🌊 Fluid

Session 5

Session 5 · the one-sheet · working title

Before you run it

The whole night is the warehouse, in three acts and one order: the main floor on the way in, the cellar, then the main floor again on the way out. Session 4 ended with the party stepping through the doors, so the night opens standing on the main floor with the doors behind them. The cellar fight was built for session 4 and never run — it is still on the session 4 fight page, unchanged. The doors fight is its own page.

Tonight

Cold open 14, The Blowgun (Trill and Toto in the Juhasa), at the top of the night.
Cold open 6, One More Thing, the first time Marellius triggers the fireball in Dita’s Bracelet. It is an interrupt, not a slot — it may never fire.
Cold open 10, Try This, at the short rest on the main floor, if the bracelet never comes out. The crew arrive at the end of it.
The main floor. Emil’s mark on every cask, the grey one on the bench, the tally board, and what the two earlier groups left at the trapdoor.
The cellar. Wat, his crewmen, the casks and the rising water. They come up with the Cold Kiss.
The doors. The Five Fingers — Dita’s old alley crew, rebuilt, hired for the same job and here for the Cold Kiss.
Where the night ends is not decided.

No opening monologue is written yet. Session 4 ended inside the doors, so the night may not need one. The Blowgun is Trill’s first cold open, and either of the other two is Marellius’s first. Of the two that have run, cold open 1 was Nonne and Haxami and cold open 3 was Haxami.

Scenes — three acts, run in order

The main floor on the way in · they are already standing on it

Nobody living is in the building. Biggs and Wedge are outside, where the party left them.
No open flame past the doors. Painted by the doors, and the lanterns on their hooks are hooded. Nobody wrote down why. The party are being told the fire rule before they are told the reason.
Emil’s mark is on every cask. He made the containers this route runs on. That is why the route needed him: a cooper whose casks do not leak. He did not know what he was making.
The bench. An opened cask stands beside a full one. The opened one has gone grey inside. This is the cask they pulled out of Emil’s own stock in session 2 and have carried since, and it is the tell for the cellar: grey means the soul is gone.
The tally board by the doors, where returns get checked in. All in the marks. Haxami reads it on sight; to anyone else it is paint on a board. Three things are on it.
The same four ports that repeat in the ledger.
One line inbound. Everything else on the board ships out. The Cold Kiss came in, consigned to Dalton, charged to the account the fourth mark tallies for. This is the second route to the Collector, and it lands here whether or not Dita ever reads the ledger.
The count is short. More full casks were checked in than are standing on this floor. Somebody is taking souls off the route. Who, and where they are going, is not decided.
The trapdoor. The first crew’s gear and a dead lantern are beside it. The second crew’s blood goes down it. Drag marks go the same way. Nothing comes back up.
If Nonne rages on this floor he feels the presence in the barrels. He does not see them.
It ends when they lift the trapdoor.

Behind the screen

The short count is the one thread on this floor with no answer written for it. Leave it open at the table — the board says a number is wrong, not who is stealing. Oswin Tuck’s tally at the berth is the second place it can surface.

No read-alouds are written for this act yet.

The cellar built for session 4, never run · numbers on the session 4 fight page

The cellar holds many casks. About three in every dozen hold a soul. Grey inside means empty, and they learned that upstairs.
Wat’s Ino and two drowned mercenaries are down there. Wat has the Cold Kiss in his hand.
The fight, the casks, the rising water and the burning shed are all on the cellar fight page. 4,400 adjusted, 220% of Deadly.
It ends on Wat. When he drops, the Cold Kiss falls where he was and his soul is loose for a round. Whoever holds the Cold Kiss can send him on with it, or he stays in the cellar.
They climb out with the Cold Kiss and whatever unbroken full casks they choose to carry as proof.

The two earlier groups are down here. What is left of them is not written.

The doors on the way out · it happens whether they rest or not

Dita hired her old crew again — the two casters and the bruisers who lost the ledger to the party in the alley in session 2. They are rebuilt and better paid, and they were sent to do exactly the job the party just did. They call themselves the Five Fingers. There are four of them, and none of them will explain it.
One of the bruisers is Ned Hobb, called Six Weeks — the man the Gendarme took out of that alley, for as long as he sat in the cell before Dita bought him out. He knows who put him in it.
They want the Cold Kiss for themselves. They are not here to talk.
If the party short rest on the main floor, the crew find them. If they do not, the crew walk in as the party are leaving. Either way the fight is at the doors, with the trapdoor open behind them.
The Pull is why this crew and not another: their house action takes an object out of a hand at 30 ft. The party watched it work in the alley, and the Cold Kiss is the thing they just bled for.
The floor is stacked with returned casks and the crew do not know what is in them. The party are the only people in the room who do. Fighting away from the stacks is the brake, and it is a brake only one side knows about.
If Marellius uses the bracelet here, or anywhere in the warehouse, run cold open 6, One More Thing, before the damage. Stop at the dash and let the fireball finish the sentence.
The fight is on its own page. 3,200 adjusted, 160% of Deadly.
It ends on the Cold Kiss: it stays, or it goes out the doors with whoever Pulled it.

Behind the screen

Dita does not come. She sent them the morning after the deal fell through, and the Sweet Nothing told her where Marellius was and when he stopped moving. If the party ever line the timing up, the bracelet is a leash.

She wants the Cold Kiss for the same reason she wanted the ledger: to sell it up the chain. She still does not know what the casks carry — see the session 4 sheet for what she is and what she does not know. If the reading ever happens, the inbound line is as new to her as to the party.

Dita posted Biggs and Wedge, so they let her crew in.

No read-alouds are written for this act yet.

Information routing — every critical fact, and the ways to it

The fact	Routes
The Cold Kiss came from the Collector	3 — the inbound line on the tally board; Dita’s reading of the ledger; Sai at the quay, later in the act.
Grey inside means the soul is gone	3 — the two casks on the bench; DC 12 Investigation in the cellar; the cask they took from Emil’s shop in session 2.
Emil made the route’s casks	3 — his mark on the staves here; Isa, if they ask her; the cooper’s shop, if they go back.
Souls are going missing off the route	2 — the short count on the tally board; Tuck’s tally at the berth.
Two groups went in and did not come out	2 — Biggs and Wedge said so; the gear and the blood at the trapdoor. Both were mercenaries Dita hired; Wat killed them, and two came back as the drowned men in the cellar.
Fire is not allowed in this building	2 — painted by the doors; every lantern on the floor is hooded.

The tally board is in the marks. Every fact on it has a route that is not the board, because the board is a single point of failure if Haxami is not in the room.

Failure & setbacks

Nobody reads the board. The inbound line is still in the ledger for Dita to read, and still waiting at the quay. The short count waits for Tuck’s tally.
They burn it. The fire rules are on the cellar fight page. Every soul down there is destroyed, Thor’s ask is moot, and Losam’s job in a later session is gone before he offers it.
They never go down. The warehouse keeps. Dita’s crew clear it instead, and she has the Cold Kiss without paying them for it.
The crew take the Cold Kiss. It goes to Dita, and getting it back is the next session. Thor is still in a room at the Long Crossing waiting to be told.
A character dies. The session 3 failure notes stand. Nothing here brings anyone back.

NPCs — one line each

Biggs and Wedge — posted outside the doors by Dita. The party talked past them once already. They know two groups went in and did not come out, and they are still there when the crew arrive.
Hallam Fitch, called Fetch — the caster who takes things out of hands. The Pull is his, and the Cold Kiss is what he came for.
Wilda Greave — the other caster. Holds the doorway while Fetch works.
Ned Hobb, called Six Weeks — the bruiser out of the cell. Bought out by Dita and carrying it.
Dita Ferrante — not in the building. She sent them, and the Sweet Nothing told her when.
Thor — in a room over the bar at the Long Crossing, waiting for the Cold Kiss or for a no.

Monsters — full blocks on the two fight pages

The Ino of Wat Fenner ×1 · reskinned Roper · CR 5 · AC 16 · HP 119 · reels from 50 ft; the Cold Kiss is in his mouth

The cellar. Full block on the cellar fight page.

Wat’s crewmen ×2 · reskinned Ghoul · CR 1 · AC 12 · HP 22 · paralyzing claws; a miss splits a cask

The cellar. Full block on the cellar fight page.

Fitch and Greave ×2 · reskinned Illusionist · CR 3 · AC 12 (15) · HP 38 · the Pull, mirror image, invisibility

The doors. Full block on the doors fight page.

The bruisers ×2 · Thug · CR 1/2 · AC 11 · HP 32 · pack tactics

The doors. Full block on the doors fight page.

Budget. Cellar: 4,400 adjusted, 220% of Deadly. Doors: 3,200 adjusted, 160%. Both Deadly under the DMG and under Improved Initiative. What neither model sees is that they run back to back in one night; the rest between them is the dial, and the doors fight can be won by losing the Cold Kiss rather than by dying. Scaling on the cellar and doors fight pages.

Numbers

Check / value	When
Free to Haxami	Reading the tally board. It is in the marks, and there is no check for anyone else.
DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation)	Telling a full cask from an empty grey one, with a light and a close look.
DC 13 Dexterity	The Pull. The object tears loose into the caster’s hand, or drops on the floor between them.
DC 15 Charisma	The Cold Kiss’s holder senses the emotions of a soul marked with it. On a failure, try that soul again after a long rest.
DC 13 Dexterity	A cask burst by fire. 2d6 fire and 2d6 necrotic within 10 ft, half on a save. The soul is destroyed.
3 rounds	Once the shed is lit, its floor falls into the cellar. Not at high tide.

Rewards

The Cold Kiss — in Wat’s hand in the cellar, and the thing the crew at the doors came for. Text on the items page. Theirs to keep, to give Thor, or to lose at the doors.
Wat’s soul — sent on with the Cold Kiss, or left claimed in the cellar. Their choice.
The inbound line — the Cold Kiss was consigned to Dalton and charged to the fourth mark’s account. The second route to the Collector.
The short count — a question, not an answer. Souls are coming off the route before they are stacked.
Emil’s mark — he made the route’s casks. What Isa is owed at the end of the act got larger tonight.
Full casks — whatever they carry out of the cellar, as proof.
Hobb — taken alive, he is a link back to Dita and knows what she paid for.
XP — none. They stay at 4th. Fifth is at the coda.