PART ONE: CHARACTER PROFILES

The Key Players of Kormor Kirak

Every character carries a lie they tell themselves and a truth they are not yet ready to face.

CHARACTER PROFILES

OLIVIA FAREN: THE ACCOUNTANT'S AWAKENING

When Olivia Faren was assigned to Lord Barron Whitehallow's mission, she believed it a promotion. She had spent her entire life in the service of the Albion Capital's financial apparatus, beginning in the state dormitory where she was raised alongside other children of no particular importance. Numbers were her only inheritance. She learned young that precision, discipline, and unwavering attention to detail could transform chaos into order, disorder into beauty. The comptometer became her instrument of truth; her fingers moved across its keys with such extraordinary speed that her lips would move in silent accompaniment, as though her mouth was counting along with her hands, verifying each calculation twice over before the machine delivered its verdict.

Her speech betrays her origins: short declarative sentences delivered with a street accent that the Counting House never quite polished away. She recites the Albion oath -- "By his grace, I rise" -- like a mantra, invoking it when frightened, when proud, when reminding herself of the empire that raised her from nothing. She claims Albion has better versions of everything she encounters, a habit that is simultaneously annoying and endearing, the patriotic reflex of someone who has never had anything else to be proud of. Beyond the comptometer, her fingers know older methods: Chisanbop counting, where each digit represents a number and her hands become a living abacus; beaded strings she manipulates with startling dexterity; knotted cords that encode values in their patterns. These are the tools she reaches for when the machines fail or when counting itself becomes a comfort against anxiety.

At twenty-four, Olivia has never traveled beyond the capital's reaches.

She has never tasted alcohol nor danced in a ballroom. She has never been within twenty miles of royalty. Her entire world has been governed by ledgers and imperial policy. When she discovered the financial anomalies in Barron's departmental records, she did not hesitate; she brought them directly to Lord Wooster, presenting the evidence with the same mathematical certainty that had defined her life. The irregular flows of gold, the unexplained withdrawals, the careful obfuscation of certain transactions, these were not opinions or suspicions. They were facts. Numbers do not lie.

But Lord Wooster's response shifted something in her. The reassignment came not as accusation but as opportunity. Barron needed someone with her particular gifts. Someone who could see patterns where others saw only chaos. What Wooster did not tell her, what she would discover only through bitter experience, was that she had been chosen precisely because she possessed no attachments, no one to lose, no emotional obligations that might cloud her judgment during the trials ahead.

Olivia's greatest strength was her isolation; it was also her most dangerous vulnerability.

Her motivation has always been straightforward: to serve the system, to maintain order, to prove her worth through work. Yet something fractured the moment she noticed those anomalies. The empire she had served with absolute sincerity, the one she could recite the oath for without a tremor in her voice, was not what she believed it to be. Her greatest fear is not danger or death; it is meaninglessness, the possibility that all her discipline and sacrifice have been in service of something rotten at its core. Her weakness lies in her need for certainty. When the systems that have always guided her begin to fail, she retreats into simple sums, counting her breaths like a child, trying to restore the orderly world she understands.

What drives her deepest secret is not ambition but something far more personal: the recognition that the locket she carries, the one bearing an illustration of Prince and Princess that she touches like a talisman, represents the only real hope she has ever dared to hold. When anxious, when the world becomes too complex to calculate, she opens that locket.

It is not faith in any traditional sense; it is faith that something about the world might still be just, that somewhere nobility and goodness still exist in their purest form.

The friendship that forms between Olivia and Princess Szeret becomes the emotional engine of everything that follows. It is unexpected, intense, and profoundly terrifying to a woman who has never allowed herself to care about anything but her work. Szeret sees in Olivia not an accountant, not an outsider, but a person worthy of fascination. She finds Olivia's hand-held mechanical calculator, that brass cylinder with its intricate levers, more mesmerizing than any jewel in the castle. In turn, Olivia begins to see the world through Szeret's eyes and finds it both beautiful and terrible. Her arc carries her from absolute certainty into profound doubt and, eventually, toward a kind of faith that is neither naive nor dependent on systems that can fail. She learns to dance, to let loose the control she has maintained so carefully, to allow herself to be known.

During the campaign, Olivia suffers from terrible airsickness on the blimp, an indignity that shakes her composure more than danger ever could. She discovers she becomes drunk with remarkable ease, a vulnerability that embarrasses her. She develops a complex jealousy watching Jack and Eppy together, a feeling she cannot calculate or control, which troubles her deeply. Yet she also proves herself capable of extraordinary things: she defeats Devorlen Koss at cards through nothing but observation and logic, and her mind becomes sharply attuned to the patterns of corruption and deception that plague the kingdoms.

Olivia's outward presentation is precise. Her hair is always tied back, her clothing practical and unmarked by excess. She moves with economical grace. Jack calls her 'Liv, a familiarity that both pleases and unsettles her in ways she cannot quite articulate. Inside, she is learning what it means to have something to lose, to care for someone beyond the reach of calculation or control.

She builds friendships the way she builds ledgers: through service. When she helps Eppy balance the Bastion Inn's books, when she untangles Rozito's market accounts, when she finds the error in a merchant's figures that has been costing him money for months, she earns trust without asking for it. This is how she connects in a city where she is a stranger: by being useful in the most practical sense, by demonstrating that her particular gift for numbers can make other people's lives better.

Secret

She lies when she tells herself the empire is just, that devotion to its systems will keep her safe. The truth is far more dangerous: safety is an illusion, and the very systems she has served may be the source of the suffering she witnesses. Her journey is learning to hold both truths simultaneously and to choose her path not because the system demands it, but because her conscience requires it.

Campaign Use

Olivia serves as the player character most likely to question authority, make difficult moral discoveries, and grow through emotional connection rather than combat. She is the campaign's conscience and calculator. Games that employ her as a protagonist should emphasize investigation, discovery, and the emotional weight of learning that trusted institutions harbor corruption. Her jealousy, vulnerability, and growing strength create natural story hooks. She bridges the gap between mundane reality and magical transformation, making her an ideal viewpoint character for understanding the stakes.

BARRON WHITEHALLOW: THE DYING DIPLOMAT

Barron Whitehallow moves through the world with the practiced grace of a man who has spent four decades learning how to present precisely what others need to see. At sixty-three, he remains striking; his modified

Foreign Minister's uniform reflects taste and confidence. The blood-red lining of his coat catches light as he descends the parliamentary steps, his high-collared vest framing a face that still carries the bones of the man he was when younger. The cape sweeps behind him with deliberate elegance. Yet anyone paying close attention would notice the tremor in his hand, the way he steadies himself against the railing, the careful rhythm of his breathing.

He is dying. The illness moves slowly enough that only those intimate with him truly understand the urgency, but it is there nonetheless, a passenger he has carried since his time at the Mounds near Barrow, where

Terrassia's asphyxiating gases scarred his lungs, or perhaps from something far more personal, far more complicated. The handkerchiefs he carries are fine linen, monogrammed, and he has learned to excuse himself with practiced discretion when he needs to cough. When they come away with blood, he simply folds them quickly and moves forward.

What drives Barron is not ambition, though he has climbed high enough to sit in the councils of power. It is the belief, perhaps naive, perhaps courageous, that violence can be prevented through dialogue, that understanding can bridge even the deepest chasms between enemies. When asked how he justifies his peaceful philosophy in a world bloodied by warfare, he answers with mathematics: Where hate and violence reduce populations, love, consistently, does the reverse. He has seen enough of war to know the mathematics of peace are far superior, yet he has never quite found the courage to face the price such mathematics demand.

His greatest fear is not death; he has made peace with that. It is irrelevance, the possibility that his carefully constructed philosophy might crumble on contact with truths he has spent decades avoiding. His weakness is his romantic history, specifically his unresolved entanglement with Kiraline. That relationship is complicated in ways he has never fully disclosed, touching on obligations and debts that have twisted through the years into something neither quite friendship nor quite enmity. Kiraline can appear at his bedside uninvited; she moves through the castle as though walls do not constrain her. She is dangerous, and Barron is aware of this, yet he cannot quite summon the will to remove her from his life entirely.

What few in the present know is that Barron first came to Kormor Kirak decades ago as a young General Counsel, and in those years he and Kiraline shared something genuine. Whether it was love or mutual fascination between two brilliant strategists hardly matters now. She earned his trust, and he earned hers, and the debt that created runs deeper than any diplomatic arrangement. He still wears the old uniform from those days -- modified, elevated, but recognizable to anyone who knew him then. The sword cane he carries is from that era as well, an elegant weapon that most mistake for a gentleman's affectation.

What others do not know, what Barron himself tries not to examine too closely, is that he carries not one but two powerful artifacts. The gold medallion bearing a dragon's head with amber eyes and blood-drop pupils remains his key to the castle's deeper places. His signet ring accesses vaults where state secrets rest in shadow. He recruited Olivia, Jack, and others to this mission not through calculation but through something closer to instinct. He sensed in them qualities his mission would require: Olivia's incorruptible logic, Jack's loyalty despite his burden, and a capacity in all of them to transform fear into action.

Barron's lie is elegant in its construction: he believes he can broker peace without confronting the personal debts he owes to the queen, the complicated history that binds him to Kiraline, the way his youthful choices have shaped the present conflicts. His truth is far more devastating: his body is failing, his past is catching up with inexorable force, and peace may ultimately require a sacrifice so personal and so complete that he cannot yet name it. By the series' progression, the complications of his history ensnare him. Kiraline turns him, not through force but through the leverage of past affection and present desperation. He becomes her unwitting agent, serving ends he does not fully comprehend, trapped between his dying body and his divided heart.

Those who knew him before the ministry, those few remaining friends like

Lord Wooster, still call him Benji in private moments, and in those moments something younger flickers across his face. He was a General

Counsel in Kormor Kirak before his present post, and the skills he learned there, the alliances he forged, the enemies he made, all of these continue to shape his present. He dresses with purpose; every button, every fold of fabric, communicates authority and refinement. Yet beneath the uniform, he is increasingly hollow, running on will and momentum, drinking more than he used to, sleeping less, his cough becoming a constant companion he can no longer quite excuse away.

Secret

He lies when he claims he can navigate the present crisis without reckoning with his past. The truth is that his personal history has become inextricable from the political moment; his debts are being called due, and the cost may be everything he has built in the name of peace.

Campaign Use

Barron functions as the campaign's moral center and its point of maximum vulnerability. He is mentor, guide, and cautionary tale. Games that employ him effectively should emphasize the ways good intentions can be corrupted through personal compromise, the way nobility and pragmatism collide, and the tragic cost of choosing peace over justice when circumstances demand both. His illness provides natural narrative time constraints; his relationship with Kiraline offers opportunities for betrayal, redemption, or both. He is the character who teaches players that influence and power create obligations that cannot be escaped through will alone.

JACK WINBOW: THE SOLDIER'S SHADOW

Jack moves through the world as though expecting violence at any moment, yet his violence, when it comes, carries a grace that speaks to years of discipline. At thirty-eight, he appears a decade younger, until you look at his eyes; they have seen things that have worn the youth out of them gradually and completely. He is introduced to the party in the role of a stable-hand, an identity he maintains so thoroughly that several members miss what he truly is until the moment becomes impossible to ignore. His hair is unkempt, falling across his scarred face with a kind of deliberate negligence, and when he smiles, it reaches those tired eyes with genuine warmth that seems almost incongruous for a man built like he is.

His instinct in any confrontation is to de-escalate. He positions himself between threats and the people he protects, uses body language and calm voice before he ever reaches for a blade. But when the situation turns and de-escalation fails, something else takes over -- a berserker fury that has frightened allies as much as enemies. The shift is sudden and total. The man who was talking a drunk out of a knife fight becomes something primal and devastating. He hates this about himself. He drinks too much, a habit he manages rather than controls, and the alcohol dulls the edges of memories he would rather not carry. He speaks half a dozen languages picked up from years traveling the empire with the military, and he uses this knowledge to make anti-empire comments just pointed enough to needle Olivia without quite crossing the line into genuine disrespect. His love of animals runs deep, rooted in his years working the stables at the Battle Academy before Barron recruited him. Horses, dogs, even the rats in the stable walls -- he understands them in a way that goes beyond training into something instinctual, something connected to the nature he carries inside him.

He stops a Cavalry Count in the act of beating a stallion with a shove so casual it appears almost accidental; the Count finds himself on his back, stunned not by violence but by the absence of it. Jack guides a horse through an obstacle course of flame as though horse and rider were one organism, moving with the effortless certainty of someone for whom such things represent basic competency rather than achievement. He carries a Shamsir, an elegantly curved blade that speaks to training beyond the kingdom's standard military practice, and a pouch of throwing daggers, each weighted with the precision of a weapon trusted in crisis. Yet his primary weapon is something altogether different: a

Spetum that folds into a cane, a marvel of engineering that extends to a six-foot length with a central blade flanked by side prongs. In his hands it becomes something alive, an extension of will and training that moves through combat like a dance executed at lethal speed.

The scars along his back tell their own story, parallel claw-mark lines that no standard weapon could produce. On full moon nights, his room is empty, and those who ask where he has gone receive no answer from Barron beyond a cryptic observation: your affliction may prove advantageous.

Nero, the dog who appears mysterious in other ways, sniffs the air when

Jack enters a room and something passes between them, an understanding that requires no words. Eppy, when the moment comes, whispers to him that she knows what he is. He is a lycanthrope, a werewolf, a man who contains within himself a nature that civilization teaches him to deny and fear.

What drives Jack is the need to protect others from himself and from the darkness of the world both. He is haunted not by supernatural dread but by the mundane horrors of military service. He describes battle in terms both visceral and raw: a scrum of hacking and slashing, barely-grown kids screaming and crying, then going quiet. He has killed. He has watched children die. He has seen enough of human cruelty to know that his own supernatural nature is not the most dangerous thing in the world. His greatest fear is not losing control but losing the ability to choose, becoming a thing that acts on instinct alone rather than will.

His weakness lies in his isolation. He has trained himself to distance from others, to keep his burden private, to believe that his curse remains his problem alone. He processes his trauma through physical discipline; he practices combat forms endlessly, moves that have become meditation more than training. He cleans his weapons with the patience of ritual. He invites Olivia to dance, a gesture that costs him something because it means stepping outside the armor he has constructed. He tells her something true and brutal: you could also try fear. If something you encounter scares the hell out of you, run. The advice is less tactical than philosophical; it grants her permission to acknowledge terror as valid response.

His relationship with Eppy is tender in ways that catch people off-guard. She whispers to him; they dance together; she makes tea for two when she prepares her evening drink. There is in this relationship the possibility of genuine connection, someone who knows what he is and does not flinch. It is perhaps the thing he fears most: not rejection, but acceptance. Acceptance means he cannot maintain the narrative that he must suffer alone.

Jack's outward presentation is carefully constructed casualness. The unkempt hair, the scarred face, the worn leather of his clothing, all of these communicate that he is not concerned with how others perceive him.

In truth, the casualness is as deliberate as formal dress would be. He wears scars like other men wear medals. Internally, he is learning what it means to exist as something other than human without surrendering his humanity. His lie is that he can outrun what he is, contain it, keep it sealed away from those he cares for, never allow it to define or determine his actions. His truth is far more complex: his nature is part of himself he must learn to accept, and the people he has sworn to protect may ultimately have need of him to embrace it fully.

Secret

He lies when he claims his affliction is shameful, something to hide from those worthy of protection. The truth is that his nature, properly integrated, is a source of strength, and the people who love him may need that strength more than they need his self-punishment.

Campaign Use

Jack represents the campaign's capacity for redemption, the possibility that what society deems monstrous might instead be misunderstood. He is the character who teaches by example that trauma need not define destiny, that isolation is a choice rather than necessity, and that strength without connection becomes cruelty. Games that employ him should emphasize his conflict between training and instinct, control and acceptance, isolation and belonging. His werewolf nature provides opportunities for both spectacular action sequences and intimate character moments. He is the character who demonstrates that the real work of growth happens not on battlefields but in quiet moments of trust.

PRINCESS SZERET VERESZ: THE DARK CHEERFUL THING

Princess Szeret Veresz gallops out of the castle gate on horseback at night, racing through streets designed for carriages and protocol, and the people cheer as she passes. They have learned not to cheer too loudly or for too long, because their faces fall after she disappears, as though her presence grants them something their normal lives cannot sustain. She is in her twenties, with a goth's aesthetic and a child's spirit, dark and menacing in appearance but cheery and delightful in manifestation. The contradiction, rather than confusing those who know her, forms the core of her appeal. She is everything she appears to be, and none of it, simultaneously.

Her garb is carefully chosen to evoke menace and danger; her clothing speaks of shadows and forbidden things. Yet she moves through the world with an impulsiveness and joy that seems incongruous with her appearance. When she greets Rozito, the famous duelist, her first words are not protocol but directness: don't bow to me, we're friends. She strips down to garter and hose in a dressmaker's shop, entirely unselfconscious, to try on the leather bodysuit she prefers to the dresses her mother insists she wear. She has a telescope in her bedroom, hidden behind curtains, because she uses it to observe the world she is forbidden to explore.

Szeret has never seen the ocean. She cannot read. She does not know what mathematics is. She has never encountered electric lights or indoor plumbing, existing in a castle that seems frozen in time, cut off from the modern world by palace walls and her mother's strict protection. Yet she possesses a clarity that sophisticated adults often lack. She finds Olivia's hand-held mechanical calculator more fascinating than any jewel in the royal vaults. She rates people and experiences by food names, a personal taxonomy that seems nonsensical until one realizes it is actually quite accurate: Mushroom for earthy things, Tomato for passionate things, Lettuce for boring things, Peach for delightful things. She says Flirty-Flirt-Flirt with genuine delight when something amuses her, and Uggh when she finds something tedious. She refers to herself in the third person: Szeret loves dancing. Szeret hates rules.

What drives her is a hunger for experience, for knowledge, for freedom.

Her greatest fear is remaining imprisoned, not by walls but by her own limitations and her mother's control. Her weakness is her inexperience and her trusting nature; she assumes others operate from the same impulsive goodness she embodies and is repeatedly surprised and hurt by selfishness. Her deepest secret is something she does not fully understand herself: she can transform. Her body can shift into something else, something leopard-like and powerful, and when her excitement or anger reaches certain heights, the transformation occurs whether she wills it or not. Her clothes shed as her body shifts, leaving her temporarily naked and utterly undefended in her human form during the transformation process. She has charged Rozito in the Hallaset Fields in her beast form, moving with speed and strength capable of taking down a grown man. She possesses the power to be a warrior, yet no one has ever trained her in how to use such power.

Her relationship with her mother is a constant tension. Kiraline wants her daughter away from humans, isolated, controllable. Szeret wants the opposite; she craves connection, conversation, the everyday messy intimacy of friendship. Her immediate attachment to Olivia is intense and charged, running deeper than simple friendship. She sees in Olivia something she recognizes as kindred, a fellow prisoner of duty learning to value freedom. This relationship becomes the emotional engine of the entire series, transforming both women, complicating their paths, making them vulnerable to each other in ways that terrify and delight them both.

She moves through the city like something wild wearing a crown. Her preferred mode of travel is parkour -- leaping between rooftops, scaling walls with her Spider Climb, dropping from heights that would kill a human and landing in a crouch that barely interrupts her stride. She is bisexual and polyamorous, loving freely across the boundaries that her mother's court considers proper, and this openness is both her strength and a source of constant tension with Kiraline. When strangers arrive in Kormor Kirak, Szeret follows them. She shapeshifts into birds, cats, or other small creatures and tracks the newcomers through the city streets, watching them with animal eyes that carry an intelligence no beast should possess. This is how she first encounters Olivia and Jack -- not as a princess but as a pair of bright eyes observing from a rooftop, a creature that seems to be everywhere they turn.

What others do not understand about Szeret is that her cheerfulness is not naivete; it is a deliberate choice. She could rage at her confinement, could resent her mother's control, could withdraw into bitterness. Instead, she chooses lightness, finds joy in small moments, treats friendship as the most precious treasure. Yet she is also her mother's daughter, a creature of power and danger. Her lie is elegant in its tragedy: she believes she can bridge the gap between her constrained royal life and the wider world without consequences, can be both the princess imprisoned in the castle and the wild thing she is becoming, can love freely without drawing danger to those she loves. Her truth is darker: she is her mother's daughter in ways she does not yet understand, and that heritage may carry costs she cannot yet calculate.

Szeret's outward presentation is a studied contradiction. Dark clothes, dark atmosphere, yet the way she moves is light and free. She carries herself with royal bearing when required, but her bearing is always undercut with playfulness, with the sense that she finds protocol tedious and convention absurd. Inside, she is learning what it means to love beyond the castle walls, to trust that goodness exists outside her mother's warnings, to discover that her own power is not something to hide but something to understand.

Secret

She lies when she tells herself she can explore the wider world without drawing danger to those she loves or understanding the darkness in her own nature. The truth is that she is increasingly aware of her mother's plans, her own power, and the way her heritage complicates everything.

Campaign Use

Szeret embodies the campaign's capacity for joy and the terrible cost of maintaining innocence in a world that demands growth. She is the character who transforms others by forcing them to examine their assumptions, who loves fiercely and risks devastation, who represents possibility itself. Games that employ her should emphasize her growth from sheltered royal to something far more complex, the way her friendships transform her understanding of the world, and the constant tension between her desire for freedom and her destiny as a creature of darkness. Her transformation ability provides spectacular combat moments, but her real power lies in emotional authenticity. She is the character who teaches that cheerfulness and danger are not opposites but can coexist in a single soul.

QUEEN KIRALINE VERESZ EROSZAKOS

The ballroom falls silent when she enters. Not from sound, but from cessation. The air itself seems to pause. She descends from the upper balcony as though the laws of movement do not quite apply to her, each guest finding themselves on bent knee before conscious thought arrives.

Kiraline Veresz Eroszakos wears the appearance of a woman in her forties, but this is theater. The truth is older, patient, and lethal.

Her wardrobe is a statement of deliberate anachronism: she wears clothing from earlier eras, ornamental couture that predates the current fashions by centuries, draped in silks from the Terrassian southern reaches, jewelry that catches light in ways that defy simple geometry. The effect is regal and unsettling in equal measure -- a queen dressed for a court that no longer exists, embarrassing her daughter with fashions that belong to a different age. When she moves, there is no weight to her. The dress does not sway so much as flow, as if she walks on currents invisible to others. She crosses entire rooms by means she does not explain, and the observers develop sudden interest in their feet. There is magic here, but not the kind studied in academies.

The queen once held something with Barron that was romantic in appearance. A hunter can seem gentle to prey. She strokes his face with fingers that contain centuries, kisses him with lips soft enough to draw blood, then tastes what she has drawn. When he refuses her offer of eternal bond, she drops the masquerade entirely. Her jaw unhinges to impossible angles, revealing rows of serrated teeth arranged in spiraling patterns. A tongue moves with serpentine grace, tasting the air between them. This is what she is beneath the couture and the charisma. This is what she has always been.

Her greatest fear lives in contradiction: she fears irrelevance more than destruction, yet moves through the world as though destruction itself should fear her. She loves power absolutely, loves dominion, loves the sensation of will imposing itself upon flesh and bone and spirit. Her weakness is in her own mythology. She has convinced herself that she is inevitable, that history bends toward her ambitions, and this certainty has made her sloppy. She keeps a Gawky Model in her private chambers, and when the girl no longer entertains her, she does not simply discard her. She transforms the death into performance: the body suspended in trellis formation, runes carved in necromantic patterns, the corpse pressed into service as a bridge to other realms.

This is the action of someone who has never been questioned. This is the action of someone who has forgotten how to hide.

What drives her is the conviction that humanity's reign is failure, that civilization of flesh and mortal thought is a disease upon the world. Her deepest secret is that she practices necromancy despite outlawing it among her subjects, because the outlawing serves a purpose: it makes the practice rare enough to be hers alone, makes her the only hand that can reach across the veil. The wedding was never about peace.

It was bait. The wealthiest and most powerful humans of both empires gathering in one place, unguarded in their celebration, while she built a working large enough to trap their souls and bind them into service.

She opened the gates not from generosity but from tactical calculation.

When the paranormal age arrives, when humanity's order collapses beneath the weight of things that should not exist, she will stand at the center of the ruin and call herself mother.

She rarely speaks, and this is part of her power. When she does, the words carry the weight of pronouncement rather than conversation. Her speech is precise, musical, utterly devoid of accent or regional inflection. She speaks as though language itself is something she invented. Her court reflects her aesthetic: a Cenobite grandeur where beauty and suffering exist as complements rather than opposites, where the masquerades blur the line between pleasure and horror, where guests are never entirely certain whether they are being entertained or tested. Her habits include the consumption of specific bloods, the collection of artifacts from dying civilizations, and the keeping of journals written in ciphers that would take centuries to decode. Her outward presentation is immaculate, calculated, and designed to make you forget you are in the presence of a predator. Her internal experience is one of pure satisfaction. She knows what she is. She knows what comes. She is patient because she has learned that the cruelest victories are the ones that no one sees arriving until it is far too late to stop them.

Secret

The lie Kiraline tells the world is that she is a benevolent queen offering peace between empires, a bridge between old enmities. The truth is that she is an apex predator building a trap vast enough to end an age. She is not offering salvation. She is offering damnation with excellent table settings.

Campaign Use

Kiraline serves as the hidden antagonist whose true nature only emerges through investigation and revelation. Early encounters should emphasize her preternatural charisma and power, making her seem genuinely diplomatic. As evidence accumulates (the Gawky Model's body, necromantic research, the missing souls from the wedding), players should realize they are not preventing a conflict but interrupting a working already in motion. Her resources are vast, her reach extends into both empires, and she has cultivated agents throughout the city. Direct confrontation may not be the path to victory. Stopping her might require understanding her philosophy deeply enough to turn her own servants against her, or finding a way to corrupt the working itself.

DEVORLEN KOSS

Terrassian officers rarely smile. The war took that from them. Koss rides alongside Barron through streets rendered temporary by steam and smoke, his clockwork arm producing a steady click-whir rhythm that becomes almost meditative if you stop resisting it. The mechanical fingers are precise, calibrated, less remarkable in their construction than in how completely Koss has integrated them into his identity. When asked about the arm, he offers no self-pity, no ceremony. "The least remarkable element of my identity," he says, and means it.

He is a soldier in the way some people are born to soldiering. His uniform fits him the way skin fits bone. His eyes catalog threats the way weather vanes read wind. The war cost him his arm and gave him a prosthetic that functions better than flesh ever did, which strikes Koss as fitting. He lost a limb in the service of empire and received a machine in return. The metaphor requires no elaboration.

What drives Koss is pragmatism so complete it becomes almost a philosophy. He does not believe in peace, not truly, but he believes in the cessation of active violence as a practical tool. When he explains to Olivia the truth about the wedding, he does so without apology but also without cruelty. Children who have never met. A political arrangement wearing the mask of romance. He tells her this because she deserves the truth and because lying to her would insult her intelligence. Later, speaking to Barron, he apologizes for the gas attacks and the casualties of the war. Soldier to soldier. No abstraction. No empire between them, just the mutual acknowledgment that they ordered people to die and that the people died. His greatest fear is that someday he will stop feeling the weight of those decisions, and his weakness is that he suspects this fear may already be realized.

His deepest secret is that he does not know whether his contributions to the theater reconstruction serve peace or serve a larger Terrassian strategy. The machines he provides do the work of three men in half the time. The efficiency is undeniable. But machines can be tools of development or instruments of control, and Koss understands both possibilities well enough to remain genuinely uncertain which he is facilitating. He loves the game of cards, loves the mathematics of risk, loves the way a truly good player reads not the cards but the people holding them. He loses to Olivia because she is genuinely better, and he respects her for this without reservation.

Koss's habits are the habits of a soldier: he maintains his equipment meticulously, he sleeps lightly and wakes quickly, he speaks only when speech serves a purpose. His speech patterns are clipped, efficient, stripped of flourish. His clothing is military, even when civilian, with subtle tells of rank and training visible in the way he wears it. His internal experience is one of profound isolation. He has lived in war and trained in war and now exists in a provisional peace that feels like a performance everyone has agreed to. He suspects it will not last. He suspects that many things will not last.

Secret

The lie Koss maintains is that he is simply a soldier following orders, that the responsibility for what he does belongs to the empire giving the orders. The truth is that he chooses, every day, to follow those orders, and this choice is his alone.

Campaign Use

Koss functions as the representative of Terrassian interests and as the voice of practical military perspective. He can provide information about Terrassian capabilities and intentions, serve as a bridge to Terrassian resources, or become a problem when his interests diverge from the party's. He is not cruel and not easily corrupted, but he is committed to his empire's survival in a way that transcends personal morality. What makes Koss most interesting as a campaign element is that his agenda is not the same as the true villain's. When the conspiracy reveals itself in its fullest form, Koss may prove to be an unlikely ally -- his pragmatism leading him to work with the heroes against a threat that endangers Terrassia as much as Albion. Use him to raise difficult questions about the ethics of military action, to provide access to restricted information, or as an antagonist who is fundamentally right about the dangers the city faces even as his methods remain questionable. His eventual cooperation with the party, should it occur, should feel earned rather than given.

EPPY FLINDER

The Bastion Inn is older than it should be. Eppy is younger than she should be, or perhaps timeless in a way that makes age irrelevant. She wears earth tones and natural fabrics, moves through the world with a freedom that suggests she has forgotten most of the petty rules that constrain others. Her ears are her most distinctive feature: uniquely shaped, sleek, pointed, elegant in a way that speaks to ancestry rather than affectation. Not human. Or not entirely.

Her grandmother spoke a different tongue, one that belonged to a time when empires were not yet dust. The ancestors ruled the world so long ago that the world has forgotten this fact entirely, has rewritten history to position humanity as the original inheritors. The few who remain from that age stay alive in secret, keeping their knowledge close, their genealogies closer. Eppy knows what Jack Winbow is before he knows it himself, and she tells him gently, without judgment, the way one might acknowledge a secret shared between old friends.

What drives Eppy is the preservation of the old knowledge, the keeping of things that would otherwise vanish. Her greatest fear is irrelevance, the slow fade into legend, the transformation of her entire civilization into myth. Her weakness is that she cares too much about individuals when she should be thinking systemically, and this has gotten people killed. Her deepest secret is that the comet that fell from the sky centuries ago was not chance, and her grandmother's death was connected to its arrival in ways she has never fully understood. She loves solitude and she loves good liquor and she loves the specific pleasure of seeing someone understand something true about themselves in a single moment of clarity.

The cocktails she mixes are constructed with intention: honey and herbal ingredients arranged in combinations that should not work but do,

Dewrder Hylifol among them, recipes from a time when herbalism was closer to magic than it is now. She whispers in Jack's ear at the bar with the casual intimacy of someone who has known him across multiple incarnations. When he tells her he does not love Kormor Kirak, she responds with certainty: "You will." Not optimism. Knowledge. She bridges the old world and the new in a way no other character can because she remembers both clearly, has seen them shift and change and resolve.

The Trompe l'Oeil ceiling of the Bastion Inn is a map of history nobody else remembers. The patterns seem abstract to most observers, but to those with eyes to see, they chart the rise and fall of civilizations that predate both empires by distances that make history as humans know it seem like recent events. Eppy knows necromancy not as theory but as practical craft, learned from her grandmother in quiet moments, used sparingly and with full understanding of the cost. Her speech is warm and unhurried, with occasional lapses into older word patterns that suggest languages running beneath her modern fluency. Her habits include the collection of objects from lost times, the keeping of records in forms that will survive multiple deaths of empires, and the playing of music on instruments most would not recognize.

Secret

The lie Eppy presents to the world is that she is simply an innkeeper of considerable skill and mysterious tastes. The truth is that she is a refugee from a civilization so old that its existence has become mythology, and everything she does is an act of preservation against inevitable forgetting.

Campaign Use

Eppy serves as the keeper of impossible knowledge, the guide to the old world that continues to bleed into the new. She can provide information about what Jack Winbow is, about the nature of necromancy, about the true history of the land. She offers wisdom without imposing it. She is not an enemy unless the party moves against the old world, but she is also not a simple ally. Her loyalties are to preservation and to individuals who have earned her respect. She can point toward larger truths or withhold them entirely. Use her as a quest-giver who sends the party toward understanding rather than mere action, as a source of dangerous knowledge, or as someone whose friendship with another character creates interesting complications.

ROZITO VALLIKOZO

The market manager moves through his domain like a merchant working three deceptions simultaneously. Rozito is a fixer of exceptional competence, a dealer in solutions for problems that official channels prefer not to acknowledge. He dresses in foreign fabrics and colorful patterns that seem chosen specifically to make him memorable, to ensure that when people think of the market, they think of him. He is a royal appointee, given this position by Kiraline herself, which means he serves at her pleasure and knows it.

What drives Rozito is the desire to be useful, to matter, to exercise influence in a city where most people spend their lives being moved like pieces on a game board. His greatest fear is that his usefulness will be exhausted, that he will be discarded the moment the queen finds someone more compliant or more talented. His weakness is that this fear makes him dangerous, pushes him toward commitments that he would not otherwise make, toward practices he does not fully understand but pursues anyway in the hope that they might grant him protection or power or relevance.

His deepest secret is that he is not merely sympathetic to dark magic.

He is a practitioner. And he is operating under the queen's nose in a position she personally appointed, which means either he is being permitted this pursuit or he is being tested, and he genuinely cannot determine which.

He calls Szeret a friend and claims to be a traditionalist, someone who respects the old ways and the structures that hold society together.

When royals approach, he shifts nervously, forces smiles that do not quite reach his eyes. But when he is alone at Hallaset Fields, when the witnesses are limited to the trees and the thing in him that has been waiting, his mask slips entirely. He moves with efficient violence: the carriage driver's throat opens beneath the elegant scalpel he produces from a hidden sheath, blood spraying across earth that has seen older magics spilled here. Two Red Guards die next, quick thrusts between armor plates, the blade finding gaps that should not be so obvious but are when you know what you are looking for. And then the body. The corpse laid out, the runes carved with precision, the patterns forming the shape of a figure with head and arms and legs, something ancient being pulled into modern flesh.

Rozito loves his work because work is the only place he feels fully real. He hates the constant performance, hates the feeling of being watched by his own patron, hates the possibility that he is being slowly positioned for some larger sacrifice. His internal experience is one of constant paranoia laced with ambition, a mind always calculating the next move, the next risk, the next person who might be useful or dangerous. His practical skills include the operation of the market, the management of complex supply chains, the practice of necromancy, and the ability to identify which officials can be bribed and which must be eliminated. His speech is jovial in company, precise and clipped when alone, with occasional slips into older words that suggest his family has connections to magical traditions running deeper than the official histories acknowledge.

Secret

The lie Rozito tells himself is that he is in control of his situation, that he has chosen to practice necromancy and that he can stop whenever he wishes. The truth is that the magic has chosen him more than he has chosen it, and the moment he attempts to stop, he will discover how little the choice was ever his.

Campaign Use

Rozito functions as an antagonist who might be flipped or negotiated with, a villain who believes he is pragmatic rather than evil. His position in the market makes him an essential contact for information and resources, but his involvement with necromancy and his position as the queen's appointee makes him dangerous. Early encounters should present him as a helpful merchant before the revelation of his true practices shifts the dynamic. He can serve as a quest-giver, a rival, or an unlikely ally if the party approaches him correctly. His fear of the queen makes him potentially vulnerable to recruitment if the party can offer something that seems safer than his current situation. His knowledge of necromancy means he has information about the queen's plans, though extracting it may require negotiation or significant pressure.

VARGA: THE WOLF IN PLAIN SIGHT

Varga is the local drunk, a fixture of the Bastion Inn's bar, always present in the background of scenes but never featured. He is large, hairy, and disheveled, with a booming laugh and an appetite for Eppy's Dewrder Hylifol that would kill a lesser man. Most people in Kormor Kirak consider him harmless -- a sad case, perhaps, someone who lost his way and found comfort at the bottom of a cup.

This is precisely what he wants them to believe.

Varga is a werewolf, and he works for Barron Whitehallow's darker purpose. He is the muscle behind operations that require deniability, the agent who carries out tasks that cannot be traced to the Albion Embassy or to anyone in the diplomatic establishment. He was recruited through a promise that cuts to the core of his condition: a cure for his lycanthropy. Barron -- or rather, the forces Barron serves -- promised Varga that when the great working is complete, the curse that has defined his life will be lifted. He will be human again. Whole again. Free to live without the monthly terror of losing himself to the beast.

The promise may be genuine or it may be a lie designed to exploit a desperate man. Varga does not know and has trained himself not to examine the question too carefully. He does what is asked: he killed the previous tax collector, he helped steal the treasury gold, he intimidated those who asked too many questions. He did these things with the efficiency of someone who has accepted that morality is a luxury reserved for people who are not monsters.

His presence in every scene is the detail nobody notices until it is too late. He was at the Bastion Inn when Olivia arrived. He was in the market when Rozito made his deal. He was near the Hallaset Fields on the nights when the dead refused to rest. Always in the background. Always dismissed.

What drives Varga is the desperate hope that he can be made whole. His greatest fear is that the cure will never come, that he has traded his soul for nothing, that the things he has done in service of a promise will define him in the end. His weakness is that this fear makes him dangerous and unpredictable; a man who believes he has nothing left to lose is capable of anything.

Secret

Varga lies when he pretends to be nothing more than a town drunk. The truth is that he is the most dangerous person in any room he enters, operating as the hidden enforcer of a conspiracy that most of the city cannot see. The deeper truth -- the one that might redeem or destroy him -- is that his loyalty is not to the conspiracy but to the cure, and if someone could offer him a genuine alternative, his allegiance might shift in an instant.

Campaign Use

Varga functions as the hidden villain nobody suspects until the reveal recontextualizes every scene he appeared in. His presence should be established early and often, always in the background, always seemingly irrelevant. When the truth emerges, players should experience the shock of recognition -- he was always there. His werewolf nature makes him a formidable combatant, but his real danger lies in what he knows and who he serves. He can be turned if the party offers a credible path to curing his lycanthropy, making him a potential ally whose information could unravel the entire conspiracy.

AGGODAS AND BOLDOGG: THE GATEKEEPERS

The Gatekeepers of Kormor Kirak are supposed to be the city's law enforcement, an autonomous institution that predates the current political arrangements by centuries. In practice, they are corrupt, brutal, and answerable to no one. Aggodas and Boldogg are the senior pair, the ones who set the tone for the entire organization.

Aggodas is tall, lean, and quiet in a way that makes people nervous. She carries a staff topped with a knot of dried herbs that she burns during patrols, the smoke trailing behind her like a second shadow. The herbs are not ceremonial. They are a narcotic compound that enhances her connection to the spirit world, allowing her to sense things that ordinary perception cannot detect. She uses this ability to find contraband, identify shapeshifters, and locate hidden rooms -- but she uses it just as often to extort those who think they are hiding something she cannot see.

Boldogg is broad, loud, and perpetually amused by the suffering of others. He wears the old Gatekeeper armor, a mismatched collection of plates and chain that belongs to an era before the Red Guards existed, and he polishes it with devotion that borders on religious. He can summon minor spirits through rituals involving blood, herbs, and chanting in a language that predates Common. These spirits serve as scouts, intimidation tools, and occasionally weapons. He uses them freely, and the citizens of Kormor Kirak have learned to stay inside when they hear chanting in the alleyways after dark.

Together, Aggodas and Boldogg run protection rackets throughout the city. They shake down merchants, demand tribute from the criminal organizations in Terra Sotto, and maintain a network of informants built on fear rather than loyalty. They are not aligned with any particular faction -- neither Albion nor Terrassia, neither the queen nor the conspiracy. They are an autonomous remnant of the kingdom's earliest days, and they consider themselves above the petty politics of empires.

Their relationship to the party should be adversarial from the start. They demand bribes at the gate. They confiscate weapons they consider inappropriate. They follow the party through the city, watching, noting, filing away information for future use. They are not the main villains, but they are an obstacle that recurs with maddening persistence, a reminder that Kormor Kirak's institutions serve their own interests first.

Secret

Aggodas and Boldogg lie when they present themselves as servants of public order. The truth is that they serve nothing but their own power and the ancient prerogatives of the Gatekeeper institution. Their deeper truth is that they know more about the supernatural activity in Kormor Kirak than they let on -- the spirit-summoning and herbal sight give them access to information that other factions would kill for -- and they have been watching the conspiracy unfold with the calculating patience of predators waiting for the right moment to act.

Campaign Use

The Gatekeepers function as recurring antagonists who are distinct from the main conspiracy. They represent institutional corruption and the self-serving nature of power in a city where every faction is playing its own game. They can be bribed, threatened, or temporarily allied with, but they always act in their own interest first. Their spirit abilities make them useful informants if the party can discover the right pressure points, and their knowledge of the city's supernatural underbelly may provide clues that no other source can offer. They are especially useful as obstacles during time-sensitive missions, when the last thing the party needs is a shakedown at a checkpoint.

SUPPORTING CAST

LORD WOOSTER

Benji Wooster wears his wealth the way others wear skin, a thing so integrated into his being that he seems unable to remember life without it. Chief Accountant at the Counting House, now in his sixties, his hands are manicured with the precision of someone who has never worked a day in his life and has no intention of starting. Eccentric in dress and habit, he greets Barron as an old friend with the kind of warmth that suggests either genuine affection or the consummate skill of a man who has spent decades learning to perform it perfectly. His office overlooks ranks of accountants bent over ledgers, and the walls are decorated with indigenous artifacts from the empire's conquests, objects of genuine beauty that have been stripped from their original contexts and displayed as art.

When Olivia presents her evidence of financial irregularities, Wooster trades a furtive look with Barron that communicates entire conversations in a single glance. He moves with remarkable speed to reassign her, and his delight at getting rid of her is barely concealed beneath a veneer of bureaucratic necessity. Wooster is fundamentally corrupt, a man who has learned that the best way to maintain your position is to ensure that enough powerful people owe you favors that they cannot afford to have you investigated.

Campaign Use

Wooster works as a corrupt official NPC who might be negotiated with, blackmailed, or removed as an obstacle. His financial knowledge makes him valuable as a quest-giver or information source. His connections place him in position to facilitate or hinder large-scale operations. He is most useful when the party needs institutional leverage or when they are trying to follow trails of money. His corruption is casual, old, and comfortable, which makes him less obviously dangerous than more aggressive antagonists but potentially more difficult to dislodge.

FEENEY

Albion's Counsel in Kormor Kirak is a man living in constant panic disguised as professional competence. His hair is perpetually mussed, his eyes maintain the wild look of someone who has glimpsed something beyond the acceptable boundaries of reality. He burns the theater with

Molotov cocktails because he genuinely believes that what is being built there is a nest for things that should not exist. He sets fire to the plans, encodes a message on parchment, and sends it by pigeon toward

Albion, desperate for someone to understand the danger.

The Automatic Assassin catches him in the vault. Two crossbow bolts find him before he can scream, and his body is left suspended in necromantic trellis formation, eighty-eight wounds carved into his flesh to form demonic runes that serve as a portal to other realms. He dies believing he was trying to prevent catastrophe. He dies correctly.

Campaign Use

Feeney is the inciting incident NPC, the death that begins the investigation. His body and the manner of its death provide clues to the necromantic working. His encoded message, if the party finds it, offers crucial information about the theater and the threat it represents. His death also demonstrates that certain forces are willing to eliminate those who understand too much, which raises the stakes considerably. The mystery of why Feeney was killed can drive the early campaign, while the revelation of his correct understanding reshapes the party's entire perspective on the threat.

NERO AND ZAFFIR

The two roughnecks who lead construction crews for the theater are locals who understand the city in ways outsiders cannot comprehend. Nero is vocal and skeptical, quick to identify problems and quicker to voice them. Zaffir works beside him with the quiet competence of someone who has done dangerous labor most of his life and has learned to trust his own judgment implicitly. Together, they are essential to the theater's reconstruction, which gives them leverage they are not entirely certain how to use.

They need protection for night work because nights in Kormor Kirak are not safe for outsiders. The darkness brings things that the city's daylight permits the comfortable to ignore. Nero sniffs the air when

Jack Winbow enters, his survival instincts registering something other, something that triggers ancient warnings in the reptile brain. Zaffir studies the stranger with careful eyes, determining threat level and usefulness simultaneously. These men are not educated, but they are wise in ways that matter.

Campaign Use

Nero and Zaffir function as essential local contacts, quest-givers for construction-related problems, and sources of information about the city's true nature. Their need for protection can drive a series of encounters that reveal the dangers lurking in Kormor Kirak after dark. They know the city in practical detail and can serve as guides, informants, or complications depending on how the party treats them.

THE MAN WITH THE CLOCKWORK ARM

In the attic laboratory of the Terrassian Consulate, someone quiet works with careful precision. The Automatic Assassins are constructed here, maintained here, deployed from here with the precision of someone managing an operation of significant scale. The Man with the Clockwork

Arm is unnamed in official records, which itself is a kind of name. One arm is clockwork prosthetic, similar to but distinct from Koss's, suggesting a shared history or shared craftsmen. His presence is quiet but the scope of his operation suggests someone of considerable importance moving in the shadow of official channels.

He monitors the city through mechanical radar, watches patterns of movement and behavior through systems that most would not recognize as observation. He cleans the Assassins after each kill, maintains them with ritualistic precision, and plans their next deployments with the care of someone playing a game several moves ahead.

Campaign Use

The Man with the Clockwork Arm functions as a mysterious antagonist or potential reluctant ally. His true identity, his allegiance, and his ultimate goals are open questions that can drive investigation. Encounters with his Automatic Assassins can lead to questions about their maker. Contact with him directly might be possible through negotiation or pursuit, and his knowledge of Terrassian operations and Kormor Kirak's hidden infrastructure makes him valuable. He represents the intersection of military technology and assassination, of practical skill and cold calculation.

THE GAWKY MODEL

She is tall and ungainly in the way that makes her striking rather than beautiful, an assemblage of angles and awkwardness that catches the eye precisely because she does not fit the patterns people expect. She works in the dress shops, modeling garments for people too rich to care whether they fit properly. Szeret notices her the way certain people notice certain other people, with the focus of someone recognizing something kindred or beautiful or broken in just the right way. She sleeps in Szeret's castle chamber for a time, and this matters because it suggests that Szeret is capable of connection, of wanting something beyond the surface performances.

She is found dead in Kiraline's private chamber, suspended in necromantic trellis formation, her body transformed into a working and a warning. The manner of her death reveals Kiraline's true nature as clearly as any speech could.

Campaign Use

The Gawky Model is a tragic victim NPC whose death serves as evidence of Kiraline's true capabilities and true cruelty. The discovery of her body is the revelation moment where suspicions crystallize into certainty. Her identity and her connection to Szeret can complicate the emotional landscape of the investigation and can drive personal quests for justice or revenge.

THE CAVALRY COUNT

A late adolescent aristocrat learning to ride, the Cavalry Count is arrogance embodied in fine clothing and expensive horsemanship that is technically sound but morally bankrupt. He tries to beat his horse, applying the crop with the casual cruelty of someone who has never experienced consequences. Jack Winbow stops him, confronts him, and when the Count attempts to assert his social superiority, Jack demonstrates that horsemanship is not about bloodline or money but about understanding the animal beneath you and treating it with respect.

Humiliated in front of onlookers, the Cavalry Count represents the entitled Albion ruling class, the assumption of natural superiority, the belief that wealth and birth grant permission to inflict damage on the world.

Campaign Use

The Cavalry Count functions as a comic relief NPC and as a representative of the systemic problems with Albion's aristocratic structure. He is not a serious threat but he is a useful tool for illustrating class tensions and for showing how systems of privilege protect the incompetent. He can be reformed through humiliation or retained as an obstacle for the party to navigate. His ultimate fate can serve as a commentary on whether systemic change is possible or whether it merely transforms the individuals who benefit from the system.

PART TWO: CONNECTIONS

Who Knows What, and Who Trusts Whom

The imperials live in the new world. My people live in the old. The two have never met. Until now.

NPC RELATIONSHIP MAP

A Quick-Reference Guide to Character Connections

This document maps how all significant characters in The Eternal Court relate to one another. Use this mid-session to understand dynamics, motivations, and leverage points for NPC interaction.

BARRON WHITEHALLOW

The dying ambassador. Secret leader of the Lich Cult and hidden architect of its conspiracy, though no one knows it yet.

• Relationship to Olivia: Manipulative trust. He recruited her specifically to investigate financial irregularities, knowing she would be distracted by a false trail while the real conspiracy advanced. She trusts him; he views her as a useful tool who happens to be incorruptible.
• Relationship to Jack: Calculating loyalty. Barron recruited Jack from the Battle Academy, knowing about his lycanthropy and seeing his combat skills as advantageous. Jack suspects Barron has secrets but remains fundamentally loyal. Barron trusts Jack's protective instinct while understanding it limits him.
• Relationship to Szeret: Diplomatic distance. Barron maintains professional courtesy with the princess but sees her as peripheral to his designs. Szeret finds him a bit too formal, not as fun as other adults.
• Relationship to Kiraline: A dangerous intimacy built on mutual use. Decades ago they shared something that might have been love. Kiraline believes Barron remains containable inside her larger design. Barron believes his ascent through the Lich Cult will let him outgrow her shadow. Their bond is one of the central engines of the conspiracy.
• Relationship to Varga: Strategic leverage. Barron dangled the cure for lycanthropy in front of Varga, making him the enforcer while keeping the actual promise conditional and unclear. Varga's loyalty exists only because of this dangled hope.
• Relationship to Rozito: Indirect manipulation through cult hierarchy and misdirection. Barron guides Rozito toward necromantic practice through layers of secrecy, allowing Rozito to believe he serves the Lich Cult in the abstract rather than Barron's hand specifically. Rozito does not know Barron is the cult's secret leader.
• Relationship to Wooster: Old friendship providing institutional cover. They call each other by first names and trade looks that communicate entire conversations. Wooster protects the conspiracy's financial irregularities while maintaining comfortable corruption. No deeper bond than mutual protection.
• Relationship to Eppy: Wary professional distance. Eppy suspects Barron of darkness but cannot prove it. He respects her ancient knowledge. Neither fully trusts the other.
• Relationship to Koss: Strategic observation. Koss monitors Barron's activities as Terrassian intelligence, suspicious about the ambassador's true agenda. Barron is aware of this observation and factored it into his plans.
• Relationship to Nero and Zaffir: Irrelevant contractors. Barron barely notices them. They notice him as someone who seems too interested in the theater's underground modifications.
• Relationship to Feeney (deceased): Strategic elimination. Feeney discovered what was happening beneath the Theater of Everlasting Peace. Barron had him killed via Automatic Assassin. This was the inciting incident that started the party's investigation.
• Relationship to the Gawky Model (deceased): Collateral damage or calculated elimination. Her death revealed Kiraline's true nature and cruelty. Whether Barron ordered this or permitted it remains ambiguous, but it served his purposes.

OLIVIA FAREN

The investigator. Sent to uncover financial corruption. Unaware she was sent to be a useful distraction.

• Relationship to Barron: Respectful trust mixed with unconscious suspicion. She respects his intelligence and his commitment to her investigation, but something about his motives occasionally strikes her as unclear. She trusts him but cannot fully relax around him.
• Relationship to Jack: Protective tension. Jack was hired to keep her safe. Over time, this shifts toward genuine attachment. She relies on his judgment when her calculations fail. He uses casual intimacy ("Liv") that both comforts and unsettles her.
• Relationship to Szeret: Intense friendship overriding political boundaries. Olivia recognizes in Szeret a kindred spirit -- someone constrained by duty learning to value freedom. This relationship complicates everything. Szeret sees Olivia as something genuine in a castle of performance.
• Relationship to the Queen: Uncertain and formal. Kiraline intrigues her as an apex predator. Olivia suspects Kiraline practices the necromancy she claims to prohibit. Their interactions are carefully polite but charged with unspoken tensions.
• Relationship to Wooster: Obstructed investigation. Wooster reassigned her from her financial investigation with suspicious speed, protecting the conspiracy. She knows he's blocking her, but institutional hierarchy limits her options for pushback.
• Relationship to Rozito: Cordial merchant relationship. Rozito calls her friend and seems genuinely helpful. She doesn't suspect his necromantic practice. He provides market information that sometimes proves useful.
• Relationship to Eppy: Growing friendship. Eppy teaches her about the old world, shares drinks, and treats her like someone worth trusting. This friendship is becoming one of Olivia's most stable anchors in the city.
• Relationship to Koss: Mutual respect with tension. Koss treats her as an equal, which few do. She respects his pragmatism even when she dislikes his conclusions. They play cards and actually enjoy each other's company despite representing different empires.
• Relationship to Varga: No direct relationship. She's seen him at the Bastion Inn but hasn't recognized him as significant. He's watched her constantly, noting her movements and associations.

JACK WINBOW

The lycanthrope warrior. Loyal to those he cares for. Terrified of his own nature.

• Relationship to Barron: Loyal but suspicious. Jack was recruited by Barron, who knows about his curse and treats it as an advantage. Jack senses Barron has secrets but trusts him until proven wrong. His protective instinct makes him a reliable operative.
• Relationship to Olivia: Tender protection bordering on love. He was hired to keep her alive and takes this seriously. Over time, his feelings deepen beyond duty. He uses familiarity and careful kindness. She both appreciates and fears this closeness.
• Relationship to Szeret: Recognition of kinship. Jack sees in Szeret another supernatural being, someone operating outside normal human constraints. Szeret finds him interesting and dangerous in equal measure. No romantic tension, but genuine affection.
• Relationship to Eppy: Intimate friendship spanning multiple incarnations. Eppy knows what he is before he fully accepts it. She treats him with acceptance that costs him something to receive. They dance together, drink together, and understand each other without needing words.
• Relationship to the Queen: Wary respect. Kiraline recognizes him as something supernatural. He recognizes her as something far more dangerous than he is. This mutual acknowledgment creates a strange equilibrium.
• Relationship to Nero: Instinctive understanding. Nero sniffs him and knows something is other. Jack accepts this without defensiveness. Nero treats him as trustworthy despite the strangeness.
• Relationship to Varga: Unknown connection forming slowly. Jack occasionally glimpses Varga in the background of scenes, occasionally feels watched. He hasn't yet realized they share a supernatural curse.

PRINCESS SZERET VERESZ

The shapeshifter princess. Isolated. Hungry for experience and freedom.

• Relationship to Olivia: Intense attachment overriding all other loyalties. Szeret sees in Olivia something genuine and intelligent. She finds Olivia's fierce independence beautiful and terrifying. This friendship is driving significant emotional change in both women.
• Relationship to Jack: Kinship and mutual recognition. Szeret sees Jack as another supernatural being, another creature operating outside human constraints. She finds him interesting, trustworthy, and less condescending than most humans.
• Relationship to Kiraline: Complex love mixed with fear and increasing frustration. Szeret adores her mother and resents her control simultaneously. She's beginning to understand her mother's true nature and doesn't like what she's discovering. This tension will only grow.
• Relationship to Barron: Diplomatic courtesy. Barron is nice to her in a formal way. She doesn't find him particularly interesting. He's useful as someone who doesn't try to constrain her the way her mother does.
• Relationship to Rozito: Genuine friendship without judgment. Szeret calls him friend. Rozito reciprocates with apparent warmth. She doesn't know about his necromantic practice. He values her friendship as genuine, one of the few authentic connections he maintains.
• Relationship to Eppy: Respectful recognition of another outsider. Szeret senses that Eppy is not quite human. She respects this without requiring explanation. Eppy treats her as someone worth understanding rather than someone to be controlled.
• Relationship to Nero: Practical appreciation. Nero is useful, competent, and doesn't pretend to understand what she is. She respects his straightforwardness.

QUEEN KIRALINE VERESZ EROSZAKOS

The vampire queen. Immortal. Sovereign. The primary mastermind of the setting, though not the only hidden power moving beneath her court.

• Relationship to Barron: A bond of leverage, desire, and strategic misreading. Kiraline treats Barron as lover, instrument, and useful intermediary inside the peace process. Barron uses that access to conceal his ascent through the Lich Cult. She underestimates how far he has already gone; he underestimates the scale of power he is trying to outgrow.
• Relationship to Szeret: Complex mixture of love, pride, and control. Kiraline created her daughter to be the perfect heir but views her as both continuation and threat. She tries to keep Szeret isolated and controllable. Szeret increasingly resists this control.
• Relationship to Rozito: Patron to tool. She appointed him market manager and trusts him to carry out necromantic work under her guidance. She does not fully understand how deeply Barron's cult network has threaded itself through his work. She views Rozito as useful and ultimately expendable.
• Relationship to Olivia: Intrigued by the foreign investigator. Kiraline recognizes Olivia as sharp and sees her friendship with Szeret as both interesting and potentially dangerous. She hasn't decided whether Olivia is useful or should be eliminated.
• Relationship to Jack: Recognizing something supernatural. Kiraline senses Jack's lycanthropic nature and considers him another supernatural being in her city. She doesn't feel threatened by him but notes his existence with predatory interest.
• Relationship to Varga: Unknown. Varga is so beneath her notice that she may not even recognize him as more than a town drunk. This suits Varga's purposes perfectly.
• Relationship to the Gatekeepers: Autonomous tension. Kiraline permits Aggodas and Boldogg to run their corrupt operations because forcing them out would cost too much power. They maintain delicate distance from her rule.

DEVORLEN KOSS

The Terrassian officer. Pragmatic. Observing everything.

• Relationship to Barron: Strategic observation. Koss monitors Barron's activities as Terrassian intelligence, suspicious about the ambassador's real agenda. He respects Barron as a fellow military pragmatist but trusts him not at all. Both know they're being watched; neither acknowledges it directly.
• Relationship to Olivia: Respectful professional relationship. Koss treats Olivia as an equal, which she appreciates. They play cards together and actually enjoy each other's company. He respects her precision and her refusal to be manipulated.
• Relationship to Kiraline: Pragmatic distance. Koss views the Queen as a threat to Terrassian interests but respects her power. He would gladly work with her if mutual interests aligned. He suspects she would kill him without hesitation if he became inconvenient.
• Relationship to the Gatekeepers: Mutual tolerance of autonomy. Koss recognizes that Aggodas and Boldogg serve their own interests. He doesn't challenge them because they don't challenge Terrassian operations.

VARGA

The town drunk. The hidden enforcer. The werewolf nobody suspects.

• Relationship to Barron: Conditional loyalty maintained by hope. Barron promised him a cure for his lycanthropy. This promise is the only thing keeping Varga bound to the conspiracy. If the cure materializes, he'll continue serving. If he comes to believe it will never come, his loyalty might shatter.
• Relationship to Rozito: No direct relationship. Varga watches Rozito conduct necromantic work. They understand each other as people doing dark things, but they don't interact directly. If forced to choose sides, they'd likely view each other as competitors.
• Relationship to Wooster: No relationship. Wooster has never noticed Varga beyond seeing him as a drunk at the bar. Varga sees Wooster as connected to the conspiracy's financial operations.
• Relationship to Eppy: Friendly drinking companionship masking an enforcer's observation. Varga comes to the Bastion Inn regularly, orders drinks, and blends into the background. Eppy treats him kindly without knowing what he truly is.
• Relationship to Olivia: Watched from the shadows. Varga has observed Olivia's investigation since her arrival. He knows what she's discovered and has marked her as significant to the conspiracy's timeline.
• Relationship to Jack: Slow recognition dawning. Jack occasionally senses he's being watched by something that understands his nature. They haven't directly interacted yet, but Varga recognizes Jack as fellow supernatural.
• Relationship to the other party members: Background observation. Varga attends to every scene the party occupies, noting connections, gathering information, assessing threats. Nobody suspects he's anything but a fixture of the bar.

ROZITO VALLIKOZO

The market manager. The practitioner of necromancy. The ambitious fixer.

• Relationship to Barron: Indirect manipulation toward darker purposes. Barron has guided Rozito toward necromantic practice while allowing him to believe he serves the Lich Cult as an institution. Rozito doesn't know Barron secretly leads that cult. He never interacts directly with Barron, but he feels his influence constantly.
• Relationship to Kiraline: Nervous service mixed with fear. Kiraline appointed Rozito to his position, and he serves at her pleasure while constantly uncertain whether she permits his necromantic practice or is testing him. This uncertainty drives much of his behavior.
• Relationship to Szeret: Genuine friendship without judgment. Szeret calls him friend and means it. He reciprocates because it's one of the few authentic relationships he maintains. It complicates his position because he cares what she thinks of him.
• Relationship to Olivia: Helpful merchant without revealing true nature. Rozito provides assistance and market information. He doesn't know she's investigating him. He treats her as someone worth being friendly toward.
• Relationship to Varga: Parallel dark operations understood without direct contact. They recognize each other as people doing dark things but maintain distance. They might be allies or competitors depending on circumstances.
• Relationship to the Gatekeepers: Uncomfortable autonomy. Rozito operates under Gatekeeper sufferance, paying unofficial tribute to Aggodas and Boldogg. They know he's doing something dark and extract payment for their silence.

EPPY FLINDER

The innkeeper. The keeper of ancient knowledge. The refugee from a dead civilization.

• Relationship to Jack: Intimate friendship spanning what might be multiple incarnations. Eppy knows what Jack is before he fully accepts it. She treats him with acceptance and understanding that cost him something to receive. They dance, drink, and exist together with genuine affection.
• Relationship to Olivia: Growing friendship based on mutual respect. Eppy teaches Olivia about the old world and treats her like someone worth trusting. Olivia is becoming one of Eppy's anchors in the modern world.
• Relationship to Barron: Wary professional distance. Eppy suspects Barron of significant darkness but cannot quite prove it. She respects his intelligence but doesn't trust him. This mutual wariness maintains equilibrium.
• Relationship to Varga: Kindly bartender toward a regular customer. Eppy doesn't know Varga is a werewolf or that he's part of the conspiracy. She treats him with the warmth she extends to all regular patrons, which makes him one of the few places where Varga can simply exist.
• Relationship to Szeret: Recognition of another outsider. Eppy senses that Szeret is not entirely human. She treats her as someone worth understanding rather than something to be controlled or feared.

NERO

The construction foreman. The man with supernatural senses. The practical local.

• Relationship to Jack: Instinctive mutual understanding. Nero sniffs Jack and knows something is other. Jack accepts this without defensiveness. They don't need extensive conversation to establish trust.
• Relationship to Barron: Suspicious distance. Nero notices Barron takes unusual interest in the theater's underground modifications. He doesn't fully understand what's being planned, but his survival instincts tell him something is wrong.
• Relationship to Szeret: Practical appreciation without pretense. Nero is competent and doesn't try to understand what Szeret is. He treats her as someone capable of handling herself, which she respects.
• Relationship to Zaffir: Professional partnership bordering on brotherhood. They work together, trust each other's judgment implicitly, and cover for each other's weaknesses.

ZAFFIR

The construction foreman. The quiet competent partner to Nero.

• Relationship to Nero: Professional partnership and mutual competence. They work together seamlessly, with Zaffir handling logistics while Nero handles confrontations. Both trust each other absolutely.
• Relationship to Jack: Professional respect. Zaffir notes Jack's competence and reliability without needing to understand what he is.
• Relationship to Barron: Suspicious but complicit. Zaffir recognizes the theater's underground modifications are unusual but continues construction because they're hired to do so. He files away his suspicions.

WOOSTER

The chief accountant. The corrupt facilitator. The old friend protecting the conspiracy.

• Relationship to Barron: Old friendship providing mutual protection. They greet each other warmly and trade looks that communicate entire conversations. Neither fully trusts the other, but both benefit from the arrangement.
• Relationship to Olivia: Obstructed investigation through bureaucratic maneuvering. Wooster quickly reassigns Olivia from her investigation, protecting the conspiracy while maintaining plausible institutional necessity. He's relieved to have her away from sensitive documents.
• Relationship to the financial irregularities: Complicit but comfortable. Wooster facilitates the conspiracy's theft through his position while maintaining enough institutional protection that investigation seems futile.

FEENEY (DECEASED)

The murdered accountant. The inciting incident. The man who was correct about the danger.

• Relationship to Barron: Dangerous discovery leading to assassination. Feeney discovered the theater's true purpose and the conspiracy's scale. Barron had him killed via Automatic Assassin.
• Relationship to the party: His murder sets the entire investigation in motion. His body, arranged in necromantic pattern, becomes the first clue to the conspiracy's scope. His encoded message, if discovered, provides crucial information about what was being built beneath the Theater of Everlasting Peace.
• Relationship to Olivia: Her investigation intersects with his death. He discovered what she was sent to find.

THE GAWKY MODEL (DECEASED)

The lover. The victim. The evidence of true cruelty.

• Relationship to Szeret: She was Szeret's lover. Her death is the moment Szeret begins to understand her mother's true nature and true cruelty. This death will drive significant emotional change and potential alienation from Kiraline.
• Relationship to Kiraline: Lover transformed into necromantic working and message. Whether Kiraline killed her personally or ordered the death remains intentionally ambiguous, but the result is the same: transformed corpse displayed as warning and evidence.

AMBASSADOR HARKEN

The Albion ambassador's superior. The authority figure in Albion's hierarchy.

• Relationship to Barron: Superior and comrade. Barron reports to Harken, though his reports are carefully curated to reveal only what serves his purposes.
• Relationship to Olivia: Her ultimate authority and the person who sent her to investigate. Harken doesn't fully understand why Barron insisted Olivia be sent, but he honored the request.

GENERAL MARKOS

The Albion military commander. The warrior's warrior.

• Relationship to Barron: Military respect and institutional cooperation. Markos provides resources Barron needs for his diplomatic mission, unaware that those resources are being diverted toward darker purposes.
• Relationship to Koss: Enemy combatant relationship transformed into temporary peace. Both respect each other's military competence. The Century War cost both of them significantly.
• Relationship to Olivia: Her nominal military authority, though she works through Albion's administrative structures rather than military ones.

CAPTAIN ASHFORD

The Queen's Captain of the Guard. Kiraline's trusted military officer.

• Relationship to Kiraline: Loyal service to an apex predator. Ashford serves the Queen without question, though he occasionally glimpses her true nature in ways that terrify him.
• Relationship to Szeret: Protective distance. Ashford monitors the princess but respects her autonomy as much as Kiraline permits.
• Relationship to the party: Obstacle or ally depending on circumstances. Ashford follows Kiraline's orders regarding the party, which may shift as the campaign progresses.

AGGODAS

The senior Gatekeeper. The warden of the old ways.

• Relationship to Boldogg: Partnership and mutual understanding spanning years. They run the Gatekeepers together, each understanding the other's methods and tolerances.
• Relationship to Kiraline: Autonomous tension requiring delicate distance. Aggodas and Boldogg run their own organization with only nominal deference to the Queen.
• Relationship to the conspiracy: Observant waiting. Aggodas senses something wrong in the city through her herbal sight and spirit-summoning but hasn't determined what yet. She's waiting to see how events unfold before deciding how to act.
• Relationship to the party: Shakedown artists and obstacles. Aggodas will demand bribes and confiscate weapons. She'll mark the party as people of interest.

BOLDOGG

The senior Gatekeeper. The enforcer of the old institution.

• Relationship to Aggodas: Partnership and mutual competence. They understand each other without needing extensive conversation.
• Relationship to the city: Protective tribute extraction. Boldogg views Kormor Kirak as something under his organization's protection, and protection requires payment.
• Relationship to the party: Entertaining obstacles. Boldogg gets amusement from the party's frustration with Gatekeeper obstacles. He's not malicious, just indifferent to their needs.

THE ALBION DELEGATION

Genuine Loyalists:

• Ambassador Harken (to the Empire itself)
• General Markos (to Albion's military interests)
• Most military personnel (to chain of command)

Complicating Loyalties:

• Barron Whitehallow (appears loyal but is actually pursuing his own apocalyptic agenda)
• Wooster (appears loyal to Empire but is compromised by conspiracy connections)
• Olivia (loyal to the Crown but increasingly conflicted by loyalty to Szeret)

Unaware of Conspiracy:

• Most diplomatic staff
• Financial accountants
• Administrative personnel

THE TERRASSIAN DELEGATION

Aligned with Terrassian Interests:

• Devorlen Koss (pragmatic observer of Terrassian priorities)
• The Man with the Clockwork Arm (maintains Automatic Assassins for Terrassian operations)
• Most military personnel

Independent Operators:

• Koss maintains his own agenda separate from formal diplomatic channels, though still fundamentally serving Terrassian interests

THE TERRASSIAN COURT

Loyal to Kiraline:

• Captain Ashford (absolute loyalty)
• Most of the Red Guard (institutional loyalty)
• Court officials (power-based deference)

Nominally Loyal, Actually Self-Interested:

• Rozito (appearing to serve Kiraline while actually serving the conspiracy)
• Various court members (serving only while power and reward align)

Complicating Factor:

• Szeret (loves Kiraline but increasingly conflicted as mother's true nature becomes clear)

THE CONSPIRACY

Core Conspirators (Know Barron's True Plan):

• Barron Whitehallow (architect)
• Unknown parties Barron reports to (if any)

Secondary Conspirators (Partial Knowledge):

• Rozito Vallikozo (knows he's performing necromancy, doesn't know the true purpose)
• Varga (knows he's enforcing operations, doesn't know the final goal)

Institutional Facilitators (Know Something Is Wrong but Complicit):

• Wooster (knows financial theft is happening, assumes it's for conspiracy he doesn't fully understand)

Unwitting Facilitators:

• Kiraline (believes she's using the conspiracy, doesn't know she's being used)
• Many of her necromantic resources (serving what they think are the Queen's purposes)

THE INDEPENDENT OPERATORS

Koss -- Wild Card Pragmatism:

• Primary loyalty: Terrassian interests
• Will ally with heroes against conspiracy if it serves Terrassian stability
• Cannot be fully trusted but can be negotiated with
• His agenda may shift depending on circumstances

Eppy -- Preservation of the Old:

• Primary loyalty: Preservation of ancient knowledge
• Will protect individuals who earn her respect
• Will not voluntarily betray confidences
• May refuse to help if old world interests are threatened

The Gatekeepers (Aggodas & Boldogg) -- Autonomous Authority:

• Loyalty only to their own power and prerogatives
• Will work with anyone if paid or threatened appropriately
• Will betray anyone if circumstances shift
• Operating independent organization predating modern political structures

Nero and Zaffir -- Local Competence:

• Practical loyalty to contracts and safety
• Will continue construction as hired
• Will provide information if circumstances demand it
• Self-interested above all else

BARRON'S LEVERAGE

• Over Varga: The promise of a cure for lycanthropy. Varga's entire loyalty is built on this conditional promise.
• Over Rozito: Control through misdirection. Barron guides Rozito without Rozito knowing who's actually directing him.
• Over Wooster: Shared history and mutual protection. Both benefit from the corruption, so both maintain silence.
• Over Kiraline: Decades of accumulated trust based on false intimacy. She believes she controls him; he controls her.
• Over Olivia: Her assignment itself. Barron sent her to Kormor Kirak knowing her investigation would serve his purposes.

KIRALINE'S LEVERAGE

• Over Rozito: Appointment power. She can remove him if he stops being useful.
• Over Aggodas & Boldogg: Power differential. She could eliminate them if they became actual threats.
• Over Captain Ashford: Absolute command. He serves at her will.
• Over Szeret: Mother-daughter bond mixed with control through isolation.

WOOSTER'S LEVERAGE

• Over institutional machinery: His position allows him to suppress investigation, redirect funds, and obstruct oversight.
• Over other officials: He's built a network where enough people owe him favors that investigation becomes institutionally difficult.

VARGA'S LEVERAGE

• Over the conspiracy: He knows what happened (murders, theft, necromancy). If this knowledge becomes public or falls into wrong hands, the conspiracy unravels.
• Over Barron: His willingness to kill without hesitation makes him simultaneously valuable and dangerous.

ROZITO'S LEVERAGE

• Over necromantic practitioners: He's learning secrets that could destroy other practitioners if revealed.
• Over Hallaset Fields: He understands the necromantic saturation there in ways nobody else does.

THE PARTY'S POTENTIAL LEVERAGE

• Against Wooster: Evidence of financial theft. Institutional pressure. Immunity offers.
• Against Rozito: Proof of necromancy practice. Offer of sanctuary from Kiraline. Threat to expose him to the Queen.
• Against Varga: Offer of genuine cure for lycanthropy. Information about his past. Evidence linking him to murders.
• Against Kiraline: Proof of Barron's manipulation. Threat to Szeret. Institutional pressure from other powers.
• Against Barron: Only discovered near campaign's end. His dying condition. His dependence on a specific timeline. His reliance on agents who might betray him.

KOSS'S LEVERAGE

• Over military operations: His position allows him to access Terrassian resources and intelligence.
• Over Barron: Knowledge that the conspiracy exists and rough timeline. Pragmatism about the danger it represents.

AGGODAS & BOLDOGG'S LEVERAGE

• Over the city: Their information network. Their supernatural abilities. Their willingness to use force.
• Vulnerable to: Threats to their autonomous position. Exposure of their crimes. Institutional pressure that exceeds their capacity to resist.

NPC KNOWLEDGE CHEAT SHEET

For When Players Go Off-Script

This document provides instant reference for what each named NPC knows, will reveal, will lie about, and doesn't know. Use this when the party suddenly decides to interrogate, bribe, or magically compel information from someone you weren't expecting to interview.

BARRON WHITEHALLOW

Knows:

• He is terminally ill (lungs scarred, body failing, time running out)
• He intends to become a Lich through ritual during the September 5 eclipse
• He plans to possess the Albion boy king's body and rule the empire from within
• The true nature of his relationship with Kiraline (he seduced her, earned her trust, is exploiting it)
• The full extent of the conspiracy's scope and agents
• The purpose of the Theater of Everlasting Peace's underground modifications
• That Olivia is investigating financial irregularities exactly as he planned
• That Varga is his enforcer and that the cure promise is conditional
• That Rozito is preparing the Hallaset Fields for his transformation
• That Wooster is complicit in financial cover-up
• The details of Feeney's murder and why it was necessary
• The timeline constraint (the eclipse is immovable)

Will Reveal Freely:

• His concerns about the conspiracy's scale
• His suggestions for investigation directions (all misdirected toward Kiraline or false leads)
• Diplomatic necessities and peace negotiations (with strategic omissions)
• Sympathy for the party's dangerous position
• Reassurance that he has their best interests at heart

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Financial details about the conspiracy's funding structure (while framing it as discovery rather than admission)
• Names of some agents (while omitting his own central role)
• Details of Feeney's murder (while claiming he was trying to prevent it)
• Small truths strategically positioned to make false claims more believable
• Under magical compulsion, some operational details (but he's been trained to resist, so DC is high)

Will Lie About:

• His health condition (he will never admit to dying)
• His intentions toward Kiraline (he will insist they share genuine romantic bond)
• Why he recruited Olivia (he will frame it as merciful opportunity, not strategic placement)
• Why he recruited Jack (he will minimize the importance of Jack's lycanthropy)
• His true endgame (he will never reveal his intention to become a Lich or possess the boy king)
• The timeline pressure (he'll suggest there's still time, even as the eclipse approaches)
• His manipulation of Kiraline (he will maintain the pretense of romantic balance)

Doesn't Know:

• Whether his agents will remain loyal once the conspiracy is threatened
• Whether the ritual will actually work (he has faith but not certainty)
• What happens to his consciousness if the ritual fails mid-transformation
• Whether Kiraline suspects him (she doesn't, but he worries she might)

Interrogation Notes: Barron is trained in resisting interrogation. He will admit to small crimes to establish credibility, then deny larger ones. He speaks with calculated sincerity. Direct confrontation without overwhelming evidence will produce excellent lies rather than confession. Magical compulsion is possible but he has some resistance.

OLIVIA FAREN

Knows:

• Financial irregularities in Albion Consulate accounts
• That the tax collector was murdered (and she investigated this)
• The location of Feeney's body in the vault
• That money was stolen from the treasury
• Feeney's conviction that the Theater was being built for dark purposes
• The truth of her investigation's trajectory
• That Wooster stopped her from continuing investigation
• General facts about how Albion's administrative system works

Will Reveal Freely:

• All financial information she's discovered
• Her suspicions about Wooster's involvement
• Her conviction that something dark is happening in the city
• Her investigation methodology and sources
• Her observations about Barron (if she trusts the questioner)
• Details about Feeney's body and its condition

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Names of people she suspects (Rozito, Kiraline, Wooster)
• The theory she's been developing about necromantic involvement
• Her doubt about Barron's true intentions
• Her fear that she was sent to Kormor Kirak as a pawn
• The details of her conversation with Feeney before his death (if she had one)

Will Lie About:

• Her attachment to Szeret (she will minimize this initially)
• Whether she suspects Barron (she will claim more certainty than she feels)
• Her confidence in her investigation (she will exaggerate her progress)
• She doesn't naturally lie, so pressure is required for deception

Doesn't Know:

• That Barron sent her to investigate specifically as a distraction
• The full scope of what's being planned
• Barron's true identity as the conspiracy's architect
• The eclipse timeline
• That she's been manipulated since her arrival in Kormor Kirak
• The true purpose of the Hallaset Fields

Interrogation Notes: Olivia is honest and logical. She'll answer direct questions truthfully unless she has specific reason to lie. She responds well to presented evidence. Under magical compulsion, she cannot help but tell the complete truth as she understands it.

JACK WINBOW

Knows:

• He is a lycanthrope (werewolf) with an involuntary curse
• He was recruited by Barron
• That Barron knows about his condition
• That Eppy knows what he is
• Basic facts about his assignments and missions
• His own location and movements on full moon nights (though he would describe them vaguely as "afflictions")
• Combat training and locations where he practices
• The identities of the party and Kiraline's court
• That something supernatural is happening in the Hallaset Fields

Will Reveal Freely:

• Information about his military training
• Details of his combat assignments
• His observations about the city and its dangers
• His trust in Eppy and Olivia
• His concerns about Szeret's safety
• General information about his condition (phrased carefully)

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Names of people he's protected or killed
• Details of his transformation process
• His fears about losing control
• His doubts about Barron's true intentions
• Locations of training grounds and safe houses
• The depth of his feelings for Olivia

Will Lie About:

• Where he is on full moon nights (he will be vague)
• The extent of his condition
• Whether he's hurt anyone (he will minimize)
• His relationship with Barron (he will claim more loyalty than he feels)

Doesn't Know:

• Barron's true plan
• The scope of the conspiracy beyond his own assignments
• That Varga is also a werewolf
• Whether the party is actually safe
• The eclipse timeline
• Barron's true motivations

Interrogation Notes: Jack is trained to resist interrogation. He won't break easily, and he won't betray those he's sworn to protect without significant cause. He will admit to combat killings without shame. He responds to direct questions with truth unless operational security demands otherwise. Magical compulsion works but he can fight it.

PRINCESS SZERET VERESZ

Knows:

• She is a shapeshifter (can transform to leopard-like beast)
• The layout of the castle (most areas)
• Her mother's habits and vulnerabilities
• The Gawky Model was her lover and is now dead
• That Kiraline practices necromancy despite outlawing it
• That Barron is her mother's lover/confidant
• Her growing suspicion that her mother is more monstrous than she previously understood
• General knowledge about Kormor Kirak's layout and people
• That Olivia and Jack are kind to her
• Her ability to track people through the city in animal forms

Will Reveal Freely:

• Information about the castle's layout
• Details about her mother's schedule
• Her love for Olivia and Jack
• Her feelings of confinement and desire for freedom
• Her observations about court members
• Her confusion about her mother's actions
• Her belief that something is wrong but uncertainty about what

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Locations of secret passages
• Her mother's vulnerabilities to specific attacks
• Details of what she's observed about necromantic work
• Her suspicions about Barron's true nature
• Kiraline's secrets (though this pains her greatly)
• Information about the Gawky Model's death

Will Lie About:

• Her mother's intentions (she will try to defend Kiraline initially)
• The extent of her shapeshifting powers
• Her own vulnerability and fear

Doesn't Know:

• The full scope of Kiraline's plans
• Barron's true conspiracy
• The eclipse timeline
• That her mother is a vampire (she suspects, but doesn't know for certain)
• What necromantic working is truly being performed
• Whether her mother intentionally killed the Gawky Model or permitted it to happen

Interrogation Notes: Szeret is young and inexperienced. She cannot easily lie and doesn't have extensive training in resistance. She responds well to kindness and terribly to threats. Magical compulsion extracts truth, but she finds the experience painful. She will protect Olivia and Jack even under pressure if she can.

QUEEN KIRALINE VERESZ EROSZAKOS

Knows:

• She is a vampire (of voluntary infection via comet sickness)
• The location and nature of the Comet Chamber
• The details of necromantic practice and power
• Barron is her lover/confidant and has been for years
• She believes she is controlling the conspiracy involving necromancy
• That her daughter is a shapeshifter and increasingly difficult to control
• The identities of court members and their loyalties
• That Rozito performs necromantic work under her direction
• That she practices necromancy herself despite outlawing it
• Details of her contingency plan (the Necromantic Level ritual that would scatter her if the castle falls)
• Her previous failed attempts to transform lovers
• That the wedding is actually a trap to capture souls

Will Reveal Freely:

• Information designed to intimidate or impress
• Diplomatic speeches and court protocol
• General information about Terrassia and politics
• Dangerous half-truths that serve her purposes

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Very little. She will die before revealing secrets through torture.
• Under magical compulsion, some information about her plans, but she has significant magical resistance
• Information about Barron only if she believes him already exposed
• Details of her necromantic knowledge if she believes it secures advantage

Will Lie About:

• Her feelings for Barron (she will claim love, when it's dominance fantasy)
• Her relationship with Szeret (she will frame control as care)
• Her intentions toward the wedding guests (she will claim peace)
• Her true nature (she will maintain predatory aristocrat facade)
• Any knowledge of Barron's true plans
• The extent of her power

Doesn't Know:

• The full extent of Barron's preparations for lichdom
• That Barron intends to corrupt the peace wedding for his own ascension
• How completely Barron has embedded himself inside the Lich Cult beneath her notice
• How thoroughly Barron has weaponized their intimacy
• The hidden cult leader moving inside the larger conspiracy she believes she fully controls
• Whether Barron will betray her or not

Interrogation Notes: Kiraline is an apex predator and will not respond to conventional pressure. Torture amuses her. Threats against her power enrage her. She will admit to actions she's proud of. She cannot be magically compelled without significant magical power. She is best negotiated with rather than interrogated, and she respects strength and intelligence. She will lie when it amuses her to do so.

DEVORLEN KOSS

Knows:

• He is Terrassian military intelligence observing Albion's activities
• That Barron's agenda extends beyond diplomacy (specifics unknown to him)
• The city of Kormor Kirak's basic layout and resources
• General intelligence about both empires' positions
• That something is wrong with the theater construction
• The details of Terrassian military capabilities and strategy
• Olivia's character and capabilities from their interactions
• General facts about necromancy (theoretical knowledge)
• That the Gatekeepers are corrupt and autonomous

Will Reveal Freely:

• Military pragmatism and reasoning
• Observations about the city's state
• His opinions about warfare and peace
• His respect for Olivia's intelligence
• General intelligence that doesn't compromise Terrassian interests
• Practical information that serves mutual interests

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Specific intelligence about Terrassian operations if threatened
• Details about what he suspects regarding Barron
• Information about the conspiracy if he determines it threatens Terrassian interests
• His true role as intelligence operative
• Resources available to him

Will Lie About:

• His true loyalties (he will claim neutrality when possible)
• His knowledge of specific operations
• The extent of Terrassian involvement in city affairs
• His personal sympathies or moral concerns

Doesn't Know:

• Barron's true plan in full detail
• The eclipse timeline
• The full extent of Barron's preparations for lichdom
• Details of the conspiracy's structure beyond what he's observed
• Whether the Man with the Clockwork Arm serves him or acts independently

Interrogation Notes: Koss is trained to resist interrogation and will reveal only what serves Terrassian interests. He is pragmatic rather than loyal to any specific person. Magical compulsion works but he can resist for a time. He cannot be tortured effectively because he's trained past such responses. He is best approached as a negotiating partner rather than an interrogation subject.

VARGA

Knows:

• He is a werewolf with an involuntary curse
• He is working for Barron under promise of a cure
• He murdered the previous tax collector
• He stole treasury gold and helped transport it
• The locations of his safe houses and hidden weapons
• Barron's direct orders and operations he's conducted
• That Barron's timeline is approaching something significant
• The identities of party members and their locations
• That Jack Winbow is also a werewolf (he's sensed this)
• General facts about the city and supernatural presence

Will Reveal Freely:

• Superficial information while pretending to be drunk
• Information designed to misdirect investigation
• Confessions to crimes that distance him from real conspiracy
• Observations about other people in the city

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Barron's direct orders
• Locations of bodies and crime scenes
• Names of other agents
• Details of financial theft
• His own fear that the cure will never come
• His desperation to escape his condition
• But NOT information that would guarantee he loses the only hope he has

Will Lie About:

• His sobriety and capacity (he exaggerates his dysfunction)
• The extent of his crimes (he will minimize when possible)
• His knowledge of the conspiracy's true scope
• His willingness to continue serving (he will express more certainty than he feels)
• Whether he's hurt people
• His real motivation (he will never admit how desperately he wants to be human again)

Doesn't Know:

• Barron's true plan (lichdom and possession)
• Whether the cure actually exists
• The eclipse timeline or its significance
• The full scope of the conspiracy beyond his assignments
• That Barron may be lying about the cure
• Whether other agents will remain loyal

Interrogation Notes: Varga can be turned if offered a genuine alternative cure. He's dangerous and unpredictable because his loyalty is conditional on false hope. Under magical compulsion, he reveals operational details but will resist questions about the cure. Torture hardens him because he's already suffering. Negotiation regarding his lycanthropy is the key to flipping him. He is most dangerous when he believes he has nothing left to lose.

ROZITO VALLIKOZO

Knows:

• He practices necromancy
• He is performing rituals in Hallaset Fields
• The locations of graves being opened and corpses being prepared
• The ritual patterns he's carving into dead flesh
• He was appointed by Kiraline
• Barron (indirectly) influences his actions, though he doesn't know this
• The financial arrangements funding necromantic work
• Details about Theater's underground modifications
• That Szeret is his friend (and he genuinely cares about this)
• General knowledge of the city and its people
• Details about the market and supply chains

Will Reveal Freely:

• Information about the market
• Details about supply chains and merchants
• Observations about city gossip
• His feelings about his position and uncertainty
• General friendliness and helpfulness

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Locations of necromantic work
• The ritual patterns and runes he's carving
• Details of corpses he's prepared
• The identities of people involved in necromantic practice
• His belief that he's serving the Lich Cult's ambitions without understanding Barron secretly leads it
• His fear of Kiraline
• His fear of losing his position

Will Lie About:

• Whether he understands what the necromancy is truly for
• The extent of his knowledge about Barron's involvement
• Whether he wants to be doing this work
• His confidence in his position
• Whether he's killed people himself (he will admit to some murders if confronted with evidence)

Doesn't Know:

• That Barron secretly leads the Lich Cult
• The true purpose of the necromantic work
• The eclipse timeline
• That his work is preparing the fields for Barron's transformation
• Whether Kiraline actually permits his practice or tests him
• That Barron sent him in the first direction
• That the Lich Cult is real but has been quietly bent toward Barron's purposes

Interrogation Notes: Rozito can be flipped if offered protection or alternative direction. He's performing dark magic partly from fear and partly from genuine magical compulsion (the necromancy has some hold over him). Pressure regarding Kiraline's opinion is effective. Magical compulsion works but he tries to resist. He is most valuable as an informant about necromantic practice itself rather than the conspiracy's structure. Offer him a way out and he might become an ally.

WOOSTER (BENJI)

Knows:

• Financial irregularities and theft from treasury
• That money is being diverted from official accounts
• That Olivia was investigating these irregularities
• That Barron wanted Olivia stopped
• General institutional knowledge about Albion's finance structures
• The identities of people he's been protecting through bureaucratic maneuvering
• That something larger than simple corruption is happening
• Old friendship details with Barron (though not his true plans)
• Names of people who owe him favors

Will Reveal Freely:

• Bureaucratic procedures and institutional structures
• Information that doesn't compromise his position
• Jovial dismissal of accusations
• Diplomatic language that sounds helpful but reveals nothing
• Complaints about his position and the burdens of office

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Financial irregularities and their scope
• Names of people involved in the cover-up
• Details about Barron's involvement
• His own fear that he's being set up as a scapegoat
• But NOT details he believes would expose him to prosecution

Will Lie About:

• Whether he understood what the money was being used for
• His knowledge of the conspiracy's true nature
• His complicity (he will frame it as following orders)
• Whether he suspects Barron's true agenda
• The extent of institutional protection he possesses

Doesn't Know:

• Barron's true plan
• The eclipse timeline
• That he's been used as an institutional shield for the conspiracy
• The full scope of what the stolen money funded
• Whether he's ultimately expendable

Interrogation Notes: Wooster is comfortable in corruption and won't break easily under standard pressure. He believes institutional cover will protect him. Offer immunity and evidence of exposure, and he might flip. Magical compulsion works easily on him. He is most valuable for financial information than operational details. He is cowardly beneath his eccentric exterior.

FEENEY (DECEASED)

Knows (Knew):

• The true nature of the Theater's underground modifications
• That the theater was being built for something other than peace
• Financial details about the treasury gold transfer
• The conspiracy's timeline and intensity
• That something terrible was being prepared
• That he had to stop it

Will Reveal (Could Have Revealed):

• Everything about the conspiracy's scope
• Details of the ritual purpose
• Barron's involvement (possibly)
• The names of agents
• The timeline pressure

Lies Told:

• None that we know of. Feeney was honest about what he discovered.

Didn't Know:

• Barron's true identity as the architect
• The eclipse timeline (though he sensed deadline pressure)
• The full scope of what was being prepared
• Whether his fire succeeded in stopping the conspiracy

Current State: Deceased. Body found in vault in necromantic trellis formation with 88 ritual wounds serving as a portal to other realms. Can be questioned via necromancy if magical means are available, though his knowledge is limited to what he knew before death.

Notes: Feeney's encoded message, if discovered, provides crucial information about the theater and the danger it represents.

EPPY FLINDER

Knows:

• What Jack Winbow is (werewolf) before he fully accepts it
• The true history of the land and the comet that fell centuries ago
• Necromancy as practical craft (not theory)
• The old world and its continued existence
• General intelligence about Kormor Kirak and its inhabitants
• Something is wrong in the city (she senses it)
• That Barron carries darkness
• Details about the old civilization she comes from
• Multiple languages including ancient ones
• Practical herbal knowledge and alchemy

Will Reveal Freely:

• Information about the old world in general terms
• Details about Jack's nature (if Jack consents)
• Wisdom and perspective on difficult situations
• Practical information that serves good purposes
• Her observations about people and their character
• Herbal remedies and practical solutions

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Information about the comet and its origins
• Details of her grandmother's death and its connection to ancient events
• Knowledge of necromancy and its costs
• Information about the old world's continued presence
• But NOT details she believes threaten the old world itself

Will Lie About:

• Very rarely. Eppy is honest almost to a fault.
• She might withhold information, but she doesn't lie.

Doesn't Know:

• The full scope of the conspiracy
• Barron's true identity and plans
• The eclipse timeline
• Specific details about what's happening in Hallaset Fields
• Whether she could have prevented the catastrophe if she'd acted differently

Interrogation Notes: Eppy cannot be effectively interrogated because she doesn't respond to standard pressure. Magical compulsion works because she has no training in resistance. She is best approached as a source of wisdom rather than information extraction. She will refuse to help if doing so threatens the old world or those she's sworn to protect. She is trustworthy within her own framework, but her framework includes loyalties that might not align with the party's.

NERO

Knows:

• The Theater's layout and construction details
• Unusual modifications being made to underground chambers
• That something is wrong with the project (intuition)
• His suspicions about Barron's interest in the modifications
• Construction crew details and logistics
• Zaffir's capabilities and trustworthiness
• General information about Kormor Kirak's supernatural dangers
• That Jack is something other (he senses this)
• His own combat capabilities and training

Will Reveal Freely:

• Construction details and progress
• Information about the city and its dangers
• His suspicions about unusual modifications
• Practical information about construction and materials
• His assessment of the people involved

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Specific locations of unusual modifications
• Details about why the construction is difficult
• His suspicions about Barron's true purposes
• Information about security measures
• His fear that something terrible is being prepared

Will Lie About:

• Very little. Nero is straightforward.
• He might exaggerate dangers or minimize his own concerns.

Doesn't Know:

• The true purpose of the modifications
• Barron's conspiracy or its scope
• Necromantic working details
• The eclipse timeline
• Whether the fire Feeney set accomplished anything

Interrogation Notes: Nero is direct and relatively honest. He responds well to straight questions. He will provide practical information freely if he trusts the questioner. He is most valuable for construction and location details. Magical compulsion works easily on him. He is not trained in resistance.

ZAFFIR

Knows:

• All the same construction and modification details as Nero
• Logistics of managing the construction crews
• Practical details about supplies and materials
• That something unusual is happening but tries not to think about it
• General information about city dangers
• Details about crew members and their reliability

Will Reveal Freely:

• Construction logistics and timeline
• Practical information about materials and resources
• His observations about the city
• Assessment of crew capabilities
• Information about dangers and solutions

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Specific locations of unusual modifications
• Details about why certain areas are off-limits
• His suspicions about the theater's true purpose
• Information about who gives unusual orders

Will Lie About:

• Very little. She is straightforward like Nero.
• She might minimize her own concerns.

Doesn't Know:

• The true purpose of the modifications
• Barron's involvement or the conspiracy
• Necromantic details
• The eclipse timeline

Interrogation Notes: Zaffir is direct and honest. She responds well to practical questions. She is less vocal than Nero but equally reliable. Magical compulsion works easily. She is most valuable for practical details about construction and logistics.

THE MAN WITH THE CLOCKWORK ARM

Knows:

• The location of every Automatic Assassin he's constructed
• The capabilities and weaknesses of each assassin
• Who ordered each assassination
• The identity of Terrassian operatives he serves
• Mechanical engineering and construction details
• The movement patterns of people throughout the city via radar
• Details about the city's hidden infrastructure
• Information gathered from watching the party and others

Will Reveal Freely:

• Nothing. He reveals only under duress.
• He might provide technical information if it serves his purposes.

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Locations of assassins and their operational details
• The identities of people who contracted assassinations
• Mechanical details about the assassins
• Information gathered via radar surveillance
• But will resist questions about his true identity or superiors

Will Lie About:

• His true identity
• His loyalties and to whom he reports
• The full scope of his surveillance
• His knowledge of specific individuals

Doesn't Know:

• The complete picture of Terrassian operations (he's compartmentalized)
• Details of the conspiracy beyond what he's observed
• The eclipse timeline
• Barron's true plans

Interrogation Notes: The Man with the Clockwork Arm is professionally trained in resistance. He will not break under standard torture. Magical compulsion works but he has some resistance. He is most valuable for information about past assassinations and surveillance. He is a dangerous opponent and will use his environment to create escape routes or traps. Direct confrontation is risky.

THE GAWKY MODEL (DECEASED)

Knows (Knew):

• Details about Szeret's character and preferences
• Information about people she encountered in dress shops
• General gossip from the market district
• That something was wrong with Kiraline (she sensed danger)

Cannot Reveal:

• She is dead and transformed into a necromantic working. Conventional questioning is impossible.
• She can be contacted via necromancy if magical means are available, but she is now part of a working and communication is difficult.

Notes: Her death serves as evidence of Kiraline's true nature and her willingness to use necromancy on those she loves. The discovery of her body is a turning point in the investigation.

AGGODAS

Knows:

• The details of Gatekeeper operations and protection rackets
• Information gathered through herbal sight and spirit-summoning
• The movements of supernatural creatures in the city
• The identities of people hiding things
• Something is wrong in the city (she senses disturbance)
• General information about Kormor Kirak and its people
• The locations of hidden operations and illicit activities

Will Reveal Freely:

• Information that doesn't compromise Gatekeeper operations
• Veiled threats and warnings
• General intelligence that establishes her power

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Information about supernatural activity
• Details about what her herbal sight has revealed
• Names of people hiding things
• Information about her spirit contacts
• But NOT information that would compromise Gatekeeper autonomy

Will Lie About:

• The extent of her capabilities
• The scope of her knowledge
• Her true motivations
• Whether she's watching specific individuals

Doesn't Know:

• The specific details of the conspiracy
• Barron's true plans
• The eclipse timeline
• Whether she should act on her suspicions

Interrogation Notes: Aggodas is experienced and dangerous. She cannot be easily intimidated or coerced. Magical compulsion works but she has some resistance. She is most valuable for information about supernatural activity and what her herbal sight has revealed. She is best negotiated with rather than forced. She respects strength and intelligence.

BOLDOGG

Knows:

• All the same information as Aggodas regarding Gatekeeper operations
• Details from his spirit contacts about movement and activity
• The identities of people hiding things
• General information about the city
• Something is wrong in the city (he senses it, though less acutely than Aggodas)

Will Reveal Freely:

• Information that establishes his power
• Threats and warnings (enjoys this)
• General intelligence about the city

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Information about supernatural activity via spirit contacts
• Details about what he's observed
• Names of people hiding things
• But NOT information compromising Gatekeeper autonomy

Will Lie About:

• The extent of his powers
• Whether he's aware of specific activities
• His true motivations (mostly enjoying others' discomfort)

Doesn't Know:

• Specific conspiracy details
• Barron's plans
• The eclipse timeline
• Whether action is necessary

Interrogation Notes: Boldogg is less sophisticated than Aggodas but equally dangerous. He enjoys suffering and intimidation, which limits traditional pressure's effectiveness. Magical compulsion works. He is most valuable for information about spirit-summoning and what his contacts report. He is best managed through alliance with Aggodas or through practical negotiation.

ISTVAN THE JAILER

Knows:

• Details about the prison and its security
• Information about prisoners and their crimes
• The identities of important political prisoners
• General information about Kormor Kirak's legal system
• Details about castle dungeon structure

Will Reveal Freely:

• General information about prisoners (non-sensitive)
• Practical information about the prison
• Observations about security issues

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Details about specific prisoners
• Security weaknesses
• Information about people being held for political reasons
• But will protect information about his own corruption

Will Lie About:

• The extent of prisoners' crimes
• Whether he's accepting bribes
• The security of specific areas

Doesn't Know:

• The conspiracy
• Large-scale political machinations
• Details beyond the prison

LADY MIREVA

Knows:

• Court gossip and social dynamics
• The names and relationships of important court members
• Information about Kiraline's behavior and moods
• Details about castle social events
• General observations about court life

Will Reveal Freely:

• Court gossip and social information
• Observations about relationships
• General court dynamics

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Information about Kiraline's relationships
• Details about sensitive court matters
• Observations she's made about suspicious behavior

Will Lie About:

• Information that would damage her social position

Doesn't Know:

• The conspiracy
• Barron's plans
• Practical operational details

BROTHER ALDRIC

Knows:

• Religious practices and traditions
• General knowledge about the city's spiritual beliefs
• Information from people who confide in the church
• Details about the clergy and their activities

Will Reveal Freely:

• General religious information
• Observations about spiritual matters
• General city information

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Limited information (protected by religious confidentiality)
• Observations about suspicious behavior
• Details about who has sought confession

Will Lie About:

• Information protected by religious confidentiality

Doesn't Know:

• The conspiracy
• Operational details
• Secular political matters

TOMAS THE STABLEHAND

Knows:

• The location and condition of horses
• Details about people who take horses and their destinations
• General information about the city from overheard conversations
• Details about animal behavior and conditions
• Information about who travels frequently or suspiciously

Will Reveal Freely:

• Information about horses and their care
• Observations about unusual requests
• General information overheard in the stables

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Details about specific people taking horses
• Information about where they've gone
• Observations about suspicious patterns

Will Lie About:

• Very little. He's simple and straightforward.

Doesn't Know:

• The conspiracy
• Operational details
• Complex political matters

THE MARKETPLACE BUTCHER

Knows:

• General information about people who buy meat
• Observations about the market district
• Information about supply chains
• Details about prices and availability
• General city gossip from his customers

Will Reveal Freely:

• General market information
• Observations about supply and demand
• City gossip

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Information about specific customers and their purchases
• Details about unusual orders
• Observations about suspicious behavior

Will Lie About:

• The extent of his knowledge
• Whether he's been paid to keep quiet about something

Doesn't Know:

• The conspiracy
• Operational details
• Complex political matters

MAGISTRATE VORON

Knows:

• Legal matters and court procedures
• Information about cases and their outcomes
• Details about bribes and corruption in the legal system
• The names of important legal figures
• General information about Kormor Kirak's legal structure

Will Reveal Freely:

• General legal information
• Observations about case outcomes
• Information about the legal system's structure

Will Reveal Under Pressure:

• Details about corruption he's observed
• Information about specific cases
• Names of people involved in bribery
• But will protect his own involvement when possible

Will Lie About:

• The extent of his own corruption
• Whether he's received bribes
• Whether specific cases were fair

Doesn't Know:

• The conspiracy
• Operational details
• Political machinations beyond the legal system

GALLERY

Art of The People Of The Eternal Court

Rozito Vallikozo -- The Fixer

Ambassador Harken -- The Diplomat

Aggodas and Boldogg -- The Gatekeepers

Captain Ashford -- The Soldier Abroad

Brother Aldric

Lady Mireva

Magistrate Voron

Istvan the Jailer

Tomas the Stablehand