🎬 DM Reference
📖 What Came Before — Campaign History — The working canon. Five chapters: the hospital room where they found each other, the months moving through Gilead, every key NPC reintroduced in atmospheric prose, the costs carried in, and where they are on Thursday morning. Read this before Session 1 to run the past tense with authority. Written so sections can be read almost verbatim as DM narration.
🕸 PC / NPC Relationship Matrix — Who knows whom, trust levels, and what each PC remembers about each NPC. Rows for Chloe, Finch, Marta, Sparrow, Reed, Cardinal, Aldric, Thorne, and Seraphina. Each NPC × PC cell shows status (Knows Well / Met Once / Knows Of), trust pips, one-line perspective, and what to say if players look blank. Filter by ally / contact / enemy / gone.
📋 Assumed History Baseline — The "let's assume" DM cheat sheet for coming back cold after a long break. Per NPC: how many meetings to assume, trust level, what the party knows and doesn't, the exact words to say if players look blank, and what to do if they contradict the assumed history (go with it — write it down). Three ground rules for running invented history confidently.
🎭 PC Individual Briefs — One tabbed page per PC: who they are right now, emotional state, current situation, what they know and don't know, open threads with status tags (active / building / dormant / unaware), voice guide, and a single DM note on what to watch for. Ofcolin's pause. Ofrhys's becoming. Ofcom's manual. For when you need to speak to a player individually or remind yourself of their arc mid-session.
🔮 Mercy — Character Brief — Subject Zero. Real name Margaret Vale. Biomedical engineer. She volunteered for Phase I testing because she believed you shouldn't build something you wouldn't put in yourself. She was wrong about reversible until Year 6. Six-year timeline from programme to Camp Northgate, where she's been for two years waiting for Subject Seven to arrive. What she wants: reverse Ofcom's conditioning, find the other six, understand what Seraphina was really building. Four routes to the first meeting. The first meeting itself — what she says and in what order. The thing she knows and won't say (the Type C phrase, and a second programme document she hasn't shown anyone). Three never rules.
🌿 The Mercy Thread — Full Guide — Everything about the Mercy thread in one place. Who Mercy was (programme Subject Zero, template for everything done to Ofcom, survived and got out). The inscription ("Trust what your hands know better than your head does. — M"). Three hook options: A=inscription path (Ofcom reads the manual), B=Aldous first (he recognises her and has been waiting), C=Seraphina direct (she'll tell Ofcom about Mercy without being asked if Ofcom identifies herself as Subject Seven). Five-step reveal path from inscription to Seraphina's reversal offer. DM-only section on who Mercy was — her name is never given to the players.
⚙️ Cerberus Programme — DM Dossier — Full lore doc. What the programme was, what it did, and who built it. Subject Seven, the three episode types, four-tier information reveal guide (session 4 through Mercy thread). Seraphina as architect and the only person who can undo it. Mercy as prototype. Aldous as the technical witness. What Ofcom is living with — and how to handle it. DM eyes only.
🃏 Scene Cards — Quick-reference cards for six key set-piece moments: The Adam (Sparrow contact / Aldric tell), Cathedral Approach with Reed, Sub-Level B Discovery (the wristband reveal), Aldric — The Realisation, Camp Northgate Arrival, Cardinal's Safehouse Arrival (for recap/flashback), and the Engineering Manual / Mercy's Inscription. Each card: vibe, stakes, opening line, and three possible outcomes. Filter by tag (tension / emotional / action / investigation / social / horror).
🚀 28 May — Session 1 START HERE — Everything for the night in one place. What to open before players arrive (master checklist, combat tracker, PC tracker, session brief), on-demand lore lookups, player handouts, scene order quick-ref (The Foundry → The Fallen → The Barracks → Hall of Purity), music cues, and end-state checklist. Level 5 → 6 tonight after Hall of Purity long rest.
🗺️ Cathedral — Infiltration Planner — Interactive three-tab SVG map of the Cathedral complex (Ground Floor, Sub-Level B, Exterior Approach). Click any room for DM notes and DC requirements. Toggle Reed's route, camera cones, and blind spots. Nine guard markers — click to mark neutralised. Access window timings in sidebar. DM notes autosave in browser.
📅 Campaign Timeline — Full chronological record of everything that has happened. Colour-coded by what the party knows (green), suspects (amber), is hidden from them (red), or Gilead knows (purple). Toggle hidden knowledge on/off with a single button. Covers Act I through the current session. Key milestones flagged. Every entry shows who knew what when — essential for continuity across long campaigns.
🔐 Secrets & Lies Tracker — Per-NPC breakdown of what every major character knows, suspects, is actively hiding, won't say, and what would reveal it. Covers Reed, Aldric, Sparrow, Seraphina, Chloe, Finch, Marta, Thorne, and Aldous. Filter by Allies / Enemies / Contacts. Key secrets included: Seraphina designed Cerberus using Mercy as prototype; Aldric doesn't know about the Lattice; Sparrow has a frequency backup in the dossier; Aldous recognises Ofcom (Aramynta) and has been waiting for her to bring it up. Notes textarea per NPC autosaves in browser.
⚔️ Full Combat Tracker — Initiative order, HP bars, condition tags, Cerberus pips, Seraph tether tracker, combat log. Open this on the night.
⏱️ Session Pacing Guide — Scene timings, red flags, music cues, what to never cut (The Drop, Seraphina Scene 4, PC epilogues).
🎲 Improvisation Guide — What to do when the players go sideways. Three ground rules, a yes-and toolkit with five questions to ask yourself, a decision tree for eight specific "what if" scenarios (follow Aldric early / warn Sparrow early / go back to Archive / decode dossier / try to kill Aldric / Ofcom episode at wrong moment / invented history / party splits), quick NPC moves grid, and three safety nets for when you're genuinely stuck.
🎲 Encounter & Loot Tables — Rollable Gilead patrol encounters, post-escape wilderness and urban tables, loot by source, complications generator.
🧠 NPC Deep Histories — Full pre-Gilead histories, psychological profiles, secrets, story hooks and voice guides for all 9 major NPCs: Seraphina, Marta, Sparrow, Cardinal, Chloe, Finch, Thorne, Aldric, Mercy.
📋 NPC Quick-Reference — All 11 NPCs on one page — AC, HP, voice note, DM flag, and portrait thumbnail. Sort by ally/enemy/contact. Built for a second screen mid-session.
🎙 NPC Voice Sheet — Mid-session two-column cheat sheet for 10 NPCs: Chloe, Finch, Marta, Sparrow, Reed, Cardinal (posthumous), Aldric, Thorne, Seraphina, and Aldous. Each card has tone in one sentence, a hard "Never" rule, and two voice lines you can read almost verbatim. The fastest way to find your character when you need them now. Print-friendly.
🕸 Purity Lattice — Node Tracker — Interactive SVG of all 7 Lattice nodes. Click to mark broken — the node cracks and the silence radius overlay shrinks. Shows the cascade in real time. Saves state in browser.
⚠️ Threat Escalation Tracker — Five-level dial: Unaware → Pattern → Surveillance → Active Hunt → Lockdown. Mechanical effects per level. Click to escalate or de-escalate. Level 5 pulses. Saves in browser.
👁 Gilead Social Hierarchy — Full command structure from High Commander to Sentinel, civilian castes, underground network tiers, post-escape factions and quick uniform colour guide.
🗺️ Gilead City — Geography Reference — SVG city schematic map with 10 key locations marked (Cathedral, Archive, The Adam, Node 47, safehouse network, tunnel entry, Camp Northgate, hospital, Land Registry, connecting roads). Eight colour-coded location profiles with faction allegiance. Travel times table for 7 routes (on-foot and fast). Patrol logic for 4 zones including post-incident escalation. Cover and sight lines for 6 locations.
🎲 NPC Name Generator — On-the-fly names for Gilead civilians, military, resistance codenames, post-escape NPCs, locations and instant trait combos. Save results mid-session.
🗂 Faction & NPC Tracker — Live status tracking for all NPCs and factions: status buttons, location, trust pips, session notes. Saves in browser between sessions.
🎭 PC Progress Tracker — Per-PC tracking: HP bar, spell slots, conditions (inc. Cerberus episode), key items, knowledge log, arc notes. Short rest / long rest buttons.
↑ Level-Up Reference — 5 → 6 — Everything the PCs gain on levelling to 6, triggered after the Hall of Purity long rest (end of Session 1 / Bridging Act). Ofcolin: Dark One's Own Luck (1/SR, +1d10 post-roll to any check or save). Ofrhys: Projected Ward (reaction, 30ft, ward absorbs for ally), Arcane Ward at 17 HP. Ofcom: Tool Expertise (double prof — Thieves' Tools +9 / Smith's +9), +2 infusions, +1 simultaneous infused item. HP values, new spell slots, and a level 6→7 preview for each PC.
💰 Gilead Loot Generator — D&D 5e loot with full Gilead flavour. Roll by source: Guardian/Eye/Commander/Martha/Resistance Cache/Black Market/Post-Escape/Pre-Gilead Magical. Full stat blocks per item.
🪪 Chloe — NPC Card — Trauma surgeon, resistance matriarch, the one who withheld three things. Scene 3 beat-by-beat direction, the confession in full, what she doesn't say, voice guide with five specific exchanges. She does not apologise. She explains.
🪪 Finch — NPC Card — Chloe's second. The quiet one. Two words in Scene 3: "She's right." What she means by that, how the warmth shows through action not speech, the thing she doesn't say about what happens after this is over, and what it means that she's never broken a promise.
🪪 Aldous — Hook B NPC Card — Former Cerberus programme technician. He ran equipment checks on Subject 7 for two years. He didn't know her name. He's in the same camp as Ofcom now. Voice guide, what he knows (and doesn't), DM flags, and four options for what the party does with that.
⏱ The Cathedral Contact — "Nell" — Eleanor Voss. Who she is, what she did, the 4-session clock, three outcomes (rescued / arrested / already gone), and what she knows if she makes it to camp. Chloe's debt. Not a plot device.
🩸 Cardinal — Arrival Scene Brief — Scene 2 ops doc. Both hooks side by side (Hook A: REED address; Hook B: the cascade chip). Hook C PC-specific connections (Ofcolin's crew, Ofrhys's resistance history, Ofcom and Mercy). Read-aloud for the shooting. "Was it worth it?" What happens if the party tries to save them instead of listen.
🎖 Aldric — First Contact Scene Brief — When he introduces himself. He's not arresting them. He's interested in understanding the system. Four triggers for when it happens (clock 4–5 / clock 6–7 / specific event / PC approaches first). Six scene beats: he's already there when they notice, the introduction without his name, when he gives the name, what he actually wants, "Take your time" (the most frightening thing he says), and how it ends — no threat, just the implication that this is the first conversation. What he offers, what he won't do, how each PC is likely to respond. Six voice lines. Never rules.
🩸 The Drop — Scene Brief — Ops doc for Act V Scene 4: Cardinal shot mid-transmission. Beat-by-beat direction: the feed goes live, the twelve words, the shot (no warning), the static, the silence (ten real seconds — don't fill it). Six Never rules. Per-PC weight. Six "if they try" scenarios. Level 6 connection — give it in the first quiet beat after, not as a reward but as what's left after. Music: nothing under the words, nothing after the shot.
🪦 Cardinal — Posthumous NPC Card — C.M. He came in, sat down, had twelve words, and used them well. What he knew (the Cerberus thread, Ofcom as Subject Seven), what he left behind (the dossier, his note), how each PC carries him, and how to run him posthumously — as weight, not plot. The dossier is his voice now. Don't resurrect him.
🔑 Reed — After the Cathedral — His current state three days out: he heard the shot, he doesn't know if Cardinal is dead for certain, Sub-Level B locked 23 hours later (not immediately — he noticed). What he knows, what he doesn't. Four contact options (Sparrow note / back in / via Nell / he reaches out first). What he says when they make contact — the voice lines. What he can still give them, including that timing detail. The thing about his sister. Three never rules: don't have him know for certain, don't soften him, don't have him ask for details he's better off not having.
🌿 REED — Third Cell Briefing — All six members, contact protocol, activation phrase, safe house address, resources, complication flags, and DM options (extract / activate / integrate / delay). Includes Anika's three questions and what she's actually listening for.
✅ Between-Sessions Checklist — Six-section interactive checklist for the days between sessions: recap sent, NPC states updated, tracker reset, props prepped, notes filed, next session planned. Saves checkbox state in browser.
📝 Post-Session Debrief Card — Five questions to answer immediately after the session — what landed, what didn't, what needs prep. Plus a free-form DM notes area. Autosaves to browser, print-friendly.
📓 Session Log — Per-session record of what actually happened. Date, attendance, what happened, what landed, what missed, invented history that became canon, threads opened and closed, NPC states, the Aldric clock, and next-session prep notes. One tab per session. Add sessions as the campaign grows. All content autosaves in browser.
🎯 Session 6 Prep — Camp Northgate prep doc. Phase A — Camp & Building. Where we are after session 5, the Aldric clock, what each PC can build for their pile tonight (Ofcolin patron, Ofcom Mercy/manual, Ofrhys archive), Mercy first meeting, Aldous opens, three opening beat options, what-if table, and a full pre-session checklist. Aligned to the new endgame.
🎵 Music Cue Sheet — Scene-by-scene track list for the Cathedral session. Colour-coded by arc: tension, action, emotional, relief. Four ending variants with specific cues. Spotify search terms included.
🗺 Camp Northgate — Layout Map — Clickable SVG map of the full camp. Thirteen locations with DM notes: main gate, intake (Priya), mess hall (Thursday gatherings here), workshop (Ofcom notices it immediately — tools laid out exactly how she would), library (Marta's book is here, gap on the shelf the right size for the manual), medical (Mercy works here three days a week), dorms A and B (Ruth's bunk has a photograph), cell room (Chloe's briefings), comms relay (Mayday, two days minimum for a message south — that's the Sparrow warning window), eastern fence (where private conversations happen), the notice board, and Captain the official dog, whose territory is the path between mess and intake and who likes Ofcom immediately and disproportionately.
🌿 Camp Northgate — Arrival Scene Brief — Ops doc for the first time the PCs reach the camp. Arrival read-aloud (woodsmoke before light, real structures, someone laughing and stopping). Five scene beats: Marta's protocol, Priya's intake, per-PC first impressions, Marta's goodbye if this is where she leaves. What each PC notices (Ofcolin: a child watching; Ofrhys: Marta's book in the library; Ofcom: the workshop, laid out the same way she would). Priya's three questions. Thread activations: dossier decoding, engineering manual, Aldous dormant until opened, Nell, Aldric's clock coming.
🏕 Camp Northgate Downtime Tracker — Per-PC downtime activities (with unlock text), day counter, NPC interaction status, active session clocks. Tracks who's done what across the ACT VII rest period.
🎲 Session Complications — d20 Table — Twenty Gilead-flavoured complications to drop in when a scene goes flat or players go somewhere unexpected. Rollable button highlights the result. Ranges from external pressure (checkpoint extended review, broadcast surveillance van) to NPC moments (Aldous finds Ofcom first, Ruth mentions her brother offhandedly) to internal weight (Ofcom Type A episode mid-conversation, someone at camp knew Cardinal). Roll 20 and Ruth mentions her brother in admin. That's the one.
🌿 Chloe — History Brief — Claire Hartwell. Geography teacher. Marcus. How cells start: someone needs somewhere to sleep for two nights and you say yes. Six-year timeline from transition to running two cells simultaneously. The four fears (obvious / unsaid / professional / the one she can't admit). The thing only Finch knows — Year 3, the informant, the calculated choice — and how Finch found out and what she said. Voice lines. Three never rules including: don't give up the Year 3 decision unless they earn it.
⚙️ Ofcom — Key Scenes (merged) — Three scenes in one doc: episode trigger (mid-combat mechanic), the choice (Path A reversal vs Path B handmaid path with Sentinel beats), and telling the group (the disclosure scene). DM beats, voice lines, do/don't rules per beat.
🏛 Seraphina — The Reversal Scene — How to run the moment she makes the offer. The reversal sentence verbatim: "I designed it. I can undo it. Those are both true. What you do with that is yours, not mine." Three choices — yes / not yet / no — all valid, offer doesn't expire, never push for a decision in the scene. What she'll say about Clara if pushed, and only if pushed: "She died before I understood what I'd built." / "She was nine." Three never rules. How each PC is likely to land on it.
🏛 Seraphina — NPC Card — Arch-Aunt. Architect of the Purity Lattice. Clara's mother. She walks in. She sits on the floor. She is very tired. Scene 4 direction (read-aloud, wait, don't fill the silence), the three choices verbatim, what to do when Ofcom asks about Mercy, the things she holds but doesn't say unprompted, voice register.
🕯 The Tunnel — Scene Brief — Five dead handmaids. No mechanics, no dice, no music. Each body described only if someone approaches. Five individual descriptions with DM notes on what each one carries. Rules for running the silence: no investigation rolls, no NPC commentary, ten real seconds before anything else happens. What the scene is for.
📚 Marta — NPC Card — Senior archivist. Forty-three trips in the dark. Gerald's terrible taste in historical fiction. Ezra (his shelf, his opinions, how to use him as a pace tool). The three secrets she doesn't share. Why she chose each PC's book and what it means. Voice register with the Ezra digression example. The goodbye exactly as it should go.
📄 Session 2 — Player Recap — Player-facing handout for before the Cathedral session. Node 47 → The Adam → Archive → Cardinal. What they're carrying (transmitter, chip, exit map, token books, patrol schedule). What they know. The bottom box reads aloud as the session opener.
📄 Session 3 — Player Recap — Aged-document handout for before Session 4. Covers the Cathedral approach, what the party is carrying, key contacts (Sparrow, Reed, Finch), and the opening read-aloud for session night.
✉️ After Session 5 — DM Letter — The letter for after Thursday, written now. You're at camp. All three. The flexible language covers the most likely outcomes (Chloe's confession, the north journey, first night at camp) with marked blanks for what actually happened. The line that matters: "You've been running for so long. You're allowed to stop running for a session or two. The story will find you." Edit, send, done. Signed B.
🔮 Ofcom — What You've Been Living With — For Ara's player only. First-person account of the Cerberus conditioning from inside: what the episodes feel like, what the gap feels like, what happens to her hands during them. The wristband. The inscription and what it means to her specifically. The reversal offer sitting with her — and the question she hasn't answered yet: whether the conditioning and the knowing are separate things. Closes with a note from you to Ara directly. Hand this to her at the right moment — not before she's ready for it.
✉️ Between Sessions — DM Letter — Prose letter addressed to Goldie, Gwendoline, and Ara. Written in your voice, for real. The twelve words quoted. Cardinal's trust. What they're carrying now. Nell's clock and the problem it's become. Aldric watching their shapes. The line that closes it: "Something is changing. You can feel it in the choices you've been making." Send before session 5. Signed B.
📄 Session 5 — Player Recap — Parchment handout for before session 5. The twelve words, four carrying items (the dossier / engineering manual / Cardinal's coordinates / Reed's silence), what they know, one line per PC on where each one is emotionally, and the opening image: four streets from the Cathedral, twenty minutes later, nobody's spoken yet.
⏩ What You Have Missed — Time Jump Recap — Player handout for the Bridging Act / Session 6. Covers the years that have passed: magic restored, scars earned, Ofcolin's missing fingers, Ofcom's known episodes. Hand to players going in so they all share the same baseline before Ash and Sparks opens in medias res.
📄 Session 4 — Player Recap — Parchment handout for before the Cathedral infiltration session. Previously On, what the party is carrying (coordinates, Reed's window, Sparrow's warning), contact status for Reed/Sparrow/Finch, the hard access timings (06:30 → 09:30), objectives, and the man watching the south vestry. Opens with Reed's line verbatim.
⚔ Thorne — NPC Card — Military colonel, true believer in order not theology. "Somewhat inflexible" is a compliment. No doubt, no performance — he has examined his conscience and found it clear. Combat beat-by-beat (50% Shield Bash, 0 HP last words). Key lines verbatim. His professional suspicion of Seraphina. The letter.
🎖 Aldric — NPC Card — Gilead counter-intelligence officer. He is already in the room. Four-stage escalation: awareness → contact → pressure → closure. Watches Sparrow without Sparrow knowing. Access ceiling: he doesn't know about the Lattice. Never surprised, never panicked. Ties into the Threat Escalation Tracker.
🔑 Reed — NPC Card — Cathedral service worker, resistance inside contact. Terrified for years, still showing up. Full access table (what he can reach, what's logged, what's a red flag). His sister. The sub-level B reclassification. The refectory-to-nave route. Handle with care — every favour leaves a trace.
📚 Marta's Goodbye — Archive Scene Brief — Act V Scene 3 ops doc. Archive entry read-aloud (the smell, Ezra), cipher mechanic (Investigation DC 12 / History DC 14), the three token gifts (what each was chosen for and why), the engineering manual moment with Ofcom — say this line exactly. How the goodbye ends. Why she stays. Voice lines including the Ezra digression.
⚡ Node 47 — Puzzle Quick-Reference — Rune sequence (Hand → Key → Eye → Flame), wrong order consequences (2d6 lightning DC 13 + Eye reinforcement, max 3 extras), three hint sources (guard's pocket / Arcana DC 14 / Detect Thoughts), Node Arcanist full stat block (all spells, Node Pulse), solved-puzzle reward (no Mage Armor, stunned round 1), end-of-scene read-aloud when the suppression drops.
⛪ Cathedral — Tactical Maps (Tokens) — Three-tab battle map for the ACT VI cathedral heist: Nave Approach, Chancel (main fight), and Crypt. Draggable tokens with snap-to-grid. Double-click token to home it. Notes panel per area. Reset button restores all starting positions.
🏙️ Gilead Streets — Tactical Maps (Tokens) — Two-tab battle map for street encounters: the Market Square ambush and the Checkpoint pursuit. Palette-based token placement — drag from sidebar onto grid. Double-click placed token to remove it. Notes panel, Reset button.
🗺️ Props & Handouts — sorted by session
📅 28 May Session — next up
🎴 First Turn Cards — cold open — Three private prompts (one per PC) handed face-down before initiative rolls. Player reads silently for ~30 seconds, then dice. Drops each player into their PC's headspace before the first die hits the table. Pair with Max Richter
Arrive; cut music when initiative starts. Print-friendly.
🔐 The Litany Lock — mid-session puzzle — Iron door in the maintenance corridor between The Fallen and Scene 2. Five brass dials, a scripture placard, the handmaids died trying to reach it. Cipher: Nth letter of each pillar word =
M-E-R-C-Y (the password is the woman they'll meet at Camp Northgate — they don't know that yet). Behind the door: Sergei's resistance cache — working transmitter, the extraction list with
Hannah Perry on it (Marta's daughter in custody), sealed letter to Eleanor, journal page pointing to Node 12. Hint ladder + alt-solution paths + read-aloud scripts in DM toggle. Drops in 5–15 mins.
🪡 Marta's Tokens — Three origami-design tokens, one per PC. Spend by physically unfolding = advantage on one saving throw, single use. Already in the party's possession; consumable through the night.
🌿 Phase A — Camp & Building
🌿 Post-Escape Handouts — Camp notice board, Mayday intel drop (with hover-to-reveal redactions), refugee camp briefing sheet, freedom papers.
📌 Camp Northgate Notice Board — Corkboard prop: 13 notices in varied paper colours and rotations. Official (mess hall hours, curfew, eastern fence warning) and community (skills exchange, informal library, Thursday gathering, Constance seeking Thomas Hendricks). The sock is reunited. Captain the dog has official status. Full-width closer:
"You are on the right side of the wall."
📓 Marta's Diary Entry — Written eleven days after the Cathedral fell. She calls the party "the woman with careful hands," "the woman who always knew where the door was," and "the engineer." She's still inside. She's choosing to be. Someone has to write it down.
📨 Aldric's Message Card — Six words on a Gilead-stamped half-card.
"The debt is still outstanding. — A." Delivered via the informant channel. Show it. Say nothing.
📁 Sparrow's Dossier — Four-page resistance intelligence file on Commander Aldric. Financial irregularities, Guardian Reiss off-chain reporting, the unlogged border photograph, and Sparrow's handwritten conclusion:
"I don't know if this is enough. I think it might not be. I kept going anyway."
✉️ Sparrow's Letter — His reply if the party gets word to him via Mayday. Confirms Aldric knew about the Programme before district command did. Passes on a redacted contact name and the REED activation phrase — he doesn't know he's pointing them at the same cell. P.S.: "I don't know how many of you made it out. If it doesn't — don't tell me which one. Not yet."
🩸 Cardinal's Extraction Briefing — The document Cardinal was carrying when shot. Mayday resistance brief: REED (third cell), cascade flaw notes, extract protocol. Blood-stain toggle. Fields left blank — Cardinal never finished the delivery.
📖 Engineering Manual — Book Spread Prop — The manual as a full book spread: left page is the cover/spine (Gilead Technical Authority, Third Edition, Archive Copy), right page is the inside cover with Mercy's handwriting. Repair log (re-sewn Year 3, re-glued Year 5 — G.T.), the inscription in italic script, the signature "— M," pencil note "for whoever needs this next." Hand to Ofcom's player without explanation. Don't read it aloud. Print-friendly.
📖 Engineering Manual — Inside Cover — A full book spread: library borrowing card (E. Marsh checked it out twice), inside cover inscription in Mercy's handwriting, pencil annotation from Seraphina. Hand to Ofcom's player with no explanation.
Per canon: DM-timed reveal — NOT at handover. Surfaces during downtime crafting or after a hard loss.
📄 The Record — Hook C Prop — Archival document prop for Ofrhys. Partial Cerberus participant list, flagged UNVERIFIED, submitted anonymously 18 months ago. Twelve names — first names only, three redacted. Number 06: M. Circled in red ink. Handwritten annotation: "Still inside. Aware. Choosing to stay." Four DM interpretations. Cross-references Ruth's second-cell archive fragment.
🩸 Late-game / Endgame Props
📋 The Subject Register — Lore Prop — A crystalline data slate the resistance recovered. 50 entries across 8 classes. Includes: Subject Seven (Ofcom — Aramynta Deble — full file with Type C "sealed"), Subject Zero (Mercy / Margaret Vale, listed deceased with her own marginalia "she walked out"), Subject Beta (Aunt Miriam, voluntarily conditioned), the Warden + Eye Commander + Sentinel from the 28 May fights, one embedded sleeper at Camp Northgate, Brother Aldous (Aldric, deliberately botched conditioning), Subject-Interim-3 (Ofcolin, two missing fingers, escaped), Sister Gwendoline (Ofrhys, pre-implant escapee), Eleanor in custody, Hannah Perry in custody, and Commander Com's C.C. marginalia trail. Toggle DM Annotations for hidden commentary on every entry.
📝 Seraphina's Reversal Notes — Handwritten on graph paper. Personal letter from Seraphina (Dr. Elaine Marsh) to Ofcom: what the Cerberus conditioning is, how the reversal works, what she'll feel after, and the P.S. about the engineering manual. Show to Ofcom's player at the right moment.
✓ Already Played — Sessions 1–4
📖 Testimony Cipher — Two pages: official Gilead Chapter VII + decoded message (anchor = crystal beneath Cathedral, Setting I = correct frequency).
📡 Transmitter Compass — SVG compass prop. DM version (Setting I highlighted, gold needle) and player version (ambiguous needle). AI gen prompt included.
📡 Transmitter — Player Prop Card — Player-facing version of Cardinal's device. Five frequency settings, annotation space for player notes, cipher blank for Setting I. Hand to the party after Cardinal's death.
📡 Cardinal's Transmitter — Recovered Card — The end-of-session moment prop. Player card describing the object (pocket watch, brushed metal, heavier than expected) plus what it does, one-use rules, and the quote. Hand face-down to whoever picks it up — let them turn it over. DM reference card on the reverse covers when to hand it, relay requirements, and contingency links.
💾 Cardinal's Partial Notes — Burned data chip — four sectors, corruption effects, Setting I visible, final sentence incomplete. Arcana DC 14 to recover additional data. The party gets most of it but not all of it.
🍸 The Adam — Bar Menu — In-world prop: The Adam's menu card with Gilead-approved drinks and coded resistance signals. Hidden DM panel reveals what each drink order actually means. Toggle between player and DM view.
📻 Gilead Broadcast Intercept — Radio transcript prop with hover-to-reveal redactions and Finch's margin annotations. Northgate seed embedded. Shows the party what Gilead is saying publicly vs. what the resistance knows.
📋 Cerberus Dossier — Three Fragments — What the PCs actually recovered from Sub-Level B. Three printable aged documents: Fragment A (programme overview, Subject Seven listed, partially legible), Fragment B (episode type classifications — Type A/B/C described, Type C phrase redacted but its existence is there), Fragment C (Dr. E. Marsh's personal memo, Year 6 — she's leaving, she knows how to fix what she built, the inscription line is there). DM note on which to hand over and when. Fragment C is the one that lands. Print individually as aged paper if you want the physical effect.
📋 Sub-Level B — Reclassification Order — In-world prop document found in the Commander's Office. Official Gilead administrative form reclassifying Sub-Level B from archive storage to operational intelligence three weeks ago. Signed by V. Harwick. Nature of transferred materials: classified. Handwritten annotation: "What was moved? Nobody will say." Red processing stamp. Coffee ring.
🗃 Aldric — Working Intelligence File — Gilead Office of Internal Security prop document. AMBER-3 classification. Four subject entries (Anchor, Quiet One, Engineer, Voice) — he doesn't have names yet, only patterns. He noticed the wristband on Subject C. Handwritten annotations in his own hand throughout: "Pattern is cleaner than it looks. Someone is managing it." Works as DM reference (what he knows) or player-facing prop (what they intercept). Print-ready on white.
📚 Always / Reference
🗝 Invented History Artefacts — Six in-world props that establish shared history for players returning after a long break. Each is a physical object the characters have been carrying: Marta's note tucked in a book, Reed's contact protocol slip (via Sparrow), a Cathedral access extract with Sparrow's handwritten margin annotation, Cardinal's last note (found in his coat after), Chloe's safe-passage word, and Ara's hospital wristband (CERBERUS/07 — PHASE III INCOMPLETE — attending: E.M., redacted). Hand them at session start or mid-session. Players construct their own memories around the prop. Print-friendly.
🚨 Wanted Poster — Eight charges. 500 scrip per subject. Silhouette placeholders + AI gen prompt for photos.