7.1 KiB
Session Prep — Brefield: Vezra's Room
Prep date: 6-22-26 · Party location: Brefield, Falduhir — inside The Splintered Snake, about to search Vezra's Room.
Where We Left Off
Session 6 (6. Taylor's Manor - 9-22-25) ended in Voxiu: the party survived an ambush at Commander Taylor's manor, then heard his pitch — rig the Crown Elect election so the Vexen beat the Belter Overview. Since then they've traveled north into Falduhir to the mining town of Brefield, where the House of Suits Overview agent who'd been tailing them since Voxiu — Hierophant Vezra Gearbloom - Obsidian Archives — let a room in their own inn, two doors down the hall, then vanished after being made. The party has exposed that this "mine-safety assessor" is the same man as Voxiu's beloved Cogwright Hierophant. They're about to toss the room he was ordered to burn and didn't.
Likely Scenes / Locations
- Vezra's Room — the cold, abandoned room of a professional who left in a hurry. Door unlatched, bed made, wine skinned over, coat on the hook, travel case at the foot of the bed. The clue-delivery scene; see tiers + trap below.
- The Mine-Warden's Office (Magistrate Corvin Hale - Brefield) — a velvet-coated bureaucrat sweating behind a condemnation seal and a decanter. The room's evidence points straight here; the session's likely centerpiece.
- The Ore-Scales (Hobb Tallow - Brefield, scale-master) — the weighing station that's been logging the Suits' equipment caravans manifest-free. The second money-thread.
- The Collapsed Reach / Shaft III — the dig site every clue converges on. Not this session — the horizon you're pointing them at.
NPCs in Play
- Hierophant Vezra Gearbloom - Obsidian Archives (Gnome — absent, but everywhere in this room). The "assessor" cover and the Voxiu machine-rights preacher are one man, both masks over a Suits agent. His dossier holds a sketch of one PC and a margin note flagging someone "a problem / possibly useful." Dread beat: he watched from down the hall, not across the city.
- Magistrate Corvin Hale - Brefield (Human, 54 — Mine-Warden). Soft hands, pomaded gray hair, overdressed, decanter at his elbow.
- Voice: officious and too-loud when bluffing; drops to a dry rasp once frightened.
- The tell: keeps glancing at door and window — not watching the party, watching for the Suits.
- Wants: to survive and keep telling himself he "only condemned a shaft."
- Secret: falsified the Shaft III survey, took three Suits payments (third unpaid), greased the scale-master.
- How he breaks: fear/protection = fastest (the phrase "other tailors" lands hardest) · evidence = folds fast · intimidation works but he may bolt · bribery = slowest (he already has Suits money).
- The Suits watcher (unnamed, in town). Already on Hale. Pressuring Hale loudly / twice / in public risks the watcher triggering the kill early. Reward quiet-and-quick.
- Hobb Tallow - Brefield (scale-master — working name). Bribed via Hale to wave the Suits' night caravans through. Hale can name him; tracing the caravans leads up the mountain.
- Wren Maddox - Brefield (Suits courier — working name). The human end of the "tithe to the Reach"; a face the party may already have passed. ⚠ May be the same person as Brefield (Benton auditor, "unseen investors" via sending stones) — decide whether to merge.
The Room — Clue Tiers & Trap
3-clue rule — a missed check still points the same way.
| Access | Find | Gives |
|---|---|---|
| No check | Coat → disguise kit, spirit-gum, forged assessor papers | Planted pro; ledger cipher key; spiral-cog token + brass sparrow feather → the assessor is Vezra Gearbloom |
| Investigation DC 12 | Travel case false bottom → field map | Range w/ Suits sigil; site III circled red, "the Reach" (map always survives) |
| Invest./Perc. DC 15 (auto if desk pried) | Desk panel → letter + coded ledger | Cipher cracks on Arcana/Invest. DC 13, instant if disguise kit found |
The igniter (trap): desk panel is rigged. Thieves' Tools DC 15 to disarm. Fail → alchemical bead sparks, letter + ledger ignite; Dex save DC 13 to snatch one of the two (the other burns). Map is safe regardless. Clean disarm → keep all three.
Takeaways to plant: the reveal (Gearbloom = Suits) · destination = the Reach / site III · clock = before the season turns · money-trail = Hale → the Reach · mystery = "the lines being sealed."
Handouts ready: the letter (signed "—T.") and the Decoded Ledger are written up for the table.
Factions & Agendas
- House of Suits Overview — the live hand. Owns Hale, routes money "up to the Reach," and is prepared to erase Hale ("the tailors mend it"). Front: the Velvet Wheel Casino in Voxiu; killing is "an unlucky draw."
- Benton Brothers Mining Co. (Vexen-aligned) — own Brefield's shafts, bankroll the Suits; the corporate body the dig hides inside.
- Pick-Belters Union (local, Belter-aligned) — would gut Hale if his fraud surfaced. A lever and a potential ally.
- The conspiracy (see Campaign Premise) — drilling to seal the ley lines and choke magic. The letter's "third line nearly sealed… two more and the Reach goes quiet" is the party's first concrete look at the endgame.
Open Hooks & Threats
- Race for Hale. Reach him first → living witness, the scale-master thread, "the Reach" / "lines going quiet" from a second mouth. Suits first → cooling body staged as a mine accident; leave one salvageable clue (hidden ledger page or courier name) so the thread survives.
- The watcher punishing a loud smash-and-grab.
- The personal dossier — one PC is watched and rated. Paranoia fuel.
- The thaw clock — "before the season turns" / "the Shifting." Two ley-lines left to seal.
Open Decisions (DM)
- Merge Wren Maddox with Agent Hilvar Dench? Strong overlap — one in-town Suits money-contact is cleaner than two.
- Gearbloom: a true Cogwright believer who was turned/blackmailed, or a cold operative who built the faith as a tool from the start? Changes how the Cogwrights — and any PC who admired him — take the reveal.
- The Collapsed Reach interior — what's actually down there (the drilling rig, who runs it, the "old engines" / ancient automaton drill cores, the fate of the vanished miners). Stubbed; build before they climb.
Loose Threads / Housekeeping
- No Session 7 recap yet. The journey north + exposing Vezra happened in play but isn't logged (recaps stop at #6). Worth backfilling.
- z_other/Campaign Flow still ends at Taylor's Manor with placeholder "hold" nodes — hasn't been extended into the Brefield arc.