Attributes
Featured NPCs335-alam-sildwell335-helvi335-idris-vell335-tach335-grant-taver335-mayor-henderson335-tethis
Chapter Number30
TitleThe Patient Hand
Primary Location335-starfall-village
Dm NotesEstablishes Tethis' voice without putting Tethis on the field, resolves Sildwell as an ally, and ties Dawncrest's hostility to Pax Nox's contracts. Vell should attempt escape below 50 HP; if he escapes, Sildwell delivers the same content as analytical observation. Henderson quietly asks Fey whether to close the northern road — Tach counsels quarantining the coin instead, since closure signals Tethis that the seeding worked.
Introduced NPCs335-helvi335-idris-vell
Detailed NarrativeAct 1 — the briefing. Sildwell, listening from the back, finally speaks: the Cabal is in Starfall to kill the kingdom's leadership and is coming for him too. Direct Moonguard force failed at the sanctuary; this is the deniable second strike, paid for by the same council that displaced Tach.
Act 2 — the plague uprising. Citizens who have handled tainted coin from the northern trade routes for weeks bloom on a signal the party cannot trace. Helvi anchors them, speaking Tethis' philosophy in his cadence.
Act 3 — the Cabal ambush. Captain Idris Vell's strike team hits the same ground while the party is scattered and spent.
Act 4 — aftermath. The healers find the vector within the hour: every Plague-Bloomed corpse shows coin-handler wear — callused fingertips, grooved thumb pads, gray discoloration spreading from the cuticles. The bad coin is Hallows-minted but originates in Ubrover, moving Ubrover → Hallows → Drakarnia along the northern road for at least eight weeks. A DC 28 Occultism or Religion check reads the seeding as sacramental: not a poison disguised as money but a divine working that uses trade itself as its medium. The merchants are not victims; they are the ritual. Vell or Sildwell confirms the contract is Dawncrest stewards, that the party leadership — not Tach — is the kill list, and that the plague was not Cabal coordination: 'That was someone else. We adjusted.' Sildwell becomes a sworn ally and takes the kingdom's vacant General post.
Events
SummaryThe party returns to Starfall with Tach for Grant Taver's WARD briefing, where Alam Sildwell breaks cover as a former Black Cabal operative and names the Dawncrest stewards as the contractor. Adair Plaza then erupts: plagued merchants attack from within, led by Tethis' herald Adept Helvi the Silent — and the exhausted party is hit a second time on the same ground by the Cabal strike team. The chapter reveals the plague's vector is the currency itself.
Campaignwizard-war
Locations335-starfall-village335-hallows335-ubrover
Player Characters335-fey335-griva335-lloyd335-mac