The Shore
Cold open 12 · Trill goes into the break after two bodies going out on the ebb, then has to keep one of them from Onda’s wreckers
At a Glance
- Who’s in it
- Trill, playing their past self. The DM voices the wreckers. Nonne, Haxami and Marellius watch. Nonne is in the scene unconscious and says nothing; he is not part of this memory.
- When
- Dawn below Onda, after the wreck. Some days before The Wreck in time.
- Running order
- Nonne’s cold opens run backwards. This runs before The Wreck and Passage, so the table sees the boy here before they learn who he was. Moved ahead of The Wreck for session 7 (Jack, 2026-10-12).
- Status
- Rebuilt 2026-10-12: the break and the wreckers. Boxes not written yet. Ran in session 7, at the top of the night (Jack, 2026-10-16). Trill rolled a natural 1 on Perception and never saw Cole’s body; it sank beneath the waves. Trill rescued Nonne and hid him, and the wreckers left them alone, so the document stayed with him.
- Runs
- Five to ten minutes
- Boxes
- Four, numbered below
- Rolls
- The opening, the swim, Medicine, one check against the wreckers, and Investigation (the reach)
- Reveals
- Trill is the woman who found him. There was a second body, and Trill chose what happened to it.
Behind the screen
The dead boy is Cole, the chore boy from Passage. Do not name him here. The table learns who he was when Passage runs.
The ship is not in sight from this beach. Trill’s boat sights it days later, in The Wreck.
The second self is around, as in every Nonne cold open. Where and how is the DM’s call at the table.
The opening
The opening line
You’re wading.
Right away, to Trill: DC 12 Survival or Nature, player’s choice — how well they work the shallows at the bottom of the tide. Then read box 1.
Read-aloud 1 — two shapes in the break
Not written yet.
What happens
Beat one — the break
Two bodies in the surf, tangled together in wreckage rope and going out on the ebb: a man in torn, expensive clothes with Tiger’s Eye beads, and a boy. Trill swims out and cuts them loose: roll Athletics. In the water, roll Medicine. The man is breathing. The boy is not. Read box 2.
Read-aloud 2 — in the water
Not written yet.
Trill can tow one at a time. The player decides.
- Trill tows the man. The ebb takes the boy.
- Trill tows the boy — a sending to the sea, or saving the body. Play it that way; the rope holds the man until Trill comes back. What follows for the boy is still open.
Trill does not bury him. Ondans send their dead to the sea; burial is uncommon here and a large undertaking, not something done for a stranger off the beach.
Beat two — the wreckers
Trill gets the man up onto the sand. Wreckers from Onda are coming down the strand to strip whatever the sea has brought in. Read box 3.
Read-aloud 3 — the wreckers
Not written yet.
The player decides how Trill handles them. One check:
- Hide with him against the rocks, the skin taking their colour — Stealth.
- Bluff them — Deception.
- Face them down — Intimidation.
On a failure they get to him before Trill can stop them, and they take the sealed document he was carrying to Ehn. The beads stay on him whatever happens. Roll Investigation if Trill looks him over once they have gone.
Beat three — the close
That night, the stranger in Trill’s cot. Read box 4 and stop.
Read-aloud 4 — the cot
Not written yet.
What’s rolled
On the sheet in front of them. No roll decides whether the man lives or the boy is dead. The wreckers check decides whether the document leaves the beach with them.
| Who & what | DC | Success carries | Failure carries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trill — Survival or Nature the opening line |
DC 12 | They read the shallows well. If it carries: a Dream Inspiration die. | They work it badly. If it carries: 1d4 damage on waking, and a mark that never goes away. Which mark is still open. |
| Trill — Athletics beat one, the swim and the rope |
DC 12 | Out through the break and the rope cut in one go. | The surf throws them back twice, and the bodies are further out when they reach them. |
| Trill — Medicine beat one, in the water |
DC 12 | Trill knows at once which one is breathing. | Trill has to hold each one’s face out of the water to tell, and the ebb pulls harder by then. |
| Trill — Stealth, Deception or Intimidation beat two, the wreckers |
DC 14 | The wreckers pass by, or back off. The document stays with him. | They take the sealed document for Ehn. It is somewhere in Onda now. |
| Trill — Investigation the reach, beat two |
DC 14 | A fact carried out: the cut of the clothes is Tohsan and costly, and the beads are Tiger’s Eye with one orb repaired. Trill would know them again. | Wet clothes, some beads. Serrin, who has read this memory, has seen the repair. Trill has not. |
What it reveals
Trill is the woman who found him. The player addendum’s a woman found him
is Trill.
He did not come ashore alone. A boy came with him, dead, and Trill decided what happened to him.
If the wreckers won, Aunt Bea’s document is loose in Onda.
Still open
Decide before you run it — none of these are invented here
The four boxes. Jack writes them.
The boy’s spirit. He was never sent. In play Trill never saw the body, and it sank (session 7), which keeps Cole as an Ino open as an option. Whether he becomes an Ino or moves on is left alone for now.
If Trill tows the boy, what follows.
The document. Who the wreckers are, and where it goes if they take it. If they do not, whether Trill reads it.
The failure mark on the opening check, and what Trill was wading for.
New facts this page adds. Cole comes ashore dead beside Nonne. Ondans send their dead to the sea and burial is uncommon here. Onda has wreckers. Nonne still had the sealed document when he washed up. All Fluid until played.