Three Order patrols have gone missing on Vigil this year. Three hired fighters rode with every one of them and walked back alone each time with the same story of an ambush. They are Milo Danner, Haldor Rusk and Damon Fowler, and they drink with the Compact sell-swords at The Long Watch.
They sell the patrols to the Unbound. Each time they lead the patrol to a meeting place, turn on the knights when husks attack, and walk the living into Cold Acre. By morning the captives are husks. Sander Vail, the signal officer at Fort Carrow, pays them in Crowns and leaves every loss out of his night reports to Lantern Keep.
Four nights ago the third lost patrol's husks took Tower Twelve on the Tower Line. Sander sent no report. Rika Solberg has now posted a patrol to Tower Twelve for dawn tomorrow. Milo, Haldor and Damon signed on at once, with four Union volunteers. Tower Twelve is the trap.
The three also want the Union volunteers sent home angry. Tonight Haldor will try to start a fight between the Union table and the Compact table. Camp rules strike anyone who throws the first punch from Order contracts.
Ottar Brack owns The Long Watch and keeps the peace with one arm and a club. He wants no blood on his floor.
Rika Solberg recruits fighters at the Hireling Camp. She wants proof against the three before another patrol dies. She cannot accuse them without it.
Milo Danner leads the three. He uses the Writ Hunter stat block. His Shock Net is how he takes captives alive.
Haldor Rusk uses the Swivel Gunner stat block. He has bad dreams about Cold Acre.
Damon Fowler uses the Compact Raider stat block. He carries the letters and a Black Ring in his pocket.
Sander Vail is the signal officer at Fort Carrow and a member of the Unbound. He keeps the true reports in a locked box under his bunk.
The Knight Marshal commands Fort Carrow. He suspects his signal officer and needs proof from outside the Order.
The crew is the Fidelity crew, level 16 sell-swords who fly the Privateer Frigate Fidelity on Order contracts and drink at The Long Watch between jobs. Sarvek Doru is a Vasht bounty hunter who has never failed a warrant, Brigitte Lamarre is the guard who held a fort hatch alone, Corentin Abelard is a Vigil-born scout who hunts husks in the dark, and Ushka Morr is an old Gorr priest who gives the dead their rites. The player runs one of them. The GM runs the other three as companions. Ottar Brack is an old friend of the crew.
Yorick Penn, a Gorrin priest who lives at the edge of Cold Acre, Lukas Morav, a Union miner waiting for a patrol posting, and Aveline Tolley, a young Order knight who trains the volunteers, are NPCs who follow their description.
Encounter math (four level 16 characters). Low 15,200, Moderate 24,400, High 39,200.
The Long Watch, 19:00. At The Long Watch. Ottar Brack chalks the odds on his slate. At 19:30 Haldor Rusk knocks a Union volunteer's beer into his lap and laughs. A DC 16 Wisdom (Insight) check shows the push was planned. Milo watches the Union table, and Damon watches the door. A DC 17 Charisma (Persuasion or Intimidation) check calms the Union table. Brigitte Lamarre has Advantage, because half the room has bought her a drink to hear her story. If a brawl starts, use 6 Compact Raider with fists (1d4 + 2 bludgeoning) against the Union side. It is a bar brawl, not a fight to the death. Ottar ends it after 3 rounds with his club. If a volunteer struck first, Rika must strike him from the dawn patrol.
Rika's book, 20:00. At The Long Watch. Rika Solberg comes in to pin the dawn patrol list for Tower Twelve. It needs a knight to lead it, and she asks Aveline Tolley. She also asks the Fidelity crew to sign on, because she needs fighters she can trust. Away from the bar she shows her book. Three names are on all three lost patrols. She pays 600 Crowns each, from her own purse, to anyone who rides with the patrol and watches the three. Ottar adds that the three paid their bar debts in new Crowns after every patrol.
The letter, 22:00. At the Hireling Camp, behind the truck sheds. A mail driver from Fort Carrow hands Damon Fowler a folded note. Getting close unseen takes a DC 17 Dexterity (Stealth) check, and Corentin Abelard has Advantage away from the lamps. Damon reads it by lamp and burns it, unless someone lifts it first with a DC 18 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check or grabs it. The note says "Twelve is ready. Bring all of them. Same pay." It has no name, but a DC 16 Intelligence (Investigation) check shows the watermark of the Fort Carrow signal office. Yorick Penn can add what he saw at Cold Acre. Three pairs of boots and many bare feet crossed the frost toward the sunken centre last week. He found a knight's patrol badge at the edge.
The road to Tower Twelve. The patrol leaves the Hireling Camp at 06:00 on the 9th in a rune engine truck and reaches the Tower Line at 17:00. Roll one Encounter Check at Rough risk. Dust worms on the Signal Plains hunt loud trucks, so a DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check picks a quiet route. At 15:00 Milo suggests a short cut south toward the Rimward Face. A DC 16 Wisdom (Survival) check sees that it leads toward Cold Acre. Corentin Abelard grew up under the Tower Line and has Advantage on both checks.
Tower Twelve, dusk. At the Tower Line. The lamp is dark. The husks here have grown strong in four nights of feeding. Inside wait 1 Husk Maker, which was the sergeant of the last lost patrol, 5 Hornback Husk, 2 Husk Heap and 8 Husk, the tower crew and the rest of his patrol. They attack when the patrol reaches the door. In the second round Milo, Haldor and Damon turn on the patrol. Milo throws his Shock Net, Damon uses his Chain Hook to pull a target out of the light, and Haldor fires his Scatter Gun at the volunteers. The 4 Union volunteers fight on the crew's side with the Union Rifleman stat block (+400 XP to the budget). The total is 25,650 XP against a budget of 39,600, which is High. If the three were exposed before the patrol, they are not here and the fight is only the husks (24,300 XP, Moderate). Haldor gives up the moment Milo drops. Damon runs into the dark. Brigitte Lamarre can hold the tower door so the volunteers fall back to the truck, and Ushka Morr can turn the husks back with her lamp. If the fight goes badly, the truck can outrun the husks on the plains road, and they do not leave the Tower Line before dark.
Cold Acre (optional). At Cold Acre, 4 hours south. Yorick Penn knows the edge. It is a Strong Vhal site (DC 13), lamps give only Dim Light, and crystal carried in turns black within an hour. The tracks lead to the sunken centre. There wait 1 Frost Strider, 4 Cold Drifter, 2 Vhal Swarm and 6 Chill Tick (10,450 XP, Low). Three more patrol badges lie in the frost, and Ushka Morr can speak the rites over them there. A captured Haldor or Damon can lead the way and confirms what happened.
Fort Carrow. At Fort Carrow, a day's drive north. The Knight Marshal listens to the note, the badges and any captive. If the crew goes to him first, he sends them with two knights to Sander Vail's room. Sander may hear that the patrol came back early or that a turncoat was caught. Then he burns his papers within the hour and runs for the Rimward Face in a supply truck. His box under the bunk opens with a DC 18 check with thieves' tools or a DC 18 Strength check. Sander fights with his own sheet, and 4 Unbound Zealot from the kitchen and 2 Vhal Stalker help him (Low). The box holds the true night reports for six months.
5-08, 19:30. The brawl starts. Two Union volunteers are struck from the patrol and leave Vigil angry.
5-09, 17:00. The patrol reaches Tower Twelve and is taken.
5-10, 03:00. The three walk the living into Cold Acre.
5-11. The three come back alone with a story of an ambush. Sander Vail reports nothing.
5-14. Rika Solberg accuses them in front of the recruiters and is moved to a post on Candor.
5-20. Husks in patrol colours walk south to join the husks of Fort Brenn. The Union stops sending volunteers to Vigil.
Good. The patrol comes home. The three are caught, Sander Vail is in chains and his box reaches Lantern Keep.
Mixed. The patrol is saved, but Sander escapes to the Rimward Face or burns his reports.
Bad. The patrol is lost, or a member of the crew is walked into Cold Acre.
Order patrol pay of 400 Crowns each, and Rika Solberg's 600 Crowns each.
The Knight Marshal pays 2,000 Crowns each for Sander Vail's box and offers steady work as Lantern Ship Gunner or the gig Rim Gate Patrol Contract.
Ottar Brack pays out the bets to the crew, about 300 Crowns each, and gives them the best table for life.
Yorick Penn gives each crew member a flask of Holy water (flask) blessed at Cold Acre's edge.
The Union volunteers send word home. Any Union crew on Vigil treats the crew as friends.
Heroic Inspiration for bringing all four volunteers home alive.
The ship with the false papers. Branka Whitby, the harbour master of Marl Port, has grounded a freighter with a forged Lantern Keep seal. Sander's reports name the same ship.
Fort Brenn. The husks of the lost patrols walk the walls of Fort Brenn. Embla Thursk knows a way in through the old well.
The edge moves. Yorick Penn's stakes show Cold Acre growing two steps a day now, not one. Something at the sunken centre is getting stronger.