Part of The Saltmere Reach: see the world map
The Light on Hare Down
A light out on Hare Down has been counting at Reedwatch’s watchtower for ten nights, and nobody left in the tower knows the code. Find out what it is saying, and answer it before the weather it is warning about gets here.
Ages 6–12 · gentle, and the third and last of the library’s Saltmere adventures. Nobody here is wicked and nothing here fights: a watch-captain beaten by a puzzle the size of a lamp, an old shepherd keeping a watch his town forgot it had, and a rain-squall two hours off — the whole adventure is solved by counting, and by listening to what a market already knows.
How long do you have?
Who’s playing?
Tap a hero for each child. Their Heart Points come with you into the game.
For the guide: who you meet, rewards and tips
The map
Who’s in this adventure
The Weather off the Downs
- Heart Points
- 2
- Guard
- 20
- Attack
- None. It is rain and a west wind. It has never once come at a person.
A squall that crosses Hare Down is over Reedwatch about two hours later. That gap is the whole reason the Chalk Post is worth keeping: the tower faces the sea and cannot see west at all. The weather cannot be fought or argued with. It can be seen coming, and told about, and that is worth two hours to every reed-boat and herb garden in the fen.
A Shutter-Lamp
- Heart Points
- 1
- Guard
- 3
- Attack
- None. It is a lamp in a box with a hinged flap on the front.
Open the flap and a light shows; drop it and the light is gone. Short flashes are a count. One long light is not a count at all: it means "I hear you," and it is the only signal in the Inland Count that cannot be mistaken for a number. Any child can work one. Reedwatch keeps three in the gate store and has not lit any of them in two generations.
A Hare
- Heart Points
- 1
- Guard
- 14
- Attack
- None. A hare is a long-legged field animal that would rather be somewhere else.
Hare Down is named for them, and they are the reason a hero coming up the chalk road in the last of the light will see something huge and fast go past and be quite sure, for one second, that this adventure has a monster in it. It does not. Let the table have the fright and then let them laugh.
Rewards
- The Inland Count, written down properly at last: in Pel’s notebook, in the tower’s night-book, and on Rue’s flat chalk stone.
- Two hours of warning before every western squall from now on, which in a land of reed-boats and herb gardens is not a small thing.
- If they watered the sheep, chalked the road, or brought Pel: a place at the Chalk Post whenever they are in the Reach, and Halder teaching them to work a shutter properly.
- If they sat by the dew pond in the mist: a shepherd’s way of reading tomorrow’s weather off the hills, which is right far more often than it has any business being.
Tips for running this one
- The answer is a skipping rhyme, and that is on purpose, not a twist you spring. If a child reaches for spies or a curse, do not stop them: keep the town loud and open about the light, keep the gate-book honest, and let a child sing the rhyme nearby again.
- Nothing in this adventure fights. If a child reaches for a sword, have nobody on the other side reach back, and let the scene stay a conversation about weather.
- Nobody is missing and nobody is in danger, Halder and Rue included: they are up there on purpose, with sheep, water, a hut and food, doing a job. Play the climax as an answer arriving, not as a rescue.
- This is not The Silent Landing. That quay had agreed not to talk about its problem; Reedwatch has talked about nothing else for ten nights and got nowhere, which is a different kind of stuck and should feel like one.
- Short on time? The Quick Quest is the tower and the Chalk Post, and it still has the twist: Halder says the rhyme himself. See the climax’s DM notes.
- Playing with 5- and 6-year-olds? Take 3 off every DN and skip the roll for anything kind. For 9- and 10-year-olds, add 2.
Play together, online
Run “The Light on Hare Down” online with friends
Can’t get everyone around the same table? Run it at a live online table instead. You direct the game from your screen; your players open a link on theirs and see the same scene art, the same “you are here” map pin, the same dice, their own character sheets, and a party chat. Free, in the browser, nothing to install.
The whole adventure is already loaded there, scene by scene, so you just step the party through it.
No sign-in, nothing saved. Share the link so the family can roll together.
Nobody needs an account: you start a table on this device in one step, and your players join with the code or invite link you send them.
The adventure, scene by scene
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Scene 1
The Watch Looks Inland
Read this aloud
Up and up you climb, to the top of Reedwatch’s tall tower. It is sunset. Watch-captain Orrin Sedge should be watching the sea. Instead, he turns round to face the land. Far away on Hare Down, a tiny light opens and shuts. Opens and shuts. "Ten nights," he says. "It is counting at us, and nobody knows what it means." The tower’s runner, a girl of eleven, holds out a notebook. "I wrote it down every night," says Pel Marram. "It is always the same."
What do the heroes try?
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No roll needed
Ten nights, ten rows, all the same: three short flashes, a pause, four, a pause, five. Then it starts again. It always begins at sunset.
Nearly!
If nobody reads it, Pel reads it out, tapping each mark: three, four, five. Every single night.
- Hero’s bonus
Rolled your own die?
Made it!
Three. Four. Five. Then again. Whoever is out there is not in a hurry. They are saying the same thing over and over, like somebody waiting for an answer.
Nearly!
You lose count at four. Pel counts with you on the next go: three, four, five.
- Hero’s bonus
Rolled your own die?
Made it!
Orrin finds a very old book. One page has a heading, but the ink has faded right away. "We kept a watch out that way once," he says. "Long before my time."
Nearly!
Orrin shakes his head sadly. "Nobody alive up here was ever taught it."
Notes for the guide
What the heroes want: Get the count itself, three, then four, then five, and carry it to somebody who might know what it means.
Orrin is not the baddie and must never sound like one. He is a careful man beaten by a problem the size of a lamp. Two facts must leave this scene: the count is three, four, five, and it repeats. Nobody in Reedwatch is hiding anything: the tower has argued about this loudly, in public, for ten nights. Why has nobody walked up there? It is half a day up and half a day back, and every night somebody says they will go tomorrow. Short on time? At the Quick Quest length, go straight to the hill: Halder says the rhyme himself in the climax.
Questions to ask
- Ask the table: Everybody be the light! Open your hands and shut them: three, then four, then five.
- Ask the quietest player: Why do you think somebody would flash a light at the tower every night? Every answer is a good one. Remember it, and see later who was close.
Where they are on the map
Show your players this
Pel’s Tally Page
A page from an eleven-year-old’s notebook, ruled by hand and kept beautifully. Ten rows, one for each night, and every row the same: three marks, a gap, four marks, a gap, five marks. Then the whole row again, and again, until the marks run off the edge. Beside each row, a tiny sun going down, and a tiny moon at the end, because it always starts at sunset and stops at full dark. At the bottom, underlined twice: "SAME EVERY NIGHT."
Print this handout -
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Scene 2
The Skipping Rhyme
Read this aloud
In the Reed Market, children are skipping. They sing a rhyme every child in town knows: "One for the sheep on the hill. Two for the well going dry. Three for the rain by dark. Four for the wind from the west. Five for come up, come up. And a long one to say I hear you." Nan Weft looks up from her weaving. She taught them all that rhyme. "My grandmother called it the Inland Count," she says. "It is only a skipping song."
What do the heroes try?
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No roll needed
They make you do it properly, and they laugh a lot. By the third go, you know all six lines, in the right order.
Nearly!
You trip over the rope. Everybody laughs, you too. Then they sing it slowly, just for you.
- Hero’s bonus
Rolled your own die?
Made it!
Three is rain by dark. Four is wind from the west. Five is come up, come up! Somebody has been sending a weather warning, and an invitation, every night.
Nearly!
The rhyme goes too fast. Then a child skips three, four, five in the wrong place, and everyone shouts the right lines: rain by dark, wind from the west, come up!
- Hero’s bonus
Rolled your own die?
Made it!
"Halder Anselm, same as always," says Nan, as if you had asked what colour the sky is. "He has kept sheep up there for forty years." Nobody hid this. Nobody asked.
Nearly!
Nan is counting reeds and does not hear. Then she looks up. "Halder Anselm is up there, of course." Nobody hid this. Nobody asked.
Notes for the guide
What the heroes want: Notice that the skipping rhyme is the code the tower lost, and read the ten nights with it.
The scene the adventure exists for: it must land as delight, not as a clue handed out. Play the children first and the grown-up second: the rhyme should be in the room, sung over a rope, before anybody says it means anything. Nan is not hiding anything; to her it was never a code. If the table does not make the connection, let a skipping child count three, four, five out loud in the wrong place, and get shouted at by the others.
Questions to ask
- Ask the table: Everybody skip, or pretend to, and say the rhyme together!
- Ask the quietest player: If a light could send you one message every night, what would you want it to say?
Where they are on the map
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Scene 3
The Down Gate
Read this aloud
The Down Gate is a gap in Reedwatch’s woven reed wall. Here, the white chalk road starts to climb. Beside the gate is a book. It says who went out, and what they carried. Ten days ago: Halder Anselm, shepherd, up to his sheep, one lamp, one can of oil. Seven days ago: Rue Anselm, his granddaughter, down for bread, back up before dark. Nobody was hiding anything. Nobody carried it up to the tower, either.
What do the heroes try?
- Hero’s bonus
Rolled your own die?
Made it!
Halder went up ten days ago with a lamp. The light began ten nights ago. The gate-keeper goes rather quiet when you say it out loud.
Nearly!
The writing is old and curly. The gate-keeper reads it out: Halder, ten days ago, one lamp. That is when the light began.
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No roll needed
Three dusty shutter-lamps sit on a shelf, kept just in case. You take one, and a can of oil. Now you can answer the light yourselves. Tick the box on the story tracker.
Nearly!
If nobody thinks of it, the gate-keeper does. "Take a lamp up with you. That is what they are for."
- Hero’s bonus
Rolled your own die?
Made it!
Pel is already waiting, boots on, notebook buttoned into her coat. She is the fastest runner in Reedwatch. Tick the box on the story tracker.
Nearly!
Pel is not allowed at first. Then Orrin waves from the tower: let her go. Tick the box on the story tracker.
Notes for the guide
What the heroes want: Match the gate-book to the ten nights, and set off up the road ready to answer.
The gate-keeper is not to be told off: the gate-book is a record of who went out, not a message board. Let the table feel the ordinary shape of the whole problem: everybody did their own job right, and nobody did the one job that was nobody’s. If the heroes take the lamp and Pel, the climax has everything it needs; if they take neither, it still works, just slower.
Questions to ask
- Ask each player in turn: What would you carry up a big hill at night?
- Ask the table: Everybody did their own job right. So why did nobody tell the tower? Because it was nobody’s job. Let them find that.
Where they are on the map
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Scene 4
Up the Chalk Road
Read this aloud
The chalk road climbs, white against the green. Behind you, the whole fen lies flat: reeds, water, and the tower, small as your thumb. Ahead, in the west, a grey wall of rain hangs over the hills. It is walking slowly this way. From down in the town you cannot see it at all. From up here, you can watch it come. Suddenly, something huge and fast whooshes past through the grass! It is a hare.
What do the heroes try?
- Hero’s bonus
Rolled your own die?
Made it!
Pick a fencepost, watch the edge of the rain, and count. It is coming at a walk. The town has about two hours. That is exactly the warning the light was sending.
Nearly!
The numbers get muddled. Halder will ask later how long you think you have, and you can work it out then: about two hours.
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No roll needed
There it is: a grey pin in all that green, right in line with the road. Any light up here can be seen down there.
Nearly!
It takes a long time to spot. Then Pel points: there, a grey pin, right in line with the road.
- Hero’s bonus
Rolled your own die?
Made it!
The road is made of chalk, so you draw a big cross at every bend. Now a runner can come down it in the dark. Tick the box on the story tracker.
Nearly!
Your crosses come out small and wobbly. Do them again, bigger, all together. Tick the box on the story tracker.
Notes for the guide
What the heroes want: See, from up here, the two things Reedwatch cannot: the weather in the west, and its own tower.
The wide scene: play it slow and let the table look at things. The two hours matter, and the children should work them out, not hear them from the GM. The hare is a joke, and the only jump in the adventure: it goes past, it is huge, it is a hare, and nothing is chasing it.
Questions to ask
- Ask the table: A hare whooshes past! Did anybody jump? Show me your best jump!
- Ask the quietest player: The rain is coming. Who in the town would you most want to warn?
Where they are on the map
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Scene 5
Bonus: The Dew Pond
Read this aloud
At the top of the driest hill in the whole land, there is a pond. No stream runs in, and none runs out. Shepherds made it long ago, a saucer of clay. Every night the mist lies down in it and fills it up. The sheep stand all round it, like a meeting. Kneeling by the water is Rue Anselm, twelve, with chalk on both knees. She looks so relieved. "You came," she says. "Grandad said somebody’s child would know the rhyme."
What do the heroes try?
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No roll needed
The mist rolls up from the fen at sunset. It settles in the saucer, and the water rises while you watch. It is not magic. It is a very clever pond.
Nearly!
Waiting is hard! But if you sit very still, the water creeps up, just a little.
- Hero’s bonus
Rolled your own die?
Made it!
Forty sheep, one can, and lots of splashing. Rue has done this alone for ten days. Halder will notice your wet sleeves and smile.
Nearly!
A sheep knocks the can over, and you all get soaked. Rue laughs for the first time in ten days.
- Hero’s bonus
Rolled your own die?
Made it!
"Three, four, five," says Rue. "I work the shutter now. Grandad’s hands shake." She shows you a flat stone with ten nights scratched on it, just like Pel’s notebook.
Nearly!
Rue is shy at first. Then she shows you a flat stone with ten nights of marks on it: three, four, five.
Notes for the guide
What the heroes want: Meet the person who has been working the shutter, and see the quiet cleverness this country is built from.
The wonder scene, and the reason to run the Epic length. Nothing here is needed by the plot. Rue is relieved, not rescued: she and her grandad have been safe the whole time, with sheep, water, a hut and a week of bread. If a child asks how a pond stays full on a dry hill: the clay holds it, the mist fills it, and the saucer shape is the whole trick. If they ask why Rue did not tell the tower: she told the gate, and it went in the gate-book.
Questions to ask
- Ask the table: Everybody be the mist, rolling slowly up the hill!
- Ask the quietest player: Rue has worked the light on her own for ten nights. What would you say to her?
Where they are on the map
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Scene 6
One to Say I Hear You
Read this aloud
At the top of the hill stands the Chalk Post. It is an old leaning stone with a slot for a lamp. Beside it sits Halder Anselm, wrapped in a sheepskin. "Three, four, five," he says. "Rain by dark. Wind from the west. Come up, come up." He nods at the grey rain in the west. "Two hours from your town. And nobody sends a light back." His granddaughter, Rue Anselm, holds the shutter. All the tower ever had to send was one long light.
What do the heroes try?
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No roll needed
You hold it open. And hold it. It feels like forever. Then, far below, the tower’s lamp stops blinking and stays lit: one long light. Read "If the tower answered."
Nearly!
Nothing happens at first. Keep holding! At last, far below, the tower lights up and stays lit. Read "If the tower answered."
- Hero’s bonus
Rolled your own die?
Made it!
Pel runs down the chalk road and up eighty stairs, shouting the rhyme. The warning goes out to the whole town. Read "If Pel taught the tower."
Nearly!
Pel slips on the dark road, but gets up and keeps going, a bit muddy. Read "If Pel taught the tower."
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No roll needed
Halder has not slept a whole night in ten days. You take the sheepskin and the shutter, and he falls asleep at once. Read "If you kept watch."
Nearly!
Halder will not sleep at first. Then Rue tucks the blanket round him, and he snores. Read "If you kept watch."
How it ends
Read the ending that happened, then the homecoming.
If the tower answered.
Where your choices led
Down in Reedwatch, the tower’s lamp shines steady toward the hills. Halder puts his hand over his mouth. Then he laughs. "They heard," he says. "After ten nights, they heard." Rue hugs him so hard his hat falls off.
If Pel taught the tower.
Where your choices led
Pel bursts into the lamp room, puffing, and sings the whole rhyme. Orrin writes it in the tower’s book, every line. By dark, every reed-boat is tied up safe and every herb garden is covered.
If you kept watch.
Where your choices led
Halder sleeps like a log. You sit by the Chalk Post with Rue, sheep breathing all round you. You open the shutter: one long light, then three short ones for rain by dark. Far below, the tower answers. Then the rain comes over, soft and loud at once.
Homecoming
Every ending: the town is ready.
The rain arrives two hours later, just as Halder said. But Reedwatch is ready. Boats are tied and washing is in. Everybody is safe inside. Now, every sunset, the tower looks both ways, at the sea and at the hills. And every child in Reedwatch knows what their skipping rhyme is for.
Notes for the guide
What the heroes want: Answer the light, and decide what Reedwatch does with a watch it has just found it still has.
Three real endings and no wrong one. Halder is glad, not proved right: never let him tell the town off. "They did not forget it to spite me. They just stopped needing it, and then they needed it again." The town gets its warning in all three endings. Sending Pel needs no roll if the heroes chalked the road or brought Pel (see the story tracker); with no Pel, a hero runs instead. Short on time? Every length gets the twist: at the Quick Quest length, Halder says the rhyme himself, so let the table work out the long light from his words. When it is over, read the ending that happened, then the homecoming.
Questions to ask
- Ask the table: Everybody open your hands, slowly, for a long, long light. How long can you hold it?
- Ask the quietest player: Halder waited ten nights for an answer. How do you think he felt? There are no wrong answers. Then let the tower answer him.
Where they are on the map
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