jdnd/sections/5-the-carrion-bird.md

# The Carrion Bird

In this chapter, the PCs arrive in the city of Sigil, where
they have been tasked with finding Rennick.  This turns out
to be difficult: Rennick is in hiding, because he is
terrified of a man named Crow, who is hunting him.

Crow is an incantifer: a member of a small sect of
wizards who have mastered a vile technology. Incantifers
capture a powerful individual, rip the soul out of their
body, and use that soul to build an orb: a construct that 
allows the incantifer to wield the powers of the person
from whom the orb was made.

But the real innovation is in how incantifers control these
orbs: you see, the soul is connected to the body by
something called the silver cord.  It turns out the silver
cord is a braided thing, made up of seven strands, with each
strand connected to one of the body's seven chakras.
Incantifers disconnect one of the seven strands from one of
the chakras, and then reconnect that strand to the orb. This
allows the incantifer to control the orb as if it were part
of their body - using an orb is as fluid as thought.
Incantifers are blazingly fast: an incantifer can cast one
spell per turn per orb, in addition to whatever spell they
cast with their human body. In an action-economy combat
system, an incantifer is a rain of death.  Crow has four
orbs, and for all practical purposes, fighting Crow is like
fighting five powerful mages at the same time.

However, incantifers pay a terrible price for this: the more
strands of the cord are disconnected from the human body,
the more paralyzed the human body becomes.  The more
powerful an incantifer becomes, the more their physical body
becomes a handicap.  Incantifers dream of the day when they
can fully disconnect and discard the physical body, becoming
a creature of pure magic.  However, every incantifer who
has attempted this has died.  At least for now, incantifers
are stuck with their physical body.

Crow has verified that Rennick has the ability to predict
random events.  Crow has concluded that Rennick is actually
a powerful oracle, who has not yet fully realized the extent
of his powers.  Crow intends to take those powers for himself.

Up until this moment, there have been very few NPCs in this
campaign who are unadulterated evil.  Green is greedy, but
he has redeeming qualities, and he can be reasoned with.
Orethys was pure evil, but he is a historical figure.
Beshaba is evil, but she won't play a central role until
later.  Crow is the first genuinely horrible person that the
PCs will face.

Do not tell any of this to your players.  All of this will
unfold gradually, as the PCs search for Rennick, and explore
the city of Sigil.

Finding Rennick in the City of Sigil is a very nonlinear
part of the campaign. The PCs can go in any one of several
directions, and can pursue any one of several leads.  The
DM will have to tie all of this together into a story that
flows together coherently.

## First Sights of the City

When the PCs emerge from the scrap dealer's tent, they step
out into the Bazaar of Sigil.  It is a one-way portal.
Behind the PCs is just more bazaar.  The first sights they
see are wild and disorienting.  The PCs just stand and stare
for several minutes, unless they consciously try to fit in.
These are the most notable things they see:

- The extreme variety of races.  In addition to the more
common races, the PCs see a ton of people they may or may
not recognize: bariaur, tabaxi, modrons, goblins, gith,
tanaari, everything.  When describing it, be sure to throw
in some really unexpected ones: a giant, a mind flayer, a
group of pixies, you name it.

- The enormous arch.  Overhead, there appears to be a huge
arch that spans the entire width of the city.  This is
actually the city itself, forming a ring. But this isn't
immediately obvious to newcomers.  It may take them a little
time to realize it's not a giant structure, it's the city's
topology.

- The gritty atmosphere.  The foundry is not far, and the
yellow soot hangs over the bazaar.  Many of the buildings
are made of steel, rusted and corroded, and blades stick out
from the corners of the buildings and the door and window
frames.  The city somehow looks both extremely poor and
extremely wealthy at the same time.

- The chaos of the bazaar.  People are rushing in every
direction, trying to get business done.  They shove around
the clueless newbies standing in the road, paying them
little attention.

There is a lot of great material about the city of Sigil
published by Wizards of the Coast.  I highly recommend you
familiarize yourself with the city before trying to run this
section of the campaign.  This adventure, as written, is set
in a version of Sigil in which the faction war never
happened. If you want to adapt this to whatever version of
Sigil you prefer, that would not be difficult.

The PCs came to the city with a quest: Find Rennick!  
After wandering around for a few minutes, they may start
to think about their objective.  Before they have a chance
to get started, introduce them to Rico Sparks.

## Rico Sparks, the Tout

As the PCs gape at the bazaar, a Tout named Rico Sparks
notices that the PCs are obviously not from Sigil.  He sees
a business opportunity.  Touts are information brokers,
their bread and butter is selling basic information
about the city to clueless visitors.

Rico is always over-the-top brash and cheerful.  He uses
a *lot* of Sigil slang, and he also like to say "hey, baby!"
His favorite gesture: finger guns.

He approaches the PCs and says, "Hey, cutters!  I'm your
friendly neighborhood drug dealer, and the drug I sell is
easy access to information!  Be careful, it's addictive!"

Rico Sparks is a dwarf-human hybrid - technically, a "Mul."
He is as tall as a human, but bulky, like a dwarf.  Muls
are entirely hairless.  Rico is also plane-touched: his
fingers crackle with little sparks.

Rico stands there grinning: "What do you think of the Cage?
You looking for a Kip?  Or you want to get some bub first?"

Rico is deliberately using slang that the PCs don't know
in order to make the PCs feel disoriented.  This is a
business strategy that works for him, the more clueless
people feel, the more they want an information broker.

If the PCs ask Rico what his race is, or why he gives off
sparks, Rico grins and says, "that information costs more
than you can afford, baby!"

If you ask Rico why he calls himself a drug dealer, he says,
"Touts provide easy access to information, and easy access
to information makes you lazy, it makes you stop trying to
solve problems for yourself. Soon you'll find yourself
calling me because you need me to tell you how to tie your
shoes. That's my income stream, baby! Addicts who can’t stop
calling me to tell them what to do every minute of the day.”

Rico’s price structure is simple: "it costs 5GP to have a
conversation with me. First conversation’s free, baby, like
any good drug dealer!"

During a conversation, Rico will gladly answer all the
questions you have, as long as he knows the answer off the
top of his head.  "It doesn't cost any extra to ask a lot of
questions, so ask everything you can think of!"  Rico knows
a lot about what’s going on around the city, and he has good
general knowledge about many subjects, but he’s not a
database of all information in the universe. If you ask
something that requires research, he’s willing to do
research, but he charges 10GP per hour, sometimes more,
depending on the challenge level. If you ask Rico for
information that might put Rico in danger, then that’s a
hard no.

"If you want, you can retain my services.  If you do that,
I'll show up every couple of days and see if you have
any questions.  However, if I'm going to the trouble
of making myself available, there's something I want in
return: customer loyalty.  You don't do business with
any other tout."

"If you want to ask me a question and I'm not around, you
can summon me.  To do that, tell any tout that you want to
talk to Rico Sparks.  They'll get a message to me.
Summoning me costs 10gp, because it means I have to drop
everything and travel halfway across the city.  If you do
that, it'll take me a few hours to get there."

"You can also summon me fast.  If you do that, I'll use
shortcuts to get to you - portals.  But that costs me a lot
of money - I have to pay the owners of the portals. So
summoning me fast costs 30gp, but I can usually get there
in an hour."

Rico is very good at extracting money from his customers.
However, he does develop a fondness for interesting 
customers: he is meant to become a friend to the PCs.
He will always charge quite a bit for his services, but
his information is reliable and he tries to make himself
useful.

The PCs should probably ask Rico where to find Rennick.
Rico will ask the PCs, "what do you know about this Rennick?"
If the PCs point out that Rennick is a member of the
Fraternity of Order, then Rennick will point out that
the courthouse is the Fraternity base of operations.  If
the PCs tell Rico that Rennick is involved in casino
regulation, then Rico will tell the PCs that all regulatory
agencies are located in the courthouse.  It looks like
the courthouse is a good place to start looking.


## Taking Care of Pig

If the PCs brought Pig along, then Pig follows them for a
while, and then gets tired.  He settles into an empty spot
at the bazaar and starts playing his mandolin, and attracts
a small crowd.

Eventually, this draws the attention of the landlord. The
bazaar is spread across several dozen plots of land owned by
several different landlords.  Pig can play music for a few
days without being noticed, but eventually a landlord will
show up and ask the PCs, "does this ogre belong to you?"
The PCs will have to negotiate to rent a plot of land where
Pig can play his music.

Pig's artistry is good, he brings in enough money to pay
for food, shelter, the landlord, and maybe a little more on
the side.  Pig is not picky about shelter, he doesn't mind
sleeping outside.

Of course, the real reason Pig is tagging along is because
the PCs promised healing.  Sigil has many powerful priests,
several of whom can cast "Greater Restoration," which is
what Pig needs.

Rico Sparks can tell the PCs where to find a priest: he says
that temples are not allowed in Sigil ever since the
incident with the shattered temple.  However, priests are
allowed to gather in "healing centers," which are not
allowed to hire more than one priest of a given god, in
order to avoid the perception that they are a temple.
Rico can point to several reputable healing centers in the
bazaar.

If the PCs go to one of these, they will have to pay for the
Greater Restoration spell, which is expensive, but it gets
the job done.  Pig doesn't heal immediately.  The priest
explains: "Pig is recovering now, but he has lost almost all
his muscle mass.  He needs lots of protein.  Make sure he
eats like an ogre, and over the course of the next few
months, he'll get strong again."

We are deliberately timing this so that Pig cannot provide
real combat assistance in *this* chapter, but he *will* be
able to fight in the next one.  In the meantime, Pig will
play his music in the bazaar, mostly take care of himself,
and he will be *very* grateful to the PCs because he's
regaining his strength.

If the PCs ask Pig to fight in *this* chapter, Pig refuses:
he's humiliated by his weakness and doesn't want anyone
to see him fight in this condition.  But that will change
in a month or so.

## Sergio and Jinn, the Xaositects

After the PCs have had a chance to wander around the bazaar
a bit, have them make a perception check.  They hear somebody
say the name "Rennick."  It turns out that two Xaositects,
Sergei and Jinn, are searching for Rennick.  Their strategy?
Just asking people at random on the street: "We're looking
for a guy named Rennick.  Have you seen him?"

Sergei is a Xaositect who has learned through the grapevine
that Rennick has gained the ability to predict random
events. Sergei, like most Xaositects, thinks this is an
abomination. He is on a mission to find an kill Rennick.
Fortunately for Rennick, Sergei is not very efficient.

Sergei insists that he is the president of the Xaositects.
He occasionally changes his mind and decides he's the
"chairman" of the Xaositects, or the "emperor", or sometimes
even the "factol."

The other Xaositect, Jinn, is enigmatic.  She refuses to
make any assertions about anything.  She explains: " Suppose
your friend tells you that there's an excellent cheese shop
about two blocks north. But think about it: they could be
lying. They could be telling the truth, but they may have a
bad sense of direction.  They may be misremembering.  You
may have misheard them.  They might just have terrible taste
in cheese.  There are just so many different ways that our
knowledge can be broken.  We act as if our knowledge is
good, but over and over it just turns out our memories, our
perception, or our communication is flawed - sometimes, all
three. It's safer to just assume you know nothing."

Jinn has no hostility toward Rennick, because she doesn't
know anything about who Rennick is, or what he did, or...
well, she doesn't know anything about anything, really.

However, Jinn has a supernatural ability to just be where
she needs to be, when she needs to be there.  She does what
she needs to do, without knowing why she's doing it.  Right
now, the universe has a purpose for her, and it involves
Rennick.  So, she's searching for Rennick.  She has no idea
why.

Sergei calls Jinn "my secretary," or "my assistant," or "my
manservant."  When he does, Jinn gets an irritated look on
her face, and sometimes she replies: "I'm not your servant."
Sergei knows how to push Jinn's buttons: "How do you know
you're not my servant?"  Jinn has no answer for this.

Sergei is a male bariaur, a LV4 fighter.  Jinn is a female
water genasi.  Her class and level are unknown - she has
different skills on different days.  Jinn carries around a
"loot bag," which contains random items that she has no idea
where she got them, but the loot bag often contains
something relevant to what she needs.

The two Xaositects both come across as morons.  For Sergei,
that perception is entirely deserved.  Jinn is
knowledge-free, but also, extremely intelligent, which is a
strange combination.

Each time the PCs go to another location, there's a
substantial chance that Sergei and Jinn will already be
there.  This will happen over and over.  The PCs show up,
and there are Sergei and Jinn asking passers-by about
Rennick.

The reason for this is Jinn's special ability to
just be in the right place.  But it's not the right time
for her to do what she needs to do, so she's just hanging
around waiting, and looking for Rennick.

In addition to asking around about Rennick, the two
of them both enjoy drinking.  Sometimes, when the PCs
show up, Sergei may already be passed out on the floor,
with Jinn just sipping liquor until he wakes up.

## An Appointment with Rennick

The courthouse is the base of operations for the
Fraternity of Order, of which Rennick is a part.  The
main door of the courthouse leads to a large antechamber,
with a big receptionist desk.  Working the desk is a 
harried-looking man named Timon Pherenikos.

Timon appears human, however, he is actually the son of a
Human and an Oread.  Timon's Oread heritage has left him
with two unusual traits: he's extraordinarily patient (which
is why he's the receptionist), and he smells slightly of
earth.

Timon points out that Rennick works for the department
of casino regulation.  He explains: "the purpose of the
department of casino regulation is to inspect casinos
and certify that their games aren't rigged."  He says,
"if you want to go see Rennick, you'll need an appointment.
And to get an appointment, you have to be a casino that's
applying for certification.  Those are the rules."

Of course, the PCs will try to short-circuit the rules.
Timon won't allow that: He's a member of the Fraternity of
Order, and rules are rules.  However, Timon is surprisingly
patient with people who try. For example, if try to pressure
him to let you through, he won’t, but he’ll explain why he
can’t, and he won't hold a grudge.

The PCs may try charm magic.  Timon is zero-level, so a
simple “Charm Person” would succeed in bending him to your
will. However, the Fraternity has silent alarm systems in
place to detect the use of magic in the courthouse, and
moments later you’ll be facing a Harmonium patrol.

The Harmonium is used to outsiders trying spells like “Charm
Person” in the courthouse - it happens all the time. As long
as you were nonviolent, they’ll just take you outside, give
you a stern talking to, and let you off with a warning the
first time you try it. The leader of the patrol is actually
a little sympathetic: he too finds the bureaucracy to be
exasperating, but the rules are the rules.

In the end, the PCs's best course of action is to actually
play by the rules.  If the PCs decide to go this route,
Timon is quite helpful: he is happy to assist people in
navigating the bureaucracy.  

Timon hands the PCs a blank copy of form CM1-228: REQUEST BY
CASINO FOR INITIAL CONSULTATION FOR ACQUISITION OF
CERTIFICATE OF FAIR PLAY.  This is the form the PCs will
need to fill out to get an appointment.  The form is in an
appendix.  It contains many questions that the PCs couldn't
possibly know the answer to.  The PCs have no hope of just
filling it out.

The PCs may attempt to fill out the form with bullshit. If
they do so, Timon will look at the filled out form and say,
sympathetically, "If I send this upstairs, they'll just put
it in the circular file.  You need to fill in real
information.  Your best bet is to find somebody who has
actually run a casino before.  Pay them for their help.
They will know what to do."

Now, at this point, the PCs should be thinking to
themselves: Green used to own a Casino in the city of Sigil.
What happened to Green's Casino? They should also be
thinking: Green's employees returned to the city of Sigil,
including Edric, the steward of Green's operation.  If the
PCs fail to remember this, let Lada remind them.

## Rico Learns who the Incantifers Are

## The Hall of Records

## The Goblins in the Casino

## Sending to Rennick

The PCs should at this point be of high enough level to cast
the spell "sending."  This spell allows the PCs to send a 25
word message to Rennick.  Each time the PCs cast sending,
Rennick can send up to 25 words back.  

Pretty much no matter what the PCs say, Rennick says:

>  Incantifer, Crow, plans to kill me!  I'm hiding from him.
>  He may be spying right now!  Say nothing!  He's listening.
>  Cast sending again.

At this point, the PCs are likely to have tons of questions.
If the PCs try asking questions, Rennick says:

>  Cannot explain: Crow listening.  Cannot come out of hiding.
>  If you save me from Crow, I will cooperate with you.
>  Will you help?

If the PCs agree to help, Crow says:

>  DO NOT FIGHT CROW!  Too deadly.  Research strengths,
>  weaknesses.  Choose spells.  Raid my stash, buy right equipment.
>  Hire mercenary from Ysgard. When prepared, contact me.

This tells the PCs the rough outlines of what's going on
with Rennick, but it leaves a lot of unanswered questions:

* What is an "Incantifer?"  What are Crow's powers?

* Why does Crow want to kill Rennick?

* How can the PCs find Crow?

* For that matter, how can the PCs *avoid* Crow until they're ready?

* "Hire mercenary from Ysgard."  What mercenary from Ysgard?  What are you talking about?

* "Raid my stash."  What stash?  Where is this stash?

* "Buy right equipment."  What is the "right equipment?"

* Where is Rennick hiding?

The PCs will have to figure out the answers to these questions
by themselves.  Any further attempt to send messages to Rennick
will result in Rennick saying:

> Stop casting sending, too dangerous.  May be possible to
> trace you.  I know you are smart.  Info you need is out there.

Now, that's a lot of open-ended questions.  Fortunately,
Rico Sparks is a big help.  Rico is a tout, an information broker,
so he knows how things work and where to find useful information.
He can do all of the following:

* Rico has heard of the incantifers.  He volunteers to research them.

* He observes that Rennick's coworkers might know something.

* Rico volunteers to find out where Rennick's house is: he will succeed.

* Rico doesn't know who the mercenary from Ysgard is, but he says, "based on the wording, it's clear that Rennick has somebody specific in mind."


Rico also amplifies what Rennick said about "Do not fight Crow".
Rico says:

> Back in Saint Parnas, you guys were big fishes in a little
> pond.  But here in the Cage, you're not in a little pond
> any more.  There are people walking around on these
> streets who are archdemons in disguise.  There are wizards
> who are famous all over the multiverse.  There are
> servants of the gods walking these streets.  If you go
> starting fights with powerful people, you're going to put
> yourselves in the dead book *very* fast.  If this Rennick
> is so scared of Crow, then you would have to be real
> leatherheads to fight him unprepared.



## Rennick's House

## The Mercenary from Ysgard

## The Greatest Show in Ysgard