Strange Note

Zadara has an office in the Lady’s Ward in a multistory fieldstone tower. It’s covered in razorvine and large blades and features a 25 foot tall door guarded by two sword archons, Kubriel and Gog. They are eight foot tall humanoid celestials with white hair and beaked noses. They wear copper breastplates and have wings for arms, which they can transform into blades for battle. If necessary use warden archon stat blocks, but they have a 60’ fly speed and can’t bite or grapple.

Upon approaching the archons Kubriel asks their business and if they have an appointment. They can be persuaded to speak with Zadara with a DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion or Deception) check. If they fail Kubriel says that they must schedule an appointment.

Unfortunately Zadara is booked out for months, and only matters of coin could change that. “Right, Gog?” Gog will slowly nod and bring his eyes to a small garden fountain with gold coins collected in the bottom before expectantly raising an eyebrow. A bribe of 10gp will get Kubriel to act. Alternatively the characters can present the note, which will buy them an introduction.

Once they secure the meeting Kubriel flies up to the highest window. After a few minutes he returns and allows them in through a side door that opens up onto an elevator. He tells the characters to be aware that Zadara prefers those that speak plainly and quickly.

The elevator is a permanent Tenser’s floating disk that can hold thousands of pounds and only moves vertically. The command words to move it are the celestial words for “ascend” and “descend”.

Elevator Pitch

The characters slowly rise up a circular shaft decorated with a bas relief depicting a strangely dressed tribe worshiping a goddess cloaked in the night’s stars. They rise twenty feet into the air and stop before a chain curtain.

“Come forward,” a booming voice echoes from beyond the curtain. “You have thirty seconds to prove you are worth my attention.” You push your way past and find yourself on a balcony staring into the face of a literal titan.

Zadara is sitting down and you’re still not quite at eye level with her. She has rich brown skin and short dark hair. A golden circlet frames piercing blue eyes, and her lapis dress and shawl are studded with golden stars that twinkle and swirl.

She sits in a cavernous chamber decorated with hundreds of vibrant paintings and twisting sculptures carved from exotic materials. She taps a golden hourglass and says, “Quickly. You’re wasting your time.”

They stand on a railed balcony before Zadara (neutral empyrean). Give the characters a short window to make their pitch. If they produce the note or succeed on a DC 21 Charisma (Persuasion) check she takes interest in them. This moves her from a neutral to a positive disposition. If they fail to catch her interest she frowns and sighs in disappointment.

Either way she begins to speak then suddenly stops and tilts her head with a questioning look. She stares at each of the characters for a long moment then continues.

“Hm, how curious. My kind are made from life’s very essence. Some of us are bound to truth, others to justice, but my soul is woven from potential itself. I can see the limits of potential within others. It has served me well in business and in art.”

“But you here…with each of you I see many threads spinning out into darkness. An unknown.” She smiles. “How interesting.”

Jink for the Chant

If the characters explain the glitch they are experiencing Zadara believes them (or at least thinks they believe it). She is interested in their plight, but not necessarily sympathetic. She can see the value to be had in their situation. “No memories and you come back as different personas. That makes you…quite useful indeed.”

Zadara will hear out what the characters have to say or ask, but then steers the conversation to business. She is a generous sponsor who understands that knowledge leads to power, and a nice byproduct of that is money. She liberally hands out jink to obtain the other two.

Zadara is keenly interested in the note and immediately recognizes the spiral is the signature mark of Spiral Hal’oight. She fully supports Koe funneling weapons to the Blood War, but she has no idea that Spiral is siphoning off some of the weapons forged on Mount Celestia. She doesn’t know that Tripicus is altering them, and the Consortium’s side deal to distribute them is completely unknown to her.

 Zadara is not an enemy of the Planar Trade Consortium or Estavan, but this kind of arrangement is something she would not approve of without knowing what they are all up to. She wants to know the dark of the operation before making any moves.

Roleplaying Zadara. She should come across as a cold, calculating master of business. She’s not outwardly angry with Spiral, Tripicus, or the Consortium, but in her words, “They take my money. They belong to me.” The characters should be tempted to take her offers with the feeling that they are selling out to a power player that could easily ruin or destroy them.

Depending on where the characters are in exploring their leads Zadara will want to know what they’ve uncovered and will pay each character 100gp for the following bits of info if they speak honestly with her:

• Spiral is siphoning off shipments of the celestial weapons.
• Tripicus is altering the celestial weapons without the knowledge of the Mind’s Eye.
• The celestial weapons are altered to allow fiends to wield them.
• Someone with a facial marking has approached the characters and helped them in the past.

A Simple Offer

Zadara did not hire the characters and is keenly interested in finding out who did. If the characters haven’t pursued their other leads she will ask them to seek out Spiral and can point them to the Bottle and Jug. If they talk to Spiral and report back to her, Zadara will pay them 300gp each, especially for the knowledge that Koe is not aware of the scheme and that the weapons are going to the Consortium. If the characters already approached Spiral they she will pay them 300gp for the information right then and there.

Finishing the Job. Once Spiral is connected to the Consortium and gives up what she knows, Zadara will ask for the characters to investigate the dead drop. She mentions that it is near the Ubiquitous Wayfarer, a great place to press the flesh and dig up some chant. She’ll offer 400gp each for a thorough investigation that can uncover what the Consortium is doing with the weapons. She’ll throw in a 100gp bonus if it’s done quickly and quietly.