Risa

Start-class article · First seen: s07 · Last seen: s10
Risa
the urn-woman · the woman with the urn
Portrait of Risa.
Character
StatusAlive
First seens07
Last seens10
FactionUmbrafall civilian

Risa is the young woman the party met in session 7 outside the Whisper Coil Emporium in Umbrafall, clutching an urn of what she had been told were her sister’s ashes while two Nightwatch guards tried to take it from her. The fight that followed cost the party Vasquez, taken for questioning. In session 8 Hugo found lye in the urn and guessed that the Dawn Mercy Clinic had aquamated her sister, but in session 10 the orderly Drew confessed that Aurelian agents had taken her sister, Mira Hale, to Aurelia and that lye had been put in the urn. Risa is the seed from which the campaign’s Aurelian conspiracy thread grew.

Overview

Risa is the young woman of Umbrafall whose sister was taken by Aurelian agents under cover of the Dawn Mercy Clinic’s alleged cremation. She is the campaign’s first concrete thread connecting Umbrafall’s crooked Nightwatch to the larger Aurelian conspiracy.

The party met her in session 7 outside the Whisper Coil Emporium, where two guards were pulling a small urn from her: “It’s the last thing I have of her” [9]. Lye in the urn and a gap in the clinic’s log pointed to a cover-up. Hugo’s guess that the clinic had aquamated her sister was only a theory, and the DM did not confirm it [3]. In session 10 the orderly Drew said instead that Aurelians had come with a name, Mira Hale, had taken her, and had left lye in the urn [10].

Appearance and demeanour

A woman of about twenty, “scared and panicked” when first seen [11]. She holds on to the urn and does not run when the fight starts until the party shout at her to [12][13]. She is practical once safe: she read the clinic’s log herself, will wait at the inn and will find a reward [14][15]. By session 10 she is drinking to forget, red-eyed, her coat crooked, empty bottles on the floor and the table and a third in her hand [16].

Relationships

  • Mira Hale: her sister, who had headaches, saw things and “swore that she turned on a candle with her mind” [17]; taken to Aurelia [18].
  • Dawn Mercy Clinic: gave her the urn and the story of the cremation; Drew says the Aurelians forced the orderly to cover it up [19][20].
  • Nightwatch: the guards who tried to take the urn as contaminated city property, paid off by the Aurelians [21][22].
  • Aurelian forces: her sister’s abductors [23].
  • The party: Hugo, Terry and Caelumn spoke to her first; she knows none of their names [24][25].

Disposition towards the party

Trusting, then despairing. The party are her only recourse. When told that her sister was alive in Aurelia she asked “My sister’s dead, isn’t she?” and said no one could walk into Aurelia and find one person [26]. She accepts their promise to look for Mira, with Vasquez’s vow that the whole place would “go up in flames” if it went wrong, without hope [27][28].

Notable quotes

“Please, don’t take it. It’s the last thing I have of her.” — Risa, [29]

“Because she was burned at 10. But someone visited her or checked up on her at 10.20.” — Risa, [30]

“My sister’s dead, isn’t she?” — Risa, [31]

History in the campaign

Session 7: Maelis Falls, Vasquez Captured

Main article: Session 7

Leaving the Whisper Coil Emporium, the party found two Nightwatch guards pulling an urn from a woman of about twenty [1]. Hugo tried to walk by and left when told to stay clear. Vasquez judged her sincere, and Caelumn told the guards “The dead are sacred” [32][33]. A fight followed. No one was killed, but a guard’s flare called for reinforcements, and Vasquez, knocked out twice, was left to be taken in for questioning while the others scattered [34][35][36]. Risa fled into an alley and the others found her again [37][38].

Session 8: Bruise the Cellmate, the Succubus, and the Quarry Ghosts

Main article: Session 8

In a rain-soaked alley Terry asked what the urn held, and Risa lifted the lid [39]. Hugo’s Perception of 22 found that the white dust “smells unmistakably like lye” [40]. Risa told of the clinic’s story and the log’s 10:20 entry, and Hugo guessed aquamation, a theory the DM could not confirm [41]. She described her sister’s headaches and the candle lit with her mind [17]. Risa agreed to wait at the inn from three to five every day for two weeks and to try to find a reward [42].

Session 9: The Death of Harvo

Main article: Session 9

Risa is off-screen. In the opening recap of session 9 the party’s work for her was retold: they had rescued the woman with the urn, found lye where ashes should be, and theorised that the clinic had been doing “liquid cremation” and that her sister, who could light candles with her mind, might be part of a larger experiment [4].

Session 10: Ruin Joins, the Aurelian Conspiracy, the Plate Armour

Main article: Session 10

Back in Umbrafall the party found Risa at the inn where she had said she would be [43]. Caelumn told her the clinic seemed to be just a clinic, and she slumped: “it’s been four days what have you been doing” [44]. At the clinic Drew, broken by Caelumn’s flames and two natural 20s, named Mira Hale and the Aurelians who took her, and confirmed that he had put the lye in the urn [45]. Back at the inn Risa was drinking to forget. Told that her sister was alive in Aurelia, she said “she’s never coming back” [46]. The party promised to look on the way to Aurelia and withheld their names [27][47].

Session 11: Owlbears and the Soulbinder

Main article: Session 11

Risa is off-screen. Waking from the long rest, the party asked whether they had agreed to go and save her sister. Hugo said no: they would conduct their business first, then go into Aurelia and “have a look about”. Terry joked that they were leaving “the poor girl” to her own devices in the meantime [48].

Session 14: The Gummy Mummy and Aurelian Eldwythe

Main article: Session 14

Risa is off-screen. Weighing whether to go on into Aurelian-held Eldwythe, Caelumn counted the “sister who’s been taken there” among the loose ends, and Hugo said the party had only said it would “figure that out” and “never guaranteed we could do anything” [8].

Status

As of session 14. Alive, and as far as play shows still at the Glomangol Inn in Umbrafall, drinking and without hope after hearing that her sister was taken to Aurelia [49]. The party’s promise to look for Mira Hale stands, but has not been acted on [27][8].

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 7, line 1207-1216: First seen with urn, accosted by Nightwatch outside Whisper Coil.
  2. ^ Session 8, line 117-146: Lye smell; 20-minute timeline gap; clinic name 'Dawn Mercy'.
  3. ^ Session 8, line 155-163: Hugo's aquamation theory; the DM does not know the process.
  4. ^ Session 9, line 56: The opening recap retells the urn, the lye and the party's theory about the clinic.
  5. ^ Session 10, line 643-668: Drew confesses Aurelian abduction; Mira Hale named; lye put in the urn.
  6. ^ Session 10, line 1472-1516: Risa drinking heavily; 'My sister's dead, isn't she?'; 'she's never coming back'.
  7. ^ Session 11, line 140-146: The party defers her sister's case until their business at Eldwythe is done.
  8. ^ Session 14, line 1631-1632: Caelumn and Hugo recall the sister taken to Aurelia and that they never guaranteed they could do anything.
  9. ^ Session 7, line 1207-1208: Inline citation.
  10. ^ Session 10, line 648-660: Inline citation.
  11. ^ Session 7, line 1207: Inline citation.
  12. ^ Session 7, line 1349: Inline citation.
  13. ^ Session 7, line 1443-1452: Inline citation.
  14. ^ Session 8, line 144-146: Inline citation.
  15. ^ Session 8, line 421-424: Inline citation.
  16. ^ Session 10, line 1472-1487: Inline citation.
  17. ^ Session 8, line 179-189: Inline citation.
  18. ^ Session 10, line 648-668: Inline citation.
  19. ^ Session 8, line 140-143: Inline citation.
  20. ^ Session 10, line 652-660: Inline citation.
  21. ^ Session 7, line 1237: Inline citation.
  22. ^ Session 10, line 663-664: Inline citation.
  23. ^ Session 10, line 648-656: Inline citation.
  24. ^ Session 10, line 516-517: Inline citation.
  25. ^ Session 10, line 1528-1533: Inline citation.
  26. ^ Session 10, line 1508-1520: Inline citation.
  27. ^ Session 10, line 1503-1507: Inline citation.
  28. ^ Session 10, line 1545-1555: Inline citation.
  29. ^ Session 7, line 1208: Inline citation.
  30. ^ Session 8, line 146: Inline citation.
  31. ^ Session 10, line 1508: Inline citation.
  32. ^ Session 7, line 1217: Inline citation.
  33. ^ Session 7, line 1229-1236: Inline citation.
  34. ^ Session 7, line 1375: Inline citation.
  35. ^ Session 7, line 1470-1473: Inline citation.
  36. ^ Session 7, line 1537-1544: Inline citation.
  37. ^ Session 7, line 1463: Inline citation.
  38. ^ Session 7, line 1571: Inline citation.
  39. ^ Session 8, line 99-107: Inline citation.
  40. ^ Session 8, line 117-118: Inline citation.
  41. ^ Session 8, line 140-163: Inline citation.
  42. ^ Session 8, line 417-424: Inline citation.
  43. ^ Session 10, line 515: Inline citation.
  44. ^ Session 10, line 519-525: Inline citation.
  45. ^ Session 10, line 644-660: Inline citation.
  46. ^ Session 10, line 1472-1517: Inline citation.
  47. ^ Session 10, line 1530-1533: Inline citation.
  48. ^ Session 11, line 142-146: Inline citation.
  49. ^ Session 10, line 1472-1520: Inline citation.