TEXT: EN5idEr Presents ZEitgEist:
  The Dying 
  Skyseer
  Adventure Two, Part One
  A 5E-Compatible Adventure for 4th-Level Characters
  
  2 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Introduction
  i
  n the first Zeitgeist adventure, the PCs 
  thwarted a coup attempt and helped prevent a 
  war, but did so by aiding their homeland’s traditional 
  enemy. Such are the duties required by agents of the 
  Risuri Homeland Constabulary, for protecting the 
  nation is often at odds with simple black-and-white 
  concepts of friend and foe.
  In The Dying Skyseer, as the party investigates a murder they 
  will cross paths with enemies they can recruit as temporary allies, 
  and work with supposed friends who seek to mislead and betray 
  them. This is a complex world, and it will take canny and dogged 
  investigators to sift truth from amid layers of deception.
  Of course, this is a heroic adventure game, and while different 
  groups might adjust the “grim-dark” dial up or down a few notches 
  for their own individual campaigns, what players generally want to 
  do is find bad guys, take them down, and be rewarded for it. There 
  are plenty of villains lurking under the smoggy skies of Flint, and 
  From the Pen of
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  Special Thanks to
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  release of ZEITGEIST on Kickstarter, and to the over one 
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  it doesn’t take a prophet to know the PCs are eventually going to 
  thwart their foul plans.
  This adventure is broken into several parts: introduction, pro-
  logue, four possible investigation threads, climax, and conclusion. 
  Adapting the Adventure.
  All the beginning Zeitgeist adventures assume the PCs are agents 
  of the Royal Homeland Constabulary. If your players are free agents, 
  they might be brought in as specialist investigators due to the tricky 
  political nature of a murder at the Danoran consulate. Alternately, 
  a PC with the Docker or Vekeshi Mystic theme might have known 
  Nilasa and so have a personal reason to solve the mystery.
  If you’re using this adventure in a different setting and want to 
  strip out the technological elements, you just need to keep a similar 
  element of simmering social unrest. You might replace factories 
  with more old-fashioned sweatshops making goods for a group of 
  distrusted foreigners, and perhaps have the workers blame some 
  mysterious disease on those foreigners.
  The mystery generally remains the same, with the emphasis on 
  tracking down people who have clues to secrets hidden in the Bleak 
  Gate (or the Shadowfell in a more traditional Fifth Edition game), 
  while another group tries to stop your investigation. You’ll need to 
  the reason Reed Macbannin is refining witchoil, particularly if you’re 
  not planning to run the later adventures.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 3
  Introduction
  This first installment of The Dying Skyseer includes the intro-
  duction that you are reading now, the prologue, and the first 
  investigation thread. The next installment includes the second 
  and third investigation threads, and the final installment will 
  comprise the fourth investigation thread, the climax, and the con-
  clusion of this adventure.
  Background
  For the past few months, tiny tremors have shaken the city of Flint, 
  which has no history of earthquakes. Docker poets take it as a 
  manifested metaphor of the rifts opening up between the differ-
  ent districts and cultures. Angry protests march through Bosum 
  Strand and Parity Lake to denounce cruel treatment of factory 
  workers, and the police thrash those who make too big a name for 
  themselves.
  While these divisions concern the common people of Flint, three 
  more powerful forces are at work in the city during this adventure.
  Gale and the Fey Terrorists.
  The rise of industry in Flint has faced opposition from many 
  sources, most prominent among them being Hana Soliogn, dubbed 
  “Gale” by the newspapers for her singular ability to fly away from 
  the scenes of her crimes, despite most scholars saying such flight 
  magic is impossible.
  Gale’s attacks usually take the form of sneaking into factories 
  at night and sabotaging machines so work must stop, or unmoor-
  ing ships so they drift into the harbor and sink, and for these she 
  has won the sympathies of those who view industry as Danoran 
  meddling. But many common workers see her as a threat to their 
  livelihood, and the government has labeled her a foreign provoca-
  teur with ties to the Vekeshi Mystics. She is also blamed for thefts 
  from the homes of wealthy factory owners, for the killings of a 
  company of surveyors who wandered into the Cloudwood to site a 
  potential railroad, and for a botched assassination attempt against 
  Kane Westman, a tax collector with strong political friends.
  Gale wants to garner more support with the common people. She 
  recognizes that blindly attacking factories makes her look like a 
  villain. In the weeks leading up to this adventure, one of Gale’s 
  loyalists, a half-elf woman named Nilasa Hume, gained the trust 
  of a security guard at the Danoran consulate in Flint. Gale had 
  tasked Nilasa with retrieving financial documents and political let-
  ters from the consulate in order to get a better sense of whom to 
  target for future attacks. Nilasa’s mission gets her killed just as the 
  adventure begins.
  The Family.
  The Family criminal organization is based in Crisillyir, and sees the 
  growth of Flint as a great opportunity to expand into a new mar-
  ket. For the past year they’ve been competing with the various local 
  gangs, with many daring battles led by veteran bravura Morgan 
  Cippiano, the face of the organization in Flint.
  The Family tries to focus its violence only against other crimi-
  nals, and targets its crimes against wealthy factory owners and 
  merchants, rather than everyday people. They seek to convince 
  townsfolk from relaxed Stray River to the gritty streets of Parity 
  Lake that the Family will protect them better than the police can. 
  Of course, they’re working to get the police in their pockets too.
  While most native criminals handle petty theft or crude protec-
  tion rackets, the Family pursues high-end burglary, smuggling, and 
  blackmail. Facing bloody opposition, Morgan has cleverly tricked 
  gangs into turf wars that weaken them so the Family can move in. 
  They’re having trouble unseating one power player, though: Lorcan 
  Kell, who has become a fixture in the industrial smuggling scene.
  Nilasa Hume has connections with both Gale and the Family, and 
  she has arranged for Gale and her allies to purchase a huge cache 
  of smuggled magic items that Family thieves stole from Crisillyir.
  The Obscurati
  As detailed in the Campaign Guide, the Colossus Cell of the Ob-
  scurati are constructing a massive golem inside Cauldron Hill, or 
  rather the analog to Cauldron Hill that exists in the shadowy plane 
  called the Bleak Gate.
  Kane Westman.
  If the PCs check out Mr. Westman, he’s clean. Gale attacked him 
  because she detected energies from the Bleak Gate around his 
  home, but he wasn’t the source. In truth, Cillian Creed, Macban-
  nin’s aide, had been coordinating with Westman to ensure certain 
  smuggled items disappeared from tax logs, but Westman assumed 
  it was everyday bribery, and he has no idea about the operations on 
  Cauldron Hill.
  Gale and the Vekeshi.
  The secretive cult of the Vekeshi Mystics has been trying to recruit 
  Gale, since she and the Vekeshi have common enemies, and her 
  flight would make her an ideal assassin.
  Before the adventure starts, inform any PC with the Vekeshi 
  Mystic theme that she has been given a mission. The latest gather-
  ing of adherents occurred on the last full moon before the solstice, 
  when a representative of the Unseen Court opened a path into the 
  Dreaming and offered everyone drink, dance, and love-making with 
  beautiful fey.
  The Old Stag, one of the most respected members of the Flint 
  cell—he always wears a mask, but has distinctive hands, marked 
  with scars and calluses—took the PC aside and said it would be her 
  task to protect Gale. While the RHC is tasked with capturing the fey 
  terrorist, the Vekeshi want the PC to deliver a gift, and a message.
  The gift is a bizarre mirror. It resembles a wreath of gnarled wood, 
  and instead of a pane of glass, a sheet of water hangs within, no mat-
  ter what angle you hold it at. It is magical, but its purpose is unclear. 
  Normally it is just a beautiful mirror.
  That message is: “The Unseen Court is watching. Take this mirror, 
  and when you see the face of our enemies within it, bring them down 
  and we shall reward you.”
  The party will have a chance to meet Gale, and this delivery can be 
  the first step of many throughout the campaign that draws the PCs 
  toward the Unseen Court.
  
  4 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Introduction
  This massive undertaking is secretly overseen by the city gov-
  ernor, Roland Stanfield, with the construction in the Bleak Gate 
  directed by a steelshaper named Leone Quital. This adventure, 
  however, focuses mostly on the involvement of Reed Macbannin, 
  mayor of The Nettles, the city district where Cauldron Hill lies.
  Macbannin spent years studying how to defend against dark 
  magic, and he sincerely wants to protect Flint from whatever curses 
  and evil energies were left behind by the witches of Cauldron Hill. 
  He does not know about the existence of the Obscurati. Rather, he 
  believes that Governor Stanfield is running a secret and morally 
  gray weapons research program for King Aodhan.
  Macbannin has been told that the king expects an eventual war 
  with the fey of the Dreaming — possibly even the awakening of the 
  fey titans — as retaliation for his planned treaty with the Danorans. 
  Hoping to cow the fey with technology, high-level officials in Risur 
  and Danor are cooperating to construct a colossal golem. Of course 
  common people would balk, and discovery by the fey would be disas-
  trous, so secrecy is critical.
  Macbannin coordinates the myriad elements that must work in 
  the normal world to let Quital do his construction in the Bleak Gate. 
  This includes working with crime boss Lorcan Kell to smuggle the 
  necessary components into the Bleak Gate without raising any red 
  flags, intimidating uncooperative factory owners to change their 
  minds, and making sure investigations into mysterious happenings 
  yield no results.
  Macbannin carefully insulates himself from direct involvement, 
  typically sending messages through his butler Cillian Creed, a 
  retired spy whose mastery of disguise conceals horrid physical cor-
  ruption from a failed experiment involving Bleak Gate energies.
  Of late, Creed has hired the services of a pair of red dragonborn 
  arsonists from Ber, Eberardo and Valando. When a factory pro-
  duces something Quital needs for his colossus but which the owner 
  is unwilling to part with, he is likely to find his house aflame, or 
  his business ignited. An outsider will offer to buy the factory while 
  it burns, after which firefighters rush to put out the blaze. These 
  new owners — proxies of Lorcan Kell — are of course cooperative to 
  Macbannin’s interests.
  While Quital constructs the metal titan, Macbannin is research-
  ing his own way to aid the defense of Risur. Since fey magic is not 
  trusted, Macbannin is repurposing the dark magic of the Cauldron 
  Hill witches to fuel the mighty golem. He has found a way to mass 
  produce a liquid manifestation of the Bleak Gate, called witchoil. 
  When people die, normally their souls linger in the Bleak Gate for 
  a time before passing on, but if a person dies near a vial of witchoil, 
  their soul is trapped in the fluid instead of passing into the plane of 
  the dead. When the oil is burned, the soul is consumed, making it 
  a potent power source. Macbannin has arranged to stash witchoil 
  vials throughout many factories, which are naturally prone to in-
  dustrial accidents. Meanwhile he refines an ever larger supply of 
  the substance in a secret facility hidden beneath his manor on Caul-
  dron Hill. Macbannin doesn’t believe a soul has much worth after 
  death, and so has no qualms trapping and annihilating souls of the 
  deceased to help the living.
  Adventure Overview
  The PCs get called in to investigate the death of Nilasa Hume, who 
  perished while trying to steal from the Danoran consulate. Her 
  manner of death suggests a connection to the fey terrorist Gale, 
  but the Danoran security Chief Julian LeBrix is under orders to 
  cover up what actually happened, and tries to make it look like just 
  a normal botched robbery.
  In truth, Nilasa accidentally stumbled upon a cache of docu-
  ments that could reveal Macbannin’s criminal activities, and she 
  was killed by Mayor Macbannin’s aid, Cillian Creed, who was at 
  the consulate for other business. Unfortunately for Macbannin and 
  Creed, just before Nilasa died she handed off the stolen documents 
  to a man who fled the scene.
  This man, Dr. Wolfgang von Recklinghausen, has no connection 
  to any of the major players in the adventure, and was just an in-
  nocent bystander who panicked and ran. Once he discovered what 
  he’d been handed he hid in The Nettles, hoping to shake pursuit and 
  arrange for passage out of the country.
  Cillian Creed, the Killer but Not the Villain
  Reed Macbannin, the Villain but Not the Killer
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 5
  Introduction
  The PCs set out to find the doctor and figure out what Nilasa 
  was up to. By tracing Nilasa’s connections they learn of a smug-
  gling operation bringing in magic items to arm Gale’s allies. Clues 
  from various sources lead to a confrontation with wand smugglers 
  in Flint’s harbor. After a battle that fields barely-controlled magic 
  wand blasts, the party captures a few Family toughs. Soon thereaf-
  ter they are contacted by Morgan Cippiano, who offers to help the 
  party out with their larger investigation in exchange for letting off 
  his people.
  Another thread of Nilasa’s activities leads them to Heward 
  Sechim, a man who runs a factory producing alchemical acid, and 
  who was friends with Nilasa. Sechim, who despite owning a factory 
  is opposed to Danoran presence in Risur, defends Nilasa as a good 
  young woman.
  Heward can get the party in touch with Nevard Sechim, 
  Heward’s sickly old uncle and a once-renowned skyseer. Nevard is 
  highly respected by Gale, and if the party is willing to help him, 
  he can get them a meeting with her. Nevard wants to climb above 
  the smog cloaking the city to see the stars again; he hopes a vision 
  will help soothe the unrest in the streets. But the only place to get 
  a clear view within the city is the top of Cauldron Hill, said to be 
  haunted and thus prohibited, except by permission of the mayor of 
  The Nettles, Reed Macbannin.
  When the party goes to Macbannin, he agrees to let Nevard up 
  the mountain, and encourages them to go with the old man as de-
  fense against the evil spirits. In truth he hopes to arrange for their 
  deaths and thus end their investigation; simultaneously he sends 
  his red dragonborn arsonists to destroy Heward Sechim’s factory 
  so he won’t be able to point any other constables this way. When the 
  party survives Macbannin’s ploy, Nevard receives several visions, 
  one of which guides them to thwart the arson just in time. Macban-
  nin, of course, pretends to be pleased they survived the dangers of 
  the mountain, while secretly planning another way to thwart them.
  Nevard arranges for Gale to meet with the PCs on safe ground. 
  She claims they have a common enemy, and shares her hunches and 
  limited knowledge of a secret group operating in the Bleak Gate, 
  which she think has ties to the Danorans. If the party doesn’t try to 
  arrest her, she gives them a spell that will let them track the trace 
  “scent” of a person who has traveled into the Bleak Gate. She says 
  she used the spell at the Danoran consulate the night after Nilasa’s 
  death, and sensed traces of dark energy. Though the range is lim-
  ited, it can point the party toward possible suspects.
  The final thread is Dr. von Recklinghausen. Various avenues give 
  the party a chance to track down the good doctor, who has hired 
  some of Lorcan Kell’s own thugs as protection. The party can find 
  von Recklinghausen in an abandoned Clergy church in The Nettles, 
  where he has hidden the documents Nilasa gave him. The doctor 
  says that he read the documents and found references to a substance 
  he recognized as “witchoil.” The documents, he says, were written 
  by the Danoran security chief Julian LeBrix.
  Before the party can bring the doctor in, however, Cillian Creed 
  tries to ambush the party and steal the documents. If that fails, 
  Leone Quital traps them inside and threatens to blow them up un-
  less they hand over the doctor and the documents. The party has to 
  find a way to escape.
  LeBrix reveals that months ago he was investigating strange 
  goings-on in Danoran-funded factories. He thought they might 
  have been caused by sabotage by Gale, but instead he stumbled upon 
  strange vials of witchoil, stashed in dozens of factories. He wanted 
  to find out what they were, but was told by his superiors to end his 
  investigation. The party realizes that someone is using the deaths 
  of factory workers as a way to gather energy for some nefarious 
  purpose. With the information from the document Nilasa stole as 
  a starting point, it might be possible to figure out who’s behind it.
  With evidence of larger goings-on, but no clear idea of who is 
  responsible, the party gets guidance from Nevard the skyseer, who 
  says he will present his visions and interpretations of what they 
  mean at a large rally. Dockers, factory workers, and thousands of 
  townsfolk attend, making security nearly impossible, but the party 
  gets clues in advance that the same group who killed Nilasa and 
  tried to recover the documents will target Nevard. Magically-al-
  tered great cats, infused with shadow energy, attack and create a 
  panic, and it’s up to the PCs to save the skyseer, or to listen to the 
  revelations on his dying breaths.
  Ultimately, with a combination of evidence and aid from Ne-
  vard, Gale, Morgan Cippiano, the documents Nilasa stole, and 
  interrogating the arson brothers, the party is able to link Reed 
  Macbannin to the whole plot. When they go to take him into cus-
  tody, however, the strange tremors that have been shaking the city 
  for weeks finally erupt into a massive earthquake, releasing huge 
  torrents of witchoil that Macbannin was collecting and refining. As 
  the mountain starts to break apart around them, the witchoil flood 
  threatens the slums of The Nettles, forcing the PCs to decide what’s 
  more important — saving thousands of innocent lives, or capturing 
  Macbannin.
  Combat-Hungry Players?
  The first Zeitgeist adventure started with a bang (possibly which 
  annihilated the party in an explosion of steamship parts). This ad-
  venture takes a slower pace, and players who are eager for combat 
  might get impatient.
  You might try adding a bit of random action early on, perhaps 
  moving the Fog of War encounter (Part 2, Thread 2: Gale) to the 
  start of the adventure, as part of an unrelated case. When the party 
  comes back to the RHC office they get news of the murder, and so 
  the mystery begins.
  You know best what your players will enjoy, but give them a 
  chance to get involved in the mystery. They might discover that they 
  like challenging their investigative skills as much as challenging their 
  combat build.
  
  6 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Introduction
  Running an Investigation
  A mystery is more complicated to run than a dungeon crawl, but af-
  ter you’ve read through the adventure you should have a clear sense 
  of which groups and individuals want what, and how their goals are 
  interconnected. The PCs’ initial mission should be to use Nilasa as 
  a lead to track down Gale, but as they follow the clues it becomes 
  clear that her death is connected to something more dangerous 
  than the fey terrorist.
  RHC Protocol.
  To help structure the PCs’ investigations, you might suggest the 
  following pattern. Since there are no phones (and magical com-
  munication is rare and expensive), Royal Homeland Constabulary 
  protocol for these sorts of cases encourages constables to start each 
  day at headquarters in Central district. Their personal office will 
  probably have some sort of slate board marked with names of key fig-
  ures, locations, and events, with arrows tracing their connections.
  Each morning the group gets together at the office, files reports 
  about the previous day, and makes plans for which leads they want 
  to follow. If that entails splitting up, they can either meet up at the 
  office the next morning, or set a meeting place and time, typically 
  a district police station but possibly the home or business of one of 
  the PCs’ contacts.
  Elements of the investigation are time-sensitive, while other 
  events happen in response to the PCs finding the right clue or 
  catching the attention of the wrong person. The adventure starts 
  on the 1st day of summer, and you’ll want to keep track of what day 
  it is. If you want to keep close track of time, consider that it typically 
  takes an hour to travel from the center of one district to the center 
  of an adjacent one if going by foot, or half an hour by carriage.
  It’s not a hard and fast rule that the party must return to the of-
  fice each day, but bringing them back here gives them a clear sense 
  of the passage of days, and reminds them that they have resources 
  at their disposal. It also provides you a convenient time to hand 
  out new information or messages; witnesses or requisitioned items 
  can be waiting for the PCs at the RHC offices at the end of each 
  working day.
  Plus, their boss Assistant Chief Inspector Stover Delft reads 
  their daily reports, so he has a record and can tell his higher ups 
  what’s going on. This can give you an excuse as the GM to have an 
  NPC remind the PCs to follow up on a clue they may have neglected.
  Finally, in Adventure Three, Digging for Lies, action occurs in 
  the office, and it will have greater impact if the party is familiar 
  with the place.
  What If?
  It’s fine for the PCs to take a different route to tracking down 
  Macbannin than we assume, but if your players come up with a 
  way that might solve the mystery early — like by breaking into the 
  Danoran consulate and seeking documents like the ones Nilasa 
  stole, or by catching and mind-controlling Cillian Creed during a 
  combat encounter —you might need to tweak things if you want to 
  still make use of the rest of the adventure.
  Don’t make their efforts pointless, but try adjusting what in-
  formation they yield so that the party gets some clues, instead of 
  getting all the answers. Perhaps the consular kept documents in 
  his safe that list various factories that are cooperating in “the proj-
  ect” and how much they’re being paid, but they make no mention 
  of Reed Macbannin. They might even reference Cillian Creed as 
  “that old disfigured spy,” but if the PCs try to find out who fits that 
  description, you can justifiably say it takes a few days to track down 
  the answer. Then, when the party is already in the thick of Thread 
  Four: Conspiracy, their research bears fruit and they realize, gasp, 
  that old disfigured spy is Macbannin’s butler!
  Of course, if you want a game where verisimilitude is more im-
  portant than “adventure,” let the players solve the case, commend 
  them on their daring and clever plans, and move on to actually stop-
  ping the bad guys. Evidence might get stolen, witnesses might be 
  killed in their cell, and the PCs will have to find more solid proof 
  before they accuse a respected politician of being a mad scientist.
  Contacts and Informants.
  As detailed in the Zeitgeist Player’s Guide, before the start of this 
  adventure, you should ask each of the players to pick two districts 
  and come up with a contact their character has in those districts.
  This contact could be a friend or family member, a criminal in-
  formant, an ex-lover, a merchant whose shop the PC frequents, a 
  minor noble who owes the PC a favor, a religious figure, or many 
  other options. These NPCs help connect the PCs to the city, and 
  provide you an easy way to set the scene whenever the party first 
  goes to a particular district to investigate, or at any time when they 
  need to call in a favor (see Prestige in Part Two of the Zeitgeist 
  Player’s Guide).
  Throughout the adventure, the PCs will seek clues in four dif-
  ferent threads of a mystery. Often their search will require skill 
  checks. At your discretion, if a particular PC has a contact that 
  could be useful in finding information about a particular thread, 
  you could grant the PC advantage on appropriate skill checks or 
  perhaps even provide the occasional automatic success.
  This gives slight benefit to PCs who have contacts of the unsa-
  vory, criminal sort, so look for creative opportunities to make use 
  of more mainstream contacts.
  Investigator’s Best Friend.
  Remember that the players don’t know what’s in this adventure. 
  Your job is to keep them engaged, to provide useful cues as to when 
  they’re on the right track, and to ensure the adventure doesn’t be-
  come unsatisfying because the players decide to follow a few bad 
  hunches.
  When a PC goes looking for clues, if you call for a skill check, gen-
  erally a success should mean they easily get useful information (i.e., 
  an informant knows what they want), and a failure means they have 
  to deal with a challenge (i.e., an informant points them to a shady 
  meeting where they can get what they need). Don’t let a failed check 
  dead-end the investigation.
  Likewise, if a PC goes looking for clues in the wrong place, if pos-
  sible try to find a way to nudge them in the right direction. If he goes 
  looking for Dr. von Recklinghausen in local hospitals, rather than 
  just saying he finds nothing, perhaps another doctor mentions that 
  sick people in The Nettles aren’t going to charity clinics as often.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 7
  Introduction
  Adventure Layout
  The Dying Skyseer’s plot has a precise beginning and climax, but 
  the middle of the adventure can take many different paths. We 
  roughly divide events into an introduction, four threads of in-
  vestigation, and a climax. Each investigation thread has several 
  prominent scenes, but the precise order the PCs reach them de-
  pends on their choices.
  An easy way for you as GM to keep track of the plot is to think 
  of the different threads as smaller individual adventures that occa-
  sionally link together. Completing each of the three initial threads 
  (involving Smugglers, Gale, and The Doctor) provides key clues to 
  the fourth thread (Conspiracy). Once the PCs complete that thread, 
  they’ll be able to identify Reed Macbannin as the main villain, and 
  the Climax details how they can take him out.
  You should encourage the players to keep notes of their PCs’ in-
  vestigations. This is almost critically necessary if you don’t meet 
  weekly.
  Scene Layout.
  Each scene is presented in a format of Title, keywords, and tag-line. 
  Keywords include:
  Scene Type: Action, Exploration, Exposition, Puzzle, Social, or 
  Hybrid.
  Duration: Montage (a few hours or days), Real-time (a few min-
  utes), or Tactical (round-by-round).
  NPC Roster
  More detailed entries are included throughout the adventure close 
  to the characters’ first appearances.
  NPC Roster
  NPC Entry
  Part 
  Assistant Chief Inspector Stover Delft
  Part 1
  Nilasa Hume
  Part 1
  Consulate Security Chief Julian LeBrix
  Part 1
  Thames Grimsley
  Part 1
  Morgan Cippiano
  Part 1
  Heward Sechim
  Part 2
  Skyseer Nevard Sechim
  Part 2
  Cillian Creed
  Part 2
  Hana “Gale” Soliogn
  Part 2
  Lorcan Kell
  Part 2
  Dr. Wolfgang von Recklinghausen
  Part 2
  Leone Quital
  Part 3
  Eberardo and Valando
  Part 3
  Mayor Reed Macbannin
  Part 3
  Recurring Characters.
  Stover Delft, Morgan Cippiano, Lorcan Kell, Leone Quital, and 
  Gale all play prominent roles in later adventures. All other NPCs 
  that appear in this adventure might recur in minor roles, but feel 
  free to do with them as you wish. If anyone important dies, you can 
  replace them with someone thematically similar.
  Rewards
  At the end of this adventure, their Prestige with Flint should in-
  crease, though if they act unheroically it might stay flat, or even 
  drop if they dramatically screw up. As long as they solve the case, 
  their Prestige with Risur and with the Obscurati increases one step.
  If the party proves to be useful allies or staunch enemies for the fey 
  terrorist Gale, their Prestige with the Unseen Court could increase 
  one step. Likewise, involvement with Family representative Morgan 
  Cippiano can increase their Prestige with the Clergy. See Part Two 
  of the Zeitgeist Player’s Guide for details of the Prestige system 
  and how the PCs can use it to request items and call in favors.
  At the start of the adventure, the PCs each receive 1,500 gp. They 
  should get another 2,500 gp shortly after they reach 5th level. This 
  represents a mixture of salary and stipend for their investigation.
  If the PCs are free agents instead of members of the RHC, you’ll 
  need to make sure they receive appropriate treasure. One possible 
  mix would be:
  Start of Adventure. Payment of 200 gp total as payment (from 
  dockers or Heward Sechim who want to know about Nilasa’s death), 
  up to three magic items possessed by NPCs, and 200 gp apiece of 
  incidental loot (from the smugglers or other criminals). Most of 
  Other Constables.
  If you need the PCs to interact with their coworkers, remember 
  that most constables are busy with their own cases, and are fairly 
  low level anyway. But if you want to set up friendships or rivalries, 
  here’s a sample group of other RHC Constables. See the Character 
  Themes in Part One of the Zeitgeist Player’s Guide for information 
  on these NPCs’ themes.
  •	 Carlao, human Yerasol veteran knight.
  •	 Serena, human technologist assassin (spy).
  •	 Kaea, high elf skyseer evoker (mage).
  •	 Dima, dwarf eschatologist priest.
  •	 Josiah, human gunslinger (scout with two pistols).
  •	 Gaethan, half-elf spirit medium ranger (scout).
  Carlao is the nominal head of the group, but Serena is the brains 
  and face. She and Kaea get along like sisters, but both have their 
  eyes on Carlao. Dima has a bizarre joy for filing paperwork, while Jo-
  siah fills the stock role of “quiet loner sniper.” Gaethan styles himself 
  a cunning investigator, and he keeps a small book full of names of 
  just about every person, place, or thing that has come up in a case.
  Currently the group is assigned to investigate a group of Drakran 
  eschatologists who have recently gained the ears of several politi-
  cians. The RHC suspects they are trying to recover relics from the 
  old demonocracy. If you wish to foreshadow future adventures, 
  these radicals play a prominent role in Adventure Five, and their 
  founder, philosopher Grandis Komanov, eventually becomes a major 
  threat in Adventure Eleven.
  Pacing and Leveling.
  The adventure can take many routes, and we discourage precise XP 
  tracking, so when should you level the party? The party starts this 
  adventure at 4th level, and should rise to 5th level when they have 
  completed the adventure.
  
  8 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Introduction
  the magic items being smuggled in would be seized by authorities 
  unless the party is very clever at hiding them.
  At 5th Level. Four magic items possessed by NPCs, 250 gp to-
  tal in thanks from Heward Sechim for saving his factory (or as a 
  bounty on the arsonists), and 250 gp apiece in loot from the Bosum 
  Strand warehouse fight.
  Handouts
  The following pages are dedicated to handouts that the GM and 
  players can use. GM handouts are simply useful “cheat sheets,” like 
  the dramatis personae, whereas the player handouts are record 
  sheets and in-universe documents. Use these as you see fit.
  Final Word Before We Start
  This is a detail-rich, multi-layered adventure. Your players will in-
  evitably outwit you and find some way to short-circuit the expected 
  path of the investigation, but that’s fine. Just make sure that the key 
  players don’t reveal the existence of the colossus and that Gover-
  nor Stanfield’s role in the plot remains hidden; anything else is fair 
  game. After all, the PCs are supposed to win. We’re just trying to 
  make the chase challenging enough to be fun.
  Character Themes.
  Each Zeitgeist adventure includes one or more scenes that bring the 
  PCs’ character themes (detailed in Part One of the Zeitgeist Player’s 
  Guide) to the forefront.
  Dockers should be welcomed in the Thinking Man’s Tavern (page 21) 
  and the various riots and protests throughout the city. Thames Grimsley 
  might invite a docker constable to speak at the rally (see Thread Four: 
  The Conspiracy in Part Three of this adventure).
  Eschatologists have a chance to talk philosophy at the Thinking Man’s 
  Tavern (page 21). The Proper Ending theme feat can help immensely in 
  battling the lizardfolk arsonists (see Thread Four: The Conspiracy in 
  Part Three of this adventure).
  Gunsmiths who befriend security chief Julian LeBrix can learn how 
  to create magical firearm ammunition called vendetta bullets (page 10). 
  Also, the ship-to-ship wand battle (page 33) provides a great opportu-
  nity for prolonged ranged combat.
  Martial Scientists can learn the surgical precision attack from Dr. von 
  Recklinghausen (page 10), and can meet a fellow scientist, Lieutenant 
  Dale (see Thread Two: Gale in Part Two of this adventure).
  Skyseers give the party an easier path to contact the skyseer Nevard, 
  and they receive prominent visions atop Cauldron Hill (see Thread Two: 
  Gale in Part Two of this adventure).
  Spirit Mediums can learn a great deal from the spirit of Nilasa Hume 
  (page 20), and they might sense from afar the shrieking souls trapped 
  inside vials of witchoil, particularly during the creation of the flayed jag-
  uars (see Thread Four: The Conspiracy in Part Three of this adventure).
  Technologists can find like-minded souls in the Thinking Man’s Tav-
  ern (page 21), and have the best chance to stop the witchoil avalanche 
  in the climax (see Climax: Macbannin’s Manor in Part Three of this 
  adventure.).
  Vekeshi Mystics start the adventure with a special mission to protect 
  Gale, and to recruit her for a mission of assassination (see Thread Two: 
  Gale in Part Two of this adventure).
  Yerasol Veterans will naturally receive the focus of attention from 
  journalists after various high-profile deeds, and will receive a special 
  visit from Cillian Creed (see Thread Three: The Doctor in Part Two of 
  this adventure.).
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 9
  Introduction
  Permission is granted to photocopy this page for personal use only.
  Player Handout: Notable Locations in Adventure Two.
  
  10 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Introduction
   Permission is granted to photocopy this page for personal use only.
  Player Handout: New Items.
  New Training.
  Surgical Precision
  Martial training, rare
  Requirement: Dr. von Recklinghausen can only teach this 
  technique to a character with the Martial Scientist theme.
  Once per encounter, you may gain advantage on all attacks 
  for one turn. During this round, your attacks deal an addi-
  tional 1d6 points of damage. If you are a rogue, this damage 
  counts as sneak attack damage.
  New Spell.
  Detect Planar Energy
  The energy drifts to you like a fragrance on a breeze. You spin and 
  locate the strongest source of the smell, then set out.
  1st-level divination (ritual)
  Casting Time 1 action
  Range: 1 mile
  Components: V,S
  Duration: 1 hour
  Choose a plane you have visited, or otherwise have had con-
  tact with. For the spell’s duration you can sense the direction 
  to and intensity of energies from that plane, to a maximum 
  range of one mile. These energies tend to fade after a few hours 
  or days, but it is possible to track creatures native to other 
  planes by following their trails.
  The spell can be foiled by strong sources of energy from the 
  same or other planes. For instance, Cauldron Hill in Flint is 
  a powerful beacon of shadow energy, so you would be unable 
  to pinpoint any sort of foreign energy there, not even fey or 
  elemental energy.
  Aeriad Bracers
  Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)
  Made from the shafts and fletching of arrows, aeriad bracers 
  give you slight control over objects in flight. When you fall while 
  wearing these bracers, you descend 60 feet per round and take no 
  damage from falling. While falling, you can also glide 5 feet hori-
  zontally for every 10 feet you descend.
  Additionally, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with a short-
  bow or longbow.
  Canary in a Coal Mine
  Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)
  From a gold chain dangles a tiny pendant in the shape of a ca-
  nary, but it turns black as coal in the presence of danger. If you are 
  surprised, attacks against you during the first round of combat are 
  made with disadvantage.
  You can cast fly on yourself with a duration of 1 round. Once used, 
  you cannot cast it in this way again until next dawn.
  Malice-Wrought Weapon
  Weapon, rare
  Deadly sharp, this weapon has no adornments, radiates no magic, 
  and appears tarnished and lifeless. A Malice-wrought weapon does 
  not radiate magic and its enhancement bonus does not fade in anti-
  magic zones or in specialized areas of null magic, such as Danor.
  If you score a critical hit against an Unnatural creature (crea-
  tures with the aberration, celestial, fiend, or undead type), the 
  creature cannot see you, as though they were under the affects of an 
  invisibility spell, until you attack again or 10 minutes pass.
  Vendetta Bullet
  Weapon, rare
  When a man escapes murder or suffers the death of those he 
  cares for, he can etch the name of the ones responsible onto am-
  munition, giving physical form to his vengeful desires.
  These bullets can only be created if you owe fierce vengeance to 
  an enemy, and even then you can only create one vendetta bullet 
  per enemy, and only if you know the enemy’s name. You can never 
  create a second vendetta bullet against the same person, and if you 
  pass the bullet to someone else, a given shooter can only ever benefit 
  from one such bullet per target. These bullets can be created by 
  people with no magical training; their creation only requires an in-
  tense will for revenge. Any bullet can be made into a vendetta bullet.
  When you fire this bullet and are targeting the creature whose 
  name is etched on the bullet, if you hit, the attack is a critical hit. If 
  you miss, you instead get a normal hit. If a vendetta bullet has been 
  used against a given target in an encounter, no other vendetta bul-
  lets will be effective against the target for the rest of that encounter, 
  even if they’re fired by other people.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 11
  Introduction
  Permission is granted to photocopy this page for personal use only.
  Player Handout: Nilasa’s Criminal File.
  Person of Interest Information Request
   
  Request Number: 3217
   
  Customer: Royal Homeland Constabulary
   
  Name: Nilasa Hume
   
  Birthdate: 26 Spring, 471
   
  Criminal ID Number: 24680
   
  Jurisdiction: Flint Division of Peace and Order
   
  Race: Mularbora (human/elf)
   
  Sex: Female
   
  Height: 68 inches
   
  Accent: Flinter
   
  Hair: Black
   
  Eyes: Green
   
  Known Spellcaster: No
   
  Known Aliases: No
   Present Place of Residence: 47 Magazine Street. Parity Lake. Flint. Sechim’s Alkahest & Etchings. 
  Factory--workplace and home.
   
  Other Places of Residence: (1) (Alleged) 3.6 miles east on Batata Road. 0.4 miles south on Flog-
  ging Lagoon trail. Cloudwood. Greater Flint County. Flogging Lagoon 
  musician commune--transient lodging (departed Spring 499).
   
   (2) 82K Fogwall Street. Parity Lake. Flint. Shared building--mother’s 
  home (demolished Winter 495).
   
  Arrest Record: (Juvenile) Juvenile records forgiven in accordance with Stanfield’s 
  Matriculation Act of 328. Record notes “various petty thefts, confi-
  dence capers, details lost during Parity Lake central office relocation.”
   
   Supporting Criminal Activities. (Misdemeanor.) 
  Case no. 8176. (85 Spring, 500.) 
  Released on bail, sponsored by Heward Sechim (47 Magazine Street, 
  Parity Lake). Court date set for 4 Summer, 500. 
  Suspect was picked up in a raid of a known den of criminals, located 
  12 Oxen Street, Parity Lake. Suspect in presence of two men whom the 
  arresting officer recognized as former accomplices--Ford Sorghum and 
  Travis Starter. Lack of official records detailing affiliation prevented 
  holding of suspect. Alleged accomplices pled guilty to various warrants 
  and were remanded to Goodson’s Estuarial Reformatory.
   Attached Continuation Sheets: -0-
  
  12 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Introduction
   Permission is granted to photocopy this page for personal use only.
  Player Handout: People of Interest.
  Hana “Gale” Soliogn. According to an interview she gave when she 
  first arrived in Flint a year ago, Hana is an eladrin woman just over 
  100 years old. She spent most of her life as the property of House 
  Soliogn, a family of Danoran mine owners. Having always felt an 
  affinity to the fey history of Risur, she fled and found her way to 
  Flint, where she was sheltered by druids in the Cloudwood. Soon 
  she manifested the ability to fly, a power latent in the dead magic 
  zone of Danor.
  She professed a hatred toward Danor, and shortly thereafter wit-
  nesses began to place her at scenes of factory and ship sabotages, a 
  massacre of railroad surveyors, and a botched assassination attempt 
  against tax collector Kane Westman. After Duchess Ethelyn’s trea-
  son against the king three months ago, Gale sent a letter to several 
  papers supporting the duchess, and condemning Danor, but also 
  denying her responsibility in the surveyor massacre. Since then her 
  acts of sabotage have increased in frequency.
  Thames Grimsley. A grizzled sailor, still with a full head of hair in 
  his early 50s, Grimsley acts as head of a new dock workers union 
  in Flint. Though he only worked the docks in his youth, Grimsley 
  spent decades sailing — primarily as captain of a ferry service in 
  Flint’s harbor, but with a stint in the navy during the last Yerasol 
  War. He took a gash from a policeman’s knife on the side of his face 
  in the last big docker riot. He has a very stylized public speaking 
  voice, one full of unnecessary, melodramatic pauses.
  Recently he tried to speak with Governor Stanfield about im-
  proving dockers’ conditions. Grimsley is alleged to be negotiating 
  with Parity Lake factory workers to develop a union for them.
  Lorcan Kell. Alleged head of a thieves’ guild based somewhere in 
  eastern Parity Lake. Once a simple enforcer, he recruited allies 
  and established himself as a power player. The Kell guild is said 
  to be responsible for great amounts of industrial smuggling, petty 
  theft and extortion, burglary, and murder for hire. His guild has no 
  reported history of arson, so the current best suspect of the recent 
  spate of fires is Gale.
  Assistant Chief Inspector Stover Delft. A local Flinter in his early 
  40s, Delft is your direct superior. He chews tobacco, and thinks 
  he looks charming if he grins while sucking on tobacco juices. He 
  walks with a cane because a mimic tore a chunk out of his leg fifteen 
  years ago. He has a habit of poking inanimate objects with the cane 
  before he gets too close to them, and spitting on them when he 
  wants to be extra sure.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 13
  Introduction
  Permission is granted to photocopy this page for personal use only.
  NPC Quick Reference for the GM.
   
  • Assistant Chief Inspector Stover Delft. Party’s boss. Chews tobacco. Cane. Spits. Good-natured.
   
  • Nilasa Hume. Dead, but formerly upbeat, spirited, pretty. People wanted to impress her.
   
  • Consular Security Chief Julian LeBrix. War veteran. Squinty and cautious. Wears a pistol. Too curious 
  for own good. Investigated Danoran factories, but was told to stop by superiors.
   
  • Thames Grimsley. Grizzled sailor. Leads docker union. Dislikes police. Oratorical, theatrical speech 
  patterns. Pause for dramatic effect a lot.
   
  • Morgan Cippiano. Leads Flint branch of Family. Bald. Gravelly voice. Wears hook pendant of the Clergy. 
  Talks fashion. Very reasonable and friendly. Wants to “trade favors.”
   
  • Heward Sechim. Alchemist and tinkerer. Heavy gloves with acid burns. Owns factory where Nilasa lived. 
  Quirky and charmingly reckless, but generous to his workers. Harassed by criminals.
   
  • Skyseer Nevard Sechim. Days away from dying of old age. Too old to waste time sparing people’s 
  feelings. A bit rascally. Blind in bright light. Chest-length beard. Remembers a century of history, but 
  prefers to talk about the future. Asks people what they look forward to.
   
  • Mayor Reed Macbannin. Politician. Phenomenal liar. Likes to feign anger or shock, then switch to a 
  winning smile to defuse situations with a laugh. Wears defensive necklace relic. Master of defense against 
  the dark arts. Knows curses from Cauldron Hill witches. Under geas so he cannot talk about colossus plot.
   
  • Cillian Creed. Former spy. Experiment-gone-awry infused him with Bleak Gate energy, melted his face. 
  Hides behind magical disguises, but can attack through shadows. Usually incorporeal. Flees early in an 
  encounter. Patriot who’d kill his own mother to protect Risur.
   
  • Hana “Gale” Soliogn. Eladrin with wind magic. Flies constantly; supposedly impossible by most theories 
  of magic. Was owned by a Danoran family with mining wealth. Uses terror and sabotage to hinder 
  influence of Danor in Risur. Seeks approval of the Unseen Court.
   
  • Lorcan Kell. Leader of thieves’ guild. Ugly face. Fancy clothes and top hat. Lots of hidden knives. 
  Torments “good” people by threatening to harm them if they try to stop innocents being tortured. Not too 
  clever. Relies on minions to run his guild.
   
  • Dr. Wolfgang von Recklinghausen. Surgeon-mage from malice state of Arrovia. On the run from a 
  monster he created. Deadly precise with a sword. Goattee. Well-dressed. Apologetic and distrustful.
   
  • Leone Quital. Crisillyiri aristocrat. Head of colossus construction. Telekinetic control of metal. Clothing 
  woven with metal strands. Savors fine cheese, particularly bromago. Arrogant. No sense of honor.
   
  • Eberardo. Red dragonborn arsonist warrior. Deep voice. Red scales. Huge sword. Not too proud to run. 
  Loyal to brother Valando.
   
  • Valando. Red dragonborn arsonist pyromancer. Raspy voice. Red scales. Muscular for a wizard. Always 
  keeps an eye out for an escape route. Loyal to brother Eberardo.
  
  14 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Introduction
   Permission is granted to photocopy this page for personal use only.
  Investigation Guide for the GM.
   
  • Timeline. The adventure begins on the 1st day of summer. Keep 
  track of how much time the PCs spend because some events 
  occur on set days. The wand smuggler meeting, for instance, 
  occurs the night of the 4th, and the villains find Wolfgang on the 
  7th if the party hasn’t yet. If the party dallies, the earthquake 
  atop Cauldron Hill strikes on the 10th.
   
  • Main Villains. Reed Macbannin refines witchoil as fuel for the 
  colossus. Witchoil is liquid essence of the Bleak Gate, and it 
  captures souls of those who die nearby, then releases them when 
  burnt. Macbannin’s butler Cillian Creed is former spy, master of 
  disguise, and does Macbannin’s dirty work.
   
  • Minor Villains. Lorcan Kell runs thieves’ guild, smuggles to aid 
  Macbannin. Leone Quital handles construction of colossus in 
  Bleak Gate. Both get come-uppance in later adventures.
   
  • Danoran Consulate (page 15). Nilasa killed by Creed while 
  trying to fly out fourth-floor window, suggesting connection to 
  Gale. Dr. von Recklinghausen fled with documents Nilasa stole, 
  but Danorans pretend no such documents exist. Alchemical 
  examination of Nilasa’s effects points to Waryeye’s Alchemicals. 
  Nilasa’s boyfriend knew she frequented Thinking Man’s Tavern. 
  Her criminal history lists her residence as Sechim’s Alkahest 
  & Etchings, and mentions accomplices in Goodson’s Estuarial 
  Reformatory.
   
  • Thinking Man’s Tavern (page 21). Jered Lawman, halfling 
  bard, visited Cloudwood brigands with Nilasa. Hennet Rinus, 
  philosophy/archaeology student, wrote letters for Nilasa to 
  Morgan Cippiano about arranging business meetings.
   
  • Goodson’s Estuarial Reformatory (page 24). Nilasa’s 
  accomplices know about “House Elf” smuggling contact, and that 
  Nilasa was acquiring weapons for Gale.
   
  • Waryeye’s Alchemicals/House Elf (page 25). Married gnome 
  couple provided magic for Nilasa’s activities. They know location 
  of wharf smugglers will set out from, and when.
   
  • Smuggler’s Night (page 30). Ship sets out from Pine Island to 
  meet in Ayres with Crisillyiri merchant ship. Picks up cache of 
  stolen wands, which would be split with Family and Gale.
   
  • Sechim’s Alkahest & Etchings (Part 2, Thread 2: Gale). 
  Heward Sechim knew Nilasa was getting into trouble. He wants 
  the party to talk with his uncle, skyseer Nevard in the Cloudwood, 
  since the old man might be able to talk down Gale. Sechim also 
  has been harassed lately by criminals offering “protection.”
   
  • Cloudwood Brigands (Part 2, Thread 2: Gale). Involved in turf 
  war with Lorcan Kell’s gang. Hostile to outsiders.
   
  • Skyseer Nevard (Part 2, Thread 2: Gale). Sick and dying. 
  Knows Gale, but won’t betray her. Wants to spend night on cursed 
  Cauldron Hill to seek vision. If party helps, he’ll arrange meeting 
  with Gale.
   
  • Cauldron Hill — Take One (Part 2, Thread 2: Gale). Nettles 
  district mayor Reed Macbannin lets PCs up, but plots their 
  demise. Seemingly-innocuous smoking courier at his manor when 
  PCs visit; this is secretly Nicodemus, the campaign’s main villain. 
  Macbannin doesn’t notify military of PCs’ ascent.
   
  • Arson (Part 3, Thread 4: The Conspiracy). Creed hired 
  arsonists to endanger factories so Lorcan Kell’s proxies could buy 
  them and help smuggle materials. The night the party goes up 
  Cauldron Hill, Creed sends the arsonists to burn down Sechim’s 
  factory. Arsonists have letters that can be traced back to 
  Macbannin’s manor.
   
  • Chasing the Doctor (Part 2, Thread 3: The Doctor). Creed, 
  disguised as police officer, gets to people before the PCs. Hostel 
  staff saw doctor flee in a hurry. Dr. Barnaby Camp, old mentor to 
  Wolfgang, got a letter saying he was in trouble with Lorcan Kell’s 
  guild. Professor Lynn Kindleton, old love interest of Wolfgang, 
  knows he’s hiding out in The Nettles. Messages passed by Nettles 
  children. Lorcan Kell wants to sell PCs location of doctor, then 
  tells Creed to take them all out.
   
  • Nettles Church (Part 2, Thread 3: The Doctor). Wolfgang hid 
  documents in hole in ceiling. Creed tries to abduct him and get 
  documents. If he fails at either, Leone Quital barricades PCs in 
  and tries to pressure them into handing over what they want. At 
  the end of negotiations, Leone uses explosives to collapse church 
  entrance, but secret exits give PCs chance to survive and escape.
   
  • Stolen Documents (Part 2, Thread 3: The Doctor). Dense 
  financial information that implicates Macbannin in plot to 
  smuggle Danoran industrial material. Also details discovery 
  of witchoil flasks in factories; this was an original test of the 
  substance to see how well it captured souls of workers who died.
   
  • Nevard’s Vision (Part 3, Thread 4: The Conspiracy). Nevard 
  calls rally to share visions of danger centered around Cauldron 
  Hill. Macbannin creates monsters to attack Nevard during 
  event. Temporary lab in Bosum Strand, from which psychic 
  screams emanate, has documents and technicians who can finger 
  Macbannin.
   
  • Cauldron Hill — Take Two (Part 3, Climax: Macbannin’s 
  Manor). Macbannin has witchoil laboratory under his manor. 
  During his arrest, an accident triggers an earthquake. Even if 
  captured, Macbannin tries to fix damage to lab before a flood 
  of witchoil pours out. If PCs mess up efforts to fix the problem, 
  it can cause an explosion that tears off part of the mountain’s 
  north face. Creed tries to ambush party to finish them off during 
  the chaos.
   
  • Abortive Trial (Part 3, Climax: Macbannin’s Manor). 
  Nicodemus comes in spirit form, possesses Macbannin, offers 
  to let him join Obscurati ghost council. Then he shatters 
  Macbannin’s skull and absconds with his soul, so there is no 
  evidence of the plot.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 15
  Prologue: 
  Danoran Consulate
  half of her is in our jurisdiction, which is good for you because the fence 
  she landed on was forty feet from the window. Seems like our young 
  victim thought she could fly.”
  The early summer morning is warm and muggy, and a foul breeze 
  blows a cloak of smog over the normally clear-skied North Shore 
  district. The street that runs past the consulate has no buildings on 
  its opposite side, just beach, but four Flint police officers are try-
  ing to block off access to gawkers. A black coroner’s carriage waits 
  outside the consulate gate; the back door is open, and its driver sits 
  on the slab where a dead body should go, looking bored.
  By the time the party arrives, nearly two hours have passed since 
  the woman’s death. Alfred Bellastair, the officer in charge, looks 
  at his cheap pocket watch as the PCs approach, then impatiently 
  comes forward.
  t
  his act details the characters, events, and 
  clues surrounding the Danoran consulate 
  where Nilasa Hume was murdered. These provide 
  hooks to the four threads of investigation that make 
  up the rest of the adventure.
  On the Fence
  Puzzle/Social. Real-Time.
  The PCs investigate a murder scene.
  If you want to give your players a brief feel for the city of Flint, 
  read or paraphrase the following.
  Forty years ago the city of Flint was a second-tier port, mostly a haven 
  for fishermen and loggers. Still struggling to overcome the stigma of 
  having once been the domain of a perilous coven of witches, Flint was 
  prosperous, but played little role in Risuri affairs.
  Then the Third Yerasol War ended and the new king declared Flint 
  would be his nation’s seat of industry. Mines in the Anthras Mountains 
  poured iron and coal downriver to Flint’s harbor. Old forests within the 
  city limits were clear-cut and factories erected in their place to build 
  guns, refine alchemicals, and forge steel rails and train cars.
  Thousands of immigrants and gold-seeking villagers crowded into 
  shabby flophouses and tenements around the factories; when those 
  were filled, they built new slums on the sides of the city’s steep hills. 
  Smoke and soot poured forth from factories, and criminal elements 
  took root beneath the clouds, growing strong and feeding on the des-
  peration of a new population of workers, prostitutes, and orphans.
  In places, Flint’s historical beauty still endures—in the governor’s 
  island mansion fortress, high atop haunted Cauldron Hill, deep in the 
  breeze-swaying branches of the Cloudwood, and on the bayou planta-
  tions west of Pine Island. And the confluence of people from so many 
  stations has inspired great art and technological innovation. But cracks 
  between competing groups are straining the peace, and all it would take 
  are a few disasters to drive the city apart.
  It’s just before 11 am on the 1st day of Summer, and the PCs are at 
  the main office of the Risuri Homeland Constabulary going over 
  leads in the Gale investigation when their superior, Assistant Chief 
  Inspector Stover Delft, interrupts them.
   “Time for some field work, constables. We just received a delightful 
  report about the perfect lead for you. Young woman, identity unknown, 
  jumps out of the fourth floor window at the Danoran consulate, impales 
  herself on the spires of the compound fence, and perishes. Technically 
  Timeline.
  The adventure begins on the 1st day of summer. Keep track of how 
  much time the PCs spend because some events occur on set days. 
  The wand smuggler meeting encounter “Smuggler’s Night,” for in-
  stance, occurs the night of the 4th, and the villains find Wolfgang on 
  the 7th if the party hasn’t yet. If the party dallies, the earthquake 
  atop Cauldron Hill strikes on the 10th.
  Getting Around in a Hurry.
  In general it takes half an hour to get from the heart of one district 
  to the heart of an adjacent district (not counting The Nettles, which 
  always takes at least an hour or two to pass through). To get to North 
  Shore, the PCs leave the RHC Headquarters in Central and pass 
  through Bosum Strand, meaning the trip takes an hour by carriage.
  However, when the party is about to leave the RHC Headquarters, 
  Delft suggests that they take their boat. Yes, the party has access to 
  a boat—either an excise cutter or a steam cutter, as detailed in Part 
  Two of the Zeitgeist Player’s Guide.
  The trip from HQ to the RHC dock and to a police dock on North 
  Shore only takes half an hour total. That is unless the party angered 
  Thames Grimsley in the previous adventure, in which case they find 
  their ship blocked in by a smug ferryman.
  Bellastair and the Police.
  Bellastair and his three squadmates are willing to help the party for 
  half an hour, but if the party wants them to assist for a few hours 
  or more, such as to help track down leads after their investigation, 
  one PC needs to call in a rank 1 favor with Risur Prestige. To get 
  this help in a timely fashion, the party either needs to start with 
  Risur Prestige 2, or have Prestige 1 and make a successful DC 18 
  Charisma (Intimidation or Persuasion) check.
  Aside from providing a personal face to the PCs interactions with 
  the police, Officer Bellastair plays no special role in the campaign.
  
  16 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Prologue: Danoran Consulate
  “We responded to some panicked witnesses, and by the time the first of our men got 
  here the Danorans had taken the victim off the fence and carried her inside. But 
  everyone had pretty much the same story. They heard gunshots, saw the woman 
  jump out the window, and saw her land on the fence. One scoundrel apparently stole 
  stuff off her body and ran away as she was bleeding out. The Danorans wouldn’t let 
  us inside, but I told them you’d be showing up, and they said they wouldn’t get rid of 
  the body. The guy you want to talk to is the security chief, Julian LeBrix.
  “You can handle the investigation from here without my men, right? We’ve got 
  better things to do than sit around for another hour while the ‘special constables’ 
  drink up the hospitality of the Danorans.”
  The ground trembles beneath your feet, and the crowd grumbles at yet another 
  of the odd tremors that have been going on the past few weeks. Out of the corner 
  of your eye you see a ceiling tile tumble from the roof of the consulate and shatter 
  on the ground.
  The Body.
  The Danoran security chief Julian LeBrix meets the party at the gate to 
  the consulate, while cleaning staff work to scrub blood and viscera off the 
  fence just beside the gate. LeBrix introduces himself, then walks the party 
  in through the courtyard gardens into the entry hall of the consulate. Along 
  the way he says:
  “This is a mess. I took a diplomatic post to avoid having to see blood and death 
  anymore. It has our people shaken up—none of them ever saw war—and so I hope 
  you can take the woman’s body and go quickly. Better for everyone I think if the 
  consular doesn’t have to be bothered. He has more important things on his mind 
  than a burglary. We have treaty negotiations, trade contracts, and you don’t want 
  powerful men thinking about death when they’re deciding our fates, you know?
  “The woman went by the name Nilasa Hume. She’s been in a few times these past 
  few months. Seemed nice enough. She brought us breakfast this morning. One of 
  our security personnel, Braden, was dating her. She used him to case the building, 
  and must have overheard someone talking about upstairs.
  “I noticed she slipped out while everyone else was eating the food she’d brought. 
  A hunch led me upstairs, and I found her slipping gold forks and spoons into her 
  pockets.”
  LeBrix pulls out a small padded bag, then pulls from that a tiny ceramic egg, 
  beautifully decorated with gems and gold.
  “She also had this. It’s worth thousands, and we had it sitting out on display. I saw 
  her, drew my pistol. She ran. I realized she was about to jump out the window. I 
  thought she was trying to kill herself, so I fired and hit her in the leg. Then she 
  jumped. Flew straight through the glass. Now I’m thinking she’s about to escape, so 
  I reload and shoot her in the back. That’s when she fell.
  “That all happened within the consulate grounds. I’m within my rights to have 
  taken these actions, though I wish I hadn’t had to.”
  Consulate secretary Tia Jedeau watches the party as they come in, but she 
  gets back to work when LeBrix tosses a sidelong look at her. LeBrix takes 
  them down a hall and stops outside a storage room.
  “We’re all professionals here,” LeBrix says. “It would help me if you can take the body 
  and leave quickly.”
  Assistant Chief Inspec-
  tor Stover Delft. A local 
  Flinter in his early 40s, Delft 
  gets squinty and condescending 
  when his authority is questioned, 
  but he can recognize talent and 
  good work. Delft chews tobacco, 
  and thinks he looks charming 
  if he grins while sucking on tobacco juices. He walks with 
  a cane because a mimic tore a chunk out of his leg fifteen 
  years ago. He has a habit of poking inanimate objects with 
  the cane before he gets too close to them, and spitting on 
  them when he wants to be extra sure.
  Consulate Security 
  Chief Julian LeBrix. 
  Old, balding, and rheumy-eyed, 
  LeBrix served Danor in the 
  Third Yerasol War, then spent 
  decades as seneschal to various 
  minor nobles. Soft-spoken and 
  forward thinking, LeBrix is 
  still handy with a pistol, but he 
  prefers to anticipate trouble and 
  avoid it. The consulate usually 
  appreciates how smoothly he manages things, but a few 
  months ago his diligence got him in trouble when he found 
  clues to a conspiracy his superiors wanted to keep secret. 
  He locked up the report and now is afraid of losing his job.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 17
  Prologue: Danoran Consulate
  Examination and Investigation.
  Inside the storage room, a bloodied white tablecloth covers Nilasa’s 
  body. Braden sits in a chair beside it, stunned and grieving.
  LeBrix lets the party examine the corpse or ask questions of 
  Braden or other staff, but he stays with them unless they make an 
  effort to distract him. While he’s watching, the consulate staff co-
  operates, but they omit or change certain key details in order to 
  corroborate LeBrix’s story above. (In particular, LeBrix claims he 
  discovered Nilasa during the theft, but in actuality no one knew 
  what was going on until they started to hear gunshots from up-
  stairs.) The security chief also tries to rein them in if they start 
  snooping around the consulate or asking to go upstairs to see where 
  the woman jumped from the window.
  You’ll want to read The Mission and Its Aftermath below so you 
  know what happened and what information the various witnesses 
  have. Then, since this is the party’s first investigation in the cam-
  paign, you might need to guide the players a bit to make sure they 
  check the body, talk to witnesses both in the consulate and on the 
  street, and then follow up on where clues take them.
  The Mission and Its 
  Aftermath
  Three Months Ago.
  Gale asked Nilasa to go undercover. Deploying her natural charm 
  and her cover as an established factory worker, Nilasa convinced 
  a thick-jawed guard at the consulate — Braden Sarkin — to be her 
  boyfriend. After a few weeks of earning the trust of the staff and 
  learning their patterns, she began to opportunistically steal docu-
  ments for Gale. Usually she’d sneak in at night, but she knew the 
  consular’s office was closely watched in the evening, but not as much 
  during the day, so she devised a plan to sneak in during normal 
  business hours.
  One Week Ago.
  Nilasa narrowly avoided being arrested when police raided the 
  seedy home of two of her old burglar buddies — Ford Sorghum and 
  Travis Starter. She had bragged to them about an imminent deal 
  with smugglers to bring in some expensive wands, but so far they 
  haven’t sold her out.
  This Morning.
  9:00 am. While a light drizzle dappled the city, Nilasa breezed into 
  the consulate carrying a box of brigadeiro chocolates she’d picked 
  up at Thinking Man’s Tavern (in Bosum Strand). In the lobby, she 
  briefly chatted with Dr. Wolfgang von Recklinghausen, who was 
  waiting for his visa appointment.
  Nilasa’s boyfriend Braden came to meet her, and she told him 
  she’d brought breakfast for the staff. She made coffee and set out 
  the chocolates for the staff, which drew away the attentions of most 
  of the consulate’s security. After distracting security’s attention 
  with the free food, she used a potion of invisibility to sneak up to the 
  fourth floor office of the consular.
  Meanwhile, Dr. von Recklinghausen spoke with a low-level bu-
  reaucrat, who signed paperwork to get him a travel visa to Ber.
  Simultaneously, Cillian Creed was meeting with the consul-
  ar — Methan duNadria — in a basement chamber. Creed wanted to 
  check on the status of a few factories that produce materiel needed 
  for the construction of the colossus. When his discussion with the 
  consular came to an end, Creed — an experienced spy — immediate-
  ly noticed how the consulate’s security had been drawn away from 
  their posts.
  10:00 am. Nilasa picked the lock to a drawer, grabbed a bundle of 
  files that looked promising, and tucked them into her shoulder bag.
  Creed hurried to the fourth floor, knowing that’s where the 
  consular kept documents that needed to remain secret. He spotted 
  Nilasa and tried to talk her into surrendering. When she bolted for 
  a window, he slipped through shadows and slashed at her face with 
  talons, blinding her. She jumped anyway, smashing through the 
  window and invoking magic to fly, but it didn’t carry her far enough.
  At the same moment, Dr. von Recklinghausen was emerging 
  from the consulate and just passing through the gate when Nilasa 
  plummeted and was impaled on the spiked fence beside him. People 
  nearby panicked, but Wolfgang tried to help the dying woman. She 
  forced into Wolfgang’s arms a bundle of documents she had sto-
  len, then grabbed her canary in a coal mine necklace and told him, 
  “Take this to Nevard.”
  In the fourth floor window, Creed spotted the hand-off, and he 
  fired a pistol at Wolfgang. At the relatively long range, he missed 
  and struck Nilasa in the leg. Wolfgang yanked the necklace from 
  Nilasa’s neck and fled. Wanting to make sure the thief did not sur-
  vive, Creed reloaded, aimed carefully, and landed a second shot, 
  this one in Nilasa’s back.
  The consulate was chaotic in confusion, but Creed immediately 
  set off in a chase after Wolfgang, leaping through shadows to pur-
  sue him. He confronted the doctor in an alley, but to his surprise 
  the doctor fought back. Wolfgang carries a malice-wrought rapier, 
  a sword forged in the Malice Lands, which has an innate power to 
  harm unnatural creatures. A single strike stunned Creed, and the 
  doctor followed up with a shocking touch and a cut to Creed’s ham-
  string. Creed’s unnatural physiology allowed him to heal quickly, 
  but by then the doctor had made good his escape.
  Wolfgang, in no state to think straight, ran to the nearest car-
  riage and demanded the driver take him to his hotel, explaining 
  Brigadeiros.
  Named after the brigadier general who invented them, this confec-
  tion consists of a gooey ball of chocolate covered in granulated 
  chocolate, castor sugar, or grated coconut.
  Travel, Visas, Bureaucracy.
  Dr. von Recklinghausen, from the minor Malice state of Arrovia, 
  travels under the protection of a Danoran passport. The burgeoning 
  nation of Ber has enthusiastically embraced bureaucracy, so the 
  doctor has had to make three separate trips between the Beran and 
  Danoran consulates to get a travel visa to Ber.
  
  18 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Prologue: Danoran Consulate
  away his bloody hands by saying he was a doctor in the middle 
  of a surgery. At the hotel he told the driver to wait for him, then 
  hurriedly packed his belongings and fled out another exit without 
  paying. Knowing of the stories of criminals hiding in the Nettles, 
  Wolfgang headed there on foot. In a bar in eastern Parity Lake he 
  asked for advice on hiring a bodyguard, and enlisted two toughs 
  who are part of the Kell Guild, who said they could find him a hid-
  ing spot. He arrived in the Nettles shortly thereafter.
  Cover-Up.
  Less than five minutes after Nilasa died, Creed staggered back to 
  the consulate. Knowing that the wounds to Nilasa’s face would 
  arouse suspicion, he told Consular duNadria to have the woman’s 
  body dragged inside and healed by the consulate’s house cleric, Bar-
  tide Jannis, so it would look like she was killed by gunshots and 
  the impact with the fence. Creed then had the consular personally 
  dismiss Jannis and send him home, figuring the RHC would arrive 
  soon and not wanting the cleric around to answer questions.
  Creed checked the consular’s desk to see what documents had 
  been stolen, then intimidated Security Chief LeBrix into going 
  along with the story. It was LeBrix’s suggestion to use the expen-
  sive ceramic egg as cover for what the thief was really after.
  With matters at the consulate settled as best as possible on short 
  notice, Creed set out to track down the doctor and recover the sto-
  len documents.
  Clues.
  The following clues are divided into Obvious and Hidden. Any PC 
  who makes an effort to search the right thing or talk to the right 
  people can make a DC 11 ability check to find Obvious clues, or a 
  DC 17 check to find Hidden clues. Characters trained in the ap-
  propriate skill automatically pick up Obvious clues with no need to 
  roll. You might also grant bonuses to checks or outright successes 
  for good roleplaying or clever thinking.
  The idea here is to ensure the players get the clues they need to 
  keep investigating, and to reward good ideas with more clues to 
  help crack the case faster. Even once they get clues, though, they 
  still have to put them together themselves.
  Nilasa’s Body.
  •	 DC 11 Wisdom (Perception) check — Physical scrutiny of 
  Nilasa’s body reveals glass wounds on her arms, two fence 
  punctures to her abdomen, gunshot to her back left thigh and 
  shoulder, and an unusual wound on her scalp.
  Examination of her clothes reveals in a hip pocket a 
  bail certificate. The document, from the Parity Lake police 
  station, reveals that she was picked up in a contraband raid 
  recently but released on bail, paid by one “Heward Sechim.” 
  Law requires her to carry the certificate until her trial. A trip 
  to the Parity Lake police station can pull up details of her 
  arrest. See Nilasa’s Criminal File (page 11).
  Also in that pocket is a receipt for a purchase of a dozen 
  items, their names abbreviated, with notes of “16 drams” or 
  “48 drams” for each, valued at a total of “2,450 gp,” signed 
  “D.W.” On the back of the receipt, scrawled in a different 
  handwriting, it reads “Silvo, Deorn Feldman, family wharf.” 
  A PC with the appropriate background recognizes drams as 
  an apothecary’s measurement of volume.
  •	 DC 17 Wisdom (Perception) check — Hidden in a pocket in 
  her bodice is an empty elixir vial. A character that succeeds 
  on a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check can tell it contained 
  an elixir of invisibility, and a strong one. Any constable 
  knows that magic that makes you invisible for more than a 
  few seconds is illegal. (Constables and the military are al-
  lowed to use it, of course.)
  •	 DC 11 Intelligence (Arcana) check — Nilasa did not have any 
  magical skills of her own, but she has several different linger-
  ing magical auras on her.
  •	 DC 17 Intelligence (Arcana) check — Nilasa has recently 
  used magic that allowed her to fly, but there’s no sign of 
  the source. She also has some illusion magic in her blood, 
  implying she consumed an elixir or potion. Healing and 
  necromantic energy was used on her face and head, but it’s 
  not possible to tell what they did.
  •	 DC 11 Wisdom (Medicine) — The wound on Nilasa’s scalp 
  was caused by necromantic energy. The bullets from the two 
  gunshot wounds have been extracted. One shot to her leg was 
  non-life-threatening. The other shot entered her back and 
  pierced her lung.
  •	 DC 17 Wisdom (Medicine) — The depth of the gunshot 
  wounds indicate they came from over 30 feet away. Her face 
  shows signs of post-mortem regeneration, creating healthy 
  flesh along the path of four parallel slashes.
  Spirit Communication.
  A PC spirit medium, or one requested through either Risur or Flint 
  Prestige (Favor Rating 3), can ask three questions of Nilasa’s spirit 
  within a day of her death. A PC proficient in the Religion skill can 
  intuit that she’s probably an adherent of Seedism. By speaking to 
  her in terms she relates to, that PC has advantage on Charisma 
  checks to communicate with her.
  •	 DC 11 Intelligence (Arcana), Wisdom (Insight), or Cha-
  risma (Persuasion) check — She’ll readily share details of her 
  death, and ask that they help protect Heward, her adopted 
  father.
  •	 DC 17 Intelligence (Arcana), Wisdom (Insight), or 
  Charisma (Persuasion) check — She will answer questions 
  about her mission, admit her criminal involvement with the 
  Family’s upcoming smuggling operation, and/or talk about 
  her association with Gale.
  Consulate Staff.
  The PCs automatically learn that Nilasa’s boyfriend Braden shares 
  Nilasa’s connection to Thinking Man’s Tavern and Sechim’s Al-
  kahest and Alchemicals, asking that they let people know what 
  happened to her.
  •	 DC 11 Charisma (Persuasion) check — The secretary Tia 
  recalls Nilasa was speaking with a foreign doctor in the 
  lobby. She’s willing to share Wolfgang’s case file, which lists 
  his temporary hostel address and Flint contacts.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 19
  Prologue: Danoran Consulate
  •	 DC 17 Charisma (Persuasion) check — Tia or another staffer 
  reveals that Consular duNadria had a guest in the basement 
  meeting room. He had a Risuri accent, but was otherwise 
  pretty nondescript.
  •	 DC 11 Wisdom (Insight) check — Most of the consulate staff 
  seem oddly upbeat. If talked to, they say they liked Nilasa. 
  All of them lick their lips slightly, and might break off mid-
  sentence to wonder if there are any more brigadeiros left.
  •	 DC 17 Wisdom (Insight) check — Julian LeBrix is following 
  orders he doesn’t agree with.
  •	 DC 11 Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisom (Medicine) 
  check — Examining the brigadeiros reveals that they were 
  laced with fey pepper. Its effects are similar to the real-world 
  drug ecstasy.
  •	 DC 11 Wisdom (Perception) check — If the box the briga-
  deiros came in is examined, it has an inkstamp on the side 
  saying it is from the Thinking Man’s Tavern.
  Upstairs.
  If the PCs want to search the fourth floor offices, LeBrix stays with 
  them at all times, trying to hurry them up. He insists the consular’s 
  office is off-limits, and that nothing happened there.
  •	 DC 11 Wisdom (Insight) check — LeBrix seems worried of 
  what the party would find in the consular’s office.
  •	 DC 11 Wisdom (Perception) check — In the gallery where 
  Nilasa jumped out the window, a rug was moved. Underneath 
  it are bloodstains.
  •	 DC 11 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check or DC 17 Wisdom 
  (Perception) check — Looking at the consular’s door reveals 
  that it was picked. It’s a very fine lock, requiring a DC 21 
  Dexterity check made with thieves’ tools to open, so Nilasa 
  must have had time. If any of the PCs open the room, they’re 
  liable to cause an international incident and be suspended 
  from the RHC for a month (though Delft will encourage him 
  to keep working on the case).
  •	 DC 11 Wisdom (Medicine) check — The bloodstain under the 
  carpet is consistent with a slashing attack that flicked blood 
  sideways from the victim, not a gunshot that would have 
  caused a puncture and spurt.
  Alleyway Scuffle.
  If a witness points them the right direction, or if they search them-
  selves for half an hour by making a DC 11 Wisdom (Insight or 
  Perception) check, they find signs of a brief scuffle, and a fallen 
  piece of paper in the mud, which looks like a copy of a deed of 
  ownership for a canal barge, marked with the seal of the Danoran 
  consulate. This fell from the bundle of documents as Wolfgang fled.
  •	 DC 17 Intelligence (Arcana) check — Electrical magic was 
  recently used here.
  •	 DC 17 Wisdom (Perception) check — A tiny spurt of oddly 
  coagulated blood sits in a smear of mud. A PC that makes 
  a successful DC 11 Intelligence (Arcana) check can tell the 
  blood is infused with necromantic energy.
  Where Wolfgang Went.
  If the PCs make it to the alley, a carriage driver named Jack Byron 
  spots them and comes to talk. Otherwise, this information reaches 
  them through a police report, which gets delivered to the RHC of-
  fice later that day, marked for their attention. The carriage driver 
  who picked up Dr. von Recklinghausen never got paid, and after 
  a few hours he returned to the street where he picked the man up, 
  hoping to maybe collect money from someone who knew him. When 
  he saw the criminal investigation, he came looking for the PCs.
  The driver tells the PCs that he picked up a man with bloody 
  hands who was carrying some kind of bundle — the driver opines 
  that the bundle contained surgical tools. The man with the bundle 
  spoke with an accent the driver found unfamiliar, but the driver 
  placed the accent as originating north of the Avery Sea. The man 
  asked to be driven to a hostel — the House of Blue Birds — two miles 
  away on the western edge of the North Shore district, and he even-
  tually explained away the blood, claiming that he was a doctor in 
  the middle of a procedure and that he needed specialized surgical 
  equipment that he knew could be found at the House of Blue Birds. 
  The driver took the man to the hostel, then waited for half an hour 
  before realizing he’d been ditched.
  Searching for the Alchemist.
  Once the party finds out Nilasa has receipts, and that she used a 
  potion and drugs to pull off her mission, they might want to track 
  down the seller of the alchemicals, Dansica Waryeye. Once the 
  party finds her, see pages 25–26.
  •	 DC 11 Intelligence (Arcana) check — If the party finds the 
  potion of invisibility, an hour in an alchemical laboratory can 
  determine the composition of its ingredients, which includes 
  brackish water, suggesting the PCs start their search for the 
  alchemist who made it in Pine Island.
  •	 DC 11 Intelligence (Investigation) check — If the party tries 
  to track down the shop where Nilasa’s receipt came from 
  (with or without the elixir as a clue), a PC can devote four 
  hours to searching a district. Multiple PCs shorten the time 
  needed. A failed search isn’t a dead end; after another four 
  hours he can attempt the check again, slowly eliminating 
  districts from the list to search. A successful search of Pine 
  Island locates Waryeye’s shop.
  Surgery?
  While the wealthy and fortunate do have access to magical heal-
  ing, some ailments are more complex than mere gashes and bruises, 
  making them beyond the skills of novice clerics and other healers. 
  Additionally, the current academic belief is that healing magic can 
  be made more effective if the practitioner possesses a thorough 
  understanding of the human body, so surgery and vivisection is 
  popularly seen as a progressive form of research even for charac-
  ters who can use magic to heal.
  Doctor von Recklinghausen, for instance, understands both ad-
  vanced surgery and magical healing, allowing him to more precisely 
  repair wounds that normally require high-level magic to fix.
  
  20 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Prologue: Danoran Consulate
  •	 DC 17 Intelligence (Investigation) check — Another apoth-
  ecary points the PCs to Waryeye, and mentions her husband 
  “The House Elf.”
  •	 DC 17 Intelligence (Investigation) check — Similarly, a 
  search for the source of the fey pepper Nilasa used in the 
  brigadeiros requires four hours hitting up criminal contacts 
  in any given district. A successful search in Pine Island finds 
  Danisca; and a success in Stray River reveals that most of the 
  fey pepper west of the river is picked up from Pine Island. 
  A success elsewhere reveals that new cheaper fey pepper is 
  coming out of Pine Island, and it has the dealers east of the 
  river in a panic.
  Pursuing Leads.
  At this point there’s not much else the PCs can do here. They’ll need 
  to decide which threads of the investigation they want to pursue, 
  and whether they’d rather all work together on one lead at a time, 
  or split up and pursue different leads in small groups. These paths 
  are detailed in the following chapters.
  Nilasa’s Criminal Background. If the PCs contact or swing by 
  the Parity Lake police station, after about three hours they finally 
  receive a thin hand-copied file of what information the police have 
  on Nilasa Hume, reproduced on page 11. Details are sparse, but 
  they include her last few known residences, a list of accomplices and 
  their whereabouts, and details of her various arrests.
  Of particular interest is her latest arrest, when she was picked 
  up in a raid on a known den of criminals just a week ago. She was 
  charged with Supporting Criminal Activities and told to appear in 
  court a few days from now. Her bail was paid by Heward Sechim, 
  whose address is listed (he lives at his factory). The document notes 
  that she was picked up with two men — Ford Sorghum and Travis 
  Starter, both of whom are currently serving a term for parole viola-
  tion, locked up in a floating prison in Flint Bay called the Goodson 
  Estuarial Reformatory. See page 24.
  Returning to the Consulate.
  In the course of their investigations, the PCs might come back to 
  the consulate, but they won’t get any new answers unless they’ve 
  found the proper clues and know to ask the right questions.
  Breaking In.
  If the PCs want to sneak in and find more documents of the sort 
  Nilasa stole, make sure they understand that getting caught will 
  cause a diplomatic disaster and probably land them in prison. Se-
  curity is tighter, with experienced guards stationed on the fourth 
  floor at all times, and magical alarm wards placed in the consular’s 
  room. The consular clears out any incriminating documents, and he 
  places them in a wall safe.
  Getting LeBrix’s Trust.
  If the party recovers the documents Nilasa stole from Dr. von Reck-
  ling hausen, they find reports signed by Security Chief LeBrix. If 
  they mention these reports to LeBrix, and share some of what 
  they’ve seen, they might get him to open up about his investigation 
  and how it was shut down.
  If the party captures the red dragonborn arsonists or any of 
  their accomplices, they can learn about a canceled hit job, where 
  the arsonists were hired to burn LeBrix to death in his home, but 
  called off a few hours before they did the deed. This also helps earn 
  LeBrix’s thanks, and if the PCs have not yet taken down the arson-
  ists, LeBrix can give them something to help out. If any PC uses 
  firearms, LeBrix provides two vendetta bullets (see page 10), one 
  etched with the name Eberardo, the other Valando.
  If a PC has the Gunsmith theme, LeBrix instructs the character 
  in how to harness one’s ire to create such bullets in the future.
  The Crowd Outside.
  If your players prefer to roleplay their interactions with witnesses, 
  they find an assortment of wealthy businessmen who were headed 
  out to gamble, household servants who were heading home after 
  their night shifts, fleet messengers delivering trading news from 
  the stock market in Central district, carriage drivers delivering 
  Danorans who had appointments at the consulate, beggar children 
  (but of the well-dressed, respectable sort), and a trio of glaziers 
  who were fortunate enough to walk by just as a fancy window was 
  shattered.
  If your players are more into mechanical dice-rolling, they can 
  just make ability checks.
  •	 DC 11 Charisma (Persuasion) check — Most of the people 
  who saw the event have already left, but any number of PCs 
  can spend a half hour chasing down witnesses. Those who do 
  so can make a Charisma (Persuasion) check to get informa-
  tion. A PC can also try making a Charisma (Intimidation) 
  check, but the crowd is generally willing to talk, so the PC 
  makes the check with disadvantage for coming across as 
  belligerent. Each success nets the party one of the pieces 
  of information below. If the characters succeed on a DC 17 
  check, they are also able to find an additional piece of 
  information in that time. The party can spend more time and 
  make additional checks if they want.
  – The woman crashed out the window, hit the fence, and 
  then there were two gunshots, a few seconds apart. When 
  she jumped, she had her arms covering her face, as if to 
  shield herself.
  – Someone was up in the window, but he looked like he was 
  completely black, except for something shiny, perhaps a 
  gun. A moment later he had vanished.
  – A man with a goatee went up to the dying woman, and 
  she handed him a bundle of papers and folders, then 
  whispered something before she died. The man yanked a 
  yellow pendant and necklace off the woman’s neck, before 
  running away.
  – A man sprinted down the street then turned down an alley, 
  carrying an armful of something. (The witness can point 
  out the alley.)
  – When the Danorans took the woman’s body off the fence, 
  her face was covered in blood. People matching the 
  description of LeBrix, Consular duNadria, and a third 
  nondescript man got into a brief shouting match as the 
  body was being carried inside.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 21
  t
  his act details what the PCs can discover 
  as they investigate Nilasa’s criminal back-
  ground and her connection to the Thinking Man’s 
  Tavern. If the PCs do poorly at this thread, for the 
  rest of the campaign the criminal element in Flint 
  will have ready access to cheap and dangerous magic 
  wands. Even if they fail, though, they’ll catch the eye 
  of Morgan Cippiano, head of The Family in Flint, 
  who can be of use later in the adventure.
  Thinking Man’s Tavern
  Social. Real-Time.
  Clues to the activities of the murdered woman wait at a watering 
  hole for scholars, artists, and revolutionaries.
  The Thinking Man’s Tavern lies a few streets off from the main 
  docks of Bosum Strand, memorable for the cobbled-together statue 
  that stands by its entrance, an assortment of flotsam and jetsam 
  assembled into the shape of a sitting man deep in thought.
  If the PCs come by early in the day, they’ll be unlikely to find 
  anyone who knew Nilasa. Waiters might encourage them to come 
  back in the evening, when a larger crowd has assembled.
  The tavern has seven main sections.
  •	 Patio in front of the building with seating for ten and the 
  titular “thinking man” statue.
  •	 The entrance, with a bar that seats ten and tables for an 
  additional thirty.
  •	 The common room with tables to seat sixty on the ground 
  floor, and another forty on an upstairs balcony. Each floor has 
  a lavatory with plumbing.
  •	 The game room on the ground, which seats thirty and has a 
  pool table and a storage closet that holds various game sup-
  plies. A secret panel in the storage closet reveals a locked trap 
  door down to the basement tunnel. Spotting the secret panel 
  requires a PC to make a successful DC 18 Wisdom (Percep-
  tion) check and unlocking the trap door requires a PC to 
  make a successful DC 18 Dexterity check with thieves’ tools.
  •	 The riot room on the second floor, behind the balcony. It has 
  limited dining space, but its chairs are usually claimed by 
  crowds of writers, artists, and philosophers who just want to 
  drink and share their latest thoughts.
  •	 The kitchen in back, with the many necessary pantries and 
  supplies.
  •	 The basement, seldom used to begin with because it gets 
  moldy, has flooded to ankle-deep since the city-wide tremors 
  started. Mostly just used as a joke at the expense of new 
  employees who ask where to find something, since nothing’s 
  down there. A side tunnel hidden behind a cracked statue 
  leads to similarly flooded basements of other establishments 
  in the area. Courtesy and several padlocks deter criminal 
  entry, but the owner has keys handy for those he wants to 
  sneak out. Spotting the side tunnel requires a PC to make a 
  successful DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check.
  Thread One: Smugglers
  Meanwhile, in the News.
  The adventure already has a lot going on, but if you want to give a lit-
  tle extra life to the city of Flint, you can occasionally drop mentions 
  of the following current events. People murmur about these in cafes, 
  gossip on the streets, or read about them in papers. Only a few have 
  even a tangential connection to this adventure’s plot. You might spin 
  some of these into side quests, but be careful that your players don’t 
  latch onto the wrong ones and run off chasing red herrings.
  •	 Murder. The Ragman has grown more active, and is believed 
  responsible for four deaths over the course of two weeks. 
  Flint police investigate, and an impoverished Yerasol Veteran 
  claims he saw the same pattern of wounds on fellow soldiers 
  in the last war.
  •	 Music. Randall Pell, a renowned composer from Slate, will 
  be conducting the Navras Opera House and plans to hold 
  auditions for performers. This has led to a boom in sales of 
  “respectable” attire for amateur Docker musicians, who want 
  to make a good impression.
  •	 Mayhem. A rash of eighteen small fires in Parity Lake is 
  believed to be arson. So far the burns have killed over forty, 
  but fire responders have managed to keep them from spread-
  ing. The fires seem to target properties of by factory owners, 
  even the occasional factory out-building, and so are believed 
  to be the work of Gale.
  •	 Monsters. Citizens are warned to avoid the western bayous 
  around the Battalion school in Pine Island. The martial uni-
  versity has imported exotic wild beasts from a Risuri colony 
  in Elfaivar, and will be conducting exercises in beast tracking 
  and monster slaying.
  •	 Marriage. Wealthy industrialist and renowned son of Flint 
  Guy Goodson is getting married to a Crisillyiri noblewoman: 
  Faith Unitas. The ceremony will be closed to the public, but 
  reporters are eagerly sharing every detail of the arrange-
  ments. The intense interest has journalists excited about all 
  the papers they’ll sell when King Aodhan has his marriage 
  early next year.
  
  22 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Thread One: Smugglers
  Owner and Staff.
  Tall like a ship’s mast and twice as well-traveled, Tad Hilly bought 
  the tavern after he retired from a twenty year career as a merchant 
  marine, though often when the night’s drinking runs long he pre-
  fers to recount his history as one of piracy and adventure. He brags 
  about outwitting the king of the mer-fey and outwrestling his pet 
  kraken, and occasionally offers to let drunkards “search for his bur-
  ied treasure” (i.e., bail out the flooded basement) to cover their tab.
  The rest of the staff mostly consist of women scholars studying at 
  Pardwight University, or occasionally the wives or daughters of pro-
  fessors. Eschewing the typical brand of wait and cook staff hired 
  for their looks, Hilly knows his customers derive more enjoyment 
  from exchanging repartee with women who are cleverer than them.
  The tavern’s most famous hand is Barb, now going on sixty and 
  starting to show the physical wear and tear from her other job at a 
  factory that makes bores and drills. At first impression she seems 
  little more than wrinkles, a toothy smirk, and two handfuls of 
  silver rings, but she effortlessly makes visitors feel at home and 
  shriekingly silences any regular who gets too full of himself.
  Tad knew Nilasa only by appearance, but Barb formed an ear-
  ly bond with the woman before she realized the gorgeous young 
  Nilasa could fend for herself against the attentions of the other pa-
  trons. Few people have a higher opinion of Nilasa, but like in most 
  mother-daughter relationships Barb had no idea just what trouble 
  the young woman was getting into.
  Patrons.
  While the tavern has a generous mix of performers, revolutionar-
  ies, intellectuals, and poseurs to the same, two main groups can 
  provide useful information about Nilasa.
  First, the Band is a group of a dozen musicians with connections 
  to the Cloudwood brigands (Part 2, Thread 2: Gale), but who prefer 
  to work in the city. Led by a long-haired halfling ocarina-player 
  named Jered Lawman, the Band writes and performs songs that 
  support Gale, the duchess, and other fey-friendly figures. They then 
  have further connections to other rebellious groups throughout the 
  city. They crack jokes in bad pidgin Elven, pass around the latest 
  screeds that mock the king and insinuate that he’s a puppet of Dan-
  or, and in general think haughtily that they’re part of the vanguard 
  of an imminent revolution against the industrial powers.
  Nilasa was one of their main connections to the Cloudwood brig-
  ands, and in the past few months she had managed to steer these 
  musicians toward actually causing trouble rather than talking 
  about it. Jered was planning on the 5th of Summer to have his band 
  dress up as eladrin warriors, sneak aboard a ship carrying huge 
  casks of firegems, and throw the fuel into the harbor.
  Second, the Professors consist of eight “professional students” 
  who have been attending Pardwight University for a decade or more, 
  plus their various less-experienced colleagues. Dominated by a dual 
  philosophy/archaeology student in his late forties named Hennet 
  Rinus, the group have weekly meetings and nightly drinking, often 
  collaborating on and sharing papers and books on eclectically cross-
  disciplined topics. The august body likes to round out its weekly 
  meetings with a shared pipe of fey pepper, and the wild thoughts 
  they have during these often prompt next week’s discussion topics.
  Thames Grimsley. A grizzled sailor, 
  still with a full head of hair in his early 50s, 
  Grimsley acts as head of the dock work-
  ers guild in Flint. He took a gash from a 
  policeman’s knife on the side of his face in 
  the last big docker riot. A couple of months 
  working at a theater as a child gave him a 
  very stylized public speaking voice, one full 
  of unnecessary, melodramatic pauses.
  RHC Hierarchy.
  The party reports to Assistant Chief Inspector Stover Delft. He 
  reports to Lady Inspectress Margaret Saxby. Saxby doesn’t play a 
  prominent role until next adventure, but make her at least a small 
  presence during this one. Mention her talking with Delft when the 
  party shows up at the headquarters, or have her call in a different PC 
  each day to get their thoughts on the investigation.
  Saxby doesn’t realize yet that the party’s investigations will lead 
  them to Macbannin, but when she finds out at the end of the adven-
  ture, she’ll try to stall them a bit, asking for time to prepare for the 
  public relations fall-out. Paint her as ambitious and political, though, 
  not hostile.
  Nilasa Hume. By the time the 
  party encounters Nilasa she’s already 
  dead, but details of her life can come 
  out through investigation or magic.
  The illegitimate daughter of a 
  blacksmith’s wife who was seduced 
  by an elf, Nilasa left home as early as 
  she could and spent her teenage years 
  living off petty crime, with occasional 
  stints of incarceration. Several years 
  ago she tried to reform, and found 
  work in Heward Sechim’s alkahest 
  factory. Her bold personality earned her many admirers in the streets 
  near the factory, as well as at the Thinking Man’s Tavern in Bosum 
  Strand, where Heward would occasionally bring his workers after a 
  shift.
  But she was drawn to the rebellious rhetoric of Gale, and so she 
  joined up with the so-called “terrorist,” performing reconnaissance 
  in advance of acts of sabotage and using her old criminal connections 
  to acquire illicit magic weapons and defenses. Shortly after Duchess 
  Ethelyn’s failed attempt to kill King Aodhan (see Adventure One, 
  The Island at the Axis of the World), Gale decided to take a different 
  approach, and she recruited Nilasa to infiltrate the Danoran consul-
  ate. To aid her missions, Gale gave Nilasa various potions and elixirs, 
  as well as a pendant — the canary in a coal mine — which allows brief 
  bursts of flight.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 23
  Thread One: Smugglers
  Nilasa had only recently made friends with this group, after she 
  learned that Hennet had spent a year in Crisillyir, studying the 
  fossils of dragons and demons near Alais Primos. She had recently 
  begun negotiations with the Family smugglers (page 33) to bring in 
  a cache of stolen wands, and after determining she could trust Hen-
  net she had him help her write correspondence in fancy Crisillyiri 
  style to make a good impression with the criminals’ boss, Morgan 
  Cippiano. Hennet knew that Nilasa was working with some Crisil-
  lyiri group to acquire something illegal, and that she was writing 
  to someone named Monsigneur Morgan Cippiano, but no specifics.
  Finally, the PCs can spot a familiar face, Thames Grimsley, 
  whom they met in the first adventure. Now head of a slowly-grow-
  ing docker union, Grimsley is organizing large protests outside of 
  factories that abuse their workers. His presence and how the PCs 
  treated him in the first adventure can sway the crowd here.
  Trembler.
  When the party first enters the tavern, the place shakes a little bit. 
  Patrons freak out as glasses topple off tables and crack. An orc sail-
  or from Ber cries out, “Earthquake!” but the tremor stops almost 
  immediately.
  People are momentarily nervous until Hennet Rinus speaks up 
  from a table by the bar, loud enough for the whole place to hear. 
  “Don’t listen to the porcine panic. Flint has been geologically stable 
  since it was founded. We could no sooner have an earthquake than 
  a blizzard! It was probably just the ground settling.”
  Soon, the clientele return to their drinks and food.
  Asking Questions.
  As is usual in Bosum Strand, initial reaction to government au-
  thority figures is suspicion. If the PCs were police they wouldn’t 
  get anywhere, but the RHC is slightly more respected. Still, the 
  party should sense a palpable disapproval once it spreads that 
  they’re law enforcement agents.
  If the PCs mention that Nilasa is dead, Barb in particular cries 
  out in despair and, sobbing, demands to know what happened. 
  Word ripples through the tavern, and those who associated with 
  her clam up, not wanting to talk until they figure out if trouble 
  might spill over to them.
  Barb can tell the party whom they should talk with, but if the 
  PCs bring up Nilasa’s criminal connections, Barb turns against 
  them, convinced that they’re dishonoring the name of a wonderful 
  girl who would never hurt anyone. The more the party upsets Barb, 
  the harder they find their inquiries in the rest of the tavern. If they 
  step on enough toes, make the mistake of bringing up gruesome 
  details of Nilasa’s death, or threaten anyone in the tavern, Tad Hilly 
  has his bouncers throw the party out. Resisting leads to an all-out 
  brawl, with the party outnumbered at least ten to one.
  Existential Investigation.
  If the PCs comport themselves well, they’ll have to convince either 
  the Band or the Professors that it’s in their interest to talk. Regard-
  less of whichever group they approach first, Hennet Rinus shows up 
  and poses an assignment.
  (Do not be surprised if the PCs interrupt him during his lecture.)
  “In any society there are rituals of interaction to establish authority and 
  mark the passage of one stage of life to another. You, as law officers, 
  must be familiar with these rituals, particularly the one where you ask 
  questions, the suspect claims he knows nothing, and you by turn explain 
  how you will punish those who do not cooperate.
  “But this is an old tradition, and we live in modern times. We live in 
  what some call an age of reason. A few of the ladies and gentlemen 
  in this fine establishment would prefer if it were an age of revolution. 
  And like a revolution, reason requires us to turn our thoughts. Always 
  approach a problem the same way, with the same ritual, and you miss 
  other possible paths to satisfaction.
  “So I pose to you, constables, an assignment. Rather than convincing 
  us that your authority is mighty and that we should quail at the thought 
  of disobeying it, can you give us reason why your authority is legitimate? 
  We can leave for another day the discussion of whether it serves our 
  interest to let watchmen hold us to account for actions when we are 
  arguably individuals of free will. Today, though, just tell us why you think 
  you have the right to enforce the law.”
  Arguments and Abuse. As long as the PCs are good sports, Hennet 
  just throws up a few questions to their rationale (“If you’re part 
  of a governmental structure endorsed by society as a whole, what 
  size society is necessary for a group to claim it is separate from 
  that whole?” or “If you’re protecting us from harm, what makes you 
  better arbiters of what is harmful than any of us?” or “If outnum-
  bering us gives you the right to tell us what to do, why do you allow 
  us to do anything you dislike? Have you heard their music? Don’t 
  they deserve to get arrested for that?”).
  Jered and his band might heckle and jeer anything that involves 
  prying into their secrets, but Hennet encourages them to “follow 
  the forms of the ritual” and answer the constables’ questions. He’ll 
  even do the same, admitting to his Crisillyiri correspondence while 
  maintaining ignorance of any criminal wrong-doing. Jered will in 
  turn admit to knowing Nilasa worked with a band of brigands in 
  the Cloudwood, and he can provide general directions to find them.
  If the PCs balk, or argue with might rather than logic, Hennet 
  tells everyone to just lie to the constables, since it’s more fun than 
  playing along. It’s still possible to intimidate people into talking, 
  but news will quickly hit the streets, and the PCs will become infa-
  mous as mindless government goons.
  
  24 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Thread One: Smugglers
  Returning to the Tavern.
  Once the PCs learn of Nilasa’s links to the brigands and the smug-
  glers, Thinking Man’s Tavern holds little extra of use in this 
  investigation, but depending on your party it might become a fa-
  miliar stomping ground, or a nest of rivals.
  If the party needs to get word spread across the city in a flash, 
  this is one of the best places to start a rumor or make a procla-
  mation. Different groups of specialists can also help with niche 
  problems. A gang of amateur geologists might assemble makeshift 
  seismographs and set them up around the city, finding evidence 
  that further tremors are emanating from Cauldron Hill. Talk-
  ing with sailors might provide clues at least of where smugglers 
  wouldn’t arrange a delivery. Simply meeting with would-be rioters 
  who come here for marching orders might help quell some of the 
  violence later in the adventure.
  In later adventures, Hennet can be a resource on matters archae-
  ological, and despite his initial foppish appearance, Jered can be 
  shaped into a useful agent when foreign elements disrupt the city.
  Goodson Estuarial 
  Reformatory
  Social. Real-Time.
  Nilasa’s associates are incarcerated on a barge off the coast of Pine 
  Island, and with the right deal they’ll share what she bragged to 
  them about.
  Guy Goodson is a wealthy factory magnate who owns a private 
  island in the Ayres. He portrays himself as a philanthropist, and 
  a few months ago he convinced the city legislature to approve his 
  reformatory program. Taking old sailing ships that would normally 
  just be scuttled or dismantled and replaced by newer steamships, 
  the program hastily refitted the vessels to have cells and guard 
  quarters, with the intention of “moderating the criminal impulses 
  of recidivists.”
  A dozen such vessels sit off the coast of Pine Island, loosely moored 
  together and anchored in place, with no rigging to tempt prisoners 
  into wild escape attempts. A thirteenth ship sank in a tragic fire a 
  few weeks ago, allegedly after one of the prisoners agreed to testify 
  against his old accomplices.
  Inmates spend most of the day in their cells, equipped with ham-
  mocks and plenty of books (never mind the fact that most of them 
  can’t read). They get fed breakfast in their cells, then are let out to 
  clean the deck in the afternoon, which they must do if they want to 
  get dinner. Their legs are always lightly manacled, so the distance 
  to shore usually deters escape attempts. A musketeer sits in every 
  ship’s crow’s nest, just in case distance and drowning isn’t enough 
  of a deterrent.
  Staff, prisoners, and visitors have to be ferried over by rowboat. 
  To help “socialize and acclimate” the prisoners, each day different 
  activities are arranged, usually musical performances, classes on 
  Risuri history and geography, or calisthenics. All the boats have 
  fresh coats of paint that are smeared dark at the waterline with all 
  the human excrement that floats around the stationary barges.
  The director of the reformatory is Derek Goodson, son of Guy 
  Goodson. He’ll want to meet with the PCs if they come to inter-
  rogate any of his inmates, and will hastily shuffle around some men 
  so his best-behaved prisoners will be around to show how “well” 
  things are going.
  Nilasa’s Accomplices.
  Ford Sorghum and Travis Starter used to work with Nilasa in petty 
  burglary and cons, but they haven’t had any jobs with her for two 
  years. She was hanging out with them, reminiscing about old times, 
  sharing the bounty of her recent successes, and bragging about a 
  big smuggling deal she was arranging, when a police raid picked 
  them all up. Ford and Travis were wanted for various acts of larceny, 
  and so they were put away. But they cared for Nilasa enough that 
  neither incriminated her, despite being offered a plea deal.
  Each man knows that Nilasa was working with a group of new-
  comers to the city to acquire a large cache of wands stolen from a 
  Crisillyir eldritch repository. The newcomers call themselves The 
  Family, and they’re edging in on the other smuggling operations 
  in the city. Nilasa said they could provide dozens of magic wands 
  to her allies in the Cloudwood, which would make future acts of 
  sabotage all the easier, and which would help protect them against 
  law enforcement.
  Nilasa told them the delivery was going to be on the 4th of Sum-
  mer, and implied she and an ally she called “The House Elf,” would 
  link up with members of The Family and sail out to the meet-up 
  from some place in Pine Island. She said she was going to be pay-
  ing tens of thousands of gold pieces for the haul. When they asked 
  how she got that much money, she waved casually and said Gale 
  had friends among the merfey, and that seventeen centuries of ship-
  wrecks pays for a lot of contraband.
  The PCs just have to break one of the two men to get this informa-
  tion, but both Ford and Travis know the rumors of snitches getting 
  killed out here, so the PCs have to provide a sweet deal for them to 
  talk. Honestly, the men are petty thieves and RHC constables have 
  authority to get them a pardon in exchange for their assistance, but 
  this scene is largely to see how comfortable your players are with 
  making deals with shady characters.
  Turning a Witness.
  When speaking to the prisoners, use the rules for “Interrogating a 
  Suspect” in Part Three of the Zeitgeist Player’s Guide.
  Establishing Rapport.
  Use a base of DC 13 for skill checks made to to establish Rapport, 
  and grant advantage or impose disadvantage on the check based 
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 25
  Thread One: Smugglers
  on how the party approaches them. Consider how they approach 
  the prisoners: do they come when they’re locked up (which makes 
  the men nervous that their cell mates will overhear), or chat on 
  the forecastle while a visiting string quartet plays nearby, or bring 
  them to shore and treat them to a fine meal and some wine to loosen 
  their tongues?
  Extracting Information.
  If the party can establish rapport, the men are interested in cutting 
  a deal, but are reticent to talk because of rumors of snitches dying 
  out here, resulting in a base of DC 17 on skill checks for Extraction. 
  The party can sweeten the deal, though, making extraction easier.
  Sweetening the Deal.
  If given the chance, both Travis and Ford’s first desire is to get 
  both of them out of prison. Doing so counts as calling in a Rank 
  One favor (see Prestige in Part Two of the Zeitgeist Player’s 
  Guide). If the party isn’t willing or able to do that, Travis wants 
  the party to arrange weekly visits by his son, who is currently 
  living in an orphanage. Meanwhile Ford wants to be allowed 
  conjugal visits; he says there’s a good space in the ship’s aftcastle, 
  where the guards usually take their breaks. He says he’d be willing 
  to cooperate if the party can get both of his girlfriends to come 
  by — but on different nights, of course.
  Finally, either man could begrudgingly agree to help in exchange 
  for a few extra amenities — weekly laundering of their bedsheets 
  and clothes instead of monthly, and getting the ship turned just a 
  bit so direct sunlight isn’t heating up their cell in the afternoon so 
  much. This can be done with a quick talk to Derek Goodson.
  If the party accedes fully to the men’s demands, reduce the Ex-
  traction DC to 9. Just giving them a little of what they want reduces 
  the DC to 13.
  The House Elf
  Action/Social. Tactical/Real-Time.
  The party tracks down a skilled liar and illusionist.
  Nilasa had allies all throughout the city. In the Pine Island dis-
  trict, she bought her drugs and elixirs from Danisca Waryeye, a 
  gnome mage to whom she was introduced after she made contact 
  with the Family. Danisca is the Family’s main producer of fey pep-
  per, taking smuggled plants and extracting the powder from its 
  pods.
  Though the Family pays Danisca well, she was inspired by Duch-
  ess Ethelyn of Shale’s stand against the king’s industry, and she 
  recently started crafting alchemical weapons to arm Gale’s allies. 
  Together Nilasa and Danisca convinced the Family to sell them 
  stolen wands, and the deal is set to go down on the night of the 4th.
  Nilasa planned to attend the deal and bring along Danisca’s 
  husband, Blander Waryeye, an absent-minded stage magician who 
  performs under the name The House Elf. He’s handy in a fight, 
  despite his quirks. A unique marriage ritual grants the couple an 
  empathic link, so Danisca would have been able to notify Gale if she 
  sensed her husband in enough peril.
  After word reaches her that Nilasa is dead, Danisca will decide 
  to go to the meet-up too. If the party interrogates Danisca and gets 
  her to break, they can learn the precise launch point and time of the 
  wand deal. By taking her and her husband out of the picture early, 
  they’ll have a much easier time with the smugglers.
  Two Fronts.
  The Waryeyes own a pair of buildings that sit back to back on a 
  strand of shops in the Pine Island district. Streets run past the 
  front face of each building, one her shop Waryeye’s Apothecary, 
  and the other a small illusionist’s studio with just a painted sign of 
  a clichéd magician in a gentleman’s coat pulling a badger out of a 
  top-hat. While Danisca makes most of their money through sales 
  of minor magic in her shop, her husband Blander operates a side 
  business as a performing magician.
  Blander mostly just spends his days fiddling with possible illusion 
  tricks, devising creative combinations of actual spells and impres-
  sive sleight of hand. On occasion he’ll put on acts for festivals or 
  parties.
  Most of the time, the two keep to their own buildings, but they 
  can easily cross via a fenced-in bridge on the second floor. Due to 
  their wedding ritual empathic connection, if either gets into trou-
  ble, the other won’t be long. Also, because of the valuables in her 
  shop, during business hours Danisca keeps three guards, and at 
  night she has paid to ward the place with typical security spells. The 
  two share a bedroom upstairs of the apothecary shop.
  Danisca comes across as ebullient and methodical, working 
  through complex situations with an enthusiastic smile. She buys 
  eclectic and colorful fashions, and has magically turned her hair 
  bright purple. Blander, for his part, stands even shorter than his 
  wife and has an impishly curled moustache. He uses magic to switch 
  hats multiple times throughout a conversation, and is prone to bi-
  zarre non sequiturs on technical topics, ranging from the proper 
  way to store goat’s milk for travel, to the different types of undead 
  that are capable of turning those they kill into more undead. He 
  longs one day to build a trebuchet.
  Meet the Apothecary.
  Danisca has two guards at her apothecary shop. It’s possible the PCs 
  will track down Danisca by tracing the fey pepper or potion at the 
  consulate. If so, they can question her, but she tries to deceive them. 
  Danisca is an adept liar, and the PC speaking with her must make a 
  successful DC 18 Wisdom (Insight) check to determine something 
  strange is afoot. If Danisca realizes the PCs are law enforcement, 
  she’ll offer them fresh water or sweetened lime juice, then discreetly 
  
  26 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Thread One: Smugglers
  imbibe a potion of glibness from her kitchen-laboratory to enhance 
  her skill at prevarication. For the next 1 hour after drinking the 
  potion, whenever Danisca rolls a Charisma check, she can never 
  roll lower than a 15. Additionally, no matter what she says, magic 
  that would determine if she’s telling the truth indicates that she is 
  being truthful.
  She’ll claim that Nilasa was a regular customer, and that she 
  sold her the fey pepper and a potion of invisibility, but that Nilasa 
  presented the proper permit (since normally magic that can make 
  you invisible for more than a few seconds is illegal). She feigns ig-
  norance of Nilasa having any criminal connection.
  If the PCs take the time to snoop around, they might notice a 
  secret gnome-sized door that leads from behind her shop counter 
  to her laboratory with a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) 
  check. Searching around in the upstairs office can reveal her a wall 
  safe behind a painting with a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Percep-
  tion) check, but it’s locked and can only be opened with a DC 15 
  Dexterity check made with thieves’ tools. In any case, she won’t 
  let them open it without a warrant, which takes a day unless the 
  party calls in a Rank 1 Risur favor, which speeds that up to about 
  an hour. Spell casters might detect a faint illusion concealing the 
  magical auras of the items within the safe should they use a detect 
  magic spell. More cavalier PCs might just open it anyway and get 
  a warrant later. The safe contains contraband like one more potion 
  of glibness and three more potions of invisibility, plus dried leaves, 
  which a successful DC 13 Intelligence (Nature) check identifies as 
  as coming from the fey pepper plant. She doesn’t have any actual 
  pepper here at the moment, though. (Remember that the RHS will 
  collect these items from the PCs at the end of the adventure if they 
  take them.)
  If the PCs want to arrest her, her reaction depends on how much 
  trouble she thinks she’s in. As a legitimate businesswoman she 
  doesn’t want to attack or flee if she’ll just get hit with a fine, but if 
  she thinks she might go to jail or have her business license revoked, 
  she’ll try to lure the party into her dreaming dust trap (see below).
  Meet the Magician.
  Alternately, the PCs might never know about Danisca, and instead 
  try to track down The House Elf. Two hours of asking around fol-
  lowed by making a successful DC 11 Charisma (Persuasion) check 
  can inform the party to The House Elf’s reputation and the address 
  of his studio, as well as dozens of conflicting stories of his appear-
  ance and powers.
  Blander assumes the PCs want him to perform for them, and 
  he’ll start eagerly showing off his pet honey badgers even before the 
  party gets a chance to start asking him questions.
  Blander isn’t as good a liar as Danisca, only requiring the PCs 
  make a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Insight) check to realize some-
  thing is fishy, and he’s not as cool a thinker, so at the first sign 
  that the PCs know he’s involved in criminal activities he’ll bolt. He 
  calls for Danisca’s help mentally and then scampers upstairs to the 
  bridge that leads to Danisca’s shop. When he links up with Danisca 
  she chides him and again tries to lure the PCs into her dreaming 
  dust trap. If that fails, they’ll try to escape.
   
  • Danisca Waryeye
   
  • Blander Waryeye
   
  • 2 Apothecary Guards
   
  • 3 Honey Badgers
   
  • Dreaming Dust Trap
   
  • Drowning Tank Trap
   
  • Razzle Dazzle Trap
  Blander Waryeye
  Small humanoid (forest gnome), chaotic neutral
  Armor Class 14 (leather, ring of protection)
  Hit Points 27 (5d6 + 10)
  Speed 25 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   8 (–1) 
  14 (+2) 
  14 (+2) 
  13 (+1) 
  8 (–1) 
  15 (+2)
  Skills Performance +4
  Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
  Languages Common, Draconic, Elven, Gnomish, Sylvan
  Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)
  Gnome Cunning. Blander has advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, 
  and Charisma saving throws against magic.
  The Married Life. Blander and Danisca are the recipients of a special-
  ized wedding ritual that has bound them together in a way greater 
  than any legal binding could. The two can communicate telepathically 
  as long as they are within 10 miles of one another. This trait only 
  allows them to express basic emotions such as anger, fear, or joy.
  Natural Illusionist. Blander can cast minor illusion at will (spell save 
  DC 11).
  Spellcasting. Blander is a 2nd-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability 
  is Charisma (spell save DC 12). He has the following bard spells 
  prepared:
  Cantrips (at will): mage hand, vicious mockery
  1st level (3 slots): charm person, healing word, sleep
  Actions
  Cane. Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 
  (1d4—1) bludgeoning damage.
  Blander possesses one potion of healing. 
  Apothecary Guard
  Medium humanoid (human), lawful neutral
  Armor Class 16 (studded leather, shield)
  Hit Points 22 (4d8 + 4)
  Speed 30 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   14 (+2) 
  15 (+2) 
  13 (+1) 
  10 (+0) 
  11 (+0) 
  10 (+0)
  Skills Intimidation +2, Perception +2
  Senses passive Perception 12
  Languages Common
  Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)
  Actions
  Multiattack. The apothecary guard makes two club attacks.
  Club. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 
  + 2) bludgeoning damage.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 27
  Thread One: Smugglers
  Danisca Waryeye
  Small humanoid (forest gnome), chaotic neutral
  Armor Class 14 (padded)
  Hit Points 22 (4d6 + 8)
  Speed 25 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   6 (–2) 
  16 (+3) 
  14 (+2) 
  15 (+2) 
  10 (+0) 
  15 (+2)
  Saving Throws Con +4
  Skills Deception +6, History +4
  Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
  Languages Common, Draconic, Elven, Gnome, Sylvan
  Challenge 1 (200 XP)
  Gnome Cunning. Danisca has advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, 
  and Charisma saving throws against magic.
  The Married Life. Blander and Danisca are the recipients of a special-
  ized wedding ritual that has bound them together in a way greater 
  than any legal binding could. The two can communicate telepathically 
  as long as they are within 10 miles of one another. This trait only 
  allows them to express basic emotions such as anger, fear, or joy.
  Innate Spellcasting. Danisca can cast minor illusion and prestidigita-
  tion at will (spell save DC 12).
  Actions
  Alchemical Assault. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 30/60 ft., 
  one target. Danisca grabs a random alchemical vial from her satchel. 
  Roll 1d6 to determine the effect on a hit.
  1. Alchemist’s Fire - The target takes 5 (1d6 + 2) fire damage, and 
  every creature within 5 feet of the target must make a DC 13 
  Dexterity saving throw, taking 3 points of fire damage on a failed 
  save. The target also catches on fire, taking 3 (1d6) fire damage at 
  the start of each of its turns until it uses an action to put out the 
  fire.
  2. Thunderstone - Each creature within a 10-foot-radius of the 
  target spread must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. On a 
  failure, that creature is deafened for 1 hour.
  3. Jinx Juice — The target takes 9 (2d6 + 2) necrotic damage and has 
  disadvantage on its next saving throw.
  4. Alkahest — The target takes 9 (2d6 + 2) points of acid damage, 
  and every creature within 5 feet of the target must make a DC 13 
  Dexterity saving throw, taking 3 point of acid damage on a failed 
  save. 
  5. Tanglefoot Bag — The target falls prone and cannot stand up until 
  it uses an action to make a successful DC 13 Dexterity (Acrobatics) 
  check to escape the tanglefoot bag.
  6. Potion of Healing - The target regains 7 (2d4 + 2) hit points, then 
  takes 3 (1d6) slashing damage as the glass shards of the potion vial 
  digs into its skin.
  Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., range 
  20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage.
  Gear Danisca possesses two potions of healing, two potions of invis-
  ibility, and one potion of glibness.
  Honey Badger
  Small beast, unaligned
  Armor Class 12
  Hit Points 5 (1d6 + 2)
  Speed 30 ft., burrow 10 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   13 (+1) 
  14 (+2) 
  14 (+2) 
  3 (–4) 
  12 (+1) 
  7 (–2)
  Skills Perception +3
  Senses passive Perception 13
  Languages –
  Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)
  Actions
  Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 
  + 1) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a 
  DC 11 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
  Tactics.
  If the PCs try to arrest Danisca, she pretends to go along with them, 
  but mentally alerts Blander of danger, who’ll sneak in to the up-
  stairs balcony and follow her lead. Then she tells the PCs that she 
  needs to take a few minutes to safely put away some alchemicals 
  in her lab, or else the place might burn down. She lets the PCs 
  accompany her to the entrance of her lab, but warns them to stay 
  at the doorway. She heads to the far corner of the room, then uses 
  prestidigitation to release a burst of dreaming dust from the ceiling 
  (see below). Her hope is to confuse the PCs and wipe their recent 
  memory.
  If that doesn’t work, she’ll try to quaff a potion of invisibility. If 
  she’s attacked, Danisca also attempts to quaff a potion to turn in-
  visible and then proceeds to flee to the second floor, then across to 
  Blander’s magician studio, hoping the traps will slow pursuit down 
  so the two gnomes can escape into the street. Meanwhile Blander 
  tries to cause a distraction by unleashing his penned honey badgers 
  (he uses them in magic tricks like humans would use doves, and 
  they’re very fond of him).
  The guards, for their part, know not to go near the dreaming 
  dust trap. Though they’re wary of getting charged with attempted 
  murder, they figure that Danisca can muddle the memories of the 
  PCs as long as they can knock them out.
  Alternately, the PCs might approach Blander first, in which case 
  he’ll try to reach the second floor bridge over to Danisca’s shop. 
  Danisca, empathically alerted, will have already unlocked the doors 
  for the bridge, and will be waiting to slam the door shut and lock it 
  once Blander gets through.
  Though focused on making their escape, when Danisca and 
  Blander do attack, they try to strike from opposite directions, draw-
  ing enemies apart so neither of them gets surrounded. Danisca uses 
  her alchemicals to stymie pursuit, while Blander throws enemies 
  into piles of volatile magic or the various traps set up in his studio.
  
  28 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Thread One: Smugglers
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 29
  Thread One: Smugglers
  Trap: Dreaming Dust
  Magical trap 
  Challenge 1 (200 XP)
  With a quick magical nudge, Danisca causes a metal plate to fall on and 
  shatter several vials of dreaming dust hidden in the ceiling. Yellow powder 
  bursts downward through tiny holes, filling the entrance to her laboratory.
   When activated, a burst of dreaming dust affects creatures in a 10-
  foot radius. Each creature in that area must make a DC 13 Constitution 
  saving throw. On a failure, it is stunned. Creatures stunned by the dust 
  become highly susceptible to suggestion, to the point that even its 
  short-term memories can be changed by simply telling it something 
  else happened. The susceptibility wears off after 2 (1d4) hours, but the 
  memory alteration is permanent.
   On the next round, each creature still in the radius must make an-
  other DC 13 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, it falls unconscious 
  for 5 (2d4) hours.
  Trap: Drowning Tanks
  Mechanical trap 
  Challenge 1 (200 XP)
  The floor drops out beneath you and you plunge into a cramped glass-
  walled tank filled with water. A trap door snaps shut above you, promising 
  a horrible drowning death if you can’t find a way out. Criss-crossing 
  threads of gold wrap around the outside of the glass, and gold blocks 
  teleportation, so you’re in trouble.
   A creature on a 5-square-foot trapdoor must make a DC 14 Dexter-
  ity saving throw. On a failure, it falls into a tank of water. If the creature 
  fails by 5 or more, it has no time to hold its breath and immediately 
  begins suffocating. The glass of the tank has AC 12 and 20 hit points. 
  Do not forget that melee attacks made underwater are made with 
  disadvantage unless the attacker has a swim speed. A character can 
  spot this trap door with a successful DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) check.
  Trap: Razzle Dazzle
  Mechanical trap 
  Challenge 1 (200 XP)
  This place is a real fire hazard. Dozens of buckets filled with quick-flash 
  firedust and other theatrical alchemicals lie stacked about, some of 
  them having fallen on their sides. Worse, the floor is riddled with strings 
  and tiny pressure plates, and you think you might have just lit a fuse by 
  stepping on one of them.
   A character that steps on a pressure plate activates a slew of minor 
  alchemical explosives. After 1 round, all creatures within 10 feet of the 
  pressure plate must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 5 (1d6 
  + 2) fire damage on a failed save or half as much damage one a success-
  ful one. A character can spot this pressure plate with a successful DC 
  16 Wisdom (Perception) check.
  Terrain.
  Many spaces in Danisca’s shop are display tables covered with 
  volatile chemicals. These spaces count as difficult terrain, and they 
  require making a successful DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check 
  to enter safely. If a creature fails its check, or if forced movement 
  moves it into the space, the creature takes 1 point each of acid, cold, 
  electricity, fire, and necrotic damage. A creature can take at most 5 
  damage in this way in a single turn, no matter how many spaces it 
  moves through at once.
  Blander’s magician studio has several props that can act as traps 
  (see above), and Danisca has set up a dreaming dust trap in her lab.
  The second floor doors between the buildings are locked, requir-
  ing a successful DC 18 Dexterity check with thieves’ tools to open, 
  but Danisca and Blander both have keys, and most likely the doors 
  will be unlocked before a fight begins.
  Aftermath.
  If either of the gnomes are knocked out or captured, the other will 
  stop fleeing and will fight to free them. Remember that the PCs 
  should be trying to take prisoners, not kill the pair. Likewise, nei-
  ther of them wants a murder charge, so they won’t go for killing 
  blows.
  Once captured, Danisca tries to make a plea deal, getting her 
  sentence reduced so she and her husband avoid jail in exchange for 
  her telling the party where and when they can find the smugglers. 
  She knows the man who’s captaining the ship that Nilasa was go-
  ing to ride is named Deorn Feldman, and that the ship is to set 
  out at high tide, two hours after sunset on the 4th, leaving from 
  a particular dock she can provide directions to. She doesn’t know 
  exactly where the meet-up is, but it’s going to be somewhere near an 
  uninhabited rock in The Ayres islands.
  If the Waryeyes knock out the PCs, Danisca will drug them with 
  a heavy dose of dreaming dust. Likewise if she gets lucky and her 
  trap succeeds, she’ll talk to the susceptible PCs and tell them a cov-
  er story. If they came to her shop, she’ll say they talked to her, and 
  that everything was in order. If they were looking for The House 
  Elf, she’ll instead say they found a stage magician who talked to 
  them and seemed completely unsuspicious.
  She’ll then encourage them to go to a nearby pub and drink the 
  rest of the day away. By the time the powder wears off, the PCs 
  won’t remember what happened except for a general sense that 
  it was a dead end. If they decide to come back, Danisca will have 
  cleared out anything incriminating, and Blander will just hide and 
  not talk to the PCs. Danisca will then start making plans to close 
  up shop and move to another city, but not before warning Gale and 
  the family that the PCs are onto them.
  Treasure.
  In addition to a variety of potions and alchemicals the party could 
  loot (worth roughly 1,000 gp), the party can also retrieve Danisca’s 
  potions and Blander’s ring of protection.
  What if There’s No Fight?
  If the party never comes here, or if they resolve the situation without 
  a fight, you can still make use of this location later in the adventure. 
  If the PCs try to lure Dr. von Recklinghausen to talk with his friend 
  Lynn Kindleton, he might arrange to meet at an abandoned apoth-
  ecary’s shop that’s identical to this one. Or if the PCs get Morgan 
  Cippiano’s help to take out the lizardfolk arsonists, he might hire the 
  brothers to burn down Danisca’s recently-abandoned shop, and the 
  PCs can lay a trap here.
  
  30 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Thread One: Smugglers
  Smugglers’ Night
  Action. Montage/Tactical.
  Smugglers working for a group called the Family have a ship docked 
  in Pine Island. The party can follow them to their rendezvous, or 
  ambush them before they get out to sea.
  By interrogating Danisca, or perhaps by following other leads, 
  the PCs can learn the location of the dock where Family smugglers 
  are prepared to set out on the night of the 4th, sailing a small cutter 
  called Silvo. They intend to rendezvous with a Crisillyiri merchant 
  ship, Li Grifoni Grinyande (The Grinning Griffin), off an uninhab-
  ited island in The Ayres.
  The Crisillyiri will hand over three crates of magic wands, and 
  the local smugglers will pay them with a case of gold ingots worth 
  10,000 gp, plus a stack of bills of mark worth a total of 150,000 gp. 
  These bills are popular currency for massive transactions, but the 
  bank that backs them with actual coinage is based in Nalaam, a 
  small neutral city in the mountain states between Drakr and 
  Crisillyir. The party will have the opportunity to visit Nalaam in 
  Adventure Four.
  The party has a few choices of how to go after the smugglers.
  •	 Caught in the Act. First, they might requisition a ship of 
  their own (detailed in Part Two of the Zeitgeist Player’s 
  Guide), wait for the smugglers to depart, and shadow them 
  to the rendezvous. There’s enough traffic in the harbor near 
  dusk that they probably can watch from afar without attract-
  ing attention. Then once the two ships link up they can close 
  and apprehend them.
  The benefit of this plan is that the party can catch both 
  groups at once. The drawback is that if there’s a fight, they’ll 
  have a lot more enemies to contend with. If they’re clever the 
  PCs might sneak up, make a note via spyglass or swimming 
  scout of the name of the Crisillyiri vessel, then wait for them 
  to separate. The party can chase down the local smugglers 
  and seize the wands, then alert the port police to seize the 
  Crisillyiri vessel when it docks.
  •	 The Boss Has a Cold. He Sent Us. Alternately, the party 
  might attack the wharf in Parity Lake before the local 
  smugglers can set out. Prisoners can give them directions to 
  the rendezvous, and the PCs can board the smugglers’ ship, 
  letting them get close to the Crisillyiri ship and catch the 
  crew off guard.
  •	 I Sure Hope They Come Back Soon. The party might decide 
  to let the local smugglers go to the rendezvous, while the 
  PCs lie in wait at the Parity Lake wharf. The smugglers plan 
  to stop briefly back at their dock to hand over one crate of 
  wands to some local allies, but then they’ll sail up to Stray 
  River, where they’ll offload the other two crates of wands. 
  Family operatives will deliver one crate to Gale’s allies in 
  the Cloudwood the next day, and they’ll distribute the rest to 
  their people throughout the city.
  Multiple Encounters.
  The can get caught in an overwhelming encounter if they plan poor-
  ly, whereas if they are clever and already dealt with the Waryeyes, 
  they might just have to face two less challenging encounters.
  Some groups prefer challenging set-piece action scenes, and 
  would want a tough fight even if they are clever. If that describes 
  your group, you might need to add some foes to some of the 
  encounters.
  If the PCs confront the two ships together, it’s a higher level 
  encounter (even higher if the Waryeyes are present) — an appropri-
  ately challenging capstone of this thread of the investigation.
  Alternately, the PCs might go after the Parity Lake wharf, which 
  is a challenging encounter (or hard if the Waryeyes are there). That 
  leaves Li Grifoni Grinyande, normally an easy encounter. To kick 
  up the challenge, you might decide to have the whole crew join any 
  fight, though that could get tedious.
  If the PCs decide to confront the two ships separately and they go 
  after the Grifoni first, you might just increase it to an average en-
  counter by adding some random guard (treat as Apothecary Guards 
  from the Waryeyes encounter), and then increase the Silvo from an 
  easy encounter to a challenging. For that, make the crew consist 
  of Deorn and nine Family bravuras. If the Waryeyes are tagging 
  along, they provide enough of a challenge that you can get away 
  with just converting two sailors into bravuras, for a total of Deorn, 
  five unscrupulous sailors, four Family bravuras, and a pair of mar-
  ried gnomes.
  Either way, one of the biggest excitement factors of this scene is 
  the chaotic blasts from the smuggled wands, so if you’re shooting 
  for drama, try to steer the party to go after whoever has the wands 
  only after they’ve dealt with the other group.
  Ships of the RHC.
  One goal of this scene is to establish that the PCs, as constables of 
  the RHC, have access to ships for their missions. All the later adven-
  tures will include scenes that involve ships. Though at first they just 
  have access to simple coast guard style cutters, as they increase 
  in Prestige they’ll either be able to trade up for superior vessels, or 
  outfit their ship with weapons and magical enhancements.
  Part Two of the Zeitgeist Player’s Guide contains options for 
  ships the PCs can requisition. Though the mission will take a few 
  hours, their Prestige should be low enough that they can only re-
  quest small cutters with minimal shipboard weapons. In the coming 
  pages and in later adventures you’ll find stats for other ships. Luckily 
  on this mission their foes’ ships are also barely armed.
  If you use battle maps and miniatures, we recommend you print 
  the ship layouts on thick paper, or hand draw them, then cut out the 
  ships so it’s easier to move them through the battle.
  If your PCs are not members of the RHC, you might have one 
  character—preferably a Yerasol Veteran—own his own ship, or the 
  party might borrow a ship from the Constabulary.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 31
  Thread One: Smugglers
  Family Wharf
  This small bayou house can only be reached by a narrow boardwalk 
  which the Family keeps watch on, or by swimming or taking a boat. 
  The party might completely bypass this area, but if they do want to 
  strike here, they’ll have a hard time making good use of their ship 
  in the tight quarters. Rowboats would be more useful, or perhaps 
  simply swimming. Of course, there are piranha in these waters.
  Because the ships can move, the map for this encounter doesn’t 
  include either the Silvo or the two rowboats. The Silvo is moored 
  to the east of the house. One rowboat sits outside to the north, the 
  other on the south by the boardwalk.
  Under the direction of Deorn Feldman, a local Flinter whom 
  the Family recruited for his excellent riverboating skills, seven un-
  scrupulous sailors prep the Silvo, a short cutter, single-masted, 30 
  ft. long, little more than a hull with a sail. Two Family bravuras 
  stand lookout on the boardwalk, separated by 20 ft., just within 
  sight of each other. The other two bravuras are busy cleaning up 
  after dinner. If the party hasn’t apprehended them or scared them 
  off, Danisca and Blander Waryeye are also present, full after a fine 
  Crisillyiri meal of pesto chicken and pasta.
  Technically only Deorn and the bravuras are members of the 
  Family, but it’s tradition in the criminal syndicate to share a meal 
  with team-mates to help build trust and get a sense of who might 
  be a liability.
  A piranha swarm lurks by the cypress trees east of the house. 
  Normally schools of piranha don’t attack large creatures, but the 
  smugglers have made a habit of dunking their leftovers and the leav-
  ings of butchered fish and fowl, to let the piranha clean dishes and 
  leave stripped bones that local fishermen buy as jewelry. Busy with 
  prepping the Silvo, the smugglers haven’t fed the fishies yet tonight, 
  and they are hungry. They attack indiscriminately.
  The stats for this location are included at the end of this encoun-
  ter, to consolidate the crews of the two ships. If the Waryeyes are 
  present, their stats are on page 27.
   
  • Deorn Feldman
   
  • 4 Family Bravuras
   
  • 7 Unscrupulous Sailors
   
  • Piranha Throng
   
  • Danisca Waryeye
   
  • Blander Waryeye
  Tactics.
  If the party approaches by boardwalk, the two lookout bravuras try 
  to hold the boardwalk and bottleneck the party while the rest of the 
  criminals rush to launch the Silvo. Two of the sailors act as crew, 
  and at the end of the round the ship pulls away from the house 
  and flees into the night. The remaining bravuras then dive into the 
  marsh and try to swim away.
  If the party approaches by boat, Deorn figures he can’t just run, 
  so he tries to lure the PCs in. The bravuras on the boardwalk take a 
  rowboat and try to stop the party from making landfall. Deorn and 
  his sailor allies fan out and fire from cover behind fences and build-
  ings — go prone, then stand, shoot, and go prone again. Meanwhile 
  the bravuras in the house sneak to the second boat and stay out of 
  the light as they try to flank.
  If the Waryeyes are present, they try to stay out of combat until 
  the party actually gets to the house. Neither has good long-ranged 
  options, but once the party closes in they can disrupt attempts to 
  take out Deorn and the sailors. If anyone is wounded while in the 
  water, the piranha throng swarms the unfortunate victim.
  If the party has their ship and the smugglers manage to slip past 
  them, see the Silvo Chase skill challenge, below.
  Terrain.
  A chest-high fence conceals parts of the boardwalk and house, and 
  gives defenders cover, but it wouldn’t be hard to smash through the 
  old, bayou-rotted wood.
  Light water near the cypress trees can be waded through as diffi-
  cult terrain. The rest of the water is at least 10 feet deep and must be 
  swum through by making a successful DC 11 Strength (Athletics) 
  check. Though the water to the north is fairly open, surrounding 
  trees make navigating ships through here difficult.
  Aftermath.
  If defeated, the smugglers can be convinced to tell the party where 
  the meet-up is through clever interrogation or an offer to let one of 
  them go in exchange for squealing. (If that happens, one of the un-
  scrupulous sailors takes the offer, and ends up dead within a week.) 
  They have little here at the wharf of value aside from the money they 
  were planning to use to pay for the wands.
  If the smugglers take out the party, they know better than to 
  kill law enforcement officers. Instead Deorn has the party disarmed, 
  tied up, and taken to the house of a nearby friend who can keep his 
  mouth shut. Then after finishing the wand exchange, Deorn loads 
  the party in his ship and delivers them to Family allies in Stray 
  River. The next morning the party will wake up to a meeting with 
  Morgan Cippiano.
  Morgan Cippiano. Morgan Cippiano, 
  going on forty and stylishly bald, conducts 
  Family business from the nondescript coffee 
  shop in an immigrant-heavy neighborhood, 
  occasionally going outside to encourage the 
  kids playing street sports. Morgan came 
  over from Crisillyir a few years ago with 
  instructions to foster Family interests by 
  recruiting Crisillyiri immigrants and any local Risuri followers of 
  the Clergy who had a similar ideology.
  A devout Clericist (follower of the Clergy), Morgan strives to keep 
  a moral code while running a branch of a powerful criminal organiza-
  tion. He hopes someday to be seen as a father figure to his community, 
  but for now he’s willing to smash a few heads and order a few throats 
  slit in order to clear out the competition.
  Though gruff-voiced and cocky, Morgan has an unusual fascina-
  tion with fashion. He rejects trends, but has a good eye for classical 
  styles that people of any culture can appreciate. He considers coffee 
  quite fashionable, and is trying to convince more of his family back in 
  Crisillyir to start drinking it so he can be a business contact.
  
  32 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Thread One: Smugglers
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 33
  Thread One: Smugglers
  The Meet-Up
  The local Family smugglers have a pre-arranged plan to meet south 
  of an uninhabited rocky island in The Ayres. On the Silvo, Deorn 
  will play a set of five horn notes every few minutes and then the 
  captain of Li Grifoni Grinyande will respond with another set of 
  notes. This, combined with lantern signals, will let the two ships 
  find each other in the night.
  If either captain blows a single long horn note, however, it 
  will warn the other ship that it’s not safe, and the meet-up will 
  be canceled. Afraid of being discovered by customs, the Crisillyiri 
  smugglers will send a longboat out to a nearby island and quickly 
  bury the cases of wands just off the beach. They’ll hope to retry 
  the exchange a few days later, and with luck the rich owner of the 
  island won’t happen to dig up their treasure in the interim. 
  If it comes to a fight, the opposition includes:
  Aboard the Silvo
   
  • Deorn Feldman
   
  • 2 Family Bravuras
   
  • 7 Unscrupulous Sailors
   
  • Danisca Waryeye (possibly)
   
  • Blander Waryeye (possibly)
  Aboard Li Grifoni Grinyande
   
  • Captain Amba Bandia
   
  • 15 Unscrupulous Sailors
  The Exchange.
  When the two ships are together, they tie ropes to keep themselves 
  close, and they adjust their sails so they’re relatively stationary. 
  The actual hand-off takes about 10 minutes, and involves friendly 
  greetings, a few shared drinks, and then the transaction of money 
  for wands. If anything interrupts them, it takes five rounds for the 
  crews of the two ships to ready their vessels for departure, so if 
  the PCs approach stealthily they can strike while their enemies are 
  vulnerable.
  Stealthy Approach.
  In the dark of night, the PCs can spot the lights of the two smuggler 
  ships from nearly a thousand feet out. If the PCs snuff their light 
  sources they can easily come within five hundred feet without being 
  spotted. Even if they have a steamship, the sound of wind and surf 
  covers their engine noises.
  To approach any closer, the party can attempt three DC 17 skill 
  checks: one Wisdom (Perception), to determine what angle best 
  hides them from the enemy lookouts; one Intelligence (Nature) or 
  Wisdom (Survival), to best take advantage of the waves and wind; 
  and one Dexterity (Stealth) to pick the proper angle that hides 
  them in the shadow of an island. If the party succeeds at least two 
  of these checks, they can get within 50 feet before being noticed.
  Fight or Flight. 
  If the party confronts both ships at the same time, the criminals 
  figure they outnumber the party and will try to pincer the PCs’ ship, 
  then attempt to board them.
  If the party approaches the Grifoni while it’s on its own, Captain 
  Bandia orders her crew to discreetly arm themselves, but acts ca-
  sual when the PCs arrive. If they ask to inspect the ship, she invites 
  them on board, hoping to swarm them with her crew. Though she 
  has cannons and outguns them, she prefers to remain discreet, and 
  won’t start firing unless the party fires on her ship first.
  If they go after the Silvo when it’s alone, Deorn orders the crew 
  to turn about and run back to the Grifoni, where they’ll have rein-
  forcements for a fight. If the party makes a point of waiting until 
  the Silvo is far from the Grifoni, then Deorn’s goal is to flee back 
  to the Parity Lake wharf. It’s a similar result, just with different 
  reinforcements.
  Tactics.
  When Deorn realizes the jig is up, he has whichever men aren’t busy 
  crewing the ship take defensive positions. He hopes to strafe the 
  PCs, ordering his men to fire crossbows, or use the wands if they’ve 
  received them. If the two ships hit each other, he takes his bravuras 
  and tries to board while the sailors provide cover fire.
  Terrain.
  There’s not much in the way of terrain here, except for the ships. 
  If the fight occurs back at the wharf there are cypress trees and a 
  boardwalk to deal with, and during a chase the PCs might force the 
  Silvo near shoals or some rocky islands.
  The deck of the Grifoni is covered in barrels and crates that pro-
  vide cover and mobility options. On the Silvo, the hull of the ship is 
  deep enough that a prone character gets cover from attacks origi-
  nating off the ship. The unscrupulous sailors will try to stay prone 
  except for when they pop up to shoot, or when Deorn orders one 
  of them to jump between the two ships and get in the party’s face.
  Wands of Wonder.
  If you were a desperate criminal about to get arrested while sitting 
  on a cache of magic weapons, what would you do?
  The Crisillyiri wands belonged to a military collection and 
  have been enchanted so they could be easily shown off to visiting 
  nobles and religious hierarchs. Each is unique, from any of a dozen 
  Silvo Chase.
  To determine the winner of a sailing contest like a chase, make op-
  posed Dexterity or Intelligence checks, adding proficiency bonus if 
  the pilot is proficient in vehicles (water). Each round the Grifoni is 
  able to line up a shot, one PC at random must make a DC 10 Dexter-
  ity saving throw, taking 10 piercing damage on a failed save or half 
  as much damage on a successful one. After 10 hits, the party’s ship 
  starts taking on water, can no longer sail effectively, and sinks if not 
  tended to.
  Ship-to-Ship Combat
  The party does have forward-facing guns on their ships, which can 
  be useful in a chase against the Silvo if they can get close enough. 
  Since the Silvo has no cannons of its own, its crew will try to stay to 
  the side or aft of the party, and then board.
  The Grifoni, by contrast, easily outguns the party’s ship, which 
  should be readily obvious by just counting their gunports. The party 
  is likely more maneuverable, but be prepared in case they pick a fight 
  they can’t win. They might be left adrift in a crippled ship, waiting 
  for rescue.
  
  34 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Thread One: Smugglers
  different centuries, and an archaeologist or arcane scholar could 
  keep herself delighted for years discovering the secret iconography 
  and histories of these weapons. But for rich Crisillyiri patrons, it’s 
  important to be able to pick it up and shoot it without worrying 
  about command words or magical training.
  All of the wands have been enchanted so that they can each be 
  fired once per month by whoever is holding them, requiring only a 
  simple act of will. No training or command word is needed. How-
  ever, the power of the spell cast through the wand is minimal, so 
  some flashy effects will miss wildly or do inconsequential damage.
  When a fight breaks out between the PCs and the smugglers, 
  Deorn or Amba quickly orders the sailors to take cover behind the 
  crates, crack them open, and start shooting with whatever they can 
  get their hands on. A character adjacent to a crate of wands can 
  spend a move action to retrieve a wand, and a standard action to use 
  it. As he activates it, the wielder innately learns the power the wand 
  possesses so he can properly choose its target, but he can’t choose 
  not to use it. After the wand is used once, it can’t be used again until 
  the wielder studies it and learns the proper commands.
  Each crate contains about fifty wands, carefully wrapped in fine 
  fabrics to keep their energies from intermingling catastrophically. 
  When a character draws a wand from a crate, roll 1d12 and consult 
  the sidebar at left to see what he gets.
  Aftermath.
  Much as in the Family Wharf encounter, if the PCs are defeated, 
  they’re handed over to Morgan Cippiano for a polite conversation 
  the next morning.
  Defeated smugglers clam up, except for Deorn, who brags that 
  he’ll be free in a week. None of them know how to get in touch with 
  Gale or the fey, but members of the Family will say that someone 
  who does know will be contacting the PCs shortly.
  Random Wands.
  1d12: Wand Procured
  1. Magic Missile. A wand of magic missiles.
  2. Grease. A wand of grease is an uncommon magic item with 
  7 charges. You can expend 1 charge to cast grease. The 
  wand regains 1d6 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. If you 
  expend the wand’s last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the wand 
  crumbles into ashes and is destroyed.
  3. Burning Hands. A wand of burning hands is an uncommon 
  magic item with 5 charges. You can expend 1 charge to cast 
  burning hands. The wand regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges 
  daily at dawn. If you expend the wand’s last charge, roll a d20. 
  On a 1, the wand crumbles into ashes and is destroyed.
  4. Ray of Enfeeblement. A wand of enfeeblement is an uncom-
  mon magic item with 5 charges. You can expend 1 charge to 
  cast ray of enfeeblement. The wand regains 1d4 + 1 expended 
  charges daily at dawn. If you expend the wand’s last charge, 
  roll a d20. On a 1, the wand crumbles into ashes and is 
  destroyed.
  5. Secrets. A wand of secrets.
  6. Golden Wand of Egal the Shimmering. This golden wand is 
  eerily warm to the touch, and has a carving of an aged man 
  on its handle, his identity unknown. The shaft of the wand 
  is inscribed with text that can copied into a spellbook, which 
  provides the spell dominate person. You can use this wand to 
  perform the somatic components of an arcane spell as if you 
  had a free hand. While holding this wand, you cannot teleport 
  or be teleported. Once per day as a bonus action, you can 
  point the wand at a creature, and until the end of your next 
  turn that creature cannot teleport or be teleported.
  7. Minor Lightning Bolt. As a wand of lightning bolts, but the 
  lightning bolt deals 4d6 lightning damage on a failed save, 
  instead of 8d6 and the line is 50 feet long instead of 100. 
  This is an uncommon magic item.
  8. Invisibility. A wand of invisibility is an uncommon magic item 
  with 5 charges. You can expend 1 charge to cast invisibility. 
  The wand regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. If 
  you expend the wand’s last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the wand 
  crumbles into ashes and is destroyed.
  9. Guiding Bolt. A wand of guiding bolts is an uncommon magic 
  item with 7 charges. You can expend 1 charge to cast guiding 
  bolt. The wand regains 1d6 + 1 expended charges daily at 
  dawn. If you expend the wand’s last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, 
  the wand crumbles into ashes and is destroyed.
  10. Expelliarmus. One target within 100 feet of you must make 
  a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be disarmed. Whatever the 
  target was holding flies to your hand. This wand is an uncom-
  mon magic item with 5 charges. Each use expends 1 charge, 
  and the wand regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. 
  If you expend the wand’s last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the 
  wand crumbles into ashes and is destroyed.
  11. Web. A wand of web.
  12. Magic Detection. A wand of magic detection.
  The Silvo ↑
  Li Grifoni 
  Grinyande
  →
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One | 35
  Thread One: Smugglers
  Deorn Feldman
  Medium humanoid (human), neutral evil
  Armor Class 15 (studded leather)
  Hit Points 39 (6d8 + 12)
  Speed 30 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   15 (+2) 
  16 (+3) 
  14 (+2) 
  14 (+2) 
  10 (+0) 
  14 (+2)
  Saving Throws str +5, dex +6, con +3, int +2 wis +3, cha +3
  Skills Athletics +4, Deception +4
  Senses passive Perception 10
  Languages Common
  Challenge 2 (450 XP)
  Actions
  Multiattack. Deorn makes three scimitar attacks.
  Scimitar. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. 
  Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage.
  Hand Cannon. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 20/60 ft., one 
  target. Hit: 14 (2d10 + 3) piercing damage.
  Gear two potions of healing and a cloak of resistance.
  Family Bravura
  Medium humanoid (human), neutral evil
  Armor Class 11 (leather armor)
  Hit Points 32 (5d8 + 10)
  Speed 30 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   15 (+2) 
  10 (+0) 
  14 (+2) 
  10 (+0) 
  10 (+0) 
  11 (+0)
  Skills Intimidation +2
  Senses passive Perception 10
  Languages Common
  Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)
  Pack Tactics. The family bravura has advantage on an attack roll if at 
  least one of the bravura’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and its 
  ally isn’t incapacitated.
  Actions
  Multiattack. The bravura makes three dagger attacks.
  Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., range 
  20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage.
  Unscrupulous Sailor
  Medium humanoid (human), neutral evil
  Armor Class 12 (padded armor)
  Hit Points 11 (2d8 + 2)
  Speed 30 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   11 (+0) 
  12 (+1) 
  12 (+1) 
  10 (+0) 
  10 (+0) 
  10 (+0)
  Senses passive Perception 10
  Languages Common, Elven
  Challenge 1/8 (10 XP)
  Actions
  Scimitar. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 
  (1d6 + 1) slashing damage.
  Light Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 80/320 ft., 
  one target. Hit: 5 (1d8 + 1) piercing damage.
  Swarm of Piranhas
  Medium swarm of Tiny beasts, unaligned
  Armor Class 13
  Hit Points 28 (8d8—8)
  Speed 0 ft., swim 40 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   13 (+1) 
  16 (+3) 
  9 (–1) 
  1 (–5) 
  7 (–2) 
  2 (–4)
  Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, slashing
  Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, 
  petrified, prone, restrained, stunned
  Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 8
  Languages –
  Challenge 1 (200 XP)
  Blood Frenzy. The swarm has advantage on melee attack rolls against 
  any creature that doesn’t have all its hit points.
  Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, 
  and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a 
  Tiny piranha. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit 
  points.
  Water Breathing. The swarm can only breathe underwater.
  Actions
  Bites. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 0 ft., one creature in the 
  swarm’s space. Hit: 14 (4d6) piercing damage, or 7 (2d6) piercing 
  damage if the swarm has half of its hit points or fewer.
  Captain Amba Bandia
  Medium humanoid (human), chaotic neutral
  Armor Class 14 (leather)
  Hit Points 39 (6d8 + 12)
  Speed 30 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   15 (+2) 
  16 (+3) 
  14 (+2) 
  14 (+2) 
  10 (+0) 
  14 (+2)
  Saving Throws str +4, dex +5, wis +2
  Skills Acrobatics +5, Perception +2
  Senses passive Perception 12
  Languages Common, Elven
  Challenge 2 (450 XP)
  Cunning Action. On each of her turns, Captain Amba Bandia can use a 
  bonus action to take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action.
  Sneak Attack (1/Turn). Captain Amba Bandia deals an extra 7 (2d6) 
  damage when it hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage 
  on the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of an ally of the 
  spy that isn’t incapacitated and the spy doesn’t have disadvantage on 
  the attack roll.
  Actions
  Multiattack. Captain Amba Bandia makes two rapier attacks.
  +1 Rapier. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 
  8 (1d8 + 3) slashing damage.
  Hand Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 30/120 ft., 
  one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage.
  Gear two potions of healing and a +1 rapier.
  
  36 | EN5ider Presents: The Dying Skyseer, Part One
  Thread One: Smugglers
  Make Them an Offer
  Social. Real-Time.
  Morgan Cippiano, head of the Family’s operations in Flint, wants to 
  have coffee with the party.
  The party can get to this encounter in several ways. If they lose 
  a fight to Family allies, they might wake up in an unfamiliar room, 
  windowless but pleasantly appointed with a bed for each PC, its 
  door locked. Their wounds have been dressed, and fashionable 
  clothes in their sizes will have been laid out by each of their beds. 
  A young boy with a Crisillyiri accent comes by shortly and invites 
  them to breakfast.
  Or if the party’s successful, a day after thwarting the smuggling, 
  finely-handwritten letters arrive for them at the RHC headquarters, 
  each with a variant arcane lock spell cast on its wax seal, the result 
  of which is that only the named person can open the letter. The 
  missive invites them to come to a coffee shop in Stray River on the 
  corner of Yearling Street and Healers Street, near where a subrail 
  station is being built.
  The writer, who signs “Morgan Cippiano,” says he takes break-
  fast and lunch there, and he’ll wait at their convenience for the next 
  three days. He says he wishes to discuss the legal case against his 
  “family members,” and says he might be able to help them in their 
  greater investigation.
  If the party doesn’t come for three days, Morgan finds a way to 
  arrange that they share a route with him for a few minutes, perhaps 
  a stroll, a carriage, or a ferry. He has plenty of Family members 
  along the way as a precaution.
  Coffee and Cakes.
  When the party arrives, Morgan casually gestures to the proprietor, 
  who tells his daughters in Crisillyiri to bring out comestibles. Sit-
  ting at a table, already partway into a cup of black but intensely 
  sweetened coffee, Morgan cranes his head to get a view of the PCs’ 
  shoes. He makes a sincere effort to niceties, with a particular em-
  phasis on fashion and clothing, then moves to business after some 
  light fare is brought out.
  Morgan mentions that he has friends all over the city, and when 
  the party managed to get involved in that smuggling business, he 
  got interested. He had his friends ask around, and he learned just 
  how busy the party is. He says he admires their diligence — it’s a 
  trait that’s very handy for both government and private entrepre-
  neurs like himself. Now he wants to know if they might have more 
  in common, and he’d like to begin their relationship by offering 
  them some help.
  Inform the party that they have gained a Prestige rating of 2 
  with The Family. (It’s actually a Prestige rating with The Clergy, 
  since these criminals are just a distant arm of their interests, but 
  that will be revealed later.)
  Morgan wants to make a deal to get his men out of trouble — the 
  bravuras in particular. Deorn isn’t family, not really, and Morgan 
  couldn’t care less about any unscrupulous sailors, though he might 
  make an effort for the Waryeyes because he has a soft spot for mar-
  ried couples. What he offers depends on where the PCs stand.
  You as GM can use this situation as a way to nudge the party if 
  they’re lost — perhaps Morgan’s men can point the party to Wolf-
  gang’s lair, or arrange passage through the Cloudwood to Nevard’s 
  henge. More likely, though, the party will meet Morgan late in the 
  adventure, in which case he can offer to lure the red dragonborn 
  arsonists to a trap so the party can arrest them, or his men can “en-
  courage” Cillian Creed’s carriage driver to come forward to the PCs.
  While it’s perfectly possible for the party to solve this entire ad-
  venture without Morgan’s help, you want them to feel like they got 
  a massive break by compromising just a little.
  Aftermath.
  The party might rebuff Morgan, but he’s a hard man to upset. If 
  the party or any individual PC is interested in forging a stronger 
  relationship with the criminal elite of Flint, Morgan is too busy to 
  spend much time personally with the party, but he can get them in 
  touch with an underling — a talented cobbler named Dozy Miccini. 
  With Family help the party will have an easier time fencing illicit 
  goods and hiding their ill-gotten wealth from investigations.
  You can also deploy Morgan and the Family later in the adven-
  ture if you want to make an impression of how civic-minded these 
  guys are. If the party loses track of any key bad guys, from one of the 
  red dragonborn to Macbannin himself, in the wrap-up of the adven-
  ture the person in question is delivered to the RHC headquarters 
  along with a fancy coffee press and finely ground coffee beans. +
  Ooh, Temptation!
  If the PCs decide to keep some of the smuggled wands from the pre-
  vious encounter, feel free to remind them that not only is it against 
  protocol, but it is also highly illegal, as they’re technically stealing 
  from the Clergy, which happens to be one of the most powerful or-
  ganizations in the world.
  In Adventure Three, the PCs will undergo an audit that will prob-
  ably uncover anything illicit they’ve been up to, but until then a little 
  rationalization might make them feel better about having ill-gotten 
  firepower when going up against dangerous criminals.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/5th Edition (5e)/3rd Party/EN World EN5ider/EN5ider 179 - Zeitgeist 2.1 The Dying Skyseer.pdf