Daggerheart Desert Campaign

NPCs

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Version: 1.0
Canon through: August 27, 2026

Outline

Current Allies and Patrons

Ashur-Ka

A powerful fire djinn imprisoned in an enchanted red vessel within the Catacombs of Ashur-Ka. When freed by the party, Ashur-Ka appeared in an awe-inspiring natural form, with inner fire visible through cracks in his flesh. He crossed his arms and evaluated the party before deciding whether to help them.

Djinn are widely feared as exacting tricksters who provide what was asked for rather than what was wanted. The party nevertheless freed Ashur-Ka and allowed him to choose his own response, making the relationship more complex than a simple compelled bargain.

See Catacombs of Ashur-Ka and Ashur-Ka’s Vessel.

Captain Jenna Marshall

Captain and principal voice of Intrepid. Jenna is one of the magically miniaturized people living within the rebuilt Clank body. She directs the vessel while preserving collective participation among the inhabitants.

Her central project is reintegration: helping many abductees with different lives become a coherent community without erasing individual identity.

Neshet

Local leader of the Stillwater Covenant, a hidden group aligned with Amun and the forbidden truth surrounding the Bowels of Anubis. The party ultimately entrusted the Cinderheart Seal to Neshet.

Neshet intended to consult someone about using the Seal, but that contact was already missing while investigating the mine that became the focus of The Quartz Below.

Khepri

An assistant or field agent serving Neshet and the Stillwater Covenant. Khepri staged an ambush and broke a crate seal as part of a covert test or operation. His actions demonstrate that the Covenant is willing to use deception and controlled danger rather than operate openly.

Kas

A mysterious ancient figure who appears in the campaign transition as a finely dressed man carrying a musical instrument. He recognizes something buried within the new characters and says, “Neither did you last time.” The name Kas then rises from the characters’ submerged memories.

Kas appears to know that reality was remade. Early worldbuilding treats him as an anomaly Vecna could not fully erase because of their history and emotional connection.

Ashen Vow

The Ashen Vow is the experienced adventuring party that led the expedition to the cursed ruined city. They treated the PCs as junior support, ordered them to camp outside the walls, and explicitly warned them not to enter. The next phase of the mystery began when Corpsebearer Shades returned the Ashen Vow’s apparently unharmed bodies.

Kaelen the Unyielding

A dwarf guardian and known member of the Ashen Vow. Kaelen served as one of the party’s durable front-line heroes and mentors.

Garrick

A maul-wielding member of the Ashen Vow. His maul was given a name during development, but that name is not preserved in the consolidated notes.

Other Ashen Vow Members

Three additional high-level heroes were developed with distinct ancestries, roles, equipment, and nonlethal training abilities. Their names are not consistently preserved in the currently consolidated material. The established group visual included differentiated heroic silhouettes and expedition-worn gear.

Divine and Political Figures

The Pharaoh

The unnamed mortal ruler who discovered or came to believe that Amun remained imprisoned. He began worshiping Amun as “the eternal god of the deep,” claimed that Amun had identified him as Amun’s reincarnation, and attempted to compel the priesthood to affirm that claim.

Ra’s direct public proclamation denied the Pharaoh’s claim and removed the priesthood from royal authority.

Ra’s Avatars

Ra interacts with mortals through physical avatars. A viewer ordinarily perceives an angelic ideal shaped to their own expectations. Clanks perceive him as intense light. Those who are damned perceive a fiery demon.

Amun’s Whispering Presence

Amun is believed to speak through the depths of the Bowels of Anubis. Whether the voice is truly Amun, and whether it spoke to the Pharaoh, remain central unresolved questions.

Adventure-Specific NPCs

Nabira

A desert witch associated with King Sabet’s tomb material. Her established visual design uses pale or light-blue desert cloth, and she is accompanied by two hounds. She can function as guide, adversary, manipulator, or keeper of the tomb’s truth depending upon how the scenario is used.

King Sabet

A dead king associated with a portrait-based tomb riddle. Four depictions—Innocent, Heir, Conqueror, and Prisoner—present different identities or stages of his life. A later visual variation recasts the sequence as Dawn, Day, Dusk, and Night, with skeletal counterparts.

Sahrem, the Emberbound Warden

The guardian of the Inner Sanctum of the Cinderheart. Sahrem is a ritual or elemental defender rather than a random dungeon inhabitant. The party’s approach to the sanctum determines whether Sahrem becomes a combatant, obstacle, or keeper of an older duty.

The Undead Mine Master

The specific undead overseer in the opening prologue who orders two laborers forward because they have been purchased. He embodies the mine system’s ordinary brutality: ownership, punishment, and obedience are treated as routine.

The Repeating Street Urchin

A child-like figure seen approaching different people on different days, asking for help and leading them away. The figure may be a real child, a disguise, a lure, or a repeated supernatural manifestation. No final answer has been established.

Unnamed but Important Figures

The Mage Who Saved Intrepid’s People

A mage hired by the Cult of the Withered Hand to carry out an atrocity. Instead, the mage miniaturized the captives, hid them in a Clank body, and smuggled them away. Identity, motive, location, and survival are all unknown.

The Cleric Who Hired Altennis

A suspicious cleric who commissioned the copying of the ’Iiskir Elixir scroll. The cleric may have been a genuine client, a conspirator, or part of the operation that framed Altennis.

Neshet’s Missing Contact

The person Neshet planned to consult about the Cinderheart Seal. That person disappeared while investigating the mine producing magical quartz.

Survivors of the Bowels

People subjected to temporary immersion in cages and later released. Their accounts of pain, healing, and whispers provide some of the most important mortal testimony about the oasis.

Priests of Anubis

The party intends to seek the Priesthood of Anubis for help producing the Oil of Anubis. No single priest has yet been established as the definitive spokesperson.

GM Notes

  • Gods have dedicated entries in ReligionAndGods.md, even when they act like NPCs.
  • Sahrem and supernatural bearers also appear in CreaturesAndAdversaries.md because they can function mechanically as adversaries.
  • Unnamed roles remain in the encyclopedia because their narrative importance is established even when a proper name is not.