It is day 16 of month 4, 1042, at the Hill Mission in the Canopy Hills of Marrow. The Order of the Last Light treats Rush users and runaway debt labourers here. The Syndicate leaves the mission alone because it keeps sick workers off the roads. Three troubles meet here today.
The strike leader. Jem Arno, the secret leader of the planned strike at Cobb Plantation, has hidden on a cot on the infirmary porch for three days. The Cobb family has put a bounty of 50 Crowns on him. Abel Strand, the plantation's head overseer, comes for him at 10:00.
The chemist. Every ten days Falls Lab sends its chemist down with a crate of Rush Antidote for the priests, who treat sick lab workers in return. This time the chemist is Ines Calder, with two lab guards. Dolfo Grist has told the Cobb family that a Falls Lab chemist wants to sell the Rush recipe to the Union. He asked Strand to bring that chemist to Mudport. Strand does not yet know which chemist it is.
The spy. A patient named Ada Fairley is an acolyte of the Unbound. Her cell sent her to watch the priests' study of black fungus. She sold Jem's name to Strand to set the knights and the overseers against each other. At 23:00 tonight she lets 3 Unbound zealots over the garden wall. They will steal the black fungus jars and the priests' notes, then burn the chapel.
A seven-year-old girl from Basket Town lies on cot 3 with black spores in her lungs. The black dust on her father's basket matches the jars. It points to the far fields near the Carved Pit.
Kasia Dorn, the Order knight at the mission, wants to protect everyone inside the wall and get the fungus samples to the Order. She will not let armed men in, but she cannot fight eighteen. The mission has only her and two priests.
Abel Strand (45), head overseer of Cobb Plantation, wants the bounty and wants to please the Cobb family. He respects the Order's knights and fears the Syndicate bosses more.
Ada Fairley (31), a patient on cot 9, says she ran from the fields with a Rush habit. She wants the jars and notes gone.
The two Falls Lab guards want to drink fungus beer in the village and get back to the lab on time.
Dolfo Grist, the broker in Mudport, wants the chemist's name before anyone else. He is not here.
The player characters are the Patience crew, a small bounty crew on the dented ore skiff Patience. Rassek Dunai is a red-scaled Vasht bounty hunter and former Syndicate debt collector, Dario Penhallow is a Gorrin who won his freedom in the Gallow fight pits, Paloma Ferrer is a young picker from the Cobb fields whose blood carries the crystal fungus, and Imra Kaske is an Ashen Order healer who served at this mission years ago. The player runs one of them. The GM runs the other three as companions. They carry the Cobb family's bounty paper on Jem Arno and arrive a few hours ahead of Strand. Paloma grew up beside Jem in the Cobb fields and has not told the others.
Cosmo Twill, who runs the clinic in Basket Town, Jem Arno, a debt labourer from Cobb Plantation, and Ines Calder, the chemist from Falls Lab, are NPCs who follow their description.
Stat blocks. Abel Strand uses the Syndicate Enforcer stat block, and his men use the Syndicate Knifeman stat block. The two Falls Lab guards also use the Syndicate Knifeman stat block. Ada Fairley uses the Unbound Acolyte stat block, and her three helpers use the Unbound Zealot stat block. All the armed men are men.
The yard, 06:00. At the Hill Mission, Kasia Dorn watches the road. The priests' notes say the black fungus makes crystal dust go cold and dark. A DC 13 Wisdom (Medicine) check on the girl on cot 3 shows her spores are the same black as the jars. She needs rest, clean air and a Healer's Kit each day for a week. Imra Kaske knows the older priest from her years here.
Strand at the gate, 10:00. Abel Strand and 6 men stop at the south gate. He names Jem Arno and says a patient sent word. He also asks which chemist came down from Falls Lab. Kasia stands in the gate. A DC 14 Wisdom (Insight) check shows Strand does not want a fight with the Order. A DC 14 Charisma (Persuasion or Deception) check sends him down to the village to wait for orders. A failure by 5 or more, or any weapon drawn, starts a fight. If he leaves, he sends a runner to the plantation for 12 more men.
Finding the spy. Ada Fairley on cot 9 shows no Rush crash. A DC 12 Wisdom (Medicine) check shows the blue stain on her lips is paint. A DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check spots a black-violet cord with seven knots on her wrist. A village boy carried her note to Strand at dawn, and he tells for 1 Mark. Caught, Ada runs or lies. A DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion) check gets her to name the three men waiting in the trees. She can be talked out of the cult, because she joined only after her husband died in the fields.
The lab guards, 16:00. The 2 Falls Lab guards come to take Ines Calder and the empty crate back up to Falls Lab. They are tired and badly paid. A bribe of 10 Crowns, or a DC 13 Charisma (Deception) check, makes them report that the chemist fell in the river. If the chemist does not come back at all, the lab sends 4 hunters on day 17.
The theft, 23:00. If Ada is still free, she opens the garden gate. 3 Unbound Zealots come in out of the rain and go for the jars on the chapel bench and the notes in the priests' room. One of them sets a fire with lamp oil. The chapel roof is lost in 3 rounds unless someone puts the fire out. The zealots never give up. They carry cult marks that point to a cell in Mudport.
The back path, before 05:00 on day 17. Behind the mission the hill drops through the trees to the river. A DC 13 Wisdom (Survival) check finds the path in the dark and rain. Paloma Ferrer grew up on paths like this one. A failure costs 2 hours and wakes 2 Knuckle Apes, which throw rocks and then charge.
Strand returns, 05:00 on day 17. Abel Strand comes back with 12 more men and searches the cots one by one. If Jem is gone, he leaves with nothing and tells the Cobbs the mission hid him. If Jem is still there, he is taken. Thirteen armed men are far too many to fight, and Kasia begs everyone not to try with the patients behind them.
The courier skiff, day 18, 08:00. An Order courier skiff lands on the strip behind the mission to collect the fungus samples. It can carry two passengers off Marrow to Candor.
Encounter math (four level 4 characters, Low 1,000, Moderate 1,500, High 2,000). At the gate, 1 Syndicate Enforcer and 6 Syndicate Knifemen are 1,050 XP, Low (budget 1,000), and Kasia Dorn fights beside the crew. The theft is 3 Unbound Zealots and 1 Unbound Acolyte, 1,400 XP, Moderate (budget 1,500). The lab guards are 200 XP, below Low. Two Knuckle Apes are 1,400 XP, Moderate (budget 1,500). Strand's return with 12 more men is not a fight to win. The crew should hide Jem or get him away before 05:00.
Day 16, 10:00. Strand waits in the village and sends for more men.
Day 16, 16:00. Ines Calder goes back up to Falls Lab.
Day 16, 23:00. The zealots take the jars and notes. The chapel burns, and one priest is badly burned.
Day 17, 05:00. Strand and his men search the cots. Jem Arno is taken to Cobb Plantation in chains, and the strike falls apart.
Day 18, 08:00. The courier skiff finds no samples. The Order learns nothing about the black fungus.
Good. Jem gets away, the jars and notes are saved, the spy is caught or turned, and nobody inside the wall dies.
Mixed. The samples are saved but Jem is taken, or Jem escapes but the chapel burns.
Bad. Jem is taken, the samples are stolen, and the mission loses the Syndicate's patience.
Kasia Dorn pays 15 Crowns each from the mission box and gives each a Healer's Kit and 2 Rush Antidotes.
The mission offers steady work. Use the Clinic Aide job file, with a note that the work is at the Hill Mission.
Jem Arno's strike leaders become contacts in every field of Cobb Plantation.
A Union buyer in Mudport has promised the Falls Lab chemist a new name and a home on Brakka in return for the recipe.
Heroic Inspiration for saving the chapel or for turning Ada Fairley away from the cult.
The far field. The black spores came from the fields near the Carved Pit. Kasia Dorn wants someone to walk the picker crew's route and bring back a sample from the source.
The Union buyer. The buyer in Mudport pays double for raw fungus, and Dolfo Grist wants to know why. Whoever goes there meets both.
The cell in Mudport. The zealots' cult marks lead to a cell in Mudport. Ada Fairley, if she was turned, knows the woman who recruited her.