, o kterých jste nebyli jistí, že je ještě uvidíte.* +> +> *Mags stojí u dveří. Chvíli na ten proužek světla jen hledí. Pak sáhne na závoru. Kov skřípe. Dveře se otevřou a do místnosti vpadne vlhký ranní vzduch, který chutná po dešti a po městě, které se probouzí, aniž by vědělo, co se tu v noci stalo.* +> +> *Otočí se. Podívá se na vás. Neřekne děkuji — možná proto, že pro to, co se tu stalo, to slovo nestačí. Možná proto, že ještě neví, jestli je na místě.* +> +> *"Jděte," řekne tiše. "Je ráno."* +> +> *A vy vyjdete po těch třech kamenných schodech nahoru, do světla, do dne, do světa, který vypadá přesně stejně jako včera — a vy víte, že to tak není. Že pod povrchem, za tou tenkou vrstvou, kterou většina lidí nikdy neuvidí, se něco pohnulo. A už se to nezastaví.* + +--- + +## Alternative Ending: The Bell + +If players repaired the wards AND rang the iron bell AND have Xarrul trapped in the cellar's binding circle: + +The wards flare to life. The thin point *contracts*. Xarrul, caught between the binding circle and the restored wards, is crushed between planes — not killed, but *sealed*. Trapped in the space between Material and Ethereal, conscious, unable to move, unable to escape. A fate some would call worse than death. + +The child is not cured (the binding energy isn't released). But Xarrul is contained. The thin point stabilizes. The tavern is safe again. + +Mags looks at the cellar floor where the fiend is imprisoned. "Orenn would have done it this way," she says. "Clean. Contained. No loose ends." She pauses. "I hate it. But it's right." + +This ending costs the least and gains the least. It's the safest choice. It's also the one where a three-year-old girl stays frozen, and a fiend spends eternity screaming silently between worlds. + +Safety is not the same as goodness. That's the last thing the players learn.