Calcutta — The Cycle of Dissolution

Premise

The investigators leave Vienna knowing WHO (Acharya Ghosh), WHERE (Mandir Mahakali), and WHEN (Kali Puja, October 25). They do not know HOW. The six-week journey east includes four self-contained side adventures. In Calcutta, they discover a cult that hides in plain sight: a legitimate temple, a respected priest, a ritual indistinguishable from genuine worship. The British colonial bureaucracy is not an obstacle to overcome but the medium they swim in, and the cult’s most effective shield. The investigators must build an alliance across two worlds (British and Indian), identify Thuggee infiltrators inside Fort William, discover that the river (not the temple) is the true vulnerability, and mount a split-party assault on Kali Puja night: physical disruption of the Hooghly’s acoustic channel upstream, with an optional mystical counter-ritual on the water.

Tone & Genre

Tonal references (confirmed):

• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — Welcoming surface peeling away to reveal body horror beneath. Underground temple. Ritual that is transcendent and terrible simultaneously.
• Sharpe’s Tiger — British military in India, infiltration, grit. Resourceful protagonists out of their depth in a world they don’t understand.
• James Bond: Live and Let Die — Spiritual power as real threat, villain using culture as armour, climax ON the water.

Sensory palette: Monsoon humidity, crow-thick air, cremation ghats, river silt and rendered fat, the “tone between tones.” Crystal glasses one scene, dissolving flesh the next. The jarring separation between White Town and Black Town at scene level.

Tonal arc: Social thriller (Phases 1-2) → spy thriller (Phase 3) → body horror (Temple of Doom) → operational tension (Phase 4) → action climax (Kali Puja night).

Adventure Shape

Hub-and-spoke with linear journey prologue.

The journey from Vienna to Calcutta (6-8 weeks) is a linear sequence of four self-contained adventures, each one session. In Calcutta, the British colonial social calendar is the hub: the ball, the mess dinner, the tiger hunt, Sunday services. Investigation threads are the spokes: each social event delivers intelligence that feeds investigation, and investigation produces revelations that recontextualise the social world.

Journey rhythm: Horror at sea → Rest in Cairo → Horror on land → Unsettling stop → Long ocean run with mounting dread.

Calcutta rhythm: False security → Recognition reversal → Spy game → Body horror pivot → Operational race → Split-party climax.

Core Tension

The cult’s concealment is the inverse of every European cell. Vienna’s Brotherhood hid underground, behind locked doors. Ghosh hides by being visible: a respected priest, a legitimate temple, a ritual embedded in public worship. The investigators cannot raid the temple because the ritual IS the religious festival. They cannot discredit Ghosh because twenty years of genuine charitable work shield him. The very colonial institutions the party depends on (the EIC, the Magistrate, the garrison) are the cult’s most effective protection, not because they’re corrupt but because they’re functioning exactly as designed.

The secondary tension: Kaunitz arrived weeks before the investigators. Ghosh knows they’re coming. The party’s intelligence advantage from Vienna is an illusion. Their escort is a Thuggee agent. Every “helpful” suggestion steers them away from truth. The investigation is being watched and managed from the first day.

Driving Forces

The Laya Sampradaya (Ghosh’s Cult)

• Goal: Complete the Cycle of Dissolution on Kali Puja night. Dissolve hundreds of mourners into the Hooghly, achieving their segment of the Grand Canticle.
• Victory state: Svarita carriers embed among genuine funeral chanters. The yantra focuses the frequencies into the river. Physical dissolution propagates downstream. Hundreds lost. The Cycle completes.
• Plan: Already in motion. Carriers trained since childhood. Yantra maintained for centuries. Practice rituals disguised as regular services. Kaunitz watches the British world. Thuggee handle enforcement.
• Timeline: All preparations complete. Only the calendar matters: Kali Puja, October 25.
• Resources: ~25-30 members, temple infrastructure, merchant patron funding, Thuggee enforcers, three impostor sepoys inside Fort William.
• If disrupted: Ghosh intensifies (push carriers harder), sends Thuggee to both fronts, or comes to the river himself. His voice is the most powerful svarita instrument alive.

[!info] Keeper Only See _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/cult-profile.md for full cult structure. See _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/npcs/acharya-ghosh.md for stat block and spells.

The East India Company / Ashworth

• Goal: Maintain order and the status quo. Protect twenty years of carefully built trust between British administration and Indian religious institutions.
• Victory state: Nothing happens. Kali Puja passes peacefully. The troublesome Europeans go home.
• Plan: Ashworth watches, warns, obstructs. Blackwood follows the chain of command. The escort reports.
• Resources: Administrative authority, sepoy patrols, the ability to confine or deport.
• If pushed: Warning → cold refusal → confinement → deportation threat. But Ashworth CAN be turned by evidence he cannot explain away.

[!info] Keeper Only See _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/eic-and-ashworth.md and _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/ashworth-confrontation.md for the tiered confrontation scene.

Kaunitz

• Goal: Ensure the Calcutta ritual succeeds. Protect Ghosh from the investigators.
• Plan: Arrived weeks ahead. Embedded in British society as an Austrian baron. Warned Ghosh. Watches the investigators through social proximity and the escort’s reports. Does not run the cult’s operations; that’s Ghosh’s domain.
• If exposed: Flees. He is intelligence, not muscle.

The Investigators

• Goal: Disrupt the Cycle of Dissolution before Kali Puja completes.
• What they know: Target (Ghosh), location (Mandir Mahakali), date (October 25), ritual type (the Canticle’s fourth segment).
• What they don’t know: That they’re expected. That the river is the true vulnerability. That the temple cannot be raided. That their escort is a spy.

The Journey

Four self-contained adventures between Vienna and Calcutta. Each one session, non-Choir, designed as palette cleansers with thematic echoes.

[!info] Keeper Only Full adventure designs in _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/adventures/. The Becalmed Ship and Island Stop are fully designed. Cairo and Caravanserai are outlined.

The Ship: La Speranza

A two-masted merchant brig, ~180 tons, registered in Trieste. Captain Niccolò Zanier, 14 crew. The investigators share a cramped after cabin. Jasper Endicott (antiquarian, red herring) occupies the captain’s cabin with a crate of pre-Minoan artifacts from Saria. His suspicious behaviour escalates throughout the voyage but is entirely innocent: he’s a collector, not a cultist. The misdirection works because the investigators’ pattern-matching from three chapters of cult-hunting makes them see conspiracy where there is only smuggling.

Key NPCs

Antagonists

Acharya Ghosh — Cult leader, True Believer. Age 62. POW 90, SAN 0 (functionally insane, operationally coherent), Cthulhu Mythos 35. Born to the Laya Sampradaya. His lineage predates the European cells by millennia. Calm, learned, charitable, sincerely beloved. Runs a temple that feeds the poor. The horror is philosophical: he means every word. Contemptuous of the European cells. Six spells plus the Cycle of Dissolution major ritual. Will dissolve himself rather than be captured.

Baron von Kaunitz — Intelligence and surveillance. Fled Vienna, arrived in Calcutta weeks ahead. Embedded in British colonial society. Ghosh’s window into the European world. Watches and reports. Not a combatant.

Havildar Pratap Singh — The escort. Thuggee impostor, 67th Bengal Native Infantry. Age 30, 8 months embedded. Assigned to the investigators as a courtesy. Polite, efficient, hard to shake. Reports every question, place visited, and contact made to Ghosh. Steers subtly. The rumaal comes out at the moment of maximum vulnerability.

Naik Deepak Rao — Bengal Artillery, powder magazine access. Age 38, 14 months embedded. The professional. Twenty years serving Ghosh. Implacable under interrogation. Will self-strangle with rumaal or cut his own throat rather than talk.

Sepoy Jalal Khan — Bengal Engineers, construction site eyes. Age 22, 3 months embedded. The weakest link. Born into Thuggee, never chose it. Hindu pretending to be Muslim (accent vulnerability). Hesitates when reaching for rumaal. Breakable through sustained Persuade. Heard something inhuman inside the inner temple.

[!info] Keeper Only Full impostor profiles with capture/interrogation mechanics in _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/npcs/. Three-tier resistance gradient: Deepak (implacable), Pratap (professional), Jalal (breakable).

Military Allies

Major James Renwick — Bengal Engineers, age 34. Harcourt’s only contact in Calcutta (Order connection through his late father). Supervising an embankment reinforcement project on the Hooghly upstream of Baranagar. Has heard acoustics from the water. Workers refuse to stay after dark. His construction site becomes the staging ground for the physical front. First met at the ball (Day 4).

Captain Valentine Frome — “Sweet Valentine.” 67th Bengal Native Infantry, age 29. Scarred, cultured, deadly. Independent Thuggee investigator: dead sepoys, ligature patterns, a report buried by his commanding officer. His journal corroborates the journalist’s evidence from a completely independent source. Beloved by his men. First met at the mess dinner (Day 7).

Lieutenant Arthur Hatcherly — Bengal Engineers, age 25. Sapper, demolitions specialist. Renwick’s subordinate. Professional peer to Adrien. Powder magazine keys. Eager and competent. First met at the mess dinner (Day 7).

Colonel Blackwood — Garrison commander, age 53. Institutional weight. Will not authorise anything without Ashworth’s approval. The chain of command Ashworth controls.

Indian Allies

Apu — Age 11-12. Steals to survive. Mother was a temple servant who disappeared. Guide to the Indian world: ghats, river, back streets, boatmen, temple servant gossip. Short Round energy, but darker. Missable (requires following the theft, not just catching it).

Ram Mohan Roy — Historical figure. Bengali Brahmin polymath, age 42. Rationalist philosopher, anti-idolatry campaigner. Fluent in five languages. Wealthy, connected, fearless. A decade of documented evidence against priestly corruption at Baranagar: published tracts, suppressed pamphlets, family testimonies, private correspondence describing “softened limbs.” Found through library research. Not hidden, not broken. An equal.

Tara — Ex-svarita carrier. Priest’s daughter raised inside the Laya Sampradaya. Experienced dissolution. Rejected it. Fled three years ago. Hiding in Calcutta’s margins. Dissolution marks hidden under wrappings. Still feels the pull on chanting nights. Her unique knowledge: svarita mechanics, the counter-frequency, the counter-ritual capability. Found through Roy’s notes, Apu, the marked PC’s compass, or Frome’s journal. Finding her is the path to the optional counter-ritual.

Kartik — Fisherman. Knows the Hooghly’s moods, currents, hazards. Fish behave strangely near Baranagar. Water hums. Nets tangle. Practical river geography for climax logistics and navigation.

[!info] Keeper Only Knowledge redistribution design in _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/tara-rework.md. No single NPC is the sole source for critical information. The river discovery has five independent paths.

Social World

Hugh Cavendish — Freddy’s cousin, EIC opium factor, age 27. Provides airtight cover (“visiting family”), social access, and the household the investigators live in. Not knowingly connected to the cult. His trade runs through the same merchants who fund Ghosh’s temple. The innocence that comes from never asking uncomfortable questions.

Margaret “Meg” Cavendish — Hugh’s wife, age 24. Social guide for the female investigators. Pregnant, independent, perceptive. Her gossip network is real intelligence. Target of the Thuggee escalation (Day 16 — assassination attempt made to look like an accident).

Hawthorne Surlish — Free merchant, age ~39. Ghosh’s unknowing social shield. Opium skimming, journalist suppression, merchant consortium pressure. Controls Hugh professionally and Sophia domestically. The bully.

Sophia Surlish — Surlish’s wife, age 25. Unbroken spirit. Escalating wildness. Gravitates toward Freddy. Potential romantic complication that creates social ripples reaching Surlish, layering personal stakes onto investigation stakes.

Magistrate Charles Ashworth — District Magistrate, age 40. Twenty-two years in Bengal. INT 80, POW 70, Persuade 65, Psychology 60. Competent, principled, and everywhere. Twenty years of mutual usefulness with Ghosh dressed up as friendship. Kaunitz has already poisoned the well. The institutional barrier that is both lock and key, depending on how the investigators play it. Turnable by evidence he cannot explain away (dissolved flesh, Kaunitz’s Vienna identity, the Thuggee truth). Whether and when he turns is left entirely to play.

Reverend Jessop — Senior Chaplain at St. John’s Church, age 47. Widower, 14 years in India. Hears everything, says little. Has noticed Baranagar acoustics, Sophia’s fracturing, dead sepoys. Three Sundays structure the chapter: arrival assessment, missed for the tiger hunt, and the sermon two days before Kali Puja (“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood…”).

Baijnath Mullick — Merchant patron, fifties. The node where the opium thread, journalist suppression, and Wentworth investments all intersect. Genuine patron, genuine philanthropist. Also the financial conduit that funds Ghosh’s temple.

[!info] Keeper Only Full NPC sketches in _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/npcs/. Background NPCs (social couples and singles) in npcs/social-background.md. Romantic prospects in npcs/romantic-prospects.md. Ashworth stat block and climax contingencies in npcs/magistrate-ashworth.md.

Key Locations

Calcutta (1814) — Bengal Presidency capital. The Hooghly River divides everything. White Town (European quarter): Government House, Fort William, Chowringhee, the Maidan. Black Town: bazaars, temples, the ghats. The two worlds are geographically adjacent and socially separate.

Fort William — Military headquarters. Star-shaped fortress on the Hooghly. Garrison, powder magazine, military administration. Both the resource the investigators need (sappers, powder, boats) and a threat to navigate (three Thuggee infiltrators inside).

Mandir Mahakali (Temple) — Ghosh’s temple at Baranagar ghat. Legitimate, well-endowed, openly functioning. The yantra (sacred geometric patterns carved into the inner sanctum) focuses svarita-enhanced chanting into the river through the temple’s foundations. Impenetrable to direct assault: raiding it would be raiding a religious site during a festival.

The Hooghly River — The true vulnerability Ghosh doesn’t know the investigators will discover. The river carries the dissolution frequency from the temple ghat downstream to the cremation ghats where mourners gather. Breaking the river’s acoustic continuity (diverting flow, severing the channel) stops the frequency from propagating. The climax happens ON and AROUND the river.

Renwick’s Construction Site — Upstream of Baranagar. A half-built cofferdam and embankment reinforcement project. The staging ground for the physical front. Engineering infrastructure already in place. Charges placed here divert the river, breaking acoustic transmission.

The Cavendish Household — Hugh and Meg’s home. The investigators’ domestic base. Warm, safe, compromised (Pratap Singh knows exactly where they sleep).

St. John’s Church — Sunday rhythm structures the chapter. Three Sundays: arrival assessment (Day 2), missed for the tiger hunt (Day 9), Jessop’s sermon two days before Kali Puja (Day 16).

[!info] Keeper Only Draft Calcutta location entity in _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/calcutta-1814.md. St. John’s Church in st-johns-church.md.

Investigation Entry Points

Six threads enter the same web through different angles. The merchant patron network (Mullick, Surlish) is the node where multiple threads converge.

The river discovery (that the river, not the temple, is the true vulnerability) has five independent paths: the marked PC’s compass, Roy’s documentation, Renwick’s observations, Kartik’s fishing knowledge, and Tara (if found). Any two are sufficient for planning the physical disruption.

Practice ritual discovery (when and where Ghosh holds practice ceremonies) has six independent paths: captured impostor, tiger hunt beaters, Roy’s notes, Apu’s observations, Tara, and Kartik’s river patterns.

Escalation

Phase 1: Arrival & Integration (Days 1-3, Sat-Mon)

Slow. Atmospheric. Arrival at the docks, covers deployed, the Cavendish household opens. Escort assigned. Ashworth’s welcome dinner (assessment). The investigators think they have the element of surprise. They don’t.

Phase 2: False Security (Days 4-7, Tue-Fri)

The social calendar delivers intelligence the investigators don’t yet know how to use. The ball (Renwick met, Kaunitz sighted, merchants encountered). Temple approaches stymied (the problem revealed: openly a temple, questions get back to Ashworth). The boy encounter (missable). Library research (Roy’s trail begins). Hugh mentions opium discrepancies. Ashworth’s warning (Day 6). The mess dinner (Frome, Hatcherly, Blackwood). The Surlish collection scene (Freddy sees the marriage, Day 7).

Turning Point 1: The Recognition (Days 8-9, Sat-Sun)

The tiger hunt. Forced proximity with Kaunitz for a full day. Across a jungle clearing, something clicks: someone recognises the Baron from Vienna. Everything from Phase 2 recontextualises. Ghosh has been warned. The escort was steering them. Confidence collapses into paranoia. Also at the hunt: beaters’ campfire intel (practice ritual schedule), Renwick deepened, a genuine tiger encounter, private conversations away from Calcutta’s walls.

Phase 3: The Spy Game (Days 10-14, Mon-Fri)

Fastest pace. Both sides know each other. Counter-surveillance. Finding the journalist (Roy). Fort William cross-reference (three impostors identified). Finding allies in the Indian world (Kartik, Tara). The escort exposed or the escort’s betrayal. Sophia’s escalation. Threads converging.

Turning Point 2: The Temple of Doom (Day 13)

Infiltration or stumble into a practice dissolution ceremony. The inner circle’s flesh runs. Merger, bliss, horror. One or more PCs caught in the edge effect. Three-stage marking: the Pull (POW Regular), the Bliss (CON Hard), the Mark (permanent). The marked investigator becomes a compass: their dissolved flesh pulls toward the RIVER, not the temple. This is how they discover the river is the real channel, through body horror, not exposition.

[!info] Keeper Only Full edge effect mechanics and marking in _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/temple-of-doom.md. Three paths in (Katherine infiltration, defector leads them, captured and brought). SAN checks: 1/1D6 (flesh moves), 1D4/1D10 (full communion).

Phase 4: The Race (Days 14-17, Fri-Mon)

The clock is visible. The marked PC’s flesh flows more each day.

Day 14: The Thuggee warning (rumaal in Little Freddy’s crib). Recovery from the Temple of Doom. Intelligence converges.

Day 15: The dual plan takes shape. Physical front (Renwick’s site, Hatcherly’s charges). Counter-ritual (if Tara found: Tara + Georgiana’s fork). Resources secured (powder through Hatcherly, boats through Kartik).

Day 16: Ashworth confrontation (tiered, evidence-dependent). Simultaneously: the Thuggee attempt on Meg at the compound. The social convention that separates male and female investigators drives the split. If Ashworth turns: Fort William resources available. If he refuses: the investigators are on their own AND their base is compromised.

Day 17: Final preparations. The first clear night. Stars visible for the first time in months. Kali Puja is tomorrow.

[!info] Keeper Only Thuggee escalation in _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/thuggee-escalation.md. Ashworth confrontation in ashworth-confrontation.md. Full timeline in timeline.md.

If They Do Nothing

Kali Puja proceeds. Svarita carriers embed among the genuine funeral chanters at the cremation ghats. The chanting shifts. The yantra activates. The river’s surface goes still. Dissolution begins: identity blurring, flesh running, people closest to the water flowing into each other and into the Hooghly. At full power: hundreds of mourners lose their identities, then their shapes. A luminous slurry of dissolved consciousness flowing into the river. Others wander the streets speaking in each other’s voices. The British report “a stampede and mass drowning.” The Cycle of Dissolution completes, bringing the Choir closer to their 5-of-8 threshold for the Grand Canticle.

The Climax: Kali Puja Night (Day 18, October 25)

The Physical Front (Required)

Objective: Break the river’s acoustic continuity between the temple ghat and the downstream ghats. Stop the frequency from propagating.

Team: Adrien, Renwick, Hatcherly, sappers. If Ashworth turned: Frome’s infantry holds a perimeter.

Key decisions:

1. When to blow — The marked PC (INT roll) identifies the optimal moment via the compass. Too early: Ghosh adjusts. Too late: dissolution already propagating.
2. The charges — Demolitions roll (Hatcherly 65%, or Adrien’s Mechanical Repair). Success: channel severed. Failure: partial detonation, channel disrupted but not severed.
3. Thuggee interference — 4-6 fighters arrive 5-10 minutes after work begins. If Ashworth turned: skirmish (perimeter holds). If not: full combat during demolition.

Success: River diverted. Acoustic channel severed. Downstream mourners saved. Residual frequency at the source ghat only.

Failure: Channel not fully severed. Frequency weakened but propagating. The counter-ritual (if attempted) must compensate.

The Counter-Ritual (Optional Advantage)

Objective: Generate a counter-harmonic that disrupts the yantra’s output from the river side. Insurance against an imperfect demolition.

Team: Tara (voice), Georgiana with the Command_Tuning_Fork (amplifier), the marked PC (compass), an anchor (any PC), Kartik (navigator). On a boat near the temple ghat.

The fork must be retuned for Calcutta’s frequency (different from Vienna’s A=432 Hz). Same mechanic as Session 13: book study to find the counter-frequency, Georgiana retunes. Sources: Tara (Occult Regular), Roy + marked PC (Occult Hard), Renwick (Occult Hard), direct temple exposure (high risk).

Key decisions:

1. Tara’s sacrifice — She must deliberately dissolve to match the ritual’s frequency. CON roll each round (starting 55, -5 per round). By round 3-4, her will is compromised. Someone must decide when to pull her back.
2. Georgiana and the fork — POW check each round. Her Vienna marks (white streak, iridescent left hand, residual hum) deepen. The cost is cumulative. She can drop the fork or hold on.
3. The river fights back — Kartik’s Navigation (70%) keeps the boat in position. The hull softens in dissolution-frequency water (10-15 round clock).

Success: Counter-harmonic disrupts the yantra’s output. Combined with physical severance: dissolution STOPS.

Failure: Counter-harmonic too weak or too brief. The physical front alone determines the outcome. Tara may dissolve fully. Georgiana carries deeper marks.

Combined Outcomes

[!info] Keeper Only Full climax mechanics (decision points, rolls, failure states, Ghosh’s response) in _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/climax-beats.md. River climax overview in river-climax.md. Tara rework and fork mechanics in tara-rework.md.

PC Spotlight Planning

Emma spotlight priority: Underserved in Vienna. Merchant meetings are HER domain. The Wentworth Surprise (discovering family investments are real) gives her a personal reckoning. The compound defence against the Thuggee attempt on Meg (Day 16) gives her an action beat.

Cover Stories

The social calendar is a cage that also contains the keys. Every refusal increases suspicion about why they’re really here.

Handouts

[!info] Keeper Only Full handout prose in _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/handouts/. Roy documents in handouts/roy-documents.md. Harcourt letter in handouts/harcourt-letter-to-renwick.md.

Open Questions (Remaining)

These are parked, not blocked. The chapter is playable without them.

• Tiger hunt combat — The tiger encounter itself (Sharpe’s Tiger moment, combat mechanics). The recognition scene sketch is sufficient for now.
• Aftermath sequence — Depends entirely on climax outcomes. Tara’s fate, Apu’s mother, Ashworth’s reckoning, Sophia’s future, the Grand Canticle count. Design after the climax is played.
• Third front at the temple — Does anyone confront Ghosh directly during Kali Puja? Disrupt the yantra? A possible third front if the party has enough people. Parked pending play.
• Apu’s mother — Decision parked. Options: alive and held (rescue possible), partially dissolved (alive but changed), already gone (tragic). Depends on tone the table establishes.
• Phil’s new PC — Character concept not yet designed. Cover story, spotlight, and climax role all TBD.
• Varrio+Georgiana romance thread — Varrio hit 0 SAN in Vienna. If he doesn’t travel to India, this thread closes or transforms. Depends on Phil’s decision about the character.

CATS Pitch

Concept: The investigators travel to colonial Calcutta to stop a ritual of physical dissolution woven into a genuine religious festival. They arrive thinking they have the element of surprise. They don’t.

Aim: Build an alliance across two worlds (British colonial and Indian), uncover a conspiracy protected by the social order itself, and mount a two-front assault on the Hooghly River during Kali Puja night.

Tone: Starts as social thriller in the mould of Regency Cthulhu (balls, dinners, social manoeuvring). Shifts to spy thriller when the investigators realise they’re being watched. Pivots to body horror when they witness dissolution. Ends in a desperate, physical, on-the-water climax. The horror is that dissolution feels GOOD. The cult isn’t mad. It’s seductive.

Subject matter: Colonial power dynamics and complicity. Body horror (flesh dissolving, merging, reforming wrong). A child looking for his mother. Institutional obstruction by a good man doing his job. Sacrifice (Tara’s choice, Georgiana’s deepening marks). The question of what you’re willing to destroy to save people who don’t know they need saving.

Session 0 Agenda

• [ ] Phil’s new PC concept (replacing Varrio)
• [ ] Cover story for Phil’s new PC
• [ ] Safety tools check: body horror (dissolution, merging flesh), colonial violence and racism, child endangerment (Apu), domestic abuse (Sophia/Surlish), themes of addiction and compulsion (Tara’s pull)
• [ ] Journey expectations: four side adventures, self-contained, one session each. Different genres. The tone resets before Calcutta.
• [ ] Player buy-in: split-party climax. The table should know in advance that Kali Puja night will split the party across two fronts.
• [ ] Romance threads: carry forward from Vienna or establish new ones? Katherine’s romantic prospect. Sophia as potential complication for Freddy.
• [ ] Emma spotlight: explicit discussion. Emma’s player should know the merchant thread is designed for her.

Vault Notes

Existing Entities Referenced

Entity Promotion Candidates

NPCs and factions currently in _midwife/ that should be promoted to vault entities:

Midwife Cross-Reference

All detailed design documents remain in _midwife/chapter-4-calcutta/. This overview synthesises them; the midwife files contain the full mechanics, stat blocks, handout prose, and scene-level design. Key files:

Sessions