The Weather-Goose of Market Ward

The adventure, scene by scene

1. 

   Scene 1

   The Empty Measure

   Read this aloud

   It is Cornfair, the busiest market day of the year, and the Market Ward is SO loud! Stalls, carts and shouting, everywhere. In the middle of the square stands the Great Scale. On its beam sits a little brass measure full of barley. That measure belongs to Sixpence, a grey goose. For thirty-one years she has honked whenever rain was coming. But today her barley is untouched, and Sixpence is gone. A boy stands under the empty beam with both hands on his head.

   What do the heroes try?

   • Talk to Tib No roll needed

     No roll needed

     Tib Orrey feeds her every day. She was on her beam at first light. She has never once left her barley. "She went UP," he says. "And nobody believes me."

     Nearly!

     Tib is too upset to talk at first. Give him a moment and a kind word, and it all comes out in a rush: "She went UP!"

   • Look at the beam Clever: roll 10 or more

     Made it!

     Three grey feathers caught in the brass, and one scratch where a webbed foot pushed off upward, toward the salt barrel at the end of the Long Row.

     Nearly!

     You cannot see much from down here. But a grey feather drifts down, and there she is for a blink, on the salt barrel at the end of the Long Row. Then she is gone again.

   • Ask Marren Vost Kind: roll 8 or more

     Made it!

     Without her, nobody knows when rain is coming. For thirty-one years the ward has not watched the sky; it has listened for a goose. He has a little book in his apron he has not opened yet: give the players the handout.

     Nearly!

     Vost is far too busy. "She’ll turn up!" But his weather book falls out of his apron, open, and lands at your feet: give the players the handout.

   Notes for the guide

   What the heroes want: Find out who Sixpence is, what the ward loses without her, and where she was really last seen.

   Play the noise from the first sentence and never turn it down. The roar of Cornfair is this adventure’s problem, its clock and its joke all at once. Two things must leave this scene with the heroes: the ward cannot tell the weather without her, and whatever she did, she went up. Vost is not unkind, just buried: it is his biggest day of the year. His weather book, the handout, holds the whole answer. Nobody took her. If a child goes hunting for a baddie, let the ward itself be the answer.

   Questions to ask

   • Ask the table: If you were a goose and nobody could hear you, what would you do?

   Where they are on the map

   Show your players this

   The Ward’s Weather Book

   A little cloth-covered book from the awning-master’s apron, one line a day. "Fourthday: she honked at noon. Awnings down. Rain by half past. Nothing lost." "Ninthday: no honk. Sunny all day. She sat." Further back, pressed hard: "CORNFAIR, LAST YEAR. She did not call from her measure. She went up and called from the gantry, because it was too noisy below. We got the awnings down late and lost two stalls of wool. Note for whoever has this book next: SHE GOES UP ON FAIR DAYS. She is not lost. She is looking for somewhere she can be heard from."

   Print this handout

2. 

   Scene 2

   Four Hundred Opinions

   Read this aloud

   The Long Row is a giant tunnel of red-and-cream stalls. Before you are halfway down it, you have nine sightings, six ideas and a free pie! Hessy the pie-seller says she has the goose in a basket. Bram the fish-man saw her fly out of the River Gate. Then a little girl with a hoop tugs your sleeve. She says Sixpence was up on the cheese stall’s ridge pole. Nobody listens to her, because she is six.

   What do the heroes try?

   • Stand still and listen No roll needed

     No roll needed

     Hessy’s basket holds a rolled grey bolster, not a goose. Bram’s bird at the River Gate was a heron. But four sightings are real: the salt barrel, the cheese stall’s ridge pole, the awning ridge over the Long Row, and a grey shape above the ropewalk. And each of those four is higher than the one before it.

     Nearly!

     It is far too noisy to sort out at first. Wait a moment: Hessy opens her basket, red-faced, and it is a rolled grey bolster. Bram admits his bird was a heron. The real sightings are what is left.

   • Follow the barley Clever: roll 10 or more

     Made it!

     It runs from the beam to the salt barrel at the end of the Long Row, and stops. From there, she went where no barley can follow: up, to the awning ridge over the Long Row.

     Nearly!

     The crowd has trodden the barley flat. But a grey feather is stuck to the awning ridge over the Long Row, high above your head.

   • Ask the children No roll needed

     No roll needed

     Every child tells you the same thing, and every one of them saw her going up. In a crowd of grown-ups, up is the only way a child can see!

     Nearly!

     They all talk at once. But every one of them is pointing the same way: up.

   Notes for the guide

   What the heroes want: Sort the real sightings from the muddled ones, and notice what the real ones have in common.

   A funny scene doing real work. The fun is the ward: everybody has an idea, the ideas disagree, and everybody is trying to help. The work is the pattern: barrel, pole, ridge, ropewalk, each one higher. The heroes may spot it here or on the roofs; either is fine, and a table that spots it here should feel clever. Give Hessy and Bram their dignity back quickly: neither is lying, both are sure, and being sure about the wrong bird is very ordinary. If a grown-up is asked about the children’s story, they say, "Well, she can’t have gone UP, can she?"

   Questions to ask

   • Ask each player in turn: Which sighting does your hero believe, and why?

   Where they are on the map

3. 

   Scene 3

   Above the Noise

   Read this aloud

   You climb a ladder onto the stall roofs. From up here, the Long Row is a stripy river of canvas. And there is Sixpence! She is standing on the Cloth Hall tiles, higher still, with her back to you. She is not hiding. She is looking east, so you look too. Far away, over the Salt Sea, the sky is dark blue-black. Grey rain hangs under it like a comb. And it is coming this way.

   What do the heroes try?

   • Rush at her Brave: roll 10 or more

     Made it!

     You will not catch her, and you cannot fail. You get close enough to touch a feather! Then she hops up one more roof, calm as anything, and waits for you to stop.

     Nearly!

     You will not catch her, and you cannot fail. Your foot slips, your hat flies off, and you sit down on the canvas with a bump. Sixpence looks at you, then hops one roof higher.

   • Sit and watch her Clever: roll 10 or more

     Made it!

     She stretches out her neck and opens her beak. HONK! But the roar of the market swallows the sound whole. She waits. She tries again. She is calling, and nobody can hear her.

     Nearly!

     You fidget too much to watch properly. But then she does it right in front of you: neck out, beak open, HONK! Nobody down below looks up.

   • Look where she is looking No roll needed

     No roll needed

     The storm, out over the sea. And something you can only learn up here: the market noise is like a wall. You have to shout to hear somebody sitting right next to you.

     Nearly!

     The wind blows your hair into your eyes. Push it back, and there it is: the storm, out over the sea, coming closer.

   Notes for the guide

   What the heroes want: Catch her, or work out why she has spent the whole morning climbing.

   The turn, and the best view in the adventure, so take your time over the rooftops before the storm appears. Two discoveries, and the heroes only need one. The storm gives the chase a clock; the calling gives it a meaning. Now the adventure quietly changes from "catch the goose" to "get the market to be quiet", which is a much harder and much funnier problem. Never let a bad roll strand anybody on a roof: the poles hold, the tiles are dry, and the worst that happens is a lost hat. Remember if the heroes saw the storm: it helps at the end.

   Questions to ask

   • Ask the table: Why do you think Sixpence keeps climbing higher? Let them guess out loud. The answer is: to be heard.

   Where they are on the map

4. 

   Scene 4

   Everybody Helps

   Read this aloud

   Word has got round, and the whole Market Ward is helping! In the Cartfield, two hundred people have nets, brooms, a fish crate and a ladder. Four people are carrying the ladder in three directions. And somebody at the back keeps saying the same thing. "That drover from the hills has eleven geese in her cart. I bet she took ours!" The drover, Nettie Fain, stands by her cart with her arms folded. Everybody is staring at her.

   What do the heroes try?

   • Stand up for Nettie Kind: roll 10 or more

     Made it!

     It takes about four sentences, and it works, because nobody really wants to believe it. They just want their goose back, and being cross is easier than being scared.

     Nearly!

     Somebody talks over you. But Nettie stands up taller, because somebody spoke up for her. Try again with no roll: one true sentence is enough.

   • Ask Nettie about geese No roll needed

     No roll needed

     "A goose that’s running off runs to water," she says. "A goose that’s running up isn’t running at all. That one’s not lost, love. That one’s trying to get heard."

     Nearly!

     Nettie is too cross to talk at first. Then she sighs. "That one’s not lost, love. That one’s trying to get heard."

   • Get everyone to stand still Brave: roll 12 or more

     Made it!

     You jump on a crate and wave your arms. Everybody stops. Now Sixpence can stop running from two hundred helpers and start calling to them instead.

     Nearly!

     Nobody stops. But Nettie puts two fingers in her mouth and whistles, loud as a kettle. Now everybody is still.

   Notes for the guide

   What the heroes want: Stop the ward helping so loudly, and stop what is being said about Nettie.

   This is where the adventure says what it is about: the ward loves Sixpence, the ward is the problem, and both are true. Nettie is not a suspect and must never be played as one. She is the only person here who knows about geese, and she shares it the moment the heroes treat her kindly. Keep the unfair moment short and clear it fast. Whoever started the rumour is never named or punished: they are scared, they say sorry badly, and somebody hands them a broom. Make a note of the eleven geese in the cart: a table that remembers them has an easy way through at the end.

   Questions to ask

   • Ask the quietest player: Everybody is staring at Nettie. What does your hero say to her?

   Where they are on the map

5. 

   Scene 5

   Bonus: The Nest of Lost Things

   Read this aloud

   The Cloth Hall roof sticks out over the alley. Tucked in the corner, out of the rain and out of sight, is a nest. But there are no eggs in it. Instead there is a wedding ring, a door key and three glass beads. There is a child’s lucky charm on a string. There is a silver thimble, and buttons in every colour you can think of. Forty-one buttons, in fact.

   What do the heroes try?

   • Look, but don’t touch No roll needed

     No roll needed

     Every single thing is small, bright and lost. Thirty-one years of the Market Ward dropping things, all gathered in one place.

     Nearly!

     If a hand reaches in, Sixpence hisses from the next roof. Hands out! Look with your eyes.

   • Make a list and give it all back No roll needed

     No roll needed

     It takes a while and no dice at all. The ward knows every single thing in that nest, most of them by name.

     Nearly!

     Some things nobody claims at first. Put them in a box by the Great Scale, and by evening they have all gone home.

   • Ask about the ring Clever: roll 10 or more

     Made it!

     Inside is a tiny maker’s mark from a shop that shut long ago. Marren Vost’s mother lost this ring in the Long Row when he was six. When he sees it, he cannot say anything for a whole minute.

     Nearly!

     The mark is too small to read. But when Vost sees the ring, he goes very quiet. "My mother’s," he whispers. "She lost it when I was six."

   Notes for the guide

   What the heroes want: Find out what she has been keeping up here all this time, and decide what to do about it.

   Play this scene only at the Epic length. It is the one quiet place in the adventure, with the roar of the ward coming up from below. It also helps at the end: give Vost his mother’s ring and he is on your side completely, and he keeps a key to the bell-rope. A table that skips this scene is not punished. And no, she has never laid an egg in it. It is not a nest. It is a collection.

   Questions to ask

   • Ask each player in turn: If your hero had a nest of treasures, what would be in it?

   Where they are on the map

6. 

   Scene 6

   Ten Seconds of Quiet

   Read this aloud

   There she is! Sixpence is on the bell-gantry, the very highest beam in the Market Ward. She stretches out her neck and opens her beak to call. But nobody can hear her. Down below, the market is roaring louder than ever. The storm is so close now that you can smell the rain. Somebody in the Row points at the sky. "Move along," says a stall-keeper. "You’re blocking the way!"

   What do the heroes try?

   • Ring the market bell Clever: roll 10 or more

     Made it!

     Warden Alys Tunn listens to one sentence: "There’s a storm coming, and the goose is calling!" She hands over the key. DONG! Every trader stops dead. Read "If you rang the bell."

     Nearly!

     Alys Tunn frowns. "The bell is for opening and closing. Nothing else." The heroes get one more try: one clear sentence about the storm. A clever try the second time needs no roll.

   • Pass the quiet along No roll needed

     No roll needed

     One stall, a hand on the shoulder, a finger pointing up. That stall tells the next. In four minutes the hush runs the whole length of the ward. Nobody was told to be quiet. Everybody chose to listen. Read "If you passed the quiet along."

     Nearly!

     If one stall is too busy to listen, skip it and tell the next. The hush flows round them like water round a stone. Read "If you passed the quiet along."

   • Speak from the Great Scale Brave: roll 10 or more

     Made it!

     You stand on the beam beside the empty brass measure. "LISTEN!" you shout. "SHE’S TRYING TO TELL US SOMETHING!" And the whole square goes quiet. Read "If you spoke from the Scale."

     Nearly!

     Your voice comes out tiny, and the roar swallows it. But Tib climbs up beside you and points at the gantry, and one by one, people look up. Read "If you spoke from the Scale."

   How it ends

   Read the ending that happened, then the homecoming.

   If you rang the bell.

   DONG! The whole Market Ward stops dead. In the quiet, from the very top of the bell-gantry, comes one loud HONK-HONK. Everybody looks up. Everybody sees the sky. Four hundred awnings come down in ninety seconds, the loudest ninety seconds of the year. Then, at last, the rain.

   If you passed the quiet along.

   The hush runs down the Long Row like a breeze. Stall by stall, the market goes quiet. Then, high above, HONK-HONK. This time everybody hears her. Awnings come down, carts roll in, shutters slam. By the time the rain arrives, every stall is safe and dry.

   If you spoke from the Scale.

   The whole square stares at you. For one second, nobody says a word. In that second, from the top of the bell-gantry, comes a big flat HONK-HONK. "The weather!" somebody shouts. Down come four hundred awnings. You climb down to cheers, just as the first raindrops fall.

   Homecoming

   Every ending: home to the Market Ward.

   The rain pours for an hour, and nothing is lost. Afterwards, Tib carries Sixpence down from the gantry. She walks to her brass measure and eats her barley. Then she ignores the biggest cheer the ward has given anybody in years. Marren Vost writes a new line in his weather book: "Cornfair. She went up. We listened."

   Notes for the guide

   What the heroes want: Make two thousand people quiet enough, for long enough, to hear one goose.

   Three real endings, and no wrong one: every one ends with the quiet, then a flat two-note honk that carries the whole length of the ward, then four hundred awnings coming down, and then the rain. Passing the quiet along needs no roll. Ringing the bell needs no roll if the heroes gave Vost back his mother’s ring, because he keeps a key too. Speaking from the Scale: roll with +2 if the heroes stood up for Nettie or saw the storm from the roofs (+2 once, however many are true). If the heroes remember Nettie’s eleven geese, opening the cart works with no roll: all eleven answer Sixpence at once, the ward looks up, and you read the ending closest to what happened. Short on time? Every length gets the twist: if the heroes do not know why she climbs yet, Tib says it the moment they reach the gantry: "She did this last Cornfair too. She goes up to be heard!" When it is over, read the ending that happened, then the homecoming.

   Questions to ask

   • Ask the table: How do you make two thousand people go quiet without shouting at them? Any idea that asks nicely counts. Nettie’s eleven geese count too, if anyone remembers them.
   • Ask the quietest player: Sixpence looks right at your hero. What do you think she is trying to say?

   Where they are on the map