The Peering Eye

Cisco is the sixth son of a poor noble family, with a quick tongue and a reasonable wit. He has heard rumours of an elite criminal organisation called The Crimson Cloaks. They are said to be elite noble thieves with connections to the Vercelone thieves guild. Cisco has grown tired of the life of a poor noble and has fallen in with a rabble connected to the guild. He wants to prove himself so he can formally join their ranks. 

A local thieves guild crew boss called Baracello Spezolito asks Cisco to rob a pawn broker called Gabriello Ponza. His shop is called Ponza’s! Guido has been showing Cisco the ropes and believes he is ready to pull a job.

Cisco goes wandering around to Almudena Vec’s statue in the Piazza. At the square there are nobles, merchants and commoners.

He decides to attempt to acquire a valuable item to pawn at Ponzas from a group of nobles. He introduces himself to three ladies of Vercelone; Sienna Publico, Marcella Tercio and Sabrina Tucci. He claims to be Giovani Von Pompodoro a rich tomato merchant from the out of town.

Sienna, who appears to be the wealthiest of the group, wearing the most jewelery, is his focus and she is soon quite charmed by the dashing rogue. He invites them to get out of the sun and ushers them to La Luna Bella, an expensive bar on the piazza. He seats them at a table and spends a ten gold on a couple of bottles of wine. 

With an imperceptible gesture, Cisco scatters a fist-full of ball bearings and makes their waiter fall over in a clatter of crystal goblets and wine bottles. Perhaps fuelled by desire for Sienna outweighing his good sense, Cisco knocks her purse onto the ground as he attempts to steal from it. His hand touches her leg and her eyes flash scandalously. She waits, with bated breath. He mutters something incoherent, his glib tongue momentarily failing him in the face of her unexpected passion. The moment is lost.

Her heavily armed guard intervenes, reminding her of some previous appointment and she leaves in haste. Perhaps even a little flushed. Her friends follow. Cisco notices that she has forgotten her purse in her haste. Being a gentleman, he robs the purse. 

Inside he finds fifty gold pieces and a Publico family signet ring worth 10gp. Or far more to the right buyer.

Scene: Spying and Scheming

Watching unobtrusively from behind a chimney pot on a nearby rooftop is a small pair of brown eyes. These eyes are attached to a small figure perched in the shadows. This is Brindle Shadowhand a rock gnome street urchin. He watches in awe as Cisco weaves between skill and chaos. Brindle scurries down the side of the building into a darkened alley way and appears in front of Cisco.

“Can I see the ring?” asks Brindle. 

“How do you know I have the ring?” replies Cisco, startled but still dodging the question.

“I was watching you from the alehouse roof” smiles Brindle.

“I don’t like you spying on me little man,” responds Cisco in a vaguely menacing tone.

“Don’t call me that!” bristles Brindle, his face reddening. “You better take me seriously! Do I amuse you? Do I look like a clown to you?”

“Woah! Brindle calm down,” Cisco ushers him into a nearby alley and out of view. He hands Brindle the ring.

Brindle’s eyes go wide at the sight of the platinum signet ring. He produces a magnifying monocle and inspects it closely.

“We could sell this for far more than it’s worth, or maybe try a spot of forgery!”

“No, we can make more with my scheme at Ponza’s…” Cisco disagrees thoughtfully. 

Brindle’s curiosity is peaked, “So how do we go about ripping him off?”

Absorbed in bickering and scheming, the tiny fellowship of two makes it’s way to Ponza’s! pawnshop. Their conversation often lapses into a familiar pattern, dreaming of the dashing life they will lead as members of The Crimson Cloaks.

Scene: Ponza’s

The sun is low in the sky, casting long shadows between shafts of golden light when they reach Horseblood Lane. They decide to enter separately pretending not to know each other with getting the lay of the land.  

The reinforced door opens into a small room, with a large counter blocking access to many shelves. They are packed with all manner of merchandise. A guard sits on a high stool between the door and the counter. His glare is hostile but bored. 

The proprietor Ponza himself stands behind the counter. His suspiciously jet black hair is coated in oil, his sallow skin is pox marked and beaded with sweat. He is quite fat. Large rolls of flesh waggling as he moves. His demeanour is calm but his eyes promise violence. The unwashed odour of Ponza and his guard complement the musty small of the dust covered shelves. Ponza nods to the guard and scratches his nose as Cisco enters.

Cisco presents the ring with a flourish and a torrent of flowery language. Unlike the noble ladies in the piazza, Ponza is unimpressed. Ponza is not a member of the guild and has no intention of offering favourable fencing terms.

“Yeah I’m sure some fancy jeweller in the noble quarter would give you a nice pouch of gold for this molto caldo bambino, but I don’t need that kinda heat. In Horseblood, it’s worth twenty silver.”  Cisco decides to keep the ring hoping for a better deal. 

The haggling has been far from futile though as it has given Brindle time to enter quietly, observe and investigate. He sizes up infiltration opportunities,  calculates the ages of the eclectic bric-a-brac and deduces the best infiltration points. Then a stolen calligrapher’s pen appears in his hand and he sells is to Ponza for a modest amount. All the while he observes.

Then he greets Cisco and they enjoy some light hearted banter in the shop. The guard bores of this show quite quickly, shakes his head and goes into the back. Presumably the pair seem a higher threat to his good humour than to Ponza’s safety.

Eventually they move outside into Horseblood Lane. They agree that their next move should be to follow Brindle’s plan to use the ring to forge documents.

Scene: Daylight Robbery

Two hooded figures step out of the shadows. They are well armed and have weapons drawn. Their leader speaks in an exaggerated gravely voice, “Give us everything you’ve got and we’ll let you live.”

They grin at each other, finally some action. Brindle’s shortsword flies from its scabbard like a blur and stabs the leader. He screams in pain and staggers as the gash causes massive bleeding from his gut. Barely seen, Brindle’s left hand flips his dagger from a hidden sheath and jams it deeply into the leader’s groin. The pain is extreme sending his assailant into shock. He collapses to the dirty cobbles in a pool of blood.

Like a striking cobra Cisco’s rapier blade pierces the other bandit’s kidney. Blood flows freely drenching his shirt and trousers as he collapses. In moments both are dead and the pair drag their bodies into a nearby alley.

The would be muggers are well equipped. Brindle and Cisco strip them bare and divide the spoils evenly taking their studded leather, shorts words, daggers, crossbows, silver and other assorted valuables.

Scene: Cat Burglars

They move a discreet distance from the corpses and stash the valuables. They still need to complete the theft and decide to wait for nightfall before they strike.

They scan the nearby buildings and rooftops looking for a suitable weak point to exploit. Brindle’s mind has been feverishly working to deduce how Ponza might act and think, and where he might slip up. This effort is rewarded as he correctly calculates that there must be a hinge on the bars of the third floor window to allow Ponza to feed his cats. 

It takes little effort from either of them to scamper stealthily up the side of a nearby the building and cross over to the window. And there it is. A chink in the shop’s armor. A hinged set of bars over a dormer window, protected only by a simple padlock.

Cisco and Brindle grin at each other, perched on opposite sides of the window. Nothing can possibly go wrong!

Date: Saturday 13th June 2026 09:00 - 14:36
Campaign: The Peering Eye, Rogue Element Campaign
Previous Rogue Element 27 Log, Prep Rogue Element 28 Prep Next Rogue Element 29 Log
DM: Hunter
Players: Dave Rodrigues, Lou Melville
Characters: Valerio, Verity, Eidolos, Bricktop
Party: The Rat Pack
Start: The Dragons' Rest, Belview — Week 17 Charday afternoon
End: Remorhaz lair, Greydot Mountain — Week 18 Draíday afternoon (approximately +6 days of in-game time over the session, covering a late-Charday departure from Belview on horseback to Nestle, a day's prep in Nestle, and a three-day ascent of Greydot Mountain)
Talamh Calendar: Week 17 → Week 18 Gold Autumn, Year 521AK. Charday (Week 17 — arrival in Belview, audiences, late-afternoon departure on horseback) → Sunday (Week 17 — overland night-and-day ride along The Cleave River road) → Moonday (Week 18 — arrival at Nestle in the evening, goat-stable, Jebediah Sinthrop, herbalist, hire of Halla Ironshield, departure at first light) → Cogaday (Week 18, Mountain Day 1 — valley) → Croíday (Week 18, Mountain Day 2 — the dangerous pass) → Draíday (Week 18, Mountain Day 3 — ascent, blizzards, Remorhaz fight, the key).

In the dim back parlour of an inn they had not paid to enter, the Rat Pack found themselves welcomed by name into a town they had never set foot in. The teleport from Grimspur should have set them down inside Beltorc Keep; instead a calm dwarven woman holding a humming brass rod redirected them into the common room of The Dragons' Rest. There they met Cyrus Beltorc, thieftaker general of Belview, who took their measure. Later they met Lord Mattis Beltorc himself, heir of the duchy and master of Túr Tiarnán. Wine was poured, the local Shaleshine vodka was rough and characterful, and over the course of an afternoon Mattis gave them much. He identified Greydot Mountain as their target, he suggested the best route, the listed the many hazards, his described his own DéDannan research, and offered to amplify their DéDannan Scanner tenfold at Túr Tiarnán — and all of it free, save the answer to a single question: where, exactly, would the wreck be? Valerio read him for what he was. The party gave him the broad shape but held the rest.

By sundown there was bad news as well as good. Half an hour before Jason Poundsworth could reach the Belview goat-stable, every mountain goat in the town had been rented for a week by an unnamed factor through an intermediary. Someone meant to slow them down. They left Jason Poundsworth in Belview to broker the Roc Egg sale, through either the Sliabhán embassy, the academy or the merchant-priests of Tionscail, and they rode south on horseback through the cold night down The Cleave River road. Two days later, in the evening of Moonday, they came to Nestle — a huddle of stone houses on the river — and inside The Iron Shield Inn the few faces turned and weighed them and decided they were either mad or had serious money. The party were both. They healed three sick goats so the stable-keeper would rent to them, hired the second-best guide in town — a furious dwarven ranger named Halla Ironshield who would not take less than the rival's rate of fifty gold a day — bought stamina-drugs and a some recreational opiates from a human herbalist called Delia Torcedor, and rode out at first light through valley and pass on the wide blue-furred backs of mountain goats that did not appear to care about any of it.

Three days later, halfway up Greydot Mountain, a thirty-foot Remorhaz erupted out of the ground and tried to swallow Bricktop whole. He managed to stay lodged in its maw. Two young ones came up behind it; the party put down the adult — Valerio's whip smashed through its eye and out the back of its skull — and the young ones burrowed and ran. In the still-hot bulk of the dead worm's lair, Eidolos cut its belly open, found nothing, slumped against the corpse in disgust, and felt a small piece of copper jam into the back of his neck. It was an ancient guardian's badge with a DéDannan inscription that read Baile Ocht Eochair Chopair — Baylioch Copper Key. The Rat Pack ended the session warming themselves against the cooling carcass of the thing that had tried to eat them, the key in Bricktop's pouch, the wreck one day further on, and somewhere on the longer route around the mountain a rival expedition that thought they were ahead.

World Details

1. Belview is the capital of The Spire County in The Duchy of Peaks, at the base of Mount Fynial on The Cleave River. Stone-built — locally called Stonehaven because most of its structures are raised with Wall of Stone. Cold all year; the river feeds a fishing fleet protected by an awakened plesiosaur. Dragon-alarm tunnels run under the town to Beltorc Keep in the centre. Belview Castle, the family seat, sits 1,500 feet above the town on Mount Fynial, connected to the keep by the Belview Cable Car.
2. Belview is built on the The Belview Mines ore traffic. The Beltorc Family dominate it: Marchioness Prunella Beltorc runs the political end, the Marquess holds the title, Lord Mattis Beltorc is heir and master of Túr Tiarnán research into The Ancient DéDannan.
3. The temple of Tionscail in Belview is the merchant-priest hub. The Sliabhán maintain an embassy in the town; the Belview academy runs a profitable a scroll shop.
4. From Belview the road follows The Cleave River south toward Nestle — about two days on horseback. The river itself is navigable in this stretch but the barges are stable enough only for ore, not for stock, so the party went overland. From Nestle the route turns south-west and climbs through valley and pass to Greydot Mountain.
5. Teleport redirection is a widespread security practice across Talamh, near-universal across the demesnes of Torc Aligned Noble Houses, and most reliably in The Duchy of Peaks. The identity of arrivals is negotiated in advance as part of granting access to a noble circle, so The Beltorc Family knew exactly who was teleporting in. The redirect from the Beltorc Keep circle to the back room of The Dragons' Rest is the courteous form for distinguished guests — Crown Agents, merchants, celebrities of Aurelia and the like — and both Cyrus Beltorc and Lord Mattis Beltorc came down to the inn in person to receive the party. Cells and extra-planar kill zones are kept for arrivals the host actively wants to detain or destroy. The Rat Pack arrived to a noble's welcome.
6. Greydot Mountain is the destination peak, south-west of Nestle. It carries on its flank a roughly ten-mile-diameter circular indentation that never holds snow — the grey dot. Elsewhere on a clifftop, lies the Brass Orb crash site. The party have Gwish's landmark description ("a rock shelf above a tall sheer cliff with rock slides either side") and the DéDannan Scanner; but they have no map.
7. Greydot Mountain is a known Remorhaz nesting ground, with tremendous blizzards, dragons, purple worms, and "all manner of dangerous creatures flying and subterranean" — a place no commercial expedition goes. Which means a DéDannan crash site there might still be intact.
8. Verity is on the public record stating, frequently, that "Greydot" is a stupid name for a mountain. The mountain does not seem to care. Neither does Halla Ironshield — "all the mountains are grey," she observes; "well, you put a grey dot on the mountain, you're kind of asking people to call it the grey dot mountain."

Plot Points

1. The Brass Orb crash-site mission is the active priority. The party have Gwish's landmark, the DéDannan Scanner working at mile range, and now a recovered key. They are no longer searching blind.
2. The party met Cyrus Beltorc, thieftaker general of Belview. He took their measure socially and filed them under watch. The party's read, in character (Valerio): "I think Cyrus is a little stuffy." They sensed he could become an ally on the right terms, and that on the wrong terms he could become a serious problem.
3. The party held an audience with Lord Mattis Beltorc — who came down to The Dragons' Rest in person rather than receive them at Beltorc Keep or up at Belview Castle. Mattis was warm and free with wine, time, the local vodka and useful knowledge — the likely crash-site mountain, the route, hazards, his own Túr Tiarnán research, and (gently) his interest in Baylioch. He invited reciprocation; the party shared, in measured doses, the broad shape of their mission.
4. Mattis offered a Túr Tiarnán amplifier deal. He proposed wiring the party's DéDannan Scanner into the antennae at Túr Tiarnán for a range boost from miles to tens or hundreds of miles — enough to detect power sources all across the duchy. He framed it as a research collaboration under Crown protection. Valerio (insight 24) read it as: Mattis has accepted he will not get the scanner outright, but a few days' loan would advance his research by years. The party declined the loan and kept the door open on the collaboration.
5. Jason Poundsworth stayed in Belview to sell the Roc Egg. The local specialty market — the Sliabhán embassy, the Belview academy wizards, the merchant-priests of Tionscail, the noble houses — is uniquely well suited to fly-capable buyers. Jason has the patience to wait for the right offer (his estimate: 5,000+ gp instead of the few hundred a quick local sale would fetch); the party agreed. He is expected to rejoin in one or two weeks. His absence was felt at every subsequent stop — missing crampons, sub-par grooming, no one to chase down emergency goats. Part of Jason's job as Valerio's valet has been dressing Valerio every morning, and Valerio realised this on the road for the first time in years.
6. A rival expedition is ahead of the party on the mountain. The intelligence arrived in three pieces: (a) Jason Poundsworth reported at the inn that, half an hour before he reached the Belview goat-stable, an unnamed factor through an intermediary had rented every available mountain goat in town — fifty of them — for a week; (b) the stable-keeper at Nestle described "a group of The Beltorc Family and their lackeys, looked like wizards possibly from a university" who came through that morning swapping between mounts to move fast, asked for the best guide, and rode out around midday south-west; (c) Halla Ironshield's read of the goat-tracks through the pass confirmed the rivals had taken the longer, safer route around the mountains. The race is on.
7. The party recovered a Baylioch copper key from a Remorhaz's body — jammed between two of its dorsal scales — on the slopes of Greydot Mountain. The DéDannan inscription reads "Baile Ocht Eochair Chopair" — "City Eight, copper key" — the ancient name of what is now spoken of as Baylioch. The correct DéDannan pronunciation is preserved only among DéDannan scholars and the rare survivors of the ancient era such as Gwish and Ferdia; Baylioch is the modern, distorted form everyone else uses. Per Eidolos's natural-20 history, the key is a guardian's low-security access tool from an ancient DéDannan city.
8. The Belview academy is now a marketing partner. Valerio (natural-20 with +13 persuasion, total 33) negotiated two scrolls of Leomund's Tiny Hut from the academy's scroll shop — 300 gp for the first, the second free — on the standing condition that every bard the party retain name-drops the academy. A bard was hired in Nestle to begin the campaign that very night. Verity has muttered about regret already.
9. A vodka brand is in development. The local Belview vodka is distilled from a hardy corn that grows about three months of the year and is known locally as Shaleshine. Valerio (master brewer background) gave Wenna Stoutkettle one piece of unsolicited but expert advice on improving it; she promised to pass it to the brewer. Next time the party return to Belview, expect to find Belview VSOP — Valerio's Shaleshine Original Perfected — on the menu, with a sweet blue variant alongside it under the name Eidol Ice, after Eidolos.
10. One more leg to the crash site. The DM closed: "next time is the last leg and we'll finally get to the crash site."

NPCs

1. Cyrus Beltorc — thieftaker general of Belview; first on-screen appearance. Approached the party at The Dragons' Rest in Bigany dress uniform (Prussian cut), identified himself by title and family, and was politely probing. He asked one really polite question — "Is that anything that would be of interest to the thieftakers?" — and then the clarifying "Do you intend to commit any crimes while you are here?" The party's read (Valerio, in character): "I think Cyrus is a little stuffy." Background canon: he is the reason Belview has practically no organised crime — his thieftakers use magic and divination, not just clubs.
2. Lord Mattis Beltorc — heir of The Beltorc Family, master of Túr Tiarnán DéDannan research. Came down to The Dragons' Rest in person; the alternative would have been to summon the party up to Belview Castle by Belview Cable Car or to receive them at Beltorc Keep, and he chose neither. Welcoming. Generous with wine, time and the local Shaleshine, though he himself drinks a Highvale Brandy — "not that patriotic to drink what he considers slop." Shared considerable knowledge: the likely crash-site mountain, route advice, hazards, his own Túr Tiarnán research, his interest in Baylioch. Offered to wire the party's DéDannan Scanner into the Túr Tiarnán antennae as a research collaboration. He keeps anti-divination magic active around him, "standard operating procedure."
3. Wenna Stoutkettle — proprietor of The Dragons' Rest, unsurprised by redirected arrivals. Dwarf, professional, the kind of innkeeper who has seen this a hundred times. Holds the brass induction rod that authorises each teleport arrival into her common room. Will be passing Valerio's feedback on the local Shaleshine to her brewer.
4. Isten of Glaunthar and Edum of Thrandul — two unusually striking wizards drinking with their own bodyguards in The Dragons' Rest, known regulars who "come here from time to time." Isten of Glaunthar is dressed in white wizard robes in the ancient DéDannan style with diamonds and snow, pale ivory skin, white hair, a stormy beard, piercing pale blue eyes with a roguish twinkle, escorted by a white-skinned hobgoblin in immaculate Torlandish war-mage uniform and a pale blue-haired woman of excessive supernatural beauty. Edum of Thrandul is in cloth-of-gold robes in Az-Ylari style with kellum coloured flame trim, bronze skin, golden hair, eyes "like the summer sun through honey," escorted by a DéDannan-style barbarian from the Shifting Valley and a tall fiery woman in brass armour of Azilari origin. They were intensely arguing arcane points in low voices and drifted across the room at a respectful distance when the DéDannan Scanner came out — interested specifically in the scanning capability. Valerio (insight 21) read them as "actually very hard to read; more than you'd expect for wizards."
5. Halla Ironshield — dwarven ranger, the senior remaining mountain guide of Nestle after the rival expedition took Sten. Middle-aged, very thick stubble, cleft chin, huge jaw. Smokes a custom herbalist-blended pipe — two stashes of two different densities, one a winded-orchid opiate for numbing pain, one a brighter stimulant for waking up — alternated. Reads the snow for Remorhaz tracks like a librarian reads spine labels. Hunter ranger; Survival expertise; fights archery. Insulted and furious that Sten claimed the best-in-town title in front of the rivals; took the Rat Pack contract in large part to beat him to the crash site and settle the matter in front of the whole town. Demanded — and got — 55 gp/day plus a contractual 10% time bonus. The party rate her as worth every coin.
6. Sten — the Nestle guide who claimed the best-in-town title when the rival expedition asked, and was hired on the spot. Now leading the rivals up the longer, safer route around the mountains.
7. Delia Torcedor — the herbalist of Nestle, two doors down from The Iron Shield Inn. Human, weathered; the pipe and the mountain cold give her the look of eighty rather than her actual early fifties. Pipe-smoking, conspiratorial, friendly. Halla Ironshield's regular supplier of pipe blend. Christened Debbie — the herbalist herself addressed Jebediah Sinthrop's introduction of the party with that name still in use among the older neighbours.
8. Jebediah Sinthrop — impoverished noble of House Sinthrop, hangs around The Iron Shield Inn running small charity-cons on locals. Per the vault, Caleb Beltorc met him a couple of times and thought him "a decent person making bad decisions." Greeted the party with "I seem to have forgotten my wallet, but forget about that for the moment. I am Jebediah Sinthrop." Tipped 5 gp by the party — one to find the local bard, one to fetch Halla Ironshield (who was already in the room), and three for himself. He brokered the herbalist introduction for free.
9. Jason Poundsworth — factor for The Agile Hand Bastion and Valerio's valet. Stayed in Belview to negotiate the Roc Egg sale through specialty channels. Did not travel to Nestle or up the mountain. His absence was felt at every stop.
10. The stable-keeper at Nestle (name not given at the table) — the woman who rents (but does not breed) the mountain goats. The serious breeders are the Goliaths near Belview. Honoured the down-payment-only deal once Eidolos healed her sick goats: full refund on safe return.

Loot

1. Baylioch copper key — DéDannan ancient-city guardian's low-security access tool. Inscription "Baile Ocht Eochair Chopair" in DéDannan giant-and-draconic script. Recovered by Bricktop from between two of a dead Remorhaz's dorsal scales on Greydot Mountain. Probable use: access to low-security zones and emergency areas at any ancient DéDannan civic site. Gwish is known to carry a similar key.
2. Two scrolls of Leomund's Tiny Hut — both 3rd-level arcane. One paid (300 gp), one free, courtesy of the Belview academy's marketing department. Reserved for emergency long-rest shelter in hostile terrain.
3. Profits from the Roc Egg sale (pending) — Jason Poundsworth is brokering in Belview through specialty markets, not bulk sale. The final figure is to be confirmed; the party know it should be 5,000+ gp rather than the few hundred a quick local sale would have brought.
4. Herbalist supplies — eight doses of Cockerel (two per party member, a strong stimulant), two doses of Slam (a Hanorian barbarian-rage stimulant, reserved for emergencies), and a small amount of Sloop (a mellow opiate — Valerio's recreational interest).
5. Cold-weather gear — Arctic-grade full head-to-toe furs; the party each had one set from earlier prep and bought a second set in Belview before departure. Crampons confirmed for all (Bricktop had to add his to his sheet retroactively). One of Valerio's spare sets was sacrificed on the slopes to craft a dog-sized cold coat for Bitey; his outer wool gear was later wrecked in the Remorhaz fight and replaced from his remaining spare.

Encounters

• Arrival in Belview — Teleport Redirect to The Dragons' Rest

  1. The teleportation circle at the temple of Tionscail in Grimspur sparks. The party — four PCs, Jason Poundsworth, Bitey, Nevermore, Pila, Rizzo and two horses — had paid for passage to the Beltorc Keep teleportation circle in Belview. They arrive instead in the back room of a tavern. Warmth hits like a wall; unseen hands take their cloaks. Mage-light pools on polished stone. Apprentices argue over wine, and behind the bar a calm woman lowers a humming brass rod and says, "Welcome to Belview. You'll be the Grimspur party. Sit anywhere that isn't reserved."
  2. Valerio (natural-20 arcana) identifies the brass rod immediately as a teleportation shunt, used widely among the wizards of Torc Aligned Noble Houses for short-range manipulation of arrival points. A natural-20 history check follows: "You guys know the shit out of this." Teleport redirection is a near-universal practice across Talamh, most reliably in The Duchy of Peaks, with several flavours — kill-zones for hostile arrivals, cells for unidentified ones, and for guests of standing a redirect to a hospitable venue as a courtesy, the host already aware of who has come through. The Rat Pack are in the courtesy lane. Wenna Stoutkettle has clearly done this a hundred times.
  3. Dave (who invented Belview in earlier sessions) describes The Dragons' Rest: completely made of stone — not mortared stonework but raised in Wall of Stone magic, sheer flat surfaces of squares and rectangles, with masons retained "to reverse the Minecraft look," furnished in increasingly opulent wood as trade has improved. A giant dragon's tooth has been hollowed out and embedded in the bar as the beer tap. "That dragon came and rested here once," Dave explains. "Because that kind of happens sometimes."
  4. The DM adds two unusually striking wizards across the room — Isten of Glaunthar and Edum of Thrandul — drinking with two bodyguards each, drawing arcane symbols in the air, occasionally raising their voices to almost shouting before clamping back down to a low arguing burr. Valerio (insight 12) reads them as "fierce rivals." They have rooms in the inn for the night.

  The first surprise of the afternoon was that they were not at the Keep. The destination they had paid for was the circle at Beltorc Keep; the destination they got was the back room of The Dragons' Rest. Across the demesnes of Torc Aligned Noble Houses, and nowhere more reliably than in The Duchy of Peaks, the host of a noble destination circle knew in advance who was coming, identity having been negotiated as part of granting access; and for guests of standing, the destination was very often redirected somewhere convivial as a courtesy. Wenna Stoutkettle had a brass rod and a friendly smile. The party did the rest. Lord Mattis Beltorc and Cyrus Beltorc would each be along, in their own time, to welcome the Rat Pack in person.

• Cyrus Beltorc Takes Their Measure

  1. Within the hour, a tall, severe man in Bigany dress uniform — Prussian cut, dark blue, brass trim — approaches the table. He introduces himself in the older noble form: "Sir Valerio Vec. Greetings. I am Cyrus Beltorc, thieftaker general of Belview. I believe you have come here on trading business."
  2. He greets correctly. He observes everyone. He asks a single, very polite question: "Is there anything that would be of interest to the thieftakers?" A natural-20 history check on the spot reveals to Valerio that Belview is "the Singapore of Bigany" — practically no organised crime, thieftakers all magically equipped, the entire effort driven by Cyrus Beltorc rooting out the local thieves' guild.
  3. This is a deception-and-insight test in social clothing. Valerio plays it as opinion-as-shield: "I would say yes — I mean, surely you know something of our reputation. To be fair, when learning about our activities, you were interested, weren't you? A little bit. I found this interesting. Come on, be honest." Cyrus Beltorc cuts to the quick: "Do you intend to commit any crimes while you are here?" — "No." — "That was the expression I was looking for."
  4. In a clarifying side-conversation the party ask "is there a certain level of intoxication that is technically illegal?" Cyrus Beltorc, dry: "If you perform any crimes while drunk, it is still considered a crime. We will take that on a case-by-case basis. The policy here is to reduce crime, not to reduce fun. We have enough trouble getting wizards to have fun as it is." Valerio offers a round; the offer is declined. "We shall have our eyes on you, sir Vec." On the way out he addresses every PC by name in turn — quietly read off without introduction.
  5. Valerio (in character), as the thieftaker general crosses the threshold: "I think Cyrus is a little stuffy." The party agree he could become an ally on the right terms, and that they instinctively want to behave around him.

  The first real local they met was not the Marquess but the Marquess's hammer. He was perfectly polite about it. Nobody in the tavern moved to ask why he had wandered over, but everybody in the tavern knew. Cyrus Beltorc stayed three sentences longer than courtesy required and four sentences shorter than a confidence demanded, and withdrew. The party took it as the warning it was.

• Audience with Lord Mattis Beltorc — at The Dragons' Rest

  1. As Cyrus Beltorc withdraws, Valerio (natural-20 perception) clocks a noble who has arrived quietly: wizard clothing with ancient DéDannan twists here and there, the bearing of a Beltorc heir, observing the party with deliberate care. Verity (having read briefings from Caleb Beltorc) identifies him as Lord Mattis Beltorc Caleb's brother, heir of the duke, master of Túr Tiarnán DéDannan research. Verity walks over: "You know who I am. Your brother told me about you." Mattis: "Greetings. Who are you? Well — you look like a Kinnett." Anti-divination magic is active around him, "standard operating procedure."
  2. Mattis invites the party to sit. Wine is ordered, and a round of the local Shaleshine vodka with it. He himself drinks a Highvale Brandy — "It's not that patriotic to drink the local slop." The room of wizards and students settles into a respectful ring around the conversation; even Isten of Glaunthar and Edum of Thrandul drift over.
  3. The party show him the Roc Egg. "A Roc Egg. Tremendous." He immediately names the Sliabhán embassy in town as a natural buyer.
  4. The party then risk showing him the DéDannan Scanner — the device they recovered earlier in the campaign. Valerio (in character): "Show him. Show him the gadget thing." Mattis's face goes into "one of pure awe and rapture." He starts naming components, identifies the repair the party had done, and asks the range. "We don't know — measured in miles." Mattis: "You know, we could probably put this on a booster and we could make it up to tens or hundreds of miles."
  5. Mattis then offers a deal. "I presume if I offered you a large sum of money, you wouldn't be willing to part with this. Well, perhaps I could persuade you with a large sum of money to come and collaborate at Túr Tiarnán sometime." The party show interest but decline the loan. "You should not be concerned because you are under the protection of the crown." Valerio (insight 24) reads it cleanly: Mattis has accepted he is not going to get the scanner outright, but even a few hours or days of borrowed time would advance the Túr Tiarnán research by years.
  6. From what the party reveals, Mattis suggests that Greydot mountain is the likely crash-site. He suggests heading south-west of Nestle, "once you cross The Cleave River into that area, there is a reason there are very few towers there." A known Remorhaz nesting ground; tremendous blizzards; dragons; purple worms; "all manner of dangerous creatures flying and subterranean." No commercial expedition goes there, which is exactly why a DéDannan crash site might still be undiscovered. He recommends overland travel, a very experienced guide, proper equipment. He recommends Nestle for the guide, horses for the road to Nestle, and giant mountain goats — large blue-furred, crazy-horned beasts — for the slopes beyond.
  7. Mattis discloses, gently, his interest in Baylioch. "Once I have finished my work at Túr Tiarnán, I hope one day to make travel to Baylioch safe. For the crash-site, you have the scanner to help you locate it when you get close enough."
  8. The conversation ends abruptly. "I am terribly sorry. Something has come up. I would love to talk to you again. Send me a missive at any point." He performs a small distillation cantrip and is gone. The party — particularly Valerio — clock that the exit abrupt and not entirely innocent.

  He was perfectly hospitable. The wine was excellent. The Shaleshine was rough and characterful. He had the kind of friendly intelligence that makes the listener feel listened-to, and what he gave them — the route, the hazards, the mountain, his own work — was real. And when Valerio walked out of the back parlour he turned to Verity and said, in essence: he gave us a lot, he wanted us to give back, and what he gave us was real. The collaboration was on offer. Something else, less defined, was also on the table.

• Jason's Intelligence and The Belview Academy Deal

  1. Jason Poundsworth returns from his rounds with the day's intelligence. The Roc Egg is in negotiation; specialty buyers (the Sliabhán embassy, the Tionscail temple, the academy, the noble houses) should get the party five thousand or more if Jason stays in town for a week or two to work the channels. The party agree: Jason stays, the egg gets sold properly.
  2. Then the second item: half an hour before Jason reached the Belview goat-stable, all fifty available mountain goats were rented for a week through an unnamed intermediary acting for an unnamed factor. There is no large goat-riding party in town. There is no army requisition. There is no plausible benign explanation. "To slow us down," Valerio observes. "Well, we were in a bar failing wisdom checks about discussing things that we shouldn't discuss in bars."
  3. Jason advises pushing on tonight — the road from Belview to Nestle is fine for horses, and the stables in Nestle can resupply with goats from there. He cannot come; the Roc Egg sale needs him in Belview. He hands over the cold-weather gear, the crampons (mostly — sheet audits later that day reveal some have gone walkabout), the spare cloaks, and the rest of the kit. "Classic Lordling — I don't dress myself, usually that's my valet's job." Valerio realises his clothing is, by his own standards, imperfect, because Jason has been quietly dressing him every morning for years.
  4. Before departure, Valerio visits the Belview academy's scroll shop for emergency 3rd-level scrolls. With +13 persuasion and a natural-20 (total 33) he extracts two scrolls of Leomund's Tiny Hut — one at 300 gp, the second free — on the standing condition that every bard he employs name-drops the academy. The DM frames it: "They believe in this marketing opportunity that you have now brought them. They are thinking, this is the way to go." Valerio (in character) decides: "Every time we come through this town, I'm going to put on a new disguise and walk by somebody from the Belview Academy in a tavern saying, Valerio told me, Belview Academy is the best place to get magic scrolls."
  5. Valerio also takes a moment with Wenna Stoutkettle and gives one piece of expert, unsolicited advice on the local corn vodka — known in Belview as Shaleshine. The DM and Wenna both note it down. A future Belview VSOP — Valerio's Shaleshine Original Perfected — is in development. Dave, pragmatic, proposes the teenage variant: mix it with sugar and bright blue food colouring, "sell it to teenagers." They name it — Eidol Ice, after Eidolos, "carved out of ice on the front."

  He had teleported to Belview unprepared and walked out of it with a marketing partnership, a research collaboration he might or might not accept, two emergency scrolls of Leomund's Tiny Hut, the local vodka about to be remade in his name and a sweet blue variant about to be made in his friend's, and a thieftaker general filing him under quiet watch. He had been in Belview for less than an afternoon.

• Overland to Nestle — Two Days on Horseback

  1. The party leave Belview in the late afternoon of Charday 17 — "about four o'clock, maybe five" — directly from The Dragons' Rest yard. Horses, not goats; the road to Nestle is fine for horses and Jason has confirmed the stables can resupply at the far end. They leave that evening and travel the riverside road into the night.
  2. They ride south along The Cleave River road toward Nestle. The DM compresses: "You camp a couple of times and then you arrive at Nestle. Two days later." The Charday evening, all of Sunday 17, a camp, and into the evening of Moonday 18. The cold-weather gear bought in Belview earns its keep on the first night. Nobody is quite sure where their crampons are; Valerio is wearing yesterday's shirt.
  3. They arrive at Nestle in the evening of Moonday 18. "Nestle is a huddle of stone houses gripping the riverbank, smoke streaming flat off the chimneys in the wind. A painted shield creaks over one door. Inside the Iron Shield, every face turns, weighs you, and decides if you're either mad or wealthy or possibly both."

  The road south was easy. Two days of riding through cold that their gear could handle, on a road the Beltorc thieftakers had made safe enough that the Glic's whims did not turn against the party once. They camped, they kept watch on rotation, they thought about Lord Mattis Beltorc and about who had taken the goats. They did not, on this leg, think about Jason Poundsworth as often as they should have. The mountain would teach them.

• Nestle — The Goat Stable, The Iron Shield, the Herbalist, the Guide

  1. Valerio: "First order of business — rent goats." The party walk straight from the inn to the stable. The proprietor rents (but does not breed) the mountain goats — the serious breeders are the Goliaths near Belview. She confirms: a single buyer rented all fifty good goats just before the rival expedition rode out. What she has left is "very few goats, and they're not the healthiest looking ones." The party inspect them: three are lame, half-blind, and diseased — barely fit for the road, let alone the mountain.
  2. Eidolos steps up. Cure Wounds fixes the lameness. Lesser Restoration takes the disease. Lesser Restoration again clears the blindness. All three goats are made whole. The party then ask the stable-keeper for a cheap rental given the work Eidolos has just put in.
  3. The stable-keeper offers a deal. "Well, you can rent them cheap anyway — but seeing as you've healed them, I will only take the money now as a down payment. If you bring them back in the same condition you took them away — which is immaculate — I will give you all the money back. But you're going to a really dangerous place, so I would rather have the money now in case you don't come back and your goats don't come back." The party agree. Money up front; full refund on safe return. The stable-keeper also notes that a group fitting the rivals' description rode out around midday, swapping between mounts to move fast, heading south-west toward Greydot mountain; she had thought them stupid for going.
  4. At The Iron Shield Inn, the party introduce themselves and meet a tavern-keeper unaware of Valerio's reputation — "Aurelia is 250 miles away. The news hasn't reached here as of yet." Valerio muses, "This is the first time in a long time I've thought, wait a minute, you don't know who I am?!" The bard, says the tavern-keeper, will arrive that evening.
  5. Jebediah Sinthrop shuffles up: "I seem to have forgotten my wallet, but forget about that for the moment. I am Jebediah Sinthrop. I can give you whatever information you would need about the area and about anything a bard could do for you." Verity (recalling Caleb Beltorc's briefing): "Yes — that guy. Caleb Beltorc told me about you." The party tip Jebediah five gold — one to find the bard, one to fetch Halla Ironshield (who is already in the room), and three for himself. He is "positively delighted."
  6. The bard's brief: write a ballad of Valerio's drinking prowess with a Belview academy scroll-shop name-drop in the bridge, and have it sung tonight — especially if the party are not here. The bard will be paid 50 gp for a few weeks of singing.
  7. The party then ask Jebediah Sinthrop about herbs for stamina and exhaustion. He brightens: "Oh, I know the herbalist. I could introduce you. No charge." Two doors down they meet Delia Torcedor. She greets Jebediah Sinthrop as "Debbie." She is human, weathered, the look of eighty rather than her actual early fifties thanks to pipe smoke and cold winters. They buy three drugs: Cockerel (a stimulant made from dried purple flowers; advantage on Str / Int / Dex checks, disadvantage on Wis / Cha, ignore one level of exhaustion, gain one when it wears off; tendency to make the user crow), Slam (a Hanorian dragon-born barbarian-rage stimulant — barbarian rage for two hours, ignore all exhaustion, then take all your exhaustion back plus one), and Sloop (a mellow opiate — Valerio's recreational interest). The party buy eight doses of Cockerel (two per PC), two doses of Slam (combat reserve), and a small amount of Sloop for Valerio.
  8. Valerio and Delia Torcedor smoke together. He notes her pipe blend — winded-orchid opiate combined with a stimulant, two stashes of different densities, alternated.
  9. They return to The Iron Shield Inn for the guide. Halla Ironshield is already there, smoking her pipe. "Hi. I'm Halla Ironshield. No relation" — to Durin Ironshield of the tomb up the road, that is. Dwarven ranger, archer, very thick stubble and a cleft chin and a huge jaw. The rival party ("a group of Beltorcs and their lackeys,