# 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."*

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## 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.

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## 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.)