3.4 KiB
3.4 KiB
Setup
- Hierophant Vezra Gearbloom - Obsidian Archives's let room at the party's own inn, The Splintered Snake, two doors down the hall. The mild "mine-safety assessor" who took this room and the fiery Cogwrights Collective Overview Hierophant the party knew in Voxiu are one man — and both faces are masks over a House of Suits Overview agent. The party has pulled that mask off.
- Left as-is, not tossed — he never returned after being made. Door unlatched, bed made, wine skinning over on the desk, coat on the hook, travel case latched at foot of bed.
- He was told to burn this and didn't. Party survives on his bad luck.
Clue tiers (3-clue rule — a missed check still points the same way)
- No check: Coat holds disguise kit, spirit-gum, forged "mine-safety assessor" papers → confirms a planted professional, cover tied to the shaft. Papers also contain the ledger cipher key. Tucked in the kit: a Cogwright spiral-cog token and a spare brass feather for an automaton sparrow → the "assessor" is the Voxiu Hierophant Hierophant Vezra Gearbloom - Obsidian Archives. The machine-rights preacher was the cover; the Suits agent was the man.
- Investigation DC 12: Travel case (unlocked), false bottom → field map: range marked with Suits' sigil (bisected circle); site III circled in red, labeled "the Reach." Rune-numerals quietly track the ley lines.
- Investigation/Perception DC 15 (auto if desk pried): Desk panel → letter + coded ledger. Cipher cracks on Arcana/Investigation DC 13, or instant if disguise kit found.
The igniter
- Desk panel rigged. Thieves' Tools DC 15 to disarm.
- Fail → green alchemical bead sparks, letter + ledger catch fire. Dex save DC 13 to snatch one of the two; other is lost.
- Map is safe in the case regardless — destination always survives.
- Clean disarm → keep all three.
The letter (handout)
V— The diggers say the third line is nearly sealed. Two more and the Reach goes quiet for good — then the rest of Baltun'ia drinks from our cup, or doesn't drink at all. Your work in Brefield is to keep the curious blind. The flooded shaft holds, the condemnation papers are filed, [Hale] earned his coin. If the contractors keep sniffing, walk them out gentle. If gentle fails — we have other tailors. Be at the Reach before the season turns. Burn this. —T.
- Seeds ley lines ("third line nearly sealed"), sets clock ("before the season turns"), hooks ledger ("Hale earned his coin"), keeps "—T." / "tailors" ambiguous (Taylor? or Suits motif?). Don't resolve here.
Personal stake
- Thin dossier tucked with ledger: surveillance notes on party since Voxiu, sketch of one PC, margin note flagging one as "a problem" / "possibly useful."
- Chill = he was watching from two doors down, not across the city.
Takeaways for the party
- Reveal: the "assessor" is Hierophant Vezra Gearbloom - Obsidian Archives — Voxiu's Cogwright preacher is a House of Suits Overview agent
- Destination: The Collapsed Reach / site III
- Clock: before the season turns
- Money-trail: Magistrate Corvin Hale - Brefield (corrupt, frightened, Suits-marked for removal) → up to the Reach
- Mystery seed: "lines being sealed"
- Dread: surveilled from down the hall, under a "Tailor"