Chapter 10C — The Cast, Statted
Full GM stat blocks for the named cast — the companion pass to the roster. Each block follows the bestiary format of, tiers its level and CR to the character’s narrative weight, and cites the character’s real Calling/Path features so their traits and actions reflect abilities from the Handbook. Story-tier figures (the two archons, the lich-king) carry legendary actions and a note that at full expression they leave the stat block behind. Every block ends with a Running them line — voice, temperament, and tactics, so you can play them the moment they walk on stage.
This chapter is Master’s-Guide only. Names not yet statted here (the guild seconds, the mainstream Eight, the thin-canon figures) stay in until their canon grows.
The Archons & House Corveliss
Section titled “The Archons & House Corveliss”Cyl (Cylenna Corveliss)
Section titled “Cyl (Cylenna Corveliss)”the Key, the black that cancels every color
*Cipherwright/Thoughtplayer · House Corveliss, Tonja · CR 13 (STORY-TIER).* The Archon of Chaos in adolescent flesh, statted here at her street-level expression as the finest living thoughtplayer — and no more than that, because what she truly is has not yet been asked of her.AC 16 · HP 149 (23d6+69) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: At Full Archonic Expression She Transcends This Block. This stat block is Cyl running the Knowing as a mortal Cipherwright. Twice in her life all four Chaos currents (the Knowing, the Heart, the Dream, the Green) have overlapped into absolute black — eyes gone void, a halo light does not return from. That expression is not a bigger stat block; it is off the table. If she reaches it, stop rolling dice and narrate. Reading the Room (the Knowing runs free). Without action or cost, Cyl knows the surface emotion, fear, want, and honesty of every creature she can see; she automatically knows when she is being lied to. Attention-Riding. As a bonus action, spend a Thread and fix her eyes on a creature within 60 ft.: she rides its attention for 1 minute, perceiving what it perceives and its surface thought, with advantage on Insight against it. The mind she touches always feels the touch — the target knows a rider is there and may repeat a WIS save (DC 18) at the end of each of its turns to throw her off. Anomalous Stone. Her robin’s-egg focus stone is never clear; it deepens through the pigment palette as she channels, a tell no other practitioner produces. Legendary Resistance (3/day).
Actions: Multiattack. Cyl makes one Mindspike and uses The Played Thought or weaves a Filament. Mindspike. Ranged Working: +10, range 60 ft. Hit: 22 (4d8+5) psychic, and the target can’t take reactions until the start of its next turn. The Played Thought (Recharge 5–6). Against a creature she is riding, Cyl places one clear thought in its mind. It knows the thought is not its own — that is the terror of it — and must succeed on a WIS save (DC 18) or act on a one-sentence suggestion (nothing directly self-harming) on its next turn. The Long Room (signature). Cyl fixes her eyes on a creature she can see within 60 ft. and steps into the room behind them — the place where a mind lays itself out to her sight like an unlit gallery, and where time all but stops for everyone but her. The target makes a WIS save (DC 18); on a failure she is inside for as long as she needs, though only an instant passes in the world outside. Before she steps back out she may either speak — hold a whole silent conversation, learning what the mind knows and leaving in it whatever she wishes it to believe — or cut: excise a memory. A small memory (a name, a face, the way to a place, how to read, how to walk) is gone in a heartbeat; a deep, load-bearing one (a person, a season, a first love, years of training, the memory of their child) takes what feels to her like an unhurried while and to the world like the same single moment. A cut memory can be restored only by a Working of Tier 6+ or comparable divine mercy within a day; after that it is simply gone. In her youth the cut is not yet surgical — the excision may take a neighboring memory with it (GM’s call), and the one she cuts always knows, forever, that something was taken and whose hand took it. The power is already total: she can lift out the whole of who someone is, and at fifteen she already can.
Bonus Actions: Weave a Filament. Spend a Thread to sustain a small Knowing construct (a false face, a planted fact, a Quick Read of a creature’s active Workings/Strain).
Reactions: Severed Pattern. When a creature within 60 ft. casts a Working or triggers a woven construct, Cyl spends 3 Threads to force an INT save (DC 18); on a failure the effect fizzles or the construct unravels.
Legendary Actions (3/round; end of another creature’s turn): Ride. Cyl uses Attention-Riding on one creature she can see. Whisper (costs 1). One creature she is riding makes a WIS save (DC 18) or takes 9 (2d8) psychic and has disadvantage on its next attack. The Long Ride (costs 2). Cyl descends past attention into a ridden creature’s memory; she learns one true thing it is hiding (GM answers one question truthfully). The ride runs both ways — the target learns one true thing about her.
Running them: Chapter-one Cyl is warm, luminous, funny when relaxed and dry when challenged; she reaches for tea and blankets and the magnerail schedule when she is most off-balance. She does not blast — she controls: rides attention, plants the thought that ends the fight, unravels the enemy caster's Working before it lands. Her true loyalty is to Oen above the house, the guild, the city, or the survival of the species; the instant he is threatened she abandons every tactical objective on the board.
the sum of all emitted light, pure white
*Stonewright/Standing Bench · Sulamir Steam Tunnels (foundling) · CR 13 (STORY-TIER).* The Archon of Order in a working-class boy raised underground, who reads load and structure by native Order-sight and sees the Hollow before it is visible — statted here at the mortal expression his clear stone still disguises.AC 18 · HP 152 (16d10+64) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: At Full Archonic Expression He Transcends This Block. This is Oen running a half-Reaching through calloused hands. At full expression every Order channel (the Binding, the Weight, the Current, the Unmaking) runs at once and he becomes pure white — the room resolves into geometry, dust settles in patterns, metal hums, people near him feel clarified. That is not on the table. If he reaches it, stop rolling and narrate. Order-Sight (native). Oen reads the bones of any structure and the lines of force in anything bearing weight; he always knows the load-bearing weak point of a space or object. The Unseen is not unseen to him — Hollow-origin creatures register as wrong-against-the-architecture before they are visible. He can’t be surprised by Hollow-origin creatures and grants no benefit to their invisibility. The City Is His Spellbook. Advantage on any check involving structures, machinery, or worked stone; his Workings ignore cover provided by worked stone. Order Sunders the Hollow. His Binding/Order Workings against Hollow-origin creatures are made with advantage, and a successful Binding can seal the seam itself rather than merely damage the creature. Perfectly Clear Stone. His infancy focus stone has never colored despite his aptitude — anomalous, a question that will one day catch up to him. Legendary Resistance (3/day).
Actions: Multiattack. Oen makes two attacks (Arc-Sting and/or Weight-Slam). Arc-Sting. Ranged Working: +10, range 60 ft. Hit: 18 (3d8+5) lightning. Weight-Slam (Binding). Melee Working: +10, reach 5 ft. Hit: 20 (3d10+4) force, and the target makes a STR save (DC 18) or is Restrained by manacle-light until the end of its next turn. Sun-Vent (Recharge 5–6). Oen flares every Field-Setting within 30 ft.: each ally bearing one may immediately make one weapon attack or move half its speed as a reaction, and gains +1d4 on attack rolls until the end of his next turn.
Bonus Actions: Set the Bench. Place or re-key a Field-Setting on a willing ally (+1 AC, a keened edge, or a grip-light); command his knee-high oath-metal Warden-Frame (AC 14, HP = 3× his level, arc-sting 1d6 lightning).
Reactions: The Correction. When Oen or a creature within 30 ft. fails an ability check or save, he adds his INT modifier (+5) to the roll. Binding Ward. Grant a nearby ally +2 AC against one attack.
Legendary Actions (3/round; end of another creature’s turn): Read the Load. Oen names a weak point; the next attack against a creature or structure he indicates has advantage. Bind (costs 1). One creature within 30 ft. makes a STR save (DC 18) or is Restrained until the end of its next turn. The Dome Writ Small (costs 2). Oen’s frame unfolds a 10-ft.-radius bound-light shell for 1 round; Workings of Tier 2 or lower and arc-lock slugs cannot cross it inward, while his allies’ cross outward freely.
Running them: Plain, short, imperative; he puts things down rather than dropping them and asks his questions hours after a fluent surface-dweller would. He does not duel — he engineers the battlefield: binds the threat, buffs the party with settings, raises the dome over the people he refuses to lose, and names the load-bearing weakness aloud. Against the Hollow he is the answer in the room. His whole combat logic bends toward Cyl the way hers bends toward him.
Olandra Corveliss (“Anne”)
Section titled “Olandra Corveliss (“Anne”)”fifty years of a clear stone and a still face
*Cipherwright/Thoughtplayer · House Corveliss, Tonja · CR 12.* The tradition's living master — the deepest thoughtplayer alive, who has hidden it in plain sight for fifty years by suppressing the eye-flash and running her stone clear, and who is killed by her own father at book one's close.AC 14 · HP 127 (17d8+51) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Fifty Years’ Concealment. Olandra produces no eye-flash and her stone runs clear even mid-cast. Her Workings cannot be identified by Cipher’s Eye, Insight, or a Pattern-Sight read; she always knows whether an observer noticed she did anything at all. The Knowing, Effortless. She reads emotion, concealment, fear, and want of everyone she can see, all at once, without action or cost, and always knows when she is lied to. Her career-long discipline is not acting on most of what she reads. Attention-Riding. As a bonus action she rides a creature’s attention within 60 ft. (advantage on Insight, knows its lies). The touch is always felt; the target repeats a WIS save (DC 17) each turn to end it. Master’s Restraint. Advantage on Deception and Insight contests; she is rarely the one maneuvering and rarely outmaneuvered.
Actions: Multiattack. Olandra makes one Knowing Lash and uses The Played Thought. Knowing Lash. Ranged Working: +9, range 60 ft. Hit: 20 (4d6+6) psychic. The Played Thought (Recharge 5–6). Against a creature she is riding, she places one clear thought; it must succeed on a WIS save (DC 17) or act on a one-sentence suggestion (nothing self-harming) next turn. The Long Ride (1/day). Over a minute of eye contact she descends into memory and learns the truth of three questions about the target — but the ride runs both ways, and the target learns one true thing about her.
Reactions: Severed Pattern. When a creature within 60 ft. casts a Working, she forces an INT save (DC 17) or the effect fizzles.
Running them: Warm, unhurried Anne at home and gracious composed Olandra in court, the Knowing running under every word and tiring her by evening's end. She does not fight so much as unmake the fight — reads the room and plants the thought that ends it. She has foreseen her father's move for fifteen years and does not pretend otherwise. Her every instinct is to close fractures and spend herself finishing Cyl's training, not to win exchanges.
Aesen Corveliss
Section titled “Aesen Corveliss”the one who sees, the eternal watcher
*Civilian (no practice) · House Corveliss, Tonja (Council, Alum-sidek seat) · CR 5.* The patriarch and puppet master of book one, whose weapon is not a blade but fifteen years of coalition-building — and who kills his own daughter through other men's hands, certain the Knowing feeds the Hollow.AC 13 · HP 71 (11d8+22) · Speed 25 ft.
Traits: Fifteen Years of Coalition (the actual threat). Aesen never fights alone and never fights first. On any scene where he means to act, treat it as a confrontation with the coalition of Corveliss branch heads and Alum-sidek enforcers he has spent fifteen years building; 1d4+1 retainers arrive within the hour on pre-laid instruction. If dice ever come out against Aesen personally, the GM has staged the wrong scene. The One Who Sees. Advantage on Insight; he reads a person’s leverage and fear on sight and cannot be surprised in a social scene. Kin-Private Framing. Once per scene he reframes an act as “a private matter of discipline within a single branch.” Contested Persuasion (DC 15); on a success, witnesses of lesser standing will not testify, intervene, or press him. Patriarch’s Prerogative. He may end any conversation by leaving the room; advantage on saves vs. frightened, charmed, or goaded — under pressure he grows slower and more measured, not faster.
Actions: Oak Walking-Stick. Melee Attack: +4, reach 5 ft. Hit: 5 (1d6+1) bludgeoning. The Order Given (1/scene). Aesen does not kill with his hands. He designates a target and his coalition acts — the mechanism of Olandra’s killing and Gadwin’s removal. Represent as a narrative certainty, not an attack roll. A Word to the Room (Recharge 5–6). Each creature of lesser standing that can hear him makes a WIS save (DC 15) or is unwilling to act against him until the end of its next turn.
Reactions: Turn the Blame. When accused or exposed, Aesen redirects the charge onto another present party; contested Persuasion vs. the accuser’s passive Insight. His “legendary” register is in intrigue, not combat — coalitions moved and windows seized across chapters, never in a six-second round.
Running them: Measured, warm with those he loves, gracious with the family broadly, articulate without showiness — the reader is meant to like him more than they expect. He never brawls; he arranges the outcome before arriving and then lives with it, having mourned Olandra in advance for fifteen years. He kills his daughter to protect a bloodline that does not even run through the granddaughter he is protecting.
Searlis Corveliss
Section titled “Searlis Corveliss”the steel under the elegance
*Warrens-Runner/Long Count · House Corveliss, Tonja · CR 7.* The polished uncle and second puppet master, who has spent forty years positioning and seizes the whole house through other men's hands while standing clear of the blood.AC 15 · HP 78 (12d8+24) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: The Working Face. After one minute of conversation, Searlis learns whether a creature’s WIS and CHA are higher or lower than his and one thing it currently wants. Sell the Lie (1/scene). One plausible false claim reads as truth to any Working, stone, or talent that detects falsehood. A creature that hears it must succeed on a WIS save (DC 15) or believe the claim wholly for 8 hours or until shown incontrovertible proof. Seizure Through Other Hands. He positions rather than strikes; he acts through a parallel coalition loyal to him alone and steps away before violence lands. The Clean Line. Once per turn, when he hits with a finesse weapon while he has advantage or an ally is within 5 ft., he deals an extra 10 (3d6) damage. Reliable Talent. Treat any d20 of 9 or lower as a 10 on a proficient check.
Actions: Multiattack. Searlis makes two attacks with his concealed rapier. Concealed Rapier. Melee Attack: +6, reach 5 ft. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) piercing, plus Clean Line where it applies.
Bonus Actions: Runner’s Step. Dash, Disengage, or Hide.
Reactions: Uncanny Dodge. Halve the damage of an attack he can see. Grifter’s Grace. When a creature he can see attacks him, force a WIS save (DC 15) or it must target another creature in reach/range instead.
Running them: Composed, layered, warm with the people who matter and more dangerous than the room reads; he takes what is not offered to him without friction, at the scale of a chair or of a house. A duelist of last resort — he would far rather Sell the Lie and let you thank him for the con. He mourns Olandra honestly and lets her die anyway, genuinely believing his stewardship protects Cyl better than his father's would have.
Gadwin Corveliss
Section titled “Gadwin Corveliss”"my word is oath-metal; it does not bend"
*Ironclast/Oathforge · House Corveliss (born Tarnus), Tonja · CR 8.* The plain-blunt warrior married into a house of courtiers — the wall the fighter thanks after the fight — who chooses, in the worst moment of his life, to be hollowed out so his daughter can keep hers.AC 19 (chain mail + Ironclad Constitution) · HP 133 (14d12+42) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Ironclad Constitution. While in heavy armor and not incapacitated, Gadwin adds his CON modifier to AC (included above); resistant to being frightened by anything unintelligent. Grit (5 points; short/long rest). Bespoke Steel (Oathforge). His forged oath-metal blade counts as magical for overcoming resistance and is keyed to him; anyone else wielding it has disadvantage. Word-Bound Vow. Once per long rest Gadwin swears a one-sentence vow (“I will not let this gate fall”). While it holds he gains +2 to saves and to his Grit DCs and is immune to being frightened or charmed. Break it and he takes a level of exhaustion. The Wall Hits Back. When he uses Shrug It Off, he adds his CON modifier to the damage of his next melee hit.
Actions: Multiattack. Two attacks with his Bespoke Steel. Bespoke Oath-Metal Blade. Melee Attack: +7, reach 5 ft. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing (magical for resistance).
Bonus Actions: Hold the Line (1 Grit). Hostile creatures that start within 5 ft. have speed 0 (STR save DC 14); advantaged opportunity attack on any that try to leave. Open the Gate (1 Grit). Attacks against him and his attacks both have advantage until his next turn.
Reactions: Shrug It Off (1 Grit). Reduce damage taken by 1d12 + 3. Immovable (1 Grit). Negate any physical push, pull, prone, or forced movement.
After the binding — restat as Relic-Bound / Bound Vessel, CR ~7. Aesen’s coalition takes Gadwin alive, kills Olandra in front of him, and offers the choice: bind his soul to Aesen’s end, or watch Cyl die the same way. He binds. Keep the physical chassis; strip the warmth. Replace Word-Bound Vow/Grit with The Relic and a Debt Clock (0–6); swap Bespoke Steel’s oath for Bound Strike (spend a Relic Charge for +1d6 force of the vessel’s color); add It Speaks Through You — the fragment speaks with his voice, knows things he doesn’t, and steers when the Debt comes due. He is now immune to charm and fear not by oath but by hollowing — less of him to reach.
Running them: Short, plain, unornamented; he says what he means and defers to Olandra on strategy but never on a fight. In combat he is the wall — plants, endures, hands back what breaks against him. After the binding, play the gap: the buttoning of a coat, the pouring of a drink, the words a father says — all the reflexes intact, the man behind them absent.
the first thread of the line
*Cipherwright/Thoughtplayer · House Corveliss, Tonja · CR 6.* Aesen's wife and Olandra's mother, aged and frail to the point of collapse — the origin of the three-generation witch-line, whose body has failed and whose Reaching has not.AC 10 · HP 22 (5d8) · Speed 10 ft. (bedridden; often 0)
Traits: Full-Tier Reaching (undiminished). Despite her frailty the Knowing runs at full master strength. Her Working save DC is 16 and she may attempt the highest Tiers her line ever mastered; the CR is bought entirely by her mind. First of the Line. The three-generation thoughtplayer lineage begins with her; every reflex Olandra and Cyl carry is downstream of hers. Reads Everyone. Effortless, cost-free reading of emotion, concealment, and honesty; she always knows when she is lied to. Frail Vessel. Disadvantage on all STR and DEX checks and saves. Any single hit dealing 10+ damage breaks her concentration. She folds to one solid blow — her tragedy.
Actions: Knowing Lash. Ranged Working: +8, range 30 ft. Hit: 14 (3d6+4) psychic. The Played Thought (Recharge 5–6). WIS save (DC 16) or a ridden creature acts on a one-sentence suggestion next turn. The Long Ride (1/day). Over a minute of eye contact, the truth of three questions — the ride runs both ways.
Reactions: Attention-Riding. As a reaction to a creature acting near her, she rides its attention (WIS save DC 16 ends it each turn).
Running them: A mostly silent old woman whose body has quit and whose mind has not; she almost never acts, but when she reaches, the reach is at full master strength — a whisper from her bedside can turn a mind mid-decision. Guard her hit points jealously: she is the deepest single reservoir of the tradition and she dies to a single hand.
Haymond “the Scorpion”
Section titled “Haymond “the Scorpion””the covenant of one person
*Vowbound/Standing Shield · Alum-sidek Alliance (Hakkari) · CR 8.* Cyl's sworn bodyguard by soul-pact, a pact-thinned Right Hand whose one covenant term is her protection — and whose signature "Scorpion move" is a Sealing Strike delivered from below the guard.AC 18 (mail + shield) · HP 123 (13d10+52) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: The Sole Covenant. His soul-pact has exactly one term: the protection of Cyl. He has advantage on every attack, save, and check that directly serves her protection — a metaphysical fact, not resolve. Death and Return (the anchor). If killed performing that duty, he returns to life at a pre-designated hidden safe space within a day. The anchor is the only attack vector against him — destroy it before he returns and the protection breaks. (He does not know how many returns remain.) Shieldmate’s Vow (Standing Shield). While his protective Vow holds, he may take the damage of an attack aimed at Cyl (or a charge within 5 ft.) as a reaction, once per turn, no action cost. Vowsense / Unbending. He knows whether a creature within 30 ft. has broken a sworn oath in the last day. Pact-Thinned. Narrowed to the protector-function; he cannot be read for a motive beyond the covenant, and his vigilance does not fatigue.
Actions: Multiattack. Two attacks with his short curved blade. Short Curved Blade. Melee Attack: +6, reach 5 ft. Hit: 7 (1d6+3) slashing. The Scorpion Move (Sealing Strike). On a hit, spend a Sealing Charge: +4 (1d8) force, and the target makes a STR save (DC 13) or is Bound (speed 0, no reactions) until the end of his next turn. He strikes upward from beneath the guard — advantage against any target braced for the standard line. May spend up to 3 charges to stack the force dice.
Bonus Actions: Nothing Passes. Designate a creature he has Bound; until the binding ends it cannot target anyone but Haymond.
Reactions: Shieldmate’s Vow (take Cyl’s damage). Binding Ward. Spend a Sealing Charge to grant Cyl +2 AC against one attack.
Running them: Perfectly still, brief, warm beneath the brevity; he answers questions about himself with an honest "I do not know" and reaches for his hilt without noticing. He runs any room as lines of fire and time-to-Cyl. In a fight he does not chase kills — he interposes, Binds the threat to himself, and ends single exchanges with the Scorpion move. The only clean way through him is the anchor.
Hakkari & the Frontier
Section titled “Hakkari & the Frontier”Callum “Kane” Stoneheart
Section titled “Callum “Kane” Stoneheart”the Hulk of Hakkar
*Ironclast/Bulwark · House Stoneheart, the Masons (Hakkar) · CR 9.* The rising Mason-heir who loosens as the threat sharpens, carrying his ancestor's sword Ahntyr at his back until the conversation is over.AC 20 (mason's greysteel harness; +Con) · HP 172 (15d12+75) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Held in Reserve (signature). The greater the threat, the calmer he fights. Against any creature of CR 8 or lower his melee hits are pulled — he chooses whether they deal damage or drop the target to 1 HP — and he will not swing where a bystander could be caught. Against a creature of CR 9 or higher he stops holding back: advantage on saves and +2 to attack and damage rolls, and his shoulders visibly drop. Grit (8 points; short/long rest). The Wall Hits Back. The first time each turn he uses Shrug It Off, add his Con modifier (+5) to his next melee hit. Living Wall. While on his feet, allies within 5 ft. gain +1 AC. Unbreakable Stance (bonus action). Until he moves, advantage on Str/Con saves and attacks against him have disadvantage unless the attacker is within 5 ft. or ranged. Last Stand (1/long rest). When reduced to 0 HP but not killed outright, he instead drops to 1 HP and stays standing for 1 minute.
Actions: Multiattack. Two attacks with Ahntyr. Ahntyr (greatsword). Melee Attack: +10, reach 5 ft. Hit: 13 (2d6+6) slashing plus 4 (1d8) radiant — the blade burns clean and does not gutter. Breaker’s Blow (1/turn, 1 Grit, on hit). Add 18 (2d12+5) bludgeoning — a mountain deciding to move exactly once. Draw the Eye (bonus action). One creature within 30 ft. makes a WIS save (DC 17) or has disadvantage on attacks against anyone but Callum until the end of his next turn.
Bonus Actions: Hold the Line (1 Grit). Open the Gate (1 Grit). He drops his guard on purpose — attacks against him and his own both have advantage. (He uses it against the strongest thing in the room.)
Reactions: Shrug It Off (1 Grit). Reduce damage by 1d12+5. Immovable (1 Grit).
Running them: Low, slow, deliberate; he never makes a threat — he acts or he does not. Open with pulled blows against mooks, then have his shoulders drop and his voice soften the instant a real fighter steps up — "You are good. Good. Show me." He plants as a Living Wall over the fragile, uses Draw the Eye and Hold the Line to make himself the only target, and saves Open the Gate + Breaker's Blow for the one opponent worth handing everything to.
Tara Trapper
Section titled “Tara Trapper”Too Quick
*Duelist/Storm-of-Steel · House Trapper, the Masons (Hakkar) · CR 8.* Paired short blades and a strategist's read of the room, Callum's formidable rival who arrives at the answer before anyone else has finished the question.AC 17 (leather; 19 in Guard Form) · HP 136 (16d10+48) · Speed 30 ft. (40 in Evasive Form)
Traits: Too Quick (signature). Advantage on initiative; can’t be surprised while conscious. On round one she has advantage on attacks against any creature that has not yet taken a turn. Forms (bonus action, once/turn). Guard (+2 AC), Aggressor (+2 damage with finesse/light, −2 AC), or Evasive (+10 ft., Disengage as a bonus action, advantage on Dex saves vs. prone/restrained). Twin Fangs. In Aggressor Form her off-hand attacks add full Dex (+5) to damage. Form Points (9; short/long rest). Blood in the Water. In Aggressor Form, on a crit or a kill she makes one free attack against a different creature. Iron Composure (1/round, 2 FP). Reroll a failed save.
Actions: Multiattack. Three attacks with paired short blades. Short Blade. Melee Attack: +8, reach 5 ft. Hit: 8 (1d6+5) slashing (10 in Aggressor Form). Flurry (1/turn, 1 FP). When her off-hand hits, one additional attack. Perfect Tempo (1/short rest). One additional action.
Bonus Actions: Feint (1 FP). Second Wind (1/short rest). 1d10+11 HP. Switch Form.
Reactions: Uncanny Parry. Halve damage. Riposte (1 FP). +1d6 on the riposte hit.
Running them: She speaks more than Callum and listens harder than anyone. Where Callum loosens toward a threat, Tara tightens — sharpest as violence lands, already narrating who takes the left, who takes the right, where the bystanders are. Evasive to reposition, Aggressor + Twin Fangs + Flurry to bury a target before it answers, Guard + Riposte to hold. With Callum, she finishes his sentence and pours him water in the same beat.
the Unanswered Question
*Cipherwright/Analyst · House Vartiovaara, Abyssal Fires (Nolekkelon) · CR 10.* The gnome Leader of the continent's deepest archive: a threat-evaluator of vast cross-subject knowledge who insists on asking more than he answers.AC 15 (studded leather, +Dex) · HP 104 (16d6+48) · Speed 25 ft.
Traits: Gnome Cunning. Advantage on Int/Wis/Cha saves vs. magic. Reaching: The Knowing. His eyes flash magenta on every cast (watchers gain advantage on Insight unless he lets the flash lie). Cipher’s Eye. At will, reads any lock, seal, tell, or script with advantage; identifies whether a thing was shaped by a Working. The Analyst’s Question (signature). After studying a creature for 1 minute (or one exchange), he learns whether its Strain, Fray, or Conviction is elevated, and has advantage on Insight and knows when it lies. Threads (12; half on short rest). Perfect Deduction (1/long rest). Auto-succeed one Int check to solve a cipher or identify a Working.
Actions: Multiattack. Two Mind-Lance, or cast one Working. Mind-Lance (Working). Ranged Spell Attack: +9, range 60 ft. Hit: 13 (3d8) psychic; no reactions until start of its next turn. Unravel the Thought (Working, Recharge 5–6). 30-ft cube, WIS save DC 17: 27 (6d8) psychic and can’t cast Workings/weave constructs until end of its next turn (half on success).
Bonus Actions: Weave Filament (1 Thread). Quick Read.
Reactions: Pattern Sight (1 Thread). Learn a Working’s discipline/Tier, advantage on the save. Counter-Cipher (2 Threads). Force DC 17 Int save; on a failure the Working fizzles.
Running them: Warm, unhurried, Spanish-coded, relentlessly interrogative — he answers a question with two better ones. Never let him volunteer what he knows; the withholding is the character. In a fight he is a controller and counter-caster: open with Quick Read and Pattern Sight, hold Counter-Cipher for the one Working that matters, use Unravel the Thought to shut a room down. Physically fragile — his real defense is knowing what you'll do first.
Degran
Section titled “Degran”the Chronicler
*Cipherwright/Analyst (provisional) · House Stoneheart, itinerant · CR 8 (scalable).* Callum's absent father: a mysterious figure walking Merretia and journaling its events into a project no one else has read, alive and unaccounted-for.AC 13 (leather, +Dex) · HP 91 (14d6+42) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Reaching: The Knowing. Eyes flash magenta on every cast. Cipher’s Eye. At will reads any script/seal/tell with advantage. The Chronicle (signature). He has witnessed and transcribed more Workings than any living archive; the GM may treat him as knowing the shape of nearly any Working the scene requires, with advantage to recall lore or place an event in its true history. Threads (8; half on short rest). Perfect Deduction (1/long rest).
Actions: Multiattack. Two Cipher-Bolt, or cast one Working. Cipher-Bolt (Working). Ranged Spell Attack: +7, range 60 ft. Hit: 11 (2d8+2) psychic. Read the Weave (1/day). Speaks one true recorded thing about a creature within 30 ft.; DC 15 WIS save or Frightened and disadvantage on attacks until end of its next turn.
Bonus Actions: Weave Filament (1 Thread). Quick Read.
Reactions: Pattern Sight (1 Thread). The Page Turns (1 Thread). When a creature within 60 ft. attacks or casts, impose disadvantage, or grant an ally advantage to answer it.
Running them: Slow, sparse, watchful; he answers and stops, and never explains the project. The unresolved gap between father and son is the point.
Kane Stoneheart the elder
Section titled “Kane Stoneheart the elder”the Oath That Broke Chains
*Ironclast/Oathforge · House Stoneheart, the Masons (Great War era) · CR 14.* The founding Mason-Leader who freed the slaves of the absorbed territories and won the sword Ahntyr from an angel — a legend most often met in flashback, or standing exactly where the line must not break.AC 21 (oath-metal plate; +Con) · HP 275 (22d12+132) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Ironclad Constitution. Word-Bound Vow (The Oath That Broke Chains — signature). At the start of a battle he swears a one-sentence vow (“These people leave free, or I do not”). While it holds he gains +2 to all saves and Grit DCs and immunity to frightened/charmed. Once per long rest, if he would drop to 0 while the vow holds, he drops to half his HP maximum instead. Bespoke Steel. Ahntyr counts as a magic weapon; it burns clean, the steady geometric flame of an Order-tilt celestial blade. Break the Chain (aura). Allies within 30 ft. are immune to frightened and have advantage on saves vs. charmed/restrained/paralyzed. Grit (12). Indomitable Body.
Actions: Multiattack. Two attacks with Ahntyr. Ahntyr (greatsword). Melee Attack: +11, reach 5 ft. Hit: 13 (2d6+6) slashing plus 9 (2d8) radiant. Breaker’s Blow (1/turn, 1 Grit). Add 25 (3d12+6) bludgeoning. The Chain Falls (Recharge 5–6). 15-ft cone, DC 19 STR save: 22 (4d8+4) radiant and prone on a failure (half on success). One grappled/restrained/bound ally in the cone is freed.
Bonus Actions: Hold the Line (1 Grit). Open the Gate (1 Grit).
Reactions: Shrug It Off (1 Grit). Reduce damage by 2d12+6. Immovable (1 Grit).
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If Kane fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead — the oath does not bend.
Legendary Actions (3/round): Advance. Move up to his speed without provoking. Sword-Strike (costs 1). One Ahntyr attack. Unbending (costs 2). End a condition on himself or an ally within 30 ft., or negate one instance of forced movement or a triggered damage effect against an ally.
Running them: A leader before he is a fighter — grave, luminous, plain-spoken, impossible to move off a promise. Most often a legend or flashback figure; when he fights, it is always for something. A fortress that walks: anchor with Break the Chain and Hold the Line, break bindings with The Chain Falls and Unbending. The buried irony he never learns: the sword that freed chains was won by severing a bonded pair.
the Masons' Left
*Ironclast/Oathforge (provisional) · the Masons (Hakkar) · CR 7.* Callum's steady Left Hand: a solid, dependable officer whose whole worth is that his word does not bend.AC 19 (oath-forged plate + shield; +Con) · HP 136 (13d12+52) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Ironclad Constitution. Word-Bound Vow (The Left Hand’s Word). Once per long rest he swears a one-sentence vow; while it holds, +2 to saves and Grit DC; break it and take a level of exhaustion. He does not break it. Bespoke Steel. His mason-forged warhammer and shield count as magic items; anyone else wielding the hammer has disadvantage. Grit (6). The Wall Hits Back.
Actions: Multiattack. Two warhammer attacks. Oath-Forged Warhammer. Melee Attack: +7, reach 5 ft. Hit: 13 (2d8+4) bludgeoning.
Bonus Actions: Hold the Line (1 Grit). Open the Gate (1 Grit).
Reactions: Shrug It Off (1 Grit). Reduce damage by 1d12+4. Immovable (1 Grit).
Running them: Plain, unglamorous, reliable — the officer who is exactly where he said he'd be. Not a genius or a duelist; his value is that the line holds where Titus stands. Plant him at the chokepoint, swear the vow, and let him grind while the glory goes to Kane and Roan. Provisional by guild register — thin canon, so he flexes to whatever a Mason scene needs.
Merjaya & the South
Section titled “Merjaya & the South”He Who Holds the Cycle
*Heartstring/Counterpoint · Bavit-vita, Merjaya (Pekkalipia) · CR 15.* The deepest Heart practitioner the continent has ever produced — a mind running two registers at once, cosmic-sane and practically-lost, currently kept by the woman who loves him.AC 15 · HP 117 (18d8+36) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Reaching: The Heart (save DC 19). Any Heart Working up to Tier 6; eyes flash matte light-drinking red on every cast. Read the Room / Diplomat’s Ear. Without a check, the dominant emotion of any creature or crowd within 30 ft. and what each wants. Threshold Sight (Dreamwalker-adjacent). Perceives the “shape of an acquaintance” on strangers met in prior cycles; senses bonded pairs and the recently-dead within 60 ft.; can’t be surprised by a creature whose cycle he claims to have read. The Dual Register. At the start of each turn, roll a d6. On a 1, dysfunction seizes him — he loses his action (movement/one bonus/reaction remain). On a 6, cosmic clarity surfaces — his next Working adds no Fray and its DC is 21. Cyclic Consciousness. When Emez drops to 0 HP the body dies but his continuity does not resolve — the self that is Emez persists across the death and rebirth of the universe. Killing the body ends the encounter and settles nothing cosmological. Treat true, permanent death as unavailable to the party by force alone. Legendary Resistance (3/day).
Actions: Multiattack. Cast one Heart Working (or One Heart), or two Heart-Blade attacks. Heart-Blade. Melee Attack: +7, reach 5 ft. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) slashing. One Heart (Tier 6, Recharge 6). Every creature Emez chooses within 300 ft. makes a WIS save (DC 19) or feels, at full tide for 10 minutes, one emotion he names — dread, awe, grief, calm, surrender. Wars have ended on this Working. He gains 6 Fray. The Word That Stops the War (1/long rest). At initiative, every creature that can hear him makes a WIS save (DC 19) or cannot attack until the end of its second turn.
Bonus Actions: Lend the String. Give a creature within 60 ft. a d12 Heartstring Die.
Reactions: Turn the Phrase. Sour Note. Subtract a Heartstring Die from an attack/check/damage roll by a creature within 30 ft.
Legendary Actions (3/round): A Voice From the Cycle. Name a true hidden thing; WIS save (DC 19) or disadvantage on attacks against him. Lend the String. Still the Room (costs 2). Recast Still Water on up to three creatures within 30 ft.
Running them: Both registers run at once, always — never flip between wisdom and confusion, let them bleed through the same sentence. In a scene he is the most charismatic disaster in any room; in a fight he does not brawl, he moves the room, and if it truly matters One Hearts the whole battlefield into surrender and pays the bill after. He is not trying to win; he is honoring what the cycle asks. Singh is the anchor that keeps him inside this one — pull her and the cosmic register carries him half-out of the present mid-combat.
The Right Hand, For One
*Heartstring/Cadence · Bavit-vita, Merjaya (House Singh) · CR 10.* The war-chanter who runs the guild her Leader can no longer fully hold — devoted, loud, far more dangerous than the courtly rooms assume, blades named *expert* and *eye*.AC 17 (medium armor, shield) · HP 105 (14d8+42) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Reaching: The Heart (save DC 16). Heart Workings up to Tier 5. Read the Room. March Discipline. Medium armor, shields, martial melee; while within 10 ft. of an enemy she may give a Heartstring Die as part of the Attack action. More Than She Seems (Harley register). Advantage on her first attack each combat against any creature not yet struck by her. Weathered Strings. Reroll once on her Loss Menu.
Actions: Multiattack. Two attacks with Mahir and Nayan, or cast one Working. Mahir and Nayan (paired curved blades). Melee Attack: +8, reach 5 ft. Hit: 8 (1d6+4) slashing; on a hit she may hand a Heartstring Die to an ally within 30 ft. Rally the Line (Tier 3). Up to six creatures within 30 ft. add 1d4 to attacks and saves, immune to frightened, 1 min. Break Their Nerve (Tier 5, 1/long rest). Each enemy within 60 ft. makes a WIS save (DC 16) or is frightened 1 min; fail by 5+ and they drop what they hold and rout.
Bonus Actions: Heartstring Die (d10).
Reactions: Chant of the Line. When an ally within 30 ft. fails a save vs. frightened/charmed/stunned, spend a Die to let them succeed. Sour Note. Death-March Coda (1/long rest). When an ally within 60 ft. drops to 0, they drop to 1 instead, move up to their speed, and make one attack. She gains 1 Fray.
Running them: Patient, careful composure on top; Harley-coded devotion underneath — calm until Emez is the subject, and then the face closes. A medic-and-blade front-liner who keeps everyone standing: chant the line, hand out the dice, refuse to let a friend fall on the downbeat. The people who dismiss her as the naive Leader's difficult deputy are the ones her first strike lands on with advantage.
Vazzerin “Vaz” Ohn
Section titled “Vazzerin “Vaz” Ohn”Who Dies Well
*Duelist/Standing Guard · Order of the Blue Cross, Antodinera (House Esteban) · CR 12.* A vampire who runs the continent's largest dying-care hospice and speaks for peace at the Council — plant your feet, offer no attack, and let them break against you.AC 19 (breastplate, shield, Standing Guard) · HP 142 (15d10+60) · Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.
Traits: Regeneration. Regains 20 HP at the start of his turn if he has ≥1 HP and hasn’t taken radiant/sunlight damage since his last turn. Sunlight Weakness. Disadvantage on attacks and checks in direct sunlight; 10 (3d6) radiant if he starts his turn there; can’t cross running water unaided. Root and Wall / Unmovable. If he hasn’t moved this turn, +2 AC (included) and can’t be forcibly moved or knocked prone by anything not two sizes larger. Dying Well Is a Discipline. The first time each turn a creature misses him in melee while he is stationary, it takes 9 (2d8) damage; maneuver die d8. Iron Composure (1/round, 2 FP). Legendary Resistance (2/Day). If Vaz fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead — centuries have taught him what to let pass through him.
Actions: Multiattack. Three saber attacks, or two and one Bite. Blue Cross Saber. Melee Attack: +8, reach 5 ft. Hit: 10 (1d8+6) piercing. Bite. Against a willing/grappled/restrained/incapacitated creature: +8, Hit: 7 (1d6+4) piercing plus 10 (3d6) necrotic; HP max reduced by that amount and Vaz regains it. He takes no more than the hospice requires. Bastion’s Answer. When an enemy within 5 ft. hits an ally, spend 1 FP (no reaction) to make one saber attack.
Bonus Actions: Second Wind (1/short rest). 25 (1d10+15) HP. Set the Guard.
Reactions: Uncanny Parry. Halve damage. Riposte (1 FP). +d8; Bulwark’s Reach lets him Riposte for an ally within 5 ft.
Legendary Actions (3/round; end of another creature’s turn): Measured Step. Vaz moves up to half his speed without provoking; if he ends stationary he re-enters Guard Form (+2 AC). Answering Saber (costs 1). One saber attack. Let Them Break (costs 2). Until the start of his next turn, the first time each creature hits him with a melee attack it takes 9 (2d8) necrotic and he regains that many hit points — the wall drinks what breaks on it.
Running them: The calmest voice in any room and he means it — undeath taught him dying well is a craft. He almost never opens the exchange; he plants, absorbs, and answers. Hold Guard Form, let attackers break on Dying Well and Riposte, and spend the Bite only to top off from the willing or the fallen. The horror is that he will simply outlast you.
Skylar
Section titled “Skylar”The Sincere Envoy
*Heartstring/Counterpoint · Alyu'amare, Illibill · CR 8.* The rising voice of continental reconciliation — genuinely, disarmingly sincere, and missing the one Insight that would let him see who is using him.AC 15 (leather, Dex) · HP 71 (11d8+22) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Reaching: The Heart (save DC 16). Heart Workings up to Tier 4. Diplomat’s Ear. The Missing Insight. He poured his expertise into Persuasion and left Insight merely proficient: disadvantage on Insight (Wis) checks to detect deception aimed at him personally. The naivete is the hole in his sheet, by design. Under Truce. Creatures charmed/calmed by him bear no grudge unless harmed during it; his Open Door lasts 8 hours.
Actions: Multiattack. Cast one Heart Working, or a rapier attack and give a Die. Rapier. Melee Attack: +5, reach 5 ft. Hit: 6 (1d8+2) piercing. Sway the Hall (Tier 4). Every chosen creature in a 30-ft radius makes a WIS save (DC 16) or adopts one reasonable course he names. The Open Door (Tier 2). One humanoid within 30 ft. makes a WIS save (DC 16) or regards him as a trusted friend for 8 hours.
Bonus Actions: Heartstring Die (d8).
Reactions: Turn the Phrase.
Running them: He believes, all the way down, that the guilds could unify Merretia and that the person across the table wants what he wants — that faith is both why people follow him and why sharper Leaders steer him. He reads the room's wanting accurately and its deception charitably. In a fight he is a de-escalator first, a reluctant blade a distant last. His sincerity is real, load-bearing, and exactly the lever a colder player uses.
Jinto Sien
Section titled “Jinto Sien”The Unnamed Hand
*Warrens-Runner/Spider's Hand · Order of the Spider, Udlimill (House Bilegt) · CR 10.* Leader of the continent's intelligence guild, who controls the flow of secrets and intends, in time, the Council itself — silently, and never from a seat that bears his name.AC 17 (studded leather, Dex) · HP 97 (15d8+30) · Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.
Traits: The Clean Line (8d6). Once per turn, on a hit with a finesse/ranged weapon with advantage (or an ally within 5 ft. and no disadvantage), +28 (8d6) damage. Sanction Strike. Advantage vs. any creature that hasn’t acted; any hit vs. a surprised creature is a crit. Marked for the Ledger. Bonus-action mark; Clean Line applies vs. the mark without advantage or an adjacent ally; advantage to track/read it. Reliable Talent. Evasion. The Title That Names No One. Advantage to keep an action deniable or conceal his presence; reads a district with one minute’s observation.
Actions: Multiattack. Two attacks with poisoned blade or hand crossbow. Spider’s Blade (poisoned). Melee: +9, Hit: 8 (1d6+5) piercing plus 7 (2d6) poison. Hand Crossbow (poisoned). Ranged: +9, range 30/120, same. The Clean Kill. On a Clean Line hit vs. a surprised creature, CON save (DC 17) or double the Clean Line damage.
Bonus Actions: Runner’s Step. Mark for the Ledger.
Reactions: Uncanny Dodge.
Running them: He is almost never in the room where it matters, and that is the point — his weapon is what he knows before you do. Unhurried, unbothered, three moves ahead; in a fight he opens from surprise (auto-crit, Clean Kill, one target down) and vanishes rather than trade blows. Never let the party corner "Jinto" — corner a Hand or a marked debt, and discover the man was never holding the seat.
Dru Danum
Section titled “Dru Danum”The Collector's Hand
*Cipherwright/Analyst · The Hand, Bolanbi (House Asantewa) · CR 9.* The lender who works outside the banking system entirely, appraising both artifacts and men — ambition: to own one of every classified artifact before he dies.Calling chosen (DMG-10B lists him name-only): Cipherwright/Analyst — a financier-collector who authenticates and hoards classified artifacts needs the Knowing’s appraisal engine (Cipher’s Eye, Pattern Sight, Perfect Deduction), and it keeps him mechanically distinct from his rival Pershaun (Long Count).
AC 14 (leather, Dex, defensive Filament) · HP 71 (13d6+26) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Reaching: The Knowing (save DC 17). Knowing Workings up to Tier 5; eyes flash magenta. Cipher’s Eye. At will reads any lock/seal/tell/artifact with advantage; identifies what shaped it. Pattern Sight (reaction, 1 Thread). Read the Weave. Reads a debtor the way he reads a ledger. The Angel Feather (1/day). A hidden second focus; when he fails a save, he may treat it as a success as the feather flares faint radiant white — a classified artifact he is not supposed to have.
Actions: Multiattack. Cast one Working and one rapier attack. Rapier. Melee: +6, Hit: 6 (1d8+2) piercing. The Called Debt (Tier 4). One creature within 60 ft. makes an INT save (DC 17) or has disadvantage on attacks and checks for 1 min (save ends). Sever the Pattern (reaction, 3 Threads). Force an INT save (DC 17); on a failure the Working fizzles.
Bonus Actions: Weave a Filament (1 Thread).
Reactions: Counter-Cipher (2 Threads). Pattern Sight.
Running them: Every conversation is an appraisal — reading the artifact, the debt, and the Fray at once, patient because the collection is a lifetime's work. He does not fight so much as unmake — sever the caster's Working, call the debt, let the room realize he already owns something they need. (Canon flag: Dru's gender is inconsistent in canon; this block follows the "he" of the primary artifact-ambition source.)
The Sulamir Council
Section titled “The Sulamir Council”Fitran “Fitz” Mihran
Section titled “Fitran “Fitz” Mihran”The Reading Room
*Cipherwright/Analyst · Multani, House Mihran (Sahthan) · CR 11.* The most politically dangerous rising figure on the Council, who has never once entered a room with fewer than three agendas and would very much prefer not to draw the small curved knife under his coat.AC 16 · HP 135 (18d8+54) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Three-to-Five Agendas. Fitz’s true intent cannot be read — Insight, divination, and the Knowing that try to learn his goals or catch a lie automatically fail, perceiving only whichever single agenda he chooses to display. Stone runs faint magenta when he reads a room in earnest. Pattern Sight. Reaction on seeing a Working cast: learn its discipline/Tier, advantage on the save. Read the Weave. After a scene (or 1 minute), learns a creature’s foremost desire and whether its resolve is high or low. Perfect Deduction (1/long rest).
Actions: Multiattack. Two Curved Knife, or one and Severed Pattern. Curved Knife. Melee: +6, Hit: 5 (1d4+2) slashing. Severed Pattern (Knowing). One creature within 60 ft., CON save (DC 17): 27 (6d8) psychic and can’t cast a Working until end of its next turn (half on success). One True Sentence (Recharge 5–6). One creature that can hear him makes a WIS save (DC 17): 22 (4d10) psychic and disadvantage on all attacks and saves until end of its next turn, unstrung by being seen through.
Bonus Actions: A Word to the Staff. An allied Multani agent uses its reaction to move and make one attack. There is always more staff than the room has counted.
Reactions: Counter-Cipher. Force a creature to repeat its most recent save vs. Severed Pattern at DC 17.
Legendary Resistance (2/Day). If Fitz fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead — he saw it coming.
Legendary Actions (3/round): Read. Use Read the Weave, learning a tell. Redirect the Room. CHA save (DC 17) or the target spends its next turn targeting a creature Fitz names. Signal (costs 2). A concealed Multani agent reveals itself within 60 ft. and takes its turn.
Running them: Theatrical lightness — rolled r's, elaborate courtesy, hands moving for tactical effect — over a silent Machiavellian register; every line is doing at least two things. He does not want to fight and spends the whole scene making violence unnecessary or someone else's problem. In combat, a controller: strip casters with Severed Pattern, bleed morale with One True Sentence, let his staff and legendary redirects do the killing.
Nathia Tolleman
Section titled “Nathia Tolleman”The Verdict Already Passed
*Cipherwright/Analyst (provisional) · Leader of the Alum-sidek Alliance · CR 10.* A silent noblewoman whose refusal to speak is the most closely guarded fact in her guild — "a witness who has already decided," and her silence is the weapon.AC 16 · HP 123 (19d8+38) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: The Silence That Judges. A creature that starts its turn within 30 ft., can see her, and is acting deceitfully or against her interests makes a WIS save (DC 17) or has disadvantage on attacks and checks until the end of its turn, certain it has already been read and found wanting. A Witness Who Has Already Decided. Automatically knows when a creature she can see is lying; advantage to discern intent; never bluffed. Pattern Sight (reaction). Perfect Deduction (1/long rest).
Actions: Multiattack. Cast Severed Pattern and one Concealed Blade. Concealed Blade. Melee: +7, Hit: 9 (2d4+4) piercing. Severed Pattern. One creature within 60 ft., CON save (DC 16): 22 (5d8) psychic and can’t cast until end of its next turn (half on success). Verdict (Recharge 5–6). One judged creature makes a WIS save (DC 17): 27 (6d8) psychic and Frightened of her 1 min (save ends); half and not Frightened on a success.
Reactions: Answered Without a Word. When a creature within 30 ft. hits her, impose a WIS save (DC 17) or its attack deals half damage as she meets its eyes.
Running them: She never speaks — not in negotiation, not in threat, not in death. Play her entirely through stillness, the timing of a look, the small movement of a hand her guild reads as command; let others fill her silences with their fears. When forced to fight she is a cold controller who strips a caster's Working, fixes the most dangerous foe with a Verdict, and lets Alum-sidek's enforcers finish what her attention condemned.
Pershaun
Section titled “Pershaun”The Long Count
*Warrens-Runner/Long Count · Leader of the Iron Coin · CR 9.* The long-game money circuit made flesh — a master creditor who believes in economic independence, loves the few who earn her trust, and reads every man in the room as a mark and every woman as a possible peer.AC 16 · HP 135 (18d8+54) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: The Working Face. After a minute’s conversation, learns whether a creature’s WIS and CHA are higher or lower than hers and one thing it wants; reads those she rates below her (in her register, most men) with advantage on Deception/Persuasion. Everyone Owes. Once per encounter, vs. a creature in her debt, treat a social interaction as already succeeded. Sell the Lie (1/long rest). One false claim reads as truth to any Working or stone; WIS save (DC 17) or believed wholly for 8 hours.
Actions: Multiattack. Two Concealed Blade, or one and Call the Debt. Concealed Blade. Melee: +7, Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing plus 7 (2d6) if she has advantage. Call the Debt (Recharge 5–6). One creature within 30 ft. makes a WIS save (DC 17): convinced it owes her, it can’t attack her next turn and drops a held item or takes an instruction; on a save, 14 (4d6) psychic from the certainty it has been outplayed.
Bonus Actions: The Setup. Declare a mark; advantage on CHA checks against it for an hour, +2 to a briefed ally’s first supporting check.
Reactions: Grifter’s Grace. When a creature attacks her, WIS save (DC 17) or it targets a different creature instead.
Running them: Dry, canny, Scottish-blunt, warmth reserved for the earned. She will not fight if a deal can be struck, and she can almost always strike a deal — her art is making violence a bad investment. If blades come out she stalls, redirects, and calls in debts, and keeps the Iron Coin's real muscle a room away until the ledger says otherwise.
Gren’o’nos’n’offak
Section titled “Gren’o’nos’n’offak”Hunger Given Back in Blood
*Ironclast/Deepdelver · Leader of Torrus Ectos, the Red Octopus · CR 12.* The least-respected seat on the Council and, in a straight fight, by a wide margin the most dangerous — a story-tattooed, grinning brawler who gets stronger the more he bleeds.AC 18 (heavy plate cut to leave the arms bare) · HP 199 (21d10+84) · Speed 30 ft., burrow 10 ft.
Traits: Hunger Given Back in Blood. The first time each combat Gren drops below half HP, he grins wider and enters Old Hunger with no action; while bloodied his melee hits deal +7 (2d6). Old Hunger. Bonus action (or triggered): craft-fever 1 min, +4 (1d8) weapon damage but disadvantage on Perception vs. anything not directly threatening him. Siegebreaker. Double damage to objects/structures. Widely Used. Allied brawlers within 30 ft. have advantage vs. frightened and +2 melee damage.
Actions: Multiattack. Three attacks (Short Sword/Gauntlet). Short Sword. Melee: +9, Hit: 12 (2d6+5) piercing. Gauntlet Smash. Melee: +9, Hit: 14 (2d8+5) bludgeoning, STR save (DC 17) or prone. Bury the Line (Recharge 5–6). 15-ft radius within 30 ft. caves in: difficult terrain, DEX save (DC 16) or prone and buried to the waist (Restrained until it digs free).
Reactions: Answer in Kind. When hit in melee, make one Gauntlet Smash.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If Gren fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead — he grins and shrugs it off.
Legendary Actions (3/round): Wade In. Move half speed, one Short Sword. Backhand. One Gauntlet Smash. Deeper Hunger (costs 2). Take 10 damage, laughing; next hit this round deals +9 (2d8).
Running them: Loud, cheerful, unbothered by his low standing — he tells the tattoos' stories mid-swing. He is the physical answer other guilds rent when a problem needs breaking. A rising threat: content and defensive early, terrifying once bloodied, and genuinely hard to put down because every wound just turns the fever up.
Quinton Marvelous
Section titled “Quinton Marvelous”Wait for the Opening
*Duelist/Precise Line · Leader of the Red Dragons · CR 12.* A flamboyant, exacting eccentric in a cape and cane who holds himself to an impossible standard, waits with theatrical patience for the one flaw in your guard, and does not miss.AC 19 (dueling finery, Guard Form) · HP 170 (20d10+60) · Speed 40 ft.
Traits: Opening Guard. Fights in Guard Form (the +3 AC is included); his first Riposte each combat is free. Precise Line. Never has disadvantage on a weapon attack. Wait for the Opening. If he takes no damage during a turn in Guard Form, his first attack next turn hits automatically and is a critical hit. Impossible Standard. Allied Red Dragons within 30 ft. gain +2 to attacks; once per turn (no action) he imposes disadvantage on one attack against him.
Actions: Multiattack. Three Cane-Blade attacks. Cane-Blade. Melee: +9, Hit: 9 (1d8+5) piercing plus 7 (2d6) precise. The Opening (Recharge 5–6). One creature within 5 ft. is hit automatically for 27 (4d8+5+2d6) piercing, CON save (DC 16) or no reactions until end of its next turn.
Bonus Actions: Flourish. Move half speed without provoking.
Reactions: Answering Steel. On a melee miss vs. him in Guard Form, one Cane-Blade + move 5 ft. Perfect Parry. Alternatively, deal it 9 (1d8+5).
Legendary Resistance (2/Day). If Quinton fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead — a flourish, and the danger simply passes him by.
Legendary Actions (3/round): Step. Move half speed. Thrust. One Cane-Blade. Read the Blade (costs 2). His next attack vs. a studied creature hits automatically and crits.
Running them: Grandiose, precise, De Niro-mercurial — long silences, sudden sharpness, a running commentary on your footwork's failings and his own. He treats real violence as vulgar and would prefer to correct your form than kill you; insult the discipline and he'll oblige. A counter-puncher: hold Guard Form, punish every miss, take no damage for a round, then land the auto-crit Opening he's been promising.
Creven Alont
Section titled “Creven Alont”The Word That Cools the Room
*Hollowmarked/Dreamwalker Vigil · Leader of the Core · CR 10.* The Council's chief anti-war voice, a threshold-walker who holds that self-understanding is the road to understanding the cosmos, and who will spend everything to keep the cold war from going hot.AC 15 · HP 135 (18d8+54) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: The Word That Cools the Room. At the start of his turn he may speak one steadying sentence; each hostile creature within 30 ft. that hears him makes a WIS save (DC 17) or loses the will to attack until the start of its next turn (may still move/defend). Fail three times over a fight and it begins to actually reconsider. Threshold Sight. Advantage on Insight/Investigation about dreams, the unconscious, the Wound; senses seams before others. Walker of Both Roads. Dream Workings extend one step (range/duration/targets) at no cost. Self-Understanding. Advantage vs. charmed and vs. compulsion against his convictions.
Actions: Multiattack. Two Quelling Touch, or one and a Working. Quelling Touch. Melee/Ranged Spell Attack: +9, reach 5 ft. or range 30 ft. Hit: 16 (2d10+5) psychic, speed halved until end of its next turn. Dreamward (Recharge 5–6). One creature within 30 ft., WIS save (DC 17) or Incapacitated and dreaming 1 min (save ends; ends early on damage).
Bonus Actions: Step Between. Cross into the Dream, reappear anywhere within 30 ft., unseen in transit.
Reactions: Peace Offered. When a creature within 30 ft. attacks, WIS save (DC 17) or the attack has disadvantage.
Running them: Warm, unhurried, Southern-gentle, forever reframing the fight as a misunderstanding two reasonable people could set down. He genuinely does not want to hurt anyone — quelling, dreaming foes to sleep, cooling the room a sentence at a time. He escalates only to defend the helpless, and even then stuns and captures rather than kills.
Elacole Stone
Section titled “Elacole Stone”Quoted for a Century
*Heartstring/Legion Stage · Leader of the White Legion · CR 10.* The Council's great orator, who treats every speech as a performance she means to be quoted for a hundred years and fully intends, when it comes to it, to die onstage.AC 15 · HP 123 (19d8+38) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Command the Board. With six+ creatures watching, advantage on CHA checks against any of them and reads the whole crowd. Quoted for a Century. Creatures that hear her have disadvantage on saves vs. her CHA effects; in non-combat scenes vs. a non-hostile audience, treat her as auto-succeeding to move the room. Pull Focus (bonus action). Until her next turn, every enemy within 30 ft. that can see her has disadvantage on attacks against anyone but her.
Actions: Multiattack. Two Cutting Remark, or one and Rapturous Aria. Cutting Remark. Ranged Spell Attack: +9, range 60 ft. Hit: 14 (2d8+5) psychic, disadvantage on its next attack. Rapturous Aria (Recharge 5–6). 30-ft radius, WIS save (DC 17) or Charmed 1 min (can’t attack her, adores her; save ends, and on damage from her allies). Headliner (1/long rest). Casts Sway the Hall (Tier 4) with doubled radius and no Fray.
Reactions: The House Remembers. When an ally within 30 ft. drops to 0 or is crit, they gain 13 (2d8+4) temp HP or are stabilized (2/long rest).
Running them: Every word is stagecraft — timed, quotable, delivered to the back row even in a private room. She avoids combat because a corpse can't take a curtain call; her instinct is to turn the crowd, charm the aggressor, or pull the room's focus onto herself to buy her people time. Cornered, she leans all the way into the performance.
Emphemere & the Temple
Section titled “Emphemere & the Temple”Lady Summer
Section titled “Lady Summer”"Lady Winter," the Keeper of the Line
*Hearthwarden/Winter Covenant · Emphemere, House Summer (Yisk) · CR 13.* The Council's oldest sitting Leader, whose public Current glamour is a trained alibi for the Growing she has turned inward to buy herself four centuries — one year burned for every year bought, the ledger balanced only by letting the cost slide onto the world.AC 17 (Current-hardened air) · HP 218 (23d8+115) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Lady Winter’s Glamour. A sustained Current working holds her as a poised woman of forty-five; true seeing, a Binding circle, or a DC 18 Insight-with-the-Knowing reveals an elf of impossible antiquity. She senses any Current-user within 60 ft. and is never surprised by a storm. The Growing, Turned Inward (Winter Covenant). At the start of each turn she regains 15 HP — unless she took radiant or Order/Binding damage since her last turn, or stands in a Binding circle. If she drops to 0 while active, she falls to 1 once per day. The Cost That Drifts (the Hollow’s Near Edge). Whenever a Working or her renewal would cost her, she may push the cost outward: one creature within 30 ft. makes a DC 18 CON save, taking 18 (4d8) necrotic on a failure (half on success); plants wilt and warmth is drawn. Each use is a documented Hollow-adjacency tell. Procedural Composure. Can’t be forced to act out of turn; advantage on concentration saves. Legendary Resistance (3/day).
Actions: Multiattack. Withering Touch twice, or Withering Touch and one Green Working. Withering Touch. Melee spell attack: +10, reach 5 ft. Hit: 16 (3d6+5) necrotic plus 9 (2d8) cold, and she regains half the damage. Grasping Roots. 10-ft square within 60 ft., DC 18 STR save or Restrained 1 min (save ends). Cyan Squall. 15-ft cone, DC 18 DEX save: 22 (5d8) cold (half on success), failed targets pushed 10 ft. Renewing Draw (Recharge 5–6). 30-ft radius, DC 18 CON save: 27 (6d8) necrotic (half on success); she regains the highest single amount dealt.
Reactions: Steal the Warmth. When she takes damage, drain the nearest creature within 30 ft. for 9 (2d8) necrotic (no save) and regain it.
Legendary Actions (3/round): Correction. One Withering Touch. Adjourn the Air. Move half speed without provoking; lightly obscure 10 ft. around her. Draw the Warmth (costs 2). One creature within 30 ft., DC 18 CON save or 13 (3d8) necrotic; she regains it.
Running them: Play her slow — softer than the room so everyone leans in, and never in a hurry, because nothing she wants will be decided this session. She does not open a fight; she absorbs one, correcting each threat like a misregistered seal while her renewal undoes the damage and her wounds drift onto whoever is nearest. The horror is procedural: scrupulously polite, entirely certain she is the law, and unwilling to notice that the cost she keeps sliding onto the world is the Hollow's own signature.
the Undivided, Carrier of the Inner Teaching
*Zar'ir Adept/Path of the Undivided · Temple of the One (Entoyo/Hokuden) · CR 11.* The saint who holds the Temple's true Council seat, running unshaped Faith at a tier the institution would give anything to leverage — outward and inward held as a single Reaching, her gold stone lustrous, her weapon the refusal to strike.AC 16 (Faith-warded robes) · HP 150 (20d8+60) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Unshaped Faith (Saint Tier). Reaches without a channel-coded discipline; gold pendant runs lustrous. Faith DC 19, Faith attacks +11. Demonstrated in public exactly twice. Soul-Sight. Automatically reads the layered interior of any creature within 30 ft. (stated want, unstated want, shape of fear, integrated or fragmented); advantage on Insight, cannot be deceived by a spoken lie. The Undivided. Immune to effects that fragment or divide (confusion, turn-against-ally); allies within 30 ft. that are charmed/frightened repeat the save at the start of their turns with advantage. The Room Becomes Easier (Aura). Allies within 30 ft. have advantage vs. fear, despair, Hollow-dread. Hollow Censure. Action: each Hollow-touched creature/effect within 30 ft., DC 19 WIS save or recoils (can’t approach within 10 ft. 1 min); suppresses minor seepage while concentrating. Legendary Resistance (2/day).
Actions: Lent Mercy. One creature within 30 ft. regains or takes 22 (4d8+6) HP — her choice, declared as she casts (against the unintegrated she may declare it unmaking). Costs nothing but devotion. Consecrate the Ground. 20-ft radius within 60 ft. consecrated to integration 1 min; each enemy there DC 19 WIS save or hostility dampened to embers (rousing if harmed). Unmake the Division (Recharge 5–6). Each enemy within 30 ft. is shown its own division, DC 19 WIS save: 27 (6d8) psychic and Incapacitated until end of its next turn (half and no incap on success). Does nothing to a genuinely integrated soul.
Bonus Actions: Steadying Word. One creature within 30 ft. gains 10 temp HP or ends one condition.
Reactions: The Faith Answers (Legendary Reaction, 3/day). When a creature within 60 ft. drops to 0 or fails a save vs. fear/charm/Hollow, even on another creature’s turn and even if she’s already reacted: the creature stabilizes at 1 HP, or re-rolls the save with advantage and +6.
Running them: She speaks less than anyone in the room and listens at a resolution none of them can match; even cadence, precise, quietly amused at the apparatus she works inside. She will not strike first — the discipline of not acting on the read is the whole of her — so she de-escalates, wards, and answers others' collapses before her own. Bring her to violence only against the Hollow or the deliberately cruel, and even then her damage is showing a foe its own fracture, not a blade.
the Restructurer, Leader of the Temple
*Civilian (no attested practice) · Temple of the One · CR 2.* The Temple's public political Leader — the man who runs the savior-doctrine as population control and whose scheme to sort the guilds into a favored inner circle has, single-handedly, united the entire Council against him.AC 12 (fine vestments) · HP 45 (8d8+8) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: The Apparatus. Out of combat he commands the Temple’s institutional machine — summon a guard squad, freeze a guild’s funding, grant or deny doctrinal favor, open or close the priest-registry to a whole province. A scene-power, and it is enormous. Doctrine as Leverage. Advantage on Persuasion/Deception to any believer, invoking the coming savior. The Inner Circle of Better Guilds (Fatal Overreach). In any Council-political contest where his ranking scheme is in play, every other Council figure gains advantage against him and his effective Insight is −2 there. No Attested Practice. No Reaching; his stone stays dark. He does not know who holds the Temple’s Council seat — only that someone does, and it is not him.
Actions: Ceremonial Dagger. Melee: +2, Hit: 2 (1d4) piercing. He’d much rather someone else did this. Direct the Guard. One ally within 60 ft. makes one attack or Helps as a reaction. Denounce (1/day). One creature that hears him, DC 14 CHA save or disadvantage on CHA checks against him and Frightened (of consequence) 1 min.
Reactions: Pass the Blame. When accused socially, contest his Deception (+8) vs. the accuser’s Insight; on a success the charge lands on a subordinate.
Running them: Cold, immaculate, and certain hierarchy is a kindness — the better guilds simply deserve the better seats, and he cannot understand why saying so has made him enemies. Genuinely dangerous in a chamber, genuinely useless in a fight; if steel comes out he calls for guards and gets behind them. His tragedy: he administers a wisdom tradition he was never permitted to learn, and knows a seat exists above his he'll never be told the name of.
Uing-Wei
Section titled “Uing-Wei”the Confessor, Left Hand of the Temple
*Zar'ir Adept/Embelekor-Michana · Temple of the One · CR 8.* Niska's Left Hand and gatekeeper of the inner teaching, an oathkeeper-confessor who travels the provinces vetting students with Oathsight — binding a promise and reading the intent to keep it in the same breath.AC 16 (chain shirt) · HP 104 (16d8+32) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Oathsight (Paired Working, the Vetting Rite). Binds a spoken promise and reads the intent at once; any creature within 30 ft. that speaks a claim of intent must answer truthfully or the falsehood shows plainly to him. Bound and Read. Advantage on Insight and attacks vs. a creature held by his Sealing Word, and knows its next declared action. Twinned Eye. Both eyes flash Binding-white and Knowing-magenta; Insight to read him is at disadvantage. Hollow Censure. Action: Hollow-touched within 30 ft., DC 16 WIS save or recoils 1 min.
Actions: Multiattack. Oath-Chain and one other action. Oath-Chain (Binding). Melee spell attack: +8, reach 15 ft. Hit: 18 (4d6+4) force, Restrained until end of its next turn (DC 16 STR to escape). Sealing Word (Recharge 5–6). Names a faith-breaker within 60 ft.; DC 16 WIS save or Paralyzed 1 min (save ends). Confessor’s Question. One creature within 30 ft. answers truthfully or DC 16 WIS save, 22 (4d10) psychic on a failed lie (half on truthful evasion). Lent Mercy. Touch/reach within 30 ft.: regain or take 13 (2d8+4) HP, his choice.
Reactions: Oathbreaker’s Due. When a bound creature attacks him or an ally within 30 ft., it takes 9 (2d8) psychic.
Running them: Patient, exact, unhurried in the way of a man who has heard every kind of lie and stopped being surprised. He binds before he strikes, asks the question that closes the exits, reads the answer under the answer. He does the quiet, load-bearing work of the inner teaching so Niska need not touch it, and guards the gate to it with his whole life.
Heathcliff
Section titled “Heathcliff”the Counterpoint, Right Hand of Emphemere
*Heartstring/Counterpoint · Emphemere (Yisk) · CR 8.* Lady Summer's public face and one of her "twin Fey advisors," a retired court-singer of extraordinary gift who hears the argument under the argument — and who suspects exactly what his Lady is doing to herself, and has never once said so.AC 15 (studded leather) · HP 88 (16d8+16) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Diplomat’s Ear. Always knows the dominant emotion of any creature/crowd within 30 ft. and, in a short phrase, what each wants. The Public Face. Advantage on CHA checks in any court/social setting. Reaching: the Heart. Eyes flash matte red; a voice or instrument is required. Faith DC 17. Eight-Corners Knack. +2 to any check that doesn’t already include his proficiency.
Actions: Multiattack. Two Rapier, or one and one Heart Working. Rapier. Melee: +6, Hit: 7 (1d8+2) piercing. Still Water. Up to three within 30 ft., DC 17 WIS save or hostility/panic/grief dampened. The Open Door. One humanoid within 30 ft., DC 17 WIS save or trusted friend 1 hour. Sway the Hall (1/day). 30-ft radius, DC 17 WIS save or adopt a reasonable course he names 1 min.
Bonus Actions: Heartstring Die (d8).
Reactions: Sour Note. Turn the Phrase. Subtract a Die from a CHA check; if it fails he learns a concealed truth.
Running them: A light, harmonically clean voice and the ear of a man who has heard the real sentence inside the polite one his whole career. He fights reluctantly and socially — calming, redirecting, taking the nerve out of a room a chord at a time. He loves his Lady and grieves her in advance; the closest he comes to naming what she is doing is a song he sings once a month and never explains.
Sergey
Section titled “Sergey”the Layer-Ghost, Left Hand of Emphemere
*Warrens-Runner/Layer-Ghost · Emphemere (Yisk) · CR 8.* Lady Summer's second "twin Fey advisor" and her private register made flesh — a winged Aarakocra and former Yiskii intelligence officer who runs Emphemere's surveillance and knows the most about his Lady while saying the least.AC 16 (studded leather, Dex) · HP 97 (15d8+30) · Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft., fly 50 ft.
Traits: Three-Layer Body. Climbs at full speed; opens locks/latches in half the time; treats the vertical city as one continuous floor. The Steam Map. Never lost in Sulamir; notices tunnel-work, false walls, fresh excavation within 10 ft. Stillness in the Dark. While motionless in dim light/darkness, effectively invisible (including to darkvision). The Surveillance Net. A minute of observation reveals where the watch thins, which doors are marked, who buys what shouldn’t be sold; his magenta stone catches a lie or reads a cipher’s gist with no Reaching. Uncanny Instinct. Can’t be surprised.
Actions: Multiattack. Two attacks. Shortsword. Melee: +9, Hit: 8 (1d6+5) piercing. Hand Crossbow. Ranged: +9, range 30/120, same. The Clean Line (1/turn). On a hit with advantage or an ally within 5 ft., +17 (5d6). The Clean Job (Recharge, short/long rest). Max the Clean Line dice (30) and move half speed without provoking.
Bonus Actions: Runner’s Step.
Reactions: Uncanny Dodge.
Running them: Quiet, watchful, economical — a man who learned that the person who says the least controls the most, and made surveillance a form of loyalty. In a fight he is a ghost: open with the clean line from a blind angle, step or fly out of reach, be elsewhere before the second attack lands. He knows his Lady's true age and practice better than anyone alive, and has decided, wordlessly, that keeping her secret is keeping her.
Undercity, Antagonists & Legend
Section titled “Undercity, Antagonists & Legend”"Square Bear"
*Hearthwarden/Ward Covenant · Steam Tunnels beneath Sulamir · CR 7.* A broad, stout ex-enforcer who fled the life he did violence in and now closes wounds in secret, paying for every mercy out of his own thinning self.AC 17 (heavy work-leather, shield) · HP 110 (13d8+52) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Two Readings at Once. An enforcer’s threat-read and a healer’s injury-read at once: can’t be surprised in an occupied room, advantage on Insight to clock who is armed or hiding a wound, and by Green Sight automatically knows the rough HP band of any creature within 30 ft. Bloodless Mercy. His healing feels free and is not — cap his big heals at three per fight before he flags. The Line He Will Not Cross. He will not pick up a Reaver weapon, strike a non-combatant, or turn his healing to harm — hard behavioral constraints. Stand Fast. Allies within 10 ft. add his proficiency (+3) to death saves.
Actions: Multiattack. Two Warding Strikes. Warding Strike. Melee: +6, Hit: 10 (2d6+3) bludgeoning or piercing. Mend the Wound. Touch or reach within 30 ft.: regain 3d8+4 HP; +4 temp HP if healed in combat (Battlefield Bloom). Grasping Roots (1/day, needs soil/seedstock). 10-ft square within 60 ft., DC 15 STR save or Restrained 1 min.
Bonus Actions: Field Mend. Use Mend the Wound as a bonus action.
Reactions: Thorned Aegis. When a creature within 10 ft. is hit, reduce damage by 1d8+4 and the attacker takes that much piercing. Sustaining Touch. When a creature within 30 ft. drops to 0, stabilize and heal it 2d8.
Running them: Plain, slow, short sentences with a frontier inflection; he listens far more than he speaks and never performs the regret an asker wants. In a fight he heals first and hits second, throws his body and his Aegis between the hurt and the harm, and restrains rather than kills. The killer he was surfaces only when a Reaver reaches for him — and even then he warns before he moves.
Valareth
Section titled “Valareth”The Last Zar
*Cipherwright/Veilwright (softened Herald guise) · Heralds of the Sunborn · STORY-TIER, CR 21.* The returned lich-king wearing the face of a gentle prophet, preaching that severance is liberation while his hands quietly widen the Wound beneath the city.AC 20 (Founding-era mind-ward, Second Skin) · HP 333 (35d8+175) · Speed 30 ft., fly 30 ft. (hover)
Traits: Beyond Mortal Statting. Reducing Valareth to 0 HP does not end him — his softened body boils off and reknits at his hidden anchor within days. He can only be actually ended by resolving the plot condition his existence is bound to (his phylactery-analogue and the sealed seam beneath the Steam Tunnels). Legendary Resistance (3/day). Severance Is Liberation. When he cuts a bond — a marriage, an oath-pair, a bonded duo — the mend it represented is undone and the local Wound widens; a seam tears and Hollow-seepage condenses. Softened Guise (Second Skin / Unseen Author). His prophet-form is a woven illusion laced with false memory: creatures tend to misremember him as gentle (DC 21 WIS save to retain the true impression); the illusion resists any sense/Insight below Tier 5. Mirror-Warded Mind. The Knowing turned on him returns the reader’s own reflection; the Heart finds nothing to seize.
Actions: Multiattack. Two Withering Word and one Working. Withering Word. Melee/Ranged Spell Attack: +13, reach 5 ft./range 60 ft. Hit: 27 (5d8+5) necrotic. Unmake the Bond (Recharge 5–6). A bonded pair within 60 ft.: each DC 21 WIS save or 36 (8d8) necrotic, shared benefits end 1 min, and a seam tears (a CR 2–4 Hollow creature condenses within 1d4 rounds). Rewrite the Room (Recharge 6). Every creature of his choice within 60 ft., DC 21 INT save or loses the last minute of memory and perceives a false scene until end of its next turn. Dominating Gaze. One creature within 30 ft., DC 21 WIS save or Charmed 1 min.
Bonus Actions: Mirror-Step. Vanish into any reflective surface within reach; reappear from another within 120 ft.
Reactions: Severed Pattern. Force a DC 21 INT save; on a failure the Working fizzles.
Legendary Actions (3/round): Knowing Cantrip. One Withering Word. Sever (costs 2). Cut one bond within 60 ft. (half damage, seam still opens). Mirror-Slip. Use Mirror-Step.
Lair (Initiative 20, in a seam-site or mirror-hung sanctum): a reflective surface becomes a door he or a seepage-creature steps through; the ground in a 20-ft radius tears into a seam (difficult terrain, 9 (2d8) necrotic to any creature starting there); or every mirror shows each intruder a true, private thing (DC 21 WIS save or Frightened until end of its next turn).
GM caveat — defeat is a plot event, not an HP total. A party can beat his softened body to vapor and change nothing; he reknits and the seam stays open. His actual defeat is a narrative resolution — Binding the seam, unmaking the phylactery-analogue, or turning his severance-doctrine against the bond that keeps him — reserved for the arc’s climax, not book one. Do not run him as a stand-up boss; run him as the figure behind the figure. He does not appear in scene early: the metal-armed prescient Herald is his operational hand in Sulamir.
Running them: The reasonable liberator, never the ranting villain — soft-voiced, patient, genuinely kind-seeming, framing every severance as a mercy he is sorry you don't yet understand. Unlike the mindless Hollow, he will talk, and the seduction is the point: he offers release from every bond that hurts you and means it as a gift.
Valekith
Section titled “Valekith”the Mirror-King
*Cipherwright/Thoughtplayer (historical mortal phase) · King of Theocracy, the final Triarchy · CR 15.* The theologian who talked two kings out of their crowns and then scaled the most intimate art of the Knowing into a state instrument, invading minds and rooms through mirrors before he ever became a lich.AC 16 (mind-ward, fine vestments, Focus Stone) · HP 156 (24d6+72) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Attention-Riding. He rides a mind rather than reading it unseen — and by the lineage’s law, the ridden always feel the touch. He rides one creature within 60 ft. up to 1 min (WIS save at end of each of its turns to throw him off). Mirror-Cast (state scale). Through any reflective surface he extends the thoughtplayer’s art to a room, a conversation, or a mind at the scale of a nation. Any mirror in a scene is a door he may already be standing in. The Clean Rationale. Advantage on CHA to persuade; a creature that debates him openly makes a DC 18 WIS save or finds itself conceding his point. Reaching: the Knowing. Eyes flash magenta (Working DC 18). Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If Valekith fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead — the crown does not lose an argument.
Actions: Multiattack. Two Mind-Spike and one Working. Mind-Spike. Melee/Ranged Spell Attack: +10, range 60 ft. Hit: 22 (4d8+4) psychic. Invade the Mirror (Recharge 5–6). Through a reflective surface within 120 ft., one creature that can see it makes a DC 18 WIS save or is Dominated 1 min. Consensus (Recharge 6). Every creature of his choice within 30 ft., DC 18 WIS save or believes a false thing he speaks as settled truth 1 hour. The Long Ride. Against a creature ridden a full minute, extract three truths from memory; the ride runs both ways.
Bonus Actions: Ride Attention.
Reactions: Turn the Pattern. Force a DC 18 INT save; on a failure the Working fizzles.
Legendary Actions (3/round; end of another creature’s turn): Mirror-Step. Valekith steps his attention through any reflective surface within 30 ft. and reappears from another within 120 ft. Ride (costs 1). He begins or maintains Attention-Riding on one creature he can see; while ridden, it has disadvantage on its next save against him. A Word in the Glass (costs 2). One creature that can see its own reflection within 60 ft. makes a DC 18 WIS save or takes 18 (4d8) psychic damage and must use its next action to speak a truth Valekith names aloud — the mirror-king writing the room’s testimony.
Running them: For flashback and historical scenes — the tyrant who never raises his voice, the man who could stand in a throne room without being in it and leave with the throne. Every sentence is clean, patient, theologically airtight; the violence is downstream of an argument you already lost. Let players feel the thoughtplayer law: they know he's in their heads, they can feel him there, and there is nothing to do but wait to see what he does.
Fulthren
Section titled “Fulthren”In the Black
AC 17 (studded hide, Dex, Stormseeker footwork) · HP 136 (16d10+48) · Speed 40 ft.
Traits: In the Black. His signature and the source of the idiom. Once per turn, when he hits his Quarry with a bow attack, he may declare it in the black: a critical hit, and the target makes a DC 17 CON save or is Blinded until end of its next turn. Quarry. Bonus-action mark within 60 ft.; always knows its direction/distance, and it can’t benefit from being unseen against him. 6 Quarry Dice (d8); on a hit vs. Quarry, spend one to add its damage and trigger Called Shot (disadvantage on its next attack) or Pinning Shot (speed 0 until end of its next turn). Storm-Quick. On marking a Quarry, +10 ft. speed until next turn; advantage on his first initiative. Never Loses the Trail. Eyes flash cyan when he Reaches the Current.
Actions: Multiattack. Two Storm-Loosed Longbow. Storm-Loosed Longbow. Ranged: +9, range 150/600 ft. Hit: 12 (1d8+5) piercing plus 4 (1d8) lightning if the target is his Quarry. Chain Lightning Strike. On a Quarry Strike, one creature within 5 ft. of the target takes 4 (1d8) lightning.
Bonus Actions: Mark Quarry.
Reactions: Loosing Shot. When his Quarry moves out of cover in range, one bow attack.
Running them: Laconic and uncanny — more weather than man, the folk-hero who says little and never misses. Lean into the impossibility: the shot leaves before the enemy finishes its move, the arrow goes exactly where the story says. Whether a real Stormseeker or the tale that walks in when the campaign needs a legend, the shot always lands the moment he calls it in the black.
the Feather-Reader
AC 13 (light armor, Dex) · HP 45 (10d6+10) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Provenance-Reading. Given an hour with an object, Mo reads its origin — where it came from, whose hand shed or shaped it, where it was taken. On an angel feather this is near-infallible; it is why Cyl comes to them. Cipher’s Eye / Pattern Sight. At a glance reads a lock/seal/script/tell with advantage; identifies whether a thing was shaped by a Working. Quick Read. Bonus action: learn whether a creature has an active Working, a construct, or elevated Fray/Strain. Eyes flash magenta (Working DC 15).
Actions: Dagger. Melee: +4, Hit: 3 (1d4+1) piercing. Confounding Filament. A creature within 30 ft., DC 15 INT save or disadvantage on its next attack/check.
Reactions: Counter-Cipher. Force a DC 15 INT save; on a failure the Working fizzles.
Running them: Dry, precise, pointedly apolitical — Mo tells you exactly where a feather came from and nothing about who paid to ask. Keep their background, race, and loyalties genuinely open: a lore-dispenser and plot key, not a combatant. If a fight breaks out they unravel one inconvenient Working, decline to be involved, and are gone by the next scene.
Master Enwith
Section titled “Master Enwith”the Self-Made House
*Civilian (no practice) · self-made Azhandian magnate, House Enwith of Sulamir · CR 3.* A freed Azhandian slave who built his own great house out of nothing but ledger and nerve, and who says plainly, to anyone, that the Azhandian way was unnatural and cruel.AC 13 (fine coat, ever-present retainers) · HP 52 (8d8+16) · Speed 30 ft.
Traits: Self-Made. His weapon is his ledger and network. Once per scene he calls in a standing debt — coin, leverage, documents, a bought official, a timely arrival — as reliably as another combatant swings a sword. Read the Room’s Power. Advantage on Insight and social checks to find the pressure point. Nothing Given, Everything Earned. Advantage on saves vs. frightened, charmed, or intimidated into deference. No Practice. No discipline; effects that read for casting find nothing.
Actions: Weighted Cane. Melee: +2, Hit: 3 (1d6) bludgeoning. Concealed Bolt-Pistol. Ranged: +3, range 30 ft. Hit: 5 (1d8+1) piercing. Call the House (1/scene). Summon 2–4 retainers (use guards) within 1 round. Leverage. Name a debt, secret, or price to a creature that hears him; DC 14 CHA save or it concedes the point or stands down for the scene.
Reactions: The House Steps In. When hit, a retainer within 5 ft. takes the attack instead.
Running them: Blunt, proud, low-born-made-good, none of the inherited-house softness — he negotiates the way other men fight and keeps his men close because he remembers when no one kept him. His real power sits off the battlefield: the debts, the guards, the officials he owns, and the truth he'll say to any Azhandian preservationist's face.