24 Session 3 - Lesser Evils
Central Dilemma: Is a “lesser evil” still evil? How far do you compromise?
Session Goal: Give the players three real alternative paths, each with genuine moral costs. Force them to stop looking for a clean solution.
GM Principle for This Session: Every alternative is worse than it sounds. Every alternative is better than it sounds. That’s the point.
24.1 Pacing Guide
| Time | Scene | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00-0:15 | Opening: Time Pressure (Tomas’s chart) | Roleplay |
| 0:15-0:45 | Path 1: Theron and the Partial Ritual | Investigation |
| 0:45-1:10 | Path 2: Edoran + the Willing Dawnborn | Roleplay |
| 1:10-1:40 | Path 3: Isolde’s Lab + The Puzzle | Investigation / Puzzle |
| 1:40-1:55 | The Riddle: Laboratory Lock | Investigation |
| 1:55-2:10 | Sera and Lira’s Argument | Roleplay |
| 2:10-2:45 | The Combat: Senna’s Mob | Combat |
| 2:45-3:00 | Aftermath, commitment, closing beat | Roleplay / Narrative |
If players fixate on one path, let it run long and trim another. The Sera/Lira argument and the mob combat are the session’s emotional anchors - protect those two regardless of what else slips.
24.2 Pre-Session Checklist
24.2.1 Player Companion Touchpoints
- Downtime leverage (
shops.md): Path 3 hinges on trust with Spire resources. If the party cultivated Scholar Fenn or the Amber Guild Workshop, pay that off now — Fenn can waive access checks in the annex; Helv Onn can vouch for the legitimacy of Isolde’s rod order. Conversely, failing those side quests means bureaucratic resistance. Call out the proprietors’ wants/fears (Fenn wants accurate archives, fears political erasure; Helv wants quality control, fears Compact dilution) so the stakes feel personal. - Restorer territory travel (
travel.md): The Ashfen Paths descriptions give you ready-made five-senses beats when the party visits Edoran or the willing Dawnborn near the Gate. Use the Reed Crossing complication if they head deeper into Clan territory for alternative solutions. - Live tracker updates (
tracker.md): After each alternative path scene, change the Dawnborn consent checkboxes and City Crisis level in front of the players. Seeing the marks shift is the encounter beat that sells Tomas’s chart.
24.3 Opening: The Clock Gets Real
Scene goal: Establish urgency without melodrama. Tomas gives the players a number, not a feeling.
What the players hear and smell first: The Archive’s back reading room. Old paper, amber lamp oil, the faint char of last session’s confrontation if the Reckoning burned anything. Tomas is already there - he found them, not the other way around.
24.3.1 Read-Aloud
Tomas Areth finds you before you find him. He’s been doing math.
“The grey sickness rate has been accelerating,” he says, without greeting. “I asked the healers to let me see the numbers. Not the public numbers - the actual numbers.” He spreads a hand-drawn chart on the table. “Twelve people a month in the first decade. Eighteen two years ago. Twenty-six last month.” He lets you look at it. “If this curve holds, we lose forty percent of the city’s productive adult population in eleven years. The city itself follows about three years later.”
He folds the chart.
“I’m telling you this because I think you’re trying to find an alternative to the ritual. I want you to succeed. And I want you to know what the clock actually looks like while you’re trying.”
Mechanical Effect: Players have approximately two more sessions before Living World consequences become irreversible. Remind them of this at each subsequent session opener with a specific update (grey sickness deaths this week, a shop that’s closed, a family that’s left).
The encounter beat for this scene: Tomas pauses after handing them the chart and adds: “Also. Someone from the Reckoning was asking questions at the Dawnhalls yesterday. About which Dawnborn have the strongest connections. I thought you should know they’re still moving.” This creates a time pressure on the Reckoning front as well.
24.4 The Three Alternative Paths
Each path is a real option. None of them are perfect. Present all three through different NPCs, and let the players pursue whichever they choose. Be ready for them to pursue two simultaneously.
24.4.1 Path 1: The Partial Ritual - “Three Are Enough”
Source: Theron Waide, if they have won enough of his trust.
Scene: The Archive again, a quieter room. Theron is measuring his words carefully - he’s been thinking about this since Session 2.
What the players see and hear: Theron has covered one of the worktables with notation sheets, cross-referencing his own translations. His ink-stained fingers move over the pages without touching them, as if he’s afraid to disturb something.
What It Is: An incomplete reading of the ritual texts suggests that concentrated rather than distributed extinguishing might work. Instead of all ten Lux Anchors, perhaps three with the strongest connections could provide enough energy to trigger the sun’s return.
The Moral Cost: This is speculation. Theron cannot verify it without the destroyed section of Corven’s notes. There is approximately a 40% chance that three deaths would accomplish nothing and the remaining seven Lux Anchors would be permanently destabilized.
Also: three people still die.
The encounter beat: Theron, midway through his explanation, stops. He says: “I need to tell you something I haven’t told you yet. The three strongest anchors - based on the resonance data - are not who you might expect. It’s not Sera, Tomas, and Lira. It’s Sera, Tomas, and Ysel Maren. Ysel is one of the willing ones. That means if this path is correct, the three who would need to die are exactly the three who have already volunteered.” He looks at the table. “I don’t know what to do with that.”
NPC Reactions: - Sera: “If it’s verified, I’d do it. But I won’t die on a maybe.” - Tomas: “The arithmetic is appealing. The uncertainty is not. I’d want three independent confirmations before I’d recommend this path.” - Lira: “You came to me with ‘it might only be three of us.’ That’s supposed to be good news?”
Key Decision Point: Do the players pursue verification, which takes time and may reveal the partial ritual is impossible? Or do they act on the possibility? The answer changes what Isolde’s puzzle means (see below).
24.4.2 Path 2: The Willing Few - “Consent Changes the Calculus”
Source: Brother Edoran. He has been quietly asking. Some Dawnborn have already answered.
Scene: Edoran’s private meeting room at the Restorers’ compound near the Ashfen Gate. It smells of old wood and candle smoke. He does not offer refreshments. He sits across from the players with his hands folded.
What It Is: Three Dawnborn have privately indicated - to Edoran, not to the players - that they would consent to the ritual if it were voluntary. Ysel Maren (the temple keeper), Davin Shore (the retired soldier), and Cormac Drell (the dock master) are the willing ones. Seven are not.
The Moral Cost: Three willing deaths doesn’t complete the ritual. The math requires ten. Even if the willing three proceed, seven more are needed - and they haven’t consented.
But: if the willing three go first, and the ritual begins, does the momentum change? Does seeing the sun start to return change the unwilling seven’s calculus? Or does it trap them?
NPC Reactions: - Edoran: “I am not asking for the unwilling ones. I am asking for the willing ones’ right to choose.” - Ysel Maren (if players meet her at the Cathedral): “This is my calling. I have never been more certain of anything. Please don’t try to talk me out of it.” Her calm is not performance. It is the specific calm of someone who has been carrying a decision long enough to have made peace with it. - Lira (on hearing about the willing three): “Good for them. That doesn’t change my answer.” - Sera: “If Davin and Ysel are willing, I can’t tell them no. But I’m not there yet myself.”
Key Decision Point: Do the players facilitate the willing deaths? Do they try to use the partial ritual as cover? And once they start, can they stop?
Meeting Davin Shore: If players go to meet Davin directly, they find him at the river docks doing what he always does - supervising cargo, moving crates, being useful. He talks to them between tasks.
“People keep expecting me to be afraid,” he says, not looking up from a manifest he’s checking. “I’ve had fifty years to figure out what I am. That’s not nothing.” He sets down the manifest. “I’m not doing this because someone told me to. I’m doing it because I’ve thought about it longer than any of you have.” He hands the manifest to a dockworker. “Now. Do you have a plan or not?”
On him is a small carved wooden disc on a cord around his neck - a token he had made when he made his decision. On one side: his name. On the other: “Of my own choosing.”
24.4.3 Path 3: The Transfer - “What If the Energy Could Move?”
Source: A Spire Quarter mage named Isolde Menth, who has been studying the Dawnborn for years without their full understanding of what she was observing.
Scene: Isolde’s laboratory, a cluttered room on the third floor of a Spire annex building. The smell of reagents and hot metal. A faint electrical hum. The resonance cage sits in the center of the room like the skeleton of a lantern - all brass framework and exposed wire, glowing faintly at the joints where the rods are installed.
Players who look around the room before speaking to Isolde: a shelf of specimen jars. One contains a bird, perfectly preserved, drained of color. A second contains a mouse, alive but grey - it moves, but everything natural about its movement is slightly wrong, like watching something walk through water. Isolde notices them noticing.
“The mortality estimate I gave you was the best-case projection,” she says, before they can ask. “The actual range is wider. I’ve been working on improving it.”
What It Is: Isolde believes the Lux Anchor energy is transferable. If extracted from the Dawnborn and placed into a non-living anchor vessel with the correct sympathetic resonance, the ritual could proceed without anyone dying.
The Moral Cost: The extraction process is dangerous and untested. Each extraction currently carries real mortality risk. And the anchor vessel must be exactly right - she believes only something within the original ritual’s sympathetic resonance would work.
She has a theory about what that vessel is. It is the Auris Cathedral.
The Cathedral has stood for two hundred years. It is the city’s most important religious and cultural site. It would be destroyed in the process.
NPC Reactions: - Tomas: “Destroy the Cathedral to save the Dawnborn. The Auris clergy will fight that to the last person.” - The Auris clergy (split): Half refuse on principle. Half - the Wounded faction, who believe the god was harmed - might be persuaded that destroying the Cathedral is an act of healing, not sacrilege. But they need a theological argument, not just pragmatism. - Lira: “Yes. This. Find a way to make this work.” - Edoran: “Fascinating. Tell me - what happens if the transfer fails and three Dawnborn die and the Cathedral is destroyed?”
Key Decision Point: Do they pursue the transfer? Do they involve Isolde fully, knowing she has been less than honest about the risks? Do they tell the Auris clergy what it will cost?
24.5 The Puzzle: Isolde’s Resonance Rods
Where it happens: Isolde’s laboratory, during or after the Path 3 investigation.
Purpose: Calibrating the resonance cage to the Dawnborn’s specific energy signature - the first step toward making the transfer viable.
Setup: The resonance cage has three tuning rods mounted in its framework: one brass (left), one silver (center), one copper (right). Each rod has a slider with three settings: high, mid, low. There are 27 possible combinations. Only one produces the correct resonance match.
Isolde has been trying to find the right combination for three years, using theoretical calculations from the Spire’s general magical resonance models. She has been using the wrong reference point.
The correct combination is derived from two documents the players may have from Session 1:
The Solution Key:
| Rod | Anchor | Birth Phase | Setting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brass (left) | Sera Voss | Born during ritual’s initial surge | HIGH |
| Silver (center) | Tomas Areth | Born during sustained inversion | LOW |
| Copper (right) | Ysel Maren | Born during the final release | MID |
How players find this:
- With the Midwife’s Records (Session 1, Clue B): The records document birth times. Cross-referencing with the Astronomical Charts (Clue A) maps each birth to a phase of the ritual’s three-stage inversion. DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) or DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) to interpret the mapping.
- With the Astronomical Charts only: DC 14 Arcana to determine the phase structure without the birth timing data.
- Without either: DC 16 Arcana to deduce from Isolde’s visible lab notes, or attempt empirical testing (see below).
Empirical Testing: If players experiment without the documents, each wrong combination causes a feedback pulse - a sharp crack of electricity radiating 10 feet. Each creature in range makes a DC 12 Constitution save or takes 3 (1d6) lightning damage and drops any held metal objects. This is not dangerous to the cage or the players, but it is dramatic and embarrassing for Isolde. She can absorb three pulses before she asks the players to stop - “I cannot afford to damage the rods.”
When the correct combination is entered: The cage produces a sustained, resonant amber glow - the first stable response Isolde has achieved in three years. The hum fills the room. The grey mouse on the shelf turns to look at it.
Isolde goes very still. Then: “That’s Sera’s harmonic. That’s exactly right. I’ve been using the wrong reference. How did you -” She looks at what the players are holding. “Where did you get those records?”
Encounter Beat: The cage working is proof of concept. But it also means the transfer is real. That makes Isolde’s honesty problem (see the Riddle below) more urgent, not less.
24.6 The Riddle: The Laboratory Lock
Where it happens: While Isolde steps out briefly (to retrieve something, or to compose herself after the cage calibration), or while players explore the lab.
Setup: A heavy drawer in Isolde’s primary workbench has a combination lock with three rotating discs. Each disc is engraved with the Spire’s academic notation symbols - the same system players may know from the notation key in Session 1.
Etched above the lock:
“I have no weight, but I can fill a room. I cast no shadow, but I give all shadows birth. For fifty years I have been absent, and in my absence, everything I touch has gone grey. What am I?”
The Answer: Sunlight. The sun. Dawn.
The Lock Solution: The three discs must be set to: - Disc 1: The Spire symbol for light (a rayed circle, used in photomancy notation) - Disc 2: The Spire symbol for origin (a dot within a circle, theoretical magic) - Disc 3: The Spire symbol for life (an upward spiral, healing/growth notation)
With the notation key from Session 1: DC 10 Intelligence to identify all three symbols. Without the notation key: DC 15 Intelligence to deduce the correct symbols from context in Isolde’s visible notes and labeled reference sheets on the wall.
What’s inside:
Three specimen reports - detailed notes on the extraction attempts: the bird (died immediately, energy dissipated), the mouse (survived but permanently altered - “extraction successful, residual cost unclear”), and a third subject (a potted flower from the Dawnhalls gift shop - it crystallized into something beautiful and inert).
Isolde’s private journal, most recent entry: “The mortality estimate I gave them is 20-30%. The actual range from my models is 35-55%. I need to be honest about this. I will be honest about this. I am going to tell them tomorrow.” The date is eight days ago.
A draft letter to the City Council, never sent, requesting official research status and emergency resources for the transfer project.
A diagram showing the Cathedral’s foundation in relation to the original Ashring. Three of the foundation stones are marked with the same notation symbol as the resonance nodes in Corven’s diagram. The Cathedral was deliberately built over the secondary resonance site. If the transfer uses the Cathedral, the foundation will collapse - the building falls - because the stones themselves are the nodes.
If players confront Isolde about the mortality estimate: She doesn’t run, lie, or attack. She sits down. She says: “I know. I’ve been trying to find a way to be honest about it that doesn’t end the project. I haven’t found one yet.”
She can be convinced to work on improving the safety margin before Session 4. This buys one session’s worth of reduced risk, but it delays the timeline. Whether that tradeoff is worth it is entirely up to the players.
24.7 NPC Relationships: Deepening and Fracturing
This session is when relationships become stakes.
24.7.1 Sera and Lira
They have known each other for fifty years. They have different answers. This session, they have their first real argument - in front of the players, if the players have been present in both their lives.
Scene: Anywhere both of them are present - the Dawnhalls common room, a street corner, a Dawnhall kitchen where Lira is helping with the evening meal distribution and Sera walks in.
What the players smell and hear: Lowmark Stew. The clatter of bowls. Fifty people eating. The argument starts quietly.
Sera: “Someone has to make a decision. We can’t just wait for a perfect answer that might not exist.”
Lira: “I have a daughter.”
A silence.
Sera: (Quietly.) “Oh.”
The encounter beat: This is the moment Lira’s secret comes out - to Sera, and to any player present. Handle it gently. It doesn’t resolve anything. It makes everything harder. Sera did not know. She has no answer. She and Lira look at each other across fifty years of friendship, and the gap between them is visible.
Do not give the players a skill check here. Just let it happen.
24.7.2 Tomas and the Chancellor
Tomas has requested a private meeting with Chancellor Ostenveld. Players may learn about this, attend it with appropriate social navigation, or be told about it afterward by either party.
The substance: Tomas is proposing a formal timeline. If a solution isn’t found in seven days, he will publicly announce the ritual’s cost to the city. He believes people have the right to know. The Chancellor believes the announcement will cause a riot.
They are both right.
GM Tip: This is the players’ cue. They have limited time before the situation becomes public. Tomas is not bluffing. If the players have built trust with him, he’ll give them the seven days. If not, the timeline compresses.
24.7.3 Edoran and Ysel at the Cathedral
Players may witness - or be told of - Edoran meeting Ysel at the Cathedral. Not secret. They are very calm. They are discussing timing.
If the players intervene: Edoran looks up and genuinely asks: “I’m not doing this because I enjoy it. I’m doing it because someone needs to, and no one else has a better plan. Show me a better plan.”
If the players don’t intervene: The willing three begin quiet preparations.
24.8 The Combat: Senna’s Desperate Mob
This scene always happens this session. The only variable is whether it ends in de-escalation or violence.
When: Late afternoon, as players are moving between locations. The Lowmark near the Dawnhalls.
What the players see, hear, smell: A street that’s been blocked at both ends. Maybe forty people - some holding tools, some just standing, some shouting. In the middle: Senna Kard, a woman in her thirties with a dockworker’s build and the specific exhaustion of someone who has been awake for thirty hours. Beside her, two people are restraining Davin Shore - arms held, not hurt. Davin is not struggling. He is watching the players.
What the players smell: Woodsmoke from an overturned brazier. Unwashed wool. Someone’s spilled fish broth.
What’s actually happening: Senna has organized thirty-odd Lowmark residents to demand action. She’s heard rumors - that the ritual can be done, that the Dawnborn won’t do it, that powerful people are making decisions about people who are dying. She grabbed Davin when he walked past because she needed someone to hold, someone with a face she knows. She is not evil. She is running out of time.
24.8.1 Senna’s Demand
“Give us an answer. A real one. A date. Tell us the sun comes back before my children go grey, and I’ll take these people home.”
She means it. The city watch will arrive in 1d4+2 rounds if combat starts. Their arrival doesn’t help anyone - it escalates the charge from “unlawful assembly” to something worse.
24.8.2 Combat: Secondary Objectives
This combat has three goals beyond winning the fight. Players who only fight miss all of them:
| Objective | Condition | Reward |
|---|---|---|
| Free Davin without harming the mob | Davin released, no commoner drops to 0 HP | Senna becomes a potential ally; Desperate faction stays neutral |
| De-escalate Senna | Successful Persuasion or the Encounter Beat (see below) | Senna stands down, mob disperses |
| Retrieve Davin’s token | Sleight of Hand DC 12 or Davin hands it over if freed | Proof of willing consent; usable in Sessions 4 and 5 |
Going lethal: If any Desperate commoner drops to 0 HP from a player’s attack, track it. The Desperate become hostile to the party going forward. The Chancellor has to manage the political fallout. Senna, if she survives, becomes a recurring complication rather than a possible ally.
24.8.3 The Encounter Beat: Davin Speaks
This happens at the start of round 2 or 3, regardless of initiative order - it interrupts the scene:
Davin stops trying to look calm. He looks directly at Senna.
“Senna. Senna. Look at me.”
She looks.
“I already said yes. You don’t have to do this.”
Senna freezes. For one round, she cannot take any action. Her grip on the situation loosens.
Any player who makes a DC 10 Persuasion check this round turns Senna’s frozen moment into a surrender. The check is DC 10, not DC 16, because Davin did the work. The players just need to not blow it.
What to offer Senna if she asks for something real: - A date (requires the players to commit to a timeline - risky but powerful) - Evidence that progress is being made (the cage calibration, for instance - it’s real) - The fact that Davin himself is willing (the token) - The existence of an alternative that could work without anyone dying (Isolde’s transfer - true but uncertain)
DC 16 Persuasion (without Davin’s help): Point out that forcing the Dawnborn against their will actually inverts the ritual’s resonance - forced sacrifice doesn’t produce the same energy as willing sacrifice. This is technically true (a DC 12 Arcana check confirms it). It means Senna’s plan would fail even if it worked. This is the purely logical argument, and it lands differently on different people.
24.8.4 Combat Tactics
Senna Kard: Fights with a hatchet. Her real power is the mob - while she’s at full HP, all Desperate Commoners within 30 feet fight with advantage. When she drops below half HP, 1d4 non-combatant mob members break and run each round. She surrenders when reduced to 5 HP if the players have not gone lethal against her people.
Desperate Commoners (4 combatants): Improvised weapons (clubs, tools). They are not trained. They will back off if a commoner near them drops - morale breaks quickly. If players call for them to stand down loudly and clearly (no roll needed), two of the four will hesitate for one round before re-engaging.
Off-Duty Guards (2): These are city guards who left duty to join the mob. They have armor and swords. They are not using them aggressively - they are trying to contain the situation from the inside. On round 3, if combat is ongoing, make a DC 12 Wisdom save for each guard: on a success, they step out of the mob and stand aside, unwilling to fight the players or the mob.
Davin Shore: Davin will not fight. He stays calm and speaks to Senna. If freed, he immediately moves to put himself between the players and the mob, arms wide, asking everyone to stop. He has a Guard Captain’s capability if it comes to it, but he will not use it here.
Terrain: A Lowmark street, 20 feet wide, blocked at both ends. Ambient crowd provides difficult terrain except in the immediate center. Two overturned market stalls provide light cover. The blocked ends mean players cannot easily disengage - they have to resolve the scene.
24.9 Closing Beat
End this session with the players having committed - or explicitly declined to commit - to at least one path.
24.9.1 Read-Aloud
The alternatives are on the table. All of them have costs. All of them have prices that someone will pay, whether you counted on it or not.
The question of which evil is lesser depends entirely on who you ask. Ask Lira: the one that lets her live. Ask Ysel: the one that lets her choose. Ask Senna: the one that saves her children. Ask Tomas: the one we can all live with afterward.
Ask the city: the one that works.
You are somewhere in the middle of all those answers, and the clock Tomas showed you keeps moving.
24.9.2 Post-Session Question
Ask the players directly: “If all the choices are bad, do you still have to choose? And if you don’t choose - is that also a choice?”
24.10 Stat Blocks
24.10.1 Isolde Menth, Spire Research Mage
Medium humanoid (human), neutral
AC 12 (15 with mage armor) | HP 40 (9d8) | Speed 30 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 (-1) | 14 (+2) | 11 (+0) | 18 (+4) | 14 (+2) | 12 (+1) |
Saving Throws Int +7, Wis +5 Skills Arcana +10, History +7, Investigation +7, Medicine +5 Senses passive Perception 12 | Languages Common, Elvish, Draconic | CR 6 (as adversary; she is an ally)
Spellcasting. Isolde is a 9th-level spellcaster (Int, DC 15, +7 to hit): - Cantrips: fire bolt, light, mage hand, prestidigitation - 1st level (4 slots): detect magic, mage armor, magic missile, shield - 2nd level (3 slots): detect thoughts, misty step, suggestion - 3rd level (3 slots): counterspell, fly, lightning bolt - 4th level (3 slots): arcane eye, banishment - 5th level (1 slot): cone of cold
Traits - Research Focus. Isolde has advantage on all Intelligence (Arcana) and (Investigation) checks related to resonance magic, Lux Anchors, or the Ritual of Eternal Dawn. - Calculated Honesty. Isolde can be compelled to share what she knows with a DC 14 Charisma (Persuasion) check. She does not lie to the players, but she omits by default. Each successful persuasion check unlocks one layer of the truth she’s been sitting on. - Portable Lab. Isolde carries reagents and components for all her spells at all times.
Actions - Spellcasting. Isolde casts from her spell list. - Research Verdict. Isolde makes a definitive ruling on a magical question. Her answer is always technically accurate but may be incomplete.
OGAS: - O: Independent Spire researcher, currently unfunded - G: Prove the transfer works and restore her academic reputation - A: Cautious optimism toward the players - they’re the first people who seem capable of making this happen - S: The mortality estimate in her models is 35-55%, not 20-30%. She hasn’t said this aloud. She’s been waiting until she has better data to justify a lower number.
Tactics (if forced to fight): Isolde uses mage armor and shield defensively. She casts suggestion to end conflicts without violence. If her laboratory is threatened, she uses lightning bolt without hesitation - the resonance cage is irreplaceable. She retreats via misty step rather than stand her ground.
24.10.2 Ysel Maren, Dawnborn Temple Keeper
Medium humanoid (human), lawful good
AC 14 (leather armor, dexterity) | HP 36 (8d8) | Speed 30 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 (+0) | 14 (+2) | 11 (+0) | 13 (+1) | 18 (+4) | 16 (+3) |
Saving Throws Wis +6, Cha +5 Skills Insight +6, Persuasion +7, Religion +5 Senses passive Perception 14 | Languages Common, Celestial | CR 2
Spellcasting. Ysel is a 6th-level cleric (Wis, DC 14, +6 to hit): - Cantrips: guidance, light, sacred flame - 1st level (4 slots): bless, healing word, sanctuary - 2nd level (3 slots): calm emotions, spiritual weapon - 3rd level (2 slots): beacon of hope, mass healing word
Traits - Lux Anchor (Passive). Cannot be reduced below 1 HP more than once per long rest. - The Made Peace. Ysel has decided. She has advantage on saving throws against being frightened, charmed, or magically persuaded to act against her decision. Players who attempt to talk her out of her choice must succeed on a DC 16 Charisma (Persuasion) check. If they succeed, she doesn’t change her mind - she asks them to explain what alternative they have in mind. - Radiant Presence. While Ysel is conscious and within 30 feet, friendly creatures have advantage on death saving throws.
Actions - Spellcasting. Ysel casts from her list. - Temple Staff. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 4 (1d6+1) bludgeoning damage.
OGAS: - O: Keeper of the Morthis temple in the Highmark (transition, grief work) - G: To be believed when she says this is her choice; to not be managed or pitied - A: Warm and direct toward the players; slightly wary of those who seem to be looking for a reason to overrule her - S: She’s been praying to Morthis, not Auris, in her preparation. She believes the god of passage is more relevant to what she’s doing. She hasn’t told the Auris clergy this.
24.10.3 Davin Shore, Dawnborn Dock Master
Medium humanoid (human), neutral good
AC 15 (chain shirt + shield) | HP 52 (8d8+16) | Speed 30 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 (+3) | 13 (+1) | 14 (+2) | 12 (+1) | 14 (+2) | 12 (+1) |
Saving Throws Str +5, Con +4 Skills Athletics +5, Insight +4, Perception +4 Senses passive Perception 14 | Languages Common | CR 3
Traits - Lux Anchor (Passive). Cannot be reduced below 1 HP more than once per long rest. - Fifty Years of Certainty. Davin has thought about this longer than anyone in the room. Persuasion checks to change his mind automatically fail unless the player can offer him a concrete alternative with a credible plan. He’s not being stubborn - he’s being thorough. - The Token. Davin carries a carved wooden disc on a cord: his name on one side, “Of my own choosing” on the other. This is not just a personal object - it is legally admissible as a declaration of intent in Varenhold’s courts (History DC 12 to know this).
Actions - Multiattack. Two attacks. - Short Sword. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing.
OGAS: - O: Dock Master, manages freight on the river wharves - G: To have his choice respected and acted upon; to not die waiting for someone to give him permission - A: Respectful of the players; faintly impatient with anyone who wants to debate instead of plan - S: He’s afraid Cormac Drell (the other willing Dawnborn) is wavering. He hasn’t said this to anyone.
24.10.4 Cormac Drell, Dawnborn Dock Worker
Medium humanoid (human), neutral
AC 12 | HP 26 (4d8+8) | Speed 30 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 (+2) | 12 (+1) | 14 (+2) | 10 (+0) | 12 (+1) | 10 (+0) |
Skills Athletics +4, Insight +3 | Senses passive Perception 11 | CR 1/2
Traits - Lux Anchor (Passive). Cannot be reduced below 1 HP more than once per long rest. - The Wavering. Cormac is reconsidering. Not because he’s afraid - because he met someone last week. A woman from the Dusk Parishes with two children. He hasn’t told Davin. He’s telling himself it doesn’t change anything.
OGAS: - O: Day laborer at the river docks - G: To make a decision that matters; to not disappear into a world that doesn’t remember he was here - A: Quiet around the players, waiting to see what kind of people they are - S: He’s wavering. He’s not sure he’s still willing. This changes the partial ritual math significantly if the players find out.
24.10.5 Senna Kard, Desperate Leader
Medium humanoid (human), chaotic neutral (desperate, not evil)
AC 12 (leather apron) | HP 26 (4d8+8) | Speed 30 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 (+2) | 12 (+1) | 14 (+2) | 10 (+0) | 10 (+0) | 14 (+2) |
Skills Athletics +4, Intimidation +4, Persuasion +4 Senses passive Perception 10 | Languages Common | CR 1/2
Traits - The Crowd’s Voice. While Senna is at or above half HP, all Desperate Commoners within 30 feet of her have advantage on attack rolls. When she drops below half HP, 1d4 non-combatant mob members break and run each round. - Just Wants an Answer. Senna can be de-escalated with a successful DC 16 Persuasion check at any time, or DC 10 during the Encounter Beat round (when Davin speaks). She cannot be intimidated into standing down - any Intimidation check against her causes 1d4 mob members to become hostile rather than retreating. - Mother First. If a player knows and mentions her children by name (she has two daughters - Nia, age 9, and Brek, age 6 - learnable with DC 10 Investigation or from any Lowmark contact), all Persuasion checks against her are made with advantage.
Actions - Multiattack. Two attacks. - Hatchet. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) slashing damage. - Call the Mob. Senna directs a Desperate Commoner within 30 feet to make an immediate attack as a reaction.
Surrender condition: Drops to 5 HP, or the Encounter Beat triggers and a player succeeds on the DC 10 check, or the players produce Davin’s token.
OGAS: - O: Former dockworker, now informal neighborhood representative for the south Lowmark - G: A concrete answer - a date, a plan, proof that someone is doing something about the sun - A: Hostile to authority; wary of the players until they demonstrate they’re not the Chancellor’s enforcers - S: Her husband died of grey sickness six months ago. She has not grieved. She has organized.
24.10.6 Desperate Commoner
Medium humanoid (human), chaotic neutral
AC 10 | HP 9 (2d8) | Speed 30 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 (+1) | 10 (+0) | 10 (+0) | 10 (+0) | 10 (+0) | 10 (+0) |
Senses passive Perception 10 | Languages Common | CR 0
Actions - Improvised Weapon. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 3 (1d4+1) bludgeoning damage.
Morale: Breaks and flees when reduced to 0 HP, or when a nearby commoner drops, or if Senna surrenders.
24.10.7 Off-Duty City Guard
Medium humanoid (human), lawful neutral
AC 16 (chain mail) | HP 16 (3d8+3) | Speed 30 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 (+2) | 12 (+1) | 12 (+1) | 10 (+0) | 11 (+0) | 10 (+0) |
Skills Athletics +4, Perception +2 | Senses passive Perception 12 | CR 1/2
Traits - Conflicted. At the start of round 3, if combat is ongoing, each Off-Duty Guard makes a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw. On a success, they step out of the fight and stand aside. On a failure, they continue until reduced to 0 HP. - Subdual Preference. Deals non-lethal damage by default.
Actions - Spear. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) piercing.
24.11 Session 3 Consequence Tracking
| Outcome | Note |
|---|---|
| Which path(s) are being pursued? | Record all active investigations |
| Puzzle: did players calibrate the cage? | Yes = Isolde’s work is viable; No = she needs more time |
| Riddle: did players open the locked drawer? | Yes = they know the real mortality rate; did they confront Isolde? |
| Is Cormac wavering? | Did players learn this? It affects the partial ritual calculation |
| Lira’s daughter - who now knows? | Track each character who heard the scene |
| Mob scene outcome | De-escalated / combat / lethal; Senna’s status; Davin’s token retrieved? |
| Did Tomas set his deadline? | Note the exact number of days |
| Willing Dawnborn status | Still three? Has anything changed? |
| Isolde’s moral honesty | Did players confront her about the estimate? What did she commit to? |