Yannick Pellow keeps Booth Hall and listens to every booth through hidden tubes. He is a member of the Unbound, and he wants the truce on Slipway broken so the Shipwrights Guild is dragged into the war.
His plan has three parts. Last week he drugged a Dominion clerk and stole the ship plans the Guild Court will rule on. He paid the Gun Check clerk Werner Lessing to steal Union pistols from the cages. Werner also copied a gunsmith guild seal for crates of guns brought in from Kettle. On the morning of the hearing, hired gunmen will shoot at the Dominion officers on the Truce Docks with Union pistols. The stolen plans will then be found aboard the Union frigate in the Dry Slips.
The gunmen hide in the sealed husk freighter on the Hulk Line, because no breaker will go near it. They scratched the runes of a cutter drone so it guards the gangway. Twelve days ago that drone caught Bram Kessick and his partner Niall Searle. The gunmen dragged Niall off in the smoke and keep him in a cage because he saw their faces.
Vonna Graff owns Slipway and keeps the truce. She thinks someone wants a fight on her decks. She pays 320 Crowns each to find the gun thief.
Yannick Pellow wants the truce broken. He never fights if he can run. He fights with his own sheet.
Werner Lessing is the Gun Check clerk. He is scared and in debt, and he talks to anyone who promises him safety.
Niall Searle is alive in a cargo cage in the husk freighter.
Quintus Marle judges the stolen plans case at the Guild Court on the 27th at 10:00. He wants proof he can trust.
The gunmen are Syndicate Headhunters, Enforcers and Rush Brutes under one Syndicate Underboss, hired through Booth Hall. They are men paid by the job, not cult members.
The crew is the Margarethe crew, on the breaking hauler Margarethe. Tarian Selvar is the captain, a Tessari pilot who rides the currents. Hildur Brokk is a Grund shipwright in a colossus frame who knows every guild clerk. Katarina Lisowski is a hull breaker who dated Niall Searle for a year. Kesrath Ombel is a Vasht oath knight who guards the breakers. Bram and Niall are old friends of the crew. The player runs one of them. The GM runs the other three as companions.
Urgo Malk, Bram Kessick and Rhona Vetch are NPCs now. Urgo is the chief inspector of Ash Tether, visiting Slipway. Bram is a breaker on Rhona's crew and Niall's partner. Rhona is the chief breaker of the Breaking Yard.
Encounter math. Budget for four level 12 characters is Low 8,800, Moderate 14,800 and High 18,800.
Gun Check, 08:00. At Truce Docks, by Gun Check. A Union officer shouts that his pistol is gone from its cage. It is the fourth this month. Werner Lessing is pale and sweating. A DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check shows he is lying. Kesrath Ombel stands close enough to see the clerk's hands, so his check has Advantage. A DC 14 Intelligence (Investigation) check of the tag book shows Werner signed every missing gun in and nobody signed one out. The red wax on Werner's desk carries a copy of the gunsmith guild seal. Urgo Malk knows it at once as the same false seal that was on the Rush crate that fell on Ash Tether. Others need a DC 17 Intelligence (Investigation) check. At 08:30 Vonna Graff arrives and offers 320 Crowns each to whoever finds the thief.
Werner talks. Anywhere private, but not in Booth Hall. A DC 14 Charisma (Persuasion) check with a promise of safety, or a DC 15 Charisma (Intimidation) check, opens him up. Yannick Pellow paid his card debts. Werner stole four Union pistols with a spare key and sealed six crates for Yannick. He saw the crates carried into the sealed husk freighter on the Hulk Line. If anyone questions Werner inside Booth Hall, Yannick hears it, and at 23:00 2 Syndicate Enforcer come to take Werner to the hulk.
The scratched drones. At the Breaking Yard. Rhona Vetch kept the two damaged drone heads. Katarina Lisowski saw the same scratched runes on the drone at the husk freighter this morning. A DC 16 Intelligence (Arcana) check shows new rune lines that make a drone guard one spot and cut anyone within 30 feet. The work is guild trained. Rhona's guild key opens any seal on the Hulk Line, and Vonna Graff can give leave.
The husk freighter. On the Hulk Line. The air in the old hulls is thin and very cold. A Cutter Drone and 2 Scrap Crawler guard the gangway. Inside, 4 Syndicate Enforcer and 1 Syndicate Headhunter sit in the upper hold with the gun crates. Niall Searle is in a cargo cage at the back. The lower hold is sealed with the husk crew inside, 2 Husk Captain, 1 Hornback Husk and 6 Husk. If the gunmen lose, one of them pulls the lower hatch open, and the husks attack anyone near, gunmen included. Without the husks it is 5,950 XP, Low. All together it is 10,250 XP, Moderate. Hildur Brokk can hold the lower hatch shut in her frame with a DC 16 Strength (Athletics) check, and Tarian Selvar can fly Niall out through a hull breach if the fight turns bad. The crates hold the four Union pistols and twelve Rune Pistols from Kettle under the false seal. A chalk plan on a crate lid shows the Truce Docks, the Dominion berth and "27, 09:40".
Booth Hall. At Booth Hall. Yannick Pellow is polite and helpful and denies everything. A DC 17 Intelligence (Investigation) check finds the listening tubes and the closet behind his desk. Hildur Brokk knows the old station plans, so her check has Advantage. His desk holds the stolen ship plans and his book of who rented which booth, with the gunmen's booth paid in his own hand. If he sees the game is up, he walks to a Syndicate sloop on the Truce Docks. A warden who is told in time holds the sloop under the truce. Yannick wears a Black Ring.
The plans on the frigate. In the Dry Slips, third slip. At 23:00 on the 26th a dock hand paid by Yannick hides the plans in the Union frigate's chart room. A crew watching the slip sees him (DC 15 Wisdom (Perception)). Searching the chart room needs the Union captain's leave and a DC 16 Intelligence (Investigation) check.
The walk to court, the 27th at 09:40. On the Truce Docks. The Dominion captain and four officers walk from their berth toward the Guild Court. 1 Syndicate Underboss, 6 Syndicate Enforcer and 2 Rush Brute wait behind crates at berth nine with Union pistols. 3 Syndicate Headhunter shoot from a crane platform 150 feet away (16,800 XP, High). Weapons are locked at Gun Check, so the crew needs tokens and time, or bare hands. A warden who sees the crew defend others does not count it as breaking the truce. If the hulk was cleared, only the Underboss and the Headhunters come (11,900 XP, Moderate). If the Dominion captain is warned in time, he stays aboard and the gunmen have no target. If the fight goes badly, the wardens close the dock gates and the gunmen flee rather than fight the whole guild.
The hearing, 10:00. At the Guild Court. Quintus Marle reads every paper. The stolen plans from Yannick's desk, Werner's word and the gun crates together prove that neither side stole from the other. Quintus seals the ruling with his rune.
7-24, 23:00. Werner Lessing disappears from his bunk.
7-26, 23:00. The plans are hidden on the Union frigate.
7-27, 09:40. Gunmen shoot the Dominion officers on the Truce Docks with Union pistols. Two die.
7-27, 10:00. The plans are found on the frigate. Quintus Marle rules against the Union.
7-27, 14:00. Dominion marines and the Union crew fight in the Dry Slips. Vonna Graff seizes both ships, and both powers blame the guild.
7-30. Breakers find Niall Searle dead in the husk freighter.
Good. No shot is fired on the docks. Niall comes home, Yannick is in guild chains and the court rules fairly.
Mixed. The shooting is stopped, but Yannick escapes on a Syndicate sloop, or Niall dies.
Bad. Dominion officers die on the Truce Docks and the truce breaks.
Vonna Graff pays 320 Crowns each and offers the job Shipyard Crew Boss or the gig Derelict Hauler Salvage.
Rhona Vetch gives the crew the first breaking rights to the cleared husk freighter, worth about 480 Crowns each.
The gunsmith guild on Ash Tether pays the crew 200 Crowns each through Urgo Malk for the false seal and the crates.
Quintus Marle gives the crew a Rune Ring from the guild's court fees, and his trust in any later case.
Werner Lessing tells the crew everything he ever heard in Gun Check, and he owes them his life.
Heroic Inspiration for bringing Niall Searle home alive.
Who Yannick listened to. His book of booth rentals names spies of every power, and some of them do not know they were overheard. Vonna wants it read before anyone else gets it.
The Kettle crates. The twelve Rune Pistols came up the chain at Ash Tether under the false seal. Someone on Kettle packed them, and Urgo Malk wants that person.
The old helm. A Union buyer and a Dominion buyer are bidding up the same old helm at the Parts Market. Yannick's book says why.