Other Antagonists

Units

• Elite Slumber CultistAn enhanced version of the Slumber Cultist with improved armor class and hit points. When they drink a dark elixir, they can transform into monstrous forms with abilities like warped flesh (resistance to nonmagical damage), mantis legs (increased speed and leaping), or bear arms (enhanced melee damage). They wield ritual swords that deal slashing and acid damage.
• Elite Slumber Cultist MageAn elite Slumber Cultist with spellcasting abilities. They can cast wizard spells including fire bolt, sleep, ice knife, magic missile, shield, locate object, and detect thoughts. Like other elite cultists, they can transform into monstrous forms by drinking dark elixirs. They attack with quarterstaves that deal bludgeoning and acid damage.
• Haunted OrganA large, animated pipe organ found in the chapel of Tyre Castle. It can move and attack with a slam, and its deafening music can disorient foes.
• Marble GuardianA huge construct guardian made of marble, found in the Ancient Dungeon. It has a powerful, 15-foot reach and can charge up a devastating 60-foot cone of arcane energy from its eyes.
• Roads ThiefA member of the Road Thieves Guild. They are known for their expert parkour abilities, allowing them to jump great distances, and their use of cunning action in a fight.
• Slumber CultistMedium or Small humanoid cultist of the Slumber Cult wearing a black cloak. They have darkvision 60 ft. and use minion mechanics (1 HP for minions, 9 HP for regular). They attack with ritual daggers that deal slashing and acid damage. Some cultists can also use ranged acid attacks. They serve Holt's effort to awaken He Who Slumbers.
• Soul BrokerAn elite agent of the demigod Aurelian, charged with brokering his soul contracts—trading mortals their heart's desire for a keepsake of sentimental value—and with overseeing the thralls and caravans that carry the forfeited collateral to the vaults of New Arcanum. Soul brokers are negotiators before all else, valuing sentiment over gold. Cassius is one such broker. Within the organization, brokers rise through a strict hierarchy of managers, recruiters, and directors—see the Soul Brokers.
• Soul Broker ManagerA mid-level officer of the Soul Brokers who runs the day-to-day of a stronghold like Aurelian's Spire—coordinating shipments of soul tokens, arranging the payouts promised to new recruits, reading the enthrallment ritual from the employee handbook, and sweating under nearly impossible performance metrics on pain of having their own soul token and autonomy revoked. A capable fighter with scimitar and daggers who parries well, though most prefer to let their thralls do the fighting. Durnan Bronzeforge is one such manager.
• Soul Broker RecruiterAn eerily positive salesman of the Soul Brokers who works the lavish, glass-walled recruitment floor of Aurelian's Spire, competing on a crystal-flower leaderboard to sell mortals a dream in exchange for a cherished keepsake. Bound by their own unwitting contracts and strict quotas, recruiters bargain even mid-battle—"every great success starts with a single opportunity"—preferring enchantment-style magic and cover to melee, and honoring any deal they strike to the letter.
• Thrall GruntA soulbound humanoid enslaved by one of Aurelian's soul contracts, serving as muscle and mounted outriders for a Soul Broker's caravan. Thralls speak in a flat monotone, show no pain or fear, and press forward relentlessly, their eyes flashing with golden light. They have advantage on saves against being charmed and are immune to fear, but cannot act against their contract—if one tries to speak its master's name or reveal contract terms, its throat sears with divine golden light. They fight with a mace and heavy crossbow. Expendable thralls also guard the Soul Brokers' warehouses and strongholds, burning evidence and holding doors without fear or hesitation; they can be killed or knocked out, but not returned to their senses—not even by handing back their own soul token.
• TurncoatA member of the Adventurer's Guild secretly turned into a brainwashed saboteur, rigged with a Glyph of Warding and able to keep fighting through wounds that would fell an ordinary person. Melee, archer, and mage variants ambushed the guilds at their own hall during the Industrial Market thefts.
• Ugly DucklingOne of the pair of rotund thugs, with faces even a mother would struggle to love, who serve as The Swan's muscle at the Soul Brokers' hidden archive beneath New Arcanum. Fighting side by side with mace and heavy crossbow, they are far more dangerous together than apart.