Deacon of the Ziggurat

The high priest and resurrection authority of the Flamespeaker Ziggurat, the Gwyndinas church of the still-living All-Flame Queen. An imposing figure — a robe that triples his silhouette, a burning red-hot stave, a brand in the centre of his bald head, and a long scar curling from behind one ear toward the eye. He performs the city's real (resurrection) magic and serves the same role the Firebrand Church does elsewhere. His apprentices — including the morgue assistants Belinda Amar and an unnamed boy, all bald, branded, and scarred to mirror him — inherit the office in succession.

Session 15

• Interviewed by the party about the failed Smiling Sam resurrections: 5 of them were his to perform; every one was rejected — instantly and absolutely. He stresses the magic worked; the dead simply refused to return.
• Stopped working the case once the city detectives grew suspicious of him and his church, after which the resurrections and Speak-with-Dead were outsourced to the Mage's Society (with identical results).
• Directs the party to his catacomb apprentices for the screaming Speak with Dead transcripts and the latest victim's body.