It is day 14 of month 4, 1042, at Lantern Keep. The Great Lamp has crystal for two more days. At 07:30 the Juniper, the lamp crystal hauler from Candor, docks two weeks late with 40 crates of lamp crystal.
On the way, the Juniper stopped at Kiln Station above Ashfall. It took on Sabine Hale, chief healer of the Great Hospice, with six orderlies and a letter of passage from the Lord Prior. She says she brings medicine for the refugees. In truth she leads the Unbound, and her orderlies are Unbound zealots. In the hold they swapped the crystal in 16 crates for black crystal under a top layer of good blue crystal. Two deckhands saw them. Both were lost at a cold spot near Vigil. They are husks now, locked in the Juniper's rope locker.
Tancred Mure, the senior lamp keeper, is her man inside. He cut the fuel line last month. Tonight at 23:00, at the lamp shift change, he will feed the 16 black crates into the lamp. Black crystal holds no power, and it chokes the lamp. Meanwhile Sabine leads a rite in the Old Stair that calls up a seal breaker to tear the lamp's lens apart. If the lamp stays dark for one hour, the moving lights at Rim Gate Seven reach the Keep.
A hull eater followed the Juniper's aether trail from Vigil. It reaches the dock at 15:00.
Radek Nolle, the dock master, wants the Juniper unloaded fast and the lamp fed.
Hilde Voss, the Keeper, wants the traitor found. She will not arrest a man who has served the lamp for a century without proof.
Vilma Ostrow runs the Tithe Store and counts every crate.
Tancred Mure wants the lamp dark and someone else blamed.
Sabine Hale wants the Great Lamp out. She works by the Mercy Ward and acts kind to everyone.
Faskar Idris runs the Mercy Ward. He worked for years in Order hospitals on Ashfall and trusts Sabine.
Eudora Varley keeps the Sealed Archive, where the Old Stair starts.
Emlyn Ferrant holds the key to the North Arm, which has the second fuel store.
The pregenerated characters are the Isabeau crew. Leander Faulk is the famous Compact boarding captain who leads them. Zharra Teln is a red-scaled Vasht who fights in a furnace frame. Elinor Ashcroft is a young Crystal Blood who throws fire and frost. Gunnar Halsten is an old Gate Oath knight who kept the Great Lamp for forty years beside Tancred Mure. They fly the yacht Isabeau, which brought the Juniper in from Vigil. The player runs one of them. The GM runs the other three as companions.
Callum Reyes is a famous Compact captain whose ship is at the west berth. Fergus Wicket is a Cogling graft surgeon helping in the Mercy Ward. Elodie Sterne flew refugees here from Vigil and stayed to help the Order. All three are NPCs.
Stat blocks. Sabine Hale uses the Unbound Hierarch stat block. Her six orderlies use the Unbound Zealot stat block. Tancred Mure fights from his character sheet. Count him as 5,900 XP. Knights of the Keep fight on the players' side and add nothing to the budget. Budget for four level 16 characters is Low 15,200, Moderate 24,400 and High 39,200.
The inspection, 07:30. On the Pilgrim Dock, two knights walk the Juniper with lamps. Radek Nolle hurries them because the lamp is almost dry. The hold is cold at the stern. A DC 18 Wisdom (Perception) check notices that 16 crates are colder than the rest. Opening one and digging past the top layer, or a Crystal Tester, or a DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) check, shows black crystal below. The rope locker holds 2 Husks, the lost deckhands. A DC 18 Wisdom (Medicine) check on any orderly finds cold hands and a slow heartbeat. A DC 22 Wisdom (Insight) check on Sabine Hale shows she keeps looking at the tower. A DC 22 Wisdom (Perception) check spots a small black stone ring on a cord inside her collar. If the crates are found here, Sabine says the deckhands must have done it, and Hilde Voss holds the crates at the Tithe Store.
The count, 09:00. At the Tithe Store, Vilma Ostrow counts the crates. Tancred Mure arrives at 11:00 to sign for the crystal. He asks that 16 crates go to the upper fuel store "for the night shift". A DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) check on the fuel log shows he picked the same 16 crates by their numbers. By 12:00 every crate is in the Great Lamp's stores unless someone stops it.
The hull eater, 15:00. A Hull Eater wraps its arms around the Juniper at the east clamps of the Pilgrim Dock. 4 Cold Drifters drop onto the refugee tents (14,300 XP, Low, budget 15,200). The Isabeau's deck guns can help against the Hull Eater if someone is at the helm. The Hull Eater bites the hauler first, then anyone near the edge lamps. If the Juniper is lost, any crates still aboard are lost too. Radek Nolle and the dock knights move the refugees behind the portcullis. Two refugee children are trapped behind a fallen stack of sacks near the edge. A DC 18 Strength (Athletics) check frees them. Zharra Teln can lift the whole stack in her frame.
The hidden door. Elodie Sterne, now an NPC helping the refugees, saw a figure leave the tower by a door on no map. She tells the crew if they ask about the night the fuel line was cut. The figure was very tall. Tancred is a Tessari about 7 ft tall. In the Sealed Archive, Eudora Varley helps search. A DC 21 Intelligence (Investigation) check finds a loose panel behind a shelf and the Old Stair behind it, with fresh boot prints that match Tancred's heavy lamp keeper boots. Near the top is the hidden room with a stool, a black candle and the old cut in the fuel pipe.
Proof for the Keeper. Hilde Voss acts on any two of these. The black crates, the fuel log, the boot prints, the Old Stair, the husks in the rope locker. With proof, she sends 4 knights to take Tancred Mure. He goes quietly, then uses Void Door to reach the Old Stair at the first chance. Accused without proof, he answers gently, and Hilde sends the players away. Gunnar Halsten will not believe it of Tancred until he sees the proof himself.
The night service, 20:00. At Hush Chapel, Ardith Calloway leads the night service. Sabine Hale and her orderlies sit at the back. At 22:30 they slip out toward the Sealed Archive. A DC 20 Dexterity (Stealth) check lets players follow unseen.
The Old Stair, 22:30. Tancred Mure meets Sabine Hale in the hidden room. Players who are hiding there hear the plan. A DC 22 Charisma (Persuasion) check can turn Tancred, because part of him still loves the lamp. Gunnar Halsten has Advantage on it, because they kept the lamp together for forty years. If turned, he refuses to feed the crates and Sabine starts the rite at once.
The Great Lamp, 23:00. In the Great Lamp, Tancred Mure feeds black crystal into the hopper. Sabine Hale stands in the arch with 4 Unbound Zealots and calls up 1 Seal Breaker. It climbs the outer wall and attacks the lens in round 3 (31,100 XP, High, budget 39,200). Hilde Voss and 2 knights hold the stairs below against the husks Sabine calls. Each black crate fed in dims the beam. Pulling a burning crate out of the hopper takes an action and deals 4d6 cold damage. If the lens is not broken and fewer than 4 crates went in, the lamp stays lit. At a quarter of her hit points, Sabine casts Void Door and flees to the Juniper. She is caught if its helm is wrecked or the dock is held.
The North Arm (if fuel is short). If the good crystal was lost, the second fuel store is in the North Arm. Emlyn Ferrant opens the iron doors. Inside wait 1 Husk Maker, 2 Husk Captains, 6 Husks, 2 Vhal Swarms and 1 Black Crystal Brute (16,300 XP, Moderate, budget 24,400). Twelve enemies against four play closer to High. The crew can shut the iron doors behind it if the fight goes badly. The store holds crystal for 20 days.
Day 14, 12:00. All 40 crates reach the lamp stores.
Day 14, 15:00. The hull eater wrecks the Juniper and kills three refugees on the dock.
Day 14, 23:00. Tancred feeds the black crates into the lamp.
Day 14, 23:40. The Great Lamp goes dark. The seal breaker cracks the lens.
Day 15, 03:00. Vhal swarms and husks reach the Keep. The south arm loses its air bubble. The refugees on the Pilgrim Dock become husks.
Day 15, 06:00. Sabine Hale leaves on the Juniper's lifeboat. Tancred Mure tells Hilde that Radek Nolle let the cursed ship dock.
Good. The lamp never goes dark. Tancred Mure and Sabine Hale are taken or dead. The Order learns that the chief healer of the Great Hospice leads the Unbound.
Mixed. The lamp goes dark for less than an hour, or Sabine Hale escapes, or the Juniper and its good crystal are lost.
Bad. The lamp stays dark for an hour or more. The south arm is lost, as the North Arm was. The Keep must be held arm by arm.
Hilde Voss pays each player character 300 Crowns from the Keep's last strongbox.
Hilde gives each player character a Gate Lantern.
Vilma Ostrow gives each an Order token that is honoured at Order houses across the galaxy.
Radek Nolle wipes the Juniper off his slate and owes the crew a favour. He offers the Rim Gate Patrol Contract at double pay, 1,400 Marks.
Heroic Inspiration for saving the refugee children, turning Tancred, or holding the lamp while it burns.
The Lord Prior. Sabine Hale had a letter from Lord Prior Matthias Ambrose. Someone must carry the truth to Candor before her cells on Tallis and Dunmarch hear what happened.
The cracking stone. During the rite, the stone from Hush on the altar of Hush Chapel cracked open a little more. Ardith Calloway heard scraping inside it.
Rim Gate Seven. With the lamp safe, the Watch Gallery sees the moving lights pull back into the gate ring. Callum Reyes's charts and Radek Nolle's slate point to the same place.