Elvanna Thorne

Acolyte of the Elder Elemental God, Mistress of Elvanna's Loft, and Hedrack's Brothel Liaison

The Spider in Silk

Elvanna Thorne, once a handmaiden to nobility in Dyvers, Free Lands of, now reigns as the madame of the seediest—and most dangerous—den in Nulb: Elvanna's Loft. Under layers of perfume, charm, and velvet, she hides a mind sharpened by cruelty and ambition. As an acolyte of the Elder Elemental God, Elvanna serves as Hedrack’s liaison in the town, recruiting cultists, running blackmail operations, and funneling souls to the Temple's altar.

She is not a courtesan. She is a priestess in disguise, feeding Nulb’s rot while adorning it in velvet and ritual paint

The Scarlet Veil of Nulb

Madame of Elvanna’s Loft above the Boatman’s Tavern, Elvanna appears to be Hedrack’s velvet-gloved recruiter and blackmailer. In truth, she is an undercover Scarlet Brotherhood asset, embedded to siphon intelligence and shape Nulb’s criminal currents. Her closest ally—and leverage—is Captain Marad Vesrek, a Brotherhood-tied slaver-pirate who shares her bed and her ledgers whenever his ship, The Crimson Trader, makes port. From that vantage, Elvanna reports on Madame Selentis (Nysera Krivaltis), Commander Feldrin, and other Temple actors—balancing the factions while keeping the Brotherhood’s knife just out of sight.

• Public Face: Hedrack’s liaison and cult recruiter—she runs blackmail, initiations, and prisoner “processing” from her private chamber, with a hidden shrine to the Elder Elemental Eye and a crawlspace hatch into the tavern’s storage—perfect for covert movements and escapes.
• True Allegiance: The Scarlet Brotherhood seeded Elvanna in Nulb’s brothel years ago, grooming her to harvest secrets and route them via trusted couriers—chief among them Captain Marad Vesrek, whose documented Brotherhood ties and “hidden ledgers” provide a clean channel for intelligence.

“Even mercy has a price, darling. And tonight… it’s in blood.”

Appearance and Personality

Elvanna is manipulative, proud, and wholly convinced that domination is the natural order. Her faith is real. Her cruelty is calculated.

Cover & Methods

• The Loft as a Net: Drinks and charm downstairs; scrying and leverage upstairs. Targets are coaxed to talk, then filed in Lorveth Thrask’s ledgers; select captives are routed to Temple buyers—or to Vesrek—depending on value.
• Rooms with Purpose: A locked prison room for breaking or stashing assets; client rooms with ritual paraphernalia; Elvanna’s private chamber doubles as ritual space and message drop.
• Smuggler’s Artery: The concealed hatch beneath her floorboard links to the warehouse crawlspace—ideal for ferrying ledgers, slaves, or Brotherhood packets.

Elvanna's Private Chamber

The largest and most lavish room in the loft—though its beauty rots at the corners.

• Furnishings: Velvet curtains, incense-burned braziers, a reinforced bedframe with iron rings, and a decaying portrait of a drowned city.
• Hidden Shrine: Tucked behind a tapestry lies a small altar to the Elder Elemental Eye, with black candles and blood-smeared offerings.
• Secret Hatch: A loose floorboard reveals a crawlspace connecting to the tavern basement, used for smuggling contraband or escaping during raids.

The Prison Room

Accessible only through Elvanna’s chamber, this windowless chamber reeks of damp straw and fear.

Key Relationships

Captain Marad Vesrek — Lover, Courier, Co-Conspirator

• Personal & Professional: Vesrek is a regular patron and partner; he brings captives, trades intelligence, and maintains a personal alliance with Elvanna when in port. He is explicitly cited as Scarlet Brotherhood-connected and keeps hidden ledgers—a ready conduit for Elvanna’s reports.
• How They Operate: He stays in her room, the two cross-check ship manifests and brothel ledgers, and he carries summaries downriver under Brotherhood cipher. (Connections between Vesrek, the brothel, and Thrask’s paper trail are established.)

Madame Selentis (Nysera Krivaltis) — Primary Watch Target

• Rival/Subject: Selentis acts as the Greater Temple’s political shadow in Nulb, stabilizing factions and riding the constable; Elvanna logs Selentis’s meetings, tax collections, and pressure plays for Brotherhood analysis.
• Tradecraft Angle: Elvanna uses Thrask’s ledgers and brothel scrying to time when Selentis squeezes pirates or smugglers, then mirrors that pressure to keep Brotherhood interests ahead of Temple ones.

Commander Feldrin — Logistics & Timetable Intelligence

• What She Reports: Shipment windows, escort patterns, and any deviations in Feldrin’s logistics chain—especially when Temple cargo passes through Nulb under Selentis’s cover. Vesrek’s dossier explicitly notes Feldrin as a node intersecting Nulb logistics.

Lorveth “The Broker” Thrask — Paper Spine of the Operation

• Function: Slave merchant & Temple agent across the hall; his contracts and maps feed both Temple quotas and Elvanna’s blackmail files. Elvanna leans on his black book to value targets and backstop the cover story.

Mardun the Brute — Door, Muscle, & Firebreak

• Use: Controls stairs, vanishes problems, and buys Elvanna the minutes needed to burn notes or pass a ledger into the crawlspace when things go hot. (Door watch and enforcement are established.)

Intelligence Priorities (What She Sends Out)

1. Temple Friction: Belsornig vs. Romag; Selentis’s quiet curfews via the constable; any evidence that the Greater Temple is starving rivals—or planning purges.
2. Nulb’s Pipeline: Wharf signals, grey-twine rush markers, and ledger anomalies indicating high-value transfers suitable for Brotherhood interception. (Brothel’s manipulation & tracking are documented.)
3. Feldrin’s Timetables: Escort strengths, false bills of lading, and which captains are trusted to move “quiet cargo.”
4. Vesrek Leverage: Which Temple figures suspect his Brotherhood ties; which ledgers to forge or duplicate to keep him useful but deniable.

How to Run Her (DM Guidance)

• Voice & Mask: In public, she’s the purring madame; in private, a clinical handler who moves people like beads on an abacus. The Loft is a pressure point—not a comfort.
• Fail-Safe: If exposed, Elvanna dumps a decoy ledger to frame a rival (Tolub or a minor clerk), then exits via the hatch and crawlspace toward warehouse back doors.
• Personal Weakness: Her reliance on Vesrek is a strength and a liability; enemies who seize or copy his Brotherhood ledger can flip the balance of power in Nulb overnight.

Introducing Mistress Elvanna Thorne

Perfume and candlelight roll off the taproom stairs as a woman in velvet glides to your table, smile warm enough to melt wax.

“Welcome to the Boatman’s, travelers. I’m Elvanna—I keep the rooms upstairs sweet, the sheets clean, and the secrets softer than pillows. You look road-dusted and under-celebrated; let me fix one of those.”

She tips a finger under your chin—playful, not pushy.

“Up the stair you’ll find Elvanna’s Loft: warm baths, warmer company, music that forgives bad memories. First drink’s on me if you’re just browsing the view.”

Her eyes trace your gear like a merchant reading ledgers.

“You move like people with purpose. Caravan guard? Charter work? Or the kind who arrive with questions and leave with answers they didn’t expect? Don’t worry—I sell comfort, not confessions… unless you’re buying both.”

She laughs low, leaning in as the room noise swallows her next words.

“Tell me what kind of rest you’re after: something quiet for tired souls, something loud for living ones, or something private for… business. I’m an excellent hostess—and a better listener.”

Her gaze flicks to your badges, your boots, the dust on your scabbards.

“Steel from Veluna? No—wrong polish. Dyvers road mud, then. And you don’t drink like riverfolk. New in Nulb, I think. New is… refreshing.”

She gestures toward the stair, coy.

“If coin’s thin, we barter in discretion. You keep my girls safe from boors, I keep your names from the wrong ears. Fair trade? Or perhaps you already belong to someone’s ledger—guild, temple, captain? I do so love a tidy ledger.”

The smile never falters.

“Go on—take a look upstairs. Ask for Ivenya if you want laughter, Naika if you want quiet, Lysa if you want a song. If you want privacy, say ‘curtains closed’ and the house will oblige.”

She straightens, voice honey again for anyone listening nearby.

“Stay as long as you like, spend as much as you wish, and leave only lighter than you came—of worries or of coin; I’m generous with choices. And if by chance you’re here on work, not pleasure… well, pleasure often makes work more talkative.”

A wink, perfectly timed.

“Shall I send up a bath and a bottle while you decide who you are today?”