Terms and Conditions
c. 100 ADW
A coordinated wave of sabotage and theft hits the Industrial Market, robbing Arhm's Arhms and Armaments and Elise's Registry's Index. Master Thalin Fernstride sends the party to investigate, and a tracking bead leads the trail back to the Adventurers Guild Hall itself. There, wounded guild members turn out to be Turncoats rigged with a Glyph of Warding, and every clue—footprints, ledgers, a witness's description—points toward Biscuit. The evidence reveals he is bound by a soul contract to the demigod Aurelian, the guild's first brush with the reality of thralldom.
Referenced In
This module is referenced by the following lore entries:
Legendary Characters
- AkioA tiefling bystander in Kingdom Grand who witnesses one of the Industrial Market robberies and recognizes the thief's guild badge—matching the adventurers' own—but is reluctant to say so where the City Watch might hear.
- ArhmA high elf of the Industrialists who runs Arhms and Armaments, a weapon and armor shop in Kingdom Grand's Industrial Market. He offers a service to transfer enchantments between weapons and stocks pieces such as the Clockwork Crossbow and the Rust-Biter Dagger. His shop is later robbed of a dangerous blade during a wave of thefts.
- AurelianA charismatic demigod who collects mortal souls through Faustian "soul contracts," granting people their heart's desire in exchange for a small keepsake of sentimental value. Unbeknownst to the mark, forfeiting that token severs their anchor to their own soul, letting Aurelian claim them as a thrall—a flawless, emotionless soldier with glowing golden eyes who cannot speak his name or break their bond without their throat searing with divine golden light. His elite agents, the Soul Brokers, broker these deals and bank the collateral in the vaults of New Arcanum, and ordinary magic such as remove curse cannot undo his contracts. Biscuit was the first of his thralls to be uncovered by the Adventurer's Guild.
- BiscuitA cheerful Dogekin member of Master Thalin Fernstride's Adventurers Guild who joined new recruits on jobs around Kingdom Grand. After suddenly striking it rich at the Industrial Market's Merchants Fair, he grew unnaturally tireless—never needing rest, never losing focus, and fighting through wounds that would fell anyone else. When a wave of sabotage and theft was traced back to the guild's own halls, the party discovered the awful truth: Biscuit had unknowingly sold his soul to the demigod Aurelian, becoming one of his mind-controlled thralls. Turned against his friends and beyond the reach of ordinary magic, he was hunted down across the city.
- EliseA human of the Arcane Registry who runs the Registry's Index, a magic shop in Kingdom Grand's Industrial Market, watched over by an invisible eye. She offers a service to transfer enchantments between items and stocks curiosities like Sending Stones and a Bottomless Component Pouch.
- Master Thalin FernstrideA towering Firbolg who serves as the Guild Master of the Adventurer's Guild in the century following the Dead Wars. He has long black hair braided down his back, piercing blue eyes, and dark green fur, and wears a forest green and white Gi. His personality is calm and measured, and he is known for giving inspiring speeches that relate adventuring to baking. He expects discipline and creativity from his guild members. As Holt's treachery unfolds, Thalin grows weary but resolute, coordinating the four great guilds against the threat beneath Kingdom Grand. After the tremors from the Elderdungeon crack the city's streets, he opens a fresh recruitment drive to replace the guild members lost in the fighting, and later leads the hunt for a saboteur hiding inside his own guild. Troubled by a caravan of strangely well-guarded stolen keepsakes bound west, he hand-picks a party and dispatches them across the Western Wastes to New Arcanum to work with his counterpart Alyndor "Aly" Marvale, convinced the thefts are somehow tied to Biscuit's fate.
Locations
- Arhms and ArmamentsA weapon and armor shop in the Industrial Market run by Arhm of the Industrialists. Offers a weapon enchantment transfer service and stocks pieces like the Clockwork Crossbow and the Rust-Biter Dagger. Robbed of a dangerous blade during a wave of Industrial Market thefts.
- Industrial MarketA reopened marketplace in Kingdom Grand where the city's guilds set up permanent shops after the earthquakes. Home to Arhms and Armaments, the Registry's Index, the Cozy Nook, Brews & Potions, the Augment, and the hidden black market known as The Hideaway.
- The Registry's IndexA magic shop in the Industrial Market run by Elise of the Arcane Registry, watched over by an invisible eye. Offers an item enchantment transfer service and stocks curiosities such as Sending Stones and a Bottomless Component Pouch.
Military Units and Creatures
- 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.