Thread 4 — Church Alarm

The Church Eye

Flamewarden Solune has documented three people with natural magic and reported none of them.

Flamewarden Solune has documented three people with natural magic manifestations and reported none of them. The Ember-Inquisitor is three weeks out.

What Is Actually Happening

Flamewarden Solune — the Church of Flame's representative in Ragged Hook — has been keeping notes in a personal cipher for eight months. He has documented three individuals in Ragged Hook whose Essa manifestations qualify as natural magic under current Church classification. He has reported none of them. He has not reported them because he does not believe they are threats, because he has seen what the Suppression Grid does when it finds them, and because one of the three is a child. The Ember-Inquisitor has been assigned to the northern Shatterds circuit and will arrive in Ragged Hook in approximately three weeks. Solune is running out of time to decide what to do.

What It Looks Like From Outside

Flamewarden Solune is a dutiful Church representative. He performs his scheduled observations, maintains his station, and keeps excellent records. He seems tired. People who know him well say he has seemed tired for about eight months.

Entry Points

Four independent ways players can stumble into this thread.

  • A player with natural magic manifestation is noticed by Solune — he does not report it. He watches.
  • Someone in Ragged Hook mentions that the Flamewarden has been different lately.
  • Thread 1 cross-reference: the cipher symbols in Solune's notes match the crew's survey findings.
  • A young person in Ragged Hook needs immediate help with something they can't explain, and Solune is the only one who knows what it is.

Escalation Track: Church Alarm

StageTriggerConsequence
1Players encounter Solune or learn about the three individualsSolune watches them carefully and makes a preliminary assessment of whether they are trustworthy.
2Players demonstrate they are not automatically aligned with the ChurchSolune makes indirect contact — an observation, a question, something that could be walked back.
3Players are trusted with the cipher pages' existence (not their content)The timeline becomes explicit: three weeks. What are they going to do about it.
4The Ember-Inquisitor arrives early or the three individuals are discovered by another partyCrisis mode. The Church Alarm track accelerates. Solune has to make a final decision.
5The three individuals' fate is resolved one way or anotherChurch Alarm track reaches its conclusion. The consequences depend entirely on what the players chose to do.

Thread Connections

Thread 6 — What Moves Below
One of the three individuals has been experiencing manifestations connected to the ley echo anomalies in the Drowned Spine.
Thread 1 — The Silenced Crew
The crew's survey referenced architectural symbols matching pre-Ignition Church classification records Solune has access to.

DM Presentation Guide

Solune is not a villain. He is exhausted. He has been carrying knowledge that is going to cost him something — his career, his faith, possibly his life — and he has been trying to decide how long he can carry it alone. The players are the first people in eight months who might actually be able to help. Play that weight.