Location - Tier 3

Designed by Carlos Cisco

Opulent, Urban, Haunted

A fabulously wealthy city whose obsession with debt haunts its citizens long after they’ve shuffled off this mortal coil.

Distinctions

Gindalia’s rigid class system allows for little in the way of upward mobility. A sprawling and bustling city carved directly into the side of a sheer cliff overlooking a lush valley, rich in veins of unique metal that attracts spirits like a magnet. When refined, this metal can store souls indefinitely. This is not a place for people who adhere to more traditional moral frameworks. Excess and avarice are held up as prime virtues alongside fortitude and hard work. The class system is enforced very seriously by those with a vested interest in preserving power.

Power of Capital

Nowhere is the power of the coin more apparent than Gindalia. Between its influential banks, the immortal Debtguard that walk its walls and patrol its streets, and its vast disparity between the rich and poor, this is one of the best places to live for the wealthy. Magnates populate the highest levels of the city, and represent legacy wealth and wield unmatched power in Gindalia. Merchants, financiers, and wealthy entrepreneurs make up the Mercentalia. Below them are the Essentialia, which is just propaganda-speak for ‘laborers.’ Finally are the debtors, or insolvents as they are referred to, whose arrears follow them long after death.

You might find:

• The Debtguard patrolling the upper levels of the city, harassing anyone not dressed well enough.
• The jingle of a heavy coin purse
• Cloying, expensive perfume… and too much of it.

Political Parties

Lavish balls, treacherous masquerades, and decadent carnivals all serve to delight and intoxicate the senses, on the surface. It’s not in the halls of any senate but rather the drawing rooms and grand balls of the elite. Here politicians shake hands with bank owners, who are in turn whispering advice into the ears of military commanders, who can strong arm merchants, and the chain goes on and on and on. Appearances are paramount here, and fashion is as much a weapon as it is a statement.

You might find:

• A grand masquerade ball where each outfit is more exquisite and ostentatious than the last.
• The peaty smell of whiskey and cigar smoke.
• Low lights and lower whispers.

City of Splendors

Expensive furniture, exotic pets, and lavish decor are all commonplace in this nexus of wealth. Fine dining is easily accessible to those who can afford it. High fashion and art galleries can be found in ample supply. This city caters to the wealthiest of the wealthy, and anyone with substantial coin who’s willing to flaunt it will blend in quite nicely.

You might find:

• A luscious cocktail lounge full of beautiful servers and exquisite delicacies.
• Soft throw pillows and heavy velvet curtains.
• The dulcet notes of a string quartet drifting out from an open sunroom .

Debt Weight

Pneumatite, the spirit caging mineral this cliff face is known for, has birthed one of the most exploitative practices the city is known for: Death Relief When a person of any class dies with debt to the state remaining, they are bound to serve out their remaining payments in death. They work most commonly as a Debtguard, soul animated armor that acts as city watch and military. But personal debts are often fulfilled in much more humiliating ways, depending on the relationship between debtor and lender.

You might find:

• Empty shells of gleaming gold armor patrolling the streets
• The soft scratch of quill on parchment, a deal struck.
• The pale, white glow of pneumatite, as a spirit possesses it.

GM Principles

Make the world lavishly wealthy, exploitative, and treacherous - Gindalia is where coin is considered equally divine to the gods—may seem stable and orderly, but it harbors an undercurrent of exploitation and malfeasance that is hardly divine. Money can buy respect, but how one pursues that wealth is just as important.

Show how capital and class interact. - In order for the fabulously wealthy to exist, there must be those with nothing to their names. The wealthy live lives of luxury, power, and potential. Those without are subjected to exploitation, invisible to the ruling class, and seemingly powerless to change their station.

Wealth is power, and power is displayed openly - The latest dress styles from far-off lands, a coat cut with elemental threads that glow with power, and expensive body modifications that defy logic and reason. Fashion may seem frivolous to those who lack it, but for those lucky individuals who can burn money on luxuries, fashion becomes a form of political warfare and power.

Districts

Coinhalls

Financial District: Most of the city’s wealth ends up in the Coinhalls at some point along its journey… usually forever.

Designer Pets: One will run into all manner of exotic, strange, and hybrid pets both on sale and on walks with their owners..

The Coinhalls contain everything from luxury shopping, exclusive auctions, fine dining, and prestigious banks. All it needs to cater to the ultra-wealthy populace and keep them spending money. The buildings here are made of imported marble and gilded with gold. The cloying smell of expensive perfume hangs in the air. Every interaction is laced with a profit motive. The people further enrich themselves simply by moving numbers around on spreadsheets as opposed to actually working, deciding the fates of thousands with the thoughtless stroke of a pen. Banks and businesses alike are guarded by lockdown automata, each ornately designed to suit its owner’s taste.

Jewel Alley (Location)

Less an alley and more of a cascading thoroughfare featuring some of the most luxurious stores that cater to the bourgeoisie and ultrawealthy. Clothing made from rare wildlife. Galleries and museums filled with art stolen from far-off lands. Banks as large and exquisitely built as any god’s temple. Most impressive of these banks is the Arkvault, a bank with magically entangled vault that has interconnected branches across the Mortal Realm. A playground for the rich where those who work to make this place possible are invisible and the products sold result from suffering and exploitation.

Debtguard (Threat)

“In debt you serve. In death, relief.” A saying coined by one of the first Magnates, and a clever bit of wording that sounds relatively benign. If a debt is owed, it must be paid in full… but at least in death there is relief to be found… right? In truth, the relief means “relief of debt.” For those who pass while holding the shame of debt in their heart and over their accounts, will continue to serve until their debt is paid. The Debtguard is both the standing army and the city watch of Gindalia, composed of soul-animated armors made from pneumatite alloy that house the souls of debtors. It’s a sad existence, that of the Debtguard. Riding like a passenger in one’s own soul, granted agency but once a year.

Madame Ulia’s Auction House (Location)

One of the most notorious auction houses in the entire mortal realm. Renowned for the exquisite art, curios, and artifacts that go up for sale. Whispered rumors of illicit procurement tactics are brushed under the rug. The people who can afford to purchase these items care not how they were acquired. Just that they are now afforded the ability to acquire them. “I once saw a king’s crown go up for auction. And that king is still very much alive and quite unhappy about it.”

Precious, Objectively Beautiful [Highborne Clank, they/them]

Difficulty: 16

Curious, Extravagant, Naive

Experience: Aristocrat +2, Magical Knowledge +1, Socialite +1, Witty Repartee +1

Look: A luxurious and ancient clank composed entirely of thin strips of precious metals woven together around masterfully cut gems.

Motive: Self Improvement. Precious is determined to achieve perfection at all costs, but their view of what that means is skewed by the stratified, wealthy society that created them.

Gaol of the Insolvent

Working Dead: Laborers are often replaced by Debtbound spirits known as insolvents, whose cobbled together forms are a far cry from the ornately armored Debtguards. Kept out of sight, commonly working in foundries, mines, and warehouses.

Lifetimes of Servitude: Most will find their lives were not worth much and woefully discover upon death that they will serve as Debtguard much longer than they lived.

Sometimes called the Soulcage or Debtor’s Woe, the Gaol of the Insolvent is a brutalist testimony to the weight of debt. It’s where spirits in arrears are drawn and bound into pneumatite armors to serve among the Debtguard or as an insolvent. The massive structure is positioned at the base of the city so all who look down upon are reminded of how far they can fall, and how quickly debt can overtake them. Because of this, most prefer to keep their view fixed upward.

Pneumatite Gyre (Location)

Located deep within the Gaol, the Gyre is a two story obelisk of pure pneumatite, with meticulous necromantic rune carvings running its entire length. Surrounding the spire is a howling vortex of spirit energy. Spirits of the dead coalesce here, joining the vortex. Actuarians are assigned to read the debt of the deceased, allowing spirits free of obligation to pass on. Those burdened by debt will often attempt to flee Gindalia so as not to die within the gyre’s reach. The punishment for absconding on one’s debt is eternal servitude.

Insolvency Jubilee (Festival)

One of the most important local holidays in Gindalia. It’s a day when the dead, both Debtguard and insolvents, are granted a day of agency and freedom. It’s a day where they are released from service and may do with their time whatever they desire. While some use this agency to get as far as they can from Gindalia, only to be snapped back into service upon the day’s expiration… Most use their time to reconnect with their families. Some families are visited by indebted spirits from generations long past. On this day, and on this day only, the indebted can collect Arrear Tithes from family, friends, and descendents to help pay down their balances and shorten their terms of service. It’s a day of joyous grief. Visitors who sojourn to Gindalia during the jubilee are often taken aback or horrified by the casual relationship with the dead that many in the city have.

Pneumatilurgic Forge (Location)

Positioned near the Gyre, the Pneumatilurgic Forge is where Isolvents work day and night smelting pneumatite alloy ingots and pressing them into Debtguard armor molds. It’s a place of raging heat as pneumatite has a much higher melting point than iron or steel. The smoke that results is highly toxic and quickly kills any living creature that comes into contact with it. The insolvent laborers, constructed from mispoured armor cast-offs, do the dirty work of creating new armor, further entrenching the city’s status quo in an eternal cycle of debt and repayment. Living laborers used to do this dangerous work, in the early days of Gindalia, but so many of them died that it led to the city’s first uprising, known as the Three Days of Gold Tears.

The Lush Descent

Hedonistic Hotspot: A popular place to unwind after a hard day’s work… for those that want to lose themselves for a week diving into their basest pleasures and hidden desires.

Customers Served Daily: [Redacted]

This long and curvaceous stairway is somewhat of an anomaly in Gindalia. This is a place where class holds no sway and a purse only goes as far as the imagination of that who carries it. A place of art and music and pleasure. While coin is still king the true power sits with the queen, pleasure. Artists, sex workers, and musicians have carved out a life of freedom and fulfillment here. Folks from all walks of life ascend or descend this grand, spiraling staircase in hopes of finding sensations, the likes of which exist nowhere else in the realm. So come take a journey of pleasure beyond compare. Of pain beyond comprehension. An ecstatic exploration beyond the limits of rhapsody.

The Veiled Gaze (Location)

Housed in one of Gindalia’s first pneumatite mineshafts, now decommissioned, is a perpetual dance party. No matter the hour of the day patrons will find this naturally occurring cavern filled with pulsing music, undulating bodies, and the smell of old sweat. There is no charge for entering, but leaving can prove difficult. The lack of any natural lighting makes it hard to tell time underground and folk often lose themselves for a day or two, enchanted by the music and lost in a labyrinth of pulsing debauchery. The rich and poor alike rub shoulders in this cavern of abandon. It’s one of the few egalitarian businesses in the city.

Ferrous Giant (Location)

Atop the falls are a series of massive, tiered hot spring pools and the source of the sanguine waters. Splayed over the springs are the bones of a colossal humanoid, pierced through with a spear three stories tall. The bones are solid iron, and the rust mingling with the spring water creates the flowing “blood” that is seen from below. This is the only colossus in the area that does not have a metal outer shell, leading some to speculate what is actually underneath the frozen colossi in the wastes.

Palace of Enterprise (Location)

A palatial structure with no known owner whose interior changes and warps to suit the most secret, debaucherous, and violent desires of the elite. Rumors swirl about this place… whispers that some who enter do not leave. Some say they’ve seen bones littering the grounds around it. Despite any ugly gossip, it’s still a favorite location to host grand soirees and clandestine meetings. The Palace of Enterprise is well known but rarely accessible but for the privileged few. Some say the Palace is alive, but they’re often laughed out of polite company.

Unwelcome Guests Clock

An action roll’s consequence can always be a mark against the clock.

8 - Unregistered intruders are detected.

7 - Registered guest rooms are sealed.

6 - Entrances, exits, passages, and hallways are shuffled.

5 - Passageways narrow making traversal difficult.

4 - The trappings of opulence bleed away, revealing fleshy walls underneath.

3 - Digestive fluid floods the halls.

2 - Bone spears plunge through the fleshy walls, piercing intruders.

1 - Tooth-filled maws in the walls and floors swallow any remaining intruders.

0 - Intruders are digested.

Power of Pleasure (Feature)

The Lush Descent holds a fascinating grip on the people of this city. It’s as if everyone acknowledges that while coin makes the realm go round… The axis on which it spins is pleasure, play, and fun. Impossible to separate one from the other. For in Gindalia hedonism serves a dual purpose. For the wealthy, who have it all, it’s one of the few sources of exploration and novelty. For the poor, it’s bread and circuses, a means of release… and control. The Magnates understand that cutting the poor off from pleasures and distractions makes them grow angry. Then they organize. Then the whole thing falls apart.

The Goldband

Working Rich: The fierce competition and high rate of failure sees the business owners of this city working harder than most… should they want to keep their station.

Crab Bucket: If anyone starts to rise too fast and far, the rest of the Mercantalia will conspire to ruin them. No one rises, but plenty fall. As cutthroat as the Magnates designed it to be.

Making up a substantial portion of the central cliff face is the district known as The Goldband. Here the Mercentalia capitalize and innovate in order to rise above their station. It’s a place of fierce competition and hard work. Even those who would be wealthy anywhere else in the realm are beholden to their businesses and are caught up in the endless grind of achieving ever-increasing profitability.

The Counting House (Location)

A fine inn by any city’s standards, this retreat wouldn’t rate among the most luxurious domiciles in Gindalia. It’s a new establishment, and there’s still some construction going on as the owner is renovating his recently purchased gambling house next door. Currently, the dealers and games have been moved into the tavern, crowding it and cutting down on the available space. Horton insists that once the renovations are done this place will have the dead skipping the Jubilee to come gamble here instead.

Horton Grippe, Owner of The Counting House [Ridgeborne Galapa, he/they]

Difficulty: 18

Churlish, Hardworking, Scorned

Experience: Bureaucracy +1, Intimidation +1, Shrewd Negotiator +1, Temptation +1

Look: A heavy-set galapa who, in a citythat wholly embraces form, entirely embodies function. They’re unafraid of an apron stain or other indicators of hard work.

Motive: He’d see The Counting House become the premier inn and gambling house in the Goldband, but his rivals at the Hucked Bones and the Platinum Paten have been sabotaging his renovations.

Broker’s Row (Market)

One of the most famous merchant promenades in the realm. While the stores in Jewel Alley boast some of the most exquisite shopping, Broker’s Row is for the more practical consumer. Highly organized, and laid out in a tiered grid where all merchants of a certain type are clustered together. This has led to some customer windfalls when merchants begin competitive price drops. But price gouging and fixing in times of tragedy and hardship is just as common. Poorer locals prefer to wait until they hear whispers of cascading price drops before they do any shopping, sometimes waiting years to replace worn-out equipment or clothing.

Yorb Gameer, Owner of Yorb Logistics [Wanderborne Ribbet, she/her]

Difficulty: 17

Sly, tenacious, covetous

Experience: Animal Handling +1, Quartermaster +2, Shrewd Negotiator +3

Look: A new money ribbet, who’s dressed as if she’s trying a bit too hard to fit in with the old money crowd.

Motive: Driven by insecurity and a covetous nature, she wants to amass so much wealth with her shipping company that she’ll be accepted into the Magnates.

Unshackled Debt (Threat)

This place of business is often one of the unfinished. Merchants will spend their whole lives pushing to accrue more wealth, sacrificing their families, livelihoods, and souls in the process. Some become vaultgeists; hollow, angry shells that consume vast hordes of wealth in their grief. This city, obviously, is no stranger to or is afraid of the dead. Vaultgeists are disturbingly frequent here, as many of the Mercantalia tie their entire self-worth to their wealth. In death, they follow the same path. Unshackled misers are common here. Angry spirits so bound to their wealth that the pull of pneumatite can’t even drag them away from it, resulting in vaultgeists… or worse.

Platinum Point Vistas

2%: The percent of the population that resides in this district.

90%: The amount of the city’s wealth that the 2% of the population controls and hoards.

If the Coin Halls are where the ultra rich go to play and… work… presumably… Platinum Point Vistas is where they return to their palatial homes to lay their heads down on pillows filled with rare bird feathers, nestled into their ornate canopy beds. The top of the cliff, literally. It’s gated, obviously, and is as secure as some of the most well-guarded banks in the city. After all, they can’t have just anyone getting in. The Magnates all reside here, concentrating almost all of the power in the city into the top of the cliff. As always, this is by design.

Gilded Enclave (Location)

Guarded day and night by the Debtguard, this is the closest thing to a government building that Gindalia has. This stronghold is often where the most influential Magnates gather to discuss policy in a formalized setting before they disseminate to various parties, balls, and secret vaults where the wheeling, dealing, bribes, and even assassinations dictate how policy will be decided in Gindalia. Positioned on an outcropping that can be seen from below, it’s a constant reminder of what most wish they could achieve but likely never will.

Regimar Poss, Entrenched Magnate [Highborne Orc, he/him]

Difficulty: 15

Calculating, authoritarian, exploitative

Experience: Aristocrat +5, Religion + 2, Bureaucracy +4, Nobility +10, Veiled Threats +2

Look: Accentuates his albinism with a combination of exquisite makeup and gleaming facial tattoos inked with precious metals. His clothing boasts unassailable silhouettes and design, tailored to his broad form. He’s as striking as he is influential.

Motive: Maintaining the status quo. The top down arrangement of this city works for Gindalia. Or at least for him. Either way, he has no interest in change or upheaval and delegates effectively to keep it that way.

Camila Coruska, Leveraged Magnate [Slyborne Firbolg, she/her]

Difficulty: 16

Paranoid, miserly, bullying

Experience: Deception +3, Shrewd Negotiator +7, Spy +2

Look: Always a season behind the latest Gindalia fashion in looks that would kill anywhere else. Always one or two hairs out of place in an otherwise immaculate stylings.

Motive: Keep her place. She’s one of the few members of the Mercantalia who has risen to be among the Magnates. But it was the Radiant Obligation that got her there, and she knows full well the weight of that particular debt.

Restricted Access (Feature)

Those not among the Magnate class will find their entrance to this district barred by the elite Debtguard who serve as its watchmen. Laborers who work here r must undergo an extensive screening process, looking at their financials, personal ties, and political leanings. Solicitors are unheard of. It’s rumored that someone in the Goldband is selling forged passes. No one has yet discovered their identity.

Austentatious Opulence (Feature)

Something about extreme wealth rots the brain, especially when it comes to decor. It’s uncanny how quickly taste goes out the window in favor of gaudy and garish displays of prosperity. It’s as if each family is trying to outdo their neighbors. Statues, fountains, gates and hedgework surround homes plated in solid gold or encrusted with fine gems. It’s competitive maximalism and excessively wasteful. Those who have visited Platinum Point vistas joke that if the rest of the city ever saw those hideous houses, the Magnates would lose all credibility and be laughed out of the city.

Kaligrasto’flymmar’duk (Kaligra), Dithering Philanthropist [Highborne Dragon, she/her]

Difficulty: 20

Generous, indecisive, fabulous

Experience: Aerial Predator +2, Ancient History +2, Magical Knowledge +2, Spy +2, Wisdom of Centuries +3

Look (Dragon): A serpentine, wingless dragon with scales graduating from mother of pearl to a burnished gold. Every subtle shift or movement sheds coins that were trapped beneath her scales.

Look (Katari): When moving about the city she often dons the disguise of a gold-furred katari bearing the markings and ear tufts of a caracal cat.

Motive: Accumulation and redistribution. There is nothing that Kaligra loves more than the accumulation of wealth… other than redistributing it to those who need it. But she suffers from choice paralysis and cannot often decide who to help. So she helps no one.

Silvercrown Estates

Misleading Nomenclature: Sure, Silvercrown Estates sounds like a great place to live… It’s not.

Dreams of Delusion: Most who live here have bought into the twisted philosophies of Gindalia, believing themselves to be temporarily embarrassed members of the plutocracy instead of simply poor and easily exploited.

The base of the cliff and the foundation that keeps it standing. The name “Silvercrown Estates” is a clever piece of propaganda making a district that is packed with company housing, rife with crime, and with very few of the amenities the rest of the city enjoys. This is the neighborhood of the exploited. Of the labor class. Still, it’s not a place devoid of joy. The folk living under this authoritarian capitalist regime still create art, sing songs, and raise children. Their lives are ones of toil and hardship and many buy into the illusion that they could one day be among those at the top of the cliff. As many of their jobs are disappearing, and being handed over to the insolvent, more and more folks are getting desperate. Some turn to crime. But it’s here that a burgeoning labor movement threatens to upend the delicate social order the Magnates have so carefully constructed.

Pneumatite Mines (Location)

Once a bustling mine, where laborers could be seen entering and exiting at all hours of the day, now folks never see a living soul enter or exit. After a series of accidents, the Magnates have cut back on the number of laborers working in the mines, slashing their hours and laying off hundreds of folks only to be replaced by insolvent workers. Today, the mines are almost entirely devoid of living workers. While this is cited for safety reasons, the truth is that the Magnates no longer saw any reason to pay the living when the dead already owe a debt. Recently it’s been more and more common to see protests outside the mine. The picketers wave signs and sing songs about the power of living labor.

Company Housing (Feature)

The labor class of Gindalia resides in a state of perpetual precariousness. No one who lives in Silvercrown Estates owns their house. They are all leased to the worker as part of their job. Depending on what kind of job that is, that could mean anything from a comfortable single family home to an overstuffed dormitory. Because the laborers live under the threat of homelessness should they lose their job, they are often obedient and efficient workers. But the stress takes a toll, leaving most in poor health and with shorter lives. A business shuttering almost always leads to a cascading series of predatory loans, failed repayments, and an ocean of debt. Working exactly as the Magnates intended, this is how the Debtguard maintains such robust numbers.

Burgeoning Solidarity (Feature)

The people have had enough. There is a growing undercurrent of rage spreading through the Essentialia like wildfire. And it’s different than just the typical dissatisfied grumbling. People are waking up to the fact that it doesn’t have to be this way. This is a city of immense wealth and somehow it all ended up at the top, with the people who do the least. In secret places, hidden from the gaze of the Magnates and the cold grip of the Debtguard, meetings are taking place. The tavern workers compare pay stubs beneath Viridian Field’s Pub. The tailors and textile laborers discuss worker safety in the back room of the Trench Goat Tavern. The former miners, and their now adult children, discuss plans to seize the means of production. Unions are forming. Solidarity is growing. And the Magnates are oblivious. The Magnates have unintentionally set the kindling, and built the bonfire, of their own demise. All it needs is a powerful spark to ignite into a conflagration that will burn this system to the ground. Even ash is better than this.

Factions

Radiant Obligation

Infinite Growth: There is no peak high enough or sea deep enough that the Radiant Obligation would not have designs of exploiting it in some way.

Versatile Leverage: Money isn’t the only way to control someone, especially those who don’t need to worry about it. Reputation, scandal, blackmail, and forgery are all common tools in their kit.

A villainous organization with designs on soft domination of the entire mortal realm, through controlling the ebb and flow of currency. Their temples are banks. Their gospel is coin. Their priests… they’re accountants. They idolatrize and extoll those born into or who have achieved wealth while scorning and ignoring the struggles of those that have not. They spread throughout the realm like a malignant, capitalistic tumor by way of their Arkvaults. Some believe them to have founded Gindalia, though the Radiant Obligation would take no such credit, preferring their names to be left out of historical records. Numerous Magnates in the city fall among their ranks, and many more are pressed under the thumb of obligation, usually a scandalous debt weightier than gold. They prefer to exploit the debt of the living, rather than the dead, largely eschewing the service of the Debtguard unless absolutely necessary.

Entangled Arkvaults (Technology)

Boasting a security force that rivals that of the most powerful monarchs in the realm, and an arcane trap-laden approach to a locking mechanism designed by the greatest minds at Brightmark University. No one has ever robbed an Arkvault successfully. While some have made it inside, surviving the escape has, so far, proven impossible. Most of the realm’s wealth flows in and out of this bank and its subsidies, all of which are magically entangled and share the same enormous vault in an undisclosed location. The local branch is competitively placed in Jewel Alley among the Coinhalls. Should the Radiant Obligation need something to disappear it’s as easy as moving it through an Arkvault to another part of the realm.

Capital Control (Threat)

The Radiant Obligation prefers soft power and veiled threats over overt shows of violence and force. If you can pay someone to look the other way once, it’s a sure bet it can be done a second time. They understand that dominance requires patience, time, and investment. What most see as the long game is the short game for them. Where most are concerned with their day to day survival, they’re, reading the flow of the markets and making moves that will impact generations to come. But most folks will never realize the true source of their problems or misery. Bribes, blackmail, fabricated scandals, and forged claims of lineage or ownership are the bread and butter of the Radiant Obligation. Why get their hands dirty when just a few coins keeps those white gloves clean?

Boundless Coffers (Feature)

The Radiant Obligation has wormed its way into most major metropolises, and even some smaller but economically viable locations. Once they sign a new customer, they immediately begin using that money to grow their own coffers. Imagine this being done by Actuarians in every city across the realm to multiple wealthy clients. Through investment portfolios, real purchases, and hostile acquisitions they are in a constant state of growth. The Radiant Obligation requires its Actuarians to bring in increasing profit margins every quarter, lest they quickly lose station within the organization.

Principles

The Radiant Obligation is not a consortium with a strong moral foundation, but it is a place of conviction and staunchly held beliefs. Even if those beliefs lead to a near universal disdain towards those they see as lesser than them. And those lesser merely exist to be exploited.

• A life without expansion, growth, and prosperity is not a life worth living.
• Everyone has a price. Everyone.
• Those beneath you are merely rungs on the ladder to your own greatness. Do not hesitate to step on them.

NPCs

Fortinbras Le’Quain Relkist III, Grand Actuary of the Radiant Obligation [ Highborne Human , he/him]

Difficulty: 16

Calculating, Avaricious, Authoritarian

Experience: Aristocrat +3, Bureaucracy +3, Commander +2, Nobility +3, Shrewd Negotiator +2

Look: A rail thin man dressed like a cross between a high priest and a bank executive whose gaunt features betray expensive magical anti-aging treatments.

Motive: He seeks control of the realm’s purse strings so that he continues his agenda of “effective altruism” which is just him controlling where and what is funded, supported, and who holds power.

Oskar Zahk, Wary Ecclesiarch [ Loreborne **** Katari , he/they]

Difficulty: 14

paranoid, brilliant, volatile

Experience: Magical Knowledge +3, Bloodhound +2

Look: Eccentric scholar chic. It’s clear he has great wealth so he chooses to look that way. Too many straps and buckles for books and scrolls.

Motive: Progress has stagnated. Innovation has died. We have failed as an age. Gods. Mortals. All of it. Starting over from scratch is the only way to make things right again.

Nama Ho’o, High Vaultmaster [ Highborne **** Giant , she/they]

Difficulty: 18

stubborn, imposing, effective

Experience: Ambusher +2, Forbidden Knowledge +1, Military Scholar +2

Look: Conservatively lavish, favoring practically valuable items over gaudy opulence.

Motive: Forever tuning and improving the defenses of the Arkvault, she’ll never be satisfied.

Jun Yoo, Radiant Mouthpiece [ Highborne **** Faerie , he/they]

Difficulty: 17

Duplicitous, charming, haughty

Experience: Aristocrat +3, Nobility +2, Spy +2, Socialite +2, Veiled Threats +1

Look: Effervescent and effortlessly fashionable. Not one hair out of place, nor a stray thread.

Motive: Overseeing their network of blackmail, bribes, and political dominance to ensure their power never wavers.

Story Hooks

A regional Arkvault has gone dark, untangling itself from the central bank. They need to know why and how.

One of the Magnates the Radiant Obligation has leverage over has begun speaking out of turn and they need them silenced. Permanently.

A state Actuarian’s audit has determined that a recently deceased member of the Radiant Obligation will serve out their arrears as a Debtguard. Jek needs someone tofree the soul from its weighty dues.

The Bankskimmer Union

Banks Robbed: Said to be hundreds but actually ten. But they do nothing to dissuade the rumors. It’s great street cred.

Just Stumbled Into It: They, like most folks here, are motivated by gold. At least they were. They had no intention of becoming labor heroes… but here they are.

When a group of out of work friends and colleagues realized their particular set of skills would be a quite useful combination when it comes to robbing banks, they did just that. Starting small, at one of the lenders in the Goldband, they quickly moved up to the Coin Halls and gained a reputation as compassionate criminals. They rarely took lives unless they were forced to, and were generally convivial with any hostages. When escaping, they became known for using portions of the gold they stole to help throw off the Debtguard by dumping bags into the streets of Silvercrown Estates and slipping away through the crowds. They had no intention of becoming the nexus of communication and resources that is bankrolling the various burgeoning unions. What started as a group of friends trying to make a purse for themselves has become a tight-knit union working to better the lives of everyone in Gindalia. Even if it means burning the whole system to the ground.

Crack Team (Feature)

While their fingers and influence reach throughout the Essentalia, their membership consists of only five people. Exra and Pallas Finn are the masterminds behind the group and have been married a long time. Crem Golsimer is a former Magnate who fell into disgrace after they tried to make some labor-favoring public policy changes. Tula Garr is the prodigal daughter of one of the most influential merchants in the Goldband and a brilliant arcanotechologist. Nolo Finn is the great, great, grandfather of Exra and one of the few Debtguard that has managed to unburden himself of his debt. Unlike most, instead of moving on, he purchased his armor and stuck around in hopes of ending this barbaric practice. They are small but mighty, and any touched by their efforts are immensely grateful. A local bard wrote a song called “Bankskimmer’s Cut” that’s sung on picket lines and wildly popular in taverns throughout Silvercrown Estates.

Multiple Hideouts (Locations)

The advantage of only having five members is it’s easy to stay mobile. They have hideouts peppered throughout the Silvercrown Estates, along with hidden caches of equipment and supplies, and friendly faces that are willing to overlook things they shouldn’t see, or to open the right door at the right time. They don’t enjoy as much influence in the Goldband but the owner of the Counting House has let them stash tools and supplies among the renovations of their gambling hall. The Coin Halls have a single point of safety for them, inside a gallery on Jewel Alley owned by Crem’s cousin. These hideouts are little more than back rooms or tiny apartments. They aren’t elaborate or trap filled fortresses. Decentralization and ease of movement has been the key to their success and they have no intention of changing things.

Galvanizing Force (Feature)

With every success their power and influence grows, but so does the morale and spine of every laborer in the city. Being born into an exploitative and unjust system can make it hard to see what better life could lie outside of it. It’s not the fault of the oppressed that the systems that they prop up keep them down by design. When the people see someone standing up to the broken system and creating change, it empowers them to do it themselves. The Bankskimmer Union has become a mote of hope for those without… that things can be better.

Principles

The Bankskimmers union holds no formal code of conduct or ethics. They simply operate under the simple assumption that everyone who is wealthy is that way because they have exploited someone else. Thus, relieving them of their wealth is simply balancing the scales.

• Only take from those with too much and take as much as possible when doing so.
• Give the people their cut. It’s already their money to begin with anyway.
• Power belongs to the people, not the coin. But coin still feeds people.

NPCs

Exra Finn, The Organizer [ Slyborne **** Simiah , she/her]

Difficulty: 18

sneaky, driven, inexorable

Experience: Ambusher +2, Commander +2

Look: Similar to a Vervet monkey, with gray and white hair covering her body. Draped in loose fitting clothing, giving her a full range of movement with a dagger hidden in every fold.

Motive: Redistributing wealth from the rich to herself. If there’s time they can get to everyone else.

Pallas Finn, The Alchemist [ Slyborne **** Drakona , she/her]

Difficulty: 16

Unpredictable, volatile, loyal to a fault

Experience: Alchemist +2, Forbidden Knowledge +1, Intrusion +3

Look: A stout, violet scaled drakona wrapped in voluminous robes containing a seemingly endless supply of alchemical bits and bobs. Always smells of smoke and sulfur. Singe marks on the edges of her robes and a couple of missing fingers suggest somewhat unpredictable working conditions.

Motive: Break the class system that is holding everyone down and keeping Exra focused on the bigger picture.

Crem Golsimer, The Face [ Highborne **** Orc , they/them]

Difficulty: 17

sly, comforting, stoic

Experience: Aristocrat +1, Nobility +1, Intimidation +1

Look: An older silver tongued orc (literally) dressed in fineries that suggest a few stations above “petty criminal” —pretty criminal is closer to the mark.

Motive: A quiet life. But also revenge on Regimar Poss, the Magnate who destroyed their life.

Tula Garr, The Tech-Wiz [ Slyborne **** Halfling , she/her]

Difficulty: 15

brilliant, nimble, tenacious

Experience: Alchemist +2, Feigned Competence +2

Look: A teenage halfling, alchemical prodigy, saddled with a strange metallic rig that looks like it contains a multitude of attached tools.

Motive: Learn as much as she can from Pallas in order to build a better tomorrow. Even if that build results in some explosions today.

Nolo Finn, The Muscle [Unshackled Debtguard , he/him]

Difficulty: 19

gullible, fearsome, undeterred

Experience: Huge +4

Look: The hollow armor of a Debtguard, painted over with flowers, dragons, and a few too many dead tax men. He humors the children in Silvercrown Estate, letting them paint him regularly.

Motive: Free the Debtguard. He knows firsthand what it means to be bound into service after death. He wants that practice to end.

Story Hooks

The Union is planning a heist of the Arkvault, and looking for reliable help to fill the gaps in their team.

The Magnates have gotten wind of the Tavern Workers union’s meeting location and have sent the Debtguard to round them up. The Bankskimmers would see them protected.

Tula thinks she can reverse the flow of the Pneumatite Gyre, but needs some assistance testing her newest invention: the Deblifter.

Resources

	MOMENTS OF HOPE		MOMENTS OF FEAR
1	An aristocrat empties his coin purse on the street, attracting a crowd.	1	A passing merchant kicks a beggar. No one bats an eye.
2	A Debtguard knocks on the door of their family home, eager for a reunion.	2	The hard clink and heavy footfalls of Debtguard armors approaching.
3	A home cooked meal, surrounded by friends.	3	A family is forced out of company housing and onto the streets.
4	An unexpected, and rather large, Writ of Inheritance is delivered.	4	The Debtguard round up protestors, carting them off to prison.
5	The clinking of Debtguard armor falling to the ground, empty. Its occupant freed of obligation.	5	A Magnate sends down a tithing decree, forcing the already impoverished to scramble for any extra coin.
6	A robust wine of exquisite and rare vintage.	6	A lockdown automaton swivels its head ominously.
7	A stylish fur-lined coat that feels perfectly tailored.	7	A blaring alarm sounds as shadowy figures flee from a bank.
8	A merchant offers an excellent deal on scrolls and potions.	8	A man close to death tries in desperation to unload some of his debt.
9	The cliff glitters in the morning sun, glinting off all the precious metals that cut through the sheer face.	9	The staff of a tavern was just replaced by insolvent workers.
10	Songs of solidarity from protesters outside the mines.	10	A state Actuarian performing door-to-door, pre-death audits.
11	Children playing stickball in the streets offer an invitation to join.	11	An unhoused family is swept off the street by the Debtguard.
12	Bottle service at a swanky lounge, poured by an exquisitely beautiful server.	12	The acrid scent of the toxic fumes spewed out of the Pneumatilurgic Forge.

Rumours

A vaultgeist has overtaken one of the personal vaults of the wealthiest Magnate in the city.

A burgeoning union among tavern laborers is forming, but the Magnates would see it quashed.

As whispers of war drift in from a neighboring nation, one of the Magnate’s has been offering reduced arrears if citizens will join the Debtguard today. The poorest of Gindalia have been offering their lives too early in hopes of a shorter term of service.

A lockdown automaton has malfunctioned and trapped a bank full of customers and employees inside.

A member of the Mercentalia has petitioned for entry into the Magnate class, and must unload some incriminating debt before Actuarians discover it.

Equipment

Pneumetic Spear - Agility Melee - d10+6 (phy) - Two-Handed

Feature: Soulshear (For 24 hours after a person is killed with this spear, spend Hope to add an additional 1d10 magic damage to attacks)

Primary Weapon

Miser’s Bulwark - Finesse Melee - d4+4 (phy) - One-Handed

Feature: Avaricious Hunger (You may feed the shield up to 5 handfuls of gold per long rest. When you do, add +1 to your armor score for each you add until your next long rest.)

Secondary Weapon

Magnate’s Tunic - Base Score: Variable

Feature: Liquidity Bastion (Your base armor score is equal to the handfuls of gold you are currently carrying. This armor cannot be repaired.)

Armor

Items

Savings Pouch. A magically entangled set that includes a coin pouch and a gilded chest. When coins are deposited into the pouch they are instantly transferred to the chest, so long as the two objects share the same plane of existence. This effect is one way only and coins can only be recovered directly from the chest.

Fast Fashion. Enchanted threads woven through these garments allow the user to shift the color, structure, and silhouette of whatever they’re wearing on a whim. However, when removed the garments instantly revert to their original form.

Silver Tongue. A hollow metal tongue with attached molar bands. When worn over one’s own tongue they are granted the advantage on Presence checks to persuade or deceive.

Consumables

Propagator Coin. When this seemingly unremarkable coin is thrown at an object or creature it doubles itself, then both doubles again, and again, and again… This continues until a ten foot cube is filled with coins. Once thrown, the propagator coin and all resulting duplicates disappear after 1 hour.

Promissory Note. A devious enchantment created by the mortal realm’s greatest con artist. The holder can walk into any bank and hand this ensorcelled piece of parchment to a teller who will relinquish the contents of one random safety deposit box. Feel free to make up your own or use the following table of safety deposit boxes:

• 1-2: A box containing birthright papers and detailed lineage reports of what appears to be an illegitimate goblin royal heir.
• 3-4: An old thief’s forgotten stash containing detailed plans to crack the Arkvault.
• 5-6: A cursed necklace that emanates power and refuses to let go of the wearer.
• 7-8: A powerful magic weapon whose previous owner still seeks control of it.
• 9-10: A deed to a local manor that has lain empty for years and is presumed haunted.
• 11-12: A mysterious egg.
• 13-14: An invitation to an exclusive party at the Palace of Enterprise, addressed directly to the adventurers.
• 15-16: A dangerous prophecy that, once read, marks the party for death at the hands of a mysterious cult.
• 17-18: A forbidden scroll of magic contains a spell outlawed long ago.
• 19-20: A box of gold and gems worth 1 chest of gold.

Showstopper Elixir. Whoever drinks it will feel no direct effects, but to everyone around them, they will suddenly be stunning, terrifying, or awe inducing. Used most commonly by those who wish to make an entrance. Within one hour of drinking this potion, you can choose to make a Presence Roll at advantage against a close target whose attention you want to capture. On a success, you do it, narrowing their field of view and drowning out any sound but your voice.

Adversaries

Debtguard

Description: A soul fused to armor to continue service beyond death.

Motives & Tactics: Crush, Extract, Put their Might on Display

Tier: 3

Type: Standard

Difficulty: 15

Attack Modifier: +4

Warhammer: Melee | 3d8 phy

Major 12 | Severe 30

HP: 5

Stress: 4

Experience

Intimidation +1

Unveiled Threats + 1

Veiled Threats +2

Features

Magnetic Accounting - Reaction

When the Debtguard deals HP damage it may mark a Stress to cause the target to lose 1 handful of gold per HP dealt. The gold adheres to the head of the warhammer, increasing its damage by 1d8 for every 2 handful stuck to it.

Leverage Assets - Action

Mark a Stress to detonate the head of the warhammer, sending gold flying like shrapnel. For every handful of gold adhered to it, deal 1d8 damage to all targets within Close range. Targets may make an Agility Reaction Roll (15) to take half damage.

Lockdown Automaton

Description: Massive statues placed in precious metals, designed to prevent theft.

Motives & Tactics: Slow, Apprehend, Decimate

Tier: 3

Type: Bruiser

Difficulty: 17

Attack Modifier: +4

Massive Sword: Very Close | 4d10 phy

Major 22 | Severe 45

**HP:**7

**Stress:**5

Experience:

I See You +3

Features

Heavy Pockets - Action

Spend a Fear to weigh down their opponents by using their wealth against them. Choose a target within close range, for every bag of gold they are holding temporarily reduce their Agility score by 1. This condition ends when they reach Very Far range from the Lockdown Automaton or they drop all their gold.

Golden Arc - Action

+2 Attack Modifier

Mark Stress to make a Massive Sword attack against all enemies within close range. Any targets hit suffer 4d10 phy damage.

Conductive Metal - Reaction

When attacked with magic damage, mark 1 Stress to add 2d8 magic damage to Lockdown Automaton’s next attack.

Vaultgeist

Description: The covetous ghost of a rich person bound to their hoard.

Motives & Tactics: Decimate, Spread, Regenerate

Tier: 3

Type: Solo

Difficulty: 18

Attack Modifier: +6

Coin Spray: Far | 3d10+8 phy

Major 25 | Severe 50

HP: 6

Stress: 6

Experience:

Intimidation +1

Unveiled Threats + 1

Veiled Threats +2

Features

Loose Gold - Passive

During this encounter there may be preexisting piles of Loose Gold or ones created by the vaultgeist. Assign an HP value to these equal to the amount of handfuls of gold they are comprised of. The vaultgeist can absorb up to 5 HP beyond its maximum.

Hostile Acquisition - Action

Mark Stress to suck in the wealth around this adversary to heal it. All PCs within close range holding gold must make reaction roll with Strength (16) to hold onto their money. Failure results in the loss of up to 1 handful of gold. The vaultgeist heals 1 HP for every handful of gold stolen in this way. Vaultgeist also absorbs other gold as per the Loose Gold feature, gaining HP equivalent to its value.

Fiscal Irresponsibility - Action

+6 Attack Modifier

Spend 2 HP to shift this adversary’s form into a heavy orb of gold coins, making an attack roll to smash down on a target within very close range. On a success, deal 4d10+8 phy damage. This creates a pile of Loose Gold worth 1 handful on top of the target.

Covetous Howl - Action

Mark a Stress to emit a howl that causes all gold within close range to vibrate violently until the Vaultgeist is defeated. Each creature within range that has gold can take 1 damage for each handful they’re holding, or choose to cut their coin purses loose, creating a pile of Loose Gold at their feet (that the Vaultgeist can use for HP).

Miserly End - Reaction

Upon its death, the vast treasure hoard comprising the vaultgeist tarnishes to worthless tin, but any gold stolen during the encounter is available to take.

Environments

Radiant Obligation Bank

Description: Stronghold-temple of the worst among Gindlia’s plutocrats, a testament to cancerous greed.

Tone & Feel: Opulent but heartless, tidy yet soul-stained.

Tier: 3

Type: Exploration

Difficulty: 18

Potential Adversaries:

Debtguard, Lockdown Automaton, Vaultgeist, Banskimmer’s Union Thieves

Features

Temple of Greed - Passive

Access to any part of an Arkvault is tightly-controlled. Access is allowed only by specific invitation or through presenting yourself with impressive deception via forgery, lush garments, and more. (Presence 17). PCs that gain entry may get a tour of the Arkvault’s facilities and security features, but access to the vaults themselves are another matter.

Who can you trick or bribe into inviting you to visit? What persona do you adopt to bluff your way inside?

Undying Vigilance - Reaction

Any character noticed where they shouldn’t be is intercepted by 1d4 Debtguard who will take them back to ‘acceptable’ areas if they appear like they belong or arrest them if they don’t. If the PCs slip past the Debtguard, activate a Lockdown Automaton to intercept them at any major entrance or exit.

Who are these debtguard? What pointless ornamentation was actually a magical sensor?

Arkvault - Passive

Breaking into an Arkvault requires a Progress Countdown (8) to successfully align the entangling co-location runes. Characters with the unique vault key (held by the Bank Manager) may tick the clock down twice for free.

What does the vault door look like? Which of the entangled vaults are the PCs trying to access and how can you tell them apart?

Another One for the Hoard - Action

Spend a Fear to reveal that this vault has been possessed by a Vaultgeist, jealously guarding their hoard.

Who was this Vaultgeist in life? What remnants of their memory and personality remain, not yet consumed by avarice?

Pneumanite Mine

Description: A tightly-controlled mine, worked almost entirely populated by the insolvent dead.

Tone & Feel: Rich yet hollow, the boiling-over rage of the living

Tier: 3

Type: Traversal

Difficulty: 16

Potential Adversaries:

Debtguard, Stonewraith, Acid Burrower, Katari Burglar

Features

Do Not Cross - Passive

Protestors form a picket line outside the mine, decrying the exploitation of the dead and demanding a chance to earn a literal and figurative living.

Can they provide cover for your entrance? Do you join them and incite a riot?

The Dead Don’t Need to Breathe - Reaction

The tunnels and shafts of the mine are not safe for the living. When characters travel below the surface level, activate a Countdown (Loop 4) that ticks down any time a character rolls with Fear. When triggered, each character must mark Stress from smoke and fumes.

Tunnels & Shafts

The stairs and tunnels are barely safe enough for the debtguard, let alone the living. Moving up or down a level or navigating to a particular part of the mine requires an action roll (suggested: Finesse for moving safely through an unstable tunnel, Agility for climbing/descending, Instinct for navigation).

Cave-In - Action

Spend a Fear to trigger a cave-in caused by lax safety standards and rapacious mining. All characters within a Far distance must make an Agility Reaction Roll (16) or be pummeled by rocks, taking 2d8+20 phy damage and marking 2 Stress (half damage and 1 Stress on a success). Digging out or through a collapsed tunnel requires a Progress Countdown (8).

Madame Ulia’s Auction House

Description: Renowned for exquisite art, curios, and artifacts. Whispers of illegal procurement tactics are brushed under the rug.

Tone & Feel: Eclectic and covetous, refined yet excessive.

Tier: 3

Type: Social

Difficulty: 17

Potential Adversaries:

Bladed Guards, Merchant Baron, Monarch, Spy, Courtesan

Features

Unparalleled Selection - Passive

Madame Ulia’s offers the greatest treasures you’ve ever seen. Roll 5d12+12 on the loot tables (p.XX) three times to select the marquee items for the day (on a 61+, create a legendary item or enhance an item between 51-60). Anything below 20 on the Item and Consumable lists are also available.

Who is selling the items and what villainy was required to acquire them? Who else wants these items?

What Am I Bid? - Passive

During the auctions, PCs may bid on any item. They make a Presence roll (17) to see how well they handle the auction. On a success with Fear, it costs more than they’d imagined. On any failure, they have to bid more than they have or let someone else win.

Cut a Deal - Passive

Characters can attempt to convince other interested parties to not bid by promising favors, making other trades, coercion, or other methods. On any failure in those attempts, Madame Ulia’s people may ask to have a word with them about interfering in house business. Summon 1d6 Tier 3 Bladed Guards to ‘escort’ them to the auction manager’s office.

Information is the Greatest Treasure - Action

Reveal a Spy or other agent of an adversary in the scene, eavesdropping on the party. The PC with the highest Instinct or best chance to notice the Spy makes an Instinct Reaction Roll (17) to notice the observer. If they fail, they can mark Stress to know that they’re being observed but not where the observer is.

Who do they work for? Were they here for you, or was this a happy coincidence?

A fabulously wealthy city whose obsession with debt haunts its citizens long after they’ve shuffled off this mortal coil.