4.1 KiB
4.1 KiB
CANON UPDATE — cover blown. The Hierophant persona described below is a cover. Vezra Gearbloom is a House of Suits Overview agent serving the Campaign Premise, and the party has exposed it (see Vezra's Room in Brefield). Read the public-facing sections as the mask he wore; the truth is in The Truth (Exposed) at the bottom.
Details:
Name: Vezra Gearbloom ("The Voice of the Forge")
Race: Gnomes
Age: 128
Gender: Male
Core personality: Passionate mystic, fiery zealot, eccentric visionary.
Location: Voxiu, Obsidian Archives Cogwright Enclave
Appearance:
- Build & Stature: Short, wiry, wild-haired.
- Hair: Silver-white sticking up like straw.
- Eyes: Bright amber, glinting feverishly.
- Skin: Dusky brown, with tattooed spiral cogs etched down his jaw.
- Apparel: Patchwork robes, metallic threads stitched into seams.
- Distinguishing Features: Tiny automaton sparrow often perched on his shoulder, chirping sermons alongside him.
Voice & Speech:
- Tone & Pitch: High-pitched, rapid-fire.
- Mannerisms: Points skyward constantly; claps hands mid-sentence; speaks in rhythmic, almost sermon-like bursts.
Motivations & Goals:
- Primary motivation: Spread Cogwright theology: Automatons are “holy children of the primordial machine.”
- Fears / Dangers: That automatons will be annihilated before society sees their divinity.
- Personal Secrets: Fervently believes he hears the voice of the Ancients through the sparrow automaton — but it may just be hallucination.
- The real secret (now exposed): the Hierophant is a cover. He is a House of Suits Overview agent in the Campaign Premise — the "mine-safety assessor" who surveilled the party from inside The Splintered Snake in Brefield.
Background:
- Origin: Born in The Weald; early member of Cogwrights Collective, migrated to Voxiu Archive enclave.
- History: A notorious debater and street orator often escorted out of political debates.
- Current Occupation: Itinerant preacher-scholar holding constant “sermons” in Obsidian Archives forums.
Associations:
- Allegiances & Factions: Cogwrights Collective.
- Allies & Friends: Automatons, radical machine-rights activists.
- Rivals & Enemies: Belter Overview agitators like Yanna Blackreed - Obsidian Archives; skeptical Arcane Concord scholars.
- Contacts & Networks: Maintains connections to Cogwright enclaves across Jessergate.
The Truth (Exposed)
- The Hierophant is a mask. Vezra serves the House of Suits Overview and the Campaign Premise — the same scheme that means to enslave the automatons he publicly preaches are "holy children." His machine-rights zealotry doubled as cover: it endeared him to sympathizers, flushed out true believers, and gave him reason to travel and preach wherever the conspiracy wanted eyes.
- What the party found (in Vezra's Room, Brefield, under his "mine-safety assessor" cover): a disguise kit, a field map to The Collapsed Reach, a letter signed "—T.", and a Decoded Ledger of Suits payments — plus a dossier proving he'd shadowed the party since Voxiu.
- Open question (DM): a true Cogwright believer who was turned/blackmailed, or a cold operative who built the faith as a tool from the start? It changes how the Cogwrights — and any PC who admired him — take the reveal.
- Ripples to address: the Cogwrights Collective Overview and figures like Yanna Blackreed - Obsidian Archives likely don't yet know their Hierophant was a Suits plant — a reveal that could fracture the movement.
Notes & Flavor
- Shouts: “The gears are the gospel! The spark is the soul!”
- Talks to the sparrow as if it were divine. May ask the PCs if they can hear its voice.