The Tamsin was a food hauler that carried relief cargo to the Dark Rim. In year 1041 she was lost near Rim Gate Seven. Tova Mayhew's husband, Jonah Peck, was her mate. Tova pinned a notice on the wall of The Dry Well asking for news.
Ten days ago Walter Hargrove, a salvage pilot from Kindle, found the Tamsin drifting three days rimward of Lantern Keep. She has no air bubble. Her crew of seven stand at their posts as husks. Walter took six crystals from her hold and fled. He could not face Tova, so he pinned the place under her notice at night with no name.
The Tamsin passed Rim Gate Seven twelve days before its light went out. Her captain saw a small black ship with no lights tied to the gate ring and wrote down the mark painted on its stern. That page is in the log in the chart room. Nobody has read it yet.
Gideon Shaw drives water carts for the Great Hospice relief convoy. He is a member of the Unbound, and his cell watches the notice wall. When the game starts he is copying the reply, and he sends word to his cell within the hour. His orders are to reach the Tamsin first and burn her with the log aboard.
Tova Mayhew wants to know what happened to Jonah. She offers free meals for life and her sister's savings of 40 Crowns.
Walter Hargrove wants to make up for what he took. He is afraid of the man in the grey coat who asked him questions.
Gideon Shaw wants the Tamsin and her log burned. He fights with the Unbound Speaker stat block.
Hilde Voss, the Keeper of Lantern Keep, has forbidden Radek Nolle to fly out to search for missing ships. She will still pay for the truth.
Qessa Ozhal leads the elder council of Kindle. She can find anyone in town and hates the Unbound.
The crew is the Faithful crew, husk hunters on the old lantern ship Faithful, the only fast lantern ship in Kindle. Edmund Thayer is a former Order hunter who knew Jonah Peck from relief runs. Ysara Kolt is a Vasht in a lantern frame whose mining town the husks emptied. Veska Thorold is a young Ashen gunner from Kindle who loads her rounds with light. Osvald Harrek is an old Grund priest who has burned husks on Ashfall for thirty years. The player runs one of them. The GM runs the other three as companions.
Radek Nolle, Bastien Crewe and Rosel Thatchet are NPCs in Kindle. Radek is dock master of the Pilgrim Dock at Lantern Keep and has the Tamsin on his slate of missing ships. Bastien is a Compact captain who sells charts and passage to Lantern Keep. Rosel is a Cogling scholar whose notes from Signal Hall hold the reply's bearings.
Encounter math (four level 12 characters). Low 8,800, Moderate 14,800, High 18,800.
The notice wall, 18:30. At The Dry Well. Tova Mayhew serves stew and talks to anyone who reads her notice. The reply says "Tamsin. Drifting. Three days rimward of the Keep" and gives a bearing in pilot's numbers. A DC 14 Intelligence (Investigation) check shows it is written on the back of a Kiln Station landing slip in chart ink. A DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check, or Rosel's own notebook, shows the bearing matches a number Signal Hall read on the 3rd day of month 1. The Tamsin is on Radek's slate, due at the Keep in month 8 of 1041. Bastien's Star Charts show the point lies on the lane he sells. Tova knows Edmund Thayer's face from the relief runs with Jonah. A DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) check spots Gideon Shaw in a grey relief coat copying the reply into a small book. He leaves at 18:45.
Finding the writer. In Kindle, at the Ration Market stalls. Tova's sister saw a thin man with burn-scarred hands pin the note. A DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion) check, 10 Marks, or a word from Qessa Ozhal leads to Walter Hargrove, who sells clear crystal from a tarp by the north water tower. A DC 14 Wisdom (Insight) check shows he is ashamed, not lying. If he is shouted at, he runs and hides in his skiff. If he is treated kindly, he gives the exact bearing and the Tamsin's layout. He warns that a man in a grey coat asked him about papers. He offers his six crystals to Tova.
Night at Walter's skiff, 23:00. At Kindle, the landing field by the east sheds. Gideon's cell sends 1 Unbound Speaker, 1 Black Crystal Brute, 4 Unbound Zealots and 6 Unbound Acolytes to beat Walter and take his notes. If the crew is there, it is a fight (6,700 XP, Low, budget 8,800). The others run when the speaker drops. A captured acolyte knows only that "the grey coat" leaves on a relief ship at dawn. The speaker carries a Black Ring on a cord. If nobody is there, Walter is badly hurt and his notes are gone.
Leaving Ashfall. At Kiln Station. Gideon Shaw's relief ship leaves at 06:00 on the 17th. The Faithful is fast. A crew that leaves by 12:00 on the 17th reaches the Tamsin about a day ahead of Gideon. Each day near the Dark Rim needs a DC 22 Intelligence check with navigator's tools. Bastien Crewe's charts are fresh and give Advantage if the crew buys a copy. A failure loses half a day. Roll one Encounter Check a day at Wild risk. If Radek flies out with the crew, he breaks Hilde Voss's order, and she will hear of it.
The Tamsin. In open space three days rimward of Lantern Keep. The current here is weak, so ships move at half speed for the last hour. The Tamsin is a Strong Vhal site (DC 13). Her air is gone, so boarders need their own ship's bubble to touch her hull, within 60 feet. Six husks stand at their posts. Jonah Peck stands at the galley stove with a wooden ship charm on a cord that matches Tova's. The captain stands in the chart room. Two Rimspawn and two Vhal Stalkers have crept aboard since Walter left and hide in the hold. They do nothing until someone boards, then 1 Husk Captain, 6 Husk, 2 Rimspawn and 2 Vhal Stalker attack (7,100 XP, Low, budget 8,800, harder in the cold). None of them leave the Tamsin, so a crew that falls back to its own ship is safe. Ysara Kolt's lamp and Osvald Harrek's rites are at their best here. Lamps give only Dim Light in a cold spot.
The chart room. The log is in a locked steel box (DC 15 with thieves' tools, or the key on the Husk Captain). The entry for the 2nd day of month 7, 1041, describes a small black ship with no lights tied to Rim Gate Seven. The captain copied the mark on its stern, the Kiln Station crest and the landing number 114. A DC 14 Intelligence (History) check knows the crest marks ships that land at Kiln Station. Jonah's locker holds a letter to Tova dated the day before the Tamsin went silent. The hold has 10 clear crystals in a sealed crate and 3 black ones loose on the deck.
Gideon arrives. At the Tamsin, on the 20th at 14:00. If the crew is late, he arrives after they have been aboard for 2 hours. Gideon Shaw, 3 Black Crystal Brutes, 4 Unbound Zealots and 6 Unbound Acolytes cross from their relief ship with jars of lamp oil. A Keel Matron he keeps chained in his hold comes with them (15,200 XP, High, budget 18,800). Gideon uses the Unbound Speaker stat block. Any husk still standing obeys Gideon. The acolytes and zealots run when Gideon drops. Gideon stands until below a quarter of his hit points, then gives up. If he burns the Tamsin, the fire spreads over 3 rounds and the log is lost unless someone holds it.
Home. Back at The Dry Well. Tova reads Jonah's letter. A body that is burned or blessed by a priest before it rises stays at rest. If Jonah's husk is ended and his body brought home, Kindle holds a burial in the ash. A captured Gideon says he got his orders by hand from a nurse at the Great Hospice. He does not know her name. Radek can carry the log to Hilde Voss.
4-16, 18:45. Gideon Shaw copies the reply and sends word to his cell.
4-16, 23:00. The cell beats Walter Hargrove and takes his notes.
4-17, 06:00. Gideon's relief ship leaves Kiln Station.
4-20, 14:00. The cell boards the Tamsin, burns her and the log, and leaves the husks to burn with her.
4-22. Walter drinks himself sick and tells Tova everything. Tova pins a new notice offering her sister's savings to any crew.
4-30. A grain hauler bound for Lantern Keep goes silent on the same lane. Radek adds a 32nd name to his slate.
Good. The log reaches Lantern Keep. Jonah is laid to rest. Gideon is taken alive and his cell in Kindle is known.
Mixed. Tova gets her answer and the letter, but the log burns or Gideon escapes.
Bad. The Tamsin burns before anyone reads her log, or a member of the crew becomes a husk.
Hilde Voss pays 2,400 Marks to each crew member for the log, and she forgives Radek his trip if the log is real.
Tova Mayhew gives free meals for life at The Dry Well. She offers her sister's savings of 40 Crowns, and the crew may refuse.
The 10 clear crystals from the Tamsin's hold are worth 5 Crowns each. The Order claims the 3 black ones.
Hilde Voss offers the gig Rim Gate Patrol Contract to any crew that has seen the Dark Rim and come back.
Radek Nolle gives the crew a Gate Lantern from the Keep's stores.
Qessa Ozhal becomes a friend in Kindle. Walter Hargrove will fly salvage for the crew at half his usual cut.
Heroic Inspiration for bringing Jonah's letter to Tova.
Landing number 114. Kiln Station's landing books show which ship carried that number in month 7 of 1041. The landing clerk Piers Malloy sells pages from those books, and someone has already paid him for this one.
The nurse at the Great Hospice. Gideon got his orders from a nurse at the Great Hospice. Following her leads to the healers there, and the Lord Prior trusts them all.
Rosel's next number. Signal Hall reads a new bearing on the lane near Vigil. Rosel Thatchet wants a ship there before it happens again.