TEXT:  
  From the Pen of Ryan Nock 
   
  Evocative Cover Illustration by Jonathan Roberts
   Stunning Cartographic Displays by Jonathan Roberts
   Masterful Interior Illustrations by Brian Lindahl
   
   Claudio Pozas
   
   ShenFei
   
   Eleni Tsami
   
   & artists of history
   
  with Layout and Graphic Design by Eric Life-Putnam
  EN5ider Presents:
  The ZEITGEIST Adventure Path
  Campaign Guide
  Thoroughly Playtested for Maximum Enjoyment by 
  Jason Boss, David Braught, Josh Brzinski, Ted Brzinski, 
  Sam Coman, Neil D’Cruze, Francis Dickinson, Robert M. Everson, 
  Michael Gallogly, Matthew J. Hanson, Michael Hart, 
  Michael Iachini, Tom Jones, Laura Kertz, Gene McDonald, 
  James Robert Parks IV, Cathy Perez, Romana Perez, 
  Hamid Raoof, Bryan Rennekamp, Tyrone Shekelberg, 
  Judson Stowe, and Eugene Zaretskiy
   
  Ably Produced and Facilitated by Russell Morrissey
   
  Our Humble and Special Thanks to  our hundreds of Kickstarter backers and Patreon patrons and to the many GMs and 
  players who have experienced, commented upon, enjoyed, complimented, critiqued, and 
  contributed to this campaign. We’re your biggest fans!
  
  2 | EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide
  Open Game Content | The game rule information in this article is designated Open Game Content. All other material in this 
  article, including maps and illustrations (including public domain illustrations), narrative and descriptive text, character and place 
  names, trade dress, “EN Publishing,” “EN World,” “EN5ider,” “Zeitgeist,” all EN Publishing product and article titles, and EN World 
  and EN Publishing logos, are designated Product Identity.
  If you plan to be a player in this  
  adventure path, please don’t read 
  any further — this book is full 
  of spoilers for the GM!
  W
  elcome to the Zeitgeist Adven-
  ture Path. Where the Player’s Guide 
  contains vital details about the Zeigeist cam-
  paign world, this Campaign Guide outlines the 
  adventures themselves and the forces opposing 
  the PCs. Players should only read the Player’s 
  Guide, and not this document. GMs also need to 
  be familiar with the setting to have the proper un-
  derstanding of the information in this guide. You 
  can download a free copy of the Player’s Guide 
  with your EN5ider subscription.
  Needless to say, spoilers abound.
  Contents
  This Campaign Guide contains the following sections. 
  Key Terms Primer. A brief list of major names, places, and 
  ideas in this adventure path.
  Campaign Synopsis. Details of the conspiracy known as the 
  Obscurati, their goals, and their membership. Also a brief over-
  view of other main plot threads in the campaign.
  Running the Campaign. Guidance for handling new me-
  chanics and doling out revelations at a satisfying pace, as well 
  as a synopsis of all thirteen adventures.
  Ancient History. Information given out to the players over 
  the course of thirteen adventures is compiled here for the 
  GM’s convenience.
  EN
  EN
  Publishing
  Publishing
  tm
  Introduction
  Join the Conspiracy!
  “The motion of the stars allows different ideals to gain ascendance: 
  war, decay, chaos, exploration, order, creation. But no longer shall the 
  procession of heaven obey the whims of an ancient, absent clockmaker. 
  Now the hand that moves the stars shall be ours!”
   — Nicodemus the Gnostic, founder of the Obscurati
  A secret cabal is constructing a magnificent machine to let them set 
  the alignment of the multiverse, reshaping reality to reflect their 
  ideology. As the heroes tease the conspiracy out from the shadows, 
  adherents of other faiths and philosophies will battle to determine the 
  spirit of a new age: the zeitgeist.
  This guide presents an outline of the Zeitgeist campaign from 
  beginning to end. There is plenty of room to adjust things based on 
  your players’ actions, but an overview of the plot will help you lay the 
  groundwork beginning with the first adventure. Climaxes, twists, and 
  revelations are only compelling if they have been properly built up to.
  Key Terms Primer
  Geography and History.
  * Lanjyr. The continent of the campaign, consisting of five major 
  nations — Risur, Danor, Ber, Crisillyir, and Drakr — plus numer-
  ous weaker states, and the conquered eladrin Elfaivar Empire, 
  now divided into many small colonies.
  * Risur. A human kingdom, central to the campaign, whose 
  traditional reverence for nature has begun to clash with a recent 
  push for rapid industrialization.
  * Flint. A major city in Risur, center of the nation’s industry, and 
  location where most of this campaign’s events take place.
  * Danor. The tiefling-ruled nation Risur has been at war with 
  on-and-off for two centuries. The nation-wide dead magic zone 
  prompted technological innovation, leading to today’s industrial 
  revolution.
  * Yerasol Archipelago. Lush islands off the coast of Risur and 
  Danor. For the past two hundred years the nations have vied for 
  control of the archipelago.
  * The Clergy. The foremost religion in Lanjyr, led by priests pious 
  to various allied deities. The most revered is Triegenes, a human 
  fisherman who allegedly rose to godhood a thousand years ago. 
  Doctrine focuses on how divinity exists in all people, albeit with 
  a humanocentric bent.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide | 3
  Introduction
  * The Old Faith. The druidic religion of Risur, concerned with 
  appeasing nature spirits rather than praying to gods.
  * Seedism. The ancient faith of elves, gnomes, and eladrin, based 
  upon supplication to gods not seen in this world for millennia, 
  with respect for the lords of the Dreaming, believed to be those 
  gods’ vassals. Seedism remains the primary religion in Elfaivar, 
  and less orthodox sects practice their faith in small pockets in 
  the human nations.
  * The Victories. Two mighty wars five hundred years ago, wherein 
  adherents of the Clergy conquered parts of the eladrin Elfai-
  varan Empire in a bid to stamp out Seedism. Calendars mark 
  years starting at the end of the Second Victory, 1 a.o.v. (After 
  Our Victory).
  * The Great Malice. In the Second Victory, humans slew the 
  eladrin goddess Srasama. In the aftermath, nearly every eladrin 
  woman in the world died, which quickly led to the collapse of 
  the Elfaivaran Empire. Simultaneously, the nation of Danor 
  became a massive dead magic zone. It’s believed Danor’s afflic-
  tion is a curse lain by the dying goddess, in which she sacrificed 
  millions of followers for a final act of spite. 
  * The Dreaming. A parallel world and home to the fey, where 
  reality tends to obey dream logic, the Dreaming is normally only 
  accessible through powerful magic or at specific locations like 
  crossroads or toadstool rings during specific times of the month 
  or year.
  * The Bleak Gate. A darker parallel world where the dead linger 
  before they pass on to the afterlife. Only horrors and night-
  mares live here natively. Sounds do not echo. Seas are flat. The 
  air is still. The sky never grows brighter than a gray gloom. 
  Normally inaccessible to the living, except during exceedingly 
  rare celestial events.
  * The Axis Seal. This primordial ritual buried a massive golden 
  plate — carved with symbols representing eight planes of the 
  multiverse — in what was then the center of the known world. 
  The plate acts as a seal for a portal to the rest of the multiverse, 
  and limits access from this world to only eight others. The 
  ritual’s completion shattered the continent, and today the seal 
  lies forgotten on an island in the Yerasol Archipelago. If it were 
  opened, it would be possible to change what planes influence 
  this world, or to travel the multiverse.
  A Map of Lanjyr.
  
  4 | EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide
  Introduction
  Power Groups and Modern Philosophies.
  * Risuri Homeland Constabulary. Law enforcement sponsored 
  by King Aodhan of Risur, tasked with pursuing threats that 
  transcend country borders. The campaign assumes the heroes 
  belong to this organization, but we offer several alternatives.
  * House Jierre. A tiefling family which has come to rule Danor 
  since the Great Malice. Proponents of industry and technol-
  ogy. Many scions of the family have had a hand in shaping the 
  development of the great nations in the past five centuries.
  * The Unseen Court. A “government” for the fey who live in the 
  analogue of Risur in the Dreaming, obeying whims of metaphor 
  and ruling with magically binding obligations and promises. 
  These powerful and secretive fey have long received tribute 
  from the mortals of Lanjyr, and they have grown disgruntled in 
  response to recent industry, which has turned people’s minds 
  away from their faith in the old ways. Many loyal fey have 
  turned violent and aggressive, and rumors say the Court is just 
  waiting for the right time to step out of the Dreaming and 
  attack Risur.
  * The Kell Guild. The brutish Lorcan Kell rose from a merciless 
  gang enforcer to figurehead of Flint’s largest crime syndicate. 
  They grew rapidly in strength when the city began building 
  most of its factories on their turf, allowing them to extort and 
  smuggle their way to riches.
  * The Family. A criminal organization based out of Crisillyir, 
  working to gain a foothold in Risur. Practices protection 
  rackets, extortion, and smuggling, just like the Kell Guild, but 
  with a veneer of honor and concern for the community as a 
  whole. Though publicly opposed by the Clergy, their leadership 
  is actually a secret sect of the faith, allowed to thrive so the 
  church can coordinate with a unified criminal element instead 
  of scattered gangs.
  * Heid Eschatol. Dwarven philosophical movement concerned 
  with the endings of things — from how best to order one’s 
  affairs at the end of life, to how to break up with a lover, or 
  in what manner to confront the imminent end of the world. 
  Started in Drakr, and has migrated to universities throughout 
  Lanjyr. Some radical factions actively seek to cause suffering so 
  as to hasten the world’s end.
  * The Panoply. A loose movement of anti-establishment thinkers 
  and artists, based primarily in Ber, but rapidly making inroads 
  among the dockers of Risur. Commonly viewed as instigators 
  and anarchists.
  Magical Traits.
  The world of Zeitgeist has three unique magical traits due to the 
  nature of the planes it draws energy from. 
  First, 200 years ago the connection to the plane of air was dam-
  aged, so now no spell or magic item can allow for permanent flight. 
  PCs can still have flight magic of their own, but no effect ever lasts 
  longer than five minutes, and people still react to flying mages with 
  amazement because of how rare the magic is. Only one person in 
  the setting, the fey terrorist Gale, has the ability to fly perpetually 
  at the start of the adventure path.
  Second, gold blocks teleportation. Line of sight for short-range 
  teleportation cannot pass through any door or window that has 
  even a thin wire of gold tracing its frame, and a creature wearing 
  a ring of gold cannot teleport. Prison cells for eladrin are typically 
  lined with threads of gold, and even beat cops usually carry a gold 
  ring with them just in case they have to slip it on the toe of a sus-
  pect to keep them from escaping.
  Third, the Axis Seal inhibits planar travel. Unless the caster has 
  a rare and special connection to another plane (such as the king 
  of Risur, who by the rites of rulership is connected to the Dream-
  ing), magic cannot allow a creature to travel to another plane 
  permanently, and even powerful effects will end abruptly after five 
  minutes. Special celestial occurrences can create circumstances to 
  make travel easier, and the villains of the campaign are unique for 
  being the only people ever to figure out how to bypass this limit, and 
  even then only to get to and from the Bleak Gate.
  Make sure your players understand these limits. If someone 
  wants to be special and break one of these limits, you’re probably 
  fine to allow it as long as you don’t let them easily travel to the 
  Dreaming or the Bleak Gate: those planes need to be hard to reach 
  for critical plot reasons.
  William Miller
  aka
  Nicodemus
  the Gnostic
  Unrest Breeds Destruction.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide | 5
  Introduction
  The Obscurati.
  * Nicodemus the Gnostic. Founder and leader of the occult 
  organization, the Obscurati, Nicodemus resents religion and 
  superstition and seeks the ascendance of human reason. We 
  detail his motivations and history herein, but his name should 
  remain secret to the players until Adventure Five, and his real 
  identity hidden until Adventure Eight at least.
  * William Miller. A monk who five hundred years ago opposed 
  the Second Victory and traveled to Elfaivar in a failed bid to 
  stop the war. Though he was always a philosopher of note, he 
  has become a heroic icon of the Panoply movement, who widely 
  disseminate his writings among commoners and the working 
  class.
  As he witnessed the atrocities of the Second Victory, Miller 
  grew disillusioned with the Clergy. He traveled under the 
  name Nicodemus the Gnostic, a nickname he had earned in 
  his monastery for his doubting and his habit for smoking “leaf 
  of Nicodemus” (i.e., cigarettes). Historians know practically 
  nothing about Nicodemus, and have not connected him to the 
  philosopher William Miller.
  While tending the injured after a great battle in the city of 
  Alais Primos, Nicodemus met a similarly embittered eladrin 
  wizardress, Kasvarina Varal, and together they strove to 
  mitigate the religious conflict. Eventually they learned of a 
  ritual that could give physical form to a belief, but which bound 
  the lives of those who held that belief to the physical avatar. 
  They tried to trick the Clergy into using the ritual to summon 
  their own god of war — which Nicodemus and Kasvarina had a 
  plan to slay, ending the war — but the Clergy discovered their 
  ruse and instead invoked the eladrin goddess Srasama. When 
  an army slew the goddess’s avatar, it had terrible consequences 
  for the entire continent.
  Nicodemus tried to stop the ritual, but the magic tore 
  his soul from his body, allowing him to survive as a sort of 
  untethered ghost able to possess the bodies of others. He fled as 
  the Great Malice took effect, which did indeed end the war, but 
  at a cost far greater than he had intended.
  Kasvarina
  Varal
  Sovereign
  Han Jierre
  of Danor
  In the relative peace after the war’s end, Nicodemus tried to 
  make amends. He switched back to his original name of Miller 
  and created Pala, a small nation of thinkers and philosophers 
  on the border of modern Danor. But in 18 a.o.v. the Clergy 
  branded Miller a heretic, invaded Pala, and sacked its capital. 
  He was brought to Alais Primos, the new seat of the Clergy, 
  where he was tortured in an effort to compel a confession. After 
  he refused to recant, his captors made a pyre of his heretical 
  writings and burned him alive upon it.
  After his second murder by the Clergy, Miller abandoned his 
  peaceful idealism in favor of more Machiavellian techniques. 
  He left his identity as Miller behind, allowing people to 
  remember him as a martyr to reason, and set out to force the 
  world to change.
  After acquiring a new body, Miller met with two trusted 
  cohorts and proposed a path to reshape the world into one free 
  of the dangerous iconoclasty of the Clergy. Knowing any open 
  effort would result only in the loss of more innocent lives, they 
  formed a secret society, to become known as the Obscurati. 
  * Kasvarina Varal. A centuries-old eladrin who allied with Nico-
  demus during the Second Victory, managed by fluke to survive 
  the Great Malice, and later helped found the Obscurati. Her 
  key responsibility has been to undermine the Clergy’s military 
  and monetary might, primarily by forming vengeance cults 
  among her fellow surviving eladrin. More recently she oversaw 
  the grand Colossus project, detailed below.
  * Scions of House Jierre. Those who participated in the ritual 
  that invoked Srasama were twisted to become tieflings. One 
  among them, Jierre, grew horrified by what he had done and 
  was instrumental in the creation of Miller’s short-lived philoso-
  pher state of Pala. Jierre escaped persecution and later joined 
  the conspiracy of the Obscurati, charged with the dynastic task 
  of establishing a nation in the dead magic zone, free from the 
  influence of the Clergy, where reason would rise above religion.
  Today, scions of House Jierre hold many key positions in the 
  nation of Danor, including Sovereign Han Jierre.
  
  6 | EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide
  Z
  eitgeist takes place over the course of 
  thirteen adventures, in which the party will 
  ascend from 1st to 20th level. Because we understand 
  not all groups can manage the endurance to run such 
  a long campaign, we offer a few options for abridged 
  campaigns. In the Adventure Roster section (page 16) 
  we explain the plots of each of the thirteen adventures, 
  but first let us examine the narrative arc that runs 
  through the campaign.
  The Grand Conspiracy
  Imagine if one day the whole world woke up and agreed with you.
  On its broadest scale, Zeitgeist is about the party’s investiga-
  tion, discovery, and fight against a conspiracy that calls itself the 
  Obscurati, which seeks to alter the fundamental reality of the world. 
  In the primordial age, the world floated in a sea of many planes, its 
  borders unprotected against incursion from hostile and maddening 
  entities. An alliance of primitive peoples gathered the magical ener-
  gies of several worlds and crafted the Axis Seal. Beneath this seal they 
  placed icons and complex geometric patterns that linked a handful of 
  safe slivers of the multiverse to their own world. When the ritual was 
  complete, these slivers were pulled from the primordial sea and left to 
  float in the heavens as a star and its orbiting planets.
  These planes and the powers they represent — air, earth, fire, water, 
  life, death, space, and time — shape the course of the world’s events. 
  If one were changed, even by merely swapping which sliver of the 
  elemental planes became this system’s plane of fire, a complex cascade 
  of changes would alter how the world works and what its fate holds. 
  This ancient ban is long forgotten to most, but the Obscurati seek to 
  open it, alter the planes it links to, and seal it again. In so doing they 
  will force the whole the world to adhere to their philosophy, and set 
  the future on the path they desire.
  For more information on the history of the Axis Seal, see Appendix 
  One: Ancient History (page 25).
  Foundation, Ideology, and  
  the Ghost Council.
  The earliest seed of this plot was planted centuries ago by the secret 
  society’s three founders  —  the human philosopher Nicodemus the 
  Gnostic, the eladrin mage Kasvarina Varal, and the tiefling aristocrat 
  Jierre. Disillusioned with society’s adherence to old beliefs, together 
  they envisioned a world where reason and inquiry were supreme.
  In their ideal world, gods would hold no sway over mortals. People 
  would be respected for their knowledge, and enlightened self interest 
  would drive the progress of civilization, not pettiness and tribalism. 
  Even the poorest and weakest would be educated and uplifted. Before 
  the public execution that led him to take the name Nicodemus, Wil-
  liam Miller wrote much on this seemingly impossible ideal, and those 
  texts are cherished by many poets and rebels today. But many painful, 
  jading years have passed, and the founding dreams of the Obscurati 
  have shifted to a darker, more pragmatic ideology.
  The original Jierre has long since died, but his family holds power 
  in Danor. The Jierre line has cultivated a competitive system for the 
  advancement of reason and science, often with an emphasis on dis-
  crediting other nations’ reliance on gods. Magic brought into Danor 
  fades swiftly, so the religions of Lanjyr have struggled to plead their 
  case without access to their usually persuasive toolkit of miracles. Few 
  Danorans have any faith to speak of, which suits the Obscurati just 
  fine. Unfortunately, the conspiracy needs magic to accomplish its 
  Campaign Synopsis
  The Ghost Council Meet.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide | 7
  Campaign Synopsis
  goals, so they have founded cells in other nations, and 
  their official base of operations is in Crisillyir, on an 
  island called Mutravir. Nevertheless, the might of 
  Danor gives them great leverage in world politics.
  Kasvarina survives, and in the centuries since El-
  faivar was toppled she has worked to inspire eternal 
  resentment of the Clergy among eladrin. She ruled 
  from a roaming castle in the Dreaming, and her 
  direct decrees or subtle suggestions could ensure 
  that eladrin warriors would strike and kill any foes 
  of the conspiracy. Everyone in Lanjyr is so familiar 
  with eladrin revenge killings that they don’t imagine 
  there’s any guiding hand behind them.
  Nicodemus learned how to recreate the magic that 
  let him survive after his body was destroyed. In the 
  following centuries, on rare occasions he has used 
  this power to let loyal allies endure as spirits, forming 
  a council of ghostly philosophers, scientists, and other 
  wise men. They direct and advise the top-level actions 
  of the Obscurati.
  These undead advisors, no longer connected to the 
  daily trials and needs of the living, have given ever 
  more callous counsel to Nicodemus. Through centu-
  ries of setbacks, Nicodemus has held fast to his hope 
  to create a more perfect world, but he has seen too 
  many noble endeavors fail, watched too many friends 
  die, and he has begun to question his vision. If he put 
  his faith in the common people of his ideal land, he 
  doubts they would do anything but disappoint him.
  Organizing a Conspiracy.
  The structure of the Obscurati resembles a pyramid, 
  with different threads branching off at lower tiers. 
  Tier One: Triad.
  Three people have final say about what course the Ob-
  scurati take: Nicodemus, Kasvarina, and whoever the 
  scion of House Jierre is — currently Han Jierre.
  Tier Two: Ghost Council
  The Ghost Council advises and tracks logistics. They 
  review regular reports from heads of the various 
  cells, and make decisions regarding recruitment, 
  promotion, and  —  when necessary  —  elimination of 
  operatives. Their primary purpose is to make sure the 
  conspiracy’s resources are deployed efficiently while 
  minimizing the risk of discovery.
  Tier Three: Cell Leaders
  The conspiracy separates its operations into three 
  major cells and numerous minor cells, each with 
  delineated goals. The heads of each cell generally 
  have authority to pursue goals as they see fit, though 
  Nicodemus — able to move easily from body to body 
  without arousing suspicion  —  checks in regularly 
  with the cell leaders to ensure everything’s running 
  smoothly, and to field any requests. 
  Only rarely will leaders from two different cells 
  meet, and in normal circumstances they are not sup-
  posed to contact each other. The leaders of the three 
  major cells all know what the conspiracy’s overall goal 
  is, but even these trusted individuals do not know the 
  full scope of all the conspiracy’s allies and operations. 
  Meanwhile the leaders of most minor cells have been 
  told only that the Obscurati seeks to reward reason 
  and selflessness. The grandiose extent of the full plan 
  is kept secret.
  Nicodemus intends to gather all the cell leaders 
  together shortly before enacting his grand design. 
  Partially this is because he wants reassurance that his 
  plan to change the world is not selfish hubris. Par-
  tially it’s to prepare the cell leaders so they can deal 
  with any unforeseen consequences of the alteration. 
  And partially it is so he can gauge their reactions and 
  learn which cell leaders are participating only out of 
  a desire for personal power, so that he can dispose 
  of them. (This convocation is the focus of events in 
  Adventure Seven, Schism.)
  Golden Cell. Based in Danor, this cell is tasked 
  with excavating the ancient seal on Axis Island, 
  which lies in the Yerasol Archipelago, off the coasts 
  of Risur and Danor. Additionally, this cell researches 
  how the planar ban works, and searches for scattered 
  smaller seals in ancient ziggurats. The cell’s leaders 
  die during Adventure One, and thereafter leadership 
  is assumed by Lya Jierre, Danor’s Minister of Outsid-
  ers and niece of Sovereign Han Jierre, the current 
  ruler of Danor. 
  Lantern Cell. Based in the Crisillyiri city of Ven-
  dricce, this cell gathers information and performs 
  experiments regarding different planes, so that 
  when the Obscurati open the seal, they can choose 
  the right collection and alignment of planes to cre-
  ate the world they need. They have finalized most of 
  their research, and are in the process of researching 
  an eldritch machine called the wayfarer lantern. The 
  lantern initially makes travel between planes easier, 
  but scaled-up versions will be placed in lighthouses 
  and other key locations around the world to make 
  the transition to the new world faster and smoother. 
  Vicemi Terio, one of the oldest members of the 
  Ghost Council, commands this cell.
  Ghost 
  councilor
  Vicemi Terio
  Minister 
  Lya Jierre
  A Wayfarer Lantern Alight.
  
  8 | EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide
  Campaign Synopsis
  Colossus Cell. Based in the city of Flint in 
  Risur, this cell is devoted to the construction 
  of a 300-ft. tall golem. The Obscurati will use 
  the colossus to lift open the Axis Seal, which 
  is one hundred feet across, 30 inches thick, 
  and weighs over ten thousand tons. The seal’s 
  opening will unleash wild magic that is too de-
  structive for mundane cranes, but the mighty 
  colossus should be able to withstand it. After-
  ward the Obscurati plan to use the colossus as 
  a peacekeeping weapon, in case some people 
  choose to resist the new world order.
  This massive undertaking involves building 
  the colossus itself, smuggling industrial mate-
  rial and copious manpower into the city, and 
  diverting investigations, which is possible be-
  cause the cell’s leader is Flint’s city governor, 
  Roland Stanfield.
  Minor Cells. The conspiracy requires many 
  other cells, mostly devoted to local needs like 
  acquiring rare resources for other cells, scout-
  ing for talent, and killing people who learn 
  too much. After the Ob opens the Axis Seal, 
  these cells will be prepared to take down 
  strong-willed leaders who resist the new world 
  order, or destroy any monsters that might be 
  released as an unexpected side effect of the 
  ritual. The PCs will have only limited interac-
  tions with these cells.
  Tier Four: Major Projects
  Those in tier four are aware they’re part of a 
  conspiracy of some sort, but are given subtle 
  misinformation by their superiors so they 
  will not realize exactly what they are work-
  ing toward. They do not even know the word 
  “Obscurati.”
  Most tier four members oversee specific 
  projects toward the overarching mission of 
  their cell. Colossus Cell, for instance, is split 
  into two main tier-four branches: one in the 
  Bleak Gate, and one in the real world.
  Leone Quital — called the Steelshaper, one 
  of the creators of the colossus — handles oper-
  ations in the shadowy plane of the Bleak Gate. 
  Reed Macbannin  —  an expert on defense 
  against the dark arts, and mayor of one of 
  Flint’s districts — coordinates the real-world 
  side of things. Each man believes that Flint 
  City Governor Roland Stanfield is building a 
  weapon for Risur’s king capable of fighting 
  primordial entities known as the fey titans, 
  which Risur must keep appeased lest they 
  attack. They think the construction must be 
  secret to avoid outrage and sabotage by the fey 
  Governor 
  Roland 
  Stanfield
  Leone 
  Quital
  Obscurati Ring Code.
  Most officers of the Obscurati in tier three and four — and 
  a handul in tier five — wear rings with secret codes. These 
  serve both as an indicator of allegiance and as a focus for 
  a magical rite that shields these officers from divination. 
  Sometimes cell leaders give rings to their underlings as 
  gifts, not revealing their purpose.
  Each ring has a three word inscription. The first two 
  words can be anything, as long as their initials are O.B. 
  The number of letters in the third word indicates what tier 
  of the conspiracy the officer is in, and the material the 
  ring is made of identifies which cell. A gold ring is obvi-
  ously Golden Cell. Silver rings mark Lantern Cell. Bronze 
  rings indicate Colossus Cell. Most local cells use some 
  local tree’s wood, or have a specific cut and color of gem 
  inset.
  The rites of the Obscurati magically separate a 
  person’s normal identity from their role as an officer of 
  the conspiracy. Magic that attempts to determine the 
  identity of a conspirator wearing his ring fails outright, 
  as if such a person did not exist. Likewise, attempts to 
  determine whether a given person is affiliated with the 
  Obscurati will fail.
  Divinations that do not relate to his involvement with 
  the conspiracy can function, but have a chance of yield-
  ing useless, innocuous results. Whenever a character 
  attempts to use magic to divine an Obscurati officer’s 
  location, thoughts, status, or the like, that character must 
  make an Arcana check (DC 34). If he fails, the magic 
  reports something deceptive, usually in a way to lessen 
  suspicions.
  The protections these rites grant do not function if the 
  officer does not wear his ring, nor if the diviner knows the 
  words inscribed within his ring. That said, the leadership 
  triad and some Obscurati officers are powerful enough 
  to shield themselves without requiring these rites. Roland 
  Stanfield of Colossus Cell never wears his ring.
  Some rings the party is likely to discover in early ad-
  ventures are:
   • Lya Jierre. Originally tier 4 Golden Cell, “One 
  Bested Four.” Later tier 3, “One Betters All.”
   • Mayor Reed Macbannin. Tier 4 Colossus Cell. 
  “Overcome Black Arts.”
   • Lady Inspectress Margaret Saxby. Tier 5 Colossus 
  Cell. “Opportunity Begets Glory.”
   • Caius Bergeron. Tier 4 Golden Cell. “Old Bergeron 
  Gold.”
   • Finona Duvall. Tier 5 Golden Cell. “Original Brave 
  Ideas.”
   • Brianne “Bree” Kaldeckis. Tier 5 Golden Cell. 
  “Oathkeeper Bree’s Sword.”
   • Ottavia Sacredote. Tier 4 Lantern Cell. “Orthodoxy 
  Bolsters Gods.”
  Mayor
  Reed
  Macbannin
  Caius 
  Bergeron
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide | 9
  Campaign Synopsis
  and those loyal to them. Macbannin and Quital have 
  met each other once or twice, but don’t delve into 
  each other’s business.
  Similarly, in Golden Cell, tier four officer Caius 
  Bergeron is responsible to coordinating archaeo-
  logical digs around the continent. Another tier four 
  member (who dies off-screen in Adventure One) 
  manages the massive excavation projects on Axis 
  Island.
  Sometimes officers will get promotions or switch 
  cells. Ottavia Sacredote, previously a tier five agent 
  in a minor cell looking for useful-but-technically-
  heretical information known only to the Clergy, gets 
  promoted before Adventure Four, Always on Time 
  and joins Lantern Cell when she’s trusted with the 
  mission of escorting the newly invented wayfarer’s 
  lantern across the continent.
  Tier Five: Trusted Experts.
  Each cell branch requires the work of individuals 
  with rare skills, but they are usually only exposed to 
  small elements of the greater project. Indeed, much 
  of the conspiracy’s work appears innocuous, either as 
  legitimate business dealings and academic research, 
  or as illegal but mundane smuggling and violence.
  Again using Colossus Cell as an example, in the 
  real world Reed Macbannin has enlisted the head of 
  the local office of the RHC, Lady Inspectress Marga-
  ret Saxby, to ensure investigations that risk revealing 
  the conspiracy run into dead ends. She simply trusts 
  that Macbannin — an upstanding, respected, and pa-
  triotic politician — is working for the king, and that 
  by helping him she stands to gain power.
  He also has an alliance with crime boss Lorcan 
  Kell, who runs a complex smuggling operation mov-
  ing industrial material into the Bleak Gate, and who 
  won’t ask questions if someone needs killing. Kell 
  thinks he’s working for a corrupt politician dabbling 
  in dark magic.
  At Macbannin’s manor on haunted Cauldron Hill, 
  Kaja Stewart is head arcanoscientific researcher 
  experimenting with possible magical fuels, which 
  she assumes is just normal military research. Cillian 
  Creed, a retired spy who can change his appearance, 
  acts as liaison to Saxby and Kell and helps eliminate 
  any evidence that lead to Macbannin.
  None of Macbannin’s associates know anything 
  about the colossus.
  Meanwhile in the Bleak Gate, Leone Quital keeps 
  his personnel divided into two main groups. The 
  outer ring work in factories along the analogue of 
  Parity Lake, taking smuggled materiel and assem-
  bling it into components for the colossus. This ring 
  also includes security forces who protect them from 
  the monsters of the Bleak Gate. The inner ring works 
  in a subterranean facility under Cauldron Hill, us-
  ing the components to build the colossus in a massive 
  hollow chamber beneath the mountain. 
  They all know they’re involved in something 
  secret  —  after all, they’re confined to a shadowy al-
  ternate plane, prohibited from returning to the real 
  world until the project is complete, and paid exorbi-
  tantly for their work and discretion. They have been 
  told this is a Risuri military project.
  Leone suspects there’s more going on than meets 
  the eye, but he’s ambitious and intrigued by secrecy. 
  Only two other people in the Bleak Gate facility 
  know that the colossus is being built for a group un-
  affiliated with Risur. One, the slightly-insane gnome 
  artificer Tinker Oddcog, known as the Gearbuilder, 
  can talk to machines, which have told him of con-
  versations between Leone and other secretive visitors. 
  He doesn’t particularly care, though, as long as he 
  gets to build this grand machine. 
  The other, the unwilling enchanter Alexander 
  Grappa, known as the Mindmaker, actually wit-
  nessed a meeting between Leone and Kasvarina and 
  figured out more than he was supposed to. Fortu-
  nately for the Ob, Kasvarina has placed a powerful 
  geas on each of the three — Steelshaper, Gearbuilder, 
  and Mindmaker — ensuring they cannot tell outside 
  the conspiracy about its goals.
  Lower Tiers.
  Anyone below tier five is basically just hired help, with 
  no special insight. They usually think they’re working 
  for some rich benefactor who values his privacy, or 
  that they have a grant for some unusual research or 
  activity. For instance, Roland Stanfield encouraged a 
  businessman with an alchemical factory in Flint to 
  makes alkahest — universal solvent — so that a few vi-
  als could be smuggled by Lorcan Kell to the colossus 
  assembly pit, where it is needed for etching wards in 
  the adamantine skin of the titanic golem. The factory 
  owner and all its workers are utterly oblivious that 
  anything is going on, other than that occasionally 
  thieves nick some of their product.
  Specialty Gear.
  Needlewire.
  When Ob cell leaders need to contact Nicodemus, 
  they can use a unique magical compound, called 
  needlewire. Injecting this fluid into a person alerts 
  Nicodemus from anywhere in the world, and lets him 
  possess the subject from afar. These are not full pos-
  sessions, though, so Nicodemus cannot wield his full 
  power through them. Afterward, Nicodemus returns 
  to his original location, and the vessel remembers 
  nothing.
  Ottavia 
  Sacredote
  Lady 
  Inspectress 
  Margaret 
  Saxby
  Lorcan 
  Kell
  Kaja 
  Stewart
  
  10 | EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide
  Campaign Synopsis
  Normally only leaders of cells have access to this 
  compound, though they might give some to a trusted 
  lieutenant for a special mission requires an immedi-
  ate report to the Triad. In an emergency, any bum off 
  the street can act as a vessel for the conspiracy’s 
  mastermind.
  Witchoil.
  The real world has two parallel planes — the fey Dream-
  ing and the shadowy Bleak Gate. A veil separates these 
  from the real world; if the veil is pierced, unusual 
  physical manifestations appear in the real world. 
  Tears in the veil to the Dreaming often produce 
  rings of toadstools, while tears leading to the Bleak 
  Gate cause a viscous black fluid called witchoil to 
  bubble up from the ground, smelling like burnt engine 
  grease. Common folk have no idea that either mani-
  festation is anything unusual, but the Obscurati have 
  studied witchoil extensively.
  Witchoil is only slightly flammable by itself, but it 
  has the unique property of trapping the souls who die 
  in its presence. Normally those who die pass on to the 
  Bleak Gate and then to whatever afterlife might await, 
  but the witchoil acts like a tiny sliver of the Bleak Gate, 
  drawing souls into itself. A single ounce of witchoil is 
  enough to trap a single soul, and the few scholars who 
  know of its abilities suggest it could make resurrection 
  magic easier. On the other hand, it seems that souls 
  in witchoil are trapped and can never “pass on.” The 
  theological consequences of this are unknown.
  The Obscurati’s interest focuses on the greatly in-
  creased combustability of witchoil once it has been 
  refined with souls. Normally even a single vial of wi-
  tchoil is a rare commodity, but their operations on 
  Cauldron Hill have found the veil between worlds 
  there to be thin. Even more conveniently, thousands 
  of years of druidic ritual sacrifices mean all the oil on 
  Cauldron Hill comes ready for use. 
  While the colossus can function without any fuel, 
  simply relying on natural magical energy around it, 
  the Obscurati don’t know exactly what it will have to 
  cope with while opening the Axis Seal, and so have 
  equipped it with a witchoil furnace that can power it 
  from within even if the environmental mana changes.
  In Adventure Two, The Dying Skyseer, witchoil 
  threatens an industrial disaster that would poison huge 
  swaths of Flint.
  Other Plot Threads
  While the Obscurati are the main antagonists of the 
  campaign, the party will have to deal with several other 
  ongoing threats and movements. How they resolve 
  these challenges will influence the allies and resources 
  they have along the way to deal with the Obscurati.
  * Civil Unrest. Workers distrust factory owners, 
  the government, and the police, making Flint a 
  bit of a powder keg.
  * Kell Guild vs. The Family. Two criminal orga-
  nizations vie for dominance in Flint, and one of 
  them is working for the Obscurati.
  * Vekeshi Mystics and the Unseen Court. 
  Fey-aligned groups with goals unrelated to the 
  conspiracy provide distractions and occasionally 
  assistance.
  * Eschatologists. The philosophical movement 
  is gaining popularity in Flint, but some of its 
  advocates are connected to a radical terrorist 
  group from Drakr who want to bring about 
  chaos and war.
  * Pemberton. A prominent industrialist with 
  genteel charm, Benedict Pemberton is actually 
  one of the few surviving dragons, who has bided 
  his time and is preparing to stake out his own 
  territory again.
  Civil Unrest.
  In Flint — and to a lesser extent in the cities of Ber the 
  party visits in Adventure Six — the growth of industry 
  is making some rich while leaving the underclass en-
  dangered and embittered. Dockers fight regularly with 
  police and a simmering unrest threatens to break out 
  into open riots if given enough provocation.
  The party can become heroes of the common people, 
  or be cast as agents of an uncaring government, or sim-
  ply be in the middle, having to deal with recalcitrant 
  witnesses and balancing the consequences of their ac-
  tions on the people of Flint. Three major events will 
  shape how the party is seen in their home city: Nevard’s 
  rally, the arrest of Rock Rackus, and the rampage of 
  the colossus.
  Nevard’s Rally.
  In Adventure Two, in addition to saving workers from 
  a factory arson and averting an industrial disaster 
  when the Obscurati’s research goes awry, the party 
  can help the respected skyseer named Nevard Sechim. 
  He calls a rally to warn people of danger he saw in a 
  vision, and depending on how well the party has han-
  dled other threats, the public might take this warning 
  to heart and avoid the cursed Cauldron Hill, or they 
  might panic and start a riot.
  The Arrest of Rock Rackus.
  Rock Rackus is an obnoxious and overconfident per-
  former whom common folk love because he used to be 
  a dock worker. At the start of Adventure Three, Rackus 
  gets drawn into a fight against monsters that the party 
  is fighting. One of his bullets goes awry and kills a man, 
  giving the local police an excuse to arrest someone they 
  Cillian 
  Creed
  Tinker 
  Oddcog
  Alexander 
  Grappa
  Skyseer
  Nevard
  Sechim
  Rock 
  Rackus
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide | 11
  Campaign Synopsis
  see as a rabble-rouser. The public sees him as a hero 
  and might start threatening the police if he’s not freed. 
  To make things worse, a rogue vekeshi mystic finds his 
  songs offensive to the Unseen Court and tries to have 
  him assassinated.
  For his part, Rackus is a bit too shallow to worry 
  about the effect his lyrics have on people, but the party 
  might be able to take more responsibility and even 
  become a worthy face for the proletariat. Unless the 
  party has a hand in doing him in, Rackus’s dumb luck 
  and witless charm find him stumbling into the party’s 
  affairs in later adventures, until eventually he gets his 
  hands on the magic they need to travel the cosmos in 
  Adventure Twelve.
  Rampage of the Colossus.
  At the end of Adventure Five, the Obscurati’s colossus 
  breaks free prematurely, transitions into the real world 
  from the Bleak Gate, and proceeds to tear its way 
  through Flint. Though the party will have help here, 
  how fast they react and how effectively they keep the 
  colossus from crushing buildings and killing hundreds 
  of people will determine whether the city sees them as 
  incompetents or heroes. If the former, the following 
  year will be filled with riots and civil unrest; if the lat-
  ter, the party likely manages to keep the peace enough 
  that when Flint is really in danger, its citizenry will be 
  able to help.
  Kell Guild vs. Family.
  The thieves’ guild run by Lorcan Kell is the dominant 
  power in Flint’s industrial district of Parity Lake. His 
  chief advisor, a lawyer named Quentin Augst who rep-
  resents many of Kell’s thugs when they get caught, has 
  helped turn the savage Kell into a frightening figure-
  head while he handles most of the daily affairs. Police 
  generally don’t contest the guild’s authority, though 
  Kell and Augst are wary of pushing too far and ruining 
  a good thing. Right now they can rob a little, extort a 
  lot, and enjoy being the top dogs. 
  But recently a new criminal element has emerged, 
  their base of operations in the more middle-class 
  Stray River district. The Family is commonly known 
  as a powerful crime syndicate from Crisillyir which is 
  trying to expand its reach. In terms of raw might and 
  wealth, The Family far eclipses the Kell Guild, but any 
  fight over turf is tough.
  Obscurati Plot.
  Kell has been working with Reed Macbannin’s man 
  Creed to smuggle industrial materiel from the factories 
  of Parity Lake. Kell’s people mark specific crates with 
  certain magic symbols and send them down Stanfield 
  Canal on barges. They pass under the bridges of the 
  canal, which have been secretly lined with enchanted 
  rings of rusted iron, and the two magics interact to 
  pull the crates into the Bleak Gate bit by bit. At the end 
  of their trip, they disappear from the real world and 
  fall into the canal in the Bleak Gate, where Obscurati 
  agents have to use a specialized wand to finalize the 
  transition.
  In Adventure Five, the party will need to capture 
  Kell or his advisor Quentin Augst in order to get access 
  to this route into the Bleak Gate. The Obscurati can 
  help him escape, and he is likely present at the adven-
  ture’s big showdown.
  Family Business.
  Morgan Cippiano serves as the head of The Family in 
  Flint, and he holds his people to a higher standard of 
  behavior than Kell. In Adventures Two and Three, he 
  offers to reward the party if they help him smuggle 
  weapons and drugs into the city, and he can provide 
  useful information about the operations of the Kell 
  Guild. In Adventure Five he’ll gladly assist the RHC’s 
  attempts to take down Kell.
  While Cippiano and The Family in general don’t 
  play a major role as either allies or antagonists in the 
  first two acts of the campaign, they add some flavor 
  and provide you and your players an avenue to make 
  your mark on the campaign. How much the party 
  wants to get in bed with the criminal underbelly of the 
  city is up to the players, and Cippiano’s ambitions to 
  have leverage in Flint provides opportunities for myri-
  ad side-plots, ranging from cop procedurals to political 
  intrigue.
  The final role of The Family is to help get the party 
  involved with events in the final four adventures. In 
  Adventure Four, the party visits a cursed clericist 
  vault, the Crypta Hereticarum, and Cippiano hints at 
  his affiliation with the Clergy when he next meets the 
  party, asking to know what happened so he can report 
  any potential release of unholy artifacts. Later, when 
  cataclysms start afflicting Crisillyir — where the party 
  just so happens to be heading to recover some ancient 
  artifacts — Cippiano’s relationship with the party can 
  give the mission more relevance and weight.
  Vekeshi Mystics and the 
  Unseen Court.
  The vekeshi mystics won’t necessarily play a major plot 
  role unless there is a mystic in the party. Otherwise 
  their actions are mostly background flavor, with the oc-
  casional murder or mishap being blamed on the vekeshi.
  With a vekeshi PC, however, the party might get em-
  broiled into some of the strife between the adherents of 
  the old faith and the modern push for industry and in-
  novation. We establish only two prominent members of 
  the cult in Flint. “The Old Stag,” actually Rear Admi-
  ral Morris Dawkins, always conceals himself beneath 
  Quentin 
  Augst
  Morgan 
  Cippiano
  Asrabey 
  Varal
  Vlendam 
  Heid
  
  12 | EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide
  Campaign Synopsis
  a mask with stag horns, though he could be identified 
  by his gnarled hands. He’s effectively the head of the 
  mystics in Flint, and will occasionally give missions to 
  a vekeshi PC. Far less prominent is Tyler Starke, a man 
  who probably should never have been admitted into the 
  cult, and who abuses his powers to punish those who 
  displease him personally.
  Mystic PCs will be tasked with befriending and 
  protecting the fey terrorist Gale in Adventure Two. 
  In Adventure Three, Tyler Starke pretends to be The 
  Old Stag and orders the death of Rock Rackus simply 
  because he finds the man’s music offensive. Adventure 
  Four gives a mystic PC the chance to rescue an eladrin 
  woman about to be sold into slavery, and in Adventure 
  Five an emissary of the Unseen Court named Asrabey 
  Varal will call upon the mystics to prevent a fey lord 
  from starting a war.
  Eschatologists.
  The main involvement of eschatologists in the plot 
  comes in the form of NPCs who are fond of philosophi-
  cal discussions. Mostly this helps lend a different air 
  to Zeitgeist by emphasizing the competition of moral 
  ideologies over a simple dichotomoy of good vs. evil. A 
  few eschatologists cross the party’s path, and they even 
  get to meet the movement’s found Vlendam Heid in 
  Adventure Four, but they don’t become a major part of 
  the campaign until Adventure Five, when a group of 
  terrorist who follow the teaching of radical eschatolo-
  gist Grandis Komanov attacks Flint.
  If you have an eschatologist PC, you might involve 
  him in the development of a club of philosophers in 
  Flint, and have many members be eschatologists. At 
  some point during Adventure Three have a visitor 
  from Drakr come speak and present the more radical 
  position of Komanov: not simply to prepare for proper 
  endings, but to help bring about the end of things. 
  While the philosophers might dismiss him as an an-
  archist, it could give the PC a connection to the later 
  threat posed by the radicals.
  Komanov and her radicals never rise to “top tier” 
  villain status, but in Adventure Eleven they make a bid 
  to wipe out Drakr with the aid of the Lost Riders, who 
  have returned now that the world has changed, and 
  they may decide to aid in the Voice of Rot’s bid to actu-
  ally destroy the world. 
  Benedict Pemberton.
  The industrialist Benedict Pemberton shows up early 
  on only as a name behind a company making grand 
  technological innovations, with a specialty in human-
  oid automatons. The party might visit his company’s 
  tent in the Kaybeau Arms Fair in Adventure Three, but 
  otherwise he doesn’t make an impact until Adventure 
  Six.
  That adventure sees the party head to Ber to chase 
  Tinker Oddcog, designer of the colossus, who’s on the 
  run from the Obscurati’s agents. Unbeknownst to both 
  the PCs and the conspiracy, Tinker will have already 
  been picked up by Pemberton, who uses him to design 
  grand weapons of war. 
  In truth, Benedict Pemberton was once the dragon 
  tyrant Gradiax, Lord of Steel. Two hundred years ago 
  when the world’s link to plane of air was damaged, 
  all dragons lost the ability to fly, making them easy 
  pickings for adventurers. Gradiax went into hiding, 
  remade himself as a wealthy land-owner, and by pre-
  tending generation after generation to be men of the 
  same family he took on the role of industrialist, seeing 
  a chance to retake control of the land that was once his.
  Though his plans are grandiose, Pemberton en-
  joys playing the role of a wizened geezer with folksy 
  charm. When the party thwarts him he initially seeks 
  revenge by disrupting their later missions to confront 
  the Obscurati, but eventually he realizes that the Ob 
  are a threat even to him. By Adventure Nine he’s even 
  willing to lend them a little aid, and in the last four 
  adventures he tries to join their side to take down the 
  conspiracy, with the understanding that in the after-
  math he’ll have earned the right to be in charge of his 
  own country.
  On a related note, Principal Minister Harkover 
  Lee, the highest advisor to Risur’s king, was also once 
  a dragon known as Inatch the Hex-Eater. He long ago 
  forsook his draconic identity, but he keeps watch on 
  Pemberton, afraid of the man’s ambition.
  Benedict 
  Pemberton
  Principal 
  Minister 
  Harkover 
  Lee
  Inatch the Hex-Eater
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide | 13
  Campaign Synopsis
  The Colossus Is Born.
  Revelation Timeline.
  The campaign saga revolves around the Obscurati trying to keep its 
  various secrets. The adventures are designed to reveal them to the 
  party a bit at a time. Later in the campaign, the PCs begin to build a 
  conspiracy of their own and figure out how to undo the villains’ plot.
  If somehow the party finds out or figures out something prema-
  turely, it doesn’t ruin the campaign, because the adventures link actual 
  existential threats to these revelations. Even if you already know by 
  the end of Adventure Two that they’re building a colossus in the Bleak 
  Gate, attacking their facility alone would be suicide, so you need evi-
  dence to convince the higher-ups. Adventures Three and Four give the 
  party ways to find that evidence, though you should feel free to shuffle 
  events or speed up the timeline to match the party’s efforts.
  Here are the main revelations of each adventure.
  Adventure Two. A conspiracy hiding in the Bleak Gate is smuggling 
  in materials somehow for a mysterious construction protect.
  Adventure Three. The conspiracy is studying ancient magic tied to 
  planar travel, which might explain how they’re able to so easily reach 
  the Bleak Gate. They call themselves the Obscurati.
  Adventure Four. The Obscurati have invented a device that wea-
  ponizes extraplanar energy, and Lya Jierre, the king’s fiancée, is part 
  of the plot.
  Adventure Five. Holy crap, they’ve built a 300-ft. tall colossus!
  Adventure Six. Alexander Grappa, a former member of the Ob-
  scurati who helped design the colossus, is hiding in Drakr, and knows 
  where the conspiracy will be meeting.
  Adventure Seven. Their ultimate plan is to alter the fabric of 
  reality, but many in the conspiracy disagree with the plans of their 
  leader, Nicodemus the Gnostic. Kasvarina Varal was once co-leader 
  of the conspiracy, and might be able to unite the Obscurati against 
  Nicodemus.
  Adventure Eight. Kasvarina and Nicodemus were responsible for 
  the Great Malice. The Obscurati plan to assassinate the king of Risur 
  and perform a ritual in Flint to make the country succumb to their new 
  world order.
  Adventure Nine. The actual core of the ritual wasn’t in Flint, but 
  on distant Axis Island. (At this point, the PCs might manage to protect 
  Risur, but most of the world falls under the control of the Obscurati.)
  Adventure Ten. The ritual that can change things back will require 
  three key components: an accurate map of the multiverse, a machine 
  to properly calibrate planar energies, and energy gathered from those 
  planes.
  Adventure Eleven. We have pieces one and two, but piece three 
  requires dying and traveling to the graveyard of the multiverse.
  Adventure Twelve. We have piece three, and we have learned a 
  separate ritual that will make us strong enough to withstand the chaos 
  at the Axis Seal, and to defend against the might of the Obscurati.
  Adventure Thirteen. One last question remains: what shall we 
  make in this new world?
  
  14 | EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide
  Running the Campaign
  T
  he Zeitgeist campaign saga presents a few 
  challenges traditional fantasy adventures don’t. 
  We hope to make it easy for you to handle those issues.
  Prestige
  The Player’s Guide introduces the Prestige mechanic. For each of the 
  five following groups, you will need to keep track of the party’s Pres-
  tige rating. During the course of the campaign, the party’s Prestige 
  with each particular group will affect how the members of that group 
  interact with the PCs.
  Flint.
  Saving the city and treating its workers well can earn the PCs support 
  from a public normally tight-lipped around law enforcement. Key mo-
  ments in earning Flint Prestige are averting a factory district fire and 
  industrial accident in Adventure Two, getting celebrity docker Rock 
  Rackus off from murder charges in Adventure Three, and driving off 
  the rampaging colossus in Adventure Five.
  Risur.
  High Prestige here earns promotions, access to better equipment, and 
  the trust of officials who might otherwise be skeptical of wild conspira-
  cy claims. Major moments that earn Risur prestige are arresting Reed 
  Macbannin in Adventure Two, defending the RHC headquarters in 
  Adventure Three, completing the spy mission in Adventure Four, and 
  helping the king banish the rampaging colossus in Adventure Five.
  Unseen Court.
  Those favored by the Court will be well received by the local fey of 
  Flint, those who follow the old druidic faith, and vekeshi mystics in 
  positions of authority. The party can earn prestige with the Unseen 
  Court by meeting peacefully with the fey terrorist Gale in Adventure 
  Two, fulfilling the command of the Voice of Rot in Adventure Three, 
  rescuing the eladrin Isobel in Adventure Four, and stopping the fey 
  lord Ekossigan in Adventure Five.
  Clergy.
  The party’s early interactions with The Family criminal organization 
  may filter up the chain of command to the priests who endorse the 
  crime syndicate. The party can get noticed by the Clergy through 
  helping The Family with smuggling in Adventure Two, by sneaking 
  into the Crypta Hereticarum in Adventure Four, and by helping The 
  Family replace the Kell Guild as the primary criminal organization in 
  Flint in Adventure Five, but they likely won’t interact directly with the 
  Clergy proper until much later in the campaign.
  Obscurati.
  Intellectuals and creative geniuses who show disdain for the status 
  quo might be approached by recruiters, or even asked to act as double 
  agents. Normally, though, prestige with this group just reflects the 
  conspiracy marking the party as dangerous opponents. Starting with 
  Adventure Five, the Obscurati will generally try to ambush or assas-
  sinate the PCs at least once every adventure.
  Tracking Prestige.
  The party starts with Prestige 1 for each group listed above. At the 
  end of an adventure, the party might gain a point of Prestige if they 
  served the group’s interests or thwarted one of their plots. If the 
  party fails publicly and disastrously, their Prestige might suffer, or 
  even drop straight to 0 until they clear their names.
  Usually you just need to track the party as a whole, but some situa-
  tions will depend on individual PC traits and actions. You might also 
  want to steer each PC toward a different group, to let that PC be the 
  “face” of the party for that group. 
  For instance, the Clergy — as represented by Morgan Cippiano, the 
  head of The Family — might interact primarily with the party’s Spirit 
  Medium ranger, while the Unseen Court’s affiliates like Gale or As-
  rabey liaise through the Skyseer wizard. The Obscurati might try to 
  tempt the Technologist assassin into becoming a double agent, and 
  the Yerasol Veteran knight might be pushed by Viscount Inspector 
  Nigel Price-Hill to pursue politics, while the Eschatologist cleric finds 
  his likeness painted across Flint as he becomes an unlikely local hero.
  We expect that by the end of Adventure Five, most groups will 
  reach Prestige 5 with Flint, Risur, and the Obscurati, and Prestige 
  3 with the Unseen Court and Clergy. By the end of Adventure Nine, 
  likely they’ll have Prestige 4 to 6 with nearly every group. This may 
  vary if the party takes pains to cozy up with certain groups or if they 
  go to great lengths to remain discreet.
  Mystery Guide
  One of the key challenges in running a campaign with a long-term 
  mystery is balancing how much to reveal about major secrets. You 
  want to keep the players interested in the mystery, but make them 
  work for clues. And when it comes to the big reveal, playing your hand 
  too soon or too late can ruin its impact.
  Each adventure will details what secrets the PCs might discover in 
  the course of the adventure. Some secrets you need to make sure the 
  PCs discover, or else they won’t be able to advance their investigation. 
  Others you should try to keep hidden, but be prepared in case the PCs 
  do something unorthodox and crack the case prematurely. Then there 
  are a few that can go either way, which can sate the curiosity of players 
  who put in extra effort to find answers.
  For instance, in the first adventure, the PCs visit the island that is 
  the key to the Obscurati’s entire plan, but the most likely course of 
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide | 15
  Running the Campaign
  action will just leave them thinking the place has strange magic and 
  a few arcane factories. If they decide to detour from their mission 
  and explore the island’s interior, they can stumble upon evidence of a 
  much more substantial project: a massive canal is being built to drain 
  a lake because the Axis Seal lies beneath that lake; surveyors have 
  drawn maps of magical energy nexuses to locate subterranean control 
  pillars; mighty golems guard research bunkers with various eldritch 
  experiments involving elemental energies.
  Players who find these shouldn’t be able to put the pieces together 
  yet, but if they happen to guess correctly, no one with authority will 
  believe them without evidence. If they make a big deal about it, many 
  would regard them as kooks, like Mulder in The X-Files. And if for 
  some reason you have the party find a letter explaining the entire plan 
  in Adventure One,* the Obscurati still have a massive, geographically 
  distributed organization that must be tracked down and defeated.
  So don’t worry if you accidentally give away some clues prematurely, 
  or if the players manage to guess some major secret. While we think 
  the thrill of the unknown is a great motivator for players, even if the 
  twist is revealed early, there’s still plenty of adventure and heroism 
  needed to stop the villains. 
  Miscellaneous
  A few other issues you should keep in mind throughout the campaign.
  Using the Adventures.
  Each adventure is divided into acts, to help you pace your game ses-
  sions, and each act is divided into scenes. Each scene is presented in a 
  format of Title, keywords, and tag-line. Keywords include:
  Scene Type: Action, Exploration, Exposition, Puzzle, Social, or 
  Hybrid.
  Duration: Montage (a few hours or days), Real-time (a few min-
  utes), or Tactical (round-by-round).
  For example:
  Crowd Security
  Social. Real-Time. Level 1.
  A crowd of hundreds waits at a security checkpoint. In half an hour 
  they’ll line up along streets to cheer the king’s arrival, and you must 
  make sure no one dangerous gets through.
   To set the tone for the campaign, the first encounter is a quick 
  investigation. Thousands of visitors have poured into the city, 
  hoping to see the king. They’ve gathered in Royal Square, on the 
  mainland side of a bridge that leads to the Royal Shipyard. The 
  police are counting off exactly seven hundred people who will be 
  let onto the bridge and into Fleet Square on the shipyard island so 
  that they can cheer…
  Your Majesty.
  One of the PCs is likely to end up king or queen of Risur at the end 
  of Adventure Nine. If you have a likely candidate, give him or her op-
  portunities to lead and inspire.
  Technology and Allies.
  In a world where the PCs can just buy explosives, and where their con-
  nections let them call in reinforcements if they know a fight is coming, 
  we’ve had to design our adventures a little differently. Consequently, 
  you as GM may need to encourage the players to take advantage of 
  these sorts of resources, or else they’re missing out on some of the 
  potential of the setting.
  Using Character Themes.
  Though we make sure to include at least some events or characters in 
  each adventure that resonate with all the Zeitgeist character themes, 
  it ultimately falls to you to turn them from vignettes to key parts of an 
  ongoing story. We offer more hooks early on than in later adventures, 
  since we can’t predict how your players will develop their connections 
  to their themes. Some characters might even let their original themes 
  fade into the background as they get interested in other aspects of the 
  setting.
  Side Missions.
  Don’t be afraid to add some extra missions for the party to pursue that 
  aren’t related to the Obscurati plot. Try using the events listed in the 
  “Meanwhile in the News” sidebar that accompanies each adventure 
  to show that the party isn’t always just dealing with one massive con-
  spiracy. Even The X-Files had that episode with a murder at a carnival.
  One example would be the hunt for a killer known as The Ragman. 
  Is it a monster? A vivisectionist serial killer? A warlock who must 
  fulfill a dark pact with a fiend? Or just a bit of background flavor that 
  the party never deals with? It’s up to you.
  A Tall Ship.
  We’ve tried to work a number of ship-based encounters into the saga 
  to help emphasize the technological differences between the world of 
  Zeitgeist and a standard fantasy world. For example, the characters 
  have the opportunity to take a small cutter to blockade smugglers in 
  Flint Harbor, then battle a mercenary vessel for access to a sunken 
  ziggurat — later in the campaign, the party’s missions take them into 
  hostile waters aboard more powerful ships. They can keep and custom-
  ize a vessel, enhancing its defenses or firepower, or even trade up to 
  larger ships. In Adventure Ten they can even climb aboard the first 
  airship the world has ever seen.
  Put that Liberal Arts Degree to Good Use.
  You can easily run this campaign as an action-adventure mystery, pay-
  ing little attention to the various ideological conflicts and focusing 
  instead upon the more immediate threat posed to the PCs and their 
  homeland. But if you and your players have an inclination toward phi-
  losophy, in the campaign’s climactic confrontation the PCs can launch 
  into a lively debate with Nicodemus during battle in an attempt to 
  turn the colossus Borne to their side, winning the day through words 
  and ideas moreso than physical might.
  * Important Disclaimer: Please don’t do that.
  
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  Adventure Roster
  To help you plan for the campaign, we present a brief synopsis of each 
  adventure, as well as suggestions for if you need to abridge the series.
  Act One: The Investigation Begins.
  The PCs investigate plots against their homeland as it seeks a peace 
  treaty with its greatest enemy.
  Adventure One: The Island at the Axis of 
  the World.
  Author  Ryan Nock • After thwarting an assassination, the party is sent 
  to track down the king’s traitorous sister on a Danoran island 
  before she can provoke a war.
  Date: Spring of 500 a.o.v. • Party Level: 3.
  In their first major mission for the Royal Homeland Constabulary, 
  the party stumbles upon a plot to assassinate King Aodhan during the 
  maiden voyage of Risur’s first steam-powered battleship, the R.N.S. 
  Coaltongue. The king’s traitorous sister, Duchess Ethelyn of Shale, has 
  close ties to the Unseen Court and seems to have attempted her coup 
  to stop a peace treaty that would bring more Danoran industry to Risur.
  The duchess flees and, with a small army at her side, conquers 
  distant Axis Island, a seemingly inconsequential piece of land home 
  to strange planar magic. It is also home to a Danoran fortress — and 
  secretly is the center of the Obscurati’s entire plot, for beneath the 
  island lies the Axis Seal. Guided by a skyseer prophecy, the duchess 
  hopes to find proof that Risur is being manipulated by hostile forces.
  The party’s boss, Assistant Chief Inspector Stover Delft, calls a 
  meeting with Danor’s Minister of Outsiders, Lya Jierre. She briefs 
  the PCs on the island’s defenses and explains that to maintain the 
  peace she can give Risur a few days to remove the duchess; otherwise, 
  Danor will consider her attack an act of war. The party is sent on a 
  critical mission to infiltrate the fortress the duchess has occupied and 
  open a sea gate so Risur’s navy can stage an amphibious assault and 
  capture her.
  The party finds the island full of odd magic, and if they explore they 
  see clues of massive Danoran projects researching arcanoscience as 
  well as archaeology. The mission is time-sensitive, though, preventing 
  thorough investigations.
  Once the PCs open the sea gate they can rest while marines 
  storm the fortress, but mid-battle a mighty eladrin warrior, Asrabey 
  Varal, enters the fortress and tears his way through both sides of the 
  conflict. Asrabey is a husband of Kasvarina Varal, and she has sent 
  him to silence the duchess, under the premise that Risur must be 
  shown the Unseen Court does not approve of her assassination at-
  tempt. Conveniently it lets the Obscurati keep their secrets without 
  any blame falling upon Danor.
  By the time Asrabey reaches the duchess, though, he has battled 
  hundreds of warriors and his stamina is nearly spent. If the PCs follow 
  in his wake they have a chance to learn what the duchess has found, 
  but they’ll have to decide whether they’ll risk a fight against even a 
  weakened Asrabey in order to bring the traitorous duchess in alive.
  In the denouement, the PCs witness the Danorans coming to re-
  claim the island. Lya Jierre thanks them, and reveals that she is to be 
  King Aodhan’s bride. The PCs should come away distrustful of this 
  future villain, and wondering what exactly Danor is up to while being 
  unable — for now — to investigate further.
  Big Scenes: Chasing saboteurs through the bowels of a warship 
  while a brass band on deck plays the national anthem. Facing an 
  eladrin dreadnought with a flaming sword and a roaring lion shield, 
  and deciding just how committed you are to your mission.
  Minister Lya Jierre Waits While Her Ship Docks.
  
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  Running the Campaign
  Adventure Two: The Dying Skyseer.
  Author  Ryan Nock • Amid civil turmoil, investigate a murder, unearth 
  a smuggling operation, and take down a politically powerful 
  noble coordinating various criminal endeavors for the Obscurati.
  Date: Summer of 500 a.o.v. • Party Level: 4–5.
  Several months later, all is back to normal in Flint, except for the 
  occasional unusual tremor. The party’s new mission — to capture or 
  kill the fey terrorist Gale who has been sabotaging factories — brings 
  them to a murder scene at the Danoran consulate. An associate of 
  Gale’s was killed in a robbery, but the circumstances of her death are 
  unusual, and the consulate staff are being cagey.
  Chasing leads, the PCs find Gale working with The Family to 
  smuggle wands into the city, and learn that the victim is related to 
  an infirm but respected skyseer, Nevard Sechim, a regular contact 
  of Gale. More mysteriously, a foreign doctor named Wolfgang von 
  Recklinghausen was handed a bundle of documents by the victim as 
  she was dying and has fled to parts unknown. Clearly something was 
  stolen from the consulate worth killing for, and the RHC is not the 
  only group who want it back.
  These three threads interweave: pursuit of the doctor leads to crime 
  boss Lorcan Kell, who’ll hand him over if the party stops The Family’s 
  wand smuggling. Meanwhile, Nevard offers to get the party in touch 
  with Gale if they do him a favor: he seeks a vision, but needs to stand 
  upon the cursed mountain Cauldron Hill to see above the haze of pol-
  lution that clings to the city, and he wants the party as his bodyguards.
  To get permission to climb the hill, the party must ask Mayor Reed 
  Macbannin, the man actively trying to stop their investigation, since 
  the documents von Recklinghausen carries can reveal his whole illegal 
  operation with Kell. He lets the party head up with Nevard, then sends 
  his operative Cillian Creed to arrange their demise.
  If they survive, the PCs can follow other clues while Nevard 
  prepares to reveal his vision to the whole city. Gale warns of mysteri-
  ous goings-on in the Bleak Gate, The Family tries to get the party to 
  help in their fight against Kell, and Macbannin tries to tie up loose 
  ends with the aid of arsonists who threaten to set half the industrial 
  district ablaze.
  With Gale’s help, the party can track down a facility using captured 
  souls as ritual components to create shadowy monsters, a few of which 
  have already been sent to kill Nevard before he can reveal his prophecy. 
  Nevard manages to share his vision  —  perhaps only with his dying 
  breath if the party fails to protect him — and warns that three dooms 
  shall befall Cauldron Hill.
  When the party can finally manage to track down von Recklinghau-
  sen, one final ambush — led by Leone Quital the steelshaper — nearly 
  buries them in a cave-in, but should they survive they find sufficient 
  evidence to arrest Macbannin.
  Macbannin understandably tries to resist being taken in, but at 
  that same moment the tremors the city has been suffering from (se-
  cretly caused by trouble with the colossus Borne being built under 
  Cauldron Hill) become a full-fledged earthquake. Macbannin’s manor 
  begins to crumble, and toxic witchoil being refined elsewhere on his 
  compound starts to spray up from the ground. The party must shut 
  down Macbannin’s witchoil laboratory before it explodes and pours 
  the deadly substance down the side of the mountain.
  Before Macbannin can be tried or magically interrogated, he com-
  mits suicide in his cell.
  Big Scenes: A chaotic ship-to-ship skirmish against wand smug-
  glers in the black of night. Holding off eerie predators of the spirit 
  world as a dying prophet seeks a vision. Ambushing a pair of dragon-
  born arsonists by a factory they’re about to burn down. Storming a 
  mountain villa to arrest the mastermind as an earthquake unleashes 
  a landslide of necromantic oil.
  Skyseer Nevard Sechim Contemplates the Heavens.
  
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  Adventure Three: Digging for Lies.
  Author  Matthew J. Hanson • Discover a conspiracy researching an 
  ancient magic ritual. Thwart a test run that targets you directly.
  Date: Fall of 500 a.o.v. • Party Level: 6–7.
  Lady Inspectress Margaret Saxby, the head of the Flint branch 
  of the RHC, takes the party off the Macbannin conspiracy case for 
  “political reasons,” and assigns them as simple security guards to an 
  international arms fair, where she hopes they won’t cause any trouble.
  At the fair, though, they battle horrible monsters summoned by a 
  staff, which they learn was sold by Kaja Stewart, a researcher who 
  had worked for Macbannin. The staff is ancient, and the monsters are 
  unlike anything known by scholarship, but a bit of digging leads the 
  party to an archaeologist named Xambria Meredith. 
  Xambria recently returned from a disastrous expedition in Risur’s 
  High Bayou, excavating an Ancient ziggurat. Some disaster killed the 
  rest of her team and left Xambria mentally unhinged, but she con-
  firms the staff was found at the ziggurat. After finding it, she sent it 
  to her sponsor, a tiefling named Caius Bergeron. Bergeron refuses 
  to talk to the party and has enough clout to get out of trouble, so to 
  follow the only remaining lead, the PCs must head to the High Bayou 
  and see what killed Xambria’s team.
  The PCs explore the ziggurat, fight more alien monsters, and learn 
  that the ziggurat contains a portal to the plane Apet which was sealed 
  by the Ancients to stop an invasion by beings known as the Gidim. 
  As they leave the ziggurat, the PCs are confronted by the fey titan 
  known as the Voice of Rot, who demands they track down an escaped 
  Gidim. It grants them the ability to track the planar energy of Apet 
  that marks the creature’s trail; the trail leads back to Flint, where the 
  PCs find Caius murdered and Xambria missing.
  A note arrives for the party from Xambria, claiming that the Gidim 
  is controlling her mind, and that it’s asking about the “Obscurati.” 
  The party is able to track her down and capture her, and she says that 
  the creature killed Caius and learned things from him, including that 
  Saxby is part of the conspiracy. But when the party confronts Saxby 
  at the RHC headquarters, the Gidim emerges from Xambria’s body 
  and enacts its plan.
  The Gidim opens a portal to Apet, flooding RHC headquarters with 
  strange energies and more monsters, hoping to eliminate any evidence 
  of its presence. It intends to return to its homeworld and bring back a 
  new invasion force, but its portal becomes unstable, unleashing a mas-
  sive monster that the party must defeat if they want to close the portal 
  and save the RHC from being drawn into a maddened cyst of reality.
  Archaeology and Danger Join Forces.
  
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  Running the Campaign
  Adventure Four: Always on Time.
  Author  Jacob Driscoll • Ride a train full of ne’er-do-wells, and stop a 
  powerful invention from falling into enemy hands.
  Date: Winter of 501 a.o.v. • Party Level: 8.
  Clues from Caius’s correspondence tell the party that a gathering 
  of high-ranking Obscurati members will await the arrival of a train 
  in Crisillyir on the 16th of Winter. Tracing the train’s schedule back-
  wards, the party adopts cover identities and boards at its westernmost 
  stop, hoping to figure out whom the Obscurati are meeting and what 
  they’re up to. The train follows a scenic coastal route, so they have a 
  ship shadow them, ready to reinforce them or aid their escape at the 
  end of the mission.
  The person of greatest interest is a tiefling  Luc Jierre — brother of 
  Lya and inventor of the wayfarer’s lantern. But Luc is guarded several 
  bodyguards all traveling incognito, and the party has only a few days 
  to pick them out of crowd of other suspicious characters. As the train 
  travels from Danor, through the Malice Lands, into Drakr, to a city-
  state run by mages, and finally into Crisillyir, each side spies against 
  the other, looking for clues and opportunities to remove their enemies.
  Among the crowd of strangers: a stowaway with connections to 
  Dr. Wolfgang von Recklinghausen, a wealthy matchmaker taking an 
  eladrin woman to be sold into slavery, a family of “new money” half-
  orcs from Ber taking in the sights, a war vet who might have crossed 
  paths with a PC in the past, a suave gunslinger, a gambler on the 
  run, and a railroad guard who’s set the train up for a robbery. Some 
  of the innocent travelers fall into danger, and the party has to decide 
  whether helping them is worth risking their cover being blown.
  Eventually Obscurati diviners warn Luc of the party, and at the 
  train’s next stop one of his bodyguards uses illusions to trick the party 
  into chasing them onto a cursed island, where the Clergy keeps he-
  retical and unholy items locked up. If they fall for the trick they are 
  trapped, but can earn the aid of Ashima-Shimtu, a demon who has 
  been trapped for centuries. Though she cannot escape herself, she can 
  help the party finish their mission.
  At the end of the line, the party can witness Luc being invited to 
  join the conspiracy by his sister, proving that Lya Jierre is a threat 
  to Risur. With a narrow window to act, the party can sweep in and 
  try to steal the lantern and possibly capture or kill Luc and Lya. But 
  their arrival brings down a huge retaliation, for the party is on the 
  Obscurati’s home turf, and they’ll likely have to ride the train off a 
  half-finished bridge over the harbor in order to reach their ship and 
  escape to safety.
  A Train on the Avery Coast Railroad Steams Toward Destiny.
  
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  Adventure Five: Cauldron-Born.
  Author  Thurston Hillman • As dignitaries arrive for a peace summit, 
  the party is tasked with bringing down the Kell Guild and re-
  vealing the conspiracy’s operations in the Bleak Gate.
  Date: Spring of 501 a.o.v. • Party Level: 9–10.
  Though King Aodhan now knows Lya Jierre is part of the con-
  spiracy, he still wants to avoid war, and so the planned peace summit 
  will continue. But he hopes to unmask the conspiracy and negotiate 
  from a position of power, so he tasks the party with entering the Bleak 
  Gate and attacking whatever facility the Obscurati have that. To do 
  that, they will head up a task force of police officers to destroy the 
  Kell Guild and capture its leader. His people smuggled goods into the 
  Bleak Gate, and he can help the party get there too.
  Two complications force the party to split their attentions. First, a 
  lord of the Unseen Court, Ekossigan of Spring, gathers fey from the 
  across the city to perform a vile ritual and march an army into the 
  Bleak Gate, which might actually help the party if not for the arrival 
  of Asrabey Varal, who claims that the Court demands Ekossigan be 
  stopped.
  Second, a faction of radical dwarven eschatologists launch terror 
  attacks around the city. They hope to disrupt the peace summit, and 
  while they’re not affiliated with the Obscurati, they have to be stopped 
  before they kill hundreds of people, including the king.
  Eventually the party heads into the Bleak Gate, guided by Alexan-
  der Grappa — the mindmaker — who helped create the colossus but 
  now wants to take down the conspiracy. After fighting their way into 
  the colossus construction facility, the party confronts Leone Quital, 
  but in the battle the colossus breaks free and begins to rampage. It 
  tears a hole through the side of Cauldron Hill and emerges into the 
  real world, threatening to devastate Flint.
  To stop the destruction, the party they must lure the colossus to the 
  sea, then get close enough and survive its attacks while King Aodhan 
  invokes his royal power to banish the colossus to the Dreaming. It’s 
  only a temporary solution, and by the time they’re done many of the 
  Obscurati have made good their escape, but the PCs have protected 
  Risur, and thwarted — for now — the conspiracy’s plan.
  Act Two: The Grand Design.
  The PCs disrupt a conspiracy’s plot to alter reality so they can ascend 
  to power.
  Adventure Six: Revelations from the Mouth of 
  a Madman.
  Author  Ryan Nock • Travel to a nation in turmoil to track down the 
  tinker who built the colossus.
  Date: Summer of 501 a.o.v. • Party Level: 11–12.
  The party heads to Ber, following a lead on Tinker Oddcog. Odd-
  cog, the gearbuilder, designed the colossus and could tell Risur how to 
  defeat it — or control it. But the Obscurati are looking for Tinker too, 
  hoping to silence him. Led by Lya Jierre, the Ob have befriended the 
  ruler of Ber, Bruse Shantus, who has extended his supernatural pro-
  tection over the gnome. Tinker is useful for Ber’s industrial growth, 
  and the Bruse will only give him up if he’s properly entertained.
  The Bruse forbids the party from harming Lya’s group and vice 
  versa, then gives them both a sort of competition. Two companies are 
  rushing to finish Ber’s first cross-country railroad; the Bruse gives the 
  party one company and Lya the other, with points awarded to which-
  ever side finishes its length of track first. Sabotage is encouraged. 
  Also, the Bruse has a politically powerful rival, and he either wants 
  him to pledge loyalty or be embarrassed. To embarrass him, the Bruse 
  wants Lya to convince one of his hot-headed naval captains to launch 
  a raid on a Risuri fort. The party has to find a way to convince a stub-
  born old orc warlord to pledge fealty before Risuri territory is attacked.
  After getting his entertainment, the Bruse announces a winner and 
  delivers Tinker to whichever team he liked best. But Tinker reveals 
  himself to be a construct controlled remotely, with a bomb in his chest. 
  It turns out that the whole time, Tinker was actually working for 
  Benedict Pemberton, an industrialist from Risur who was once the 
  dragon tryant Gradiax the Steel Lord. The party has to save the Bruse 
  from Gradiax’s coup attempt, then possibly ally with Lya to reach 
  Tinker on a heavily-guarded island controlled by Pemberton.
  After fighting their way into Tinker’s volcano lair/factory, the PCs 
  are attacked simultaneously by Lya’s team and by Tinker, or rather 
  by his mechanical duplicant (who is piloting a steam-powered mecha 
  suit), under control of Pemberton. Pemberton himself is only present 
  in duplicant form as well, and if his plans are thwarted he vows to 
  have his revenge on the party.
  
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  Running the Campaign
  Adventure Seven: Schism.
  Author  Ryan Nock • Infiltrate the most important gathering of the 
  Obscurati and learn their master plan.
  Date: Autumn of 501 a.o.v. • Party Level: 13.
  The party receives a request from Alexander Grappa, who offers 
  to get them into an Obscurati convocation if they can free him. With 
  the aid of kobold spies from Ber the party locates Grappa, whose 
  consciousness is trapped inside Leone Quital after Grappa perished 
  in Adventure Five. After capturing Quital the party takes him to a 
  remote glacial rift controlled by frost giants, where Grappa can use 
  forbidden magic to destroy Quital’s soul and take control of the body 
  himself.
  The same magic will let the party take control of the bodies of 
  Obscurati cell leaders, who were meeting with Leone to travel to the 
  convocation. Carrying their original bodies in an extradimensional 
  space the party goes in deep undercover to the island of Mutravir, seat 
  of power of the conspiracy. There they are greeted by Nicodemus the 
  Gnostic, and see the ghost of Reed Macbannin, who recently joined 
  the Ghost Council.
  Over two days the party learns the entire plan of the conspiracy, but 
  they notice there are cracks forming within it. When Nicodemus calls 
  a vote to decide just how to shape the coming world, the conspiracy 
  splits into two sides. The party can cast deciding votes, but it mat-
  ters little because Nicodemus uses replicas of the wayfarer’s lantern 
  to mollify those who disagree with him. He intends to kill the PCs, so 
  that only those with the proper mix of idealism and pragmatism will 
  continue with the conspiracy.
  That’s when Benedict Pemberton, who also managed to infiltrate 
  the convocation by replacing a conspirator with a duplicant, thanks 
  Nicodemus for revealing the whole plot, then sets off a bomb. This 
  frees the opposing faction from the magic holding them and kicks 
  off a chaotic battle between the two sides, with the party caught in 
  the middle.
  Adventure Eight: Diaspora.
  Author  Thurston Hillman • Guide an amnesiac member of the con-
  spiracy to retrace her history and the history of the fall of the 
  eladrin people.
  Date: Winter of 501 a.o.v. • Party Level: 14–15.
  The party has found the colossus’ three fathers — Tinker Oddcog 
  the gearbuilder, Leone Quital the steelshaper, and Alexander Grappa 
  the mindmaker. Now they seek its mother, Kasvarina Varal, whom 
  the colossus bonded with while it was being trained. But more than a 
  year earlier, when Grappa betrayed the conspiracy, he locked away the 
  memories of both colossus and Kasvarina.
  The party finds Kasvarina in Elfaivar, protected by Asrabey and 
  other powerful eladrin. Her memory is in tatters, but the eladrin know 
  of an artifact that can manifest the past in the presence of one who 
  lived it. The Lost Arc of Reida lies in a perilous ruin, but if the party 
  recovers it they can take Kasvarina on a journey to relive her history.
  Whenever they reach a place with a prominent memory, the silver 
  relic psychically manifests a recreation of the past. Some are benign 
  but informative. Others bring back to life long-dead foes which must 
  be slain to restore the next piece of Kasvarina’s life. The trail leads 
  them to her first meeting with Nicodemus, and eventually to the 
  cursed vault where they spoke with the demon Ashima-Shimtu.
  Enemies pursue the party as well, and as they get closer to the 
  most pivotal memory in the abandoned city of Methia, whole armies 
  threaten to surround them. But Methia lies in a region of near total 
  antimagic, so much so that the colossus, which despite being trapped 
  in the Dreaming has been intuitively following Kasvarina’s journey, is 
  able to step into the real world.
  As battalions pursue them, the party races to reach the former cen-
  ter of the Clergy, where Kasvarina and Nicodemus were responsible 
  for the Great Malice. The relic is able to manifest a past when magic 
  was possible here, giving the party a chance to fend off the oncoming 
  armies. Depending on how the party has interacted with Kasvarina, 
  she might decide that her original decisions were wrong and side with 
  the party, but more likely she realizes she chose right all along. 
  Kasvarina’s memories reveal the Obscurati plan is too widespread 
  and close to completion for the party to stop entirely, but they have a 
  chance to keep their homeland Risur from falling under Ob control. 
  Ob forces attack, but when the vision of the past flickers out and the 
  ritual that caused the Great Malice is completed, the party is blasted 
  away into another world. They know now how to save Risur, but the 
  conspiracy is able to regain control of the colossus.
  
  22 | EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide
  Running the Campaign
  Adventure Nine: The Last Starry Sky.
  Author  Ryan Nock • Choose sides in a fey civil war so you can escape 
  the Dreaming, save the king, and stop a ritual from turning all 
  of Risur loyal to the Obscurati.
  Date: Spring of 502 a.o.v. • Party Level: 16–17.
  The party ends up stuck in the Dreaming, and learn that the Un-
  seen Court is at war with itself. To get back to the real world the party 
  will have to pick a side and get the aid of one of the fey titans, which 
  exist in both worlds. They reach the capital of Risur while it is under 
  siege, but learn that King Aodhan has been captured and is being held 
  in Flint.
  Rushing to Flint they discover magic is fluctuating, as if some great 
  change is passing over the world. They fight their way past a naval 
  blockade of the governor’s island and find Roland Stanfield, head of 
  the Obscurati’s Colossus Cell, at the controls of an eldritch machine. 
  As stars rain from the heavens the party has to stop a ritual before all 
  of Risur falls under the Ob’s control. But the king is likely mortally 
  wounded, and he passes his crown to the most worthy among the party.
  Act Three: Age of Reason.
  The PCs battle the conspiracy’s new world order, and must set the 
  course of the future.
  Adventure Ten: Godmind.
  Author Thurston Hillman
  Find allies who can still resist the Obscurati, and hatch a plan to set 
  the world right.
  Date: n/a
  Party Level: 18.
  Something went wrong during the Obscurati ritual, and though 
  people obey the Ob’s ideology, the Axis Seal remains open. The world 
  has been lost at the edge of the cosmos, endless night has fallen, and 
  invaders have once again set their sights on invading this land.
  At best, Risur is resisting the Obscurati, but every thought is a 
  struggle. The rest of civilization is wholly loyal, except for a few pock-
  ets of strong-willed individuals, many of whom would make critical 
  allies for the fight to retake the world. The tables have turned, and 
  now the PCs are the conspiracy hiding in the shadows in an attempt 
  to change reality.
  Beware the Dreaming.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide | 23
  Running the Campaign
  Adventure Eleven: Gorged on Ruins.
  Author Liz Courts
  Seek the lore needed to undo the Obscurati ritual while cataclysms 
  around the world threaten to destroy civilization.
  Date: n/a
  Party Level: 19.
  Along with the dangers the PCs find themselves in in Adventure 
  Ten, other threats endanger all civilization. The fey titans wreak de-
  struction upon inhabited lands in Risur and must be subdued. Armies 
  of the dead are led by doomsday cultists in Drakr. Infernal legions 
  march through the Dreaming and the Gidim invade from a foothold 
  in Ber.
  As the PCs stave off these threats, they earn praise and loyalty from 
  several regions around the world. But the most imperiled nation is 
  where they must go to find critical information to defeat the Obscu-
  rati. The party heads to the grand librarium of Alais Primos, capital 
  of Crisillyir and seat of the Clergy, but their research is interrupted 
  when the newly enlightened and rational populace of the city takes 
  it upon themselves to conjure avatars of their gods and place them 
  on trial. When the citizens of Alais Primos execute a god they deem 
  unfit, a nearby mountain erupts in lava, unleashing an unholy dragon 
  that could consume the city and incinerate the books that contain the 
  knowledge that could save the world.
  Adventure Twelve: The Grinding Gears of 
  Heaven.
  Author  Ryan Nock • Travel to the graveyard of the multiverse to find 
  safe planes to bond this world to and set a better fate for it.
  Date: n/a
  Party Level: 20.
  Though the PCs and their allies have the information they need 
  to undo the ritual of the Axis Seal, they need to find worlds it would 
  be safe to bond to. They set out across the multiverse to the Gyre, a 
  planar graveyard for worlds that are dying or abandoned. There they 
  encounter ghosts from history, and discover that the fey titan known 
  as the Voice of Rot has prepared for this moment and seeks to use the 
  world’s destruction to fuel its own ascension to godhood.
  Adventure Thirteen: Avatar of Revolution.
  Author  Ryan Nock • Empowered by the worldwide uprising against 
  the Obscurati, stand against Nicodemus and his colossus in one 
  final battle of ideas.
  Date: n/a • Party Level: 20.
  Returning home, the party rallies people from across the world 
  and becomes the focus of a ritual that makes them the avatars of 
  civilization’s will so they can confront the last of the Obscurati and 
  secure the next age.
  
  24 | EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide
  Running the Campaign
  Abridged Conspiracy
  Not all groups have the time or stamina for a full 20-level campaign.
  Act One Only.
  If you only run the campaign through Adventure Five, you have to 
  strip away much of the greater conspiracy in order to simplify things. 
  The villain becomes Lya Jierre who, with the aid of Flint city governor 
  Reed Macbannin and Lorcan Kell, is constructing a colossus so she 
  can defeat the fey titans of Risur. Her goal is to claim the throne of 
  Risur, then use the colossus to expand the power of Danor. The activi-
  ties of Golden Cell and Lantern Cell simply become tests to let the 
  colossus travel and fight in the Dreaming and the Bleak Gate.
  Acts One and Two.
  If you only run the campaign through Adventure Nine, the great seal 
  that the Obscurati want to open is on an island in Flint Harbor, with 
  Axis Island just having been a testing ground. At the climax, Nico-
  demus the Gnostic repeats the ritual that led to the Great Malice to 
  place his spirit into the colossus, which is invincible until it opens 
  the seal. But the unleashed energy would weaken Nicodemus, and the 
  altered planar energy would restore Benedict Pemberton’s ability to 
  fly as a dragon. Though hostile to the party, he realizes the Ob are 
  a greater threat, and so lets them climb aboard his back and battle 
  Nicodemus and the colossus.
  When the PCs defeat Nicodemus, the ritual’s backlash kills every-
  one who is part of the Obscurati, and the party has a chance to slightly 
  alter the nature of reality before the Axis Seal closes itself for good.
  The Middle.
  If you prefer to start the campaign later, a series that runs from the 
  peace summit in Adventure Five to the opening of the seal in Ad-
  venture Nine (with the changes detailed above) lets the players start 
  as powerful heroes and have some international super-spy adventures. 
  The challenge mostly involve filling in the PCs with a bit of extra back-
  story, and adjusting scenes where the PCs are expected to recognize 
  NPCs from earlier adventures (for example, half-orc railroad owner 
  Damata Griento in Adventure Six and the ghost of Mayor Reed 
  Macbannin in Adventure Seven).
  Acts Two and Three.
  Like above, this works best if you start with Adventure Five. The lack 
  of set-up with Axis Island from Adventure One makes the climax a 
  little less satisfying, and the Gidim’s return in Adventure Eleven will 
  seem like just a random alien invasion. 
  You might even try just running Act Three; the party would be lack-
  ing a lot of backstory and connection to the villains. Perhaps it could 
  work with the PCs as leaders of countries that have unexpectedly 
  fallen under the control of the Obscurati, but you’ll have to do a fair 
  bit of work for things to make sense to the players.
  Recurring Antagonists.
  In role-playing games, nearly every enemy ultimately faces off against 
  the PCs and loses. It might help to know which Obscurati members 
  the party will face when. Occasionally the party may thwart a villain’s 
  plot, yet fail to capture the villain, leading to a rematch later. If, on the 
  contrary, the PCs defeat one of these NPCs prematurely, you’ll need 
  either to invent someone to take their place, or “promote” another 
  member of the conspiracy, which might have complex ramifications.
  Lya Jierre. Head of Golden Cell (starting after Adventure One). 
  Though she antagonizes the PCs in Adventure One, they won’t cross 
  blades until Adventure Four. She has a magical contingency to flee to 
  the Bleak Gate when bloodied, but the party can finish her off when 
  she confronts them again in Adventure Six.
  Roland Stanfield. Head of Colossus Cell. Stanfield keeps his in-
  volvement with the conspiracy hidden until Adventure Nine, but if he’s 
  unmasked or even slain prematurely, he can reincarnate and return to 
  be the climactic villain in Adventure Nine.
  Vicemi Terio. Head of Lantern Cell. The spectral Terio doesn’t appear 
  until Adventure Seven; when he does, he’ll probably be slain by the PCs.
  Han Jierre. The party first meets the sovereign of Danor at a peace 
  conference in Adventure Five, and might spot him again in Adventure 
  Seven. After the Obscurati open the Axis Seal, Han infuses himself 
  and several trusted lieutenants with the spirits of the Ghost Council, 
  making them a match for high-level PCs.
  Kasvarina Varal. In Adventure Eight, the PCs have a chance to win 
  Kasvarina’s loyalty. If they succeed, her betrayal incenses Nicodemus. 
  If they fail, she helps Nicodemus kill them. It will take great effort from 
  the PCs to recruit her, but she could be a mighty ally.
  Nicodemus the Gnostic. The head of the Obscurati first meets 
  the party in Adventure Two, disguised as a seemingly inconsequential 
  visitor to Reed Macbannin’s estate. They may briefly speak with him 
  in Adventure Four, though he’s only present via needlewire and thus 
  incapable of fighting them. He first introduces himself properly in 
  Adventure Seven, by which point he has chosen a long-term body for 
  himself. They have a chance to defeat him temporarily in Adventure 
  Eight, and can finally destroy his spirit form in Adventure Thirteen. 
  Nicodemus maintains a five centuries-old smoking habit, regardless 
  of whose body he’s in.
  The Colossus. Named “Borne” by one of its creators, the colossus’s 
  memory is stolen by Alexander Grappa the Mindmaker during Adven-
  ture Two, delaying the conspiracy’s plans as they try to restore it. In 
  Adventure Five, Grappa helps the party enter Borne’s construction 
  bay, and he frees the colossus, which wanders and accidentally causes 
  destruction. After driving the golem off, the PCs don’t cross paths with 
  it again until Adventure Eight, when they may make a doomed attempt 
  to gain control of it. “Off-screen” events of Adventure Nine leave it 
  critically damaged on Axis Island. In Adventure Thirteen, however, the 
  party will compete with the Obscurati to reactivate and control this 
  mechanical titan.
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide | 25
  Ancient History
  T
  o help you keep details of the world’s his-
  tory straight in your head, we present this 
  section that compiles information doled out bit by bit 
  to players over the course of several adventures.
  The Ancients.
  Thousands of years before Risur was founded, a civilization of primi-
  tive orcs fought against the numerous otherworldly forces trying to 
  claim this plane as their territory. Since this civilization had no writ-
  ing system, the adventurers and archaeologists who explore the few 
  scattered ruins they left behind have dubbed them simply the Ancients.
  A handful of heroes among these stone-age orcs nevertheless 
  managed to understand, at least in general terms, the nature of the 
  multiverse and how their enemies were invading this world. With that 
  knowledge they were able to erect the Axis Seal and allow the mortal 
  races to flourish, even though their own civilization did not survive.
  Fighting the Invaders.
  There are countless planes in the cosmos, and portals can theoretically 
  link any two worlds. From across the multiverse came savage demons, 
  titanic dragons, the angels of numerous gods, and many more, all try-
  ing to claim their own territory. But two main invasion forces had the 
  greatest claim: the psychic and semi-humanoid Gidim, who consume 
  the thoughts of whole planes to feed their sentient homeworld; and 
  the Golden Legion of Egal the Shimmering, a lord of hell clad in 
  treasure and able to wield his enemies’ pride and vanity like blades.
  The Ancients discovered a ritual to seal a portal and create a per-
  manent dimensional lock in a wide area. Whenever they found one of 
  the portals the invaders were using, they would stage desperate raids 
  to seal those doors, then build enchanted ziggurats laden with traps 
  over the closed pathways.
  In an infinite multiverse, these seals were only temporary solutions. 
  Clever foes would always find a new route to a world with precious re-
  sources. But what this slow and methodical tactic accomplished was to 
  create tiny safe havens: buffer worlds from which the Ancients knew 
  no further threats could come. 
  The architect of the Axis Seal, a wise orc whose name has been lost 
  to time, intended to cut off his own world altogether, slicing it free 
  from the rest of the multiverse. He knew, though, that a world com-
  pletely cut off could not sustain itself. His world—any world—would 
  continue to need the energies of other planes to allow life to flourish 
  and magic to endure. 
  Some Buried Ruins Are Best Left Forgotten.
  
  26 | EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide
  Ancient History
  The Axis Seal.
  The Ancients sealed as many of the invaders’ portals as possible, and 
  found worlds among those sealed that would provide the necessary en-
  ergies: elemental air, earth, fire, and water, as well as the more esoteric 
  energies of life, death, space, and time. When the time was right, the 
  greatest heroes of the Ancients gathered in the heart of their territory 
  and performed the Ritual of the Axis Seal. Simultaneously, eight other 
  buffer worlds were linked to this one, and all of them were pulled 
  across the multiverse, creating a system of planets.
  Some of the worlds that provided the required energies were cho-
  sen specifically; others were chosen simply because they were available 
  and convenient. For example, Urim, once just a slice of the greater 
  Plane of Earth, provides the world’s necessary earth magics. It also 
  has a trait that makes teleportation impossible for those bounded in 
  gold, making it a clever defense against any possible later invasions by 
  the Golden Legion. By contrast, Avilona, the plane of air, has fairly 
  weak energy but it was the only air plane the Ancients could secure.
  The power of the ritual cracked the surface of the world, flooding 
  huge areas and creating what is today the Yerasol Archipelago. The 
  great flood sent the Ancient civilization into disarray, leaving them too 
  weak to defend against misfortune.
  Fatal Flaw.
  The Ancients made one great mistake. The cunning Gidim had real-
  ized what the orcs were planning and hid an invasion force on the 
  world of Apet—the plane of space—which the Ancients thought aban-
  doned. Once the Axis Seal was in effect and they had no competition 
  from other planes, the Gidim struck.
  The Ancients fought back, and they managed a hurried revision to 
  the Axis Seal ritual, which turned Apet into a prison plane. While the 
  massive world still orbits the sun and shares its mystical energies, it 
  cannot be reached by any magic. The Gidim were ultimately defeated, 
  but their strike devastated the vulnerable Ancient culture. With their 
  heroes dead and their people separated by flooded rifts, the mortal 
  races fell back to nomadic tribalism for millennia.
  Legacy.
  All that remains of the Ancients today are scattered, inexplicable ru-
  ins, many containing gold weapons looted from Egal’s Golden Legion. 
  (This greatly confounds archaeologists, who can find no evidence of the 
  extensive Ancient mining necessary to have produced so much gold.) 
  In recent years agents of the Obscurati have funded expeditions to 
  plumb the secrets of the ziggurats, which are scattered across Lanjyr. 
  Priceless gold artifacts are less useful to them than the clues of how 
  these primitive people connected to other worlds. Only the conspiracy 
  has a sense of what the Ancients accomplished untold millennia ago.
  The Ancients and their ruins come to the party’s attention in Ad-
  venture Three, Digging for Lies, but then do not play a significant role 
  again until Adventure Twelve, The Grinding Gears of Heaven. 
  The party only ever is expected to explore the ziggurats of Apet, 
  Mavisha, and Avilona. Feel free to use the others however you wish. 
  Each could contain traps and monsters themed to the appropriate 
  plane, with some clue to the location of another ziggurat in the set, 
  and a central chamber that has the seal over the portal. These portals, 
  if opened with the proper ritual, would be one of the few ways to travel 
  to another plane for more than five minutes.
  For your reference, the locations of the Ancient ziggurats are:
  * Ziggurat of Apet. The portal to the plane of space is guarded 
  by this ruin in Risur’s high bayou. Its discovery sets off events in 
  Adventure Three.
  * Ziggurat of Av. The portal to the plane of dreams lies in the big 
  thicket in eastern Risur.
  * Ziggurat of Avilona. The plane of air’s ziggurat sits atop a float-
  ing island in a perpetual storm off the south coast of Ber.
  * Ziggurat of Jiese. The ziggurat of the plane of fire lies in the 
  desert in eastern Crisillyir.
  * Ziggurat of Mavisha. The plane of water’s ziggurat sank under-
  water just off of Ber’s east coast.
  * Ziggurat of Nem. The portal to the plane of ruin lies near the 
  abandoned city of Methia in Danor.
  * Ziggurat of Reida. The plane of time was never actually used as 
  a staging point for an invasion, and thus never had to be sealed 
  or have a ziggurat built for it. That said, almost no one knows 
  this plane exists.
  * Ziggurat of Urim. This ruin was long ago discovered by mages, 
  who used the power seeping through it to establish the indepen-
  dent city of Nalaam in the Penance Peaks.
  * Axis Seal. The final ritual site entails a one-hundred foot diam-
  eter plate of gold over eight pits filled with petrified white trees 
  that form the metaphysical links to the other planes. Additional 
  trees were placed elsewhere on the island to lock in the connec-
  tion. Unfortunately the small tree for Avilona was unwittingly 
  placed into a sea cave, and after centuries of erosion it broke, 
  making magical flight nearly impossible. +
  Gidim
  
  EN5ider Presents: The Zeitgeist Campaign Guide | 27
  Ancient History
  A Specter of Fate Looms over the City of Flint.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/5th Edition (5e)/3rd Party/EN World EN5ider/EN5ider - Zeitgeist Campaign Guide.pdf