Ilse Marrow, the Hollow Cantor

Level 8 Human Bard (College of Lore)

Available with DM subscription

STR

8 (-1)

DEX

13 (+1)

CON

14 (+2)

INT

WIS

14 (+2)

CHA

18 (+4)

Defense

Armor Class 14 (Studded leather (13) + DEX (+1... see note: 13 + 1 = 14))

Hit Points 59 (8 + 7d8 + 14 (CON 14) +2)

Speed 30 ft.

Proficiencies & Skills

Saving Throws dexterity, charisma

Skills Insight +5, Stealth +4, Religion +3, Deception +7, Perception +5, Persuasion +7, Performance +7

Features

Three-Verse Ritual (custom, encounter mechanic)

custom

ritual

While inside her ritual circle, Ilse sings one verse per 3 rounds (three verses total). Each completed verse floods the nave with fog (heavily obscured beyond 30 feet) and forces every creature within 30 feet of the circle to make a DC 15 Constitution save each round or be Charmed until the end of its next turn. The ritual is anchored by three brass chimes (AC 15, 10 HP each); breaking any chime, silencing Ilse, or destroying the mist-condensers below breaks the ritual.

Voice of the Open Hand (custom)

custom

social

Ilse has Advantage on Charisma checks against mist-touched creatures and Choir members. She never initiates combat and always offers tea and parley first; if the party is courteous, she answers questions honestly about the Mist's 'love' — a rich source of clues.

The Cantor's Throat (attuned)

magic item

1/day

Rare brass chime. As an action, one creature within 30 feet must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom save or be Charmed for 1 minute (repeat save at end of turns; ends on damage). It hums audibly when the Deep Mist is within a mile.

Countercharm

class Level 7

Bonus Action

One creature within 30 feet has Advantage on saves against being Charmed or Frightened, or on the next saving throw it makes, until the end of Ilse's next turn.

Cutting Words

subclass Level 3

Reaction

When a creature within 60 feet hits with an attack, Ilse can use her Reaction to subtract the roll of a Bardic Inspiration die from the damage.

Bardic Inspiration (d8)

class Level 1

4/rest (CHA modifier)

As a Bonus Action, give one creature within 60 feet a Bardic Inspiration die (d8) to add to an ability check, attack roll or saving throw.

Magic Initiate (Cleric) — the Choir's Rites

background Level 1

Bless 1/day

Knows the Guidance and Thaumaturgy cantrips (CHA) and can cast Bless once per Long Rest without a slot.

Song of Rest

class Level 2

always

During a Short Rest, Ilse can sing; each ally who spends Hit Point Dice regains extra 1d8 hit points.

Font of Inspiration

class Level 5

always

Regains all uses of Bardic Inspiration on a Short Rest; can trade a use for a level 1 spell slot.

Jack of All Trades

class Level 2

always

Add half proficiency bonus (rounded down, +1) to non-proficient ability checks and Initiative.

Magical Secrets (Counterspell, Misty Step)

subclass Level 6

always

Ilse knows Counterspell and Misty Step, which count as Bard spells for her.

Expertise (Performance, Persuasion)

class Level 2

always

Doubles proficiency bonus in Performance and Persuasion (+6 each).

Bonus Proficiencies (College of Lore)

subclass Level 3

always

Three extra skill proficiencies: Deception, Insight, Perception.

Spellcasting

charisma DC 16 +8 to hit Level 1: 4 slots Level 2: 3 slots Level 3: 3 slots Level 4: 1 slots

Bless from Magic Initiate is cast without a slot, once per Long Rest, and is not listed among prepared spells.

Vicious Mockery

Cantrip Bard

Enchantment 1 action 60 ft V

Wis save DC 16 or 2d4 psychic damage and disadvantage on next attack roll.

Minor Illusion

Cantrip Bard

Illusion 1 action 30 ft S, M

Create a sound or an image of an object within range.

Guidance

Cantrip Magic Initiate (Cleric)

Divination 1 action Touch V, S

Target adds 1d4 to its next ability check within the minute.

Thaumaturgy

Cantrip Magic Initiate (Cleric)

Transmutation 1 action 30 ft V

Minor supernatural phenomena — her voice carries through the whole Spire.

Dissonant Whispers

Level 1 Bard

Enchantment 1 action 60 ft V

Wis save DC 16 or 3d6 psychic damage and frightened until end of turn; half on success.

Charm Person

Level 1 Bard

Enchantment 1 action 30 ft V, S

Wis save DC 16 or charmed for 1 hour; humanoids have disadvantage.

Healing Word

Level 1 Bard

Evocation 1 bonus action 60 ft V

A creature regains 1d4 + 4 hit points.

Fog Cloud

Level 2 Bard

Conjuration 1 action 120 ft V, S

20-foot-radius sphere of fog, heavily obscured, 1 hour.

Suggestion

Level 2 Bard

Enchantment 1 action 30 ft V, M

Wis save DC 16 or follow a reasonable course of action for up to 8 hours.

Shatter

Level 2 Bard

Evocation 1 action 60 ft V, S, M

Con save DC 16 or 3d8 thunder damage, half on success; constructs have disadvantage.

Fear

Level 3 Bard

Illusion 1 action Self (30-ft cone) V, S, M

Wis save DC 16 or frightened; drops whatever it holds and flees.

Hypnotic Pattern

Level 3 Bard

Illusion 1 action 120 ft S, M

Wis save DC 16 or charmed, incapacitated, 10-ft cube, 1 minute.

Counterspell

Level 3 Magical Secrets

Abjuration 1 reaction 60 ft V, S

Interrupt a spell of 3rd level or lower automatically; higher levels require an ability check (DC 10 + spell level).

Misty Step

Level 2 Magical Secrets

Conjuration 1 bonus action Self V

Teleport 30 feet to an unoccupied space she can see.

Greater Invisibility

Level 4 Bard

Illusion 1 action Touch V, S

Target is invisible for 1 minute.

Confusion

Level 4 Bard

Enchantment 1 action 90 ft V, S, M

10-foot-radius sphere; Wis save DC 16 or act confused for 1 minute.

Behind the character

Character Information

Before the adventure

Character Background

Extended background story is not available for this character.

Personal quest · 1

The Verse She Never Wrote

Anselm Crowe's stolen notebook contains a fragment of a fourth verse Ilse composed as a child on the drifting Sliver — a verse the Mist never answered. Ilse wants it back before the party can use it. Retrieving it (or hearing it sung back to her) forces her to confront the one moment her god went silent.

Current Stage

Anselm Crowe agrees to trade the notebook page in exchange for safe passage out of the Spire's undercroft past Wren Hallow's guards.

Mechanical Rewards

Ilse loses access to Font of Inspiration for one in-game day if the verse breaks her
The party gains Anselm's notebook, revealing the three-verse ritual's full structure and a DC 15 Arcana clue to the chimes

Narrative Rewards

Ilse's grief becomes genuine doubt — the seed of her potential redemption at the Driftline

Personal quest · 2

Ysolde's Ledger

Lady Ysolde Marrow, Ilse's sister, has been skimming from the Choir's tithes to quietly buy her way out of the arrangement. Ilse has discovered the discrepancy and sends a mist-touched servant to retrieve her — but Ysolde, terrified, has hired the party as her protection instead. Ilse must decide whether to trust the party's mediation or send the Choir's guards.

Current Stage

The party is hired by Ysolde in Ratchetworks to escort her to Marrow Spire for a 'family reconciliation.'

Mechanical Rewards

If the party negotiates successfully, Ilse grants them a Warden's pass equivalent — a Choir sigil that opens the Spire's undercroft without a fight

Narrative Rewards

The party learns the true scale of the Choir's mist-touched network across the Fourth Ring

Personal quest · 3

The Hollow Chime

There is a fourth chime — the one Ilse's mother cast, and the only one that has never been struck. It hangs in the Spire's undercroft among the mist-condensers. Ilse believes that if she strikes it as the fourth verse, the ritual will not merely open the Spire but call the Deep Mist into the Engine itself. The party must find it first, and decide whether to destroy it, give it to her, or use it against her.

Current Stage

The party discovers the chime's existence through Anselm's notes and the condenser husks guarding the undercroft.

Mechanical Rewards

If the party keeps the chime, it becomes the Hollow Chime, a rare wondrous item: struck, it forces every mist-touched creature within 60 feet to make a DC 16 Wisdom save or be stunned for 1 round, once per day

Narrative Rewards

If given to Ilse, she reveals the location of the Unkeyed Warden's next ritual and the name 'Ossian Vey'

Major Decision

Context

Ilse stands at the ritual circle with two verses sung. The party has broken one chime. She offers them a choice: leave now and she will sing the third verse gently, letting the Spire's people evacuate, or stay and she will sing it as a war-song and drown the nave in fog.

Choice Made

The party can accept her mercy (the Spire opens but the people live, and Ilse remembers them as the ones who let her be kind), or refuse and fight her at full power with the ritual clock running.

Impact

If accepted, Ilse gains the trait 'Debtor of Mercy' — she will not attack the party first in the Grand Cage finale, and she can be turned with a DC 14 Persuasion check instead of the Driftline requirement. If refused, her ritual continues at full speed and the mist-condensers spawn two Condenser Husks.

Major Decision

Context

Ilse corners the party's weakest member alone in the fog and strikes them with the Cantor's Throat. The chime hums, and the character hears the Mist's voice — warm, patient, and offering to 'keep' them.

Choice Made

The character can accept the Mist's charm (gaining a permanent +1 to Charisma saves against fear but becoming mist-touched: they hear the counting in silence, and Ilse can locate them anywhere on the Engine), or break the charm by taking 2d6 psychic damage and gaining a permanent hatred of the Choir.

Impact

Acceptance gives the party an unwitting spy in their own ranks and Ilse a way to track them; refusal gives the character the 'Chime-Broken' trait, granting advantage on all saves against Ilse's charm effects for the rest of the campaign.

Major Decision

Context

Ilse, her ritual broken and her choir scattered, offers her final bargain: she will give the party Anselm's notebook, the Choir's ritual schedule, and the name of the Unkeyed Warden if they let her walk out of the Spire alive and unchased.

Choice Made

The party can accept the bargain (she flees to the Grand Cage and appears in the finale, singing the Mist through the cracks), or refuse and hunt her down (she is killed here, and the finale loses its second voice).

Impact

Accepting gives the party a major clue advantage in Act III and a harder finale (Ilse reinforces Ossian Vey); refusing gives an easier finale but closes the redemption path permanently and costs the party the truth about the Mist's hunger that only Ilse can speak.

Transformative Moment

Trigger

If the party brings Ilse to the Driftline and makes her watch a Sliver being eaten, she must make a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, she breaks: her alignment shifts to Neutral, she loses her Three-Verse Ritual and the Cantor's Throat, and gains the trait 'The Cage's Singer' — she can re-key one Sliver per day by singing to it, and she will sing the Cage shut in the finale.

Transformation

Ilse becomes a broken, hollow woman who has heard the hunger beneath the song. She is no longer a villain but a penitent, and she will spend the rest of her days singing the Slivers back into their rings.

Mechanical Changes

Ally

Lady Ysolde Marrow

Relationship sister and secret benefactor

Influence 3/10

Loyalty 7/10

Shared History

Ilse and Ysolde were born on a Sliver that drifted when they were children. The Mist took their parents and left the two girls standing on the plate, singing to it, and it sang back — but only to Ilse. Ysolde has spent forty years funding her sister's Choir out of guilt, love, and the terrible knowledge that the Mist chose Ilse and not her. She has never heard it speak, and she hates it for that, and she hates herself for hating it. Every tithe she sends under a false tally is both an apology and a bribe: keep singing, and do not make me listen.

Potential Breaking Points

If the party proves the Mist eats what it loves, Ysolde will withdraw all funding within a week and the Choir will starve.

Enemy

Brother Anselm Crowe

Threat Level 2/10

Conflict Type defector and heretic

Personal Stakes

Anselm was Ilse's finest cantor for twelve years. He had the voice she wished she had, and she trusted him with the ritual's every verse. Then she took him to the Driftline to hear the Mist sing to a drifting Sliver, and instead he watched it eat one. He did not scream. He simply stopped singing, and walked out of the Spire, and Ilse has never forgiven him for making her doubt for a single afternoon what she has believed for forty years. She wants him back — not dead, back — and she will trade almost anything to make him sing her third verse again.

Possible Resolutions

If the party brings Anselm to her and he sings the third verse willingly, Ilse will halt the ritual for one full day — enough time to evacuate the Spire — before her doubt returns and she must choose again.

Faction

The Mistbound Choir

Standing 5/10

Influence

Ilse is not the Choir's leader in any sense the word usually means. She is its voice, its reason, and its prisoner. The Choir of four hundred singers across the Fourth Ring was founded by a woman named Mother Sallow thirty years before Ilse was born, and it has outlived three Cantors before her. Ilse inherited it the way one inherits a debt: the mist-touched came to her because the Mist spoke to her, and the Choir came to the mist-touched because no one else would house them.

She cannot disband it, cannot refuse it, and cannot survive without it — and Sister Wren Hallow, the guard-captain, serves the Choir and not Ilse, and has twice suggested that a Cantor who hesitates should be replaced.

Obligations

Ilse must house and feed every mist-touched person who comes to the Spire, no matter the cost
She must sing the crown every seventh day or the Choir's senior singers will begin to hear the Mist independently — and independently is how heresies start

Benefits

The Choir's singers will die for her without being asked, which is both her greatest shield and her deepest shame
The mist-condensers in the undercroft give her a source of fog she can shape anywhere within a mile of the Spire

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