Table Card — The Maw's Due
Session iii · everything mid-scene, nothing else · full write-up here
At a Glance
- Strong start
- Same breath session ii ended. Read it comes back below. This is a repossession — it wants the ship.
- The one thing
- Protect the homecoming. The escape is the spectacle; Dohr's table is where the weekend becomes a campaign — hold the last 45 minutes for it.
- Curtain
- Ashore. Milestone: 5th level on the quay. Then the hook — Dohr's next number, already written.
Run Order
| ~Time | Scene | What happens · what matters |
|---|---|---|
| 60–75m | The Collection | The Maw takes hold; start the clock (below) and advance it at the end of every round. It tears at the ship each round unless hurt, blocked, or robbed in its sight — then one tentacle answers. Three outs: kill it (get it onto dry planking — segments 1–3 only — to shut off its regen; Krell can say it aloud: “It heals in its own element. Get it out.”) · lay it to rest (the rite — Numbers) · run (the Scramble). Surviving deckhands from session ii shake loose on deck at segment 3, fighting clean in the dark. |
| — | The Scramble | Over the rail to Brame. Checks menu: Athletics swim/haul · Acrobatics the awash deck · Animal Handling the panicking skiff-mule · rope from the Petrel = advantage. Fail forward until segment 5 — a failure costs position or cargo, never the PC. The soul of the scene: hands are finite — box, hold-share, wounded Wrack-Picker, the åsan tin, each other. Make them choose out loud. |
| 15m | The Sail Home | Quiet, played quiet. One beat per PC at the rail if the table wants it. Brame: “Now we don't speak of her heading, and we don't look back. She's paid.” |
| 45m | The Homecoming | Dohr, the box, the counting-house. Seal unbroken: full fee, real warmth, carefully-mastered relief — an ally honestly bought. Seal broken / manifest in hand: she pours the arak, sits, and asks what they want — blackmail, alliance, mercy, or the salvage court all pay campaign fuel. The crew: someone should say the names; the åsan brought home changes the party's weight on the wharf. |
| 30m | Epilogues + Hook | One solo beat each, mirror of the Watch Bill: the letter finished or burned · the professional eye revised · the faith beat — the water isn't attentive now, it's satisfied · Haxami's close — the letter-writer's table is empty, packed, gone. Then 5th level, and read the next contract. |
The Ship's Death — clock tracker
Advance one segment at the end of each round — call it aloud
1 — list steepens; loose gear slides. 2 — bilge patch blows; below decks is now a swim. 3 — mainmast falls: everyone on deck DC 12 Dex save or 2d6 bludgeoning + prone · surviving deckhands surface. 4 — deck awash amidships: difficult terrain, and the Maw's dry-ground weakness is gone. 5 — down by the stern; anything not in hand is lost · fail-forward ends. 6 — she's under; anyone aboard is in open water with the Maw.
Numbers
| Check / value | When |
|---|---|
| The Wracktide Maw | AC 16 · HP 93 · 2× Pincer +6, 2d6+4, grapple esc. DC 14 (max two held) · Tentacles on a grappled creature: DC 13 Con or paralyzed 1 min (re-save each turn) · Tidal Vigor: +8 HP/turn in water — nothing on dry planking (segs 1–3) · full block |
| DC 12 Dexterity save | segment 3 — the mainmast falls: 2d6 bludgeoning + prone |
| DC 13 Intelligence (Religion) | realizing the Maw is the drowned crews (or the log, the åsan, or Krell) |
| DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion or Religion) | the passage rite: an action, åsan offered hand-to-hand · advantage if weregild is given to the water — the strongbox counts · success: the Maw unclenches, the sea is done here |
| 250 gp / 150 gp | Dohr's fee — seal unbroken / broken (paid with a smile that costs extra later) |
| 1,100 XP | however it resolves — killed, laid to rest, or escaped |
NPCs — one line each
- The Maw — fights the ship first; turns on whoever hurts it, blocks it, or takes things off the ship in its sight; if the party runs, it takes the ship, dives, and is still out there.
- Krell's move — hostile: offers the sea a richer cargo (a slow or grappled PC — one round of a villain worth hating) · friendly: works the boats, takes losses, earns the mercy he was shown · either way he ends owing or owed — write it down · page.
- Old Brame — holds the Petrel as close as a sane man dares, which is not very.
- Iselle Dohr — homecoming: watch the seal, not the party · her page has how she repays every road · page.
Read-Alouds — in order
1 · It comes back (the collection)
The flat water breaks. Something the size of a longboat rises against the Surety's quarter without hurry and without splash — plated, weed-hung, older than the ship and surer of itself, tentacles finding the rail like a stevedore finding a handhold. It does not roar. It takes hold of the ship the way you take hold of a thing that is yours, and the first timber gives with a sound like a knuckle cracking. Somewhere behind you, Vasso Krell says, quite calmly: “Ah. She was never salvage. She's owed.”
2 · The next contract (Dohr, at the door or by letter)
“You brought my box home off a dead ship, so I'll speak plainly: it was not my only box in that water. The Ledgerwake went down in the spring, in the wreck-field east of my harbour, with a strongbox of mine aboard her — and whatever kept that water is done keeping it now. The wreck sits shallow at low tide. Walk out. Bring me what's mine, quietly. Name your fee.”
Valves — running long / short
- Long? Compress epilogues into one montage at the Petrel's rail; deliver the hook as a letter, the weekend's final read-aloud.
- Short? Full scene per epilogue; let the counting-house negotiation sprawl — it carries forty-five minutes at a good table.
- Don't: let a wandering fight eat the homecoming. The escape is the spectacle; the table is the point.