It is day 22 of month 4, 1042, 10:00, at Dunlow Abbey on Candor. Three orphans from the Dark Rim draw seven stone rings in their sleep, with the seventh ring black. They draw at 23:41 every night. At the same minute, the 42 husks in the Husk Cloister stand still for one minute. The hour comes a few seconds earlier each week.
Rosamund Vey, a lay sister who packs lenses at the Lampglass Works, leads the Unbound cell on Tern Rock. Every rest day she brings painted glass to the abbey school and asks to see the children's drawings. She believes the children hear the Vhal through the dark Rim Gate Seven. She wants them on Tern Rock at the hour, to draw what lies past the gate.
To test this, she lifted the bar on the cloister door on day 15 and let Husk Nineteen walk out. It went straight to the abbey and now stands under the orphans' window each night at the hour. That told her enough. On day 24 at 23:00, while the abbot is away at the Lamp Cathedral, her people will take the children by boat.
Teodor Vasko (Dunlow Abbey) wants to know why the children draw the rings. He leaves for the Lamp Cathedral on day 24 at 08:00 and is gone two days.
Rosamund Vey (Lampglass Works, Tern Rock) wants the children at the hour. She stays polite until she is cornered.
Durrin Faxon (Lampglass Works) makes the lenses and trusts Rosamund.
Effie Pottle (Alms Market) knows a Tern Rock smuggler sells Rush in prayer beads at the fair.
The crew is the Clarion crew, the level 16 husk hunters of the Warden Frigate Clarion, who have just delivered a captured husk to the Husk Cloister. Clothilde Marsh is the famous husk hunter who grew up in this orphanage, Brannoc Teg is a Gorr shock trooper who breaks husk lines, Sylwen Ardane is a Tessari pilot who hears the dead through her Old Maker patron, and Aldric Beaumont is a Gate Oath knight and former Dominion clerk. The player runs one of them. The GM runs the other three as companions.
Amaury Quenby, the priest of the Husk Cloister, is an NPC who follows his description. Emlyn Ferrant, a knight, and Eudora Varley, keeper of the Sealed Archive, are NPCs at Lantern Keep.
Stat blocks. Rosamund Vey uses the Unbound Hierarch stat block, because years at the black crystal have made her far stronger than she looks. Her cell uses Unbound Speaker, Unbound Zealot and Unbound Acolyte. The black crystal on Tern Rock draws Vhal creatures that use Vhal Stalker, Black Crystal Brute and Husk Maker. Husk Nineteen uses Husk.
Encounter math (four level 16 characters). Low 15,200, Moderate 24,400, High 39,200.
The cloister garden, day 22, 10:00. Teodor Vasko asks for help and shows the slates. The orphans are a Vasht girl of eleven from Vigil, a Human boy of nine from a refugee ship and a Pellin girl of seven from Ashfall. They do not remember drawing. A kind DC 16 Charisma (Persuasion) check gets the oldest to say that the glass lady keeps the best drawings. Clothilde Marsh has Advantage, because she grew up in this orphanage and every child here knows her story.
The log, Husk Cloister. Amaury Quenby's log shows that a lay sister from the Lampglass Works brought lamp panes on day 15, the day Husk Nineteen walked out. A DC 16 Intelligence (Investigation) check shows the door bar was lifted from outside. A DC 18 Intelligence (History) check recalls reports from the war of year 870. Before Hush went dark, its husks stood still at one hour each night.
The hour, the abbey orchard. At 23:41 Husk Nineteen stands under the orphans' window and faces it. The children draw in their sleep. Taking the husk alive needs a grapple and rope. It has 22 hit points, and light from a lamp burns it. Amaury wants it alive. Sylwen Ardane can hear what little is left of the person inside it, and that person is afraid of the hour. A DC 17 Wisdom (Survival) check finds a woman's sandal prints beside its first tracks, leading from the river path.
The fair, Alms Market. Effie Pottle shows a cracked prayer bead full of Rush. The seller rows in from Tern Rock. She names a fisher in Keelby who saw lights on the rock.
The bench, Lampglass Works. Rosamund packs lenses beside Durrin Faxon. Seeing through her needs a DC 19 Wisdom (Insight) check. Her bench drawer (DC 17 Intelligence (Investigation), or DC 16 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) while she is out) holds a jar of black crystal dust, a tide table with day 24 marked and two of the children's drawings. A lens wagon leaves for Keelby on day 23 at 06:00. A DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) check finds the dust in two crates. If Rosamund is accused, she leaves by river boat for Tern Rock within the hour.
The fisher, Keelby. For 2 Marks he tells what he saw. For 10 Marks he takes a crew to Tern Rock in his boat, one hour through fog. A DC 16 Dexterity (Stealth) group check lands them unseen.
The dormitory, Dunlow Abbey, day 24, 23:00. If the children are not moved or guarded, 1 Unbound Speaker, 6 Unbound Zealots, 6 Vhal Stalkers and 4 Unbound Acolytes come over the orchard wall. They carry a sleeping draught and a boat waits on the river. Encounter. 1 Unbound Speaker, 6 Unbound Zealot, 6 Vhal Stalker and 4 Unbound Acolyte, 11,800 XP, Low (budget 15,200). The Acolytes run when a Zealot drops, and the Vhal Stalkers flee from bright lamplight. If the children were moved somewhere the cell does not know, the cell finds an empty dormitory and rows back to Tern Rock. A caught Acolyte names Tern Rock after a DC 15 Charisma (Intimidation) check, and Brannoc Teg only has to stand over him.
The cellar, Tern Rock. Under the old lighthouse is a cellar with a lump of black crystal on a table, a Weak Vhal site (DC 10). Encounter. 1 Unbound Hierarch, 1 Husk Maker, 2 Black Crystal Brute, 4 Unbound Zealot and 2 Unbound Acolyte, 29,900 XP, High (budget 39,200). Rosamund fights until a quarter of her hit points, then speaks of the Vhal and gives up. If the Zealots died at the abbey, she has 4 Acolytes instead, 28,200 XP, still High. Smashing the lump of black crystal (AC 13, 40 hit points) drops the Husk Maker and the Brutes to half their hit points at once. If the fight goes badly, the fisher's boat waits at the landing and the fog hides anyone who reaches it. The cellar holds a list of twelve cell members, three of them in Order robes, and a copy of the page cut from the Book of First Lamps in the Chapter Archive. With a DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check, Aldric Beaumont, who copied Dominion records for twenty years, matches the handwriting to old letters in the Chapter Archive. It belongs to the deputy of Viggo Ambler, the old teacher of Eudora Varley at the Sealed Archive. If the children were taken, they sit at a table with slates and wait for the hour.
Day 22, 23:41. The husks stand still. Husk Nineteen stands under the window.
Day 23, 06:00. The lens wagon leaves with two ruined lenses.
Day 24, 08:00. Teodor Vasko leaves for the Lamp Cathedral.
Day 24, 23:00. The cell takes the three children down the river.
Day 25, 23:41. The children draw for the cell on Tern Rock.
Day 27. A smuggler ship takes the children and Rosamund toward Vigil. They are not seen again on Candor.
Good. The children are safe, Rosamund is taken, the cell list goes to the Lord Prior and Husk Nineteen is back in the cloister.
Mixed. The children are safe but Rosamund escapes, or Rosamund is taken after the children spent a night on the rock.
Bad. The children leave Candor with the cell.
Teodor Vasko pays 500 Crowns to each crew member from the abbey funds.
The Lord Prior sends 3 Lantern Flares to each crew member and a set of Star Charts from the Chapter Archive.
The Order offers the Rim Gate Patrol Contract gig to a crew with a ship.
Teodor Vasko and Effie Pottle become contacts in the Abbey Vales.
Heroic Inspiration for protecting the children or bringing Husk Nineteen back alive at real risk.
The list. Three names on the cell list wear Order robes. One serves at Lantern Keep.
The page. The copied page tells how the first knights lit the Rim Gate lights. It matches the guide in the Sealed Archive, and Eudora wants the rest of it.
The hour. The hour keeps moving earlier, and Amaury finds that each week it moves a little more than the week before. Nobody knows where it ends.