Wings of Deceit

In the canals and crumbling towers of Eversink, secrets soar higher than the gulls and sometimes the truth flies in on feathered wings. In this intrigue-heavy mystery, your heroes are hired to investigate infidelity, only to uncover a tangled network of blackmail, vanishing investigators, attack birds, and scandalous secrets best left buried.

Overview

The heroes are approached by a wealthy merchant or a noble patron. The patron suspects their significant other of cheating. Previous investigators were hired, but none succeeded. Some came back with nothing. Some vanished. Now it is the players’ turn.

On the surface, this looks like a simple case of infidelity, with rumors and whispers spreading through the noble families of Eversink. Beneath that lies something far more dangerous.

The culprit is Serquin Valladis, known among the common folk as the Bird Man. He is a man who lost the love of his life and now obsesses over helping other lovers as a way to rewrite his own past. Serquin is a recluse who trains messenger pigeons and birds of prey to deliver secret love letters between affair partners. When investigators get too close, he fabricates threats by sending fake letters to frame them or by warning his clients to silence them.

What starts as a simple affair investigation becomes a descent into a world of paranoia, manipulation, and information warfare, with the truth perched just barely within reach.

Serquin is deeply paranoid and has paid small-time informants and street watchers to keep an eye on anyone asking questions about him or his tower. He mistrusts the city and expects betrayal at every turn. At the same time, his wealthy clients have their own spies and informants. The moment the players begin asking questions or following leads, word spreads through these networks. Both Serquin and his clients become aware that someone is investigating, setting the stage for the traps and confrontations to come.

Act I: Feathers in the Wind

The investigation begins with scattered signs: feathers near a rendezvous, a scroll dropped in haste, or a witness swearing they saw shadows across the sky. These clues point to trained birds carrying secret letters, and tracing them becomes the heroes’ first task.

• Nobility or Servility: Gossip in noble salons or servant quarters points toward secret affairs sustained by mysterious couriers. A spend reveals not just the birds, but also which households are rumored to rely on them.

   

• Scholarship: Identifies the birds as trained messengers, which require careful handling and reliable access to high towers. A spend suggests which towers in the city would be viable for such training, narrowing the field of locations.

   

• Wilderness Mastery or Vigilance: Watching rooftops over time reveals unnatural flight patterns. Wilderness Mastery interprets their behavior, while Vigilance allows long, patient stakeouts. A waiting montage (SotS p. 217) works well here.

   

• City’s Secrets: Exposes how a supposedly sealed tower remains in use, uncovering the quiet corruption among the officials and heirs that lets someone occupy it unnoticed. A point spend could get heroes a key or a warrant to enter the tower.

   

• Prophecy or Ridiculous Luck: Adds strange confirmation — a vision of wings over a tower, or a coincidence like a bird dropping a feather at the heroes’ feet — reinforcing what they already suspect. These abilities don’t bypass the investigation, but a spend pushes the heroes a step closer, giving them confirmation of what other clues suggest.

Piece by piece, the evidence converges on a tower sealed by magistrates during an inheritance dispute. Its lower floors are locked by law, but its upper heights have become the hidden domain of Serquin Valladis, the Bird Man.

Act II: Smoke Before the Climb

Before the heroes reach the tower, they are intercepted. A noble, a Watch lieutenant, or even a merchant’s enforcer confronts them with a small retinue. The accuser is convinced one of the heroes is secretly their spouse’s affair partner. This confrontation is a setup, orchestrated by Serquin using forged letters and planted rumors to throw suspicion elsewhere.

The heroes can resolve this scene in multiple ways, each tied to abilities:

• Trustworthy or Sway: Convince the accuser of their innocence, or redirect suspicion back toward the true source of the letters.

   

• Forgery or Scholarship: Spot the falsified handwriting or wax seal, realizing that the letter was manufactured.

   

• Laws & Traditions or City Secrets: Use influence over Eversink’s legal system (or bribes) to defuse the confrontation.

   

• Tactics of Death or Warfare: If it turns violent, these abilities help them control or outmaneuver the opposing guards.

   

• Ridiculous Luck: A spend here might reveal the letter falling from the noble’s pocket, allowing the heroes to read it outright.

   

Instead of being a mere delay, this scene provides direct evidence of Serquin’s methods: the forged letters and correspondence. If the players investigate further, they find small inconsistencies—bird feathers on the parchment, or references to places only Serquin’s clients would know. These discoveries push the investigation forward and confirm that the “Bird Man” is manipulating more than just lovers.

Act III: Climbing the Aviary

The Bird Man resides in isolation near the top of the tower, using a system of pulleys, baskets, and levers to interact with the world below. He rarely speaks to anyone in person. To reach him, the heroes must either climb from the outside or risk the haunted interior.

Attack Birds (Outside): Anyone climbing the outer walls or rooftops is harried by Serquin’s flock. Falcons and crows dive to claw, peck, and distract, forcing climbers into perilous positions. Heroes using Wilderness Mastery, Tactics of Death, or clever Scurrilous Rumors spends may scatter or misdirect the birds.

Ghosts (Inside): The tower’s lower floors are dark and filled with dust. The spirits of its former residents drift through the halls, unsettled by Serquin’s presence. Heroes with Spirit Sight hear their whispers of betrayal and doom, and the ghosts may lash out in confusion or offer cryptic guidance. Depending on the tone, they can be restless obstacles or dangerous combatants.

The Pulley System: Serquin uses a crude network of pulleys and baskets to haul supplies up the tower without leaving his roost. Heroes may attempt to hijack this system to bypass some dangers.

• Athletics is needed to balance, climb, or haul themselves upward under strain.

   

• Burglary allows them to pick locks or bypass the catches securing the pulley baskets.

   

• Preparedness provides improvised gear such as climbing hooks or counterweights to stabilize the ride.

   

• Spot Frailty reveals weaknesses in the pulley rig, such as frayed ropes or damaged wheels, allowing the heroes to repair or prepare for likely sabotage before boarding.

   

Failure risks sabotage from above: snapped ropes, falling weights, or sudden bird attacks while the heroes dangle in mid-air.

At the summit, the heroes glimpse the Bird Man himself. Cloaked in feathers and gear, his eyes dart like a nervous sparrow. He does not intend to stay. As the players breach the top, he dons a crude glider and prepares to leap from the tower.

• Spot Frailty: A spend reveals the glider’s flaws such as rotten stitching, cracked spars, and frayed ropes. Heroes can act immediately to sabotage it further, warn Serquin, or prepare to catch him.

   

• Prophecy or Ridiculous Luck: A point spend here allows the heroes to glimpse the coming disaster, shout a warning, or even intervene mid-flight.

   

If they warn him: Serquin hesitates, shaken by the foresight. He still leaps but adjusts his glider and survives the flight, landing battered but tangled. The heroes can still catch him.

If they intervene directly: The heroes may steady the glider or break his fall, depending on the method used. On success, he lands clumsily but alive within their reach.

Without warning or aid: The glider breaks apart mid-air. He crashes through a nearby rooftop, heavily injured.

Act IV: The Chase or the Raid

Pursue the Bird Man: They rush to the crash site and find him badly injured. He will die without help. While this allows them to question or recruit him, it leaves the tower unguarded. While they are gone, some of Serquin’s former clients or their agents slip inside, working to destroy evidence before the heroes can return.

Secure the Tower: They search his home and discover ledgers, letters, and coded maps detailing who used his services. While they are inside, several masked individuals (see Act V) storm the tower to destroy incriminating evidence. This choice leaves the Bird Man to die where he fell, or to be carried off by clients desperate to silence him.

Capture the Bird Man (successful intervention): If the heroes saved him during his flight, they confront him alive and cornered. Serquin is terrified, paranoid, and convinced they mean to kill him.

• With Trustworthy or Nobility, they can calm him enough to talk.

   

• With Intimidation, they can force him to bargain.

   

• With Scurrilous Rumors or Nobility, they can threaten him with exposure.

   

Serquin offers a desperate deal: in exchange for his life, he reveals caches of incriminating letters hidden elsewhere in Eversink, far more damaging than what sits in his tower. His survival, however, ensures his clients know he could still talk, which brings far greater danger onto the heroes in the future.

Whichever path the players take, they acquire enough information to fulfill their mission. But they do not walk away unnoticed.

Act V: Panic in the Streets

Whether at the tower or the crash site, the players face one last obstacle. The former clients of the Bird Man have arrived. Nobles, merchants, and powerful figures who used his services now fear exposure. They descend upon the scene in disguise, desperate to erase their involvement.

Select as many archetypes as necessary from the list below, or create your own.

Each represents a distinct archetype that heroes can engage with through Investigative abilities:

• Conniving Merchant: Wants the evidence destroyed, offering bribes or veiled threats. (Sway to bargain, Scurrilous Rumors to undermine their reputation).
  Hook: He sneers as he jingles a purse of coin, whispering that silence is worth far more than truth.

   

• Drunken Noble: Panicked and belligerent, lashing out without reason. (Servility to placate them through subservience, Nobility to exploit etiquette and status).
  Hook: Reeking of wine, they stagger forward, shouting accusations and demanding respect that no one feels.

   

• Desperate Widow: Begs for mercy, claiming exposure will ruin her. (Honesty to earn her trust, Inspiration to rally her toward reason or alliance).
  Hook: Clutching a bundle of letters to her chest, she pleads through tears, insisting the heroes can save her family’s name.

   

• Masked Duelist: Ready to draw steel to protect secrets. (Intimidation to cow them, Tactics of Death to spot weaknesses and deter violence).
  Hook: Hand on sword hilt, voice low, they promise blood will flow if the truth sees daylight.

The heroes must navigate this volatile crowd through threats, negotiations, or intimidation. A fight is possible but unnecessary. Clever use of Sway or Trustworthy can turn the tide, but engaging each archetype plays out as a true capstone of wit and politics.

Epilogue: Secrets Worth More Than Gold

Returning to their patron, the players are paid handsomely and asked to keep the matter quiet. Their employer will not confront their significant other directly. Instead, they intend to blackmail them, siphoning wealth and favors from the partner’s family.

The patron also inquires if the players found anything else of interest.

Here lies the final moral twist.

• Evidence Hoarded: If the players kept some letters or ledgers, they can leverage them in future social conflicts. They gain bonuses to sway attacks against nobles or merchants in the next adventure.

   

• Bird Man Captured: If they saved the Bird Man, he can be bribed, threatened, or even hired. He becomes a shadowy ally who trades in secrets.

   

• Everything Handed Over: If they surrender all evidence to the patron, the case is closed neatly but the players might feel used.

   

In the city of Eversink, information is more dangerous than magic. The heroes were hired to uncover a simple affair, but what they found was a network of secrets powerful enough to shake the city’s elite. How they use this power—and whether they survive its consequences—is up to them.

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Swords of the Serpentine is a sword & sorcery game of daring heroism, sly politics, and bloody savagery, set in a fantasy city rife with skullduggery and death. The rules adapt the GUMSHOE investigative roleplaying system to create a fantasy RPG with a focus on high-action roleplaying and investigation inspired by the stories of Fritz Leiber, Terry Pratchett, Robert E. Howard, and others.
Purchase Swords of the Serpentine in print and PDF at the Pelgrane Shop.