Printable guide sheet: Two Hours at the Wracks

Read this to your players to start

The Wracks can be walked for two hours either side of low tide and not one minute longer. The tide chart says the bell's clapper is out there, somewhere under "the lady who looks out to sea", among a hundred old wrecks and a great many gulls.

Scenes (all session lengths — scene’s tag shows the shortest length it appears in)

1. Scene 1: Low Water at the Wracks from Quick Quest on

   The sea is out, and the Wracks lie in front of you: a mile of shining grey mud stuck full of old ships, their ribs poking up like the bones of sleeping whales. Mud-hunters in tall boots are already out there with buckets. Tilly holds the tide chart flat against the wind. "Two hours. Gran said not one minute longer, and Gran was never wrong about the tide." She frowns at the chart. "Which one of these is a lady?"

   Goal: Read the tide chart and work out where to start searching. — Match the curving lines on the chart to the channels in the mud (Clever, Difficulty Number 12): they all point toward the oldest wreck in the middle. / Ask the mud-hunters if anyone has seen a lady out here (Kind, Difficulty Number 11): "The Long Keel has a figurehead, but nobody can get near it for gulls." / Climb the nearest wreck for a look across the whole flat (Brave, Difficulty Number 12).

   Start a two-hour clock: four tokens, one removed at the end of each beat. If the party was kind to Old Clatter in Chapter 1, Tilly asks after "that crab" here and grins when she hears.

2. Scene 2: Inside the Long Keel from Short Session on

   The Long Keel is the biggest wreck on the flats, lying on its side with a hole in its belly big enough to walk through. Inside it is dim, dripping and full of the sound of the sea in the planks. Scratched into a beam, very small, is a bell, just like the ones on the chart.

   Goal: Find the clue Odran Pell left inside the wreck. — Follow the scratched bells deeper into the hull (Clever, Difficulty Number 12): they lead to a line pointing out of a porthole toward the ship's bow. / Squeeze through the narrow gap to the old captain's cabin (Brave, Difficulty Number 13): a hero finds the same line painted on the cabin wall. / Help a stuck mud-hunter whose boot is wedged in the planks (Kind, no roll): grateful, he tells you the figurehead is at the bow, half buried.

   All roads lead to the bow and its figurehead, a carved wooden lady looking out to sea. The clapper is buried under her.

3. Scene 3: The Gulls of the Wracks from One-Sitting Session on

   Between you and the bow there is a rock covered in gulls, hundreds of them, all shouting at once. One gull, fatter and louder than the rest, is sitting on a nest made entirely of shiny things: spoons, buttons, a doorknob, half a mirror. As you come near, the whole flock rises screaming and dives for anything that glints.

   Goal: Get past the gull rock without losing anything shiny. — Scatter them with a big noise (Brave, Difficulty Number 12) and run for it. / Throw bread or fish scraps the other way (Clever, Difficulty Number 11): the whole flock forgets you. / Trade the fat gull a shiny button for safe passage (Kind, Difficulty Number 12): it accepts, very seriously.

   If the table wants a scuffle, use the Wrack Gulls block; they flee for good after losing half their Heart Points. Anything shiny they snatch can be found again on the nest later.

4. Scene 4: The Soft Mud from Full Session on

   The last stretch before the bow is the softest mud on the Wracks. It sucks at your boots, and somewhere under it something goes plop, plop, plop. The water at the far edge of the flat is already shining a little brighter than before. The tide is thinking about turning.

   Goal: Cross the soft mud quickly without anyone getting stuck. — Lay planks from the Long Keel across the mud to make a path (Clever, Difficulty Number 12). / Lie flat and wriggle across, spreading your weight (Brave, Difficulty Number 12): very muddy, very fast. / Rope everybody together so nobody can sink far (Kind, Difficulty Number 11).

   Optional flavour beat. A stuck hero just costs time: take an extra tide token instead of any Heart Points.

5. Scene 5: The Lady Who Looks Out to Sea from Quick Quest on

   At the bow, half buried in the mud, a carved wooden lady gazes out to sea with salt in her painted eyes. Under her, sticking out of the mud, is a long iron shape with a round bronze end: the bell's clapper, wedged fast. The first thin sheet of water slides across the mud and around your boots. Far off, from the Saltlight, there is no bell at all.

   Goal: Free the clapper and get back to dry land before the tide covers the Wracks. — Dig it out with hands and buckets (Brave, Difficulty Number 12). / Lever it free with a plank from the wreck (Clever, Difficulty Number 12). / Ask the mud-hunters for help: if the party helped one earlier, they all come running with spades (Kind, Difficulty Number 11).

   The party gets the clapper and gets home with the water at their knees. Then the twist that ends the chapter: they climb the Saltlight steps at dusk and the bell is gone from its frame. Wet seaweed hangs from the beam, and big webbed footprints lead down the rocks into the sea, toward Cormorant Isle. Stop there.

Player handout — show this to your table

Scratched Into the Long Keel

A row of tiny bells scratched into an old beam, the same little bells as on the tide chart, and under them a line that runs out through a porthole: "Follow the ebb to her feet. She keeps what the sea gives back. O. P."

Monster stat blocks

Rewards

• The Bell's Clapper, carried into Chapter 3.
• A bucket of treasures from the Wracks: a blue glass float, a brass button and a very old spoon.
• The mud-hunters as friends, if the party helped them.

Tips for running this one

• The tide clock is the whole mood of this chapter. Count the tokens down out loud, and let the last one go as the water reaches the bow.
• Run out of time? Nobody is lost: the mud-hunters know the way back. A late party simply arrives home soaked and laughing.
• Save the empty bell frame for the very last line of the session. It is a cliffhanger, so end on it.