Session 8
Session 8 · the one-sheet · working title
Tonight
- Cold open 13, Get This to the Sergeant, starts the night. Haxami and Remper. Its boxes are not written yet.
- Then the grave fight, where session 7 stopped. Quiet Jory holds Isa at Emil’s grave and offers a trade. About half the night.
- Emil is at the grave. Whoever holds the Cold Kiss can see him and send him off.
- The fight points on: Jory names who pays him and where the casks go, and the raven flies across the strait.
- Cold open 2, The Wreck, at a break or a rest. Nonne and Trill.
- After the fight, the party choose where to go. Losam is the likely road. Every open thread is on In Play.
Opening monologue
Not written. Cold open 13 opens the night; the monologue, if there is one, puts the party back on the headland in front of Jory.
Scenes — in whatever order the players pick, after the grave
The grave fight where session 7 stopped · the fight page holds every number
- The trade: the Cold Kiss for Isa and Emil’s soul. Jory lets two things slip while they talk: he is paid in black pearls, and the casks burn now.
- Arrival order: Nonne and Trill in round 1, Marellius and Haxami in round 2, Miriam in round 3.
- The clock: the empty cask on Emil’s coffin is sealing him in. It seals at the end of round 3. Knock it off or break it (AC 15, 10 HP) and Emil is free.
- Jory’s first turn: he shoves Isa off the cliff.
- Isa is poisoned. The antidote is in Jory’s coat, and she drops at the end of round 4 without it. The raven takes the Cold Kiss if it is ever loose. Jory carries a smoke pearl for desperation.
- How it ends: the trade, they win, or they half-win.
Sending Emil off during or after the grave fight
- Emil’s claimed soul stands by the stone, watching Isa.
- Everyone at the grave feels him there. Only whoever holds the Cold Kiss sees him clearly. Nonne in rage, with the Cold Kiss in hand, sees him clearest (Jack, 2026-11-02).
- Until the cask is knocked off or broken, Emil is held in it. He cannot save Isa and cannot be sent off. If it seals, he is trapped in it.
- Once he is free, if Isa would die, Emil steps into her once. He rides her the way Nonne’s father rides Nonne in rage. She speaks one line in his voice and drops, alive and unconscious. What he says is Jack’s.
- Whoever wields the Cold Kiss sends him off: touch it to him as an action. Rage helps the wielder see him; the Cold Kiss is what sends him (Jack, 2026-11-02).
- Not sent off: he stays claimed at the grave, or Jory leaves with him sealed in the cask. The sealed-cask rules are on the fight page.
Isa, after the grave if she lives and wakes
- She heard Jory’s men: the next packet is due at the berth, and the casks burn now instead of being stored.
- She avoids Miriam. She saw Tuck speak to Miriam after Emil’s rite and thinks Miriam sold him.
- Petra asked Trill to look in on her.
- By morning the quay is saying Haxami forged a page in her father’s ledger. That is Dita’s doing (below).
- Emil’s sealing-iron is hers to give at the end of the arc. Not tonight.
Losam if they go · the likely road
Built on Losam’s one chance. Dita’s story lands first and Losam pretends he has not heard it. Haxami beats it, at disadvantage on every Persuasion check. Losam pays, takes the warehouse from Dita, and asks for the warehouse burned. Stopping the shipment and going to Kestrel are the party’s counter-offers. Every road leads to the vent.
Dita’s moves whenever they fit
- Against Haxami. She tells Losam and Yusuf Kar about the forged ledger page. The quay knows by morning, and it reaches Isa.
- With Trill. She catches Trill alone and hands over the Second Thought for Nonne: “I like you two. It’s him.” If this fires, Thor does not give the pearl.
- With Tam. She gives Tam the Lantern Band. Haxami sees a small green light go down the quay at night.
Social and information plays only. She is not evil. Detail on In Play.
Toto’s cousin if they go · the morning after the grave
Bring the Cold Kiss to the shop by the quay and the cousin reads its iron for free: Unåian rite-work. It points at the Inquisition. If they don’t go, the cousin comes looking for Trill. The cousin’s page.
Cold open 2, The Wreck at a break or a rest
The Wreck. Nonne and Trill. It is the ship Godwin’s note is about (Jack, 2026-11-01).
NPCs — one line each
- Quiet Jory (Jory Vance) — called Sai’s knife, takes the Ophidian’s orders. Wants the Cold Kiss. Relaxed, amused, shoots from the cliff edge. Naming the Ophidian kills him. In Play.
- Isa Varga — Emil’s daughter, Jory’s hostage. 4 hit points, hands tied. Emil saves her once. In Play.
- Emil Varga — the dead cooper, claimed by the Cold Kiss’s mark. Watches his daughter. Wants the Cold Kiss to send him off. Sent off in session 8.
- Speaker Miriam Dol — the animist following them, ally from round 3. Keeps Isa alive with warding bond and hold person. Jory will not touch her. Her offer to wake the Cold Kiss once is still unused. In Play.
- Thor — Wat’s partner. Can give Nonne the Second Thought. Walks if the Cold Kiss is traded. In Play.
- Losam Ferrante — wants out from under Sai. Has heard Dita’s version and will pretend he has not. In Play.
- Dita Ferrante — fired, 800 gp lighter, striking back through what she knows and who she tells. In Play.
- Tam — runs Haxami’s papers. Carries Godwin’s notes without knowing it. Who You Know.
- Piers Godwin — the Ophidian’s Handler, at the counting-house across the strait. Where the raven flies. In Play.
- Oswin Tuck and Rosamund Kestrel — Sai in Onda. Want the route kept open. Tuck’s arrest of the burners has not run. In Play.
Monsters — statblocks are on the fight page
- Quiet Jory — ×1 · reskinned Archer · CR 3 · AC 16 · HP 75 · leaves at 38
- Jory’s raven — ×1 · reskinned Blood Hawk · CR 1/8 · AC 12 · HP 7
- Sai knife — ×2 · reskinned Spy · CR 1 · AC 12 · HP 27 · arrive about round 3
- Boatman — ×2 · reskinned Thug · CR 1/2 · AC 11 · HP 32
- Miriam Dol — ally · Animist 5 · AC 15 · HP 39 · arrives round 3
Medium for four at 5th (2,650 adjusted XP).
Rewards
- Emil sent off — if the Cold Kiss sends him off.
- Isa alive — and what she heard: the packet date and that the casks burn now.
- What Jory gives up — pearls for pay, the casks burn now, and, if caught and pushed, the Ophidian.
- Still owed — Dalton’s route-pay, 25 gp each. Emil’s sealing-iron stays with Isa until the end of the arc.
- XP — not decided. The party are 5th.
Still to decide
- Cold open 13. The boxes are not written yet.
- Emil’s line through Isa. Jack’s.
- Jory’s lines in the trade, and what happens if he is caught and names the Ophidian.
- The truth over the grave. Story Beats ends act one when the truth of Emil’s death is spoken over the grave. The Cold Kiss is what sends him off. How the two fit is open.
- The poison after Emil. The poison dropping Isa counts, and Emil steps in (Jack, 2026-11-02). Whether she still needs the antidote after that is open.
- XP for the grave fight.