From: Festival of the Radiant Arc
Objective: Investigate a series of fraudulent magic items displaying false identification stats that are circulating within the Sky-Piercing Gala.
Detailed Context: An unknown cabal of rogue technomancers has infiltrated the high-tier trade sectors at the Sky-Piercing Gala, selling counterfeit ranged weapons and protective armor plates. These items utilize sophisticated magical shielding to project false stats through the Mind’s Eye of prospective buyers, masking flawed resilience values and illicitly high AC numbers that exceed god-mandated tier limits. A local magistrate appoints the party to use their active identification skills and specialized conduits to look beneath the surface illusions. The investigation requires navigating a web of connections and deceit across secret societies, cross-examining possessed NPCs who are under the influence of false memories, and pinpointing the master forger before a high-ranking ambassador purchases a catastrophic piece of equipment.
Festival Integration: The party must conduct their investigations stealthily among the skyscrapers and floating wooden pavilions during the height of the gala, ensuring they do not trigger a public panic or disrupt the diplomatic relations of the visiting island nations.
Lore: The Weave of Deceit
The high-tier trade sectors of the Sky-Piercing Gala have long been governed by the principle of “buyer beware,” but the emergence of the items created by the Unseen Circuit has crossed from aggressive commerce into outright heresy against the divine order. This rogue cabal of technomancers has managed to exploit the passive function of the Mind’s Eye by coating mundane, brittle alloy plates and mistempered wood with a micro-thin glaze of crushed, low-quality Tier 1 crystal shards infused with illusion magic. This glaze acts as an arcane screen, reflecting a false signature of high durability and illicitly high protection metrics when a buyer scans the item.
The danger is twofold: first, these items possess a hidden resilience rating of less than three, meaning they will suffer a catastrophic failure and shatter into useless fragments upon taking a single blow in battle; second, by projecting false values that mimic high-tier configurations, they entice wealthy merchants and visiting diplomats into violating god-mandated slot restrictions, which will inevitably trigger severe internal pain and health degradation for the wearer. The local magistrate, representing the city’s joint judicial council, fears that if an ambassador from a neighboring island nation within the 3000-mile zone purchases one of these deeply flawed ceremonial armor sets for their royal guard, it could be interpreted as a deliberate act of political sabotage, shattering the fragile peace treaties maintained since the naval wars of the previous century.
Tier One Campaign Parameters
- Required Skills (Trained or Temporary):
- Insight (Cross-Examination / False Memory Detection): 12% baseline minimum chance required to parse the subtle contradictions in the testimonies of possessed NPCs whose core memories have been altered or layered over by the cabal.
- Investigation (Active Identification): Necessary for concentrating for several minutes with a focused magic conduit to pierce the illusionary glaze and read the genuine, hidden statistics of the counterfeit stock.
- Stealth (Gala Discretion): Essential for shadowing suspects across the high-altitude wooden walkways and through VIP lounges without alerting the city guards or drawing the attention of the royal court.
- Preparation and Logistics:
- Acquisition of high-society formal wear or ceremonial sashes tailored to blend in with the elite attendees of the Sky-Piercing Gala.
- Securing an official Magistrate’s Seal or counter-signed merchant credentials to grant legal entry into the private, high-tier floating pavilions.
- Tuning a personal conduit—such as a specialized copper-rimmed monocle or an active identification rod—to the ultraviolet spectrum to trace the residue of the false crystal glazes.
- Operational Costs:
- Gala Admission and Sky-Walk Pass: 5 silver pieces per individual avatar to access the upper skyscraper platforms.
- Informant Bribes: 20 silver pieces (or equivalent value in local non-metal coinage) distributed among the pavilion servants and warehouse attendants to map the web of connections.
- World Bank Transaction Fees: 1% fee on any temporary deposits or escrow payments required to entice the rogue traders into demonstrating their counterfeit wares.
- Positives (Strategic Advantages):
- The entire investigation takes place within a designated somewhat safe area (inside the city skyscrapers), meaning all avatar base AC values are doubled if a localized conflict erupts.
- Exposing a counterfeit item using active identification permanently commits its fraudulent signature to the character’s Mind’s Eye memory, granting an advantage on all future research rolls regarding the Unseen Circuit.
- Negatives (Complications and Risks):
- Accidentally triggering a public panic or causing a diplomatic incident will result in the immediate placement of a Banishment Mark on the offending avatar, alerting guards across the entire island nation.
- Failing to pierce an item’s false stats before handling it can result in the accidental attunement of an illicitly configured object, causing a loss of health points via the d4 irregular interval pain mechanics.
- Tags: Counterfeit, Illusion-Magic, Diplomacy, Technomancy, Mind’s-Eye, Secret-Societies, Sky-Piercing-Gala, Investigation, Intrigue, False-Memory, Forgery, Espionage, Fraud, Magic-Circuits, Corporate-Espionage, High-Society, Skyscraper, Infiltration, Black-Market, Smuggling, Magisterial-Decree
- Mission Rewards:
- Renown Points: 600 Renown Points added to the party’s collective reputation, significantly increasing their social influence among city mayors and guild masters.
- Financial Compensation: 450 Gold pieces cleanly transferred into the characters’ verified World Bank accounts.
- Material Reward: One authentic Tier 1 protective amulet occupying the neck slot, granting a permanent +1 bonus to all Saving Throws against illusion spells and deceptive magic effects.
Mood setting excerpt from:
Scroll of Veiled Eye and False Weight
Chapter IX: The Infiltration of the Gilded Towers and the Shattering of the Mirror
- And there shall come a day when the high towers of glass and brass shall reach into the clouds, suspended by the hot water-smoke and the strings of the air-ships, and the rulers of the seventy-four continents shall sit upon thrones of cedar to trade the iron and the gold.
- In that hour, the sellers of lies shall creep into the high-altitude walkways, their hands filled with weapons that shine with a false light, and they shall pour a micro-thin grease of crushed stones upon the steel plates to blind the Mind’s Eye of the simple seeker.
- For the item shall cry out to the examiner, saying, “Behold my power, for my protection is great and my resilience is like the stone of the mountains,” yet within its core, it is hollow like a dry reed, holding a weight of less than three blows before it perishes into dust.
- And the judges of the land, even the mayors who are chosen by the voice of the city-souls, shall look upon the false weights with great fear, lest the foreign ambassadors be deceived by the Unseen Circuit and the peace of the island nations be turned into a war of iron and fire.
- Go forth then, ye who hold the magistrate’s seal, and enter into the pavilions of the sky-gala with steps that are quiet like the falling oil, wearing the sashes of many colors to blend with the proud relatives of the crown.
- But beware the tongue of the possessed ones, whose head-boxes have been scraped by the rogue technomancers, for they shall speak words that are layered over with false memories, and their teeth shall drop poison to lead your search-path into the dark alleys.
- If ye pull the false armor upon your own skin, or if your fingers bind the illicit bow that exceeds the limits of the five gods, the judgment of the flesh shall find you, and your health pool shall bleed by the turning of the four-sided bones at every irregular interval.
- Let your active concentration be fixed upon the ultraviolet light for many minutes, using the focused copper conduit to see the true shape of the metal beneath the illusionary glaze, for if your sight falters, the master forger shall slip through the city gates unseen.
- And if a public panic should rise like a sudden storm upon the wooden walkways, the officers of the king shall stamp the mark of banishment upon your character, and the alarms shall sound across the whole territory until your avatar is cast out into the wilderness.
- Therefore, keep your party-members within the touch of your shadow, and let your answers be neutral and free from the opinions of the street, for only the precise mind shall navigate the web of deceit and stand before the world bank with an un-shattered name.
Guide Manager’s Operational Directives
- Social Stealth Mechanics: This campaign relies heavily on conversational tracking and discretion rather than brute force. Remind players that the Sky-Piercing Gala is a designated somewhat safe area, meaning all avatar base AC values are doubled, but any overt unsheathing of weapons or casting of loud ritual spells will instantly alert the palace guards.
- Mind’s Eye Tracking: When players use their passive identification, provide them with the false stats generated by the forger’s illusionary glaze. Only when an avatar explicitly expends an action to perform an active identification analysis should you reveal the true, brittle resilience metrics of the items.
Step-by-Step Campaign Progress
Phase I: The Gilded Infiltration
1. The Magistrate’s Commission
The party must rendezvous with Magistrate Varos in a private judicial office located on the lower levels of a central skyscraper. Varos delivers the details of the investigation inline, explaining that the rogue technomancers are compromising diplomatic negotiations. He provides the party with temporary high-society clearance badges and a Magistrate’s Seal. The characters must log Quest ID #3905 into their records.
2. Passing the Spire Gate
The party must ascend via a steam-powered elevator to the upper floating pavilions where the Sky-Piercing Gala is hosted. At the pavilion checkpoint, the avatars must submit to a sensory inspection by the royal court officers. The party must pay the standard sky-walk admission pass fee of 5 silver pieces per individual avatar and ensure their sashes are properly arranged to display their legal credentials openly.
3. Cataloging the First Suspect Stock
The party must mingle within the open-air trade bazaars to locate the suspicious merchandise. They must locate a vendor stall displaying exceptionally high-quality composite bows and polished full-plate armor. Using a passive scan of their Mind’s Eye, the characters will see incredibly high AC values. The players must discretely mark this specific merchant wagon for deeper observation without alerting the surrounding shoppers.
Phase II: Cross-Examination and Shadowing
4. Interrogating the Bewildered Assistant
All party members must corner the merchant’s clerk—a possessed NPC named Elian—while he is retrieving supplies from a nearby storage locker. Each party member must perform an opposed Skill Check.
40 + d20 + Tier Die(s) + Insight Skill Level
versus
GM’s d100 roll
Success for any party member reveals that Elian’s core memories are actively clashing with a set of false memories implanted by the cabal, causing severe cognitive disorientation.
5. Piercing the Illusionary Glaze
While the primary merchant is occupied with an ambassador from a neighboring island country, an avatar must use an action to perform an active identification scan on one of the displayed armor plates. The character must focus their thought through a specialized copper conduit for several minutes. This active concentration pierces the illusionary screen, revealing that the armor possesses a hidden resilience value of less than three and is entirely counterfeit.
6. Shadowing the Courier Across the Sky-Walks
A cloaked courier arrives at the stall, retrieves a lockbox of coin-sized Tier 1 magic crystals used as payment, and departs across the floating wooden walkways linking the skyscrapers. The party must execute a Stealth check to shadow the courier through the dense crowds of the gala. The GM must monitor their progress closely; failing the check risks causing a public disruption, which would result in the placement of a localized Banishment Mark on the spot.
Phase III: Unmasking the Circuit
7. Infiltrating the Hidden Workshop
The party follows the courier to an unmapped, industrial storage room hidden beneath the structural framework of a high-altitude greenhouse pavilion. The room is powered by illegal magic circuits and steam lines tapped directly from the skyscraper’s central manifold. The party must use their True Sight to perceive the bright ultraviolet illumination given off by the counterfeit casting vats where the illusionary glaze is manufactured.
8. Subduing the Rogue Technomancers
Upon entering the workshop, the game enters turn-based mode, and initiative order is established from lowest to highest. The master forger and his assistant technomancers will defend their operations using alchemical tools and short-range projectiles. The party must engage the cabal while remaining within 100 yards of each other to maintain their full Tier 1 tier dice benefits (1d4) against the saboteurs.
9. Securing the Diplomatic Evidences
Once the rogue technomancers are subdued, they leave behind their physical gear to be searched, as they do not possess protective soul-binding items at this level. The party must secure the master forger’s logbook, which details the web of connections linking the counterfeiters to a rival political faction. The party must return this evidence quietly to Magistrate Varos before 11:00, preventing the impending diplomatic catastrophe and securing their financial rewards from the World Bank.