TEXT: EN5ider Presents:
  Digging
  for Lies
  Part One
  A 5E-Compatible Adventure for 5th-Level Characters
  
  2 | EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One
  Introduction
  From the Pen of
  Matthew J. Hanson
  With Additional Material by
  Ryan Nock
  Evocative Cover Illustration by
  ShenFei
  Stunning Cartographic Displays by
  Brian Patterson and Jonathan Roberts
  Masterful Interior Illustrations by
  Claudio Pozas, ShenFei, and Eleni Tsami
  Includes art in the public domain*
  * some art in the public domain courtesy fromoldbooks.com
  with Unparalleled Layout and Graphic Design by
  Eric Life-Putnam
  Playtested for Maximum Enjoyment by
  Michael Border, Walter Byers, Justin Engelking, 
  Benjamin Riggs, Dennis Chiado
  Seamlessly Updated to Fifth Edition by
  James J. Haeck
  Ably Produced and Facilitated by
  Russ Morrissey
  Special Thanks to
  Jennifer Taber, for her patience;  
  and to the hundreds of gamers who backed the original release 
  of Zeitgeist on Kickstarter, and to the over one thousand 
  generous patrons of EN World EN5ider whose support has 
  made this Fifth Edition update possible.
  Open Game Content
  The game rule information in this article is designated Open 
  Game Content. All other material in this article, including maps, 
  graphic elements, and illustrations (including graphic elements 
  and illustrations in the public domain), narrative and descriptive 
  text, character and place names, trade dress, “EN Publishing,” 
  “EN World,” “EN5ider,” “Zeitgeist,” all EN Publishing product 
  and article titles, and Zeitgeist, EN World, and EN Publishing 
  logos, are designated Product Identity.
  EN
  EN
  Publishing
  Publishing
  tm
  Wherein Archaeology 
  Answers Modern Mysteries
  T
  he climax of the first Zeitgeist adventure 
  occurred in a Danoran observatory, gazing up-
  ward at the stars on an island where one could glimpse 
  flashes of other worlds. The second adventure entailed 
  protecting a Risuri prophet who foresaw the future in 
  those stars, and at its conclusion the party discovered 
  a conspiracy hiding within the Bleak Gate, a shadowy 
  plane that parallels the real world.
  Now, in the third adventure, the party will find the connection 
  between those seemingly unrelated threads. By investigating why 
  modern inventors and arcanoscientists are interested in prehistoric 
  relics, the party can discover the name of an international con-
  spiracy — the Obscurati — and hints of its ultimate goal. But before 
  they can track down the conspiracy’s head, they first will have to 
  protect their homeland from an otherworldly invasion held at bay 
  for thousands of years.
  Before you run this adventure you’ll want to be familiar with the 
  Background, the Adventure Overview, and the NPC Roster.
  Adapting the Adventure.
  All the lower level Zeitgeist adventures assume the PCs are agents 
  of the Royal Homeland Constabulary. If your players are free agents, 
  they were probably let go, disavowed, or what have you after the 
  events of Adventure Two, The Dying Skyseer, by Chief Inspectress 
  Lady Margaret Saxby, purportedly because keeping them employed 
  would be politically tricky.
  For this adventure, the PCs might be hired to work security at the 
  Kaybeau Arms and Technology Exposition, or a Gunsmith, Martial 
  Scientist, or Technologist PC might have a friend with an exhibit 
  there, or have his or her own booth. When the party discovers the 
  relics of Apet, they’re approached by Xambria to investigate what 
  happened at her dig in the High Bayou.
  If you plan to run this adventure not as part of the Zeitgeist 
  adventure path, the arms fair can be less technological, and more 
  of a magical bazaar. You can simply spin Apet as a deadly sliver of a 
  far-off alien plane that was sealed off ages ago.
  
  EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One | 3
  Introduction
  Background
  Thousands of years ago, long before King Kelland defeated the fey 
  titans and founded Risur, monsters and beings from other planes 
  tried to claim this world as their own. Only the most obscure leg-
  ends and folktales provide clues of this time, but some truly ancient 
  ruins have been discovered in recent years, first by adventurers and 
  more recently by archaeologists.
  The current prevailing theory holds that the continent of Lanjyr 
  was briefly home to a civilization of orcs who enslaved goblinoids 
  and minotaurs. None of the known ruins contain any sort of writ-
  ing, so scholars use various names: Hill Kings (for the mounds 
  found by most of their ruins), Lithians (for their use of stone tools), 
  or even simply PKPs (for Pre-Kelland People). But most simply call 
  them the Ancients.
  All anyone knows about the Ancients is that they built stone 
  and wooden structures, had at least a rudimentary grasp of magic, 
  and possessed no metalworking skills, with the strange exception 
  of goldsmithing. The Ancient ruins found so far have been troves 
  of jewelry, religious totems, and even weapons, all made of gold. 
  Scholars struggle to explain how these primitive people, living in 
  a wilderness supposedly dominated by mighty fey creatures and ca-
  pable of only simple mining, were able to craft so elaborate (or so 
  many) golden artifacts.
  The true nature of the Ancients is unknown to modern scholar-
  ship. Its secret is carefully protected by a conspiracy of philosophers 
  known as the Obscurati, because the Ancients once shaped the fate 
  of the world, and now the Obscurati wish to repeat the feat.
  In their exploration of the Ancients’ history and magic, the 
  Obscurati have funded archaeological expeditions throughout the 
  continent of Lanjyr. Usually these digs, if they uncover anything, 
  are quickly hidden through a mix of murder and recruitment. But 
  now a dig has gone awry.
  Obscurati Archaeology.
  The Obscurati have been searching for the original seals in prepa-
  ration for opening the Axis Seal. To maintain secrecy they first 
  sponsored adventurers, and more recently archaeological expedi-
  tions, all of whom have as their liaison a tiefling benefactor, Caius 
  Bergeron. Caius reports to Lya Jierre, head of the Golden Cell (see 
  the Campaign Guide).
  One archaeologist, Dr. Xambria Meredith of Slate’s Mitchell 
  University, led an expedition that discovered the Apet ziggurat in 
  the High Bayou. In Spring earlier this year she reported to Caius 
  and sent back many minor relics from the dig site. In mid-summer, 
  Caius sent a team of experts to open the seal. That’s when disaster 
  struck.
  Pocket Dimensions.
  When the Axis Seal took effect, small slivers of the worlds already 
  sealed by the Ancients were trapped between the two magical bans, 
  like bugs caught by a double-pane window. A handful of creatures 
  survived in stasis, and in the Apet seal that included a Gidim 
  wayfarer called Sijhen. While the rest of its kin were left trapped 
  without sustenance on Apet, Sijhen was only dimly aware of the 
  dreamlike passage of time.
  The Ancients and the Axis Seal.
  Modern scholars have a flawed view of ancient history. Those long 
  millennia ago, the first mortal races had just begun to develop cul-
  tures when the world was discovered by alien entities.
  The Golden Legion of Egal the Shimmering marched from Hell to 
  use this world as a staging ground in an eternal war. Agents of so-
  called gods contacted their chosen people while dragons and titanic 
  beasts staked out their territories. The hordes of strange creatures 
  that found their way into this world were beyond count, and were 
  only growing more numerous by the day.
  The meager villages and tribes of mortals could not fight back 
  the intruders through force of arms, but a handful of clever heroes 
  devised a plan to cut off the pathways to this world. At first they 
  simply found portals between planes and closed them, but then they 
  learned how to seal off a whole plane at once, using a golden plate as 
  both a physical barrier and as the focus of the magic. To protect the 
  sealed portals from those who would re-open them, the Ancients 
  constructed elaborate ziggurats full of traps and undying guardians.
  In an infinite multiverse, these seals were only temporary solu-
  tions. Clever foes would always find a new route to a world with such 
  precious resources. But this was part of the Ancients’ plan. The in-
  vaders abandoned the dead-end worlds, giving the Ancients a buffer 
  of safety. When they performed the mighty ritual of the Axis Seal, 
  they cut off all planes except for a handful of these dead ends, which 
  they knew were safe.
  The planes that are still accessible are detailed in the Player’s 
  Guide. Apet in particular plays a prominent role in this adventure.
  Fatal Flaw.
  The Ancients made one great mistake. The Gidim, a semi-humanoid 
  race from a far-off realm, hid an invasion force on the world of Apet, 
  which the Ancients thought abandoned. Once the Axis Seal was 
  complete and they had no competition from any other planes, the 
  Gidim struck.
  The Ancients managed a hurried revision to the Axis Seal ritual, 
  which turned Apet into a prison plane. While the massive world still 
  orbits the sun and shares its mystical energies, it cannot be reached. 
  The strike by the Gidim devastated the burgeoning Ancient culture, 
  however, and with their heroes dead, the mortal races reverted to 
  their previous primitive state for millennia.
  Common Lore of Apet.
  According to modern scholarship and skyseer lore, the massive 
  planet of Apet is the farthest visible world in the star system. 
  Skyseers who have had visions of Apet claim that its surface is a 
  blasted wasteland of blinding sand, and that no creatures live there. 
  But others who have gazed at Apet over a long period claim that 
  sometimes foreign, unexpected thoughts poke at their mind from 
  other places or times.
  Around Apet orbits a silvery arc called Reida, said to be the arc of 
  time. Interestingly, it’s not a solid ring; about a 30-degree segment 
  is empty. Scholars have theorized for centuries what this might 
  indicate about the nature of the past and future, and a lively (and 
  sometimes bitter) debate persists to this day.
  
  4 | EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One
  Introduction
  When Xambria’s expedition opened the Ancient’s first seal to the 
  plane of Apet, Sijhen was freed. Afraid and surrounded by humans, 
  it was drawn to Xambria, who was carrying the golden icon of Apet. 
  Sijhen slithered into Xambria’s mind and guided her to escape the 
  onslaught of Gidim war-beasts that slew the rest of her dig crew. 
  Then, once she was safe, it coiled in the recesses of her subconscious 
  to observe and learn.
  Sijhen realized countless years had passed, but it saw no history 
  of its own people. It tried to use the same old rituals that millen-
  nia ago would have let it travel to and from Gidim, but they failed. 
  Unaware of the power of the Axis Seal, Sijhen was left to try to 
  solve a mystery.
  It remained hidden in Xambria’s body, wary of discovery. It hopes 
  to return to the dig site to seek clues, but Xambria’s too traumatized 
  and still has too much control to be willing to return. So now Sijhen 
  contents itself with wriggling deeper into her mind, and teasing at 
  clues connected to who hired Xambria for the dig in the first place.
  Macbannin’s Fallout.
  In Adventure Two, The Dying Skyseer, the PCs took down Reed 
  Macbannin, a district mayor in the city of Flint, and a high-placed 
  member of the Obscurati conspiracy. Macbannin believed himself 
  working on a military research project for Risur’s king, but the 
  royalty denied any such plot. Macbannin died in his cell before any 
  more information could be uncovered.
  Macbannin had many subordinates working in his laboratory. 
  When they realized they had been working for a traitor, some 
  turned themselves in, but many fled, taking whatever valuables 
  they could get hold of. One of these is Kaja Stewart, one of the head 
  researchers developing the soul-burning fuel called witchoil.
  Macbannin had also been in league with local crime boss Lorcan 
  Kell, who was making a tidy profit helping smuggle raw materials 
  to the Obscurati’s construction facility in the Bleak Gate. Macban-
  nin had been the middle man, and without him, Kell had access to a 
  lot of material, but nowhere to sell it. He had his people track down 
  Kaja Stewart, and in the past few months has set her up as head of 
  a custom magic armaments business.
  Finally, Macbannin managed to keep his illicit activities secret 
  for such a long because he had several law enforcement heads in 
  his pocket. This included Lady Inspectress Margaret Saxby, the 
  director of the Flint branch of the Royal Homeland Constabulary. 
  She got nervous when the PCs took down Macbannin, so she moved 
  quickly to get hold of any suspicious evidence from Macbannin’s 
  manor, including several obscure texts and ancient relics, which 
  she keeps locked in a trapped safe under her office desk.
  Next, she made a point to take the PCs off the case. While there 
  were plenty of leads to follow, she claimed it would look bad for 
  the PCs, who had already been involved with the defeat of Duch-
  ess Ethelyn of Shale (see Adventure One, Island at the Axis of the 
  World) to be tied to the disgrace of another popular politician. 
  Lady Saxby has a reputation for being politically savvy, so word 
  around the RHC office is that she’s just worried the PCs will get 
  more popular than her.
  In the intervening few months, Lady Saxby has put the party on 
  unrelated assignments, and has let a different squad follow up on 
  Planar Madness.
  Several aberrations in the adventure are so bizarre that they tax a 
  character’s sanity.
  Mind Strain.
  The monsters of Gidim are foreign and horrifying. Creatures who 
  view them struggle to grasp their precise location, and that uncer-
  tainty creeps into their minds, slowly eroding their sanity. Several 
  monsters in this adventure can cause the disease Distant Madness.
  Distant Madness.
  A creature afflicted by distant madness gains one form of short-
  term madness. While under the effects of short-term madness, the 
  creature is vulnerable to psychic damage. If the creature is reduced 
  to 0 hit points by psychic damage in this state, it gains a form of 
  indefinite madness known as a mind scar.
  Mind Scar.
  Mind scars reflect permanent insanities tied to the unhinging effect 
  of Distant Madness. When a character obtains a mind scar, roll 1d6 
  to determine the general nature of the insanity.
  1. Phobia. Irrational fear of a type of creature, object, or 
  situation.
  2. Paranoia. Irrational belief someone is trying to harm the PC.
  3. Hallucinations. Seeing or hearing things that don’t exist.
  4. Delusion. Irrational belief in something untrue.
  5. Obsession. Irrational desire to be near a creature, object, or 
  situation.
  6. Compulsion. Urge to take specific actions in irrational 
  circumstances.
  The specifics of the insanity are left up to the DM or players. Most of 
  the time, a mind scar should serve as a role-playing hook. Occasion-
  ally, however, the GM may offer a bit of insane insight in exchange 
  for forcing the character to take a detrimental action appropriate 
  to their mind scar.
  If the player accepts and the PC follows the desired course of 
  action, the character can use the following power during the cur-
  rent encounter. If a player proposes a detrimental course of action 
  appropriate to his insanity, the GM may also reward them with this 
  power. A character cured of Distant Madness is also cured of any 
  mind scars.
  If a player willingly proposes a detrimental course of action ap-
  propriate to an acquired insanity, the GM may also reward him with 
  the following power, which can only be used once.
  Insane Insight
  Your allies thought you were acting crazy, but in that moment of self-
  peril, you saw reality from afar and understood your situation with an 
  inhuman clarity.
  Once in the next 10 minutes you gain one of the following benefits:
  •	 Take an additional action on your next turn.
  •	 Treat an ability check, saving throw, or attack roll as if you 
  had rolled a 19 on the die.
  •	 Cast one spell without it using a spell slot or being expended.
  
  EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One | 5
  Introduction
  the Macbannin case. These other constables are more interested in 
  covering their asses than solving any crimes, and Saxby has encour-
  aged their slow pace.
  None of Macbannin’s former associates—Lorcan, Kaja, or Lady 
  Saxby—knows of the Obscurati plot, but by piecing together clues 
  that each has, the PCs will be able to outwit the conspiracy going 
  into Adventure Four, Always on Time.
  Adventure Overview
  The PCs’ immediate boss Assistant Chief Inspector Stover Delft 
  summons them to his office and explains that their next assignment 
  is to provide extra security for the Kaybeau Arms and Technology 
  Exposition. The PCs are therefore coincidentally present when 
  strange monsters unknown to modern scholarship appear and at-
  tack fair attendees. After killing the monsters, the PCs learn that 
  the creatures were summoned by an ancient magic staff made of 
  solid gold, which a fair-goer had purchased on the black market.
  Only a day into their investigation, the party learns that Lord 
  Viscount Inspector Nigel Price-Hill, national director of the RHC, 
  is coming to Flint to oversee an audit of the local branch. PCs who 
  have been cutting corners, breaking the law, or “declining” to 
  hand over evidence so they could keep it for themselves will have to 
  scramble to avoid punishment.
  Through a string of contacts, the party tracks the sale of the staff 
  to Kaja Stewart, who stole the relic and several others from Macban-
  nin’s manor. If arrested, she gets transferred by Saxby to the RHC 
  office in the capital city Slate, and goes missing soon thereafter, 
  secretly recruited by Risur’s military to develop weapons. Crime 
  boss Lorcan Kell pursues the PCs for harassing his business part-
  ner, and various minor threats from the expo keep them busy, but 
  eventually the party connects the relics to Pardwight University.
  Hans Weber, the curator of Pardwight’s natural history museum, 
  is planning a gala of artifacts of the Ancients, and he can put the 
  PCs in contact with Dr. Xambria Meredith.
  Xambria recalls finding the staff at the site of her last expedition, 
  but she claims she was away when disaster struck and all of her co-
  horts were killed. She suggests the party find Caius Bergeron, who 
  sponsored her dig, then vanished after the disaster. When Caius 
  claims to be a harmless philanthropist, the PCs have few options 
  left other than to head to the dig site and scour it for clues.
  At the ancient ziggurat, the party must avoid dangerous traps 
  and battle strange creatures from another world. They find the bod-
  ies of Xambria’s expedition, as well as a group of specialists who 
  had been sent by Caius Bergeron. The golden seal is missing, and a 
  map in the ziggurat points to another possible dig site.
  Their presence draws the interest of a long-slumbering fey titan, 
  the serpentine Voice of Rot, who believes the lands around the zig-
  gurat are his domain. He tells the party that an interloper from 
  another world escaped the ziggurat, and that he will punish the 
  mortals in his realm if they do not deal with the intruder for him. 
  The party can use magic to track the foreign planar energy trail left 
  by the creature, which leads them back to Flint.
  The trail of planar energy crisscrosses itself and leads to sev-
  eral red herrings, but also goes to Xambria’s home, where there 
  are signs of a struggle, but no sign of the woman. The trail also 
  points to Caius’s inn, where the PCs find that he has been mur-
  dered, and his brain has been devoured. While searching his room 
  for evidence, they learn that Caius sent an expedition to the dig 
  site marked on the map in the ziggurat, off the coast of Ber, several 
  hundred miles away.
  Chasing the second expedition, the PCs reach Ber and find three 
  ships in a stand-off. One is owned by Caius, and it tries to protect 
  a group working to open the seal, which is underwater. The second 
  is a Beran archaeology vessel, while the third is a boat Xambria 
  chartered. She claims she was attacked back in Flint, and that she 
  headed for this site, hoping to stop Caius’s team before they un-
  leashed more monsters.
  The energy trail points to Xambria, though she can explain this 
  away because she has been wearing the golden icon of Apet, which 
  she recovered at the first dig site. She plays the frightened innocent, 
  but in truth she has fallen under control of Sijhen. After the party 
  defeats Caius’s team, Sijhen bides its time, then distracts the party 
  by summoning monsters. During the disturbance, Sijhen devours 
  the brains of any prisoners, steals the ritual book they used to open 
  the seal, and flees via teleportation.
  Dr. Xambria Meredith. Xambria was a rising star in the 
  academic world of archaeology, and at 28 she’s the youngest professor at 
  Mitchell University in Slate. She has always had a particular interest in An-
  cient relics, since the golden treasures were so wondrous to behold.
  Xambria preferred a hands-on approach to unearthing the secrets of 
  history, and frequently put her life in danger, either on digs in hostile lands, 
  or because the excavations themselves were filled with traps. She enjoyed 
  nothing more than exploring ancient ruin, using a canny mix of caution 
  and daring to avoid curses and traps, or survives the ones she didn’t see in 
  advance.
  But a month ago something went terribly wrong at one of her digs. For 
  months she had been excavating and exploring a ziggurat of the Ancients, 
  a truly legendary find. She had taken all the proper precautions—careful 
  probing for traps, magical auguries, prayers and supplications to appease 
  the spirits of the land being disturbed. To her dismay, there is a hole in her 
  mind, and she does not know what went wrong.
  She remembers leaving for supplies, then returning and finding dead 
  bodies, mangled and mutated. After that, her memory is a blur. She took 
  a train to Flint, sought shelter with peers at Pardwight University, and 
  struggled to cope with the horrors she’d seen.
  Despite her trained athleticism, Xambria dresses conservatively, more 
  comfortable displaying the workings of her 
  mind than the shape of her body. Now more 
  than ever, she covers up as much as possible, 
  and sometimes when she thinks about what 
  she saw at the dig she can almost feel some-
  thing trying to wriggle out of her skin.
  Though traumatized, Xambria has devoted 
  her life to uncovering mysteries. She wants 
  to find out what killed her dig crew, but some-
  how she knows if she goes back to her dig, it 
  will not end well for her.
  
  6 | EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One
  Introduction
  When the PCs get back to Flint, Pardwight curator Hans Weber 
  asks them to protect the Ancients gala. Xambria attacks the event 
  with a host of monsters, and she tries to steal relics from the zig-
  gurat of Apet. Even if she obtains them, however, she lets the PCs 
  defeat her and quickly surrenders.
  This is part of Sijhen’s gambit. To get home, it hopes to open a 
  portal to Gidim. But to properly aim that portal, it needs an An-
  cient star map. Lady Saxby just happened to confiscate one after 
  the downfall of Macbannin, and she keeps it locked up in her office 
  in RHC headquarters.
  Xambria stages her own capture so she’ll be brought to RHC 
  headquarters, knowing Saxby will be present. Before being cap-
  tured, Xambria sends word to the Obscurati that Saxby is planning 
  to turn on them, and so the Ob sends assassins to silence the Chief 
  Inspectress.
  Sijhen, on the other hand, wants to consume Saxby’s brain, as 
  well as those of the assassins, since it plans to return to this world 
  eventually, and wants more knowledge about the Obscurati. It isn’t 
  afraid of the mere mortals who stand in its way, but it doesn’t real-
  ize that the Axis Seal will utterly thwart its attempts to go home.
  Shortly after the PCs lock up Xambria in an RHC jail cell, Sijhen 
  springs its trap. Using a makeshift portal, monsters and reality-
  warping energies from Apet pour into the building, letting Sijhen 
  escape. It heads for Saxby’s office as assassins make their move, all 
  while the other staff of the headquarters are driven mad and turn 
  on each other.
  The party must rush to avert several catastrophes, and when they 
  confront Sijhen at its portal, a mishap unleashes a massive war 
  beast, long ago bred by the Gidim and trapped on Apet. The PCs 
  must kill it or drive it back so they can seal the portal, before the 
  energy of Apet destroys the RHC and drives them all mad.
  Adventure Layout.
  Digging for Lies is more episodic and less web-like than Adventure 
  Two: The Dying Skyseer. At the end of the adventure we will in-
  clude a GM Conspiracy Guide, with a checklist of information you 
  need to make sure your party has by the time they finish Act Three. 
  Without it, the party won’t have the right clues to start Adventure 
  Four, Always on Time.
  Scene Layout.
  Each scene is presented in a format of Title, keywords, and tag-line. 
  Keywords include:
  •	 Scene Type: Action, Exploration, Exposition, Puzzle, Social, 
  or Hybrid.
  •	 Duration: Montage (a few hours or days), Real-time (a few 
  minutes), or Tactical (round-by-round).
  NPC Roster.
  More detailed entries are included throughout the adventure close 
  to the characters’ first appearances.
  NPC Entry
  Found In
  Dr. Xambria Meredith
  Introduction
  Sijhen
  Introduction
  Benedict Pemberton
  Act 1
  Kvarti Gorbatiy
  Act 1
  Assistant Chief Inspector Stover Delft
  Act 1
  Kaja Stewart
  Act 1
  Caius Bergeron
  Act 1
  Rock Rackus
  Act 2
  Captain Rutger Smith
  Act 2
  Lady Inspectress Margaret Saxby
  Act 3
  Lord Viscount Inspector Nigel Price-Hill
  Appendices
  Lauren Cyneburg
  Appendices
  Obscurati Note.
  Why did Macbannin have items from the dig site? Macbannin was 
  part of Colossus cell, and normally had no contact with Golden 
  Cell, which handles the digs. But since Macbannin was an expert 
  in defense against dark arts, Caius got special permission to have 
  the mayor examine a few relics to ensure they weren’t dangerous. 
  Macbannin was defeated before Caius could recover them.
  Timeline.
  Xambria discovered the ziggurat in Spring, and the seal around the 
  15th of Summer. The seal was opened around the 45th of Sum-
  mer, and Xambria made it back to Flint on the 51st. On the 75th, 
  Caius Bergeron sent more Obscurati experts to the dig to bring back 
  the golden seal. They return on the 85th. The team leaves for the 
  sunken ziggurat of Mavisha on Summer 91 (the last day of summer).
  The adventure begins on the 1st day of Autumn. The PCs will 
  likely spend a few days investigating leads from the arms fair, then 
  take about a week exploring Xambria’s dig site and returning. Xam-
  bria kills Caius Bergeron on Autumn 7, breaks into Saxby’s home on 
  the 8th, and leaves for Ber on the 9th. She arrives at the sunken 
  ziggurat on the 15th.
  The PCs likely get back to Flint on the 12th, and probably spend a 
  day or two following leads before they set out for the sunken ziggu-
  rat. Sailing to the ziggurat in Ber requires at least three days, most 
  likely a week, but Xambria and the Obscurati experts will both still 
  be there.
  The Ancients Gala opens on the 31st of autumn, though curator 
  Hans Weber waits to put the three Ancient relics (amulet, blade, and 
  staff) on display until the PCs are available to provide protection. 
  Xambria, likewise, waits to strike until the PCs are present, because 
  she wants her arrest to be convincing.
  Feel free to adjust the timeline to give the adventure a tense pace. 
  In particular, if your PCs would refuse to let the case sit fallow for 
  the long term, you might move the adventure’s start to a just a week 
  or two after the end of The Dying Skyseer.
  Weather.
  Autumn is the start of the rainy season in Risur. The first week 
  usually just has rainy afternoons, but by the end of the month it’s 
  almost always at least drizzling. The weather is worse in the High 
  Bayou, location of the Ziggurat of Apet, where flooding will be immi-
  nent by the time the PCs arrive. Temperatures there hover between 
  70 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
  
  EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One | 7
  Introduction
  Reoccurring Characters,
  Stover Delft, Nigel Price-Hill, Kvarti Gorbatiy, Morgan Cippiano, 
  Rock Rackus, Lorcan Kell, and Captain Rutger Smith are all 
  scheduled to appear in future adventures. The Gidim survivor, Si-
  jhen, likely will return even if the PCs defeat it, because its alien 
  biology makes it hard to permanently kill.
  Incidental NPCs.
  The following NPCs probably only show up for a single scene, but 
  if the PCs latch on to anyone, you can refer here to remind yourself 
  who is who.
  NPC 
  Found In
  Sergeant Sara Lockheart, expo police
  Act 1
  Benedict Pemberton, industrialist
  Act 1
  Timothy Lammers, gun range owner
  Act 1 
  Alfonse Irongut, ammunition seller
  Act 1
  Alforb Irongut, good-for-nothing son
  Act 1
  Nock, goliath gun maker
  Act 1
  Fildi and Dilfi, gnome badger fans
  Act 1
  Alloquicious, halfling engineer
  Act 1
  Simon Langfield
  Act 1
  Colonel Sebastian Harlock
  Act 1
  Isaac Randal
  Act 1
  Gunter Inskeip
  Act 1
  Hans Weber
  Act 1
  Diego Dolorosa, captain of La Inspiración
  Act 2
  Paco de Los Loros, goblin archaeologist
  Act 2
  Jack Glassmaker, captain of the Dagger
  Act 2
  Bernardo Molinelli, captain of Il Draçon de Mer
  Act 2
  Finona Duvall, tiefling summoner
  Act 2
  Krano, half-orc sea druid
  Act 2
  Carlao, RHC knight
  Act 3
  Dima, RHC cleric
  Act 3
  Serena, RHC assassin
  Act 3
  Key Locations.
  Use this list to keep track of locations the PCs might visit.
  Flint Locations
  Found In
  Kaybeau Fairgrounds
  Act 1
  Lanternwood Subrail Station
  Act 1
  Pardwight University
  Act 1
  Silver Swan
  Act 2
  Bole
  Act 2
  Agate
  Act 2
  Ziggurat of Apet
  Act 2
  Seobriga
  Act 2
  Pezarillo
  Act 2
  Ziggurat of Mavisha
  Act 2
  RHC Headquarters
  Act 3
  RHC Headquarters: The headquarters of the PCs’ employer, the 
  Royal Homeland Constabulary. The PCs visit this often to receive 
  mission briefings, report their findings, hold prisoners, and turn 
  over evidence. The party will be called to report for an audit during 
  Act Two, and monsters from beyond will invade the headquarters 
  during Act Three.
  Sijhen. A semi-humanoid be-
  ing of the Gidim race, Sijhen was 
  poised thousands of years ago to 
  invade this world from a vanguard 
  in Apet. Though only a novice at 
  controlling the minds of beasts and 
  mortals, Sijhen was one of his race’s 
  experts in planar travel. It was 
  studying the Apet side of a golden 
  seal when the greater Axis Seal took 
  effect, and so was trapped in a time-
  less space between worlds.
  The Gidim can possess corporeal creatures, but in their natural forms 
  they can waver between wholly physical and existing only as barely-visible 
  thoughtforms. Normally they assume the appearance of gray-skinned bi-
  peds with tentacled heads. They subsist on thoughts, not physical food, and 
  their own sentience is dependent on consuming enough complex ideas as 
  sustenance. Their homeworld is itself a thinking being, but the Gidim could 
  only expand by keeping mortal races as slaves.
  Barely conscious in stasis, Sijhen dreamed of finding its way home. Then, 
  when the Seal of Apet opened, Sijhen and a small horde of Gidim warbeasts 
  were expelled into this world. Panicking, Sijhen hid in the mind of the first 
  being it sensed, Xambria.
  Sijhen’s and Xambria’s minds effectively occupy the same body. While 
  Xambria retains control of her body most of the time, Sijhen is capable of 
  taking control for short periods of time, and he is also able to “edit” what 
  Xambria remembers or says. Sijhen is careful not to make his host seem 
  crazy, and luckily the two minds have a shared purpose of discovering what 
  happened at the dig site.
  Other Constables.
  The Player’s Guide presents a group of six constables you can use as 
  coworkers of the PCs, to establish friendships or rivalries. With the 
  PCs off the Macbannin case, three of these constables were given 
  the task.
  •	 Carlao, human knight.
  •	 Dima, dwarf priest.
  •	 Serena, human spy.
  Carlao is the obedient leader of the group, always willing to do what 
  Lady Inspectress Saxby asks. Serena is the brains and face, while 
  Dima has a bizarre joy for filing paperwork.
  These three constables will be in the RHC headquarters at the 
  end of Act Three, and depending on the PCs’ relationships with 
  them and how persuasive they can be, the group might act as allies 
  or enemies.
  
  8 | EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One
  Introduction
  Kaybeau Fairgrounds: The Kaybeau Arms and Technology Ex-
  position takes place in a large public park in the Central District, 
  two miles from the RHC headquarters. The fair lasts until the end 
  of the month, so after the PCs’ initial investigations, they might 
  revisit it later purchase equipment or talk to NPCs.
  Lanternwood Subrail Station: Located a stone’s throw from the 
  fairgrounds, this construction site will one day be part of Flint’s 
  subrail network. Now it’s mostly just a pit in the ground surround-
  ed by a high fence, filled with stacks of iron and brick pallets.
  Pardwight University: The university “campus” weaves through 
  many streets and occasionally shares buildings with other offices 
  in Central District. Despite being less impressive than Mitchell 
  University in Slate, Pardwight has prospered from generous donors 
  enriched by Flint’s booming economy.
  The Pardwight Museum of Natural History is a recently complet-
  ed new building in the North Shore district. Dr. Xambria Meredith 
  has been staying in one of the nearby apartment buildings, only a 
  few blocks from the beach.
  Silver Swan: The Silver Swan, the most elegant inn in Flint, 
  fronts the beach in the North Shore district. Wealthy visitors come 
  here for unmatched comfort and anonymity, including philanthro-
  pist and Obscurati operative Caius Bergeron.
  Bole: The nearest large city to the High Bayou. The PCs likely pass 
  through on the way to Agate. Mostly famous for lumber, Bole is an 
  old, relaxed city compared to Flint, with a more active fey presence.
  Agate: A small town located on the eastern edge of the High Bay-
  ou, at the end of the rail line that leads to the Anthras Mountains. 
  It mostly services miners, but it is the closest piece of civilization to 
  the Ziggurat of Apet.
  Ziggurat of Apet: A ziggurat constructed by the Ancients to seal 
  and guard a portal to the distant plane, Apet. Xambria explored 
  these ruins, and a group of Obscurati opened the seal of Apet, un-
  leashing Sijhen and a host of other aberrations.
  Seobriga. The capital of Ber, which the PCs might teleport to on 
  the way to the sunken Ziggurat of Mavisha. Seobriga plays a larger 
  role in Adventure Six, Revelations from the Mouth of a Madman, 
  but basic details of Beran society can be found in the Player’s Guide.
  Pezarillo: A small fishing village on the coast of Ber, near the 
  sunken Ziggurat of Mavisha. The PCs may have to stop here to 
  repair their ship.
  Ziggurat of Mavisha: This ziggurat was destroyed centuries 
  ago in a massive earthquake that cast it into the sea. A team of 
  specialists sent by Caius Bergeron attempts to examine the seal to 
  Mavisha, the plane of water, but only if something goes awry will 
  anything dangerous come through.
  Rewards.
  At the start of this adventure, the PCs should be 5th level, and 
  should reach 6th level after its climax.
  At the end of this adventure, the party’s Prestige with Risur 
  should increase by 1 rank if they save the RHC headquarters, 
  though that might be mitigated if the party is found guilty in the 
  audit. Unless the party makes fools of themselves, their Prestige 
  with the Obscurati will increase by 1 rank.
  Their Prestige with Flint, the Clergy, or the Unseen Court will 
  not necessarily increase, since the core events of the adventure are 
  not important enough to those groups. Certain side-plots might 
  yield a Prestige increase of 1 rank, however.
  At the start of the adventure, the PCs each receive 2,500 gp. Af-
  ter the first act they receive another 2,500 gp, and then 3,000 gp 
  after the second act. This represents a mixture of salary and stipend 
  for their investigation. However, The Audit (see Appendix A) may 
  adjust what the party gets so that they end up with the appropriate 
  resources for their level.
  If the PCs are free agents instead of members of the RHC, you’ll 
  need to make sure they receive the appropriate treasure parcels. 
  One possible mix would be:
  Start of Adventure. Four magic items possessed by NPCs, and 
  500 gp apiece payment for providing security at the arms expo.
  After Act 2. Three magic items possessed by NPCs, and 1,000 gp 
  apiece in golden jewelry and artifacts from the ziggurats.
  End of Adventure. Three magic items possessed by NPCs, and 
  1,300 gp apiece as reward for saving the RHC headquarters.
  Character Themes.
  Each Zeitgeist adventure includes one or more scenes that bring 
  the PCs’ character themes (detailed in the Player’s Guide) to the 
  forefront. Digging for Lies includes the following opportunities:
  •	 Dockers have a chance to influence their sub-culture’s fate. 
  Rising star Rock Rackus can turn the dockers into either a 
  powerful popular movement or a short-term flashy trend, 
  all based on how a PC steers the buffoonish performer when 
  they visit him in jail in Act Two.
  •	 Eschatologists meet a kindred spirit in the assassin Kvarti 
  Gorbatiy, who has a weapon crafted from an old Drakran relic 
  with clues to the end of the world. Kvarti himself has links to 
  a group of radical eschatologists who’ll threaten the city in 
  Adventure Five.
  •	 Gunsmiths have plenty of toys to play with at the arms expo, 
  and can also talk shop with Kvarti Gorbatiy there.
  •	 Martial Scientists will be called upon by their old teachers 
  or colleagues to acquire a specimen of the warbeasts of Apet 
  for study, and will be pointed toward an obscure martial thesis 
  that will come in handy.
  •	 Skyseers receive visions of the future at the two ziggurats in 
  Act Two.
  •	 Spirit Mediums most easily can deal with thoughtform 
  creatures, have the best chance of saving Xambria in Act 
  Three, and can always recover clues from the many dead 
  bodies the PCs will come across.
  •	 Technologists, like gunsmiths, have a lot of hooks at the arms 
  expo, and in the final act they might make use of confiscated 
  inventions in the defense of the RHC Headquarters.
  •	 Vekeshi Mystics have the flip side of the docker dilemma, 
  where a rogue element in the cult might cause public outrage 
  by ordering the death of Rock Rackus.
  •	 Yerasol Veterans will be singled out for possible promotion 
  by Lord Viscount Inspector Nigel Price-Hill, and will be at an 
  advantage in naval combat at the sunken seal.
  
  EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One | 9
  I
  n this act, the party stakes out a fair, cap-
  tures a fence, and learns that their enemies have 
  an interest in archaeology.
  The Fair Comes to Town
  If you want to give your players a brief overview of the situation, 
  read or paraphrase the following.
  After the climactic defeat of Macbannin and his mysterious suicide in 
  custody, smart investigators might rightfully conclude that the case 
  isn’t closed. That was certainly the opinion of your supervisor, Assistant 
  Chief Inspector Stover Delft, who wanted you turning over every stone 
  to get to the bottom of the mystery.
  Unfortunately, his boss, Lady Inspectress Margaret Saxby, is head 
  of the Royal Homeland Constabulary in Flint, and she has ordered you 
  off the case. She claimed she had missions “more suited to your talents,” 
  but all she’s done is assign you banal investigations and busy work.
  Delft grumbled and fought for you, but everyone knows what moti-
  vates the Lady Inspectress. She has her eye on politics, and she’s ended 
  the careers of more than a few constables who got too much positive 
  press too fast. Lady Saxby’s in charge here, and you’re just supposed 
  to take orders. When reporters show up, you’re to politely suggest they 
  talk with the Lady Inspectress.
  Act One: 
  From Fair to Foul
  Meanwhile, in the News.
  The adventure already has a lot going on, but if you want to give a little 
  extra life to the city and the world beyond, you can occasionally drop 
  mentions of the following current events. People murmur about these 
  in cafes, gossip on the streets, or read about them in papers. Only a few 
  have even a tangential connection to this adventure’s plot. You might 
  spin some of these into side quests, but be careful that your players 
  don’t latch onto the wrong ones and run off chasing red herrings.
  •	 War and Peace. The Kaybeau Armament and Technology 
  Exposition dominates the main festival grounds of Flint this 
  month, but the city is already preparing for the peace summit 
  between Risur and Danor. Scheduled for early next Spring, the 
  summit will see the rulers of the two nations meet and discuss 
  a long-lasting peace. The famed minotaur arbiter from Ber, 
  Brakken of Heffanita, will moderate the negotiations. Security is 
  expected to be high.
  •	 Weird Illness. Goodson’s Estuarial Reformatory has become 
  home to a growing population of demented people, now number-
  ing nearly thirty. All of them suffer from a condition doctors are 
  calling Distant Madness. Suspected to be a magical affliction, 
  perhaps fallout from the events on Cauldron Hill in the summer, 
  the condition causes victims to feel physically displaced and 
  unable to tell how far away things are. The mad men and women 
  hail mostly from Parity Lake. A few cases were reported in North 
  Shore, but the wealthier victims have the resources to afford 
  magical alleviation.
  •	 What Horror! Police are investigating a new bizarre serial killer 
  in Central District, who first struck in the middle of summer. The 
  authorities are unsure of a connection between the five victims, 
  save that all of them had their brains removed through the 
  palates of their mouths.
  •	 Wicket Gates Coming. Enthusiasm in the city is mixed concern-
  ing the burgeoning subrail tunnel system. While the well-to-do 
  are willing to put up with the hassles of large construction 
  projects, poorer Flinters worry that they won’t be able to afford 
  this new travel system. Proposed fees at the toll booths—called 
  wicket gates—will just be 3 copper per juncture.
  •	 Worsening Corruption? In the wake of Reed Macbannin’s 
  downfall, more people are claiming politicians, nobles, and even 
  police officers are part of a culture of corruption. Flint City 
  Governor Roland Stanfield commented to say, “Corruption is a 
  constant in any large city. What has changed is the growing voice 
  of the people who support our great modern nation. We must 
  listen to those voices, because opportunities to truly improve 
  society are rare.”
  •	 Wunderbahn. A bill in Parliament is being considered to levy a 
  salary tax on the entire nation to fund construction of a wider 
  railroad network. The city governor of Shale, Catherine Romana, 
  has proposed a counter bill that would fund what she calls the 
  Dream Road, “a roadway more in keeping with Risur’s wonderful 
  traditions.” Rather than paved roads or rails, Romana’s road 
  would require the creation of hundreds of magical portals con-
  necting every village, town, and city. The governor citess existing 
  portal outside Flint, Bole, Shale, and Slate. However, the magical 
  reagents required to activate the portal cost over 100 gold 
  shields to transport just a handful of people. Romana’s opponents 
  in Parliament call the idea preposterous.
  
  10 | EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  Don’t worry. Delft assures you that it will all blow over in a month 
  or two.
  No use arguing, anyway. Another squad is on the Macbannin case. 
  Your job, for the next month, is to be a gang of glorified security guards.
  The Kaybeau Armament and Technology Exposition has come to 
  Flint. The outdoor festival showcases amateur inventors and giants of 
  the new industrial revolution as they display their creations with great 
  pomp and spectacle. Everywhere you turn there’s another pavilion 
  boasting of the latest miracle of technology, from precision ballistics, 
  to steam-powered armor, to clockwork pianos that play themselves. 
  Vendors and fair-goers of all nations and races cram the aisles to see 
  wonders once limited to the workshops of wizards and the vaults of 
  kings.
  It is hot, crowded, and littered with experimental weapons. What 
  could possibly go wrong?
  The police are charged with mundane concerns, like pickpockets and 
  rowdy drunks, but it’s up to you constables to look for greater threats, 
  such as arms smuggling, espionage, and foreign spies, all of whom may 
  use the fair as cover for their activities.
  You’re to coordinate your efforts with Sergeant Sara Lockheart, lead 
  officer on site from the Flint Police. Each day, from the crack of dawn 
  until the afternoon rains disperse the crowds, your job is to make sure 
  everything is orderly. The Chief Inspectress never explicitly gave the 
  order, but Delft recommends you try your damnedest to keep out of 
  the papers.
  Marching Orders
  Social. Real-Time.
  The PCs get acquainted with the expo.
  Sergeant Sara Lockheart meets with the party the morning the 
  expo opens and gets them acquainted with its general layout and 
  make-up, detailed below. She’s generally professional, and properly 
  (though not overly) deferential to characters of higher rank. Tidy 
  and proper, she acts somewhat cold if the PCs have a Risur prestige 
  of only 1 and dismissive if their prestige has fallen to 0.
  The sergeant has no concrete leads to offer, but she does suggest 
  that the PCs spend the whole first day at the fair looking for trouble. 
  The subrail station and the center of the expo are more heavily 
  watched, so while her squad can handle the rabble and any sort of 
  petty theft or vandalism there, she suspects anything more major 
  would go on in the peripheral tents and booths.
  Kaybeau Arms and Technology 
  Exposition.
  Two miles southwest of the RHC Headquarters, in the largest pub-
  lic park in Flint, the expo resembles a small tent city. Dozens of 
  small booths, a score of modest tents, and a trio of huge pavilions 
  house the various vendors.
  As the party works here, whoever has the best Perception spots 
  a woman tailing them. This is Lauryn Cyneburg, RHC Director of 
  Infiltrations, and if the party tries to confront her she vanishes into 
  the crowd and teleports away.
  Pavilions.
  In the center of the park, these semi-permanent structures are near 
  the recently completed, lavishly appointed Kaybeau Subrail Station.
  Military Tent.
  Here the Risuri military demonstrates its technological grandeur. 
  Officers guide guests through small models of famous battles, each 
  with progressing levels of technology. A small museum showcases 
  weapons and armor, trying to win propaganda points by presenting 
  firearms as if they’re a natural development, while offering only 
  brief mentions of magic in combat.
  One massive installation displays the cross-section of a scaled-
  down R.N.S. Coaltongue. For a gold piece, a visitor can fire a 
  cannon into the outer hull. A small field is littered with flattened 
  cannonballs.
  Rail Tent.
  The conglomerate of businesses who coordinate with the Royal Rail 
  Ministry give visitors here only one path through their exhibit. 
  First, models show the mechanics behind steam engines. Then a 
  somewhat ominous hallway has a relief map of the Avery Coast, 
  with a model train constantly running the length (powered by 
  magic). Flags mechanically rise and fall as the train passes through 
  foreign nations, and a guide helpfully points out that the rail line, 
  funded mostly by Danorans, is almost ten times as long as Risur’s 
  own railroad.
  But the exhibit climaxes with a huge room thrumming with the 
  sounds of trains. Here a scale model of Risur shows five majestic 
  rail lines crisscrossing the country, while guides tout how much the 
  nation will prosper from the faster travel.
  Industry Tent.
  Completely ignoring the civil unrest over the past half year, this 
  pavilion highlights how much industry and the factories of Parity 
  Lake have improved life in Flint, and presents a vision of the city 
  of the future. A steamboat adorned with gorgeous women cruises 
  around an indoor lake (subtle fans in the ceiling clear out the soot 
  and steam). A model of the city is enchanted with an illusion show-
  ing ‘heroic’ smokestacks sticking up from the Cloudwood, and steel 
  towers rising everywhere.
  Major Tents.
  In a ring around the main pavilions, twenty large tents anchor the 
  swaths of smaller booths of individual vendors. These tents belong 
  mostly to local factories, with a few national and international 
  arms manufacturers. The PCs aren’t here to shop, but they can find 
  any sort of non-magical weapon, armor, or technological invention 
  here, as well as a few magical ones.
  Apex Tower Construction.
  A local construction firm has no tent, just an open patch of ground, 
  and throughout the expo they build a tower. Starting on the first 
  day they lay a foundation of stones and steel. Using techniques fairly 
  advanced for Risuri society — including primitive welding — they 
  will build the tower 50 ft. high by the end of the month.
  
  EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One | 11
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  Colleen Fuel Prospectus.
  Funded in part by Risur’s military, this company has been ex-
  perimenting on using different fuels for mechanical engines. The 
  party might discover, amid barrels of traditional oil, one barrel 
  of witchoil, the soul-infused oil that Macbannin was refining in 
  Adventure Two. The research group’s owner, Colleen, bought the 
  barrel from Lorcan Kell’s people.
  Gonzel’s Cannery.
  A half-orc culinary entrepreneur is showing off his canned foods. 
  People can buy a can full of food, which his cooks will prepare. 
  Then, in a rough mockery of the Apex tower, he begins stacking 
  empty cans on a table. By the end of the month, he has to stop be-
  cause his tent isn’t high enough.
  Liontamer Mechanical Orchestra.
  The tall, wise-cracking owner of this tent builds crank-powered 
  musical instruments that play themselves, from simple music 
  boxes to his showpiece “orchestra,” which has a piano, four violins 
  (each playing just one string), a small drum set, bellows that pump 
  through bassoons and oboes.
  Pemberton Industries.
  The wealthy Benedict Pemberton hosts exclusive parties here for 
  aristocrats and high-ranking members of government and military. 
  Wary guards keep away the uninvited, but if the party passes by 
  Pemberton himself spots them and recalls that they saved his life 
  on the Coaltongue (see Adventure One). He invites them (especially 
  any martial scientists, technologists, or Yerasol veterans) to a party 
  in his tent that evening.
  At the event, dozens of potential investors watch as Pemberton 
  shows off his company’s latest inventions, including a man-sized 
  steel construct that can be crudely controlled by a person wearing 
  an enchanted headband. Also present is B.E.A.R., a Battle-En-
  hanced Animalistic Replicant. He claims both would be well-suited 
  to Risur’s war effort, and suggests the RHC should try to buy some 
  before he runs out.
  Sechim’s Alkahest and Alchemicals.
  If the party saved Heward Sechim’s factory in the previous ad-
  venture, the alchemist is riding a wave of popularity and selling 
  intricately-etched glass and weapons to fair-goers. He also lets 
  people play a game of “Taste the Acid” (the acid is just really strong 
  liquor). Sechim offers the party all the free drinks they want.
  The Trinket Stand.
  This tent is a cooperative venture by several trinket sellers. They of-
  fer various knickknacks that seem out of place at a technology fair, 
  but do brisk business because people are already here with money 
  to spend.
  Anybody who goes to the “jewelry booth” in the back of the tent 
  and says they are looking for “an anniversary gift for my wife Ethel” 
  is sold a small but ornate jewelry box. The box contains a slip of 
  paper that gives a time and place where the characters can meet 
  Kaja Stewart to discuss buying fenced goods (see page 18).
  Stage Area—Gun Alley.
  On the northern edge of the park, a stage hosts daily performances 
  of local orchestras, international celebrities, and the occasional 
  military reenactment. The Incident (the next encounter in this 
  adventure) occurs here, so we’ve included a thick knot of strange 
  booths and NPCs that might draw the party’s interest so they’re 
  present when the event occurs.
  Area 1. Gun Alley Stage.
  Backed by a wooded hill, the stage is shaded by a large canopy. A 
  broad field in front of it is often full of audiences.
  Area 2. Rock Rackus’s Tent.
  Famed explorer and musician Rock Rackus is scheduled to perform 
  on the stage in the afternoon, followed by a lecture about his jour-
  ney to the moon, then a book signing. When the PCs arrive he’s 
  alternately yelling or laughing at his stage crew as they set up mas-
  sive moon-themed props. At the moment he is too busy to meet with 
  the PCs unless they have obtained Prestige rating 3 in Flint, in 
  which case he’ll jump at the chance to talk to them. See Jailhouse 
  Rock (in Act Two) for details.
  Area 3. Shooting Range.
  Using a reinforced hill as a safety backdrop, Timothy Lammers, an 
  enterprising war veteran missing half his lower jaw, lets people test 
  fire weapons sold by nearby vendors. In exchange, the vendors give 
  him a tiny share of the profits.
  Area 4. Al’s Ammo.
  A Drakran dwarf named Alfonse Irongut sells a variety of magi-
  cal ammunition at this huge tent-booth. These include +1 arrows, 
  +1 bolts, +1 bullets, and any other ammunition you wish to include. 
  Alfonse is impressed by those who know the trade, and Gunsmiths 
  receive a 10 percent discount, as does anyone who can bullseye a tar-
  get on the short shooting range (ranged weapon attack vs. AC 20).
  Area 5. Badger Gun.
  A pair of gnome twins named Fildi and Dilfi decided to combine 
  their two favorite things: badgers and guns. They do not understand 
  why not everybody is as excited as they are. They will even offer a 
  special 20 percent discount if the PCs have a Prestige rating of 3 
  with the Unseen Court.
  Area 6. Nock’s Gun.
  Nock, a half-giant from Ber, decided that if a gun that shoots one 
  bullet is good, one that shoots seven bullets is better! Unfortunately, 
  current gun barrels aren’t strong enough to survive the shot with-
  out magical strengthening, so the weapon is prohibitively expensive. 
  And the gun has some “recoil issues” for people shorter than about 
  7½ feet tall. But that doesn’t stop him from selling the weapon.
  Area 7. Steam-Powered Armor.
  A group of human and tiefling engineers from Danor, led by a 
  straw-chewing halfling named Alloquicious, have constructed a 
  prototype of a new kind of armor, one that uses steam power to 
  
  12 | EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  
  EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One | 13
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  enhance the wearer’s strength, speed, and resilience. Predictably, 
  it’s experiencing technical difficulties, but Alloquicious is itching 
  to test out the arm-mounted flamethrower.
  A character with the Technologist theme can easily diagnose the 
  problem, while other PCs must succeed on both a DC 19 Intelli-
  gence (Arcana) and a DC 19 Dexterity check using thieves’ tools or 
  tinker’s tools. If the PC shares the solution, the Danorans get the 
  device almost ready by the time The Incident occurs.
  Miscellaneous Tents and Booths.
  Several other vendors sell more mundane arms, or offer gun-themed 
  accessories like holsters, bandoliers, paintings, and ten-penny nov-
  els about gunslingers.
  Dwarven Philosopher.
  A dwarven mercenary named Kvarti Gorbatiy roams the tents and 
  booths in this region. He is legitimately intrigued by the variety 
  of weapons on display, but his main purpose is observing Rock 
  Rackus, whom he has been hired to assassinate. See Appendix Two, 
  Radical Vekeshi Plot.
  Kvarti might strike up a conversation with the PCs, whom he 
  recognizes from the papers, especially anyone with an interest in 
  guns. If any PC is an eschatologist, he’ll gladly discuss philosophy, 
  asking with black humor if Reed Macbannin seemed content with 
  his life at the end.
  The Incident
  Action. Tactical.
  Monsters appear from nowhere to attack the fair-goers.
  •	 Simon Langfield
  •	 3 flying things
  •	 1 worm maw
  This event occurs while the party is in the stage area, preferably 
  during the first day. If your group has already discovered Kaja’s 
  fencing operation, they might be looking for Simon Langfield, as 
  he is a former client of Kaja’s.
  When you begin the battle, read or paraphrase the following.
  Screams erupt from a crowd of fair-goers not far from the stage as 
  they run in panic. As they pass, horrid monsters that could only exist in 
  nightmares pursue them. One massive creature is nothing more than a 
  ring of flesh and bone, with teeth pointed inward, and lashing tentacles 
  extending outward. The creature looks like it could swallow a man whole, 
  though it has no throat, just a gaping maw. Its tentacles have already 
  grasped one bystander—a young dwarf—and he dangles in the air. 
  Two smaller monsters buzz about the sky, like fleshy dragonflies the 
  size of a man, with sleek bodies and elephant-like trunks that end in 
  sharp beaks. The skin of all three monsters shifts from brown-dappled 
  ivory to glassy translucence, as if they can’t decide whether they’re solid.
  A human male with long blond hair stands amid the chaos, holding a 
  solid gold staff in his right hand. He fires a magic missile from the staff, 
  and a moment later a third dragonfly-beast materializes beside him.
  The human is Simon Langfield, a wealthy novice mage who pur-
  chased the staff of the Ancients from Kaja Stewart. He was trying 
  to get the discount at Al’s Ammo by hitting a bullseye with a magic 
  missile spell, but he accidentally summoned monsters from the 
  planet Apet instead. He has no control over them and is just as 
  shocked to see them as the PCs are. Monsters from beyond the mor-
  tal world are rare enough, but even educated PCs have never heard 
  of anything like these before.
  Badger Gun.
  Weapon (musket), uncommon
  Despite a deceptively “regular” appearance, this musket has unique 
  ties with the realm of the Dreaming. Three times per day, the wielder of 
  the weapon may summon a badger conjured from the Dreaming after 
  hitting a target with a ranged weapon attack using this weapon (no ac-
  tion required). The badger appears within 5 feet of the target.
  Nock’s Gun.
  This seven-barreled gun weighs a good thirty pounds. The blast from the 
  seven barrels tears its targets to shreds. You can choose to fire each bar-
  rel separately or to fire all seven barrels at once. Each barrel deals 1d4 
  damage (Small gun) or 1d6 damage (Medium gun). If you fire all barrels 
  at once, you have disadvantage on the attack roll, but the shot requires 
  only one attack action instead of seven. Additionally, if you fire all bar-
  rels at once, you must succeed on a Constitution save with a DC equal 
  to the damage dealt by the attack or fall prone.
  Martial Ranged Weapon
  Name
  Cost
  Damage
  Weight
  Properties
  Nock’s Gun
  10,000 gp
  7d6 bludgeoning
  30 lb
  Ammunition (range 10/20), heavy, loading, two-handed 
  
  14 | EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  Tactics.
  Simon Langfield starts at Al’s Ammo, and the worm maw remains 
  there, while the flying things flit about, keeping their distance 
  from those attacking them. The panic causes the crowds to clear 
  out, but a few bystanders huddle behind cover to watch.
  The worm maw has already grabbed one bystander, Alforb 
  Irongut, drunken son of shop-owner Alfonse. On its first round 
  the worm maw swallows him and drops him through its hole. He 
  falls to the ground unconscious, and the maw becomes corporeal. 
  Alforb dies at the start of the worm maw’s next turn unless healed. 
  When he dies or is healed, the worm maw becomes insubstantial 
  and phasing again.
  The party might note with a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Percep-
  tion) check that Rock Rackus cowers at the edge of the scene, but 
  he is quickly loading his gun like he wants to help. The dwarven 
  “philosopher,” Kvarti Gorbatiy, makes a tactical withdrawal to the 
  top of the stage. Starting on round 2, the two men make their own 
  contributions to the battle.
  Simon Langfield, for his part, uses his staff of the Ancients to cast 
  magic missile once per round at whichever monster is closest.
  The monsters have only animal intelligence, and they’re in wholly 
  unfamiliar territory, filled with thoughts for them to eat. The worm 
  maw has a taste for determination, so it is attracted to the PCs 
  (likely the only people who aren’t looking for a way to escape). It 
  tries to “devour” its preferred victim, and will just randomly attack 
  away anyone else who gets too close.
  The flying things hunger for confusion and desperation, so they 
  go after panicked bystanders, at least until they’re attacked, at 
  which point they retaliate. When reduced to half their maximum 
  hit points, the flying things retreat and cause chaos throughout the 
  fair; eventually, the creatures find nests in the city.
  Like all creatures from Apet, these monsters exist naturally as 
  thoughts, and only become solid if they’re eating another creature’s 
  mind. Their fluctuating nature makes them tough to hurt until the 
  party figures out their weakness.
  Langfield keeps using his staff, which keeps summoning more 
  monsters unless the party gets him to stop it. Once 3 more flying 
  things appear, have one of them attack him and knock him out so 
  he can’t make any more.
  Simon Langfield
  Medium humanoid (human), neutral good
  Armor Class 13
  Hit Points 22 (4d8 + 4)
  Speed 30 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   12 (+1) 
  16 (+3) 
  13 (+1) 
  15 (+2) 
  8 (–1) 
  10 (+0)
  Saving Throws con +3, int +4
  Skills Arcana +4, Perception +1
  Senses passive Perception 11
  Languages Common, Elven, Sylvan
  Challenge 1 (200 XP)
  Spellcasting. Simon Langfield is a 3rd-level spellcaster. His spellcasting 
  ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 12, +4 to hit with spell attacks). 
  He has the following wizard spells prepared:
  Cantrips (at will): light, mage hand, prestidigitation
  1st level (4 slots): shield, sleep, comprehend languages
  2nd level (2 slots): scorching ray
  Staff of the Ancients. Simon Langfield is attuned to a staff of the 
  Ancients (see sidebar) with 8 charges remaining.
  Actions
  Staff of the Ancients. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., 
  one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage. Simon can spend 
  1 charge from the staff to deal an additional 1d6 acid, cold, fire, or 
  lightning damage (his choice).
  Summoning.
  Planar travel is extremely difficult in the world of Zeitgeist. A suffi-
  ciently skilled spellcaster with the right spell and material can reach 
  any of the worlds in the orbital system, and creatures can remain 
  indefinitely. The exception is Apet, which cannot be traveled to or 
  from without use of Ancient magic. Only a handful of people have 
  done so since the Axis Seal, and their spells are lost to history.
  It is much easier to summon a creature for a few minutes. Rather 
  than bodily transporting the being, this creates a temporary aspect 
  of it in this world. Even entities from worlds beyond the Axis Seal 
  can be called this way. Again, however, Apet was especially sealed.
  Simon Langfield’s staff of the Ancients was used in the ritual to 
  close off Apet, so it has the unique power to bypass the lesser seal. 
  Its extreme age has damaged it slightly, though, and if precautions 
  are not taken, whenever the staff is used, a tiny rift to Apet opens, 
  long enough for a creature to slip through. These monsters have 
  permanently crossed into the material world and are stuck here.
  Note that these creatures aren’t native to Apet. The Gidim 
  brought warbeasts there millennia ago, and they lingered near the 
  sealed portal, subsisting on bare diets of thoughts that filtered 
  through. All the sentient Gidim mentally starved, and either degen-
  erated into savages, or were devoured by their own beasts.
  
  EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One | 15
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  Flying Thing
  Medium aberration (thoughtform), unaligned
  Armor Class 14
  Hit Points 26 (4d8 + 8)
  Speed 5 ft., fly 30 ft. (hover)
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   13 (+1) 
  18 (+4) 
  14 (+2) 
  2 (–4) 
  13 (+1) 
  12 (+1)
  Skills Stealth +6
  Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, 
  radiant, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from 
  magical attacks
  Damage Immunities bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from 
  nonmagical attacks
  Condition Immunities grappled, petrified, prone, restrained
  Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
  Languages —
  Challenge 1 (200 XP)
  Insubstantial Movement. The flying thing can move through other 
  creatures and objects without penalty. It takes 5 (1d10) psychic 
  damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
  Actions
  Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. 
  Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) piercing damage.
  Ray of Dark Light. Ranged Spell Attack: +3 to hit, range 30/60 ft., one 
  target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) necrotic damage and the target can make a DC 
  13 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, the target suffers 1 additional 
  point of negative energy damage at the start of each of its turns. At 
  the end of each of its turns, it can attempt another Wisdom save, 
  ending the effect on itself on a success. While a target is taking 
  ongoing damage from the ray, the flying thing loses its thoughtform 
  subtype (see “Thoughtform,” below).
  Worm Maw
  Large aberration (thoughtform), unaligned
  Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
  Hit Points 68 (8d10 + 24)
  Speed 5 ft., fly 20 ft. (hover)
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   18 (+4) 
  10 (+0) 
  16 (+3) 
  2 (–4) 
  13 (+1) 
  6 (–2)
  Skills Perception +5, Stealth +2
  Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, 
  radiant, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from 
  magical attacks
  Damage Immunities bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from 
  nonmagical attacks
  Condition Immunities grappled, petrified, prone, restrained
  Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15
  Languages Common, Languages
  Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)
  Insubstantial Movement. The worm maw can move through other 
  creatures and objects without penalty. It takes 5 (1d10) psychic 
  damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
  Actions
  Multiattack. The worm maw makes 4 tentacle attacks.
  Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. 
  Hit: 9 (1d10 + 4) bludgeoning damage. If the target is Medium or 
  smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 14) and restrained until the grapple 
  ends. The worm maw has four tentacles, each of which can grapple 
  one target.
  Swallow Mind. The worm maw chooses one creature it has grappled. 
  The creature instantly falls prone, ending the grapple, and takes 14 
  (4d6) psychic damage and must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw. 
  On a failure, the creature is stunned until the end of its next turn. 
  While the creature is stunned in this way, the worm maw loses its 
  thoughtform subtype (see “Thoughtform,” below).
  Staff of the Ancients.
  Staff, rare (requires attunement by a spellcaster)
  This wooden staff is covered in a spiral of symbols that denote the 
  primal elements of air, earth, fire, and water. When you attack, the 
  wood turns briefly to gold.
  This staff can be wielded as a magic quarterstaff that grants a +1 
  bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it. 
  Additionally, the staff has 10 charges to be used for the follow-
  ing properties. The staff regains 2d8 + 4 expended charges daily 
  at dawn. If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the staff 
  retains its +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls, but loses all other 
  properties. On a 20, the staff regains 1d8 + 2 charges.
  Elemental Strike: When you hit with a melee attack using the 
  staff, you can expend 1 charge to deal an extra 1d6 acid, cold, fire, or 
  lightning damage (your choice) to the target.
  Spells: While holding this staff, you can expend 1 or more of its 
  charges to cast one of the following spells from it, using your spell 
  save DC and attack bonus:
  •	 magic missile (1 charge)
  •	 burning hands (choose acid, cold, fire, or lightning damage; 1 
  charge)
  •	 forbiddance (5 charges)
  Kvarti Gorbatiy. A dwarven 
  locksmith turned mercenary, Kvarti wasn’t 
  interested in Heid Eschatol’s philosophy 
  until he found a book on the subject in the 
  hands of a man he had assassinated. Now, 
  though he presents a weary face to maintain 
  his reputation, he goes through life content. 
  He has all his affairs in order, and while he 
  hopes to find a cause worth dying for, he 
  would not be angry if his life was cut short.
  When Kvarti is hired to kill someone, he knows he won’t be close for the 
  final shot, so he likes to find his victim and perhaps even make some small 
  talk so he can better understand the context of the person’s death.
  Kvarti is more of a gunsmith than a philosopher, though. He has several 
  custom-built firearms, including an enchanted, rifled musket. The stock 
  is carved from the thigh bone of a giant, pulled from a glacier in Drakr’s 
  far north. Words are engraved into the bone in the long-forgotten abyssal 
  language, but Kvarti claims the femur was already carved when he found it. 
  The words read, “Cry out / for at the end of time / I rise.”
  
  16 | EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  Use the following two stat blocks for bystanders who might contrib-
  ute to the fight.
  Kvarti Gorbatiy
  Medium humanoid (dwarf), lawful neutral
  Armor Class 14 (leather)
  Hit Points 60 (8d8 + 24)
  Speed 30 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   10 (+0) 
  16 (+3) 
  16 (+3) 
  8 (–1) 
  15 (+2) 
  10 (+0)
  Skills Acrobatics +5, Perception +4
  Saving Throws dex +5, con +5
  Damage Resistances poison
  Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
  Languages Common, Dwarven
  Challenge 2 (450 XP)
  Deadeye. Kvarti Gorbatiy scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 when 
  making a ranged weapon attack.
  Dwarven Resilience. Kvarti Gorbatiy has advantage on saving throws 
  against poison.
  Actions
  Multiattack. Kvarti Gorbatiy makes two rifled carbine attacks.
  Rifled Carbine. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 80/320 ft., one 
  target. Hit: 9 (1d12 + 3) piercing damage.
  Rock Rackus
  Medium humanoid (human), chaotic good
  Armor Class 14 (studded leather)
  Hit Points 52 (8d8 + 16)
  Speed 30 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   13 (+1) 
  14 (+2) 
  14 (+2) 
  8 (–1) 
  10 (+0) 
  18 (+4)
  Saving Throws dex +4, cha +6
  Skills Deception +8, Perception +2, Performance +8
  Senses passive Perception 12
  Languages Common
  Challenge 2 (450 XP)
  Spellcasting. Rock Rackus is a 4th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting 
  ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). He 
  has the following bard spells prepared:
  Cantrips (at will): friends, light, prestidigitation
  1st level (4 slots): charm person, cure wounds, hideous laughter, 
  heroism, thunderwave
  2nd level (3 slots): invisibility, silence
  Actions
  Multiattack. Rock Rackus makes two attacks.
  +1 Rapier. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 
  (1d8 + 3) piercing damage.
  Diamond Encrusted Piece. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 
  20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d10 + 3) piercing damage.
  Thoughtform.
  Creatures with this subtype are similar to incorporeal creatures. 
  Thoughtform creatures are immune to all nonmagical attacks, and 
  are resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from 
  magical attacks and damage from spells and other magical effects. 
  Also, they ignore difficult terrain and can move through obstacles 
  and other creatures, but they must end their movement in an un-
  occupied space. Thoughtform creatures take normal damage from 
  psychic attacks.
  Under certain conditions, some thoughtform creatures can lose 
  the benefits of thoughtform (see “Mind Over Matter” below).
  If a thoughtform creature would be stunned or paralyzed, it in-
  stead becomes corporeal until the end of the attacker’s next turn, 
  losing its Insubstantial Movement trait.
  A Spirit Medium automatically understands how thoughtform 
  works.
  Mind Over Matter.
  The Ancients learned to fight the warbeasts of the Gidim by wielding 
  thought as a weapon. The PCs are unlikely to try thinking at their 
  enemies in their first encounter, but they have a chance to learn this 
  technique from certain sources later in the adventure.
  A PC within 30 feet of any creature with the Thoughtform sub-
  type can try to influence the creature with its thoughts as a bonus 
  action. The PC makes a DC 10 Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma 
  check. On a success, the PC forces the thoughtform creature to 
  make either a Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom saving throw 
  (PC’s choice).
  Dexterity. On a failed save, the thoughtform creature must use 
  its speed to move up to 10 feet in a direction of the PC’s choice.
  Constitution. On a failed save, the thoughtform creature loses 
  its incorporeal trait until the start of the PC’s next turn. If it’s flying, 
  it must land on its turn or fall.
  Wisdom. On a failed save, the PC is invisible to the thoughtform 
  creature until the start of the PC’s next turn.
  Diamond Encrusted Piece.
  Weapon (pistol), rare
  Your enemies seem dumbstruck at the sight of a gun of solid gold, 
  encrusted with diamonds. Every time you fire one of its 24-karat 
  bullets, you throw away enough money to feed a family for a month. 
  Who but an unrepentant jackass would own such a thing?
  This gaudy and extravagantly decorated pistol grants a +1 bonus 
  to attack and damage rolls, and it is so flashy and impressive that, 
  the first time in any encounter it is fired, all creatures with an Intel-
  ligence score of 6 or more within 30 ft. that see the wielder have 
  disadvantage on all attack rolls against any creature other than the 
  wielder until the wielder's next turn. Creatures who spend at least a 
  few hours in the presence of you and the gun get used to it, and no 
  longer suffer this penalty.
  
  EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One | 17
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  Aftermath.
  Panicked shouts die out slowly, and a crowd quickly grows in a wide, 
  nervous ring. Someone calls out that a man is dead, killed by a stray 
  bullet. The shot came from Rock Rackus, and if the bullet is re-
  moved, it’s made of gold, as are all of Rock’s bullets.
  Four police arrive within a minute, by which point accusations 
  are already flying. The chaos is cut short when Kvarti Gorbatiy, 
  standing atop the stage, fires his rifle into the wood of the stage to 
  get everyone’s attention. He says that he had a high vantage point, 
  and he saw Rock Rackus fire the stray shot. Gorbatiy views this as a 
  way to save the performer’s life. He was hired to assassinate Rackus, 
  but he saw the man help out when strangers were imperiled, so he 
  hopes for Rackus to be arrested long enough that people will stop 
  calling for his head.
  Unless the PCs intervene, the police arrest Rackus, with all the 
  aggressive enthusiasm cops usually show dockers.
  Monsters and Staff.
  The dead monsters bizarrely do not disappear the way summoned 
  creatures should. A successful DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check 
  can determine that the magical energies of the monsters match 
  energy stored in Simon Langfield’s staff. A successful DC 15 Intel-
  ligence (History) check can connect the design to the Ancients.
  Alforb Irongut, if he survived, is in a stupor, but his father Al-
  fonse can explain how the monsters appeared when Simon cast a 
  spell with his staff. The staff is gold, but Simon insists it was made 
  of wood when he got it. Over the following minutes, it reverts to its 
  normal wooden appearance.
  Assuming the heroes saved Simon Langfield, he is extremely 
  grateful and tells them all he knows. Simon honestly has no idea 
  how the monsters came into being, and does not connect it to the 
  staff, though if PCs make that connection he will grudgingly turn 
  it over to the RHC. Langfield further admits that he purchased it 
  at a steep discount from a dark-haired middle-aged woman in a blue 
  trenchcoat (Kaja Stewart), after setting up an appointment at the 
  Trinket Stand.
  Langfield’s meeting took place in an alley beside a furniture 
  store a block from the jewelry store Kaja’s based in. If the party 
  looks for Kaja there, though, they risk tipping off her spies that 
  someone’s on her trail.
  Take It to Evidence.
  Low-ranking RHC officers come by the site of the battle and begin 
  to confiscate huge swaths of items. Standing orders for the RHC 
  state that any previously unknown magic requires a thorough in-
  vestigation. Mages come by and sense for magical auras they don’t 
  recognize, and they take anything that looks suspicious. The steam-
  powered suit, the various unique guns, and a lot of the mundane 
  merchandise get taken away and locked up in the evidence room at 
  the RHC Headquarters.
  Many of the owners complain, but this is by orders of the king. 
  The purpose of this event is to give the PCs some interesting re-
  sources to play with in the climax of the adventure.
  The Audit
  Social. Montage.
  The party is held to account for any law-breaking or corruption.
  A subplot runs throughout the whole adventure. Starting the 
  evening of the first day, the head of the RHC, Viscount Inspector 
  Nigel Price-Hill, arrives at the Flint headquarters. A large retinue 
  accompanies him, and his mission is to root out possible corruption, 
  in the form of the PCs.
  This plot thread is detailed in the appendices, in Part 3.
  That’s Classified
  Social. Real-Time.
  A military academy requests the PCs hand over corpses of the strange 
  monsters.
  If any PC is a Martial Scientist, he is contacted by Colonel Sebas-
  tian Harlock the next morning. Though highly decorated, the man 
  has never made the papers. He requests the PC recover the bodies 
  of the unusual monsters and deliver them in iced crates to The Bat-
  talion, a martial academy in Flint’s western bayou.
  Harlock emphasizes the importance of Risur’s military study-
  ing any newly discovered creature or magic. He can arrange for 
  boat transport of the remains, but he needs the PC to actually take 
  the bodies, which otherwise will go into the RHC Headquarters’ 
  morgue. The PC can come along if he wants to be sure this is a 
  legitimate military operation, and the crates are delivered to the 
  Battalion, where they’re received by old men in military mage 
  uniforms.
  Harlock offers no compensation, but says that anything they 
  learn that might be useful in dealing with future similar threats he 
  will pass along, as long as he has clearance to do so.
  If the PC goes along with this, then when the PC returns from 
  the Ziggurat of Apet, he will find waiting for him in the mail a 
  copy of a thesis, Methods of Extricating Warriors from a Variety of 
  Tentacled and Tendriled Monsters. This grants the Tentacle Tech-
  nique bonus ability. Also, if no PC receives the vision of The Sealing 
  of Apet, the PC will also receive a brief treatise on how conscious 
  thought affects the creatures (see the “Mind Over Matter” sidebar 
  on the previous page).
  Tentacle Technique.
  As an action, you can choose one creature within 30 feet who is 
  currently grappled. That creature makes a melee weapon attack 
  against the creature grappling it, and can then make a Dexterity 
  (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) check to escape the grapple. If 
  the attack hit, the creature has advantage on the check.
  
  18 | EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  Investigations
  Puzzle/Social. Montage.
  The PCs search the fair for leads to the whereabouts of a dangerous 
  black market.
  The PCs have plenty to do at the fair, but after The Incident, their 
  main goal should be to apprehend Kaja Stewart. She has been us-
  ing the expo to find buyers and fence rare or illegal magic items, 
  including three relics from the ziggurat of Apet. These magic 
  items eventually lead the PCs to Pardwight University’s Museum of 
  Natural History, where Dr. Xambria Meredith can point them to 
  her dig site in the High Bayou, and the shady philanthropist Caius 
  Bergeron who funded it.
  For the duration of the expo, Kaja uses a jewelry shop near the 
  Lanternwood Subrail Station as her base of operations. Each day 
  she chooses a new spot to conduct business, usually within a few 
  blocks. She has runners deliver messages to and from the Trinket 
  Stand (page 11), so she knows who might be coming and what 
  they’d be interested in. She always travels with a construct body-
  guard, and when she gets a bad feeling, she’ll bring along back-up.
  There are plenty of routes to the arcanoscientist criminal, and 
  most lead to the under-construction Lanternwood Subrail Station, 
  unless the PCs push extra hard to move the location. It’s even pos-
  sible that if the PCs are proactive, they might locate Kaja before 
  The Incident occurs. We include two possible routes below.
  Common Criminals.
  A ring of young children pick the pockets of festival attendees. 
  Characters who spend an hour observing the crowds can make a 
  DC 17 Wisdom (Perception) check. On a success, they track these 
  young thieves back to their source. The ring was set up by a middle 
  aged woman who calls herself “Mama.” If the party doesn’t spot 
  them, they might find out about the ring by asking the police about 
  criminals they’ve arrested.
  The pickpockets themselves are fairly unimportant, but amongst 
  the stolen items the PCs discover an amulet matching the sort used 
  at Macbannin’s laboratory to gain access to the lower levels. If 
  pressed, the young thief describes the man who carried the amulet 
  as a short human with dark hair and a goatee, wearing a striped 
  gray shirt, a gold bow tie, and violet pants. The party can use this 
  description to locate Isaac Randal.
  Isaac Randal was a researcher working for Macbannin on the 
  witchoil project, and he fled when the earthquake struck. Now that 
  his source of funding has been cut off, Randal is selling off equip-
  ment and technology that he scavenged. If PCs confront him, he 
  tries to flee. If captured he admits selling everything he took from 
  the lab to his former associate, Kaja Stewart. If suitably threatened 
  or plied, he can be convinced to set up a meeting.
  Randal knows that Kaja’s started working with some criminal 
  gang, and that they’re interested in finding out who Macbannin 
  was working for. He will send a message through the Trinket Booth 
  (see above) claiming that he found a lead. Kaja will respond back, 
  suggesting a meeting later in the afternoon, when the rain has 
  cleared out the construction workers at Lanternwood.
  A Friend in the Family.
  The Family is using the expo, and all the extra dock activity that 
  comes with it, to move a large shipment of illegal fey pepper into 
  the city. The Bosum Strand docks are far from the expo, but if the 
  PCs think to scout there for suspicious activity, they might hear 
  talk about the shipment (Charisma (Persuasion) DC 17), or notice 
  the activity surrounding it (Wisdom (Insight) DC 17). The PCs’ 
  informants might also tip them off.
  If the PCs make a move on the smugglers, one of the Family 
  bravuras recognizes the PCs and suggests they talk to Morgan Cip-
  piano before they try arresting anyone. Alternately, the PCs might 
  spot Morgan Cippiano from a distance as he attends the expo.
  If the PCs talk to Morgan, he offers them a deal. Rather than 
  stopping the shipment, they can just accept a small gift—a month’s 
  supply of fey pepper. And in exchange, Morgan will point them 
  to somebody they’ll find more interesting: a fence outside of the 
  Family who is accompanied by a construct powered by black oil. If 
  they take him up on the deal, Morgan tells them how to find Kaja 
  Stewart through the Trinket Booth.
  Kaja and Her Toys
  Action. Tactical.
  The heroes find the fence, and she doesn’t go down without a fight.
  The following battle assumes that the PCs pose as potential weap-
  on buyers for Kaja’s fenced goods, and meet her in the Lanternwood 
  Subrail Station construction yard. If your players try a different 
  approach, alter the details to suit your needs.
  When the PCs reach the construction yard, read or paraphrase 
  the following:
  The afternoon rains have sent home the construction crews, and the 
  guards have left the premises. A gate in the wooden fence hangs open 
  to the construction yard, and within you can see the massive pit dug for 
  the future train station. A few steel and stone columns rise to suggest 
  the skeleton of a future building, with only a flapping tarp stretched 
  between them as a makeshift roof to keep the pit from flooding.
  Morgan Cippiano. 
  Morgan 
  Cippiano came over from Crisillyir a few years 
  ago with instructions to foster Family inter-
  ests by recruiting Crisillyiri immigrants and 
  any local Risuri followers of the Clergy who 
  had a similar ideology. Though gruff-voiced 
  and cocky, Morgan has an unusual fascina-
  tion with fashion. He rejects trends, but has 
  a good eye for classical styles that people of 
  any culture can appreciate.
  A devout Clericist (follower of the Clergy), Morgan strives to keep a 
  moral code while running a branch of a powerful criminal organization. He 
  hopes some day to be seen as a father figure to his community, but for now 
  he’s willing to smash a few heads and order a few throats slit in order to clear 
  out the competition.
  
  EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One | 19
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  Stacks of lumber, bricks, and girders provide plenty of hiding places, 
  and the fence is feeble enough to offer numerous escape routes. But 
  you spot someone on the far side of the pit, a woman with a high-col-
  lared coat and a huge coif of hair. Beside her towers a man, seven feet 
  tall, draped in a black coat, his face concealed with a wide-brimmed hat.
  •	 Kaja Stewart
  •	 1 iron bodyguard
  •	 4 walking turrets
  •	 2 Kell-Guild pistoleers (optional)
  Kaja waits on the other side of the pit from the obvious entrance to 
  the construction yard, guarded by a construct similar to the bleak 
  golem the PCs faced in Adventure Two, poorly disguised as a human; 
  a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check easily uncovers this 
  disguise. In addition to her iron bodyguard, Kaja has brought sev-
  eral walking turrets, constructs that are little more than guns with 
  legs. They hide amid the construction supplies, resembling nothing 
  more than inert pieces of metal until Kaja gives the word, at which 
  point they animate and attack. A successful DC 19 Wisdom (Per-
  ception) check allows a PC to see the walking turrets.
  If the PCs talk to Kaja, she has them wait on the far side of the 
  pit, where they can attempt to make a successful DC 15 Charisma 
  (Deception) check to convince her they are legitimate buyers. Then 
  she’ll wave the party to come across the wooden bridge, while her 
  golem opens a chest to reveal a variety of guns (including some 
  exotic gun-blade mixes), plus the blade of the Ancients and amulet 
  of the Ancients, and any other magic items that you might wish to 
  include. She asks for market prices, (32,000 gp for the blade and 
  28,000 gp for the amulet) but might be haggled down to roughly 80 
  percent of that price.
  In any circumstance, Kaja refuses to answer any questions about 
  how or where she obtained the items, or how the staff summoned 
  the monsters. If the PCs ask too many questions, or otherwise rouse 
  her suspicions, she suggests they leave quickly. She conjures a mus-
  ket out of thin air, and begins to withdraw toward her secret exit.
  Possible Ambush.
  If the PCs tipped off Kaja even before the meet-up, she brings two 
  Kell-guild pistoleers as back-up, who hide under tarpaulins to the 
  west of the main entrance, requiring a successful DC 20 Wisdom 
  (Perception) check to spot. Also, Kaja has rigged the bridge so she 
  can drop it as a bonus action. She hopes to drop the PCs into the pit 
  as they cross, then shoot them like fish in a barrel.
  Tactics.
  Kaja prepares for the meeting by casting mage armor and stoneskin. 
  During combat tries to keep her distance from the PCs, shooting 
  from cover when possible. She uses shield regularly, relies on misty 
  step to maneuver to cover without needing to move through the 
  slick mud, and summons firearms to attack. She waits to summon 
  her cannon until she can hit at least three people.
  If anyone reaches her, she orders all her allies to focus on that 
  foe. Otherwise, she’ll order her iron bodyguard forward, and will 
  support it with spells and gunslinging.
  If her iron bodyguard is destroyed and she is reduced below half 
  her maximum hit points, Kaja tries to flee. She surrenders if at any 
  time she is reduced to 3 hit points or fewer.
  Terrain.
  Almost every space other than the sawdust paths at the entrance 
  is slick with mud. Moving slowly is safe, but at the end of any ac-
  tion wherein it moves, a creature must make a successful Acrobatics 
  check with a DC equal to 8 +1 per square of mud the creature en-
  tered or fall prone.
  The muddy walls of the pit make climbing out difficult, requiring 
  a successful DC 19 Strength (Athletics) check, and even the stairs 
  are slippery, requiring a successful DC 11 Dexterity (Acrobatics) 
  check. A creature that fails either of these checks fails to exit the 
  pit and falls prone. The steel pillars in the pit have many hand holds 
  and are easily climbed, rising 40 or 50 feet (20 ft. above ground lev-
  el at the top). Horizontal girders connect these pillars high above 
  the battlefield. Some spaces along the outer perimeter contain iron 
  reinforcing bars pointed upward, meant for future construction. 
  These spaces require a successful DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check 
  to vault, or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to weave through. A crea-
  ture forced into one of these squares takes 1d4 piercing damage 
  from sharp metal.
  Eight massive steel pillars surround the dig site, each rising 50 
  feet above ground level. Giant tarpaulins stretch between the tops of 
  these pillars, but rain still pours through the gaps. Scattered ropes 
  hold the canopy in place. Encourage the PCs to do weird things, like 
  snapping a rope and riding the backlash across the pit, or cutting a 
  few to cause a tarp to fall and pin everyone in a 30-foot radius.
  Aftermath.
  Assuming the PCs leave Kaja alive, she won’t answer questions in 
  the short term, but the party may be able to get a few answers out 
  of her with a longer interrogation back at the RHC headquarters. 
  Encourage them to take her in for questioning, and mention that 
  the basement jail has a few cells suited for magic-using prisoners. 
  You want the players to be familiar with the layout of their HQ 
  before the events of Act Three.
  Kaja genuinely has no idea how the staff summoned the monsters. 
  She simply fenced the items, and even when she worked for Macban-
  nin all she knew was that the items came from some archaeological 
  site. She did not get a chance to examine them for danger before 
  she stole them and ran.
  She does recall a tiefling showing up at the laboratory when 
  the items arrived, and Macbannin being upset, saying some-
  thing about it “compromising protocol.” She can describe Caius 
  Bergeron, though she has no idea about the man’s name, location, 
  or affiliations.
  The iron bodyguard was carrying a chest filled with contraband, 
  including the blade of the Ancients and amulet of the Ancients. 
  Characters who examine the sword or amulet can make a DC 15 
  Intelligence (History) check, connecting them with the Ancients 
  on a success. They appear fairly primitive, but if their powers are 
  used they briefly transform to solid gold.
  
  20 | EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  
  EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One | 21
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  Kaja Stewart
  Medium humanoid (human), neutral
  Armor Class 13 (16 with mage armor)
  Hit Points 52 (8d8 + 16)
  Speed 30 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   8 (–1) 
  16 (+3) 
  14 (+2) 
  14 (+2) 
  10 (+0) 
  18 (+4)
  Saving Throws int +5, wis +3
  Skills Arcana +8, Persuasion +6
  Senses passive Perception 10
  Languages Common, Elven, Sylvan
  Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)
  Spellcasting. Kaja Stewart is a 9th-level spellcaster. Her spellcasting 
  ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit with spell attacks). She 
  knows the following sorcerer spells:
  Cantrips (at will): light, mage hand, message, true strike
  1st level (4 slots): detect magic, expeditious retreat, mage armor, shield
  2nd level (3 slots): blur, misty step, see invisibility
  3rd level (3 slots): dispel magic, slow
  4th level (3 slots): stoneskin
  5th level (2 slots): creation
  ACTIONS
  Multiattack. Kaja makes two attacks, using her pistol and pistol 
  bayonet in any combination.
  Pistol Bayonet. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, one target. 
  Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) slashing damage.
  Pistol. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 20/60 ft., one target. 
  Hit: 8 (1d10 + 3) piercing damage. Whether she hits or misses, the 
  target cannot take opportunity attacks against her for the rest of her 
  turn.
  Carbine. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 50/150, one target. 
  Hit: 10 (1d12 + 4) piercing damage. When summoned, the carbine is 
  loaded with an enchanted reaving bullet that burrows into the target, 
  seeking an artery. If the attack hits, the target takes 1d6 piercing 
  damage at the start of each of its turns until it or another creature 
  makes a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check as an action to 
  dig the bullet out. 
  Cannon. With a grandiose flair, Kaja aims her conjured cannon, choos-
  ing a point within 200 feet. Creatures within 15 feet of that point 
  must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 24 (7d6) bludgeon-
  ing damage, pushed 5 feet and falling prone on a failed save, or taking 
  half as much damage on a successful save. The area of the blast is 
  filled with opaque dust and smoke until the end of Kaja’s next turn.
  Kaja Stewart. Kaja was recruited as an arcanoscientific researcher 
  by Reed Macbannin. When she realized she might be arrested for her in-
  volvement in his project, she hid, taking a collection of magic items from a 
  laboratory located away from Macbannin’s primary manor.
  An expert in theoretical planar physics, Kaja devised the way to refine wi-
  tchoil from the veil between the real world and the Bleak Gate. She now works 
  for Lorcan Kell, and in the intervening months since her flight she has focused 
  on crafting pocket dimensions for the purpose of concealing weapons and 
  contraband. But unlike most of her cohorts who worked for Macbannin, Kaja 
  is looking for a way to go back to work on her old project. Together she and 
  Kell are trying to get in touch with the Obscurati, though they don’t even 
  know that’s the group’s name.
  Iron Bodyguard
  Medium construct, unaligned
  Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
  Hit Points 85 (10d10 + 30)
  Speed 30 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   21 (+5) 
  8 (–1) 
  17 (+3) 
  3 (-4) 
  10 (+0) 
  1 (–5)
  Skills Athletics +7
  Damage Resistances fire; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from 
  nonmagical attacks that aren’t adamantine
  Damage Immunities poison, psychic
  Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, exhaustion, 
  frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
  Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
  Languages understands Common and Primordial but can’t speak
  Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)
  Guard. The iron bodyguard is attuned to a master, in this case Kaja 
  Stewart. When its master is endangered, spirits swirl outward from a 
  witchoil reservoir in the bodyguard’s chest, bonding it with its master’s 
  life force. While the bodyguard is within 5 feet of its master, attacks 
  against the master have disadvantage.
  Warding Bond. While the bodyguard is within 60 feet of its master, the 
  master has resistance to all damage. Each time the master takes dam-
  age, the bodyguard takes the same amount of damage. This effect 
  ends when the bodyguard is reduced to 0 hit points.
  Find Master. The bodyguard can unerringly find its master as long as 
  she is on the same plane.
  Actions
  Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. 
  Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage. If the attack hits, the iron 
  guardian can also attempt to Grapple or Shove the target as a 
  reaction.
  
  22 | EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  Kaja’s Exit
  Social. Montage. Level 5.
  The fence is removed from the stage.
  If the characters take Kaja into custody, she sits in her cell for a 
  day, and then Saxby has her transferred to the RHC branch in the 
  capital city Slate.
  Kaja knows nothing about Saxby’s involvement with the conspir-
  acy, but just in case the Lady Inspectress is having the prisoner sent 
  away. She calls in some favors from the military, and soon thereaf-
  ter a carriage with armed guards arrives at the RHC to escort Kaja 
  away. The military is intrigued by her gun-summoning powers, and 
  intends to put her to use.
  (Alternately, you could have Kaja murdered in her cell, but we 
  think that it makes the RHC HQ seem insecure if another witness 
  dies so soon after Macbannin. Better, we think, to just move her 
  off-stage. The party might encounter her again much later in the 
  campaign.)
  Walking Turret
  Small construct, unaligned
  Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
  Hit Points 16 (3d10)
  Speed 20 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   11 (+0) 
  14 (+2) 
  10 (+0) 
  3 (–4) 
  10 (+0) 
  1 (–5)
  Damage Immunities poison, psychic
  Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, exhaustion, 
  frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
  Skills Stealth +7
  Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius); passive 
  Perception 10
  Languages understands Common and Primordial but can’t speak
  Challenge ¼ (50 XP)
  Actions
  Ungainly Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one 
  creature. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage and the target is pushed 
  5 feet. If the attack misses, the walking turret falls prone.
  Integrated Pistol. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 20/60 ft., 
  one target. Hit: 7 (1d10 + 2) piercing damage.
  Kell-Guild Pistoleer
  Medium humanoid (half-elf), neutral evil
  Armor Class 14 (studded leather)
  Hit Points 55 (7d8 + 14)
  Speed 30 ft.
   STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
   15 (+2) 
  14 (+2) 
  14 (+2) 
  10 (+0) 
  10 (+0) 
  11 (+0)
  Skills Intimidation +2
  Senses passive Perception 10
  Languages Common, Elven
  Challenge 1 (200 XP)
  Pack Tactics. The Kell-guild pistoleer has advantage on an attack roll 
  against a creature if at least one of the thug’s allies is within 5 feet of 
  the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
  Actions
  Multiattack. The Kell-Guild thug makes two melee attacks.
  Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. 
  Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.
  Pistol. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 20/60 ft., one target. 
  Hit: 7 (1d10 + 2) piercing damage.
  Gear. The Kell-Guild pistoleer possesses a potion of greater healing.
  
  EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One | 23
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  Mangled Golem
  Puzzle. Real-Time.
  This mysterious murder scene won’t be solved any time soon.
  This scene does not tie directly into the current adventure, but it 
  lays key groundwork for events in Adventure Five, Cauldron-Born. 
  It’s intended to be an unsolved mystery for the party which they can 
  return to later to get a break in their case.
  Shortly after the PCs track down Kaja Stewart, they get a re-
  quest for help from the constables who have been assigned to the 
  Macbannin case. They’ve heard about the party’s fight with Kaja 
  and her golem, and they think the party might have some helpful 
  insights on a scene they’re investigating. They ask that the party 
  keep it quiet, since Lady Saxby would not like the two groups 
  collaborating.
  The Scene.
  The body was discovered in the basement of a steel mill in the thick-
  est factory cluster of Parity Lake. The burning steel and firegems 
  concealed the stench of decomposition, but workers found him just 
  yesterday. The man had to have been dead for weeks at least.
  What got the case kicked over to the RHC was the presence of 
  two strange things: a ring of rusted iron, and a slender golem which 
  is torn to pieces.
  What Happened.
  During the climax of Adventure Two, an unwilling member of the 
  Obscurati conspiracy tried to escape their compound in the Bleak 
  Gate. He died in the attempt.
  Alexander Grappa, known as the Mindmaker, had been work-
  ing for the Ob under the direction of Leone Quital, known as the 
  Steelshaper. Grappa designed the consciousness of the colossal 
  golem called Borne, whom the PCs should have little or no inkling 
  of. Grappa developed doubts about the project, then eventually 
  overheard a meeting between three high-ranking members of the 
  conspiracy. Too valuable to kill, Grappa was locked up, which 
  angered the colossus, leading to the minor tremors throughout 
  Adventure Two.
  Eventually Grappa arranged for his (man-sized) golem hand-
  servant to invite Kasvarina Varal, the eladrin mage who shared 
  leadership duties of the Obscurati, to come speak with him. He 
  interrogated her, then managed to catch her by surprise and wipe 
  her memories. He hoped that by giving her a second chance to see 
  the world she might turn against the conspiracy.
  Using a mind controlled Kasvarina as cover, Grappa left his cell, 
  snuck to the giant construction bay where Borne was being assem-
  bled, and then wiped the colossus’s memories. The childlike golem 
  strained against its bonds, provoking the massive earthquake that 
  struck as the party attempted to defeat Reed Macbannin. During 
  the chaos, Grappa fled the Obscurati compound, bringing his hand-
  servant golem and Kasvarina with him.
  He hoped to reach the Flint harbor and sail to Elfaivar, where 
  he could work with Kasvarina to rebuild her memories and defeat 
  the conspiracy. But Leone caught up with him in the basement of 
  this steel mill.
  Leone easily overpowered Grappa, then tried to slowly torture 
  him to death by pouring a vial of witchoil down the Mindmaker’s 
  throat. Grappa managed a desperate spell to transfer his conscious-
  ness to his golem handservant, then immediately used his new body 
  to crush his original skull with a bronze fist to end his suffering. 
  Furious, the Steelshaper tore the golem apart.
  Leone took the confused and wailing Kasvarina back to the Ob 
  compound, and in an act of spiteful carelessness he left Grappa’s 
  body to rot, thinking no one would find it.
  The Victim.
  The victim’s wrists were bound together by a twisted steel bar, as 
  were his ankles. It would take either magic or great strength to 
  bend the steel, and this was done very precisely.
  He had some sort of necklace, because links remain near his body, 
  but most of it is missing. A successful DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) 
  check reveals that the chain matches the amulets used at Macban-
  nin’s manor to slip partially into the Bleak Gate.
  The dead body is highly rotted, but the PCs can determine the 
  date of death by making a successful DC 12 Wisdom (Medicine) 
  check. It died sometime early in the Summer. The apparent cause of 
  death is a shattered skull, and the size of the wound matches the fist 
  of the damaged golem in the corner. A cursory look determines the 
  man was human, in his fifties or sixties. A successful DC 12 Wis-
  dom (Medicine) check reveals that he has an old gunshot wound 
  to his leg. A successful DC 17 Wisdom (Medicine) or Intelligence 
  (History) check reveals that his teeth suggest he received dental 
  care from a Risuri army doctor.
  Probing the throat or closely examining the body allows charac-
  ters to make a DC 17 Wisdom (Medicine or Perception) check. On 
  a success, a character spots nearly a pint of witchoil, some of which 
  was swallowed. Casting detect magic reveals there is no soul energy 
  trapped in the oil; if the man had died while the oil was anywhere 
  nearby, his soul should have been sucked in.
  The victim had 5 platinum pieces and twenty gold pieces in his 
  pocket, as well as a bundle of papers with ship schedules, berth 
  numbers, and mentions that passengers were welcome, all of which 
  were set to depart between the 5th and 15th of Summer. All of 
  them were bound for Elfaivar.
  Finally, a DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check reveals that his 
  socks have the initials “A.G.” stitched into them.
  The Golem.
  The golem is in a hundred pieces. Its chest is “only” torn into four 
  components, while its face cracked apart into countless tiny pieces. 
  The main bulk of its “skull” looks intact, though, and it feels quite 
  heavy. A successful DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) check reveals that 
  it was a finely-crafted internal structure appropriate for containing 
  an advanced intelligence.
  The body is unimposing. Before it was smashed to bits it prob-
  ably stood about 5' 6", slender, mostly bronze. But again its internal 
  structure is of the finest quality, with miniscule gears in the hands 
  that would have allowed nuanced movements. The face, shattered 
  though it is now, could once have displayed fantastic expressions. 
  Even a Technologist has never seen such wondrous craftsmanship. 
  
  24 | EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  It looks too fragile to use as a warrior, though.
  It has a few chain links amid its wreckage, just like the necklace 
  the victim was wearing.
  A successful DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check reveals that, 
  oddly, it looks like the golem wasn’t hit by an object; it was torn 
  apart, almost like it exploded along every major seam and joint. 
  Casting detect magic specifically on the golem’s head reveals that it 
  still possesses an aura of magic, suggesting the thing might still be 
  conscious, just blind and mute.
  Other Clues.
  Looking around the scene, everything has a fine layer of ash, which 
  just drifts onto everything in the factory, even in the basement.
  The party can find several inches of torn fabric by the rusted ring 
  by making a successful DC 11 Wisdom (Perception) check. It’s sev-
  eral layers of cotton and dyed silk stitched together, and if the party 
  asks around at different clothiers around town (or perhaps talks to 
  Morgan Cippiano, a knowledgeable fan of fine attire), they discover 
  it’s likely from an eladrin woman’s dress, the sort made before the 
  Great Malice. A DC 11 Intelligence (Arcana) check reveals that the 
  threads have residual magic on them, which given how long they’ve 
  been removed from the garment suggests the enchantment was very 
  powerful to begin with.
  A few ingots of iron stored on nearby shelves have fallen onto 
  the ground, and a few are below the victim’s body. Examining the 
  ingots with a successful DC 19 Intelligence (Investigation) check 
  reveals that they were shaken free, probably during the earthquake 
  in the Summer, but there’s no sign of ash on top of them, which 
  suggests the victim died very soon after the quake.
  What Now?
  The other constables have to follow up on any suggestions the PCs 
  make, but they thank them for their help, and promise to inform 
  them of any breaks. They will have the body buried, but plan to take 
  the remains of the golem to the RHC Headquarters, in hopes of 
  perhaps reassembling it and getting it to talk.
  The party might take an interest in fixing the golem, but it’s a 
  daunting project that would take even a skilled technologist several 
  months. If the PCs try any clever spells, its memories are muddled 
  from Grappa’s memory wipe. In Adventure Five, the golem becomes 
  active, either by the party’s actions, or other RHC operatives. It can 
  provide critical clues at that time, but until then, it’s just a riddle.
  Pardwight University 
  Museum of Natural History
  Social. Real-Time.
  The PCs search for answers amid academics.
  After confiscating the staff, sword, and amulet of the Ancients, 
  the most logical place to go is Pardwight University. Asking about 
  the artifacts, they are quickly directed to Professor Hans Weber, 
  Professor of Antiquities and current curator of the Museum of 
  Natural History.
  Professor Weber, a human originally from Drakr, believes him-
  self smarter and more capable than just about everybody in the 
  world, and he gets along well with anybody as long as they don’t 
  challenge his beliefs. Weber is busy preparing for the coming mu-
  seum exposition featuring many wonders of the Ancients.
  Professor Weber is a born lecturer who loves the sound of his 
  own voice, and at the slightest cue he quickly rattles off some of 
  the Ancients’ astounding accomplishments, including their under-
  standing of astronomy, magic, and goldsmithing that have gone 
  both unheralded and unmatched for centuries. Weber is happy to 
  answer any questions the party has, though like all mainstream 
  scholars he has no idea about the Axis Seal.
  Recovered Relics.
  Most of the museum’s Ancient artifacts come from older digs, but 
  when Weber heard rumors a few months ago of the discovery of an 
  Ancient ziggurat in the High Bayou, he extended an offer to the 
  young archaeologist who was heading the excavation: Dr. Xambria 
  Meredith. Xambria sent back a detailed list of items recovered, with 
  the caveat that her sponsor would have final say on their placement.
  When Xambria returned a month ago as the sole survivor of her 
  expedition, Weber arranged for her to stay at a Pardwight Univer-
  sity apartment, both out of sympathy and out of a hope she would 
  support his claim to the artifacts, should they ever be recovered. If 
  the PCs mention having found and claimed them, Weber is at first 
  ecstatic, then subdued.
  Weber can set up a meeting between the PCs and Xambria, but 
  he warns them that the tragedy placed a tremendous strain on 
  Xambria. They should be gentle when speaking to her. As for the 
  relics, he’ll quickly produce paperwork from his office which shows 
  he has a legal claim to the amulet, staff, and sword. He says he tried 
  
  EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One | 25
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  finding Xambria’s sponsor, but couldn’t. With him missing, owner-
  ship falls to Pardwight University.
  He will keep the relics in a royal safe hold until shortly before the 
  exhibition. Royal guards will protect the items from thieves, while 
  mages ascertain whether the items are a hazard to the nation.
  As for Caius…
  Weber has met Caius Bergeron in the past, and says the tiefling 
  has been very generous to the university, but he was secretive at 
  the best of times. He appears to have vanished at the same time as 
  Xambria’s tragedy.
  Xambria
  Social. Real Time.
  The party gets critical clues from someone who wants answers as 
  much as they do.
  Dr. Xambria Meredith, originally of Mitchell University in Slate, 
  is currently recuperating at Pardwight, where she has been given 
  a temporary office and living quarters. She readily talks to people 
  who might help her find answers about what happened to her dig.
  Xambria speaks politely to the PCs, and does her best to answer 
  their questions. Though naturally charming and gregarious, she 
  has odd gaps in her memory. When asked directly about her dig she 
  might get a distant look and insist, “I told you I don’t remember.”
  In truth, much of Xambria’s “trauma” results from the alien en-
  tity Sijhen, which has merged into her mind, and her odd behavior 
  is often a result of the PCs asking questions that Sijhen does not 
  want her to answer. Be careful not to play Xambria as crazy or 
  unhinged. You want the PCs to trust her.
  Foggy Recollection.
  Xambria’s story of the doomed expedition goes something like this. 
  After discovering the ziggurat in Spring, she sent news and several 
  artifacts to her sponsor, the wealthy philanthropist Caius Bergeron. 
  Bergeron wanted to be kept apprised, especially if she found 
  something he called a “golden seal”: a large golden disk bearing as-
  tronomical symbols, which would radiate powerful protective magic.
  The dig cleared through traps and collapsed passages, but in ear-
  ly Summer Xambria sent word that she had found a seal. A few days 
  later she went to the train station in Bole to meet a group of spe-
  cialists sent by Bergeron: three tieflings who were obviously spell 
  casters (a rarity among Danorans), and a pair of human guards. 
  She recalls this was a little while after she got news of some big 
  scandal in Flint, but she doesn’t remember the exact day.
  She led the specialists to the dig, brought them to the seal, and 
  then left at their request. The next day the specialists were still 
  working at the seal, so she left to pick up supplies she was expect-
  ing to arrive by train. The round trip took a few days, and when 
  she returned to the dig site, she discovered the bodies of her col-
  leagues. They all lay dead either at the base camp or just inside the 
  ziggurat. There was no sign of the specialists, but she dared not 
  venture inside. She fled in a daze, boarded the train back to Flint, 
  and reported the deaths to the police and the University.
  Priceless Antiquities.
  In the real world, it’s amazing enough for a museum to have a gold-
  decorated sarcophagus or a gem-studded crown worth millions 
  of dollars. In a fantasy setting, how does government deal with 
  museums wanting to display artifacts that might actually possess 
  perilous magical powers?
  Museums must allow royal inspectors to check relics for magic, 
  and then to examine magic items for possible danger. A large stodgy 
  body of bureaucrats determines what’s safe enough to display, 
  what’s so dangerous it must be confiscated, and what is something 
  the government might want to lay claim to, but allow on display for 
  the time being.
  The three Ancient relics the PCs have recovered, while very 
  valuable and powerful, do not pose a significant threat. Anyone who 
  might use the staff to cast spells would be able to use magic anyway, 
  and likewise the sword is only as dangerous as its wielder. The amulet 
  is wholly defensive. The only concern is that they might summon 
  more monsters. To protect against that, Professor Weber offers to 
  wrap the relics in gold thread. Additionally, as part of the Ancient 
  exhibit, the entire gallery has an inlaid band of gold in the floor. Sum-
  moning in the relic room is impossible.
  If the party wants to requisition any of the relics, they can get at 
  most two; Weber has enough pull with people in power that he will 
  at least hold onto one item. He’s worried the constables might lose 
  them and ruin his exhibit. They’ll actually be safer at the museum 
  than in the RHC headquarters. And the party does not have enough 
  authority to prevent Weber from hosting the Ancients exhibit and 
  showing off the relics.
  
  26 | EN5ider Presents: Digging for Lies, Part One
  Act One: From Fair to Foul
  She’s convinced that Bergeron’s specialists had something to do 
  with the deaths, and she asks the PCs to return to the ziggurat and 
  uncover the truth. She also thinks Caius knew there were dangers 
  at the ziggurat. She tried to track him down when she got back to 
  Flint, but the ways he had told her to get in touch were dead ends. She 
  doesn’t have the resources to find him, but she hopes the PCs might.
  The Truth.
  Xambria’s version of events is mostly true, with a few edits im-
  posed by Sijhen. Xambria was there when the specialists opened 
  the Ancients’ seal, and while they took precautions and set up a 
  magical ward, one of Xambria’s diggers panicked and disturbed the 
  ward, unleashing the monsters. A host of Gidim war beasts glided 
  through the portal, and only thanks to Sijhen bonding with her was 
  Xambria able to resist their psychic energy and escape.
  Details of the Ziggurat.
  If the party asks Xambria for a map of the ziggurat, she apologizes. 
  Her memory is muddled, and though she remembers that there 
  were traps, and some sort of indoor rainbow, she can’t recall specif-
  ics. She suggests they look for her journal, which she probably left at 
  camp, and which should detail everything they need to look out for.
  Unfortunately for the PCs, Caius Bergeron sent a follow-up 
  expedition about two weeks ago, and they have already ransacked 
  the camp for all useful documents. They also carried off the golden 
  plate that sealed the portal to Apet.
  Ancients and Other Evening Conversations.
  If the party spends a long time talking with Xambria, she’ll inevi-
  tably go off on tangents about her study of the Ancients. She has a 
  theory of how their civilization ended. Excavations of Ancient sites 
  turn up tons of gold relics, but scholars have never found actual 
  gold mines or the forges necessary to make such items.
  She suspects the Ancients might not have made the relics, but 
  rather traded for them or looted them from another group that was 
  more advanced. This foreign group could have come from another 
  world, using magic that is impossible now. She theorizes that either 
  these foreigners’ method of travel was destroyed, or the Ancients 
  actively fought them away. Perhaps Ancient culture collapsed with-
  out the presence of their foreign allies, or maybe the Ancients were 
  too weak after fighting off invaders to sustain their culture.
  She cites other examples of extinct entities that were once com-
  mon — dragons in Ber, or the demons of Triegenes’s time. She also 
  claims that old Clericist scrolls in Danor make mention of “Egal 
  the Shimmering, lord of the golden legion” among a list of demons 
  and other heresies. She thinks perhaps Egal was the source of all 
  the Ancients’ gold.
  Her theory happens to be partially right, even though to most 
  people it sounds like a crackpot idea. The PCs might, however, have 
  kept the wand of Egal the Shimmering from the smugglers in Ad-
  venture Two, which happens to be made of solid gold.
  The idea is to present Xambria as a prospective ally in solving the 
  deeper mysteries of the campaign, and to get the party to like and 
  trust her. Tricking players is tough, but if you pull it off, the reveal 
  that Xambria is the adventure’s villain will make a huge impact.
  Caius Bergeron
  Social. Real-Time.
  A tiefling noble is surprisingly unhelpful.
  Finding Bergeron can be quick if the PCs have contacts among 
  the elite in Flint. Otherwise, the party has a long process of several 
  Charisma (Persuasion) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks to 
  find someone who might know him.
  The tiefling has a room at the Silver Swan Inn in North Shore, 
  and can be found there most afternoons. He’s far too refined (and 
  too well guarded) to flee at the threat of law enforcement presence. 
  He’ll even offer to buy them a meal and discuss business with them.
  At first Bergeron acts the part of the history-and-art-loving phi-
  lanthropist. He is open to any questions about his philanthropic 
  works, though his answers are often vague. He pretends to be sim-
  ply interested in history and selling antiquities, and says that digs 
  are often dangerous. He claims Xambria contacted him, and he of-
  fered compensation and aid. She said she wanted nothing to do with 
  him, and so he assumed their arrangement was over. He plans to 
  send another expedition, but the weather is turning foul up in the 
  High Bayou, so it will have to wait until Spring.
  If the PCs make any accusations, Bergeron asks them to leave 
  until his lawyer can be present. If they arrest him, he won’t even be 
  processed into a cell before word comes in to let him go. Saxby tells 
  the PCs to leave Bergeron alone.
  If PCs manage to examine Bergeron’s room at the Silver Swan, it 
  is as described in Act Two (“There Goes the Main Suspect”), with 
  a few exceptions. The map on his desk shows only Xambria’s dig 
  site, and the pages torn from his books are present and describe dis-
  coveries made by Xambria’s expedition (including the golden seal).
  With no other leads in Flint, the party’s next step for answers 
  lies at Xambria’s dig site. e
  Caius Bergeron. Caius Bergeron comes from a wealthy Dan-
  oran noble family with a reputation for philanthropy. His great-grandfather 
  founded the expedition that first discovered the Axis Seal, and members 
  of his family have been recruited into the Obscurati ever since. He was a 
  potential next-in-line to take over Golden Cell after the Duchess attacked 
  Axis Island, but he prefers the academic side of the project.
  His current stay in Flint lets him check up on several of his sponsored 
  digs. He’s also been tasked by the Ob top tier to keep an eye on possible 
  loose ends from Macbannin’s defeat. In particular, he’s watching Lorcan 
  Kell and Kaja Stewart, evaluating whether to leave them alone, recruit 
  them, or kill them.
  Caius is constantly reading—at all times he’ll 
  have with him either a book or a pile of letters 
  from archaeologists who benefit from his phil-
  anthropic donations. He keeps his fingernails 
  and tail tip sharpened, and tends to leave deep 
  scratches in furniture when he’s impatient. He 
  has a love for the Crisillyiri dish polip alla infanti, 
  or live octopus, sliced and eaten while the ten-
  tacles still squirm.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/5th Edition (5e)/3rd Party/EN World EN5ider/EN5ider 198 - Zeitgeist 3.1 Digging For Lies.pdf