Factor Iselle Dohr
House Sai wharf-factor · the one who pays · the one who lies by omission
At a Glance
- Role
- Quest-giver; a lever on the party — and a lever for the party — long after this module
- House
- Sai (books tonnage off Onda's east quay)
- Demeanor
- Warm, brisk, transactional; a smile that closes deals
- Tell
- Talks about the dead ships as line items, never as crews
- Found at
- The counting-house above the east quay, or the jetty at dawn watching the water
Voice & Manner
Efficient and genuinely likeable — she remembers names, asks after your journey, pours the good arak, and has your fee counted before you've sat down. None of it is false; all of it is a transaction. A true Saian, she believes everyone has a price and considers it only polite to find yours quickly and pay it fairly.
“I'm not asking you to be heroes. Heroes are expensive and they ask questions. I'm asking you to solve a problem I can put a number on. The number is generous. Shall we?”
What She Wants
- The reef cleared — her ships stop sinking, her underwriters stop circling, her east-quay contracts survive the season.
- Her unlogged strongbox off the Ledgerwake and into her hands before anyone from the House — or House Ehn — goes looking through the wreck.
- To be seen as a reasonable woman who solved a problem cleanly. She will pay extra for discretion and remember it if she gets it.
Behind the screen
Dohr has been skimming tonnage for two seasons and hiding the coin in unlogged boxes shipped on her own trusted hulls — one of which was the Ledgerwake. She didn't sink the ship (Jatu did that), but the box going down with it is a catastrophe: if the wreck is salvaged officially, the slip in her own hand surfaces, and House Sai does not forgive stealing from the House. That, not the drowned crew, is what keeps her at the jetty at dawn.
She has no idea what the drownings actually are, and would be genuinely horrified — not out of piety, but because a Sanguine Inquisition problem is the one kind of problem money can't close. If the party tells her the truth of what they found aboard the Surety, she stops haggling and starts listening.
The lever cuts both ways. Hand the slip back and she's a grateful, well-placed ally in House Sai. Keep it and let her know, and she's a frightened one who'll do favours to stay quiet. Turn her in and you've made an enemy with a long memory and a longer purse. Any of the three is good campaign fuel — that's what she's for.
In a Fight
Dohr does not fight and is not built to. If cornered she buys her way out — with coin, with a name, with a promise she may even keep. If you somehow need dice, run her as a noble (CR 1/8) with a hidden dagger and a purse that can hire three thugs faster than most parties can draw. Her real weapon is that she's more useful to the party alive, well-disposed, and slightly in their debt — and a good table will figure that out.