It is day 8 of month 6, 1042, 20:00, at The Brine Cup in Lashwater on Tallis. The night is warm and still, with a light swell.
On day 10 at noon the captains vote on Charter Deck on selling guns in the war. Captain Moira Bellamy wants the Compact to sell guns to the Iron Union, and she is paying for votes. Her salvage crew, the Saltjacks, cut the chain lines of outer blocks of Lashwater at night. Each time a block drifts away, the captains who live there chase their homes and miss the next meeting. The Saltjacks strip the empty hulls and sell the timber and fittings at Reefwright Yards.
Tonight the target is the block of the Brine Cup. Two Saltjacks hands helped Posy Marlin pry off wall panels to hunt for her map, to pay off part of their crew's tab. Behind the panels they sawed half through the bolts of the iron rings that hold the hull's chain lines. At 02:00 two Saltjacks skiffs come to cut the outer chains. Then the old warship and 30 hulls with about 600 people drift away into the dark.
The Saltjacks also hold the log of the Dominion navy ship that came back from the Dark Rim with a silent crew. They took it when they boarded the drifting ship. Moira plans to read it aloud at the vote to show that the Dominion navy is broken. Their ship also holds four Netfall fishers, among them Wim Tuckett's cousin, who saw a hull being towed past Gullet Trench.
Posy Marlin (about 40, The Brine Cup) wants the Saltjacks' 300 Mark tab paid and her map found. She has no idea what the two hands did behind her panels.
Maudie Krell (about 40, Lashwater) is the deck warden of this block. She wants the cutters caught at work and will fight for her block with her chain hook.
Jakob Crabbe (44) is the skipper of the Saltjacks. He wants his pay from Moira and no witnesses. He uses the Raid Chief stat block.
Moira Bellamy (51, Charter Deck) wants the vote. She never goes near the chains herself.
Hobb Tully (Charter Deck) wants proof that a captain is buying votes, so he can throw her off the deck under the Charter.
The player characters are the Gallant crew. Honoria Valcourt is the captain, a former navy commander who was a midshipman on this very warship when the Compact took it. Aldo Sandoval is the pirate who took her frigate, now her first mate, and he once did salvage with the Saltjacks. Clementine Pewsey is the ship engineer. Ysolde Fennimore is a young knight sworn to Honoria's house. They live on the Gallant, a Compact raider moored on the outer block, with ten hired hands. The player runs one of them. The GM runs the other three as companions.
Wim Tuckett, the elected harbour captain of Netfall, Okko Durrak, watch chief of Gull Ring, and Marisol Teague, who sells rope and sail cloth on Barter Row, are NPCs now.
Marisol Teague is a secret Dominion agent. She is a decent woman doing a hard job, never the villain here.
Stat blocks. Jakob Crabbe uses Raid Chief. The Saltjacks use Compact Raider, Tangle Boarder and Swivel Gunner, and their biggest hands use Rush Brute. The Compact watch uses Mine Guard with clubs and nets instead of pistols.
Encounter math (four level 8 characters). Low 4,000, Moderate 6,800, High 8,400.
The Brine Cup, 20:00. Posy Marlin sings a raid song and then asks for help collecting debts. The Saltjacks' 300 Marks is at the top of her list. Two Saltjacks hands sit near the bar and watch the nailed panels more than their dice. A DC 14 Wisdom (Insight) check notices it. Prying off a panel (a few minutes with a bar) shows fresh saw cuts in the ring bolts. A DC 13 Intelligence (Investigation) check sees they will snap under a hard pull. Clementine Pewsey sees it at a glance, and Honoria Valcourt remembers where every chain ring on this hull sits.
The two hands. If questioned, they lie badly (DC 13 Wisdom (Insight)). A DC 15 Charisma (Intimidation) check, or Okko Durrak's watch badge and a DC 13 check, makes one of them talk. Aldo Sandoval knows both men from his Saltjacks days, and they know him. He names Jakob Crabbe and says "two o'clock". If they see they are found out, they run for the landing and a rowboat.
The cutting, day 9, 02:00. Two skiffs come out of the dark to the outer chains on the seaward side. 2 Rush Brute, 2 Swivel Gunner, 6 Compact Raider and 2 Tangle Boarder, 4,500 XP, 12 foes, plays as Moderate. Each chain takes 3 rounds to cut, and there are 4. Rope bridges between hulls are difficult terrain, and anyone knocked off falls into the sea. The Saltjacks run when half of them are down. Maudie Krell fights at the chains. If the block starts to drift, a DC 16 Strength (Athletics) check with a chain hook pulls a chain back to its ring, and each saved chain slows the drift by an hour.
The prisoner. A Saltjacks raider pulled from the water talks for his life (DC 11 Charisma (Persuasion)). The Saltjacks' ship, the Marten, lies at anchor half a mile off the outer blocks. Jakob Crabbe is aboard with the log and the fishers in the hold.
The Marten, day 9. A rowboat or a swim reaches it. At night a DC 15 Dexterity (Stealth) check gets aboard unseen, and a crew that stays unseen can free the fishers and take the log before any fight starts. Jakob Crabbe, his mate (also a Raid Chief), 2 Rush Brute, 4 Swivel Gunner and 3 Compact Raider, 8,200 XP, High. Jakob gives up when the fight is lost. His cabin holds a letter from Moira Bellamy promising 2,000 Marks for "three blocks before the vote", the navy log in a tin box, and 1,200 Marks. In the hold are four Netfall fishers. One is Wim's cousin.
The log. The navy ship's log tells of a cold dark patch that crossed its deck near Rim Gate Seven and a crew that stopped speaking. Marisol Teague's orders say nobody else may read it. Moira wants it for the vote. Hobb Tully would lock it in his chest until the vote is over.
Charter Deck, day 10, 12:00. Hobb Tully runs the vote. Moira Bellamy's letter, a living Saltjacks witness or the freed fishers make proof under the Charter. With proof and a DC 14 Charisma (Persuasion) speech to the captains, Hobb throws Moira off the deck and the vote is put off. Without proof, the DC is 21 and Moira's people shout down the speaker. Ysolde Fennimore's plain honesty plays well with the captains.
Day 9, 02:00. The chains are cut. The Brine Cup's block drifts. Three people drown in the dark.
Day 9, morning. Four captains of the block sail after their homes. The Saltjacks strip ten hulls.
Day 10, 12:00. Moira reads the navy log aloud. The vote passes by three votes. The Compact sells guns to the Union.
Day 11. The Dominion envoy at Gull Ring hears the news. Its marines and Okko Durrak's watch shoot at each other.
Day 15. The Netfall fishers are put ashore in the Grey Shoals and told to stay quiet.
Good. The block holds, the Marten is taken, the fishers come home, Moira Bellamy is thrown off Charter Deck and the vote waits.
Mixed. The block holds but Moira is not exposed, or the Marten is taken but the block drifted first.
Bad. The block drifts with people lost and the vote passes on Moira's terms.
The deck wardens of Lashwater pay 4,500 Marks to the crew that saves the block.
Posy Marlin clears any tab and pays 300 Marks from the Saltjacks' debt, out of the 1,200 Marks in Jakob's cabin.
Marisol's Dominion handler pays 900 Crowns for the log, if it reaches him unread.
Hobb Tully becomes a friend on Charter Deck. Netfall gives the crew free fish and boats for a year.
The Marten needs a new crew, which works as the Ship Delivery Run gig to sail it to Reefwright Yards.
Jakob Crabbe's Hand Cannon and Spyglass.
Heroic Inspiration for pulling people out of the sea under fire.
The other captain. A captain who wants to sell guns to the Dominion is also buying votes. Hobb Tully wants that proof too.
The envoy. The Dominion envoy still waits at Gull Ring with a sealed letter for Hobb Tully.
The map. One panel the Saltjacks pried loose hides a brass tube with an old Dominion chart. Posy Marlin is sure it is the map.