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

The Carrion Bird

Chapter Summary

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.

The PCs met Rennick near Castle Green. Shortly after Rennick parted ways with the PCs, he was captured by Crow. Fortunately, Rennick has a cautious personality, he values his safety, and he plans for contingencies. A long time ago, Rennick purchased a teleportation tattoo from Fell (see "Uncaged: Faces of Sigil" for more information about Fell and Fell's Tattoos). The tattoo was expensive, and for years, Rennick had no occasion to need it. But when Crow captured him, the tattoo saved his life.

When Crow put Rennick into a cell, he of course took away all of Rennick's magic items, but he didn't realize the tattoo was also a magic item. Rennick allowed Crow to brag about himself and his plans, and Rennick learned what Crow planned to do with him. Then, he used up the tattoo to teleport away. Of course, Crow was furious and immediately set out to recapture Rennick. Rennick knew he wasn't safe: he immediately went into hiding.

Up until this moment, there have been very few NPCs in this campaign who are unadulterated evil. Green is greedy, but not a monster, 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.

Character Leveling

The PCs should be raised to Level 5 before starting this chapter.

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 probably have lots of questions about Sigil for Rico. But there is one essential piece of information that you must work into the conversation: you must teach the PCs about portals and portal keys.

One way to work this into the conversation is to have Rico ask about the metal wire on the PCs' arms: he says: "You don't need those metal wires any more. That was just a portal key. You guys know about portals and portal keys?"

Rico then explains: "Supposedly, every door and window in Sigil is a portal to somewhere. Yes, interior doors too. The thing is, most of those portals will never activate, because nobody knows the right key. Key could be anything: it could be a physical object like that loop of wire, but it could also be a song, or a color, or even a mindset - you name it."

Rico is a tool for you, the DM. You can use him to feed the PCs little bits of information whenever you would like to do so. He can help keep the story moving.

The PCs should probably ask Rico where to find Rennick. Rico will answer that he doesn't know who Rennick is, but he knows that any member of the Fraternity of Order, who works in the department of casino regulation, is going to have an office in the Courthouse. So the courthouse is a good place to start looking.

Taking Care of Pig

If the PCs brought Pig to Sigil, 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, rent, 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.

The PCs may decide that playing music is actually a reasonable way to make a few coins. If so, Pig is willing to join the troupe. Feel free to improvise here.

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. If the PCs ask Sergei what he's up to, he explains, "killing Rennick is only illegal if I get caught." 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." No other Xaositect thinks that Sergei is any of these things.

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 servant." When he does, Jinn gets an irritated look on her face, and sometimes she replies: "I'm not your piking servant." Sergei knows how to push Jinn's buttons: "How do you know you're not?" 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 napping or sipping liquor until he wakes up.

Sending to Rennick

The PCs are now at a level where they can potentially cast the spell "Sending." This is a very useful tool for finding Rennick. According to the spell, one must be "familiar" with the recipient. The PCs met Rennick at Castle Green. Whether that's enough to constitute "familiarity" depends on how the PCs interacted with Rennick. If they barely said two words to him, then no, it's not enough. But if they had a good solid conversation with him, then that's enough: he's "familiar." Your judgement call.

Do not feel obligated: if the PCs can't cast sending, they can still complete this chapter just fine.

If the PCs cast sending, then Rennick can respond with a 25-word response. 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.

With that, the PCs now understand the broad outlines of this chapter and what they have to do. However, that still leaves tons of questions unanswered:

• 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.

So Rennick refuses to answer any more 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.

• Rico observes that Rennick's coworkers might know something.

• Rico is confident that he can find out where Rennick lives, when he's not in hiding.

• 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."

Sending to Green

Green is in Beshaba's realm, in the Abyss. Beshaba is allowing him to stay there, even providing protection. This is because she sees the Deck as bait that might lure Tymora to her realm.

If the PCs cast sending to talk to Green, Green will happily answer their questions. He doesn't have any up-to-date information about Rennick, but he knows general facts.

If the PCs ask Green about exactly what he's doing there in Beshaba's realm, or if the PCs just start asking Green more questions than you want, cut them off. Here's how: A goddess is almost omnipotent in her own realm. Beshaba can easily intervene in any sending spell cast into her realm. The PCs cast sending and ask the wrong question. They get a reply that's not from Green, it's from Beshaba:

So, Tymora's little pawns are getting information from my little pawns. I think it's time for me to put a stop to that.

The caster recognizes the voice of Beshaba. The caster ends up with a splitting headache, and two levels of exhaustion. If they're stupid enough to try again, make it even worse for them.

An Appointment with Casino Regulation

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 tired-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.

When the PCs ask for Rennick, Timon says "to get an appointment with the Department of Casino Regulation, you need to be a casino representative, and you need to be requesting regulation for your casino. Here's the form." He hands over a blank CM1-228, "REQUEST BY CASINO FOR INITIAL CONSULTATION FOR ACQUISITION OF CERTIFICATE OF FAIR PLAY."

This is where the PCs next "adventure" begins: a ludicrous mini-quest in which the PCs have to actually fill out a Fraternity form. This will be the PCs' first encounter with a faction, and it is meant to highlight the absurdity of faction ideology. The form is full of over-the-top bureaucratic jargon and impossible questions. The form can be found in appendix XYZ. Filling it out will be a challenge.

Of course, the PCs will beg Timon to just let them go talk to the Department, skipping the formality. That ain't happening: this is the Fraternity of Order. Timon says: "Rules are rules. If you want an appointment, you fill out the form."

Timon is strict, but he's actually quite kind, and patient. If the PCs want, they can try to befriend him, which works. He still won't bend the rules, but he will be as helpful as he can be within the rules.

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.

If the PCs used charm magic, but were nonviolent, the patrol takes the PCs outside, and gives them a stern talking to. "I'm not going to throw you in jail, every damn clueless who comes to the city tries that. If I threw all of you in jail, there would be no room in the jail for anyone else. But don't even think about trying that again." If the PCs complain about the bureaucracy, the leader of the patrol sympathizes: "Yeah, I know, their forms are completely unreasonable. But the law's the law, and it's my job to enforce it." In the end, the PCs's best course of action is to actually just figure out a way to fill out the form.

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. You need to put down information from an actual, real casino. You might want to go to the hall of records and get an actual example of an actual form CM1-228 filled out by a real casino, that might help. The hall of records is the next building over."

It may occur to the PCs to go find Green's Casino, and to look there for clues about how to fill out the form. It takes Rico only an hour to locate the casino (finding entertainment venues for tourists is the bread and butter of touts everywhere.) The casino's real name is "The Golden Hoard," and it's in the market ward, not far. Rico says it's boarded up.

Another possibility is that the PCs may think themselves: Edric, the steward, has probably filled out this very form, and he's in town somewhere. Rico can find Edric too, though it's not as fast.

Edric Says: "Green's Casino is called The Golden Hoard. It gets reinspected every so often. I had to fill that form out last time. Nothing has changed, you can just get the old form from the hall of records and copy everything over. To get that, you'll need the tax ID number for the casino. I'm afraid I don't remember the tax ID number, it's been a while. There's still some old paperwork at the casino building, I imagine one of those old forms has the tax ID number somewhere."

If the PCs go to the hall of records, they end up in a room that looks like a library reading room, with a giant desk. Behind the desk are many "librarians", and a football-field sized room full of shelving units packed with filing boxes. The PCs get in line, and eventually get served.

The hall of records keeps the forms organized by:

• Date,
• Tax ID number,
• Form number.

Those are your choices. You can specify more than one of these. If you ask for anything else - literally, anything else, the librarians will just get annoyed and will explain to you that you have to give them a tax ID number, a date range, and/or a form number.

The librarians also say: "every form retrieved costs 10gp."

If the PCs say something like, "can we just see an example of a form CM1-228," the librarian says, "I can bring you all of the form CM1-228s. There are probably thousands of them, remember, they cost 10gp each."

If the PCs say, "no we just want to see one," the librarian looks increasingly annoyed and says, "No Fraternity member is going to bring you a random form CM1-228. Randomness is not how things get done, we don't do that here. You can pick a form by form number, tax ID number, or date range."

It is possible to get an example of a form CM1-228 while only paying 10gp. The trick is to use a narrow date range. "Bring me any form CM1-228 filed in the last 24 hours." The librarian will look annoyed, go into the stacks, and return saying, "none have been filed in the last 24 hours." Then, the PC can say, "OK, bring me any form CM1-228 filed in the last 48 hours." The librarian will object, saying, "this is wasting my time," to which the PC can say, "I asked for one form, and you refused to do that. Fine. I'm using your rules: I'm giving you date ranges. You made the rules, now you follow them." They can't object: they're the Fraternity. If the PCs keep this up, they'll eventually end up with the most recently-filed CM1-228.

If the PCs don't pull off this trick with the date ranges, the other real option is to go to the Golden Hoard, find the tax ID number, and come back to the hall of records. In that way, the PCs can obtain a CM1-228 from the Golden Hoard, and use it in the same way.

After the PCs obtain a CM1-228, they can copy the information over from that form to their own form, substituting their own name and signature. Then, they give it to Timon. Timon says, "well, you signed this form claiming to be the casino's authorized representative. I know you don't actually work for this casino, so that's misrepresentation."

But, if the PCs got the CM1-228 from the Golden Hoard, and if Edric gave them the go-ahead, they can legitimately claim to actually be authorized. Timon is impressed.

If not, Timon says, "It's misrepresentation, but that's a civil lawsuit, and I don't have standing, so I can't call you out on it. But, if you send this upstairs, it may come back to bite you, in the form of a lawsuit. Your call. Send it up or not?"

In reality, there's no risk of a lawsuit. Nobody is going to check up on this.

Timon gives the form to an imp, who flies it upstairs. The imp returns a few minutes later with a note. Timon says: "your appointment is in 10 minutes. Take those stairs, three stories up, go left, all the way down the hall."

Hazel Senjen, Rennick's Boss

When the PCs enter the Department of Casino Regulation, they are met by Rennick's boss: Hazel Senjen. She is a smallish human. Unlike Rennick, she's not a researcher or a statistician: she's an administrator, she coordinates the department.

She says, "You're the ones who filled out this form?" She tosses it in the circular file. "I know this casino doesn't need a certificate, so what's this about?"

At this point, the PCs can explain their mission, that they're looking for Rennick. As soon as they say this, Hazel looks at Lada, and says, "Wait - Halfling, priestess of Tymora? Are you Lada?" Lada looks surprised and agrees. Hazel says: "Good, Rennick told me that you and your friends would probably show up, he was counting on it." Now that Hazel knows who the PCs are, she trusts them and is willing to share information.

Hazel can tell the PCs the backstory of everything that led up to this moment. Her story will fill in a lot of the missing pieces. You might want to print this whole story out, and just give it to them.

Many months ago, Rennick told me that he had discovered a new technology that allowed him to predict certain random events. Rennick told me that this would be a boon for the Fraternity of Order. I don't understand the technology, I'm not a mathematician, but Rennick was very excited.

He also told me that he found a small box by his bedside, with dice on the cover. He was very suspicious of the box, but he tried to open it anyway. It wouldn't open.

a few weeks later, he came to me looking worried. He said, "I think I've made a huge mistake. This technology is too dangerous. I wish I could put the genie back in the bottle." He also wished he hadn't told so many people about it.

I said to him, "if it's so dangerous, why don't you just burn your notes?" He said, "you know the priciple of the idea whose time has come? Even if I destroy my notes, other scientists are going to rediscover it, and soon. This technology is getting out whether I like it or not. If it does, the universe is piked. I have to do something."

He kept me posted on his progress. Through divination, he figured out the box contained the avatar of a god of randomness. He assumed this god had some interest in his technology, since the box appeared on the day he made his breakthrough. He decided he really wanted to talk to this god: he was sure a god of randomness could help him fix the situation.

He also figured out why he couldn't open the box. The Lady of Pain doesn't allow other gods in the city. It was her power keeping the box sealed tight.

So, he took the box out of Sigil, and opened it. He was really disappointed: it was a deck of many things. He wanted to talk to the god, not play cards. So he did more divination, and figured out: This god is asleep, the cards are its sleeping form. He realized he couldn't get this God's help unless he woke it up first.

He said "to wake somebody up, what do you do? You agitate the ever-living shit out of them." He says, "I can use this deck to create predictable outcomes, instead of random ones, the same way a casino makes a predictable income from games of chance. That would violate this god's core priciples, using its tool, designed to dispense randomness, to create a predictable result. That should aggravate it enough to wake it up, I hope."

I said, "Are you sure you want to deal with a pissed-off god?" He said, "I have to, this is important. I have confidence, I can handle it."

He brought in a guy named Green to help implement his plan. A few months later, he was frustrated that the God wasn't waking up. "Green can agitate anyone, but it's apparently not enough." Then, he told me he had another idea, to raise this God's anxiety level further, but he refused to let me in on that part of the plan. I think he's crazy, deliberately provoking a god, but it's Rennick. When he decides to do something, he doesn't listen to advice.

About a week later, he went to Saint Parnas to catch up with Green. He comes back two or three days later, totally in a panic. He's rushing around, saying, "a guy named Crow is trying to kill me. Capture me, barely escaped. Wants to turn me into a magic item. Going into hiding." He's telling me this, and frantically filling out forms at the same time. He says, "there's people, good people, who I think are likely to show up. Lada, halfling, curly hair, Tymora priestess. Can't remember other names. Help them. I have to run!" Then, he hands me the forms, makes me sign them, and then rushes out the door. Haven't seen him since. Been, what, a week and a half?

Those forms are over here... there you go.

The story not only fills in a lot of information about the past, it also reveals some things about Rennick.

He also thinks he can handle an angry god, which tells you something about his inflated sense of self. He also isn't good at listening to advice. He can't remember the PCs' names, only Lada - he respects her, because she's a theoretical fortunologist like Rennick. But she's the only one he bothers to remember. Overall, it paints a picture of a man who is self-important.

Hazel hands the PCs the two forms that Rennick filed in a panic: XP3-907, "REQUEST FOR TEMPORARY ABSENCE DUE TO CREDIBLE THREAT TO LIFE", and COI-441, "AUTHORIZATION TO VISIT PLACE OF BUSINESS DESPITE REGULATORY CONFLICT OF INTEREST."

The "Request for Temporary Absence" is mostly just silliness. The idea that the Fraternity would have a form to request permission to go into hiding from a psychopath is deliberately ludicrous. But the "authorization to Visit Place of Business" contains a critical clue: the place of business in question is Green's Casino, the Golden Hoard.

Why would Rennick, while fleeing from Crow, want to go to casino that's closed? What could possibly be at a closed casino that would help him deal with Crow? It doesn't make sense. The form itself says: "Show producer may have information which may pertain to my safety." Why would there be a show, and a producer, at a closed casino, and how could a show's producer protect Rennick from Crow?

If the PCs haven't visited the Golden Hoard yet, it's definitely time for them to do so.

Rico Learns About Crow

This is a good time for Rico Sparks to show up and say, "I've learned a little information about the incantifers. 20gp for research plus 5gp for the conversation."

Here are the points of information that Rico can contribute at this point:

• Who the incantifers are: a small sect of wizards who capture individuals, rip the souls out of their bodies, and use that soul to build orbs, which he says is some kind of very powerful magical item that can rapidly cast spells. He knows that Crow has four orbs. He doesn't know what they can do.

• He tells the PCs that there are three known incantifers who occasionally show up in Sigil: Crow, Peregrine, and Albatross. He has no idea how to contact any of them.

• He says that all three of the known incantifers are wanted by the mercykillers. Apparently, the mercykillers attempted a raid on the tower sorcerous a few years ago, but couldn't get inside.

Finally, Rico promises to keep looking for information on Crow. He says he's sure he can find more.

The Goblins in the Casino

Rennick's House

At some point, Rico says, "I've located Rennick's house." (Research cost: 20gp.)

By this time, Rico is fond of the PCs. If the PCs say they're going to Rennick's house, Rico says:

Okay, but really, be careful. Crow might be watching Rennick's house.

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. I really doubt you guys are strong enough to fight Crow. 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.

So go and investigate if you have to, but please, keep a low profile, and get out of there fast as you can.

The Mercenary from Ysgard

The Greatest Show in Ysgard