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npc/vetch.md

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+# 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.