76 lines
8.3 KiB
Markdown
76 lines
8.3 KiB
Markdown
# Session Prep — Caford: The Vault Singers' Church & Felix Tanner
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*Prep date: 7-9-26 · Party location: [[Caford]], [[Falduhir]] — inside the front hall of the [[Vault Singers' Church]], having just retreated from the warning voice in the rear yard.*
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---
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## Where We Left Off
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Session 8 ([[8. Oils - 6-29-26|Oils]]) at [[The Pigskin]]: the automaton [[Oils - The Pigskin|Oils]] handed the party the truth. The [[Ashfall Squad]] entered the mountains through a cave mouth connected to the mines, and that shaft was reported **flooded the very next day** — so Janos's vanished companions may be sealed *inside*. Oils named **[[Felix Tanner - Vault Singers' Church|Felix Tanner]]** as the man who knows more (and begged not to be named as the source), placed **"the Reach"** as a Suits *objective* rather than a place, and confirmed a man matching **[[Commander Taylor's Proposition|Commander Taylor]]** sat at a map-carving meeting overseen by the **Spade**. Janos read Felix's location from Oils's mind — behind the [[Vault Singers' Church]] — but a hidden voice out back threatened them, smelled the [[Gnomes|gnome]] among them, and drove them off. They then came in the front doors: a hushed, library-like hall of desks and shelves tended by indifferent black-robed attendants, wrapped in strong warding magic with a **necromantic pulse** beneath it.
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---
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## Three Reveals Now in Canon
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1. **Felix Tanner is an ancient automaton.** The "haggard old man in a nest of boxes" is how he sat in Oils's *memory* — not what he is. Felix is an ancient **[[Automatons|Archivist-Class automaton]]**, the **living power source and conscience of the vault**, there of his own free will. The "necromantic pulse" Six felt is Felix — an ancient core sustaining preserved magic, reading as necromancy because it *holds things past their natural end*. His "sniff" is a sensor array finer than any nose.
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2. **The Church is a doomsday archive.** It *is* the [[Vaultsingers Overview|Vaultsingers]]' Caford vault, racing to **store every magical secret before the [[Campaign Premise|ley lines are fully sealed]] and magic dies.** Not an enemy — the campaign's **counter-conspiracy**. The wards are their song-magic; the archivists are banking knowledge against an extinction only they (and now the party) can see.
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3. **Taylor is a double agent.** He plays his role in the dark circle (the map meetings, the Spade's table) but is **secretly steering the party toward the truth** — the mine map, the "proposition," the introductions were all breadcrumbs. He **cannot break cover** and will read cold, even villainous, if confronted. *DM irony: the party is on track to file him as an enemy exactly when he's their most valuable hidden asset — keep their suspicion alive.*
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---
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## Likely Scenes / Locations
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- **[[Vault Singers' Church]]** *(Caford)* — *a temple that is really a library; reverent hush, robed archivists who won't meet your eye, and something dead humming under the wards.* The session's center. Front archive-hall + warded rear yard.
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- **Felix's rear yard** *(behind the Church)* — *a crude nest of crates and blankets behind a loose fence slat.* Where the "hidden voice" waits. The way in is **sincerity + the Ring**, not a con — he *is* the Church and already rebuffed the "we're from the Church" line.
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- **The cave / flooded mine** *(back toward [[Brefield]], the Ironreach Range)* — the entrance the Ashfall used, marked on the party's map; leads to [[The Collapsed Reach]] / Shaft III. The "flooding" is the falsified-condemnation cover in the [[Decoded Ledger]]. The next *expedition* beat.
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- **[[The Pigskin]]** *(automaton tavern)* — safe harbor and re-hire point; [[Oils - The Pigskin|Oils]] lodges here under [[Karen - The Pigskin|Karen]]'s protection.
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---
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## NPCs in Play
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- **[[Felix Tanner - Vault Singers' Church|Felix Tanner]]** *(ancient [[Automatons|Automaton]], Archivist-Class — the vault-core).*
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- **Voice:** low, unhurried, mechanically precise; from the dark it's a warning-growl. Sniffs/scans before he trusts. Speaks of the ley lines like weather.
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- **Wants:** preserve every magical secret before the lines close; keep the Vaultsingers honest; guard ley-line truths.
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- **Gives, if earned:** what he knows of the [[Ashfall Squad]] and the flooded cave — guardedly, only to those who prove they aren't the circle drilling the mountains. Offering [[The Explorer]]'s Ring is the key.
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- **The Archivists** *(robed keepers, some automaton).* Indifferent by design; a filter, not a welcome. They notice relics before they notice people.
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- **[[Karen - The Pigskin|Karen]]** *(Automaton — host & fixer of [[The Pigskin]]).* Neutral haven-keeper and favor-broker; can quietly *find* a person or answer in Caford. Off-screen ally, standing contact.
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- **[[Oils - The Pigskin|Oils]]** *(small Automaton — investigator/appraiser).* Loyal, re-hireable; reads relics and memories with his stone slate. **Do not expose him** as the source of the Felix tip (Odatina's hard line).
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- **[[Commander Taylor's Proposition|Commander Taylor]] / "the Spade"** *(off-stage, looming double agent).* Steering the party in secret; must keep cover. Let him act the part when watched.
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---
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## Factions & Agendas
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- **[[Vaultsingers Overview|The Vaultsingers]]** — relic-keepers running the vault as a hedge against the end of magic. Potential **major ally**. They covet memory-storing relics: the Explorer's Ring and Oils's stone slate are exactly what they exist to preserve. Revealing the Ring is the party's key in — and a risk (they may want to *keep* it).
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- **[[House of Suits Overview|House of Suits]]** — the live hand of the conspiracy; the Spade oversees the land/ley-site division; money flows "up to the Reach."
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- **Caford's automaton community** ([[Karen - The Pigskin|Karen]], [[Oils - The Pigskin|Oils]], [[The Pigskin]]) — a quiet support network under the shadow of the [[Automatons|Reclamation Sites]]; a local face of the automaton-rights throughline.
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- **The conspiracy** ([[Campaign Premise]]) — drilling to fracture and choke the ley lines, revive Rangrim's imperial ideology, and re-enslave the automatons. The flooded mine, the Reach, and this vault's very existence are fingers of the same hand.
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---
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## Open Hooks & Threats
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- **Cracking Felix without a con.** He can't be lied to and clocked the gnome. Sincerity + the Ring opens him; deception or force does not.
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- **The stakes escalate from crime to apocalypse.** Earning the archivists' trust reveals the drilling isn't theft — it's the potential **end of magic**, with the automatons (Six, Oils, Felix) enslaved in its wake.
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- **The Ring is a beacon.** Inside a Vaultsinger hall it may win an ally or mark the party as looters of exactly what the order guards.
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- **The mine still ticks.** "Before the season turns" / the Shifting. Janos's people may be sealed alive; the cave back toward [[Brefield]] / [[The Collapsed Reach]] is the next expedition.
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- **Protect Oils.** Don't let the Suits — or the Vaultsingers — trace the tip back to him.
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- **Complication seeds:** a Suits watcher trailing the party; Felix testing them hard before yielding anything; an attendant noticing the Ring.
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---
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## Runtime Dials (table calls — no prep needed)
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- How much does Felix reveal vs. withhold this session? (He guards ley-line specifics.)
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- Do the Vaultsingers ask to *keep* the Ring, or copy it into the vault and return it?
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- Does anyone recognize Six/Oils as kin to Felix — a beat of automaton solidarity (the Broken Choir)?
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---
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## Loose Threads / Housekeeping
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- **New notes written this prep:** [[Vault Singers' Church]], [[Felix Tanner - Vault Singers' Church|Felix Tanner]], [[The Pigskin]], [[Karen - The Pigskin|Karen]], [[Oils - The Pigskin|Oils]] — all placed under [[Caford]] and cross-linked; Felix + the vault added to the [[Vaultsingers Overview]].
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- **Red-link stubs worth creating:** [[The Explorer]] & [[Faken]] (the Ring's legend), [[Ashfall Squad]] (Janos's vanished unit).
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- **[[Commander Taylor's Proposition|Commander Taylor]] has no NPC note** — links resolve to his Proposition doc. Given the double-agent canon, worth a real note that reconciles him with the existing `"The Spade" – Unnamed Enforcer` (is Taylor the mask, the man behind it, or a separate seat?).
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- **[[z_other/Campaign Flow|Campaign Flow]]** still ends at Taylor's Manor with "hold" nodes — never extended through the Brefield or Caford arcs.
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