Cellar

The cellar is crude stone braced with old timbers, the earth pressing close around it. The air is sharp and cold. At its center rests a heavy iron-bound coffin wrapped in rusted chains carved with Cuthbertine sigils. Thick candles, magically lit for over century, flicker with steady white flames, maintaining the sanctity of the binding.

Xolec lies motionless inside, eyes closed, pale as frost, but his mind is awake.
For a century he has heard:

• Every footstep above

• Every meeting of the Scarlet Brotherhood

• Every whisper, plan, and argument

• Their schedules, their patterns, their voices

When anyone enters the cellar, Xolec immediately reaches out with a soft, seductive psychic whisper, a plea, a promise, and a command.

Any creature with a Good or Lawful Neutral alignment must make a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw. Creatures of other alignments automatically succeed.

On a failed save:

The character becomes quietly, irresistibly fixated on releasing Xolec. It begins as curiosity, then urgency, then a soul-deep conviction that opening the coffin is righteous and necessary.

• They will try to unchain and open the coffin by any means.

• If prevented, the compulsion returns stronger.

• Affected characters may sneak back alone at night, abandon obligations, or slip away from their allies.

• This is not charm—it is a warped sense of moral purpose. The curse bends their will toward “doing the right thing.”

On a successful save:

The character feels a cold whisper brush their thoughts but resists.
If they enter the cellar again, Xolec will try once more, but all future saves are rolled with Advantage.

Those who ultimately free Xolec are never attacked by him, he sees them as instruments of fate, helpers on his path to the Pearl Heart.

Xolec is still undead, still bound by hunger, but not senselessly cruel. His obsession eclipses everything else:

He must find the Pearl Heart. Nothing else matters.

• He will not harm those who release him.

• He is laser-focused on recovering the artifact and ending the curse on the Pale Prow.

• If anyone attempts to hinder, imprison, or restrain him, he will destroy them without hesitation.

Xolec is not a traditional villain, he is a cursed man holding onto one fragile thread of hope.

A century of listening from beneath the floorboards has given Xolec unusual insight:

• A covert organization has used the shanty for secret meetings for years.

• Their plans, broadly, threaten Saltmarsh.

• Multiple members operate under code names.

• He knows their meeting night (new moon, dead hour) and their charcoal-signal on Sharkfin Bridge.

He does not know their identities, true allegiances, or precise numbers.

If the characters release him and survive the consequences, Xolec will share everything he knows about the Scarlet Brotherhood and will ask for any help searching for the Pearl Heart.

Remember: Xolec has waited a century. Now he has a mission. He will not remain in Saltmarsh long, he will search for the Pearl Heart.