Hush

The stranger hands you a piece of paper and says “you dropped this” before walking away and disappearing into the crowd. It says: “The city needs more people like you if we’re going to get things back to normal. Come see me under the southern moat bridge and I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.”

• Secretive: Loves to answer questions with a question of their own.
• Shy: Avoids eye contact and crowds, but is always listening.
• Reserved: Keeps motivations close to the chest, and speaks with exacting calm.

Hush isn’t chasing money or fame, they just want business to resume.

The Melding has upset their carefully cultivated network of exchanges. With monsters prowling and cults destabilizing trade, they want order restored so the underworld can thrive again.

They see the Riftguard as an unstoppable sword and they intend to sharpen that sword and give it a nice poison coating.

• Communist
• Survivalist

Hush cares not for the laws of man. They operate on their own personal set of rules and believe they are making the world better by offering the services and products they do. Poisons can be used for things other than murder and not all goods that are outlawed are done so justly. They give the people access to things that they need or want and they do so without judgement or prying questions.

• Secretive - Hush does not divulge easily and dislikes it when people attempt to get information out of them without paying for it.
• Shy - While they are a successful business owner, hush is extremely shy and prefers to complete their transaction with as few words exchanged as possible. They open up in one-on-one interactions, which are rare for them.
• Paranoid - As someone who acts outside the law, Hush is constantly on edge and sees potential danger in every shadow and stranger.

• Grants access to the Dark Market
• • Rare or illegal goods: poisons, black powder weapons, enchanted contraband, stolen relics.
  • May offer unique barter options, such as favors, secrets, or temporary allies instead of coin.
  • Excellent access point for Rogues, Assassins, Smugglers, or morally flexible players.

• Offers a valuable service as the only Dark Market dealer in town.
• Has no estate. Operates through runners, drop-points, and abandoned buildings.
• Their “storefront” may shift locations, hidden from all, except those in the know.
• May send anonymous notes, packages, or messengers to speak on their behalf.

• Speaks slowly, softly, and leaves silences that make players nervous.
• Never confirms their identity or answers questions in a direct and satisfying manner.
• Could know incriminating secrets about other Lords/Ladies.
• Ideal quest-giver for:
• • Covert missions (e.g., sabotage, spying, item retrieval).
  • Access to forbidden goods.
  • Plot hooks involving cult infiltration or black market trades with other realms.

Hush is a shadow dressed in human form. Slight of build, unnervingly still, and hard to describe even when you’re looking right at them. Their features are angular yet delicate.

Their skin is smooth, dusky-ashen, and cool-toned, with the paleness of someone who never steps into daylight unless absolutely necessary. Their black hair is cut close and clean on one side, with the other swept long and tucked beneath a hood.

They walk with precision, every motion is deliberate, calculated to minimize attention. When they speak, their voice is soft, melodic, and hollow at the edges, as though heard from across the room.

Their scent is difficult to place, somewhere between sandalwood, burned paper, and a distinct musk.

Hush wears clothing that conceals more than it reveals, but every layer is meticulously tailored. Their appearance is a quiet masterpiece of draped fabrics, layered textures, and whispering movements:

• Robes & Cloak: Long, asymmetrical dark robes dyed in shades of gray, plum, and indigo. Beneath the outer layer, fine shirts and fitted wraps..
• Hood: Always worn indoors, sometimes down, but never off entirely. The inside is lined with velvet and includes a thin veil that blurs their eyes and features.
• Boots: Padded and soft-soled. Black leather scuffed at the toe, but clearly reinforced with concealed steel in case things get ugly.
• Jewelry: A single ring with no visible stone, a chain-link bracelet with mismatched links, a brooch of uncut jet. Hidden beneath their sleeve: a tattoo of the Cult’s mark, burned and scarred.
• Belt or Sash: Laced with secret pouches, lockpicks, powders, and perhaps even a folding blade.

Hush never announces their presence. They seem to materialize. They are the kind of person that startles you when they begin to speak. Their voice is often the quietest in the room, and yet it always seems to cut through noise without raising.

To the average Portaland citizen, Hush is just a shadow that flits between shuttered storefronts. But to the Riftguard and those with more to lose, Hush is the one you go to when you need to break the rules to win.

• They Were Once a Cult Courier: Before the rise of the Riftguard and before the Cult of the Pinnacle became overtly dangerous, Hush served as a message-runner and smuggler for the early cult — not because they believed in it, but because they thought it was just another radical faction buying spells and secrets.

They defected the day they saw a child consumed by a summoning gone wrong. They cut and burned their cult mark in an attempt to rid themselves of it, but still suffer pain in that arm during each melding.

Should any cultist recognize them, Hush may be targeted for elimination or re-recruitment and they will not forgive another betrayal lightly.

• They Know the Names of Every Secret Leader in Portaland: Through years of carefully leveraged favors, bribes, and exchanged silence, Hush has accumulated a ledger of real names, hidden debts, and buried crimes. This includes:
• A general’s secret son.
• A magistrate’s illegal potion supplier.
• A member of royalty in possession of cultist paraphernalia.

The ledger is encrypted and stored inside a bound, hollowed-out brick in an alley they never visit.If it’s ever found, entire factions could collapse overnight.

• They Don’t Know Their Own Origin: Hush has no memory before age 12. They were found, starving and mute, in a burnt-out cottage after the Melding of 1453.Occasionally, during storms or sleep, they speak in languages not known in Renna. Arcane tongues. Names of stars that don’t exist. Coordinates with no meaning.

They fear they may be tied to the portals in ways no one understands. Possibly born from one. Possibly meant to open one.

• They Are Protecting Someone Dangerous: There is a young person living in hiding. A sharp-eyed teenager who Hush has shielded from both city guards and cultists. They go only by “Fig.”

Hush claims Fig is an orphaned courier. In truth, Fig is a magical prodigy who hears the portals singing. They have drawn sigils in their sleep that resemble high-tier summoning diagrams.

Hush believes Fig may be a threat, or perhaps the solution to the melding, but no one will get to them without going through Hush first.