TEXT: Schism
  EN5ider Presents:
  Schism
  Part Two
  A 5E-Compatible Adventure for 9th- to 10th-Level Characters
  
  2 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Two: Applied Eschatology
  2 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  I
  n this act, the party heads north to a
  glacial rift controlled by frost giants
  loyal to the Obscurati, where they must reach
  a frozen lich and trade Leone’s soul for
  Grappa’s aid.
  Witnesses and the Obscurati.
  The fight with Leone probably has a large audience. If people see the
  party knock out Leone, will word get back to the Obscurati?
  Probably. But if the party follows through with Grappa’s plan, their
  original bodies will end up effectively dead. The Ob will perform
  divinations, and they almost certainly know the PCs’ names, but the
  magic will verify that they’re dead. So when “Leone” shows up alive
  and well, and brief magical checks show that he’s not being mind-
  controlled, they’ll accept his story that he managed to escape the
  party and kill them.
  Mind to Bargain
  Mind to Bargain
  Social. Real-Time.
  Alexander Grappa explains his insane plan.
  Once Leone finally falls asleep, Alexander Grappa slowly takes
  control of the man’s body. He struggles a bit to talk, since until
  now he hasn’t tried speaking in Leone’s body, but he gets the hang
  of it after a few minutes of slurring and stammering. He can move
  just fine now, but warns them that any sudden jolt could wake
  Leone, and that he’s completely unable to fight for dominance
  when the man is conscious.
  Grappa thanks them, then gets down to business and explains
  his plan. He discovered toward the end of his time with his previ-
  ous employers that they were working with a group of frost giants
  based in the tower city of Knütpara, trapped over a thousand
  years ago in a massive glacier. He only managed a bit of investiga-
  tion of his own, but he learned there was an unnamed frost giant
  lich whose phylactery was lost in that city, and that the last time
  he was destroyed a few centuries ago, he apparently reformed
  stuck in the ice.
  The lich’s specialty was ripping souls out of people and planting
  other souls into the shells of their bodies, mostly as a service for
  allies of the Demonocracy, to let them be immortal, or so that they
  could infiltrate groups opposed to the demons. It was apparently
  quite effective, and could even fool magical detection. Grappa the-
  orized that his former employers were trying to free the lich, but
  FROM THE PEN OF
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  Act Two:
  Applied Eschatology
  Act Two:
  Applied Eschatology
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 3
  Act Two: Applied Eschatology
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 3
  Into the North
  before sending his letter to the constables, he performed a divina-
  tion and learned that the lich is still trapped in the ice. The other
  frost giants found him, but apparently haven’t dug him out yet.
  Grappa risked only two sending spells while trapped in Leone’s
  body. The first was to contact Tinker Oddcog (see Adventure Six,
  Revelations from the Mouth of a Madman). The second was to ask
  if the lich would share his knowledge of soul transfer, and it
  agreed, on the condition that he free it.
  “Do not doubt my intentions,” Grappa says at this point. “We
  shall definitely destroy him once we get what we want. I’d hate to
  loose some ancient evil being on the world.”
  Moral Objections.
  Grappa has prepared dozens of possible arguments to convince un-
  comfortable PCs that this is the best solution. We suggest you
  ponder what might sway your players if you think they’ll balk. In
  particular, Grappa says repeatedly that the Obscurati are cautious,
  and that there’s no other way the party will be able to reach their
  secret meeting.
  It will take place in the Bleak Gate, so it’s not even possible to
  just get an army and attack the place. Sneaking in is the only way,
  and not doing this will let a far greater evil succeed, judging by
  what the conspiracy has done so far.
  Grappa tries to keep his knowledge of the meeting secret so
  that the party has to work with him, but if they insist he share
  before they agree to help, he’ll do it, all while pointing out that
  he’s too decent a man to work in such a cutthroat business.
  Lich Location, Ob Operation.
  The city of Knütpara lies further north in the Shawl Mountains,
  about a three-day trek from Mirsk. Three towers still rise above
  the level of the glacier, and the frost giants have smashed through
  their walls to get access deeper into the glacier. A river has carved
  a rift in the glacier, and after several years of excavation, the gi-
  ants have reached the chamber where the lich is trapped.
  In truth, the giants want nothing to do with the lich, and they
  actively make sure he doesn’t escape. Rather, this city was damned
  by Triegenes centuries ago, and flaming stones fell from the heav-
  ens to strike it down. The Obscurati enlisted the giants to recover
  those extraterrestrial rocks, which were over years picked up in
  the glacier. The Ob use these rocks to create oil infusions for the
  Wayfarer Lantern and its derivatives.
  The glacier is also a test-bed of sorts for uses of the lantern. It
  was here that the Ob perfected different mixes of oils that can cre-
  ate different world states, and now they just use the lantern magic
  to smooth operations. The giants use slave labor — mostly dwarf
  and human prisoners sent north by Drakran authorities and sold
  off instead of making their way into normal prisons. They are kept
  docile by means of a series of lanterns burning the right mix of
  extraplanar oils.
  The Ob researchers here aren’t combatants, but the party will
  have their first taste of the pervasive mind-altering magic the con-
  spiracy has in store for the whole world, and they’ll have to be
  careful or else they’ll be easy pickings for the giants.
  Leone Complication.
  The party will need to bring Leone along and keep him alive, un-
  less they can spare enough time to leave him locked up, go clear
  the rift of threats, return, and then bring Leone to the lich. Along
  the way, the steelshaper will be unable to use his magic as long as
  the party keeps him in mage cuffs, but he’ll look for many oppor-
  tunities to escape or sabotage them, especially once they get into
  the rift where he has Obscurati allies.
  Leone probably still doesn’t know about Grappa, and he’ll be
  confused why the party has taken him alive and are heading into
  a frozen wilderness. He starts off quiet, obedient, and observant,
  trying to get a gauge of the group. He might try to strike up a
  friendship with one PC in order to bargain for his life, or at the
  very least to make the party treat him like a human, making it
  harder to kill him. Plus, when the moment presents itself, he’ll be
  ready to try to get them killed. We offer a few suggestions for ways
  he can cause trouble.
  Into the North
  Exploration. Montage.
  The party must reach the glacier-trapped city of Knütpara while
  keeping Leone alive and in custody.
  Knütpara lies about �� miles north-east of Mirsk, but in the
  mountainous and icy terrain it’s difficult to traverse more than �
  miles in a day. A well-prepared party is at little risk of dying on the
  way there (assume everyone is sheltered by enduring magic or at
  least warm coats), but Leone will try to escape if the party finds
  itself in a bad place.
  
  4 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Two: Applied Eschatology
  The Three Towers
  Orienteering.
  Each day, have one PC who takes the lead make a DC �� Wisdom
  (Survival) or Intelligence (navigator’s tools) to find the best route
  through the mountains, and a DC �� Intelligence (Nature) check
  to guide the party safely through.
  Then each PC — as well as Leone — must make a DC �� Consti-
  tution saving throw to cross the mountains safely (DC �� if both
  checks succeeded, DC �� if one was failed, and DC �� if both
  failed). Each PC that fails the save falls prey to fatigue or
  distraction at the wrong moment and finds themselves in a per-
  ilous situation, such as clinging to an ice wall with a frayed rope
  and a broken ice axe, or caught in the path of a sudden avalanche.
  If multiple PCs fail, they’re all imperiled at the same time.
  Escaping Peril.
  Whenever a perilous situation occurs, create a quick encounter
  where those who succeeded the save are in no immediate danger,
  but those who failed have at most � rounds before they plummet
  to their deaths.
  Those who are imperiled might be able to escape with a DC ��
  Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to leap or
  climb to safety, but if they fail by � or more they’ll fall immediately.
  Those who are safe need to succeed a DC �� check to lend as-
  sistance, but if they fail by � or more they’ll end up imperiled too.
  A character who fails or doesn’t escape in time suffers some hor-
  rible injury from the fall, taking appropriate damage, reducing
  their speed by half, and making Constitution and Dexterity saving
  throws with disadvantage until the damage is healed and they have
  benefited from a long rest.
  Sabotage
  Should the party find itself imperiled, Leone feigns disinterest
  (Deception +��), but if he has a chance he’ll try to bull rush some-
  one off a cliff (Athletics +�, or +�� if the target is in metal armor),
  then make a run for it. If the party is doing pretty well and avoid-
  ing peril, on the third day Leone uses a sharp rock he has hidden
  away to slice a climbing rope, imperiling at least one PC.
  His ideal escape plan is to knock someone with a fair amount
  of metal off a ledge, then levitate them telekinetically, taking dam-
  age from the mage cuffs. He’ll shout that they need to take the
  cuffs off now or else he’ll drop them. Even then, though, Leone’s
  much weaker out on a tundra with no handy trains to use as
  weapons.
  The Three Towers
  Action. Real-Time.
  The party must sneak past a patrol to enter the glacial rift and find
  the magic Grappa needs.
  After three days the gaps between the mountains become
  choked with glaciers ��� feet thick or more. The party comes
  across centuries-old ruins of the pre-Clergy civilization, including,
  at the entrance to what was once the city’s valley, a stone pillar
  carved with words in Abyssal. They read, “Gaze ye upon Knütpara,
  eternal bastion of the Demonocracy, built to withstand any army’s
  siege.”
  Beyond lies a seemingly trackless glacier, obscured by snow
  drifts and hazy white winds.
  Giant Territory.
  Several thousand frost giants live along the mountains surround-
  ing Knütpara, but only a handful venture down to the glacial rift.
  As long as the party doesn’t look for trouble, the main body of the
  frost giants here won’t bother them.
  The giants who live at the glacial rift are led by the Khangitche,
  a warrior named Odul Chuvan. Under his command are � de-
  monic death bears, � frost giant rangers, � frost giant mages, and
  �� frost giant guards.
  Normally these are divided into five groups:
  �. Patrol. � rangers, � bears. They head out to find the party
  once they breach the perimeter.
  �. Surface Tents. Frost mage, � guards. They might spot the
  party approaching the towers, and they respond to the sound
  of combat from below. They can descend to sub-level �
  through a shaft in the ice with giant-sized handholds.
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 5
  Act Two: Applied Eschatology
  The Glacial Rift of the Frost
  Giant Khangitche
  �. Rift Defenses. � guards. They are scattered around the
  different areas of the rift, walking the same routes over and
  over again, stopping every fifteen minutes or so to chat with
  someone when their paths cross. They each have a whistle to
  blow in case of attack. (Not a horn; they don’t want to risk
  an avalanche.)
  �. Reserves. Frost mage, ranger, � guards. They rest in area O,
  and only come out if the alarm is sounded.
  �. Mine. Odul Chuvan, frost mage, � guards. The khangitche
  oversees a few dozen prisoners as they dig out the ice look-
  ing for meteorites.
  Additionally, two Obscurati wizards reside in area M, and they
  are responsible for maintaining the test lanterns and recording
  the results of their experiments on the prisoners.
  The Approach.
  The surface of the glacier is dotted with small totems, spaced every
  few hundred feet. These consist of dwarf, human, and animal
  skulls, with frozen red entrails dribbling from their mouths. The
  frost giant rangers that patrol the glacier are accompanied by
  hideous demonic creatures, seemingly immortal beasts they call
  “death bears.” They have no skin of their own, so the giants let
  them wear polar bear pelts, and the only way to kill them for good
  is to make sure their bodies cannot lie in a pool of blood. Addition-
  ally, they have a preternatural sense that alerts them whenever a
  living creature gets within �� feet of any of their totems.
  The rift itself is easy to find, simply by following the only stream
  that manages to flow across the glacier. Though aligned just right
  to be warmed above freezing by the sun during the day, it dies each
  night. If the party follows the riverbed it has carved, they find
  totems lining each side, which easily alert the death bears. Two of
  the rangers take the beasts to check out what is approaching.
  Enemies.
  • 2 Knütpara frost giant rangers*
  • 2 demonic death bears*
  * The stats for these enemies are listed in Part Three (Appendix).
  Sneaking.
  The frost giants are large and can be spotted from several hundred
  feet away with a successful DC �� Wisdom (Perception) check.
  Sneaking past them is impossible unless the party consciously
  avoids the totems. Even then, they must each first succeed on DC
  �� Dexterity (Stealth) checks to get within sight of the towers
  without being found by the rangers. They can move to the two
  north towers (Areas A or B) without being spotted, but those tow-
  ers have no easy entrance. Getting to the entrance of the south
  tower (Area C) requires sneaking past the frost giant surface
  camp with a successful DC �� Dexterity (Stealth) check.
  Moving through the rift without being spotted by the guard pa-
  trols can be done with a DC �� Dexterity (Stealth) check.
  Sneaking within �� feet of the rangers out on the glacier surface
  is harder (DC ��), while entering the surface camp and descend-
  ing the shaft is incredibly risky (DC ��).
  A single failed check simply raises the suspicion of the enemies
  present; they’ll take actions to investigate, but usually the adven-
  turers have a couple rounds to find a hiding place. Give PCs a
  bonus to their second Dexterity (Stealth) check if they suggest a
  good hiding spot or make use of another skill or ability to aid their
  evasion. A second failed check while a giant is investigating means
  the PC has been spotted, and combat will almost certainly ensue.
  More Sabotage.
  The party might want to gag Leone, or even better wait until the
  man falls asleep and Grappa can take over.
  Once Leone realizes where they are, he’ll wait for a chance to
  spoil the group’s stealth, shouting out that he’s one of their allies,
  while the party is here to kill them. He knows there’s an Ob oper-
  ation here, but he has no idea what they work on. One way he can
  alert the giants without the party realizing is if he uses his
  steelshaping to tug a giant’s weapon, making it suspicious. Leone
  will take damage, so he can only do this once or twice.
  The Glacial Rift of the Frost
  Giant Khangitche
  Action. Tactical.
  The party makes its way to the bottom of the rift.
  Here we detail the locations of the rift. Stats of the enemies
  guarding it are listed in Part Three (Appendix).
  Terrain.
  Most areas are scattered with patches of thick snow drifts (difficult
  terrain) or ice that requires a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the
  DC of this check is � + � per icy square the creature enters on its
  turn) to avoid falling prone.
  Climbing along the icy walls requires a DC �� Strength (Ath-
  letics) check but is made much easier with an ice axe or similar
  implement (an appropriate implement grants advantage).
  A character who falls into icy water must make a DC �� Consti-
  tution saving throw or take �d� cold damage and suffer from
  hypothermia (treat as one level of exhaustion). The character makes
  another save each hour that their clothes remain wet. Characters
  who are resistant to cold damage, or who have magical protection
  from cold weather, can ignore this.
  A. Overlook Tower.
  This ���-foot high tower sits at the very edge of the glacier and it
  overlooks an icy gorge. Likely many dangerous and wonderful
  dungeons and tombs lie in the caves that branch off from the
  gorge, but those are beyond the scope of this adventure. The gorge
  extends a few hundred feet, beyond which the glacier continues.
  There is no entrance to this tower at this level. The windows are
  barred and iced over. Stairways — sized for dwarves, not gi-
  ants — spiral up to the roof and down to the sub-level one. This
  tower was once a torture prison for enemies of the Demonocracy.
  The old furniture (racks, vices, hooks and chains) have been
  pushed to the edges of the room.
  When he’s not overseeing the mine, Odul Chuvan stays here
  with two of the female guards, who are his consorts. A massive
  bear-skin bed covers the middle of the floor.
  
  6 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Two: Applied Eschatology
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 7
  Act Two: Applied Eschatology
  B. Dragon Tower.
  Carved stone dragons adorn this building’s walls. The tower was a
  breeding aerie for dragons used as aerial cavalry by the Demonoc-
  racy, and ancient cracked eggshells and discarded teeth have been
  swept to the walls. A search of the top floor with a DC �� Wisdom
  (Perception) check discovers a steel-bound book on techniques of
  dragon breeding and rearing.
  When not needed in the mine, one frost mage and one guard
  live here.
  C. Ink and Elm.
  This solid black tower once had a crown of branches like an elm
  tree. Most of them have snapped off. The handful that remain have
  been decorated by Odul Chuvan, who likes to throw prisoners and
  see if he can stick them on the stone spikes.
  This used to be the frost giant’s main route down into the rift,
  but now it’s mostly just used by the rangers so they can bring out
  their pet deathbears. The walls inside are scrawled with graffiti in
  charcoal and bloody smears. This tower is the only one with an
  entryway at the surface level: a door smashed through its wall,
  with only a stitched-together bear-hide curtain to keep out the
  snow.
  D. Waterfall.
  The small stream that crosses the glacier drops eighty feet here
  into a ��-foot deep pool at the bottom of the rift.
  E. Surface Camp.
  • 1 frost giant mage
  • 4 frost giant guards
  Three huge tents sit inside a circular fraise of ice spikes. A frost
  mage lives in one tent, and four guards are split between the other
  two tents. A shaft descends �� feet to Area L, and then there’s a
  �� foot drop to the ice cave.
  F. Outlook Tower, Middle Level.
  The frost giants smashed a hole in the wall here, and knocked out
  parts of the ceiling to get more space. Occasionally pairs of giants
  use this spot for a private rendezvous. Frozen elk-intestine con-
  doms lie discarded or stuck proudly to the icy walls. Stairs lead up
  and down from here.
  G. The Chute.
  • 1 frost giant guard
  This shaft descends �� feet, after which there is a ��-foot drop
  to Area O. The giants prefer to use this route now, rather than go
  through the lantern-enchanted gorge floor. South of the chute, the
  tunnel opens into the rift, and a ��-foot thick ice bridge crosses
  the ��-foot gap to Area I.
  H. Dragon Tower, Middle Level.
  • 1 frost giant guard
  An actual door here (�� feet tall, red steel, free from ice) leads
  out to an ice bridge, but it was originally used exclusively by drag-
  ons. The frost giants also smashed out a wall on the other side, and
  they use it as their kitchen.
  Anyone who opens the door from either side triggers a blast of
  fire (��-foot radius burst, �d� fire damage, DC �� Dexterity sav-
  ing throw for half).
  I. Ink and Elm, Middle Level.
  The door to the north here is framed by carved stone signs inviting
  (in Abyssal) guests to enjoy the finest food and parties of the
  north. A careful search inside can uncover a bottle of �,��� year
  old wine, frozen solid. It’s disgusting.
  J. Meteor Storage.
  • 1 frost giant guard
  Thornsenkertz, one of the Obscurati researchers, cheekily made
  a snowman here and placed bits of unneeded rocks in the wall to
  spell out, “METEOR STORAGE.”
  A sled is loaded with four dozen clay jars, each filled with mete-
  ors from different extraplanar locations.
  Mood Lighting.
  The bottom of the rift (Area S) has wayfarer’s lanterns spaced every 40
  feet, hung from ice hooks. They dimly illuminate the entire bottom of
  the rift in a soothing blue light. Similarly, the prison mine (Area V) is lit
  by lanterns that shed piercing red light, which invigorate those nearby.
  Whenever a creature approaches one of these lanterns, it might be
  affected by whatever planar energy it is manifesting.
  Lantern’s Manifestation
  Whenever a creature ends its turn within 25 feet of a wayfarer’s
  lantern (50 feet for a large lantern), it must make a DC 17 Wisdom
  saving throw or fall under the lantern’s effect. An affected creature
  gets a new save each round, but if a creature fails three consecutive
  saves, it falls fully under the lantern’s effect for 5 minutes.
  If a creature successfully ends three consecutive turns unaffected,
  it becomes resistant, and cannot be affected again by any lantern
  with the same planar energy for 5 minutes.
  A creature can choose to let itself be affected by the lantern.
  The lanterns in Area S pacify. A creature affected by this magic
  cannot take hostile actions and treats all creatures as trusted friends.
  If another creature attacks it, it breaks free of the pacification and
  cannot be affected again until the end of the encounter.
  The lanterns in Area V invigorate. Creatures affected gain a +2
  bonus to Strength and Constitution ability checks, and to weapon
  attack rolls. They take a –2 penalty to spell attack rolls.
  Breaking Lanterns.
  The lanterns here are as easy to break as nonmagical lanterns.
  Persistence and Resistance.
  A creature who knows what the lanterns do can choose to actively to
  resist their effects. On its turn it can spend an action to focus on
  maintaining its state of mind, gaining advantage and a +2 bonus on
  its saving throw to resist the lantern.
  Once Grappa is in control of Leone’s body, it might help to have
  him examine one of the lanterns and explain to the party how they
  can resist such magic in the future.
  
  8 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Two: Applied Eschatology
  K. Pissing Point.
  The frost giants use this spot as a latrine by letting their waste
  freeze and then throwing it off into the rift. The Ob researchers
  actually set up a small igloo for privacy here.
  L. Giant’s Ballroom.
  • 1 frost giant guard
  This is the giant’s primary method of ingress these days.
  M. Obscurati Research.
  This chamber has been subdivided with wooden poles and animal-
  hide curtains, splitting it into lodging, laboratory, and living room.
  The researchers keep a tiny replica of the original Wayfarer’s
  Lantern burning oil from the plane of air, Avilona, which some-
  how keeps the room at a comfortable temperature without
  melting the ice walls.
  The two ��-something researchers here, a man named Gangen-
  wieck and a woman named Thornsenkertz, were recruited from
  minor border states. They’ve gotten quite fond of creatively grum-
  bling about the living conditions (an “insect collection” board
  where the pins all hold giant-endemic body lice; an ironic “visitors’
  guide” brochure extolling the virtues of all the giants they loathe,
  plus recipes for ice soup and ice soufflé; a log book next to a chess
  board, with � solid pages marking the date and a single move per
  person, with all the moves just going back and forth between two
  positions to no advantage; etc.).
  Their laboratory has extensive notes on nearly �� planes from
  which different meteors originated, and the effects they had on the
  prisoners. Their method of observation was to place a lantern out-
  side one of the cells in Area U, light it from afar, and observe with
  a telescope.
  N. Outlook Tower, Ground Level.
  The bottom of the tower is thick with ice, leaving very little navi-
  gable space. A few dwarf skeletons can be found here: slaves who
  escaped and hid somewhere the giants couldn’t reach them, but
  from which they couldn’t sneak out.
  O. Main Quarters.
  • 1 frost giant mage
  • 1 frost giant ranger
  • 3 frost giant guards
  The frost giants take shifts resting in this room on pelt beds.
  They use an old banquet table for repairing clothes and boots, and
  have a metal tray in one corner filled with bloody snow they
  munch on for snacks.
  P. Dragon Tower, Ground Level.
  The frost mages cleared this area of the stones that were once
  different floors, and now they use it as a meditation site. The ice
  that coats the walls is etched with thousands of runes.
  Q. Ink and Elm, Ground Level.
  Here the giants keep a haphazard collection of treasure looted
  from the city. Most of it is just shiny brass — doorknobs, sconces,
  and the like — but underneath a layer of ice and a pile of cheap
  metal, a few prizes wait, like a ��-foot diameter solid gold chande-
  lier or a mahogany headboard decorated with rubies. The party
  can also find here Reason, +� diplomatic rifle (see Part Three, Ap-
  pendix), its stock carved out of a demonic thigh bone, originally
  crafted by a familiar dwarf mercenary, Kvarti Gorbatiy (see
  Area U).
  R. Second Waterfall.
  The waterfall river flows west and into the gorge past the tower.
  The movement of the glacier has actually torn the towers from
  their original foundations, which is easily noticed here.
  S. Rift Floor.
  The ground here is perilously icy and sloped. Whenever a creature
  walks here, at the end of each move action it must make a Dexter-
  ity (Acrobatics) check (DC � + � per square traveled) or else it
  falls prone and slides � square toward the frigid stream.
  The lanterns here try to pacify creatures. See Mood Lighting
  (page �).
  T. Waterfall Pool.
  The water here is �� feet deep. Subtle runes carved into the edge
  of the pool can be noticed with a DC �� Wisdom (Perception)
  check. These have enchanted the water so that any creature that
  enters it has any magical cold protection suppressed for � hour.
  A character who tries to climb along the wall must make a
  DC �� Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to avoid the waterfall. Fail-
  ure means the character is knocked into the water.
  U. Prison Cells.
  • 1 frost giant guard
  The five cells along this ledge have ice bars thick enough that
  the exhausted dwarf and human prisoners within haven’t yet man-
  aged to break through them. Even when they get close, the frost
  giant mages repair the damage. A total of �� prisoners (�� hu-
  mans, �� dwarves) stay here, including Kvarti Gorbatiy.
  The dwarf mercenary used to plunder this city for treasure, and
  long ago he crafted a rifle using the thigh bone of the lich here as
  a stock. His interest in the Obscurati was piqued during Adven-
  ture Five, Cauldron-Born, and when he learned that frost giants
  were operating in his old stomping ground he came to check it out
  and got captured. His rifle was taken as a trophy.
  V. Prison Mine.
  •Odul Chuvan
  • 1 frost giant mage
  • 4 frost giant guards
  During the day, the prisoners work in two � hour shifts of ��
  people apiece. They head down the tunnel into the mine tunnels
  (Area W), hack into the glacial ice with picks, and then cart the
  pieces up to the pool here, where they slowly melt in the lantern
  light. The giants recover any meteorites in the bottom of the pool,
  and the water runs down to the drain (Area X).
  The lanterns here try to invigorate creatures. See Mood Light-
  ing (page �).
  For details of this location, see Frozen Souls, below.
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 9
  Act Two: Applied Eschatology
  Winter Cell
  W. Mine Tunnels.
  The prisoners work down this shaft, which leads to several tunnels.
  The tunnels are just large enough for a giant to walk through, and
  at least one giant is with the miners at any time, holding a lantern
  to keep them invigorated. The tunnels are fairly orderly and bor-
  ing. The prisoners usually only find a handful of meteorites each
  day, and they’re seldom larger than a thimble.
  X. Lich Drain.
  In their excavation, the giants found a figure frozen in the ice: a gi-
  ant lich from the time of the Demonocracy. On the Obscurati’s
  orders they did not dig him out, but his magic subtly influenced the
  water flow from the melt pool in area V, causing it to flow past him.
  The giants responded by digging a drainage hole right in front of the
  lich, so any warm water would not manage to thaw out his prison.
  For details of this location, see Frozen Souls, below.
  Winter Cell
  Social. Real-Time.
  An Obscurati cell collaborates with the frost giants, performing
  mind-control experiments.
  Gangenwieck (male) and Thornsenkertz (female), the two Ob
  scientists still active here, are not true believers. They don’t know
  the conspiracy’s larger plans, and they just think they’re research-
  ing some magical weapons that have fringe uses for crowd control.
  They are in no way combatants, but they’re intelligent, and will try
  to use the lanterns in Area S to their advantage.
  If confronted, they’ll claim they hate working here and will con-
  fess to most everything: they’re working with some conspiracy
  that they think is based out of Trekhom, prisoners get sent here to
  work for the giants digging up meteorites which they infuse into
  lantern oil, and they’ve done some experiments with it. But they
  lie about the lanterns at the bottom of the rift, saying that their
  purpose is to “establish a kinetostatic inertial field to stabilize the
  glacial flow in the rift; basically, it keeps the rift from collapsing.”
  The technobabble helps sell the lie — which can be seen through
  with a successful DC �� Wisdom (Insight) check — but a char-
  acter who studied the lantern’s schematics has advantage, and
  anyone who studies the energy of the lanterns from afar with a
  successful DC �� Intelligence (Arcana) check realizes they have
  an enchantment aura, not telekinetic.
  Friendly Villains.
  Regardless whether they’re found out, the two scientists gladly
  give full details of the rest of the rift, and they suggest the party
  head down to the rift floor, kill the Khangitche, and free the pris-
  oners. They hope the party will head down without them; they’ll
  try to watch from one of the ice bridges over the rift, and once the
  party is in the pacifying lantern light, they’ll order them to wait
  for the Khangitche to arrive so everyone can talk about the situa-
  tion reasonably. And to make sure the giants aren’t too scared, the
  scientists add, why not drop your weapons and spell components,
  and stay there politely?
  If somehow this works (and remember that failing to break free
  for � consecutive rounds makes the effect last for � minutes), the
  two scientists play a quick game of rock-paper-scissors that results
  in Gangenwieck having to go through the freezing waterfall to
  alert the Khangitche. Since the Ob scientists understand how the
  lanterns work, they concoct a plan that can kill the party.
  Rules Lawyering.
  A few minutes later, the frost giant mage from Area V comes out of
  the waterfall. He is surprisingly friendly, but says that his master
  gave him an errand to run before negotiations can start. Then he
  walks out of the rift and up to one of the ice bridges overhead. From
  there he calls down and asks, politely, for the party to step under the
  bridge, and stay there so he can show them something exciting.
  When they do, the mage uses ice shaping to remove one end of the
  bridge. The other end begins to crack, and one round later the
  whole bridge collapses, dropping several tons of ice on the party.
  Give each PC a saving throw to break out of the pacification
  effect. Those who succeed can act to get out of the way, but those
  who fail obediently wait to see the exciting thing. Anyone still left
  in the same spot one round later might be crushed (��d� blud-
  geoning damage, DC �� Dexterity saving throw for half.)
  Xambria and Soul Searching.
  If one of the PCs has had the consciousness of Xambria Meredith
  stuck in his head since Adventure Three, Digging for Lies, she points
  out that if the lich can give Grappa a body, maybe he can do the same
  for her. It just requires the party to find someone whose soul they’re
  willing to rip out. If the party is about to kill someone anyway,
  Xambria suggests not letting a good living body go to waste.
  Xambria would prefer a woman’s body, all things considered. She’d
  be content with Thornsenkertz, though she’ll lament that she didn’t
  have more time to take her pick of the healthiest female villains.
  Likewise, if a player has been interested in changing something
  about his or her character, like class or skills, the lich could perform
  a little bit of soul surgery.
  Kvarti
  Gorbatiy.
  A
  dwarven
  locksmith
  turned
  mercenary,
  Kvarti
  found
  a
  book
  of
  Heid
  Eschatol
  philosophy in the hands of a man he had
  assassinated. Though he presents a
  weary face to maintain his reputation, he
  tries to go through life content. All his
  affairs are in order, and recently he set
  himself on what he thought was the
  noble cause of trying to learn more about the people behind the colossus.
  He would have been fine dying on his mission, but after being captured and
  tortured by the frost giants of Knütpara, he realizes he wasn’t prepared for
  being powerless.
  .
  
  10 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Two: Applied Eschatology
  Frozen Souls
  The Leone, The Lich, and the
  Snowglobe
  Frozen Souls
  Action. Tactical.
  The frozen lich who can free Grappa and help the party infiltrate
  the Ob lies in a heavily guarded mine filled with prisoners.
  Odul Chuvan and some of his giants wait in Area V while ��
  prisoners work in the mine, under the watch of one giant guard.
  The Khangitche is not much of a talker, but he can be intimidated
  into just leaving if the party explains that they’ve killed the rest of
  his forces.
  Adversaries.
  • Khangitche Odul Chuvan
  • 1 frost giant mage
  • 4 frost giant guards
  Approach.
  The ledge overhead has prison cells, and unless the party calms the
  prisoners down their excitement at a possible rescue will alert the
  giants. Kvarti Gorbatiy is in his cell when the party arrives, and
  he’ll whisper an explanation of the situation, how he got here, and
  what the lanterns below do. He’s heard the giants discussing a
  frozen wizard who must be down the tunnel to the southwest, but
  he’s never seen it.
  He’s the only prisoner worth much in a fight, and if the party
  gives him a gun he can provide overwatch.
  Tactics.
  If a fight breaks out, the giant in the mines orders the prisoners
  back into the main area immediately. They arrive at the start of the
  second round, first � humans, then the frost giant guard, then a
  dozen humans behind him.
  If the party is still up on the ledge the frost giant mage tries to
  use ice shaping to turn the ground beneath some of the adventur-
  ers into a ramp, dropping them into close combat. The giant
  guards then rush any PCs who are farther away, trying to keep the
  groups split up.
  Odul Chuvan grabs chunks of ice to throw at the adventurers
  before closing, then tries to throw PCs into the gully on the west-
  ern side of the room. When he drops below half hit points he calls
  his guards back to him to form a protective ring, but he doesn’t
  run.
  Loot.
  When Odul Chuvan falls, his armor seems to melt away, leaving
  behind just one chunk of ice that radiates magic. This is a suit of
  +� full plate that grants its wearer resistance to cold damage.
  Aftermath.
  There’s the very real logistical problem of getting the prisoners
  to safety. If none in the party can use teleport, they might cast
  sending to contact Lauryn Cyneburg, who can teleport to Mirsk
  and hike here in a few days. Kvarti is willing to stay and keep ev-
  eryone safe; there’s enough supplies to last that long, at least.
  Which leaves the issue of why they came here in the first place.
  Kvarti Gorbatiy
  Medium humanoid (hill dwarf), lawful neutral
  Armor Class 16 (studded leather)
  Hit Points 170 (20d8+80)
  Speed 25 ft.
  STR
  DEX
  CON
  INT
  WIS
  CHA
  10 (+0)
  18 (+4)
  17 (+3)
  8 (–1)
  15 (+2)
  10 (+0)
  Saving Throws DEX +8, CON +7
  Skills Intimidation +8, History +3, Insight +10, Perception +10,
  Stealth +12
  Damage Resistances poison
  Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 20
  Languages Common, Dwarvish, Primordial
  Challenge 9 (5,000 XP)
  Deft Shooter. A ranged weapon deals one extra die of damage when
  Kvarti hits with it (included in the attack).
  Dwarven Resilience. Kvarti has advantage on saving throws against
  poison.
  Feat: Superb Aim. Kvarti ignores half cover and three-quarters cover
  when making a ranged weapon attack, and he doesn’t have
  disadvantage when attacking at long range. When Kvarti makes his
  first ranged weapon attack in a turn, he can choose to take a –5
  penalty to his ranged weapon attack rolls in exchange for a +10
  bonus to ranged weapon damage.
  Targeting Shot. Kvarti can use a bonus action to aim at a target
  within 80 feet, gaining advantage on his next attack roll against it
  before the end of his turn. On a hit, he deals an extra 18 (4d8)
  damage.
  ACTIONS
  Multiattack. Kvarti fires his rifle twice.
  Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft. or
  range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d4+4) piercing damage or 9
  (2d4+4) piercing damage when thrown.
  Rifle. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 80/240 ft., one target.
  Hit: 20 (3d10+4) piercing damage.
  The Leone, The Lich, and the
  Snowglobe
  Social. Real-Time.
  The frost giant lich makes a bargain.
  In Area X, the lich’s towering body (easily �� feet tall) is visible
  through more than a foot of ice. When the group is ready, some-
  one can place a hand on the ice. The lich’s eyes glow with white
  light, and the glacier shudders as its muffled voice seems to come
  from all directions. It is a man of few words, and asks what they
  have come for.
  The party should explain their needs here (or Grappa can, if
  Leone’s asleep). First, they need to remove Leone’s soul from his
  body so Grappa can control it. Second, they need to learn the
  magic that can implant their souls into other people’s bodies.
  The undead mage is a man of few words, and demands that after
  he gives the group the knowledge it needs, they must break the ice
  trapping him and let him go free. He promises not to harm them.
  If they do not free him, he will curse them to turn their blood to
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 11
  Act Two: Applied Eschatology
  The Fitting Room
  ice. Anyone remotely familiar with the Demonocracy should have
  a good sense that such curses were well within the power of those
  who served the demons.
  Feel free to play up the lich as much as you want — it has all
  these hideous plans to march into the frozen wastes and awaken
  the Lost Riders who will sweep across the land carving out a new
  domain for him to rule over, etc. etc. — but the truth is that the lich
  isn’t making it out of here.
  Soul Ripping.
  Even if Grappa is in control, Leone starts to panic now and tries
  to run. The lich tells the group that it needs a crystal to hold the
  man’s soul. A glass sphere is best, but a piece of ice will work. It
  tells them to press the victim to the ice wall, place the crystal on
  the back of his head, and name the person whose soul is to be re-
  moved.
  When they say Leone’s name the entire glacier shakes, and the
  ice around them turns black. Cracks fissure the walls and Leone
  screams, flails, tries to shove the party away with his steelshaping
  even to the point of searing the flesh beneath his manacles. Then
  he goes limp, and the glacier becomes still and blue again, but the
  crystal has turned black.
  Grappa groans, bonks his head a few times to clear it, then
  smiles to the party and thanks them. The party could keep Leone’s
  soul in the crystal, but Grappa suggests breaking the crystal to let
  him pass on to whatever afterlife awaits him (if they use ice, it
  would melt eventually anyway.)
  Henceforth, Grappa can use all of Leone’s powers. Additionally
  he has some mild enchantment and charm magic that aren’t per-
  tinent in combat. He can also access a fair number of Leone’s
  memories, but their geases are both still in effect. Grappa can play
  a convincing Leone, but he cannot tell the party that Roland Stan-
  field is part of the Ob, for instance.
  Demonic Techniques.
  Now the lich says he shall grant them the knowledge they asked
  for. Any arcane spellcaster can learn the spell mortal possession.
  All they need to do is place their hand on the ice and let the lich
  implant the knowledge in their mind. The spell is detailed in
  Player Handout — Obscurati Covers (in Part Three, Appendix).
  Releasing the Lich.
  His part of the bargain done, the lich tells them to free him. If they
  don’t, he curses at them, discovering that he actually does not have
  the power he thought he did.
  If they do — either by melting the ice or shattering it — the lich
  laughs and boasts that he will offer them a place in his future do-
  main, once he has had his reve-…and then his jaw falls off.
  Confused, he manages to push himself free of the ice and take a
  single step, at which point his leg snaps in two. He faceplants,
  then shatters into thousands of icy shards. The various pieces fall
  down the pit and are washed away.
  The Demonocracy is gone, and the Ob already found and de-
  stroyed the lich’s phylactery. Without their support, the lich is just
  a normal undead with a very brittle corpse.
  The Fitting Room
  Social. Montage.
  The party must decide whether to take Grappa’s offer, and which Ob
  officer each of them wants to inhabit.
  Assuming the party is willing to place their souls in the bodies
  of others, now all they have to do is wait for the officers to arrive.
  From Autumn �� to Autumn �� Leone’s operatives will bring the
  arrivals in one by one to his hotel suite. Grappa can get them alone
  then magically waylay them.
  For the sake of avoiding a causality glitch, you might want to
  just gloss through this and simply make each player use the same
  Obscurati Officer they played in the teaser. For now just give them
  the Officer Cards from the teaser, not the full bios.
  Once everyone has a new body, they have to figure out what to
  do with their original ones. Grappa can get special potions able to
  Vile Ritual.
  One of the PCs can cast the mortal possession spell, but Grappa’s
  probably best equipped to use it. An expert at mind magic, with the
  aid of some other spells he can force the victims to effectively make
  a DC 25 saving throw when he casts the spell. Their Wisdom save
  bonuses are listed below; they will automatically fail unless they roll
  a natural 20.
  Contest, Crisis, and Rejection.
  From time to time the PCs will have to make Wisdom saving throws
  to see if a host temporarily regains control of his body. Some hosts
  are more mentally resilient than others. Their saving throw DCs for
  this situation, known as a contest, are listed here, as well as their
  own Wisdom save bonus for when the party casts the spell on them.
  • Ken Don. DC 14, WIS +8.
  • Gran Guiscard. DC 12, WIS +4.
  • Livia Hatsfield. DC 12*, WIS +4.
  • Kiov Hetman. DC 11, WIS +3.
  • Oscan Ligurio. DC 10. WIS -2.
  • Bruce McDruid. DC 10, WIS +3.
  • Xavier Sangria. DC 10, WIS +5.
  * Note: Livia is actually loyal to Risur, acting as a “double agent”
  without any affiliation with the RHC. If a character allows Livia to
  have control and then has the rest of the party explain the situation,
  it will become possible to maintain gestalt with her permanently.
  If a contest leads to a crisis, give players a chance to play it off if
  anyone sees them acting strangely, though onlookers will probably
  report their suspicions to Nicodemus. If a full-blown rejection occurs,
  it’s up to the GM how punitive to be. Perhaps the confused host
  stumbles into the rest of the party, who have a chance to tackle him
  before anyone else sees. Or perhaps he panics and starts screaming
  when he sees ghosts hovering outside his window.
  If Nicodemus sees a PC in rejection, he’ll have a basic idea of what
  the magic does, even if he doesn’t know how it works. He’ll quickly
  try to round up everyone else who came in the same group (i.e., the
  PCs, Grappa, and a few priests from Crisillyir), and will start asking
  very prying questions, forcing PCs to either lie convincingly or risk a
  gestalt attempt. Luckily, with Grappa around they’re at no risk of a
  crisis, but they might not realize that.
  
  12 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  12 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Two: Applied Eschatology
  keep the party’s bodies from dying of hunger and thirst, and El
  Extraño’s kobolds can watch over them in the hotel room. Or if
  the party has Copperhat the Headless’s absurdist web, they can
  carry their bodies with them.
  Rehearsal.
  Show the group the first part of Player Handout — Obscurati
  Covers, and let them become familiar with the rules for contests,
  crises, and gestalt. Then it’s time for each of them to attempt their
  first gestalt, to get a sense of their cover story and the personality
  they need to maintain.
  One by one, have the players go through the process of contest
  (a few times if necessary), and then once they achieve gestalt give
  them the full character bio of their host body. Then watch the con-
  stable in Oscan Ligurio be creeped out, and let the party figure out
  what to do with Livia when they realize she’s actually on their side.
  Buddy System.
  For the trip to Vendricce, Grappa can stay by the PCs and make
  sure when they sleep that they don’t suffer a crisis. But once they
  reach the convocation, it’ll be up to them to stay out of trouble and
  maintain their cover. Grappa suggests they request rooms so that
  at least two of them are in each room. That way in case one has a
  crisis while falling asleep the other can handle it.
  With all that covered, it’s time for the party to infiltrate the con-
  spiracy. The group boards a train on Autumn �� and over the next
  three days makes their way to Vendricce. There, around noon on
  Autumn ��, they board the ship Naphaeon along with a few
  priests of the Clergy, and they sail twenty miles off the coast.
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 13
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 13
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  I
  Obscurati Palace Overview
  Obscurati Palace Locations
  Mutravir Island, Exterior.
  I
  n this act, the party has a chance to
  devastate the conspiracy, but a misstep
  could spell their doom.
  Obscurati Palace Overview
  Here we detail the locations of the Obscurati palace. Statistics for
  the enemies present here are listed in Appendix Two: Obscurati
  Forces (see Part Three, Appendix).
  The total catalog of all the defenders of the palace and its sur-
  roundings are:
  > �� Obscurati bookpin guards
  > �� Obscurati arcane marksmen
  > � shadowlisks
  > � senior ghost councilors
  Other combatants here include:
  > � ghost council swarm
  > Vicemi Terio
  > Catherine Romana
  > Cula Ravjahani
  The other Ob officers aren’t viable threats to the party at this
  point. Nicodemus the Gnostic could probably wipe the floor with
  all of them, but Andrei von Recklinghausen, whose body he is
  wearing, would stop him if he knows it’s the same PCs he encoun-
  tered on the railroad, forcing Nicodemus to flee rather than fight.
  Obscurati Palace Locations
  Mutravir Island, Exterior.
  In the Bleak Gate, during the day everything is dimly lit, and at
  night it is pitch black. No breeze blows, and even the sea is eerily
  still. The island has been cleared of any sort of monster, though
  the waters around it are still host to the ghosts of a crew of pirates
  who dared to set foot on the island �� years ago. They were cap-
  tured by the Clergy and chained in their ship, which was set on
  fire. They burned alive and then sank into the sea. Only a young
  cabin boy managed to escape, swimming from the burning ship to
  Cacciatrece de Nav (Area J), where he crawled into a cave and
  died of his wounds.
  A. Garden
  • 8 Obscurati bookpin guards
  • 4 Obscurati arcane marksmen
  • 2 shadowlisks
  A gravel path circles a reflecting pool, and small wayfarer’s
  lanterns glow with nourishing light, keeping alive rows of flowers
  and other greenery. The grass and trees elsewhere on the Bleak
  Gate version of the island are dry and lifeless, but the Obscurati see
  this garden as proof that they can change the world for the better.
  The defenders listed above are split into two groups. Normally
  these guards patrol the path around the palace, each group making
  a circuit every �� minutes, so guards pass by any given area every
  � minutes. Each group is the equivalent of a CR �� encounter.
  (Darkvision, Perception +��. Shadowlisk pierces illusions.)
  B. Obscurati Palace — Central Building.
  • 4 Obscurati bookpin guards
  • 2 senior ghost councilors
  Pristine white plaster at ground level gives way to dramatic re-
  ligious carvings near the roof, which peaks at �� feet above the
  ground. The clay tiles of the roof gently slope, though without rain
  the gargoyles (actual stone carvings, not the monsters) are some-
  what useless in the Bleak Gate.
  Two large windows sit on either side of the entrance at ground
  level, while a row of windows spans the entire face of the second
  floor, �� feet up.
  A small detachment of guards keep watch at the entrance. (Per-
  ception +�.)
  At any given time two senior ghost councilors will be assigned
  the task of strolling through the central building, on the look-out
  for trouble. If they spot any, they rush to alert Vicemi Terio and
  the rest of the ghost council, who will respond appropriately.
  (Darkvision, Perception +��.)
  C. Obscurati Palace — West Wing.
  • 1 senior ghost councilor
  • 1 shadowlisk
  The roof here peaks at only �� feet above ground. Small chim-
  neys dot the rooftop. Sixteen windows on each floor are nearly all
  unlit from within. This hall has few guests, at least not living ones.
  At any given time, one senior ghost councilor walks the halls,
  accompanied by a shadowlisk, to make sure no one tries to sneak
  in. (Darkvision, Perception +��. Shadowlisk pierces illusions.)
  D. Obscurati Palace — East Wing.
  • 4 Obscurati Bookpin Guards
  Identical to the west wing, except that here most of the win-
  dows will have lights on during waking hours. Two pairs of
  bookpin guards make slow circuits of the wing.
  E. Lighthouse.
  • 2 Obscurati arcane marksmen
  • 1 senior ghost councilor
  A recent addition to the palace, the lighthouse serves as a giant
  wayfarer’s lantern. With a minute’s preparation, oil of different
  combinations can be lit, producing either a coherent beam that
  can be aimed up to � miles away, or a broad glow that illuminates
  the entire island and the sea out to a half mile. This can create
  various magical effects, but it is primarily primed to be able to
  make the island coterminous between the Bleak Gate and the real
  world, in case an emergency evacuation is needed.
  Act Three:
  Into the Lion’s Den
  Act Three:
  Into the Lion’s Den
  
  14 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 15
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Indoors, First Floor.
  The lighthouse also has a mechanism that can feed different va-
  rieties of gas to the lanterns in different parts of the palace. Since
  all the mansion’s gaslamps can function as wayfarer’s lanterns,
  this allows an operator here to affect different parts of the palace
  with different types of planar energy.
  The top floor of the lighthouse rises ��� feet above ground level
  (and a further �� feet above sea level). It is serviced by two interior
  freight elevators. About sixty feet up is a large storage area that
  has tanks of gas with different planar energies, as well as precisely
  labeled casks of lantern oil, one for each of the five factions’ pro-
  posals (Arboretum, Colossus, Miller’s Pyre, Panarchists, and
  Watchmakers; see Into the Night, page ��). Clever parties might
  steal some of this oil and use it in a lamp of their own, granting
  themselves special powers as listed in Brave New Worlds, below
  (page ��).
  Normally a ghost councilor is on hand to control the lighthouse
  and operate the lamps. Nicodemus or Vicemi can contact the op-
  erator
  magically
  from
  anywhere
  on
  the
  palace
  grounds.
  Additionally, two marksmen sit around very bored.
  F. Carriage House.
  • 18 Obscurati bookpin guards
  • 8 Obscurati arcane marksmen
  When the guards are not active, they rest here. They have con-
  verted the carriage and horse stalls into small rooms. At any given
  time half of the guards are actively patrolling, while the other half
  are here resting or preparing food, cleaning, etc.
  G. South Balcony.
  The ground level exit of the lighthouse feeds onto this wide bal-
  cony, which is normally unlit. Stairs lead down �� feet to the sea,
  where boats could row in and deliver visitors or supplies.
  H. Beach Trail.
  This plain path leads to the flatter beach on the eastern shore, and
  eventually circles around to the main docks, about � miles away.
  In the Bleak Gate there are no waves, no surf, and no sea breeze.
  I. Sea.
  The water here is fairly shallow here, only about �� feet deep. If a
  character with the Spirit Medium theme stands near the sea in the
  Bleak Gate — perhaps on the beach trail or the south balcony — he
  hears pained cries coming from the large rocky island called Cac-
  ciatrece de Nav, the Slayer of Ships.
  Further out, the still waters around the island are patrolled by
  three experimental steam-powered warships, which are equipped
  with arcane shields to keep out supernatural threats. They are
  nimble but relatively slow compared to other warships, though
  still fast enough to chase off the sea creatures of the Bleak Gate.
  They hit hard, but are not particularly resilient. Their statistics are
  presented in the Panicked Evacuation encounter (page ��).
  J. Cacciatrece de Nav.
  This massive spire of rock rises dramatically out of the sea, wider
  in its middle than at its base, and looking like it would blow over
  in a strong enough storm. A small cave has been eroded in the
  south side, and �� years ago a young pirate died here, stranded and
  desperate. His skeleton remains, scattered by the tide within the -
  cave.
  No one has yet found the boy’s skeleton, but if someone enters
  the cave his ghost will appear (either in the real world or in the
  Bleak Gate). He begs to be brought back to the mainland. If the
  party agrees and collects his bones, they can be aided by the Ghost
  Ship in the Panicked Evacuation encounter (page ��).
  Indoors, First Floor.
  Gaslight lamps illuminate the mansion except where noted. These
  lamps are all potential wayfarer’s lanterns, controlled by a ghost
  councilor in the lighthouse (Area E). The lighthouse operator just
  gets to choose what kind of gas to feed in; the lamps can still be
  shut off or destroyed locally. Normally, though, they just shed
  pleasant light.
  Since guards are likely to move around, we list them by general
  area (see areas A through F above), rather than individual rooms.
  K. Grand Foyer.
  This vast entry hall stretches �� feet in either direction, and has
  ��-foot ceilings. Luxurious red rugs guide walkers across a marble
  floor with a repeating zig-zag pattern in black and white. Fine
  wood covers stone walls, and rare pieces of painting, sculpture,
  and jewelry are on display here and throughout the palace.
  Double stairs lead up to the second floor. Doors lead sideways
  into two lounges, while a set of double doors lead south to the
  main hall. Heated plumbing warms the floors here, as well as in
  the lounges and main hall.
  L. Lounges.
  Each lounge has comfortable leather chairs where up to �� people
  can drink expensive spirits while discussing weighty matters. The
  side rooms have closets for people to hang cloaks, as well as racks
  of alcohol and shelves with a few hundred books for research or
  conversation starters.
  M. Main Hall.
  Over a ��� feet across, this hall can seat a hundred people at tables
  for dinner or special events. A stage rises at the south end, and
  chemical spotlights can illuminate speakers or performers. A
  heavy red curtain separates the main hall from the back stage,
  where mechanisms control the lights. A double doorway leads
  south to the lighthouse.
  N. Kitchen.
  This long room has multiple cook stations to prepare food for large
  gatherings. The Obscurati didn’t want to risk bringing that many
  cooks here, so only a handful of guards with cooking talents work
  here, directing special unseen servant-style spells.
  O. Icebox.
  This room stores most of the perishable food supplies of the palace.
  Magic keeps it perpetually just above freezing, and vents in the
  floor can be opened to circulate frigid air through ducts that lead
  around the building. Since the ducts need to be cleaned occasion-
  
  16 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 17
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Indoors, Second Floor.
  Getting Comfortable
  ally, they’re large enough for an adult man to crawl through, and
  they run throughout the mansion, with access points in each
  room, usually hidden behind furniture.
  P. Storage.
  Furniture, linens, and similar domestic necessities are stored here.
  Q. Dry Goods.
  Non-perishable foodstuffs, plus a few tools for repair. Casks of
  lantern oil are stacked along one wall.
  R. Lighthouse, First Floor.
  Mostly empty, this area has ladders along the interior walls, as
  well as two freight elevators. Sixty feet up is the gas supply and the
  pumps that feed it to the various lamps throughout the palace.
  S. West Wing, First Floor.
  • 2 Obscurati bookpin guards
  Stairs lead up to the second floor, with a maintenance closet
  beneath. The ghost councilors lurk in these rooms, often floating
  silent and dormant unless their counsel is needed. Sometimes they
  fly out of the windows and circle the building, watching the go-
  ings-on of the still-living with cold detachment.
  The rooms here are all empty except five. The four on the west
  end (near Area T) have lights so ghosts can read books if they de-
  sire, and one additional room acts as the cell for the spy Vitus
  Sigismund. A portal painting (see page ��) has been placed in that
  suite’s bathroom, the door to which is locked and watched by two
  guards.
  The painting leads to a demiplane with several nigh inescapable
  prison cells, their defenses magically enhanced. A dozen other
  men — condemned prisoners from Crisillyir — are also kept here
  in their own cells. Members of the ghost council occasionally
  come by to observe Vitus, but they leave the interrogation to
  Vicemi.
  T. Den.
  The ghost council meets here if they need to discuss matters. It is
  left unlit, with sheets over the furniture.
  U. East Wing, First Floor.
  Though physically identical to the west wing, this area is full of
  life, with nearly every suite occupied. Each suite has a desk in one
  corner, a bed in another, a bathroom, a closet, and a fireplace. The
  fireplaces in the two central rows of rooms that sit back to back
  share chimneys, and the brick backing of each fireplace is fairly
  thin. It would be possible to break through these, allowing a quick
  if unorthodox route between the northern and southern hallways.
  V. Trophy Room.
  In the real world version of this room, old tattered taxidermied
  heads of beasts hang from the walls. Here they are covered with
  sheets to hide their morbid decay. Guests can enjoy a pool table, a
  piano, and a set of instruments stored along the west wall. The
  entire north, south, and east walls are windows.
  Indoors, Second Floor.
  On the second floor of the central building, the walls are covered
  with a dozen floor-to-ceiling paintings. Each is covered with a cur-
  tain when the party arrives, and are only unveiled later in the
  evening. These paintings are portals to demi-planes. Each demi-
  plane spans about ��� feet and represents a possible confluence of
  planar energies. In short, these are demos of the new worlds the
  Ob could create.
  W. Council Room.
  Nicodemus holds meetings here. Usually his affairs are watched by
  members of the ghost council, and there are always at least a half
  dozen or so ghosts floating outside the windows here.
  X. West Wing, Second Floor.
  The four suites nearest the upstairs council room (Area W) host
  Nicodemus, Han Jierre and his bodyguard Bert Facie, Cula Rav-
  jahani, and Catherine Romana. The other rooms here, and the
  hallways, are unlit.
  Y. Chapel.
  The real-world version of this room was a chapel for daily prayers.
  Here the religious iconography on the walls have been covered by
  thick red curtains, and the room is stocked with snacks and
  drinks, so those on the second floor don’t have to go downstairs if
  they’re puckish.
  Z. Infirmary.
  This has lots of mostly-useless medical supplies, ready just in case
  something goes horribly wrong and there are more injured people
  than there is magical healing available.
  AA. Library.
  This vast library has �� rows of bookstacks, plus � long tables for
  researchers.
  BB. East Wing, Second Floor.
  As on the first floor, most of the suites here are occupied.
  CC. Dance Hall.
  Since only a handful of the Ob officers would dance even if asked,
  this area’s fine dance floor has been covered with high and low
  tables, chairs, stools, and several other sets of furniture to moti-
  vate conversation.
  Getting Comfortable
  Exploration/Social. Montage.
  The party is split up into different rooms and given time to mingle
  before the opening of the convocation.
  Refresh the players’ memories about their arrival at the palace,
  meeting Han Jierre, transitioning into the Bleak Gate, the cap-
  ture of the spy, the ghostly return of Reed Macbannin, and their
  brief introduction to Nicodemus.
  
  18 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Nicodemus tells Grappa (whom he thinks is Leone) it’s a plea-
  sure to see him again, and explains that he’s gotten a new face
  since he visited the vineyard. Then he invites the PCs and Grappa
  to have a seat, and then he asks each of them to introduce them-
  selves.
  He
  apologizes
  for
  not
  being
  quite
  as
  good
  with
  remembering names as Han, since he’s never been a big one for
  politics and hobnobbing.
  He explains that as of now, they should feel free to discuss
  whatever they want about their roles in the Obscurati, then adds
  to Grappa, “Except, you know, keep that one thing secret, of
  course.” (He’s referring to Roland Stanfield’s still-secret position
  as head of Colossus Cell. Grappa cannot share his knowledge
  about that with the party, due to a geas placed on him by Kasva-
  rina.)
  Accommodations.
  After Nicodemus has a moment to talk to each of them in turn, he
  checks a notebook and says that since they’re the last arrivals, he’ll
  need to put them two to a room. He’d love to open up some rooms
  in the west wing, but Vicemi has advised him not to, for security
  reasons. They’ll have about an hour to settle in, and then it will be
  time for everyone to gather in the main hall.
  He explains that later this evening after he gives a welcoming
  speech, the visiting officers will be split into groups of � or �� peo-
  ple so they can meet with different speakers in turn. He wants this
  group of visitors that came in with Leone to stick together; he says
  that he and his advisors thought the different points of view of the
  group would lead to some interesting discussions.
  There’s just one more person he wants to add to their group: a
  dwarf named Erskine Haffkruger, who came in on a different ship.
  Lounge Time.
  Nicodemus asks for the group to give him some time alone with
  Leone, and suggests they head back down to the first floor lounges
  to find Erskine. He asks that they not intrude into the west wing
  unless invited, because the ghost council likes its privacy.
  The party can wander and snoop, but guards do deter them
  from looking around the portal paintings on the second floor of
  the central building, and the ghosts get upset if they linger in the
  west wing too long. Most of the activity is in the two lounges,
  though (Area L).
  Meet Erskine.
  While dozens of Ob officers break the ice over brandy, whiskey,
  and wine, Erskine is surveying the crowd from a corner while
  listening to a halfling named Alloquicious (who had a cameo in
  the arms fair in Adventure Three, Digging for Lies). The little in-
  ventor is joyfully describing how he was nearly caught and had to
  use his prototype mechanical battle suit to murder some of his un-
  derlings to make sure the RHC didn’t catch him. Erskine casually
  asks for details about the suit, but looks thoroughly unimpressed
  as the halfling describes it.
  Erskine responds to most social situations by awkwardly asking
  basic framing questions like, “Why do you want to talk to me?” or
  “What do you want to talk about?” He tries to avoid talking about
  his work, warning that it is very boring, but if pressed he proves
  Erskine Haffkruger. This dwarf
  environmental biologist was recruited to
  ensure that life can flourish under different
  planar alignments. After his initial tests
  with flora and fauna were encouraging, he
  abducted
  dozens
  to
  perform
  “human
  trials.” He’s eerily fascinated with people
  who possess atypical phenotypes, and has
  blistering social awkwardness, which in a way makes him the perfect set of
  eyes for Benedict Pemberton.
  The dragon industrialist replaced the real Haffkruger with a duplicant.
  The dwarf goes about his business completely normally, though he refrains
  from food. Pemberton usually has a flunky watching through the
  duplicant’s eyes, but when things are important he takes over, and can
  speak through the machine.
  Amielle Latimer. A century ago
  Amielle brought her one-of-a-kind rifle to
  Flint
  and
  lent
  her
  keen
  marksmanship
  toward defeating the witches of Cauldron
  Hill. That olive branch opened up the city to
  investment by industrialists from Danor,
  which had by that point fought two painful
  wars with Risur. Amielle proposed the plan,
  and it worked like clockwork.
  It is then fitting, perhaps, that Amielle promotes the Watchmaker faction
  of the conspiracy, and has designed a plan for a thousand year destiny that
  will lead the world to prosperity and peace. A grandiose woman with
  grandiose plans, she is only stymied by the fact that she died 80 years ago,
  and while she endures as part of the ghost council her influence is weak
  compared to Vicemi Terio. She still remembers life fondly, and she often
  disagrees with her fellow ghosts, showing her disapproval with piping
  sarcastic laughter.
  As a ghost she still has her rifle. Amielle is a playable character in the
  short adventure Bonds of Forced Faith, which occurs during her heyday.
  Benedict
  Pemberton.
  The
  dragon
  Gradiax, Lord of Steel, has almost never
  resumed
  his
  true
  form
  for
  the
  past
  two
  centuries, and has grown accustomed to his
  eccentric alternate identity as a businessman
  and technologist. Though he only looks about
  fifty, and has the verve of a young man, he
  jokingly exaggerates his aged infirmities. He
  speaks slowly with a deep, country-accented voice, and often leans back
  and tucks his thumbs in his belt loops as he talks. (Imagine a more laid-
  back Foghorn Leghorn.)
  Confident in his ability to win in the long run, Pemberton almost never
  loses his cool. He enjoys playing subtle power games; in the middle of a
  tense conversation he might reach into his coat, draw a small flip-knife, and
  ask an enemy to hold it for him while he fishes out a cigar, then takes the
  knife back so he can cut the tip off before lighting it.
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 19
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Opening Statement
  his warning fair by droning on about the nuances of how the pur-
  pose of the appendix is apparently to maintain a reservoir of
  native elemental energy in the event of extraplanar travel.
  Erskine knows he’s to be put into a group with the party, and
  goes along with it without any fuss. He basically never talks unless
  someone asks him a question, but you should make a point to men-
  tion that he hangs near the party unless they make a point to part
  ways with him. Keep track of things he witnesses that might help
  explain how Pemberton figures out they’re the same constables
  who thwarted him a few months earlier.
  Shake a Ghost’s Hand.
  A ghost who has been making her way through the crowd now
  reaches the party. Amielle Latimer, one of the most lively mem-
  bers of the ghost council, glides up to them with a case of fine
  cigars levitating beside her incorporeal body. She introduces her-
  self, offers cigars as they answer, and playfully asks them to enjoy
  these twice as much since she can’t smoke them herself anymore.
  She adds that Nicodemus wants her to be fair and wait for the
  proper time to meet people, but she wanted to add a bit of life to
  the party. With a short peal of laughter she tells them she looks
  forward to talking more later, then spins and glides away.
  Villainous Bragging.
  Dame Constance Baden, head of the Obscurati’s “blue sky” divi-
  sion researching outlandish ideas to see what might be possible, is
  just reaching the end of a humorous story (about accidentally
  boarding a hostile ship when her test balloon crashed) as Amielle
  leaves, and a huge burst of laughter should get their attention.
  She sighs and says that she hopes that out of this group of
  clever people, somehow they’ll manage to make flight possible
  again. Then she gestures to another in the group, asking them to
  share the worst setback they had.
  Barro Bangristo, a minotaur professor from Ber, starts to tell
  a story about how his attempt to enlist someone into his cell didn’t
  turn out well, an experience many present groan at in sympathy.
  In Barro’s story, he wanted to turn a theater student into a spy in
  the Bruse’s court, and had been grooming the kid for months.
  Then one day the student bragged that Beran officials wanted to
  recruit him to be a spy in Risur, and he’d been practicing by snoop-
  ing around the university. The kid had actually found the secret
  meeting place some of Barro’s other students, but he thought it
  was just a smuggling ring.
  To salvage the situation, Barro offered to go with the kid to in-
  vestigate, and then had his other students plead their case in
  person. The kid instead tried to run, and ended up getting himself
  crushed by a statue that he knocked over. Barro laughs and
  explains a series of cascading, ever-worsening problems (a watch-
  man investigates, a hyperintelligent bear breaks loose, a mind-
  control spell backfires, etc.), culminating in he and his cell having
  to provoke a riot on the campus in order to cover everything up.
  At first, some of the officers listening look a little unsettled at
  the talk of death, but a few laugh, and Barro clearly enjoys the
  story, which encourages more of them to chuckle and eventually
  cheer when their fellow conspirator pulls off a clutch victory.
  Another officer, Rakovnik Brasny from Crisillyir, gives a long
  sigh and says that it feels good to be able to talk about these things
  and not be judged. Then he dives into a story of his own involving
  criminal allies, bribery, and murder. His audience is sympathetic,
  since practically every officer here has had similar experiences.
  If the party listens in, within �� minutes it should be clear to
  them that despite the noble aims of the Obscurati, its members
  feel few qualms about destroying those who get in their way.
  Miscellanea.
  If you need to add any other local color, see Appendix One: Com-
  plete Officer Roster (in Part Three, Appendix). Just note that all
  the members of the ghost council, as well as Nicodemus, Cather-
  ine Romana, Cula Ravjahani, and Han Jierre are making final
  preparations in Area W.
  Call to Order.
  Half an hour later, ghost councilors come in and ask all in atten-
  dance to return to the grand foyer and enter the main hall. Large
  round tables have designated seating for each of the five groups of
  guests, plus a table in front with the representatives of the differ-
  ent factions. Grappa has been assigned to a different group across
  the room.
  Opening Statement
  Exposition. Real-Time.
  Nicodemus explains exactly what the conspiracy is up to, and asks
  the guests to split up into groups to discuss.
  Lights dim, and the crowd murmur fades out. Two incandescent cal-
  cium oxide spotlights shine down on a stage podium, slicing out a
  single bright oval in the dark hall. Nicodemus steps into the light
  and places an unlit lantern the size of a pumpkin on the podium. He
  surveys the crowd for a moment, then begins his oration.
  “We have gathered for this convocation because we share a pur-
  pose.” As he speaks, he draws a cigarette from a case and lights it
  with a match. He takes a casual drag and continues, speaking
  through the smoke.
  “That purpose is to fix the unsteady course of a flawed world.
  Some of us have worked to kindle industry, thinking progress and
  invention will defend nations from war and suffering. Others have
  ingratiated themselves with the callous and corrupt, ready to un-
  mask their true faces and replace them with more honest and just
  leaders. You’ve unearthed ancient relics that revealed the forgotten
  origins of today’s woes, and have with regrettable necessity si-
  lenced those who would have revealed and thwarted our grand
  design.
  “Few of you have been trusted with the full extent of our agenda.
  You know simply that I or one of our other officers asked you to
  cloak yourselves, and then to strive and correct some flaw of society
  that the common people and their complacently powerful masters
  have chosen as ‘the way things are.’ Unlike them, we have not been
  content with an imperfect world, because we rebel against the con-
  ceit that the inertia of the world cannot change, that its course is
  
  20 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Factions
  set, that there is fate, or destiny.
  “But the truth is, at their basest physical level, life, our planet,
  and everything we know is swayed by forces beyond us. If I may
  move from broad strokes to scientific particulars, our world is con-
  nected by ancient magic to eight planes — elemental realms of fire
  and earth and air and water, and inscrutable lands where time and
  space, life and death are corporeal and manifest. Look skyward and
  you can see these distant discs tracing their orbits through the
  night.
  “These eight are but a handful in an infinite starscape of planes,
  and some of our agents have peered into the night sky to learn their
  nature. One airy world they spied through a powerful lens reveals it-
  self to generate calmer and more predictable storms than we have
  here. Another planet, a dappled purple and yellow orb, is possessed
  of warm clouds and a strong cheerful emotion, while countless
  miles away a hazy nebula is wracked by eternal lightning — de-
  structive but swift and powerful.
  “Now, we have a world of our own full of elemental air energy, but
  its skies are thin, and the winds are erratic. Imagine if, instead of
  that plane, our world was infused with the energy from one of those
  others. It would change our climate. It would change, on subtle
  level, the emotions you feel looking at the sky. More than that, it
  would change the very fate of civilization.
  “There is an ancient ritual seal, crafted and hidden by our distant
  ancestors, who chose which of these realms ours would be linked
  to. But we have learned how to open that seal, and we are ready to
  change which planes dance in orbit with us. And that, ladies and
  gentleman, is the true purpose of our convocation. My name is
  Nicodemus, and though it was I who set this endeavor in motion, it
  is the right of you, the agents and officers of the Obscurati, to set a
  new course for all the people of this world.
  “For centuries prophets have sought visions in the night sky, and
  why? Because those eight worlds have power over us. The motion of
  the stars allows different ideals to gain ascendance: war, decay,
  chaos, exploration, order, creation. But no longer shall the proces-
  sion of heaven obey the whims of an ancient, absent clockmaker.
  Now the hand that moves the stars shall be ours!”
  The rest of the audience applauds, and then Nicodemus steps aside
  as Han Jierre ascends to the podium. He explains the particulars
  of how the grand design will work. You can either explain it for
  your players or just let them read Player Handout — Grand De-
  sign. Save the faction handouts for later in the evening, as they
  meet with each faction representative, and the “Minor and Radi-
  cal Factions” handout for the next morning.
  Factions
  Social. Montage.
  In turn, the party hears the “pitch” from each major faction. The
  party has numerous opportunities to talk to other Obscurati offi-
  cers, learning secrets or perhaps swaying their opinions.
  The groups of Ob officers split up and meet with the represen-
  tatives of each faction, who presents their case each in a different
  part of the mansion. You’ll want to have familiarized yourself
  with the faction proposals in Player Handouts at the end. In brief,
  the proposals are as follows:
  > The Arboretum. Order nature so it can spread and be con-
  trolled like industry. Presented by Reed Macbannin
  outdoors next to the garden (Area A).
  > Colossus. Grant ourselves godlike powers to fix problems as
  they arise. Presented by Catherine Romana in the chapel
  (Area Y).
  > Miller’s Pyre. Increase empathy, reduce hypocrisy. Increase
  goodness and justice. Presented by Cula Ravjahani in the li-
  brary (Area AA).
  > Panarchists. Grant individuals “super-powers,” making gov-
  ernments unnecessary. Presented by Han Jierre in the
  trophy room (Area V).
  > Watchmakers. Eliminate free will and design a thousand-
  year destiny of prosperity for the world. Presented by
  Amielle Latimer in the dance hall (Area CC).
  These presentations start at about � pm, and every half hour the
  groups cycle to the next presenter. At around �� pm the groups are
  expected to finish up, at which point they’ll be encouraged to dis-
  cuss the proposals and figure out how best to proceed.
  Conversations.
  Ultimately there’s not much chance for the players to change what
  the Ob leadership decide to do, but they can influence some of the
  officers. We don’t expect GMs to keep track of �� different NPCs,
  but encourage the players to make a note of which Ob officers they
  manage to reach out to or befriend. In the climax of the adven-
  ture, the GM might set most of those officers on the other side of
  the schism, giving the constables a dilemma: do they save their en-
  emies, in the hope they might be allies later?
  Have the party meet with the five presenters in the order listed
  above. Of the five, all but Reed Macbannin are loyal to Nicode-
  mus. The party won’t be changing their minds.
  Travel Time.
  Between each session, people have about �� minutes to make it to
  the next meeting place, leading to a lot of comings-and-goings in
  the palace. If the party wants to stop by the Portal Gallery upstairs
  in the central building, see Brave New Worlds (page ��). The
  ghost council is busy meeting with Leone, and the guards can’t
  really pay attention to everyone at once, so this is a fair time for
  sneaking about.
  Online Inspiration.
  If you want some inspiration for these conversations, EN World
  hosted a thread wherein members of the messageboard took on the
  roles of members of the conspiracy. While we ended up changing
  some things between the time of the thread and the release of this
  adventure, it could still provide some inspiration.
  This is the current link, but as with anything on the Internet, it can
  change more easily than the printed word can: http://www.enworld.
  org/forum/showthread.php?337948-You-re-a-villain-How-would-
  you-change-the-world-Contest-with-prizes-%28Spoilers-for-
  ZEITGEIST%29. (If you need to find it later, a Google search for “EN
  World panarchist” should get you to the right place.
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 21
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Brave New Worlds
  Missing Person.
  During the third session, Reed Macbannin manages to lay a subtle
  curse upon Ramos Zoltan, an officer from Drakr. Using magic he
  learned researching the witches of Cauldron Hill, Macbannin
  compels Zoltan to wander to the icebox (Area O) after the session
  ends. Then before his next presentation, Macbannin inflicts a
  wound on himself — as a ghost, he can shrug it off — which is re-
  flected upon Zoltan.
  People grow suspicious during the fourth session, and during
  the fifth session a guard manages to find the dwarf’s body, sitting
  with a dagger wound through his chest and coated in a sheen of
  ice. A white stone carving of a serpent sits in his lap. What worries
  Nicodemus the most, though, is that his soul has been forcibly sent
  to the afterlife, so he cannot be interrogated, resurrected, or
  turned into a member of the ghost council.
  An alert quickly goes up and guards check every room of the
  palace, but everything else is in order. The party will likely be
  meeting with Amielle Latimer at this point, who points out that
  you run into problems like this when people don’t act according to
  the script.
  Investigating.
  Magical detection can determine that Zoltan was affected by en-
  chantment magic, and the wound was caused by some sort of
  necromancy. It’s unclear where the stone serpent came from
  (Macbannin arranged for it to be delivered here in a shipment
  weeks ago, and compelled Zoltan to remove it from its box; he
  never touched the serpent himself).
  Close examination of his body finds a small nick on his ear, as
  if someone needed his blood. Also, there’s a bit of milk still on his
  moustache. Players might recall these were components in the rit-
  ual bonds of forced faith (see Adventure Two, The Dying Skyseer),
  which was iconic to the witches of Cauldron Hill. Or the GM can
  let a DC �� Intelligence (Arcana) check figure out the signifi-
  cance. This clue could implicate either Macbannin who studied
  the witches’ history, or Amielle who actually fought them.
  The White Serpent is a known symbol of the fey titan called the
  Voice of Rot. While there actually is a conspirator here (Abeira
  Stackhouse) who is allied with the titan, Macbannin was just try-
  ing to throw people off his scent.
  Once the alert ends, Nicodemus makes the rounds and explains
  what happened. He promises they’ll be on the look-out, and he
  warns people to travel in groups of at least three. Also, he’ll be
  calling people a few at a time to answer some questions.
  From Here.
  Events are fairly flexible during the rest of the night. The PCs
  might check out the portal gallery (see Brave New Worlds), sneak
  around (see Mission Impossible), or go talk with Nicodemus (see
  Quiet Reflection). Near midnight the convocation is gathered
  again to cast a preliminary vote (see Into the Night).
  Brave New Worlds
  Exploration. Montage.
  The party can enter demi-planes, tied to painted canvas, which re-
  flect how each new world order would feel. Convicted criminals
  are brought out to showcase the effects.
  Encourage the party to visit the Portal Gallery on the second
  floor of the central building. In the adventure’s climax it will make
  a grand place for combat.
  There are twelve portal paintings spread around the area, each
  with a curtain that must be drawn back to reveal the world within.
  Each painting has an ornate wooden frame over ten feet high,
  which acts like a window, leading into a pocket demi-plane
  roughly ��� feet across.
  If the frame is damaged, the demi-plane starts to collapse.
  Patches of the world disappear, the unique magical elements fade,
  and � rounds later the room becomes a hollow vacuum with no
  gravity and no air.
  Creatures wearing gold rings can neither enter nor leave the
  portal paintings.
  Cula Ravjahani. Cula has served as
  an aide to Kasvarina Varal for over a
  century, but only a few years ago was
  recruited
  into
  the
  Obscurati.
  While
  Kasvarina directs policy, Cula undertakes
  missions, leading groups of Vekeshi mystics
  on
  raids
  or
  assassinations.
  Since
  her
  mistress disappeared, Cula has been forced
  to keep control of many threads. She maintains a perpetual expression of
  kindness which is not hard to tell is fake, though it keeps her from showing
  exactly what emotion she’s really feeling. That emotion is usually disdain.
  In Kasvarina, Cula saw a woman devoted to helping those who suffer
  from the vices of others, and she finds few Obscurati officers live up to that
  ideal. While her opinion of Kasvarina glosses over some of her darker
  misdeeds, Cula is nevertheless motivated to help the weak, and to ensure
  the cruel fall. At the convocation she represents the Miller’s Pyre faction.
  Catherine Romana. Descendant
  of a previous queen of Risur, Catherine has
  long sought to rise in power herself, but the
  traditions of her nation deter hereditary
  rule. After the Fourth Yerasol War she got
  into trouble for harshly criticizing war
  veterans, implying that cowardice led to
  Risur losing ground in the war.
  Though she believes magic is superior to technology, she desires
  progress, and has pushed the Risuri parliament to pursue grand civil
  projects of arcane engineering, to little success. In the Obscurati she sees
  her chance both to make the world a better place, and to step into a
  position of rule over her homeland.
  She prefers the high of fey pepper and the false and wondrous world it
  conjures to the world she really has to deal with. She recognizes this flaw
  in herself, and overschedules her time so she doesn’t have opportunities to
  indulge. Here at the convocation she represents the Colossus faction.
  
  22 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Arboretum.
  A verdant garden waits within, lit by a warm (but illusory) sun. A
  person who touches a plant motivates it to grow, making the
  plantlife almost as malleable as clay. With a concerted effort of
  will, the clouds overhead can shift and weather can change. The
  air is invigorating and crisp, and water from a fountain here re-
  stores creatures who drink from it to full hit points. Trees here
  provide the most succulent fruit, and one unusual tree actually has
  haunches of medium-rare beef dangling from its branches.
  Colossus.
  This world has a dramatic cliff overlooking a ��-foot chasm, and
  on the far side waits a house made of huge blocks of stone. Within
  the house is a clay stele with a stylus leaning against it. Visitors are
  encouraged to go inside, jump across the gap, then carve their
  name into the stele to take dominion over the space. When they’re
  done enjoying the power that grants them, they should erase their
  name from the clay and emerge so someone else can try it.
  Inside the demiplane, creatures have their lifting capacity multi-
  plied by over ���. The distance they can leap is likewise magnified
  dramatically. They have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and
  slashing damage, Regeneration ��, and advantage on saving
  throws. When someone has claimed dominion in the area, they
  gain the ability to sense all events in the area regardless of line of
  sight, gain a +�� bonus to Wisdom (Perception) checks, and can
  teleport as a bonus action to anywhere in the area. Characters who
  experiment can sense the potential for other powers, though un-
  locking them would take much meditation or experimentation.
  Miller’s Pyre.
  This portal leads to a library, but every table and shelf has some
  sort of weapon in clear view: guns, knives, swords, and the like.
  Before letting people in, first a ghost councilor calls for a pair
  of prisoners to be retrieved from the prison demi-plane in area S.
  The men arrive nervous and bickering, and the ghost councilor ex-
  plains these are condemned men from Crisllyir, murderers both,
  and for the past week they’ve been giving half-rations to one, stok-
  ing discontent.
  The men’s chains are removed, and they are shoved across the
  threshold of the demi-plane.
  “There are plenty of weapons here,” says the ghost councilor.
  “Only one of you is getting out alive.”
  Immediately the two men rush for the knife, and one gets it. He
  turns on the other, who shakes his head and cowers. The knife-
  wielder hesitates, then explains how upset he feels that the other
  guy has been treated better than him. The other guy says it’s not
  his fault how they were treated. The knife-wielder nods, looks un-
  comfortable, and then asks politely if the other guy will stay here
  so he can leave, and maybe get some food outside. The other guy
  agrees, saying that seems fair, and then thanks him for not being
  violent.
  The knife-wielder steps back into the real world, and the other
  guy sighs, then grabs a book and starts reading.
  The prisoners are then removed, and the guards take them away
  with orders to give them both a decent meal once they’re back in
  their cells.
  Inside this plane, creatures gain a +�� bonus to Charisma (Per-
  suasion) checks, a +�� bonus to Wisdom (Insight) checks, take a
  -�� penalty to Charisma (Intimidation) checks, and have disadvan-
  tage on attack rolls. Additionally, a creature must make a DC ��
  Wisdom saving throw each time it wants to take an action that
  would cause damage to another sentient creature, and if it fails it
  cannot attack that turn.
  Panarchists.
  A three story house with windows but no doors sits in a forest, the
  trees of which have high, climbable branches. The ghost councilor
  encourages you to explore the house, which requires teleporting
  between rooms that have no normal entrance. People are encour-
  aged to enter three at a time, and to have one person ask a favor
  from the other. If they agree, they feel a subtle nudge to follow
  through, like a gentle push at the small of their back.
  Likewise, a person who hands an item to someone else then has
  them carry it away can sense perfectly where it went.
  Mechanically, everyone can teleport at will to anywhere they
  can see or are familiar with, and are familiar with any place their
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 23
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Minor Worlds.
  items are near. Everyone also has Regeneration ��, and if they
  start their turn dying but not dead, they regain �� hit points.
  Creatures who agree to a trade or service suffer no immediate
  effects, but if one were to stay in the plane for several days they
  would accrue penalties if they do not follow through with their
  promises.
  Watchmakers.
  You look in on a quaint kitchen, lit by a single candle on the dining
  table. Within this portal painting, the world operates like clock-
  work. It is static normally until someone enters, and the guards
  have a prisoner on hand for the purpose. When people are ready
  to watch, they set a clock on the wall so its second hand is at zero,
  and then they push the man into the portal. He disappears, and
  the clock begins ticking.
  A moment later, a door on the far side of the room opens and
  the man steps in. He closes the door, bends down to pet a dog who
  barks happily, then goes to a cabinet and pulls out a small cask of
  firedust with a short fuse sticking out of it. He sits at the table,
  lights the fuse, and places it in the bomb right in front of him.
  The dog comes by, and the man moves to pet it, but his arm
  jostles the cask. It falls over and rolls for the far side of the table.
  The man stands up in surprise, and the table flips over. The cask
  hits the ground right as the table spins to the perfect orientation,
  and then an explosion goes off. The table blocks the force per-
  fectly, and the man and dog are unharmed.
  The man then does a perfectly choreographed jig for �� sec-
  onds, bows to the audience outside the painting, and steps out into
  the real world at precisely �� seconds on the clock. The world in-
  side the painting resets instantly to its base state.
  The prisoner can go through this ordeal as many times as those
  outside want, though his protests grow more severe as time goes
  on. Each time is identical, though when he comes out he clearly
  remembers. If asked, he’ll admit that while in that world he always
  feels the same way, but when he comes out he panics, afraid that
  next time maybe something might go wrong.
  If anyone else steps into the painting, they take on the role of the
  prisoner, and while a few small details might change (like the speed
  or distance the cask rolls when people of different sizes bump it),
  the result is always the same. Person goes in, enters through the
  same door, bomb goes off without damage, person comes out. (If
  someone tries to enter while the event is in process, they are tem-
  porally displaced and only reappear once the cycle has reset.)
  The ghost councilor here warns not to stress the scenario too
  much. For instance, if a man with no arms entered the painting,
  he wouldn’t be able to fulfill the necessary steps to progress the
  timeline, and he’ll just stand there blankly until Amielle comes by
  to pause the scenario and let him leave.
  Minor Worlds.
  These worlds do not represent specific proposals of the Obscurati,
  but are rather examples of the many things they could do.
  Bards.
  A small concert hall has perfect acoustics, and anyone who steps
  inside finds himself casually desiring to sing, play an instrument,
  or otherwise perform. They can freely resist the idea, but if they go
  along with it they find it easy to notice what is wrong with their
  form and make slow progress to improve.
  Mortal Mind.
  A small field has several chapels and shrines, each devoted to a
  different faith, and a mechanical device plays a recording of differ-
  ent pieces of sacred music. Those outside the painting feel the
  normal emotions they associate with those religions, but once they
  step inside they find themselves completely unmoved by them.
  They can appreciate the artistic talent that went into the music,
  but do not find them beautiful. Those of strong faith who come out
  of this portal plane can’t help but feel unsettled.
  Creatures in this area cannot cast divine spells.
  Leave the Nest.
  The portal opens forty feet in the air above a storm-tossed sea. An
  island rises out of the sea �� feet away, and it’s home to large
  flocks of birds. Creatures inside have a fly speed of �� ft., and the
  birds tend to fly with them.
  Trial by Fire.
  A pool of lava inside this world has books scattered about the floor,
  none of them burning. There’s even a ��-foot high ledge one can
  jump from, though the ghost councilor here warns that while you
  won’t be burned, the lava is still fairly viscous.
  Creatures here are immune to fire damage, and objects will not
  burn unless someone within line of sight wills it. Even then, any-
  one else who wants it not to burn can stop it.
  Walking on Sunshine.
  A three-dimensional obstacle course with poles and balance beams
  has padded walls. Inside, creatures can choose for gravity to be in
  whatever direction they want. Objects float unless someone wills
  them to fall a given direction.
  Windows exist on all six walls, and beams of light shine in
  through each. Creatures can interact with these beams of light as
  if they were solid, and can even grabbed and adjusted in mid-beam
  as if adjusting a hinged pole.
  Downward.
  This unusual world has two sets of stone stairs leading up to a
  fountain, from which water pours over a ledge into a pool. But no
  matter which way you walk, you always feel like you’re going
  downhill. You can even swim through the waterfall, from the pool
  to the fountain, and feel like you’re rushing down a river.
  Menagerie.
  A snowy hill with evergreen trees overlooks an icy pond. Inside
  this world, living creatures can shapeshift at will to any creature
  within a size category of their normal form. The ghost councilor
  here encourages people to consider swans, bears, eagles, or even
  penguins. Undead creatures in this area are staggered.
  
  24 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Quiet Reflection
  Into the Night
  Quiet Reflection
  Social. Real-Time.
  The constables each have an opportunity to talk with Nicodemus
  alone.
  After Zoltan’s murder, Nicodemus needs to calm nerves of
  those in attendance. He leaves finding the killer to the ghost coun-
  cil, but as the face of the conspiracy he makes a point to speak with
  everyone, one by one. Since your players will likely want to discuss
  what they’ve learned and make plans, you might just peel them off
  one by one.
  Two guards come to invite each member of the conspiracy to
  head to the top floor of the lighthouse and talk with Nicodemus
  on the balcony. The conversation is always roughly the same. Cig-
  arette in hand, Nicodemus asks how they’re doing, whether they
  saw anything or know anything related to the murder, and then
  spares a minute or two to reflect on the state of the world.
  He might lament the lack of stars to gaze at here in the Bleak
  Gate, or the lack of breeze blowing off the sea. The weight of work-
  ing in secret so long weighs on him, and despite his better
  judgment he’s looking for a kindred spirit to share his burdens
  with. Most of these conversations end abruptly as Nicodemus
  looks at a pocket watch and apologizes for needing to be in a rush.
  If any PC responds empathetically, though, Nicodemus might
  ask them to spend a few minutes with him. He calls to the ghost
  councilor who controls the lighthouse, grabs four amulets, and
  then has the lighthouse activate to shift them back into the real
  world. By placing the amulets on, he, the PC, and the two guards
  will be able to walk around the island and see what it’s really like.
  He tells the ghost councilor to turn the lighthouse back on in half
  an hour, but to leave the light off for now so he can see the stars.
  Then he takes a long walk on the beach, cold surf washing up
  on shore and wiping away their footprints as he asks the PC about
  his life, what motivates him, and how he’d change things if he
  could make the decision all by himself. If asked about himself he
  hedges, saying that it’s been a long time since he had an actual life
  of his own, and that he needs to hear the lives of others or else he
  might lose touch of what it is to be human.
  Loot.
  Before this scene, figure out which PC would have the highest
  concordance with the artifact known as the humble hook (see Part
  Three, Appendix). When that PC talks with Nicodemus, at some
  point the ghost councilor inside the lighthouse calls Nic aside to
  ask a question, and the PC hears a metallic clink as he leaves. The
  necklace has made itself fall off of Nicodemus, and it lands at the
  PC’s feet. No one would see him if he picks it up, and Nicodemus
  does not notice its absence until after the adventure ends.
  The story of the humble hook is presented in the Zeitgeist
  Player’s Guide.
  Into the Night
  Social. Montage.
  The conspirators discuss, then cast a preliminary vote.
  The mood of the convocation turns wary. Some theories are
  bandied around, including that a spy has infiltrated them, that this
  is some sort of mind game by Nicodemus, or that someone’s trying
  to kill people who would vote for a different faction — though no
  one knows what faction Zoltan was favoring. Amielle Latimer jok-
  ingly suggests it could be the ghost pirates, and eagerly tells the
  story of how they all perished (page ��).
  Most people gather in the trophy room (Area V) or the dance
  hall (Area CC) to have large group discussions, with a few people
  getting up the courage to go in small groups to visit the Portal
  Gallery.
  Preliminary Vote.
  At midnight, Nicodemus asks everyone to gather again in the
  Main Hall. Erected on stage is a metal plate with the names of the
  five factions painted on it, as well as “Other.” Beside it is another
  plate with small magnets tags, each of which has the name of one
  of the Obscurati officers. Nicodemus asks people to file through,
  pick up their named magnet, and cast a vote. He reminds them
  this is just preliminary, and that tomorrow night everyone will be
  able to cast a new vote, and that other proposals might be added
  between now and then.
  They made sure that Zoltan’s magnet has already been removed.
  Count.
  Everyone is asked to vote, even if they just vote Other. Nicodemus
  goes first, placing his magnet on Miller’s Pyre. Vicemi Terio goes
  next, telekinetically placing the �� magnets for himself and the
  majority of the ghost council on Other. He explains that after the
  final vote, the ghost council will endorse whichever faction has the
  most votes.
  Let the PCs go last. Not counting their votes, the result is: {{I
  hope I don’t mess up the math. �� officers, � of them PCs, � not
  present, � a spy who’s locked up, � now dead = ��. Plus �� name-
  less ghosts and � named ghosts = �� total, right?}}
  > The Arboretum. � votes.
  > Colossus. � votes.
  > Miller’s Pyre. �� votes.
  > Panarchists. � votes.
  > Watchmakers. � votes.
  > Other. � votes, plus �� ghosts.
  The “Other” votes are cast by the representatives of the minor
  factions. At this point, give the group Player Handout — Minor
  and Radical Factions. Hopefully your players won’t worry about
  the minutiae of who votes how. Grappa votes for Watchmakers.
  Erskine Haffkruger votes for Arboretum. The votes of the other
  key NPCs should be obvious.
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 25
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Mission Impossible
  Dining on Ashes.
  After the vote, people go back to various conversation spots to keep
  on politicking and debating. One proposal that starts to gather a
  fair bit of support is a compromise — designed by Dame Con-
  stance Baden — called MAP. It mixes elements of Miller’s Pyre,
  Arboretum, and Panarchists, as well as Long Now, Trekkers, and
  Sky League. Dame Constance estimates they can get �� votes eas-
  ily, and if it gets the ghost council and Vicemi that’s �� out of the
  needed ��.
  Unfortunately, those in the Colossus and Watchmaker factions
  are strongly opposed to Miller’s Pyre, and shrug off accusations
  that they’re just worried they’ll end up with less power in the new
  world order.
  Discussion and arguments continue as people look for common
  ground, but eventually people must sleep. Barring party-motivated
  trouble, the talks die down around � in the morning as people
  head off to bed. Erskine Haffkruger is the last to go to his room.
  Mission Impossible
  Exploration. Montage.
  By stealth and subterfuge, constables can find treasure, spy on pri-
  vate meetings, sabotage, or free prisoners.
  Some events, people, and items are technically off-limits. Gen-
  erally if PCs want to sneak around and are smart about it, don’t
  worry about making them roll unless they really press their luck.
  Vitus and the Prison Plane.
  The guards that watch the portal painting that holds Vitus have
  been letting ghosts in all night, so they won’t stop a PC who wants
  in, but they do listen and will report anything suspicious.
  The portal painting has a thread of gold in its frame. The gold
  ring must be broken (as easy as bending a wire and then putting
  it back it place) for anyone to enter or leave the demi-plane; other-
  wise the surface is like indestructible glass.
  Vitus is not one to speak first. Though he knows the gods will
  not always save those in need, he has prayed. If he should receive
  deliverance, he wants to leave with as much knowledge of the con-
  spiracy as possible, so he tries to convince interrogators to speak
  first. His best argument is that clearly he is a prisoner and won’t
  escape, so if sharing information with him will make him answer
  their questions, it is a great deal, since it ultimately costs the Ob
  nothing.
  He doesn’t judge until he knows more, and if anyone explains
  the Ob’s plans he asks for a few minutes to consider the ramifica-
  tions. Then he says it is every individual’s challenge in life to make
  him- or herself better. The purpose of life is therefore to prevail
  over adversity, so he fears that making the world “a better place”
  will actually eliminate the meaning of life.
  Rescue.
  Freeing Vitus is a simple matter of breaking the cage that holds
  him and taking him out. While he can be a useful ally in combat,
  if the escape attempt is spotted it will quickly bring the palace’s
  defenders down on the party. However, during the Splinter Cell
  scene, the chaos provides a perfect opportunity to get Vitus and
  perhaps the other dozen prisoners here to safety.
  If Vitus survives this adventure, he can be an incredible help in
  Adventure Eight, Diaspora, while the party passes through Crisil-
  lyir, and he might be able to aid them in averting a local
  apocalypse in Adventure Eleven, Gorged on Ruins.
  In more immediate terms, when he gets back to the mainland
  he’ll rally a fleet of Clergy warships to bombard this island and de-
  clare it exterminatus. Three hierarchs will call forth a great rift in
  the sea to swallow the island, destroying it even in the Bleak Gate.
  Ally.
  Use these statistics should Vitus join the party in combat.
  Vitus Sigismund
  Medium humanoid (human), lawful good monk (open fist) 8 / paladin
  (oath of devotion) 4
  Armor Class 18 (Wisdom)
  Hit Points 82 (8d8+4d10+24)
  Speed 45 ft.
  STR
  DEX
  CON
  INT
  WIS
  CHA
  13 (+1)
  18 (+4)
  14 (+2)
  8 (–1)
  18 (+4)
  14 (+2)
  Saving Throws STR +5, DEX +8
  Skills Acrobatics +8, Insight +7, Perception +8, Persuasion +6,
  Religion +3, Stealth +8
  Condition Immunities disease
  Senses passive Perception 18
  Languages Common
  Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)
  Channel Divinity (1/Short Rest). As an action, Vitus presents his
  holy symbol and channels divinity to use one of the following:
  Sacred Weapon. Vitus imbues one weapon that he is holding with
  positive energy. For 1 minute, he adds +2 to attack rolls with that
  weapon. The weapon also emits bright light in a 20-foot radius and
  dim light 20 feet beyond that. If the weapon is not already magical,
  it becomes magical for the duration. Vitus can end this effect on his
  turn as part of any other action. If he is no longer holding or carrying
  this weapon, or if he falls unconscious, this effect ends.
  Turn the Unholy. Vitus speaks a prayer censuring fiends and undead.
  Each fiend or undead that can see or hear him within 30 feet of
  Vitus must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails
  its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes damage. A
  turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from
  Vitus as it can, and it can’t willingly move to a space within 30 feet
  of him. It also can’t take reactions. For its action, it can use only the
  Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from
  moving. If there’s nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge
  action.
  Divine Sense (3/Long Rest). As an action, Vitus opens his
  awareness to detect evil forces. Until the end of his next turn, Vitus
  knows the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet
  of him that is not behind total cover. He knows the type (celestial,
  fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence he senses, but not its
  identity. Within the same radius, Vitus also detects the presence of
  any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with
  the hallow spell.
  
  26 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Divine Smite. When Vitus hits a creature with a melee weapon
  attack, he can expend one spell slot to deal radiant damage to the
  target, in addition to the weapon’s damage. The extra damage is
  2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot. The damage increases by 1d8 if the
  target is an undead or a fiend.
  Evasion. When Vitus is subjected to an effect that allows him to make
  a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, he instead takes
  no damage if he succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage
  if he fails.
  Feat: Mobile. Vitus can Dash through difficult terrain without
  requiring additional movement. Whenever he makes an attack
  against a creature, he doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks from that
  creature until the end of his turn.
  Fighting Style: Close Quarters Melee. Vitus can use a bonus action
  to assume a special defensive stance. This defensive stance lasts
  until the start of his next turn. He does not need to use his reaction
  to make opportunity attacks while he is in this defensive stance, and
  also when a creature moves 5 feet or more while within his reach he
  can use his reaction to make a melee attack against it.
  Ki (8 points/short rest). Vitus can spend ki points to fuel various ki
  features.
  • Flurry of Blows. Immediately after Vitus takes the Attack action
  on his turn, he can spend 1 ki point to make two unarmed strikes
  as a bonus action.
  • Patient Defense. Vitus can spend 1 ki point to take the Dodge
  action as a bonus action on his turn.
  • Step of the Wind. Vitus can spend 1 ki point to take the
  Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on his turn, his jump
  distance is doubled for the turn.
  • Stunning Attack. Vitus can spend 1 ki point to attempt to stun a
  creature he hits with a melee weapon attack. The target must
  succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or be stunned until
  the end of his next turn.
  Lay on Hands (20 points). As an action, the Speculi Eleganti can
  touch a creature and restore a number of hit points to it, up to the
  maximum amount remaining in this pool. Alternatively, they can
  expend 5 hit points to cure the target of one disease or neutralize
  one poison affecting it.
  Martial Arts. Vitus can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the
  attack and damage rolls of his unarmed strikes and monk weapons.
  Open Hand Technique. Whenever Vitus hits a creature with one of
  the attacks granted by his Flurry of Blows, he can impose one of the
  following effects on that target:
  • It must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked
  prone.
  • It must make a Strength saving throw. If it fails, Vitus can push it
  up to 15 feet away from him.
  • It can’t take reactions until the end of Vitus’s next turn.
  Spellcasting. Vitus is a 2nd level spellcaster that uses Charisma as
  his spellcasting ability (spell save DC 14; +6 to hit with spell
  attacks). He has the following spells prepared from the paladin’s
  spell list:
  1st-level (2 slots): bless, cure wounds, divine favor, protection
  from evil and good, sanctuary, shield of faith
  Stillness of Mind. Vitus can use his action to end one effect on
  himself that is causing him to be charmed or frightened.
  Wholeness of Body (1/Long Rest). As an action, Vitus regains 24
  hit points.
  ACTIONS
  Extra Attack. Vitus attacks twice when he takes the attack action
  (using a bonus action he can attack a third time with Martial Arts, or
  a third and fourth time with 1 ki to use Flurry of Blows).
  Unarmed. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
  Hit: 7 (1d6+4) magical bludgeoning damage.
  REACTIONS
  Deflect Missiles. Vitus can use his reaction to deflect or catch the
  missile when he is hit by a ranged weapon attack. When he does so,
  the damage he takes from the attack is reduced by 1d10+8. When
  the damage is reduced to 0, he can catch the missile if it is small
  enough for him to hold in one hand and he has at least one hand
  free. If he catch a missile in this way, Vitus can spend 1 ki point to
  make a ranged attack with the weapon or piece of ammunition he
  just caught, as part of the same reaction (+8 to hit, range 20/60 ft.,
  1d6+4 damage).
  Slow Fall. Vitus can use his reaction when he falls to reduce any
  falling damage he takes by 40.
  Amielle’s Secret Dealings.
  If at some point one of the PCs is about to be discovered by a
  guard (like if they fail a Stealth check), at the last moment an-
  other guard distracts the first, telling him he’s “got to come see
  this.” Alternately, the party might just spot a lot of guards active
  outside, or hear a few distant gunshots and grow curious.
  The ghost of Amielle Latimer has a hunch that her faction isn’t
  going to win tomorrow’s vote, and she knows the importance of
  contingency plans. More importantly, she knows that Nicodemus
  has it in him to be murderously efficient about once a century, and
  he’s overdue. So she wants to get as much good will among the
  bookpin guards and the arcane marksmen.
  After most everyone has gone to bed, Amielle heads to the guard
  quarters at the carriage house (Area F), and offers to get them all
  fine spirits from the conspiracy’s secret stash if any of them can
  out-shoot her. Since the convocation has been stressful, a half
  dozen guards eagerly take up her offer so they can blow off some
  steam.
  Sharpshooting.
  Amielle takes the six guards and a few onlookers out to a stretch
  of beach where wooden posts rise up from the sand. She has each
  of the men bring five wine glasses, and she has brought five shot
  glasses.
  In the challenge, each shooter to hit five targets set on the posts
  at a range of ��� feet as fast as possible. Amielle sets out five
  glasses at a time, and each man gets up to one minute. Once all
  the men have gone, whoever is fastest will go up against Amielle.
  She places her five shot glasses, and they both start shooting at the
  same time. Whoever is first to hit a third glass wins.
  If any of the guards win, Amielle will get them whatever fine
  spirits they want. If she wins, then the six guards who tried and
  failed have to dress up as butlers and scullery maids, using outfits
  Amielle found in the palace.
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 27
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Amielle Latimer
  Medium undead (tiefling), lawful neutral
  Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
  Hit Points 130 (20d8+40)
  Speed 0 ft., fly 40 ft. (hover)
  STR
  DEX
  CON
  INT
  WIS
  CHA
  7 (–2)
  18 (+4)
  14 (+2)
  14 (+2)
  12 (+1)
  17 (+3)
  Saving Throws DEX +8, CON +6
  Skills Arcana +6, Deception +7, Perception +11, Persuasion +7,
  Stealth +12
  Damage Resistances acid, fire, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning,
  piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
  Damage Immunities cold, necrotic, poison
  Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, grappled,
  paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained
  Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 21
  Languages Common, Primordial
  Challenge 9 (5,000 XP)
  Deft Shooter. A ranged weapon deals one extra die of its damage
  when Amielle hits with it (included in the attack).
  Eternal Warrior. While Amielle wields them, her firearms are magical
  and never need to be reloaded.
  Ethereal Sight. Amielle can see 60 feet into the Ethereal Plane when
  she is on the Material Plane, and vice versa.
  Feat: Superb Aim. Amielle ignores half cover and three-quarters
  cover when making a ranged weapon attack, and she doesn’t have
  disadvantage when attacking at long range. When Amielle makes
  her first ranged weapon attack in a turn, she can choose to take a -5
  penalty to her ranged weapon attack rolls in exchange for a +10
  bonus to ranged weapon damage.
  Incorporeal Movement. Amielle can move through other creatures
  and objects as if they were difficult terrain. She takes 5 (1d10) force
  damage if she ends her turn inside an object.
  Innate Spellcasting. Amielle’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell
  save DC 15). She can innately cast the following spells, requiring no
  material components:
  At will: telekinesis
  1/day: darkness
  Targeting Shot. Amielle can use a bonus action to aim at a target
  within 80 feet, gaining advantage on her next attack roll against it
  before the end of her turn. On a hit, she deals an extra 18 (4d8)
  damage.
  ACTIONS
  Multiattack. Amielle attacks twice with her rifle or three times with
  her pistols.
  Withering Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one
  target. Hit: 17 (4d6+3) necrotic damage.
  Pistols. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 50/150 ft., one
  target. Hit: 14 (3d6+4) magical piercing damage.
  Rifle. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 80/240 ft., one target.
  Hit: 17 (3d8+4) magical piercing damage.
  Etherealness. Amielle enters the Ethereal Plane from the Material
  Plane, or vice versa. She is visible on the Material Plane while she is
  in the Border Ethereal, and vice versa, yet she can't affect or be
  affected by anything on the other plane.
  Horrifying Visage. Each non-undead creature within 60 feet of
  Amielle that can see her must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving
  throw or be frightened for 1 minute. If the save fails by 5 or more,
  the target also ages 1d4 × 10 years. A frightened target can repeat
  the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the
  frightened condition on itself on a success. If a target's saving throw
  is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to
  Amielle’s Horrifying Visage for the next 24 hours. The aging effect
  can be reversed with a greater restoration spell, but only within 24
  hours of it occurring.
  Possession (Recharge 6). One humanoid that Amielle can see within
  5 feet of her must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or be
  possessed by Amielle; she then disappears, and the target is
  incapacitated and loses control of its body. Amielle now controls the
  body but doesn't deprive the target of awareness. She can't be
  targeted by any attack, spell, or other effect, except ones that turn
  undead, and she retains her alignment, Intelligence, Wisdom,
  Charisma, and immunity to being charmed and frightened. Amielle
  otherwise uses the possessed target's statistics, but doesn't gain
  access to the target's knowledge, class features, or proficiencies.
  The possession lasts until the body drops to 0 hit points, Amielle
  ends it as a bonus action, or she is turned or forced out by an effect
  like the dispel evil and good spell. When the possession ends, she
  reappears in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the body. The
  target is immune to Amielle’s Possession for 24 hours after
  succeeding on the saving throw or after the possession ends.
  She’ll let whoever competes against her take out two shot
  glasses before she responds. Then in one smooth motion she draws
  and fires two pistols, drops them, slings her rifle off her shoulder, and
  fires it. Unless a PC manages to fire off three shots in one round,
  she’ll probably beat them. She definitely beats any of the guards.
  Give It a Shot.
  The targets are at extreme range for most guns, but since they’re
  stationary targets it’s possible to hit them. The wine glasses’ AC is
  �, the shot glasses’ is AC ��. The guards are good shots (+� to-hit),
  but they can only fire once per round. Amielle, on the other hand,
  simply does not miss with her ghostly weapons.
  Good Sport.
  If beaten, Amielle loses with dignity. If she wins, though, she’s still
  a good sport. She invites the guards to “get their new uniforms,”
  and takes them and some other guard onlookers into the palace.
  She happens to have stashed the uniforms next to one of the bars,
  and she tells the guards to get dressed, then serve the rest of them
  drinks. Within fifteen minutes everyone is drinking (except her,
  since she’s a ghost), and Amielle has managed to win the fondness
  of the guards.
  If this is interrupted, Amielle won’t have the guards’ backing
  tomorrow, making the Splinter Cell encounter much more one-
  sided.
  Stealing Oil.
  Characters might sneak into the lighthouse to retrieve casks of oil
  that can replicate the effects of any of the demiplanes in the Portal
  Gallery.
  
  28 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  If you have any interesting treasure you’d like the party to get
  their hands on, perhaps add a treasure vault downstairs of the
  west wing and drop a few hints to its location.
  Second Murder.
  Dame Constance’s compromise proposal has a lot of support, but
  the Panarchist faction will have to give up some of their main de-
  sires
  regarding
  wealth
  and
  personal
  property.
  That’s
  why
  Macbannin decides, for his second murder, to take out Constance
  and pin the murder on the Panarchists, in an effort to disrupt the
  coalition.
  Since he is, after all, a ghost, Macbannin slips into her room
  through the floor. He makes sure the curtains are drawn, and he
  silently places a blanket on the bottom of the door to block out
  light and the smell of smoke. Then he places a curse of deep sleep
  on Dame Constance and scatters embers from the fireplace onto
  her bed. He invokes a curse that mimics the infernal wrath that
  lets tieflings punish their foes with fire, and Constance goes up
  like a human candle, with her bedsheets as the wick. By morning
  all that’s left are charred bits of bed and the bones of her feet.
  As with Zoltan, Constance’s soul is sent to the afterlife, so no
  one can interrogate her or try to turn her into a ghost.
  High-Level Meeting.
  An hour before dawn, Nicodemus summons Han Jierre, Cula Rav-
  jahani, and Leone Quital (who is still actually Grappa) to meet
  with him in the Council Room (Area W). Grappa manages to stall
  long enough to scribble a note (“Meeting Nic. Follow me.”) and
  slip a metal clip onto it. Since the party is likely sleeping, Grappa
  makes a point to pass by at least one of their rooms, and he uses
  steelshaping to drop the note and slide it under the door. Then,
  once he’s far enough away that the guards escorting him won’t
  notice, he forcefully rattles the doorknob, which will hopefully be
  enough to wake some PCs up.
  Security.
  The ghost council’s divinations into the murder all came up fruit-
  less, so Nicodemus assumes the conspiracy’s own secrecy magic is
  biting them in the ass. Which means the murderer is an officer.
  Once the guards deliver the people Nicodemus needs, they’re
  sent to stand watch at the far end of the two hallways that lead to
  the council room. A total of six men wait there, drowsy and grum-
  bling about all the strange foreigners they’re having to put up
  with. The guards aren’t particularly attentive (Perception +�), but
  the spot they’ve chosen offers practically no cover to hide behind.
  Meanwhile, at the near end of each of the two hallways, two
  senior ghost councilors hover silently, and another four float out-
  side the windows (Perception +��). Again, their high vantage
  point makes sneaking in more of a creative challenge than a phys-
  ical one.
  The ground floor of the west wing only has its normal patrol of
  a ghost councilor and a shadowlisk, and between the abandoned
  rooms, the chimneys, and the ventilation ducts, getting close
  enough to eavesdrop is certainly possible.
  The Discussion.
  Nicodemus, Han, Cula, and Leone take seats, while Vicemi stands
  by the window, wary of threats (Perception +�� for the group as a
  whole). Nicodemus rolls out a map of the continent of Lanjyr,
  then uses glass beads to show the areas he’s talking about.
  Since the colossus broke free eight months ago (bead in Flint),
  it has wandered through the Dreaming. Since it was designed to
  resist divination, they can’t tell exactly where it is, but it has left
  massive footprints visible in the real world, through Risur’s weft-
  lands (bead) and into the high bayou (bead). It knocked the top off
  a mountain on the border of Risur and Ber (bead), tromped across
  the desert toward the east coast (bead), and then disappeared
  somewhere near Seobriga (bead).
  Han asks if the colossus was designed to operate underwater,
  and Grappa confirms that it was.
  Here Vicemi explains that they wondered why the colossus
  chose that particular path, and now they have a theory. At the
  same time the colossus escaped, a high elf warrior named Asrabey
  (Cula rolls her eyes) abducted Kasvarina and spirited her away to
  the Dreaming. They’re fairly certain that Asrabey thought Kasva-
  rina was just a hostage, not one of the founders of this conspiracy,
  and given her condition (i.e., the fact that her memories were
  locked away by Alexander Grappa) they hope she cannot compro-
  mise them.
  Kasvarina is still an officer of the Obscurati, so they could not
  divine her location, but they could trace Asrabey, and they assume
  the two remained together. He headed to Elfaivar, then disap-
  peared entirely near some old elven ruins (bead), which they
  believe have an entrance to an elven enclave, which exists between
  the real world and the Dreaming. That was five months ago, and
  just a few days ago colossal footprints were spotted in the jungle
  near those ruins.
  Vicemi’s theory is that somehow the colossus is drawn to Kasva-
  rina, perhaps because their memories were both locked away by
  the same man. So far they’ve refrained from rescuing Kasvarina,
  since the risk of an assault on an elven conclave was deemed too
  high, especially since she has no memories and thus isn’t actually
  useful to the conspiracy. Now, though, it makes sense to secure her.
  Nicodemus says that they have a plan to retrieve the colossus
  from the Dreaming, but it requires bringing the titan to a specific
  location. He looks meaningfully at Han. Han curses, then nods.
  They’re referencing the city of Methia, which is the center of
  Danor’s dead magic zone. So severe is the magical sink here that
  it basically punched a hole through reality into both the Dreaming
  and the Bleak Gate. All three locations are coterminous at once,
  but any person who goes there becomes unsettled and eventually
  goes mad.
  Planning a Rescue Mission.
  Nicodemus says that their first priority after the convocation ends
  will be to regain control of the colossus. They still have a few of the
  prototype golems that were put away for a rainy day, and if they
  can’t find a way to restore the mind of the colossus, they can try
  implanting one of the other golems’ minds.
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 29
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  He asks “Leone” if he would be able to manually control the
  colossus. Grappa stammers, then says no, that would be too much
  for him. Nicodemus replies that they’ll keep Leone on hand just in
  case, to help them at least slow the thing down. He asks for a
  dossier of vulnerable points to target, and says it might be time to
  start coming up with fall-back options if the new colossus minds
  won’t work.
  Cula says that she could probably find out what enclave Kasva-
  rina is in. She just needs to know what resources she can bring in
  in order to rescue Kasvarina. Nic holds up a hand and says they
  shouldn’t make plans until they know who’s still on their side. He
  asks if anyone has any pressing business, and when no one does he
  suggests they all get a filling breakfast.
  Han, Cula, and Grappa stand to leave, but Nicodemus calls
  “Leone” back for a moment, asking what faction he voted for.
  Grappa says Watchmakers. Nicodemus and Vicemi exchange
  glances, and after a moment’s hesitation Nic suggests Leone keep
  an open mind to other, more popular proposals. Grappa leaves.
  Nic asks to be alone, and once Vicemi is gone he lights a ciga-
  rette and waits for what passes as dawn in the Bleak Gate.
  Third Murder.
  Reed Macbannin barely knew Leone in life, but in death he’s
  learned much about the man. Macbannin had hoped to kill Gover-
  nor Roland Stanfield instead — he even discovered a rare curse
  that could stop an aasimar from reincarnating — but Leone will do
  in a pinch. Macbannin blames both for turning him into a traitor
  to his country. So for his third act of disrupting the conspiracy, he
  plans to murder the steelshaper.
  As Grappa returns to his room, the palace is still mostly sleep-
  ing. Unless the party tries to link up with him he simply heads
  back to his room so he can panic in privacy. But when he closes the
  door behind him, he finds his throat seizing up. Unable to breathe
  or speak, he spots a figure lurking in the corner, but it’s too dark
  for him to tell who.
  Grappa doesn’t know how to really defend himself with Leone’s
  powers. Unless the party is close enough to hear sounds of Grappa
  desperately smacking metal objects into the walls, within a minute
  he passes out from asphyxiation, and he’s dead soon thereafter.
  Macbannin covers things up by slipping a noose around Leone’s
  throat, tugging it tightly, and levitating the man so he hangs from
  the ceiling rafter.
  If Macbannin succeeds in this murder, he tries to banish the
  soul of Leone, but doesn’t know the right name for his curse, so
  Grappa’s soul escapes. It might return in later adventures.
  This is Hard to Explain.
  If the party is nearby, they can burst into the room and see
  Macbannin clenching a fist to keep Grappa from breathing. A lot
  depends on the party’s reaction. Macbannin of course doesn’t
  know who they really are, so he tries to cover for himself by saying,
  “We voted for the same faction. This man is our enemy.”
  Not that he knows what faction any of the PCs voted for. If his
  ruse falls through, or if the party attacks him, he shrugs and says,
  “Someone will stop you madmen. If not me, I know a few consta-
  bles who are really good at stopping conspiracies.”
  Ideally, you’d want to leverage this situation into the party and
  Macbannin realizing they’re on the same side, or at least have
  Macbannin get away. He’s certainly not going to alert the ghost
  council to what happened, and if the party keeps quiet too (or
  maybe just suggests he goes after other Ob officers instead of
  them) he’ll try to figure out why.
  If he just runs away, Macbannin can return to help the party’s
  escape during the Splinter Cell encounter.
  The Enemy of My Enemy.
  If the party admits their identity to Macbannin, he’s shocked and
  demands proof, like details of how they found and defeated him
  back in Flint. He’ll explain his change of heart upon coming back
  as a ghost, and ask if they have a ship full of soldiers who can
  storm the palace? Sure, his situation has gone from “hopelessly
  outnumbered” to “hopefully outnumbered,” but the group of them
  would never manage to start a fight and get out of here alive.
  Plus, Macbannin points out that most of the leadership are
  ghosts, who will come back even if destroyed. He says that he’s
  prepared a curse that can stop one person from reincarnating or
  rejuvenating (though if asked why he can’t say, since a geas stops
  him from revealing that Stanfield is part of the conspiracy); which
  he thinks would work on Vicemi. He’s not quite sure what Nicode-
  mus is, but knows this isn’t his first body.
  Macbannin’s original plan was just to try to sow discord and
  look for an Ob officer he might be able to trust to deliver a mes-
  sage to the RHC. He can’t travel far from the rest of the ghost
  council, and at any rate he’s stuck in the Bleak Gate unless he
  steals one of these lanterns. He nods to the wall-mounted gaslamp,
  which the party might not have realized before now are wayfarer’s
  lanterns.
  If the party wants to just lay low and use Macbannin as a man
  on the inside, events in the adventure will proceed as outlined be-
  low. But if the party comes up with some sort of crazy plan
  (perhaps even beating Nicodemus to the punch by using the
  lanterns as a weapon), let them try it.
  Next Morning.
  Guards provide wake-up calls at what would be dawn in the real
  world. Here it just goes from pitch black to gloomy gray outside.
  Within �� minutes the guards discover Dame Constance dead, and
  possibly Leone.
  Interruptions.
  If a PC gets spotted eavesdropping on this meeting, Nicodemus
  wants to capture him, not kill him. After all, he doesn’t think he’s
  doing anything those in the conspiracy would disagree with; he just
  worries that there might be a spy. So, as mentioned in Buddy System
  (page 12), he would interrogate the PC and ask probing questions.
  But if the character could cover for himself Nic would be content to
  chide him for taking risks in a dangerous time, and commend him for
  his curiosity.
  If multiple PCs get caught, though, Nicodemus finds it suspicious
  that they came in on the same group, which will prompt a more
  thorough investigation. This could include searching their rooms and
  their belongings.
  
  30 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  The Vote
  Use these last few hours to resolve any lingering schemes the
  party has gotten themselves involved with. Additionally, the PCs
  should witness several small groups slipping into private rooms to
  hold hushed discussions. During breakfast a fist-fight breaks out
  between two Berans — one supporting Colossus, the other Panar-
  chist. Accusations and rumors fill the halls, with people growing
  suspicious of their fellow conspirators’ intentions.
  The officers are called to enjoy lunch together, but this only pro-
  vokes a loud, disorganized debate with people from different sides
  cutting each other off, accompanied by lots of pompous har-
  rumphing from their allies. Catherine Romana, who is busy trying
  to gather a coalition, manages to quiet the room by shouting:
  “Who trusts anyone else here? We don’t know each other. I barely
  trust the people who say they’re on my side to actually vote as they
  claim they will. So why in the world are you trusting our gentle
  leader Nicodemus? He keeps hinting that all he wants is peace,
  that he values the ideology of some writer who’s been dead for five
  centuries, but I’ve known plenty of politicians.
  “You can’t trust words. All you can trust is that people are afraid
  of losing power. We’ve gotten here because we’ve been ruthless.
  Let’s not pretty it up. I tell you this, if you idiots vote to give up the
  authority that we have earned over this world, you’ll be showing
  yourselves as weak. And this man, this conspiracy? It doesn’t need
  weak people.”
  Loud arguments erupt after that, but soon Vicemi appears and
  a hush falls. He tells them to go into the Main Hall for what he
  calls a “second vote.” In truth, this will be the final vote.
  Characters who take a long time to go inside the hall notice that
  the guards who would normally be present are absent; Nicodemus
  has told them to patrol the exterior of the palace to get them out
  of the way. Instead, members of the ghost council close the doors
  behind them. The only ghosts in the main hall are Vicemi, Amielle,
  and Macbannin.
  The Vote
  Social. Real-Time.
  After final arguments, Nicodemus asks for a vote to decide the Ob-
  scurati’s new world order.
  Nicodemus asks for each faction to send forth one representa-
  tive to speak on their behalf, and to please keep remarks to �
  minutes or fewer. Barring PC intervention, the three main
  factions are:
  > MAP Proposal. The compromise devised by the late Dame
  Constance, this proposal combines Miller’s Pyre, the Ar-
  boretum, and the Panarchists, while also appeasing the
  Trekkers, Long Now, Mortal Mind, and Sky League. It
  shuffles some planes about, adds a few new ones, and man-
  ages to satisfy most of the needs of those groups. Tellingly, it
  abandons the Miller’s Pyre desire of a plane with an Empa-
  thy focus, it keeps the Dreaming and Bleak Gate despite
  what the Arboretum wants, and it leaves the world with no
  seal against extraplanar incursion. Cula Ravjahani repre-
  sents this group.
  > Watchmaker Watchmen. This novel proposal brings a new
  habitable world where the Ob leadership and their allies and
  descendants can live with free will, able to watch over the
  real world, which will have had its free will removed per the
  Watchmaker proposal. It would be possible to reopen the
  seal and restore free will if something went wrong, but this
  would be such an ordeal that it could not be undertaken
  lightly. This proposal pleases Aegis, since it protects both
  worlds from extraplanar incursion. Amielle represents this
  group, but seems to know that she’s going to lose.
  > Colossal Congress. Based on research into Risur’s rites of
  rulership, this proposal grants the powers of the Colossus
  proposal to the Obscurati initially, but requires each mem-
  ber to undertake a ritual of affirmation every year. Each
  member of this colossus congress would have a geographic
  region where he would need the approval of at least half the
  residents. The Ob would still be able to solve issues with
  their mighty powers, but the people could reject leaders they
  no longer approve of. This proposal satisfies the Weapon-
  Mongers and the Economists, both of whom favor the in-
  herent competition. Catherine Romana represents this
  group (and eagerly courts the support of whichever PC is in
  Livia Hatsfield’s body).
  Perhaps the PCs have a proposal of their own, or they manage to
  become the face of one of these three. In general, though, the divi-
  sion in the conspiracy comes down to whether they should ensure
  a position of power for themselves in the new world.
  After the final arguments, Nicodemus takes the stage.
  “We all have different ideals, but before we vote I want you to under-
  stand what led me to found our organization and pursue this long,
  grand work. It wasn’t a desire to gain power myself, or to punish
  those who had abused their power. I started down this path be-
  cause I’d seen that intellect, wisdom, and good intentions were
  feeble weapons in the face of propaganda and fear.
  “The problem with this world is that the dreamers and poets are
  blind to its real face. It’s easy to mock as childish those who grow
  upset when the world isn’t ‘fair.’ The habit of accepting injustice as
  the way of the world has become too familiar, and while I shed my
  innocence long ago, I never fooled myself into thinking it is good
  that I’ve had to do these foul things.
  “I do think any of these proposals would result in a materially bet-
  ter world. And I will support whichever wins, as will the ghost
  council. But only one of them will make a world good enough to bal-
  ance out the evil we’ll create to get there.”
  Nicodemus steps aside, and the vote begins. The board has options
  for MAP, Watchmen, and Congress, plus Other and Any.
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 31
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Ballot Stuffing
  Count.
  Let the PCs go last. Not counting their votes, the result is:
  > MAP. �� votes.
  > Watchmen. � votes.
  > Congress. �� votes.
  > Other. � votes.
  > Any. Nicodemus, plus �� ghosts.
  This tally assumes Zoltan, Constance, and Leone are all dead.
  (Otherwise they vote for Congress, MAP, and Watchmen re-
  spectively.) We leave it to you to decide who among the NPCs the
  party has interacted with align with each faction. Ideally you’ll
  have some people whom the party likes who end up fleeing when
  Nicodemus changing his mind.
  In any case, the PCs’ votes will be the deciding ones.
  Ballot Stuffing
  Social. Real-Time.
  Nicodemus abandons democracy and uses a wayfarer’s lantern to
  distract those he wishes to excise from his conspiracy.
  Nicodemus asks Vicemi to verify the final count, then puts on
  his best smile and thanks everyone for participating in one of the
  greatest moments in history. He’s truly glad, he says, that everyone
  felt comfortable voting their conscience, and he hopes that they
  can all work together moving forward. As he speaks, the gaslamps
  in the room start to turn a soothing blue color.
  The party immediately recognizes the effect as being identical
  to the base of the rift at Knütpara, and if they focus on trying to
  resist its magic (see page �) they should be able to keep their wits
  about them.
  Trait: Palace Gaslamp Pacification. There are lamps every 25 feet
  (5 squares) or so throughout the palace. Whenever a creature ends
  its turn in the illuminated area (a 10-foot radius around one of the
  lamps), it must make a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or fall under
  the lantern’s effect (save ends). An affected creature gets a new
  save at the end of each of its turns to resist the effects. If a creature
  fails 3 consecutive saves, it falls fully under the lantern’s effect for
  5 minutes. When a creature successfully ends 3 consecutive turns
  unaffected, it becomes resistant, and cannot be affected again by
  any lantern with the same planar energy for 5 minutes. A creature
  can choose to let itself be affected by the lantern.
  A creature caught in the light is pacified. It cannot take hostile
  actions, and it treats all creatures as trusted friends. If another
  creature attacks it, it automatically breaks free of the pacification
  and cannot be affected again until the end of the encounter.
  Through preparatory spells, Nicodemus has made himself and the
  ghost council immune to this particular effect of the lantern. They’ll
  be able to act freely.
  Blue Banquet.
  Once Nicodemus is content that everyone is pacified, he asks for
  those who supported the Colossal Congress proposal to remain in
  
  32 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  The Splinter Cell
  the main hall while he takes everyone else outside to the grand
  foyer. Of the prominent NPCs, this includes Vicemi, Han Jierre,
  Macbannin, Amielle, and Erskine (plus possibly Grappa if he lives).
  There awaits the ghost council swarm: a sprawling mass of what
  must have been a hundred or more people before their wills be-
  came subsumed in the collective. When the doors to the main hall
  are closed, Vicemi says that he has sent the other councilors to se-
  cure the premises. The palace is sealed, and the council is ready.
  Nicodemus turns to those who came out with him. He says, “Those
  inside would ruin this world if they were allowed to come into
  power. In my five centuries I’ve seen plenty of monarchs and oli-
  garchs just like them who have lashed out when their authority and
  dominance is threatened. I don’t like what we have to do now, but
  the most efficient way to avert this threat is to strike now. This small
  dishonorable deed will be balanced by ages of greater prosperity for
  all of civilization. I need your support in this decision.”
  Amielle and Macbannin remain impassive, but the rest of the offi-
  cers in the crowd begin to nod assent. Soon over 20 people,
  speaking somberly and reasonably, urge Nicodemus to do what must
  be done.
  Maybe He Has a Point.
  Nicodemus is moments away from ordering the ghost council to
  glide through the walls into the main hall and slaughter the ��
  officers who voted in favor of the Colossal Congress (plus any PCs
  who voted with them).
  A rational party might realize that showing their true colors
  right now, in front of all the villains, is a good way to get killed.
  But it’s time to kick off an action scene, so GMs should consider
  some combination of the following elements to get things moving.
  Shoot First.
  If the party just up and attacks without explaining who they are
  (or tries to interfere with the main hall such as by breaking
  lamps), Vicemi and the ghost council retaliate immediately, but
  Nicodemus spares a round to try to reason with them, saying that
  there’s no place in the new world for those who would seize power
  for themselves.
  At that point, Pemberton pipes up. Seemingly oblivious to the
  ongoing battle, Erskine Haffkruger begins to speak with Benedict
  Pemberton’s deep and folksy voice, saying that he’s enjoyed spying
  on this little get-together, but he’d much rather watch the two
  sides have a fair fight, since he’s hoping neither of them win. He
  explains who the party is and expresses his wish that all those
  present end up killing each other. Then he activates the duplicant’s
  internal bomb (see below) to kick things off.
  Not so Fast.
  The party might boldly reveal themselves. Nicodemus is shocked,
  but asks that they consider working with the Obscurati, rather
  than trying to stop a new and better world from being created. At
  some point — especially if the party seems to be leaning toward
  yes — Pemberton interrupts and says that he paid to see in-
  ternecine cock-fighting, not a one-sided pig-slaughter. Again, he’ll
  trigger the bomb once he’s bored with talking.
  Helpless and Calm.
  The lanterns might have pacified the party entirely, in which case
  just before Nicodemus gives the killing order, Pemberton explains
  that the constables here will be throwing a spanner into his plans.
  Nicodemus scoffs and says the party can’t do anything to stop him;
  they’ll just sit passively and watch. Pemberton responds that get-
  ting attacked usually breaks these sorts of charms, and that’s when
  he uses his back-up plan.
  Duplicitous Duplicant Detonation.
  When Pemberton thinks the time is right, he claps and rubs his
  hands together, grins, and starts ticking loudly. One round later
  (at initiative count �) the ticking accelerates. The round after that
  he’s practically whirring, and at initiative count � on the third
  round he explodes.
  During the countdown, first he points out that while the ghosts
  might not mind a little pyrotechnics, most of the conspirators are
  nice and full of fleshy bits. Then he tells Erskine to say bye-bye, and
  leaves the confused dwarf in charge of his duplicant for a moment
  before it explodes (�� foot-radius burst, ��d� fire damage plus �d�
  piercing damage, DC �� Dexterity saving throw for half).
  The Splinter Cell
  Action. Montage.
  The ghost council attacks, Ob officers turn on each other, and the
  losing side runs for shore.
  In this scene, all hell breaks loose in the Obscurati palace. The
  simplest version simply sees the party fleeing and perhaps contact-
  ing their ship via their communication rings. It can then use the
  fey portal pad to transition into the Bleak Gate for � minutes, long
  enough for the party to rush on board. At some point during their
  escape Vicemi and the ghost council attack, and Macbannin
  comes to their aid.
  But there are many other objectives the party might have: res-
  cuing sympathetic Ob officers, killing Ob loyalists, freeing Vitus
  Sigismund from the prison portal painting, and whatever else the
  constables have come to care about. Also, if they did not prepare
  to have their ship extract them, they’ll need to rejigger the way-
  farer lighthouse if they want to transfer to the real world.
  Finally, the party is likely not in their own bodies. They might
  want to take a moment to get back into themselves, which would
  require one round for each body that needs to be removed from
  the absurdist web, and then just a free action to break the wreath
  that binds the two together. The PC will be restored immediately,
  and both he and the vessel will be helpless for one round. If the
  party doesn’t just coup de grâce the vessel bodies (hopefully not
  Livia, though), they’ll just flee in terror, since they have barely any
  idea where they are.
  Enemy Defenders.
  When Pemberton’s duplicant explodes, the loyal Ob officers have
  already scattered. Right afterward Vicemi orders the ghost council
  swarm into the Main Hall. Vicemi then disappears, teleporting
  back to the council room. He intends to attack only once he has
  
  regrouped and has back-up. Most of the exits of the building are
  watched by senior ghost councilors. A shadowlisk is stationed the
  front exit, another at the rear by the lighthouse. A third shad-
  owlisk guards the entrance to the room that has the prison portal
  painting, on the first floor west wing hallway.
  Unless the party goes looking for multiple groups of enemies at
  once, it’s suggested that GMs stagger their encounters as follows.
  Saving Congress.
  (Encounter Level ��)
  Enemies: Ghost Council Swarm, Cula Ravjahani
  Possible Allies: Catherine Romana
  In the main hall, �� Ob officers who voted for the Colossal Con-
  gress (including Catherine Romana) wait passively. Unless the
  party intercedes, the ghost council swarm glides in through the
  doors, uses a bonus action to seal one of the far exits with a wall
  of force, and starts killing two officers per round with its incorpo-
  real touches. Cula Ravjahani follows the swarm in from the foyer,
  and engages the party, hoping they’ll focus on her and let the
  ghosts do their work.
  Catherine Romana manages to shake off the pacifying effect in
  the first round, and since she didn’t witness what happened in the
  foyer she might attack the party in confusion. The rest of the offi-
  cers here don’t fight back or even flee until they are attacked,
  unless the lanterns in the room (� in total) are destroyed. Even
  then, they’re not particularly effective in a fight against ghosts.
  They’ll flee in a panic in different directions unless directed. If
  rallied, their combined mix of magic and weapons only manages
  to deal � damage per officer per round, but it might add up.
  The party is still probably in their vessel bodies. The ghost coun-
  cil fights until it reaches HP Threshold I, at which point it
  splinters, leaving behind two ghost councilors. It withdraws and
  seeks guidance from Vicemi, but will return later. Cula will try to
  flee with the ghost council, but likely goes down here.
  Afterward, the party might enlist Catherine’s aid. She recom-
  mends they use the lighthouse to transition to the real world, then
  commandeer a ship to escape.
  Exit Blocked.
  (Encounter Level ��)
  Enemies: 1 shadowlisk, 6 senior ghost councilors
  Possible Allies: Amielle Latimer, 12 Obscurati arcane marksmen
  Perhaps the party tries to lead the way out of the palace, or they
  respond after hearing panicked Ob officers scream as they’re
  blasted into shadows by shadowlisks. Whatever exit the party tries
  to go out through, a similar group of defenders will try to stop them.
  The ghost councilors try to possess PCs and move them into the
  gaze of the shadowlisk. They’re fearless about combat because they
  know they’ll rejuvenate even if destroyed.
  It’s likely that Amielle Latimer, who fled when Pemberton’s
  bomb went off, returns with a squad of Obscurati arcane marks-
  men, who fire a fusillade into the shadowlisk. Once the fight’s
  over, she can lend advice like reminding them of the three ships
  patrolling the waters around the island. She explains that she can-
  not go with them; she’s bound to stay near the ghost council. But
  she wants them to get to safety. Sadly she’s not as big an idealist
  as Nicodemus, and while intellectually his argument makes sense,
  she can’t help but value her friends in the Ob, and won’t abide
  their slaughter.
  Lighthouse Defense.
  (Encounter Level ��)
  Enemies: 2 senior ghost councilors, 4 Obscurati arcane marksmen
  The lighthouse is not particularly well defended, though the
  marksmen will hear freight elevator ascending, and can take a lad-
  der down to some sniper perches inside the lighthouse so they can
  fire down at the party.
  Chaotic Halls.
  (Encounter Level ��)
  Enemies: 9 Obscurati bookpin guards, 4 Obscurati arcane marksmen
  If the party is having too easy a time, GMs might throw a squad
  of bookpin guards in their path. Ideally the guards advance on the
  party from two different directions while the marksmen laying
  down suppressing fire. The enemies aren’t particularly challeng-
  ing, but the players might think they’re in more trouble than they
  really are.
  Prison Break.
  (Encounter Level ��)
  Enemies: 1 shadowlisk, 1 senior ghost councilor, ghost council swarm
  stage 2
  Possible Allies: Vitus Sigismund
  The door hangs open to the downstairs west wing suite that con-
  tains the prison portal painting. Inside, though, a ghost councilor
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 33
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Pacing and Resting.
  This scene likely involves multiple combat encounters over a
  relatively short timespan. Consider that 5 minutes can pass pretty
  quickly if the party is talking with NPCs or deciding which way to go,
  which can give the party time to heal and cast preparatory spells.
  Even if the party insists on rushing, they can probably have an
  occasional 1-minute break to tend to their needs.
  Escaping Officers.
  The PCs might not be the only ones trying to escape. Based on how
  much havoc the party is causing, the Ob officers who allied with
  Nicodemus might run for the shore. Some will link up with Han Jierre
  who uses a wayfarer’s lantern to get everyone onto a fast schooner
  in the real world. Others might just try to get onto the Nighthawk-
  class steamships, some being so desperate they dive into the
  treacherous waters.
  Failure States.
  If the party gets taken down here, there’s no logical reason Nico-
  demus or Vicemi would choose to keep them alive as prisoners. The
  GM might be able to wrangle a last-minute rescue by Macbannin and
  Amielle (or other officers they befriended), getting the party onto their
  ship, which barely escapes. If the party is out of allies, though, and the
  GM doesn’t want to end the campaign, the next adventure starts with
  the party linking up with Asrabey Varal, and if anyone has the clout to
  burst into a stronghold of bad guys and carry off a few people, it’s him.
  
  34 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Panicked Evacuation
  floats at the ceiling, and a shadowlisk is coiled to spring from the
  bathroom (where the painting is). Moments after the battle be-
  gins, the ghost council swarm (now at Stage �) flies in through the
  window. It uses wall of force to divide the party, then grabs one or
  two PCs and tries to carry them back out the window and up to
  the roof.
  To add some drama, GMs can have the fighting damage the
  frame of the portal painting, which causes the world within to be-
  gin to disintegrate. The party have only three rounds to get Vitus
  (and maybe the other prisoners) to safety before the demiplane
  becomes a lethal vacuum.
  The ghost council fights until it reaches its second HP Thresh-
  old, then dives back into the palace and flees to Vicemi.
  Panicked Evacuation
  Action. Real-Time.
  Numerous ships try to flee, prompting a chaotic, multi-sided battle
  between the real world and the Bleak Gate.
  Honestly, the party will likely be spent and ready to leave after
  their confrontation with Vicemi, so the GM might simply gloss
  over their departure from the island so as not to end anti-climacti-
  cally. The Obscurati officers who did manage to escape board
  Naphaeon, a frigate which flees from the island’s north docks, try-
  ing to avoid combat completely and get back to Vendricce, where
  it will receive protection by the Clergy’s navy. Three Nighthawk-
  class steamships will try to intercept the party’s ship, battling
  them in dark waters dotted with dangerous rocky spires.
  If the party befriended the ghost pirates, their ship can emerge
  and aid the party. Remember that the party’s ship can only stay in
  the Bleak Gate for so long without taking damage. The party
  might board and go back to the real world, or they could try to
  stick around and sink the Naphaeon.
  Naphaeon, Obscurati Frigate
  Huge Level 17 Vehicle (110,000 gp)
  Hull Integrity 4; Defense 25
  Maneuverability 4; Speed 14
  Crew 32, minimum 8; Total Complement 200
  DESIGN
  Length 170 ft.; Beam 35 ft.
  Masts 3, each 100 ft. high; Decks 4.
  ARMAMENT
  Cannons. To each broadside, 11 light cannons on the maindeck and
  12 full cannons on the gundeck. In a chase, the crew moves and
  turns the cannons on the maindeck to fire forward or aftward.
  Crew: 100. Attack: +10 to broadsides, or +8 fore or aft.
  Nighthawk-Class Steamship
  Large Level 16 Vehicle (104,920 gp)
  Hull Integrity 3; Defense 15
  Maneuverability 12; Speed 6
  Crew 28, minimum 2 (see Autocrew)
  Perception +8
  DESIGN
  Length 85 feet; Beam 25 feet
  Masts 0 (steam engine); Decks 3
  TRAITS
  Autocrew. Aside from the captain, navigator, engineer, and gunner,
  the crew consists of 24 mindless humanoid automatons.
  Extraplanar Magnetometer & Spectral Searchlight. Next to the
  navigator’s compass, an arcane instrument detects the fluctuations
  caused by nearby metal, providing a crude sensor that can detect
  ships—even ones in the real world. A gimbal-mounted searchlight
  on the prow uses wayfarer’s lantern technology to allow the
  Nighthawk to attack while remaining in the Bleak Gate.
  The crew is always aware of the presence of ships within one mile,
  and if they lack line of sight (or are on a different plane) they can
  make a DC 17 Wisdom (Perception) check each round to set a
  course toward medium range of a ship the crew is aware of.
  Once within medium range (500 feet) the Nighthawk can use its
  spotlight to locate one ship at a time, as long as it’s to the fore or
  sides, not aft. The Nighthawk can target a ship located in this way
  with its weapons, even if the two ships are on different planes. In
  return, a ship located by the spotlight can fire on the Nighthawk, but
  it has disadvantage if it isn’t on the same plane. The spotlight can be
  targeted and destroyed.
  Clever Defenses. Special iron shutters keep the crew safe from
  enemy fire without limiting the Nighthawk’s ability to fire back. The
  crew always has cover against attacks made from outside the ship.
  Tar and Brimstone Sheathing. An alchemical mixture of components
  slathered on the hull protects the bottom of the ship. Passwall and
  similar effects cannot affect the hull. Any creature that attacks the
  hull from beneath the water takes 10 points of fire damage.
  Eldritch Shield. An arcane forcefield powered by the ship’s engine
  wards off attacks. Any spell that originates more than 50 feet from
  the ship has any damage it deals to creatures aboard the ship
  reduced by 20. Attacks from within that range function normally.
  ARMAMENT
  Wayfarer’s Cannon. Thin slivers of light are visible through the
  shutters on the turret at the ship’s prow. After it fires, observers can
  see mechanical constructs reloading the twin cannons with huge
  munitions that have glowing amberglass shells.
  Crew: 20. Attack: +12, forward only. Each round choose one of
  the following effects:
  • Flaming. Attack inflicts the burning condition instead of normal
  damage. Crew in a struck area take 2d6 fire damage.
  • Radiant. Attack explodes with positive energy, dealing normal
  damage to undead creatures in struck areas, but not harming the
  ship itself.
  • Shocking. Gains a +2 bonus to hit creatures. Against ships, the
  first strike of any attack deals no damage to the ship itself (later
  hits deal normal damage). However, crew in struck components
  take an extra 1d6 lightning damage.
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 35
  Act Three: Into the Lion’s Den
  Showdown
  The Ghost Ship of Mutravir Island
  Large Level 10 Vehicle (39,000 gp)
  Hull Integrity 3; Defense 15
  Maneuverability 6; Speed 8
  Crew 16, minimum 4; Total Complement 60
  DESIGN
  Length 90 feet; Beam 25 feet
  Masts 3, each 70 ft. high; Decks 2
  TRAITS
  Ghost Ship. It glides through the shoals, ignoring the hazardous
  rocks as it brings its cannons to bear.
  The ship and those aboard it glide through solid objects like a
  ghost. Each turn, the captain chooses whether the ship is
  incorporeal or manifested. If manifested, it functions normally. If
  incorporeal, it has disadvantage on its attack rolls, and attacks
  against it have disadvantage. Additionally, the incorporeal ship
  ignores hazards and obstacles.
  ARMAMENT
  Cannons. A small array of light cannons, five to either broadside, but
  they strike with the wrathful might of the dead.
  Crew: 40. Attack: +5, broadsides only.
  Showdown
  Action. Tactical. High Level.
  Vicemi bends all his might toward defeating the party.
  Enemies: Vicemi Terio, 1 advanced bleak golem, 3 Obscurati bookpin
  guards, 3 ghost councilors, ghost council swarm stage 3
  Possible Allies: Reed Macbannin
  Perhaps the party is running down a hallway toward an exit, or
  they’re descending the stairs to the cliff south of the lighthouse, or
  they’re riding a carriage toward the north docks to get onto their
  ship. A fog begins to spread in their path, and in the dark and mist
  they hear the clanking sounds of an approaching golem.
  Vicemi uses cloudkill to create a swath of poisonous vapors in
  the party’s path, then waits on the far side with an advanced bleak
  golem (he had to go get it from storage) and a trio of bookpin
  guards who have remained steadfast. The ghost council also lurks
  somewhere nearby, preferably separated by a solid wall so the
  party cannot see it.
  Vicemi calls through the fog, “We’ve had enough talking this
  past day. All I ask is this. Don’t surrender.” Then the ghost council
  swarm swoops in and attacks.
  If Macbannin has not made his appearance yet, he shows up
  right before the swarm strikes. He’ll try to aid the party, and he’ll
  cuss at them if they attack him.
  Tactics.
  The ghost council just swarms the party, causing as much havoc as
  possible. The bleak golem advances with two bookpin guards right
  beside it. A third guard stays with Vicemi, remaining at the edge
  of the mist.
  After one round, the three senior ghost councilors emerge from
  the mist, focusing on any solitary or vulnerable foe.
  Vicemi has likely already used protection from energy to ward
  against whatever energy the party uses most. He stays at the edge
  of the mist, where he has concealment, and leads with haste, then
  uses his powerful offensive spells. If he sees the party benefiting
  from magical defenses he’ll target those with dispel magic.
  Macbannin sticks near the party and uses bestow curse to make
  the ghost council lose its incorporeal subtype. He realizes that he
  cannot leave the ghost council, and that they’ll probably do horri-
  ble things to him once the council reforms, so when the time is
  right he’ll plunge a dagger into his own throat and begin to fade
  away. When he perishes, he uses one final curse to ensure that
  Vicemi won’t rejuvenate if destroyed.
  Loot.
  When Vicemi is destroyed, his ghostly entourage bracelet falls to
  the ground with a clatter (see Part �, Appendix).
  Aftermath.
  When Vicemi is destroyed, he doesn’t speak; he just glares at the
  party as his form discorporates. Hopefully the fight will have ex-
  hausted the party enough that they won’t feel the urge to track
  down all the remaining Ob officers and exterminate them. At any
  rate, the wards on the island that kept the horrors of the Bleak
  Gate at bay are starting to fade, so dawdling can be deadly.
  Even if the party does kill every last Ob officer here, Nicodemus
  will return to the island and capture the essences of all the officers
  who perished here, giving them the option to join the ghost coun-
  cil. Then he’ll be able to connect with whoever is second-in-
  command in the various cells.
  Macbannin and Vicemi are likely gone, but Amielle survives
  (and her disapproval of Nicodemus is probably not apparent). This
  has been a massive set-back, but the conspiracy was designed to
  survive catastrophic damage, and as long as they can gain control
  of the colossus, they can still enact their grand design.e
  Battling Nicodemus.
  We don’t present stats for Nicodemus here. Partially because he’ll be
  designed to fit the needs of a different encounter in Adventure Eight,
  Diaspora, and mainly because he’s effectively unkillable here.
  Assume he has an AC in the mid-20s and that damage dealt to him
  instead transfers to the ghost council swarm. Until the party defeats
  it, Nicodemus cannot be hurt. Also, he has a custom contingency
  that will teleport him off the island and to a safehouse in Vendricce
  with just a single word.
  Don’t bother having Nicodemus fight back; you don’t want the
  players thinking they can beat him. If he’s attacked, he begins to
  concentrate on a spell to retaliate when something intercedes.
  If the party’s true identity has been revealed, Nicodemus’s voice
  changes accent and timbre to that of Andrei, who says, “These are
  not yours to harm.” Nicodemus shakes his head, realizes he can’t risk
  fighting in this condition, and activates his contingency.
  If the party just up and attacks, maybe have Nicodemus spend a
  round venting anger and expressing disbelief until Vicemi snarls at
  him that he, Nicodemus, is too important to risk, at which
  Nicodemus grudgingly leaves. It might irk your players, but they have
  plenty of enemies to deal with already, and they’ll get another crack
  at the mastermind next adventure.
  
  36 | EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two
  Player Handout
  Our organization, though composed of powerful industrialists and
  brilliant thinkers the world over, has operated with little commu-
  nication between cells. Though we all desire to change the world,
  you should be realizing that the scope of change possible to us de-
  mands that we not let any one person make the decisions.
  Our leader Nicodemus has called you together to listen to pro-
  posals, debate their merits, and choose the spirit of the next age.
  The Method of Change.
  As mentioned, our world is linked to eight planes. This connection
  was set by a ritual performed several thousand years ago, which
  buried eight stone pillars underground on Axis Island. Those pil-
  lars were then sealed beneath a plate of gold ��� feet in diameter
  and nearly � feet thick.
  To get access to the ritual pillars, we designed the mechanical
  colossus that has been making the news lately. It was activated ear-
  lier than we wanted; nevertheless, we are bringing it to a location
  where we can free it from the Dreaming. As soon as we have it on
  the right world and under our control, we’ll proceed with altering
  the Axis Seal ritual.
  The changes will affect the whole world, but to help transition
  between the two worlds, we are constructing lighthouses, towers,
  and similar tall monuments, all equipped with magic lanterns. By
  triggering these all simultaneously we’ll create a field of stability.
  In the event something does go wrong, we’ll be able to abort the
  ritual at any moment prior to its completion.
  Planar Primer.
  Each plane tied to the world we live on has aspects that distinguish
  it from any old plane with an elemental trait. For example, while
  the Plane of Air is vast, and many worlds are carved from slivers
  of it, some of those slivers have storms, others are filled with birds,
  and some are smoky and concealing. The nature of each plane de-
  termines what traits it lends to our world.
  It seems that when the Ancients decided what worlds ours
  would be connected to, they did not care much for traits. Indeed,
  many of these planes are fairly mundane, and our organization has
  access to many more impressive options.
  �. Jiese, Plane of Fire. Its trait is Cunning. The fire from this
  plane is less destructive than a typical elemental world, and
  its flames can be used intelligently, like a tool. Our scholars
  suspect most worlds never achieve the industrial revolution
  ours has because they lack this trait. Changing this plane
  might stymie technological progress.
  �. Avilona, Plane of Air. This world appears to have been dam-
  aged since it was originally tied to our world, so now its trait
  is Calm. Changing this plane might lead to stronger storms,
  and could make the world in general more energetic and
  changing.
  �. Av, Plane of Life. This glassy hollow world is our moon and
  has the traits of Reflection and Dream. It allows our world
  to have the two parallel planes of fey and darkness, known
  as The Dreaming and The Bleak Gate. Changing this world
  would remove those parallel planes and might have conse-
  quences involving dreams and undead.
  �. Mavisha, Plane of Water. Its trait is Mystery, and it is re-
  sponsible for the many islands that dot the world with their
  various secrets. We think this trait can be easily abandoned.
  �. Urim, Plane of Earth. This golden world has fractured into
  many pieces, but its trait – Barrier – causes gold in our
  world to block teleportation.
  �. Apet, Plane of Space. The Distant Plane is responsible for
  keeping our world and its bonded planes far from the rest of
  the multiverse, less likely to attract extraplanar attention.
  �. Reida, Plane of Time. Most scholars don’t even realize that
  the incomplete silvery ring that surrounds Apet is another
  plane altogether. Its traits of Limited Fate allow for
  prophecy, but enforce that after a given time the world must
  change. We suggest caution in tampering with this plane,
  but experiments show such efforts are possible.
  �. Nem, Plane of Death. Its trait is Annihilation, and it de-
  stroys any who try to travel from our star system of planes to
  the outer multiverse, and vice versa.
  The Cardinal Rule.
  It is risky to directly alter behavior or personality. Free will is an
  all-or-nothing option, and we cannot force people to be “good”
  without also turning them into automatons. We can, however,
  nudge people, and you’ll see some example options below.
  Proposals and Voting.
  The leadership of our group has five proposals we would like you
  to consider. We encourage you to come up with revisions or even
  new proposals. We suspect different factions will emerge, and
  whatever design we agree on will no doubt demand some compro-
  mise and disappointment.
  Our initial five factions are:
  > The Arboretum. Order nature so it can spread and be con-
  trolled like industry.
  > Colossus. Grant ourselves semi-divine powers to fix prob-
  lems as they arise.
  > Miller’s Pyre. Enact subtle changes, focused on making peo-
  ple more empathetic and less susceptible to hypocrisy, so
  they can more easily pursue goodness and justice.
  > Panarchists. Grant individuals enough power to make gov-
  ernments unnecessary.
  > Watchmakers. Eliminate free will and design a thousand-
  year destiny of progress for the world.
  Tonight you will meet the representatives of each faction, and then
  we will hold a preliminary vote to see which proposal holds the
  most support. This evening and tomorrow morning will be oppor-
  tunities to make coalitions and alterations. Starting tomorrow
  afternoon we will grant everyone who desires a chance to speak,
  and by the end of the evening we hope to hold a second vote.
  For a proposal to win, it must have support of at least seventy-
  five percent of the officers in attendance. Including the leadership
  there are forty-nine officers present, and an additional twenty-
  seven votes are given to the ghost council, which has a tradition of
  voting as one. Thus, out of seventy-six voters, a proposal must get
  the support of �� officers.
  THE GRAND DESIGN
  THE GRAND DESIGN
  
  EN�ider Presents: Schism, Part Two | 37
  Player Handout
  B
  Minor Factions.
  Radical Factions.
  B
  y the morning of the second day of
  the convocation, you’re aware of the
  following minor factions, and rumors say
  some people are organizing a few radical
  factions in secret, hoping to push for things
  that might not be approved by the majority of
  the Obscurati.
  Minor Factions.
  > Aegis. The current planes prevent invasion from other
  worlds, and it has worked well so far. Aegis insists that if the
  current planes of Space and Death — which are the source
  of that protection — are changed, that some other defenses
  be put in their place. Represented by Dengar Kriegshaff,
  human wizard of Drakr.
  > Bards. This faction wants people to have a more discerning
  taste when it comes to entertainment, and for performers to
  constantly seek to hone their craft. Represented by Praesidia
  de Vaca, half-dragon bard of Ber.
  > Economists. This group wants people to have a stronger
  sense of the value of things and a more intuitive grasp of
  economics. They hope this will lead to more workers partici-
  pating meaningfully in a new industrialized economy, rather
  than wasting money or time on things that are traditional
  but less utilitarian. Represented by Solace Petrov, human
  economist of Elfaivar.
  > The Long Now. People live a long time, but typically plan
  only for the short term. This faction wishes to find a Plane
  of Time that will make people consider a longer timespan in
  their decisions. Represented by Zartan Arkel, human druid
  of Drakr.
  > Mortal Mind. This faction opposes all religion as a
  distraction from the enlightenment of the mortal mind.
  They desire a world where people reject religion. Such mind
  control is not doable, so their plan is to eliminate people’s
  ability to feel religious awe, creating a much more rational
  existence. Represented by Von Hastenschrieft Willi-
  markanova, dwarf philosopher of Drakr.
  > The Sky League. Make flight possible, preferably easy. If it is
  feasible, they would like to be able to fly constantly, without
  need of casting spells. Represented by Dame Constance
  Baden, human knight of Danor.
  > Trekkers. Not content to limit mortal races to a single
  world, this faction wants to choose planes that are habitable.
  Represented by Cardinal Testamenta Suchdol, human in-
  quisitor of Crisillyir.
  >Weapon-Mongers. Believing that technological progress is
  of great value, this faction wants to ensure that whatever
  new world is created is not one of pathetic peace and har-
  mony, where invention and innovation is stifled by the lack
  of war. Represented by Glaz du Sang Magie, human ice
  mage of Danor.
  Radical Factions.
  > Amorals. This highly philosophical faction questions
  whether anyone ought to decide what is of value in a new
  world. They suspect that the initial bonding of this world to
  other planes created an artificial sense of morality and
  value. If we can change what people value simply by altering
  the nature of reality, what makes us think our own morality
  is not also enforced? They propose not linking to any specific
  planes, but instead letting our world be loosely connected to
  the entire multiverse. This would be the only way for people
  to be truly free to determine their own ideology, without
  outside influence.
  > Celestial Bureaucracy. This faction suggests the world
  should be linked to a plane inhabited by just and noble an-
  gels, which will guide the moral races and provide
  judgment, since we do such a poor job of it.
  > Humble Hook. This faction rejects the major goal of the Ob-
  scurati. While they support making the world better, they
  say it is every individual’s challenge in life to make him- or
  herself better. They do not think it is their place to try to al-
  ter reality on such a fundamental level. Convinced that the
  purpose of life is thus to prevail over adversity, they fear that
  making the world “a better place” will actually eliminate the
  meaning of life.
  > Materialists. This faction believes that magic is irrational
  and creates too many problems. They suggest reducing the
  power of magic as much as possible.
  > Nationalists. There are supposedly several patriots who
  want to make sure their home nation profits most from the
  new world order.
  > The White Tongue. Rumors suggest that an unknown num-
  ber of Obscurati members have made a pact with the fey
  titan known as the Voice of Rot, which seeks to gain power
  by letting the world die.
  MINOR AND RADICAL FACTIONS
  MINOR AND RADICAL FACTIONS
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/5th Edition (5e)/3rd Party/EN World EN5ider/EN5ider 281 - ZEITGEIST 7 Schism Part 2.pdf