diff --git a/docs/scenarios/STANDING_ORDER.md b/docs/scenarios/STANDING_ORDER.md index d01d8c2..9cc9d9a 100644 --- a/docs/scenarios/STANDING_ORDER.md +++ b/docs/scenarios/STANDING_ORDER.md @@ -1,252 +1,128 @@ # Crossing case — The Custodians: STANDING ORDER > *A thousand people are waiting under Sheldon Moor for the all-clear from a war that never -> happened. They have not aged the way the calendar says they should. Every ninety days, -> somebody writes to tell them to keep waiting — and it is not the government.* +> happened. They have not aged the way the calendar says. Every ninety days somebody writes +> to tell them to keep waiting — and it is not the government.* ## STATUS — read this before anything else | | | |---|---| -| **Version** | **v2.0**, 23 September 2026 — rebuilt: the argument is the adventure, and the song is the price of winning it | +| **Version** | **v2.1**, 23 September 2026 — same story as v2.0, cut to the bone | | **Can it be run?** | **Yes, from this document alone,** with the compendium for sheets and the two cast actors. | -| **Is it convention-ready?** | **No. It needs desk passes.** Earlier passes tested v0.7 and v1.1, different plots. Their structural lessons are carried forward; their timings are not evidence for this version. | -| **What it is** | A **three-act one-shot** and the second appearance of **Mr Smith**, who was planted in THROUGH TRAIN. | -| **Players** | 4–6 from the duty roster. The cast is declared in Casting and the build enforces it. | -| **Runtime** | **45 / 75 / 50 plus a ten-minute break — 3h00 in a 3h15 slot.** Unmeasured for this plot. | +| **Is it convention-ready?** | **No — it needs desk passes.** Earlier passes tested older plots; their timings are not evidence for this one. | +| **Players** | 4–6 from the duty roster, declared in Casting. | +| **Runtime** | **45 / 75 / 50, plus a ten-minute break — 3h00 in a 3h15 slot.** | ### The things that are not obvious -1. **The whole case in five lines.** Mr Smith talked a bunker underground in 1974 and has - kept it there with letters. Below, people age at half speed, so the survivors look - fifty-odd and are eighty-odd. The Department sends the agents in to open the place and - bring them out. **Winning the argument is what arms the trap:** the Seat's own Standing - Order says that when it surfaces it must broadcast a recorded Address, and the Address - is Mr Smith's song. -2. **The adventure is an argument, not a fight.** Act Two is a committee that will not be - moved by anything modern. It can be beaten, but only on its own terms. -3. **No firearms go through.** Stores does not issue them for this one and the Seat's lock - would take them anyway. Every fight in this case is truncheons and hands. -4. **The order of the reveals is the whole design.** They persuade a thousand people to come - up **first**, and find out what that costs **second**. Do not leak the song into Act Two. -5. **The Undersigned are a red herring, and a real one.** A dozen people below have been - forging Centre's letters to force the door. They are not Mr Smith's. They cost a scene, - a chase and possibly a casualty, and they teach the table what the real mark looks like. -6. **The children are the moral question, not a puzzle.** Every answer costs somebody - something. Do not steer the table to the "right" one. -7. **Mr Smith is never met.** No sheet, no portrait, no scene. He gets away. +1. In 1974 **Mr Smith** talked a government bunker underground with a forged order. He has + kept it there with letters ever since. +2. Underground, **people age at half speed**. The survivors look fifty-odd and are eighty-odd. + Nobody below has noticed. +3. The agents go in as a **1974 Board of Inspection — unarmed** — to open the place and bring + everybody out. +4. The people will not come. **Their own instruments say the war happened**, and their Standing + Order says an outsider's word is not evidence. **Act Two is that argument.** +5. **Winning it springs the trap.** The Order says the Seat must broadcast a recorded Address + when it surfaces. The Address is Mr Smith's song, and anyone who hears it whole is his. +6. **The children already know the song by heart.** That is the choice the case ends on. -### Still to do - -- **Desk passes**, in the house order: GM chair, Act Three stress, player-chair contrarian. -- **Art is complete:** twelve faces, thirty-nine plates and fourteen maps. Mr Smith must never have a portrait. +**Mr Smith is never met.** No sheet, no portrait, no scene. He gets away. --- ## GM ESSENTIALS -- **System:** d100 roll-under a percentage skill. **Special** under a fifth, **critical** - under a twentieth; 96–99 always fail and 00 always fumbles. -- **Coherence runs 10 → 0.** The song and the release cost it. **Nothing here gives any back.** -- **Panic is live** in the detention, the chase and the broadcast. -- **Standing Order 9 is live.** Nothing modern goes through; charge for *using*, never for - carrying. **Standing Order 9 is also the players' cover story** — see *The 1974 dress*. -- **A warrant card of the Department is inside scope at Bellhouse** — Borrowed Authority, 1 - Trust, no roll. The Seat's own Order names it, which is why the Council has to listen at all. -- **Hearing the song.** Anyone who hears Mr Smith's song all the way through rolls **POW×5**. - *Failure:* lose **1 Coherence** and they are **his** — calm, obedient, waiting for Centre — - until the case closes and a debrief brings them back. It is eleven minutes long on the tape. +- **System:** d100 roll-under. **Special** under a fifth, **critical** under a twentieth; + 96–99 always fail, 00 fumbles. +- **Coherence runs 10 → 0.** The song and the release cost it. Nothing here gives any back. +- **Panic is live** in the detention and the broadcast. +- **Standing Order 9:** nothing modern goes through. It is also the reason for the 1974 dress. +- **A warrant card is inside scope here** — Borrowed Authority, 1 Trust, no roll. The Seat's own + Order names it, which is the only reason the Council listens. +- **The song:** eleven minutes. Hear it whole and roll **POW×5**; *failure* costs **1 Coherence** + and you are his — calm, obedient, waiting for Centre — until a debrief brings you back. **Stopping it before the end is always a complete answer.** - **Content warnings:** confinement underground; a detention that can turn violent; children - under an occult influence who are not growing up, and a decision about taking them from - their parents; a birth; an old woman's shame. + under an occult influence who are not growing up, and a decision about taking them from their + parents; an old woman's shame. --- -## Overview +## The story (GM truth) -**1974.** Bellhouse is a government bunker in a worked-out coal mine under Sheldon Moor, in -the Peak District, running a practice drill for nuclear war. +**1974.** Bellhouse is a government bunker in a worked-out coal mine under Sheldon Moor, running +a drill. A pleasant man in a grey coat — **Mr Smith, "for Centre"** — brings a letter saying the +war is real. Deputy Controller **Edith Marlow** knows it is the drill. She signs anyway and has +never been able to say why. **412 people go down and the door shuts.** The adit is filled in, the +Seat leaves every map, and the only way in now is a crossing at a warm vent on the moor. -A pleasant man in a grey coat — **Mr Smith, "for Centre"** — arrives with a letter saying the -war is real. Deputy Controller **Edith Marlow** knows it is only the drill. She signs anyway, -and has never been able to say why. **412 people go underground and the door shuts.** Reality -believes the paperwork: the adit is filled in, the Seat leaves every map and budget, and the -only way in is a crossing. +**Now.** A thousand people live below: 412 who went down and 588 born there. They run the place +like a 1970s council — rotas, ration books, a housing list, vegetables under lamps in the old +coal roads. Every ninety days a letter comes down the postal pipe from Centre saying it is still +not safe. **Centre is Mr Smith.** -**Now.** Fifty-two years later there are **a thousand people** below: 412 who went down and -588 born there. They live like a 1970s council — rotas, ration books, a housing list, -vegetables under lamps in the old coal roads — and **every ninety days a letter comes down -the postal pipe from Centre saying it is still not safe.** Centre is Mr Smith. +**Why they believe it.** Their own Geiger counter at the blast lock reads hot and has since 1974. +The periscope was sealed against flash blindness and only Centre may unseal it. The fallout +return arrives quarterly on the right form. **They are not fools; they are a careful office being +lied to by its own paperwork.** -**The slow.** Below Bellhouse, people age at **half speed**. Fifty-two years have passed and -the intake has aged twenty-six. Controller Sowerby is eighty-two and looks fifty-six. The -children born below are not growing up on any schedule a doctor would recognise. **Nobody -below finds this strange**; they have been told the air is clean and the diet is good, and -they have no one to compare themselves with. *Ages in this document are the ages people look -and feel. The Registry's dates are right and the faces are wrong — that gap is an exhibit.* +**The slow.** Time below runs at half. Fifty-two years have passed and the intake has aged +twenty-six. Nobody below thinks it strange — they have no one to compare themselves with. It has +begun to leak: at **Wetherlaw Farm** above, the milk does not turn, the hay is green four summers +on, and Joan's dog is thirty-one. *Ages in this document are what people look. The calendar age is +in brackets where it matters.* -**Why they still believe.** Every instrument agrees with Centre. The Seat's own Geiger -counters read hot at the blast lock. The periscope was sealed against flash blindness in 1974 -and only Centre may unseal it. The quarterly fallout return comes down the pipe on the -correct form. **They are not fools. They are a well-run office being lied to by its own -paperwork.** +**What Mr Smith is doing.** He is a **Cthulhu Mythos messenger** — not a god, a go-between for the +powers that sleep Outside — and he is raising a congregation out of the most obedient people in +England. Three quiet signs: the **chant** at the end of every bulletin (*We hold. We count. We +answer.*), the **dream** everyone born below shares (a corridor, a counter, a pleasant man who +asks your name and writes it down), and the **drawings** in the crèche, where the sun is a circle +with a stroke through the top. That is the mark on his letters. **No altars. Nothing louder than +this.** -**Mr Smith** is a **Cthulhu Mythos messenger** — not a god, a go-between for the powers that -sleep Outside. His experiment: can the most obedient people in England be made into a -congregation without ever being told? Three quiet signs show it working — **the chant** at -the end of every bulletin (*We hold. We count. We answer.*), **the dream** everybody born -below shares (a corridor, a counter, a pleasant man who asks your name and writes it down), -and **the drawings** in the crèche, where the sun is a circle with a stroke through the top. -That is the mark on his letters. +**The trap.** The Standing Order says the Seat must broadcast its recorded Address when it +surfaces. Centre sent a new tape in 2019: **it is his song.** Region 12 holds a million people. +Since 2019 the tape's opening has played on the crèche speaker at three every morning "to settle +the young", so **the 168 children know the whole song and hum it.** -**The trap.** The Seat's Standing Order says that on surfacing it must broadcast a recorded -Address to the region. In 2019 Centre sent a new tape. **It is Mr Smith's song, and anyone -who hears it to the end is his.** Region 12 holds a million people. Since 2019 the tape's -opening has played on the crèche speaker at three every morning "to settle the young", and -**the hundred and sixty-eight children know the whole thing by heart.** They hum it. +**The cure.** The song only works whole. Play the children the tape with the last bars cut off and +it breaks in them: they stop humming and cannot remember it by morning. That needs the tape, so +the tape cannot be burned first. -**This week.** The Department has finally found the place, and is sending a Board of -Inspection — the agents — to open it and bring everybody home. +### Revelations, in order -### Design intent - -1. **A post-apocalypse that is a council meeting.** The end of the world, administered kindly - and in triplicate. -2. **The obstacle is procedure, and procedure can be beaten.** Three exhibits and a vote. -3. **Quiet horror.** Three small wrong things and a room full of people who are the wrong age. - No altars. -4. **Winning is the trap.** The reward for a good Act Two is a worse Act Three. -5. **A choice about children with no clean answer.** +1. A thousand living people believe the war happened, and their instruments agree. *(Act One)* +2. There was no war. Mr Smith's letters kept them down. *(Act Two)* +3. Surfacing triggers the Address, and the Address is his song. ***(Act Three — never earlier)*** +4. The children already know it. *(Act Three)* --- -## Session Timing +## Timing -| | Act | Budget | GM checkpoint | +| | Act | Budget | Checkpoint | |---|---|---|---| -| 1 | **The Board Arrives** — the briefing, the moor, the crossing, Enquiries | 45 min | Through the crossing by **0:25** | +| 1 | **Getting In** — briefing, moor, crossing, Enquiries | 45 min | Inside by **0:25** | | — | *Break* | 10 min | | -| 2 | **The Case for the Sun** — the exhibits, the Undersigned, the vote | **75 min** | The Council votes by **2:10** | -| 3 | **The Song** — the Address, the children, the choice | 50 min | They are holding the tape by **2:35** | -| | **Total** | **3h00** | in a **3h15** slot | +| 2 | **The Argument** — three exhibits, pressure, the vote | 75 min | Vote by **2:10** | +| 3 | **The Song** — the Address, the children, the choice | 50 min | Tape in hand by **2:35** | -**Surfacing is set for first light** — the session's 2:55 — once the vote passes. That is when -the Address plays, unless the table has dealt with it. - -**If you are late,** cut in this order: the Bureau to two lines; Joan to the vent head; the -Undersigned to one confrontation. **Never cut** the Enquiries desk, the vote, or the choice. - ---- - -## Plot Summary (GM truth) - -### Timeline - -| When | What | -|---|---| -| 1881 | Mr Smith tells Elias Vane what to put on a false survey *(THROUGH TRAIN)*. | -| **3 Nov 1974** | Mr Smith brings the "live" order. Marlow signs it, knowing it was a drill. | -| **4 Nov 1974** | 412 go down. The adit is filled in above them. The slow begins. | -| 1974–2026 | Fifty-two years of letters from Centre. 588 children born below. | -| **2019** | Centre sends a new Address tape. It starts playing to the crèche every night. | -| 2024 | **The Undersigned** start forging Centre's letters, trying to force the Seat open. | -| May 2026 | A 1974 Seat return turns up in the Department's in-tray, with Mr Smith's mark on it. | -| **Wednesday** | **Play begins.** The Board goes down. | -| **Thursday, first light** | The Seat surfaces — and the Address plays. | - -### The slow, and what it is doing to the moor - -Time below runs at half. It is not a blessing and it is not a clock: it is Mr Smith holding -his congregation in place until it is big enough to be worth spending. **It has started to -leak.** At Wetherlaw Farm, directly above, the milk does not turn, the yard never needs -painting, and Joan's dog is thirty-one years old and still runs. That leak is the second half -of the agents' orders, and it is the Department's real reason for moving now. - -**Nobody below is aware of it.** Telling them is not an argument — it is an insult with -arithmetic in it, and Act Two turns on the difference. - -### Where a thousand people live - -Bellhouse was built for 412. Everyone has a bed, and the Registry keeps the list. - -| Where | Sheet | People | -|---|---|---| -| The 1962 dormitories, four halls of 60 double-bunk berths — the single and the young | 9 | 240 | -| The officers' cabins — the Controller, the doctor, the oldest of the intake | 10 | 20 | -| **The Estate** — 213 family dwellings, ten feet by ten, built along three old coal roads from 1979 | 11–13 | 738 | -| Edith Marlow in the sick bay; Kit Marlow in the crèche staff room | 4, 5 | 2 | -| **Total** | | **1,000** | - -The whole Seat eats in the canteen in four sittings. **Ruth Cotter is due this week**, which -is a human fact and not a clock. - -### The Undersigned — the red herring - -Twelve people, led by **Gil Hatcher**, fitter, who has believed since 2024 that Centre is a -fiction. They meet in the mushroom gallery. They have **forged three of Centre's letters** to -manoeuvre the Council into opening the door, and they have been stealing from Stores to do it. - -- **They are not Mr Smith's.** They are right about the war and wrong about everything else. -- **To the Council, the agents are the Undersigned's doing** — outsiders who appeared the same - month the letters started reading strangely. -- **To the Undersigned, the agents are Centre's inspectors**, come to find the forger. They - will try to take one agent somewhere quiet and ask them who sent them. -- **What they are worth:** Hatcher's forgery, laid beside a real letter, shows the table what - Mr Smith's mark actually looks like — the forged stroke goes the wrong way. `[CUS: Research - — two marks side by side]` and the case's whole documentary trail opens up. - -**They never learn anything about the song.** If the table spends its energy hunting them, -the countdown still runs and the Council still sits. - -### What the song does - -Anyone who hears it **all the way through** becomes Mr Smith's: calm, obedient, waiting for -Centre. One person is a tragedy. **A broadcast is a million.** - -**The children carry it.** A child who knows the song hums it when tired, happy or -frightened, and **an adult who hears a child hum it right through is taken exactly as if they -heard the tape** — one listener at a time, in playgrounds and bedrooms and school buses. -Burning the tape does not take it out of 168 small heads. - -**It can be taken out.** Kit Marlow has noticed the song only works whole. **Play the tape to -the children one last time with the final bars cut off** and the tune breaks in them: they -stop humming and cannot remember it by morning. That needs the tape — so the tape cannot be -burned first — and somebody has to stand in the crèche and run the machine. - -### Revelations (4) - -1. **A thousand living people believe the war happened, and their instruments agree.** *(Act One)* -2. **There was no war; Mr Smith's letters kept them down, and the slow kept them here to be - kept.** *(Act Two)* -3. **Surfacing triggers the Address, and the Address is his song.** *(Act Three, and not before)* -4. **The children already know the song by heart.** *(Act Three)* - ---- - -## The Countdown — Act Two - -Starts when Act Two starts. **Do not move step 5.** It is the act's ending. - -| Step | When | What happens | -|---|---|---| -| 1 | **+10 min** | **The bulletin.** The tannoy; the whole site stops; everyone says *We hold. We count. We answer.* **Panic trigger.** | -| 2 | **+25 min** | **Centre's letter** (SO-H05) arrives by pipe: the Board is not known to Centre; hold them. | -| 3 | **+40 min** | **The Undersigned make contact** — a note under a door, or a hand on a sleeve in the mushroom gallery. | -| 4 | **+55 min** | **The detention**, if the Council has ordered it. See *The detention*. | -| 5 | **+75 min** | **The Council sits in the Vigil hall.** The act ends on the vote. | +**Surfacing is at first light — the session's 2:55.** That is when the Address plays unless the +table has dealt with it. **If you are late,** cut the Bureau to two lines and Hatcher entirely. +Never cut the Enquiries desk, the vote, or the choice. --- ## Handouts -The section map is **SO-H04**, a plate in the compendium. +The section map is **SO-H04**, a plate in the compendium. A print pack of H01 and H02 is in +`STANDING_ORDER_HANDOUTS.html`. ### SO-H01 — Case brief SO-012 -*Typed, from Registry. Give it in the briefing with SO-H02 and let them keep it. A print copy -of both is in `STANDING_ORDER_HANDOUTS.html`. It holds only what the Department knows: -nothing about the song, the children or the slow.* +*Typed, from Registry. Give it in the briefing with SO-H02 and let them keep it.* > **DEPARTMENTAL CUSTODY SERVICE** > **CASE:** SO-012 / BELLHOUSE @@ -269,7 +145,7 @@ nothing about the song, the children or the slow.* > 4. The Seat is released under clause 4 of its Standing Order. **Read the whole Order before you cancel anything.** > > **CONDUCT** -> You go in as a Board of Inspection of 1974. Dress, speak and carry paper accordingly: these people have had no outside voice for fifty-two years and the Department will not open with a shock. Be courteous. Carry your warrant card where it can be seen — a warrant of the Department is named in the Seat's own Order. Do not argue with anyone about the war until you can prove it. +> You go in as a Board of Inspection of 1974. Dress, speak and carry paper accordingly: these people have had no outside voice for fifty-two years and the Department will not open with a shock. Carry your warrant card where it can be seen — a warrant of the Department is named in the Seat's own Order. Do not argue with anyone about the war until you can prove it. > Standing Order 9 applies. Nothing modern goes through. > > **ISSUED BY STORES** @@ -277,25 +153,20 @@ nothing about the song, the children or the slow.* > > *Registry: bring me his letters.* -**What it is for.** Orders 2 and 4 are the hooks: something is leaking, and the Order has a -sting in it. The conduct paragraph is the dress code and the reason for it, and the last line -of Stores is the one players argue with. **Let them argue and do not give in.** - ### SO-H02 — The 1974 letter -*Buff, typed, stamped with a small circle cut by a stroke. Out of the Department's in-tray in May.* +*Buff, typed, stamped with a small circle cut by a stroke.* > REGION 12 — SEAT RETURN — WEEK 1 > ESTABLISHMENT: 412. CASUALTIES THIS PERIOD: NIL. > QUERY TO CENTRE: CONFIRM THE GENTLEMAN WHO BROUGHT THE ORDER IS KNOWN TO YOU. > SIGNED: E. MARLOW, DEPUTY CONTROLLER. -**What it is for.** *Casualties nil* — no war. The stamp is Mr Smith's mark, and it is the -reference copy when Hatcher's forgery turns up. +*Casualties nil — no war. The stamp is Mr Smith's mark.* ### SO-H03 — Standing Order 12 -*Foolscap. Pennyfeather hands it to anyone who asks, and she will ask them to read all of it.* +*Foolscap. Pennyfeather hands it to anyone who asks and makes them read all of it.* > 4. This Seat shall not surface until this Order is cancelled by an officer holding a warrant of the Department in person at the Seat. > @@ -305,13 +176,11 @@ reference copy when Hatcher's forgery turns up. > > ANNEX D. On surfacing the Seat shall broadcast the recorded Address held at the Seat, to the region, entire. -**What it is for.** Clause 5 is Act Two — the three exhibits, and the reason a 2026 newspaper -is worthless down here. Clause 6 and Annex D are Act Three, and **the table should read them -early and understand them late.** +**Clause 5 is Act Two. Clause 6 is Act Three.** Give this out early and let them read it late. ### SO-H05 — Centre's letter -*A flimsy, stamped with the mark. Arrives by pipe at Countdown step 2.* +*A flimsy, stamped with the mark. Arrives by pipe in Act Two.* > CENTRE TO SEAT 12. > NO BOARD HAS BEEN SENT. THE PERSONS AT THE SEAT ARE NOT KNOWN TO US. @@ -320,400 +189,229 @@ early and understand them late.** > THE YOUNG ARE TO BE SETTLED NIGHTLY AS BEFORE. > J. SMITH, FOR CENTRE. -**What it is for.** It sends the guards, names Mr Smith, and its last two lines are the ones -that matter later: something is to be *spoken*, and the young are being *settled*. - -### SO-H06 — Hatcher's letter - -*A flimsy, stamped with a mark that is nearly right. Found in the mushroom gallery, or pressed -on the agents by the Undersigned.* - -> CENTRE TO SEAT 12. -> THE AIR IS IMPROVING. THE SEAT SHOULD PREPARE TO SURFACE. -> J. SMITH, FOR CENTRE. - -**What it is for.** The red herring, and the key to the documentary trail: the stroke through -the circle leans the wrong way. Two letters side by side prove one hand is forging — and prove -the other hand is real. +*It sends the wardens, names Mr Smith, and its last two lines are the ones that matter later.* --- -## Act One — The Board Arrives *(~45 min)* - -**What it is for:** the job, the dress, the door, and a first test of good manners. +## Act One — Getting In *(~45 min)* > *Read aloud or paraphrase:* -> *Mr Bewley lays a buff envelope on the Registry table. "This came out of my in-tray in -> May," he says. "It was posted in 1974, from a bunker that was filled in in 1975. There are -> a thousand people down there who think the war happened. You are going to tell them it -> didn't, and they are not going to believe you."* +> *Mr Bewley lays a buff envelope on the Registry table. "This came out of my in-tray in May. +> It was posted in 1974, from a bunker filled in in 1975. There are a thousand people down +> there who think the war happened. You are going to tell them it didn't, and they are not +> going to believe you."* -### Beat 1 — The briefing *(~10 min)* +**The briefing.** Bewley gives SO-H01 and SO-H02 and three facts: the Seat's own rules name the +Department, which is the only reason a stranger can open the door; they go in **dressed as 1974** +so a thousand people are not shocked out of their wits; and something above the Seat is running +slow. **Mr Prosser issues 1974 kit and no firearms** — clause 4 needs an officer in front of a +council, not a gunfight in a corridor. Let them argue. Do not give in. -**Mr Bewley** gives SO-H01 and SO-H02 and adds three things: +**The moor.** Joan Wetherlaw meets them at the gate with a yard brush and a dog that should not +be able to walk. She will say it is thirty-one, flatly, as a fact about a good dog. +`[CUS: Insight — the farm is wrong in a way that has nothing to do with soot]`: the paint, the +milk, hay green four summers on. **The slow, seen from above.** The vent is warm and smells of a +coal fire: somebody is alive down there. -- **The Seat has its own rules** and one of them names the Department. That is the only reason - a stranger can open the door at all. -- **They go in as a 1974 Board of Inspection.** Fifty-two years of nothing, and then six - people in the wrong clothes talking about mobile telephones, is how you get a panic - underground. *Look like the year they are living in.* -- **Something above the Seat is running slow.** Bring back what is causing it. +**The crossing.** No roll. At dusk the air over the vent creases like a folded page and they come +out inside the blast lock. **The Seat's counter by the door reads hot. The 1974 counter in their +hands reads nothing.** That contradiction is the whole case in one image. -**Mr Prosser** issues 1974 kit: hand lamp, a 1974-pattern Geiger counter, greatcoats, document -cases, warrant cards. **He refuses firearms, and says why:** the Order's clause 4 needs an -officer standing in front of a council, not a gunfight in a corridor. If a player pushes, he -offers a walking stick and a straight face. +**Enquiries.** A warm lobby smelling of floor polish and soup. -### Beat 2 — Sheldon Moor *(~15 min)* +> *"Name and section, please."* -> *Read aloud or paraphrase:* -> *Coal soot lies black on the verges for a mile. Joan Wetherlaw meets you at the gate with a -> yard brush and an old dog that should not be able to walk. "Coal smoke," she says. "Fifty -> years of it, off a moor with no chimney."* +**Mr Ogden** has no form for visitors, which distresses him more than the impossibility does; he +finds one — INSPECTION, BOARD OF, 1971 revision — and is happier. **Warrant cards work, no roll.** +*"But Centre didn't tell us you were coming."* Saying *there was no war* in the lobby costs them +the first hour and makes **Warden Teague** arrive expecting liars. -- **The dog is thirty-one.** Joan will say so, flatly, as a fact about a good dog. -- `[CUS: Insight — the farm is wrong in a way that has nothing to do with soot]`: the paint, - the milk, the hay from four summers ago still green in the barn. **The slow, from above.** -- `[CUS: Persuade — she has never told anyone]`: a man in grey once asked her to sign for a - parcel addressed to Bellhouse, and she cannot picture his face. *Failure:* she does not - mention it; nothing depends on it. -- **No roll:** the vent is warm to the hand and smells of a coal fire. **Somebody is alive - down there.** +**Controller Sowerby** receives them in front of a wall map fifty-two years out of date: +courteous, tired, immovable. `[CUS: Persuade — give him something he can file]`. *Success:* the +run of the Seat with an escort. *Failure:* the same thing, said colder. -### Beat 3 — The crossing *(~5 min)* - -> *Read aloud or paraphrase:* -> *At dusk the warm air over the vent goes wrong — creased, like a page folded and opened. -> Below you, a tannoy is announcing the evening shift.* - -**Nobody rolls to cross.** They come out inside the blast lock, behind a door shut since 1974. -**The Seat's own Geiger counter by the lock is reading hot**, and it has been for fifty-two -years. Their 1974 counter, in their hand, reads nothing at all. *That contradiction is the -case in one image — and clause 5 says only the Seat's instrument counts.* - -### Beat 4 — The Enquiries desk *(~15 min)* - -> *Read aloud or paraphrase:* -> *A warm lobby that smells of floor polish and soup. A man in a cardigan behind a desk marked -> ENQUIRIES looks up, looks at the sealed door behind you, and says, very carefully: "Name and -> section, please."* - -**Nobody has arrived since 1974.** Mr Ogden has no form for it, which distresses him more than -the impossibility does. He finds one — INSPECTION, BOARD OF, 1971 revision — and is happier. - -**How they introduce themselves matters:** - -- **Warrant cards** work — no roll. They are accepted as officers of the Department, which is - exactly what clause 4 requires. *"But Centre didn't tell us you were coming."* -- **Claiming to be from Centre** — `[CUS: Tradecraft — the right words, the right patience]`. - *Failure:* the lie is spotted, because Centre never sends anyone, and the Council starts Act - Two believing they are the forgers. -- **"There was no war"**, said in the lobby, costs them the first hour. Teague hears about it - and arrives expecting liars. - -**Controller Sowerby** receives them within the hour, in front of a wall map fifty-two years -out of date. He is courteous, tired, and completely immovable. `[CUS: Persuade — give him -something he can file]`. *Success:* **a Board with an escort and the run of the Seat.** -*Failure:* **a Board with an escort and an appointment**, which is the same thing said colder. - -> ⚠ **No fight in Act One.** Teague and one guard will not start anything, and would lose: -> against the four-player cut that pair detains everyone in -> **4%** of fights. +> ⚠ **No fight in Act One.** Teague and one guard would lose anyway: against the four-player cut +> that pair detains everyone in **4%** of fights. --- -## Act Two — The Case for the Sun *(~75 min)* +## Act Two — The Argument *(~75 min)* -**What it is for:** beat a committee, on the committee's terms. +**What it is for:** beat a committee on the committee's own terms. > *Read aloud or paraphrase:* -> *Shift change. The corridor fills with cardigans and overalls, a child on somebody's -> shoulders, a housing list on a noticeboard. Everybody looks at you, and then — because they -> were brought up properly — everybody looks away. Nobody here is the age they should be.* +> *Shift change. Cardigans and overalls, a child on somebody's shoulders, a housing list on a +> noticeboard. Everybody looks at you and then, because they were brought up properly, everybody +> looks away. Nobody here is the age they should be.* -### How to run the Seat +**How to run the Seat.** A council, not a bunker: queues, minutes, tea. Say *Centre will tell us +when* three times in three mouths. Every refusal cites clause 5 — a 2026 newspaper, a photograph, +a wristwatch and an agent's word are all **matter brought in from outside**. Let the players lose +that argument once, properly. Show two of the three quiet signs (chant, dream, drawings) and +explain none of them. -- **A council, not a bunker.** Queues, complaints, minutes, tea. Say the line three times in - three mouths: *Centre will tell us when.* -- **The wall is procedure, not stupidity.** Every refusal cites clause 5. A 2026 newspaper, a - photograph, a wristwatch, an agent's word: *matter brought in from outside is not evidence.* - **Let the players lose that argument once, properly, before anyone hints at the way round.** -- **Everything the agents do is noted** — a guard's pocketbook, a clerk on a telephone — and - reaches Sowerby within the hour. -- **Show two of the three wrong things** (the chant, the dream, the drawings) before the - Council sits. Do not explain them. +### The three exhibits -### The three exhibits — clause 5 +| Clause 5 wants | Where | How | +|---|---|---| +| **(a)** A reading by a Seat instrument, **in a Seat officer's hands** | The vent shaft or the sealed periscope | The agents cannot take it themselves. `[CUS: Persuade — Teague or Larkhall will go if asked straight]`, or open the periscope: `[CUS: Repair (Mechanical) — 1962 seals nobody has touched]`. Outside reads clean. | +| **(b)** A deposition by an officer of the 1974 intake | Sick bay — **Edith Marlow** | `[CUS: Insight — asked kindly: "It was the drill. He said, then it had better be. I signed."]` Pressure closes her. Her box holds the real drill order and a note reading *I knew.* | +| **(c)** A document under the Seat's own seal | Registry — **Pennyfeather** | No roll to see the birth register. `[CUS: Research — the register against the faces]`: the dates are fifty-two years long and the people are twenty-six years old. | -The Council will hear the case if the agents can put these on the table. **Two is enough with -an argument; three is enough on its own.** - -| # | What clause 5 wants | Where it is | How it is got | -|---|---|---|---| -| **(a)** | A reading by a Seat instrument, **in a Seat officer's hands** | The blast lock, the vent shaft, or the sealed periscope | The agents cannot take it themselves. Get a local to carry the Seat's counter up the vent — `[CUS: Persuade — Teague, or Larkhall, will go if asked straight]` — or unseal the periscope: `[CUS: Repair (Mechanical) — 1962 seals nobody has touched]`. Outside reads clean. | -| **(b)** | A deposition by an officer of the 1974 intake | Sick bay — **Edith Marlow** | `[CUS: Insight — asked kindly about 1974: "It was the drill. He said, then it had better be. I signed."]` Pressure closes her. Her box holds the real drill order and a note reading *I knew.* | -| **(c)** | A document under the Seat's own seal that contradicts Centre | Registry — **Pennyfeather** | No roll to be shown the birth register. `[CUS: Research — the register against the faces]`: the dates are fifty-two years long and the people are twenty-six years old. The Seat's own paper says Centre is lying about something. | - -**Failure costs a scene, never the exhibit.** A failed Repair means the periscope opens an -hour later with Hatcher's help; a failed Insight closes Marlow and leaves the box; a failed -Research means Pennyfeather does the sum herself overnight and brings it, white-faced, to the +**Failure costs a scene, never the exhibit.** The periscope opens an hour later; Marlow's box is +still on the shelf; Pennyfeather does the sum herself overnight and brings it, white-faced, to the hall. -### The Undersigned — Countdown step 3 +### Pressure — three things, in this order -Hatcher's people make contact in the mushroom gallery: a note, a hand on a sleeve, an offer. +1. **+10 min — the bulletin.** The tannoy; the site stops; everyone says *We hold. We count. We + answer.* **Panic trigger.** +2. **+25 min — Centre's letter** (SO-H05) comes down the pipe: hold them. +3. **+55 min — the detention**, if the Council acts on it. -- **What they want:** the name of whoever sent the Board, and help forcing the door. -- **What they do if refused:** take one agent somewhere quiet. `[CUS: Stealth — out through the - beds and the coal road]` to avoid it entirely, or `[CUS: Persuade — Hatcher is frightened, - not cruel]` to end it talking. A fight here is fists and spanners and **costs the Council's - goodwill**, because it happens in front of witnesses. -- **What they are worth:** SO-H06 beside SO-H02. `[CUS: Research — two marks side by side]` - and the table can tell Mr Smith's hand from a forger's for the rest of the case. -- **What they cost the Council:** Sowerby now has two explanations for the letters and the - strangers, and he prefers the one that is not supernatural. **This is why the vote is not a - formality.** +**Gil Hatcher, fitter,** and a dozen others have been **forging Centre's letters for two years** to +force the door open. They corner one agent in the mushroom gallery to ask who really sent them. +`[CUS: Persuade — Hatcher is frightened, not cruel]` ends it talking. **They are not Mr Smith's +and know nothing about the song** — but their forged letter beside SO-H02 shows the stroke leaning +the wrong way, which is how the table learns to tell his hand from anyone's. **Cut this scene +first if you are behind.** -### The detention — Countdown step 4 +### The detention -Centre's letter says hold them. Sowerby obeys the paperwork he has. **Teague and his guards** -come to take the agents to the Sump cells. He leaves the armoury locked; nobody below wants to -shoot anyone. +Teague comes with wardens and a truncheon, and leaves the armoury locked. -> *Read aloud or paraphrase:* -> *Teague comes round the corner with three men behind him, holding his truncheon the way a -> man holds something he hopes not to use. "The Controller asks you to come with me. I'll ask -> you twice."* +> *"The Controller asks you to come with me. I'll ask you twice."* -**Four players: Teague and three guards. Six players: Teague and five.** +**Four players: Teague and three. Six: Teague and five.** Measured over 2,000 runs against this +cast; deaths are a **ceiling**, because wardens stop hitting anyone who is down. -**What the fight is, measured** — 2,000 runs each against this scenario's cast. Detention -figures are sound; death figures are a **ceiling**, because the guards stop hitting anyone who -is down. - -| Detail | Against | Agents down | Whole party detained | Deaths *(ceiling)* | +| Detail | Against | Agents down | Party detained | Deaths *(ceiling)* | |---|---|---|---|---| | Teague and three | the four-player cut | **2.89** | **60.3%** | **1.31** | | Teague and three | the declared six | **1.16** | **0.3%** | **0.59** | | Teague and five | the declared six | **3.51** | **15.7%** | **2.07** | -**A small party usually loses. A big party wins and loses the vote.** Fighting the Seat's own -wardens in front of the Seat is the worst thing the agents can do to their own case. +**A small party loses; a big party wins and loses the vote.** Ways through: **go quietly** (one +scene in a dry clean cell, and Kit brings the key), **talk** `[CUS: Persuade — a warrant card and +an honest account are a reason]`, or **name Nell kindly** and Teague stands his men down. **Do not +mention the song — nobody knows about it yet.** -**The ways through:** +### The vote -- **Go quietly.** The Sump is dry and clean, and it costs **one scene**: Kit brings the key, - Teague relents, or `[CUS: Repair (Mechanical) — a 1962 lock nobody has oiled]`. -- **Talk.** `[CUS: Persuade — a warrant card and an honest account are a reason]`. *Success:* - he escorts them instead, and says so at the vote. -- **Nell.** Mention his daughter kindly and he stands his men down. **Do not use the song - here** — nobody knows about it yet. -- **Run.** `[CUS: Stealth — through the lamp-lit vegetable tunnels]`. *Failure:* cornered at - the Sump. -- **Fight.** **Panic trigger** at the first agent down. +The Council sits in the Vigil hall with the whole Seat standing at the back: **Sowerby, +Pennyfeather, Teague**. Give every player a moment to speak, then settle it: -### The vote — Countdown step 5 +- **Three exhibits:** it passes, no roll. +- **Two:** `[CUS: Persuade — argue around the missing exhibit]`, one supporter at −20. + *Failure:* the Council adjourns to first light, costing Act Three ten minutes. +- **One or none:** the Council refuses — and **Hatcher's people force the blast lock in the + night.** The door opens anyway, in uproar instead of in order. -The Council sits in the Vigil hall with the whole Seat standing at the back: **Sowerby**, -**Pennyfeather**, **Teague**. Give every player a moment to speak. Run it as a scene, not a -roll, and then settle it: - -- **Three exhibits:** the vote passes. No roll. Pennyfeather reads clause 4 aloud and asks - which officer of the Department is cancelling the Order. -- **Two exhibits:** `[CUS: Persuade — the missing exhibit is argued around]`. Renshaw leads; - a second player may support at −20. *Failure:* the Council adjourns until first light, which - costs Act Three ten minutes and nothing else. -- **One or none:** the Council refuses, and **Hatcher's people try to force the blast lock - themselves during the night.** The agents can help, stop them, or let it happen — the door - opens either way, and Act Three starts with the Seat in uproar instead of in order. - -**However it lands, the Seat is coming up.** The act ends with Sowerby signing the surfacing -order, his hand shaking, and the tannoy telling a thousand people to be ready at first light. +**The Seat is coming up either way.** The act ends with Sowerby signing the surfacing order, his +hand shaking, and the tannoy telling a thousand people to be ready at first light. --- ## Act Three — The Song *(~50 min)* -**What it is for:** find out what winning cost, and decide what to do about it. - > *Read aloud or paraphrase:* -> *Half past two in the morning. The Seat is awake and packing: suitcases from 1974, a woman -> teaching her grown son what a bus is. In the Control Room, Pennyfeather is reading Annex D -> to Sowerby in a flat voice, for the third time, because he keeps asking her to.* +> *Half past two in the morning. The Seat is packing — suitcases from 1974, a woman teaching her +> grown son what a bus is. In the Control Room, Pennyfeather is reading Annex D aloud to Sowerby +> for the third time, because he keeps asking her to.* -**This is the reveal.** Annex D says the Seat must broadcast the recorded Address, entire, on -surfacing. Nobody below thinks anything of it: it is the civil defence message, and they -assume it tells the region they are alive. +**The reveal.** Annex D: on surfacing, the Seat broadcasts its recorded Address, entire. Nobody +below thinks anything of it. The tape is in the studio safe and **Sowerby hands over the key +without a fight** — the argument is over and they are his Board now. -### Step 1 — What the Address is +- `[CUS: Research — the studio log: NEW TAPE FROM CENTRE, 2019. PLAYED NIGHTLY TO CRÈCHE, OPENING + ONLY]` The tape came from Centre, and Centre is the hand on every letter. +- **Play thirty seconds and stop.** It is not a message, it is a tune — and it is the tune the + crèche hums. **Anyone who lets it run to the end rolls POW×5 and is his.** +- `[CUS: Listen — in the crèche the little ones are all humming the same slow tune, and it does + not end; they start again]`. If nobody goes, **Kit Marlow brings Nell to the Control Room at + three in the morning** to show them. -The tape is in the studio safe. Sowerby has the key and hands it over without a fight — the -argument is over and they are his Board now. +**Kit's cure.** Give her a scene teaching geography off a 1971 atlas first. Then she says it +herself: the speaker plays at three every morning, the under-twelves all know it, and *"if Nell +stops halfway she just looks confused and goes back to her crayons — it has to finish."* So: play +them the tape with the ending cut off. -- `[CUS: Research — the studio log: NEW TAPE FROM CENTRE, 2019. PLAYED NIGHTLY TO CRÈCHE, - OPENING ONLY]` **The tape came from Centre.** Centre is the hand on all those letters. -- **Listen to it, and stop it.** Any agent who lets it run to the end rolls POW×5 and is his. - Thirty seconds is enough to know: it is not a message, it is a tune, and it is the tune the - crèche hums. **Revelation 3.** -- `[CUS: Listen — in the crèche, the little ones are all humming the same slow tune, and it - does not end; they start again]` **Revelation 4.** If nobody goes to the crèche, **Kit - Marlow** brings Nell to the Control Room at three in the morning to show them. +### The choice -### Step 2 — Kit's cure +**Put all three on the table plainly. Do not hint at a right answer.** They have just spent an +evening persuading a thousand people that the sun is waiting. -**Give Kit a scene doing something ordinary** — teaching geography off a 1971 atlas — before -anyone asks her anything. Then she says it herself: +**A. Surface, burn the tape, take the children into care.** The region is safe today. 168 children +still carry the song, so they go into departmental care away from their parents for as long as it +takes, and nobody knows how long. **Teague will not let them take Nell.** -- The speaker plays at three every morning. She was too old to learn the tune when it started. - **The under-twelves all know it.** -- **The song only works whole.** *"If Nell stops halfway she just looks confused and goes back - to her crayons. It has to finish."* -- So: **play them the tape with the ending cut off** and it breaks. If nobody thinks of it, - Kit says so before the choice is made. +**B. Keep them below.** Go back to the hall and argue the opposite of everything you proved, to +people who have packed. `[CUS: Persuade — asking a thousand people to un-believe you]` at −20. +*Failure:* they surface anyway and the Address plays. **Either way the agents have become Centre**, +and Mr Smith's next letter thanks them by name. -### Step 3 — The choice +**C. Cure the children first, then surface.** The best ending and the hardest. Before first light: +cut the tape `[CUS: Repair (Electronics) — splice the last minute out of eleven]`, then somebody +**runs the machine in the crèche and hears ten minutes of it** — POW×5, *failure* costs **2 +Coherence** and the dream for life. Then burn the tape and open the door. -**Put all three on the table, plainly, and do not hint at a right answer.** The agents have -spent an evening persuading a thousand people that the sun is waiting for them. +### Opening the door -**A. Surface. Burn the tape. Take the children into care.** -- The Address never plays; the region is safe **today**. -- 168 children still carry the song, so the Department cannot let them near a school. **They go - into departmental care, away from their parents,** for as long as it takes, and nobody knows - how long that is. -- **Teague will not let them take Nell.** Play that all the way out. +An agent cancels the Order with their warrant card — no roll, **2 Coherence**. **Better: Sowerby +cancels it himself**, and it costs nothing. ⚠ **The Address is wired to the surfacing:** if the +door opens before the tape is dealt with, it plays. Say so plainly — they have had clause 6 since +Act Two. -**B. Keep them below.** -- The agents go back to the hall and argue the opposite of everything they argued at the vote, - to people who have packed. -- `[CUS: Persuade — asking a thousand people to un-believe you]` at −20. *Success:* the Seat - stays shut, safe, fed and together. *Failure:* they surface anyway and the Address plays — - go to *If the broadcast goes out*. -- **They have become Centre.** Mr Smith's next letter will thank them by name. +**If it goes out:** eleven minutes, on the tannoy and the mast. Every agent in earshot rolls POW×5 +at the end; **panic trigger** at the first note. It can still be stopped — pull the valves on the +plant floor `[CUS: Repair (Electronics)]` or pull the tape out by hand — and **stopped before the +end, nobody outside is taken**. If it finishes, say this and stop: *In farmhouses and flats and +school buses across the Peak District, people stop what they are doing and say, quietly, "We hold. +We count. We answer."* -**C. Cure the children first, then surface.** -- The best ending, and the hardest. It needs, before first light: - 1. **Kit's idea** *(no roll if they talked to her; otherwise `[CUS: Listen — the song only - bites at the end]`)*. - 2. **The cut.** `[CUS: Repair (Electronics) — splice the last minute out of an eleven-minute - tape]`. *Failure:* the cut is wrong and must be redone — ten minutes gone. - 3. **Somebody runs the machine** in the crèche. **That agent hears ten minutes of it** and - rolls **POW×5**. *Failure:* **2 Coherence**, and they have the dream for the rest of their - life. - 4. **Then the tape is burned and the Seat comes up**, children and all. - -### Step 4 — Opening the door - -- **An agent cancels the Standing Order** with their warrant card. No roll. **2 Coherence.** -- **Or Sowerby cancels it himself.** No Coherence spent. **This is the best way to end it.** -- ⚠ **The Address is wired to the surfacing.** If the door opens before the tape is dealt with, - it plays. Say so plainly when a player reaches for the warrant card — clause 6 and Annex D - have been in their hands since Act Two. - -### If the broadcast goes out - -Eleven minutes, on the tannoy and on the mast. - -- **Every agent in earshot** rolls POW×5 at the end. **Panic trigger** at the first note. -- **It can still be stopped:** pull the transmitter valves on the plant floor `[CUS: Repair - (Electronics)]`, or pull the tape out of the machine by hand. **Stopped before the end, - nobody outside is taken.** -- **If it finishes,** say this and stop: *In farmhouses and flats and school buses across the - Peak District, people stop what they are doing and say, quietly, "We hold. We count. We - answer."* Region 12 belongs to Mr Smith. - -### The endings +### Endings | Ending | What happens | |---|---| -| **C — cured, burned, surfaced** | A thousand people come up into the rain, with their children. Within a year they start to age properly, which is its own grief. The agent who ran the machine dreams of a counter and a pleasant man for the rest of their life. | -| **A — surfaced, children taken** | Everyone comes up. The children go into care. Some parents never forgive the Department, and Teague is arrested at the crèche door. | +| **C — cured, burned, surfaced** | A thousand people come up into the rain with their children. Within a year they start ageing properly, which is its own grief. The agent who ran the machine dreams of a counter and a pleasant man for the rest of their life. | +| **A — surfaced, children taken** | Everyone comes up. The children go into care. Some parents never forgive the Department; Teague is arrested at the crèche door. | | **B — kept below** | The door stays shut on a thousand people who had packed. They are safe. The agents wrote the letter that keeps them there. | -| **Broadcast stopped at the mast only** | The tape still exists, and so do 168 children who know it. Decide again — or leave it for the next case. | -| **Broadcast finished** | Region 12 is Mr Smith's. | +| **Broadcast finished** | Region 12 belongs to Mr Smith. | -**Whatever the ending, close the case with this:** +**However it ends:** > *Three days later a buff envelope arrives in Bewley's in-tray, stamped with a circle and a > stroke, addressed to the agents by name. Inside is one line: "With thanks for the count. — > J. Smith, for Centre."* -### If they call in containment instead - -If the agents report the Seat as a containment problem rather than a rescue, the Department -sends a **quarantine unit**, which will seal the place with everyone inside. Its recorded wipe -rate against a four-agent party is -**87.4%**. **Count down six rounds out -loud**, and let them talk it down: `[CUS: Anomaly Lore — the Standing Order outranks a -containment order]` at −20. SO-H01 exists so nobody does this by accident. - --- -## NPC Roster — GM quick sheet +## The people -*Ages are what they look and feel. The calendar age is in brackets, and nobody below has ever -noticed the difference.* +*Ages are what they look; the calendar is in brackets.* -### Below +**Controller Edwin Sowerby, 56 (82)** — obeyed Centre for fifty-two years and has begun to fear it. +Immovable until clause 5 is satisfied, then wholly theirs. +**Registrar Alice Pennyfeather, 52 (78)** — keeps the Order and the birth register. Will do the +arithmetic herself if nobody else does. +**Warden Michael Teague, 38 (64)** — head of the wardens, Nell's dad, a widower. Not a villain. +Fights anyone who tries to take his daughter. +**Edith Marlow, 96 (96)** — signed for a stranger in 1974 and has been ashamed since. **The slow +never took her and nobody can say why.** Kind questions work; pressure does not. +**Dr Ivy Larkhall, 48 (74)** — 588 people share one dream and she has no one to tell. Will carry a +counter up a vent shaft if asked straight. +**Kit Marlow, 17 (34)** — teaches the little ones and noticed what the song does. The cure. +**Nell Teague, 9 (18)** — hums the song at tea. She has been nine for a long time. +**Gil Hatcher, 41 (62)** — forges Centre's letters because nobody would listen. Right about the +war, wrong about the agents, and no part of Mr Smith's business. +**Mr Ogden, Enquiries, 59 (85)** — had no form for visitors and has now found one. +**Joan Wetherlaw, 67**, above — soot, green hay, and a thirty-one-year-old dog. +**Mr Bewley** wants the letters; **Mr Prosser** refuses the firearms. +**Mr Smith** — a Cthulhu Mythos messenger: a grey coat, a pleasant manner, a face nobody can +picture. **No sheet, no portrait, no scene.** -**Controller Edwin Sowerby, 56 (82)** — *has obeyed Centre for fifty-two years and has begun to -be frightened of it.* Went down a young clerk of thirty. Will not be moved by anything that is -not in the Order; **is moved, completely, when clause 5 is satisfied.** Afterwards he is the -agents' man, and hands over the tape without being asked. - -**Registrar Alice Pennyfeather, 52 (78)** — *keeps the list, and the list is the proof.* Hands -over the Standing Order to anyone who asks and makes them read clause 5 aloud. Does the -arithmetic on the birth register herself if the agents do not. - -**Dr Ivy Larkhall, 48 (74)** — *has 588 people who share one dream and no one to tell.* Will -carry a Geiger counter up a vent shaft if asked straight. Delivers Ruth's baby. Treats anyone -hurt, either side. - -**Edith Marlow, 96 (96)** — *signed for a stranger in 1974 and has been ashamed ever since.* -**The slow never took her**, and nobody below can say why; she is the only person in Bellhouse -who looks her age. The only living person who has seen Mr Smith, and she cannot picture him. -Kind questions work; pressure does not. - -**Warden Michael Teague, 38 (64)** — *head of the wardens, and Nell's dad.* Widower. Leads the -detention himself with a truncheon and leaves the armoury locked. **Not a villain.** Votes with -whoever has been straight with him. Will fight anyone who tries to take his daughter. - -**Gil Hatcher, 41 (62), fitter** — *has been forging Centre's letters for two years because -nobody would listen.* Right about the war, wrong about the agents, frightened of what happens -when he is found out. **Not Mr Smith's, and never was.** - -**Kit Marlow, 17 (34)** — *teaches the little ones, and has noticed what the song does.* Edith's -great-granddaughter. **The key to the cure.** - -**Nell Teague, 9 (18)** — *hums the song at tea.* She has been nine for a long time. - -**Mr Ogden, Enquiries, 59 (85)** — *had no form for visitors, and has now found one.* - -**Ruth Cotter, 24 (48)** — *due this week, and tired of being an occasion.* - -### Above - -**Joan Wetherlaw, 67** — *has swept coal soot off her yard all her life, and owns a -thirty-one-year-old dog.* Signed for Mr Smith's parcel once. - -**Mr Bewley, Registry** — *wants the letters.* **Mr Prosser, Stores** — *issues the 1974 kit -and refuses the firearms.* - -### Never met - -**Mr Smith, for Centre** — a **Cthulhu Mythos messenger**: a grey coat, a pleasant manner, a -face nobody can picture. A go-between for the powers that sleep Outside, not one of them. He -holds the ground slow because a congregation takes time to raise. **No sheet, no portrait, no -scene.** He gets away. - -### Cast actors — in the compendium - -| Actor | Where | -|---|---| -| **Bellhouse warden** | Act Two — one actor for all the wardens, and for Hatcher's people in a scuffle | -| **Warden Michael Teague** | Acts One and Two | - -The **quarantine unit** is in the bestiary. +**Cast actors in the compendium:** *Warden Michael Teague*, and *Bellhouse warden* for everyone +else who takes hold of an arm. --- @@ -721,90 +419,44 @@ The **quarantine unit** is in the bestiary. -> ⚠ **The cast marker above is read by the build.** `check-rollable` holds every roll in this -> document to 25% or better on somebody listed, and `detention-tables` measures the Act Two -> fight against these six. +> ⚠ **The cast marker above is read by the build.** `check-rollable` holds every roll here to 25% +> or better on somebody listed, and `detention-tables` measures the fight against these six. | Agent | What they do here | |---|---| -| **Marta Holloway** — lead | Tradecraft 63 (Enquiries, the studio), Stealth 63 (the Undersigned) | -| **Arun Bhattacharya** — Registry | Research 63 (**the register against the faces**, the two marks, the studio log), Occult 63, Anomaly Lore 63 | -| **Kate Renshaw** — interviews | Persuade 63 (Joan, Sowerby, Teague, **the vote**), Insight 63 (Marlow, the farm), Listen 63 (the humming) | -| **Marek Kowalczyk** — engineer | Repair (Mechanical) 58 (the periscope, the cell lock), Repair (Electronics) 58 (**the tape cut**, the mast) | -| **Dr Chidi Nkemdirim** — medic | Backs Renshaw's Insight at 58; goes up the vent with Larkhall; helps with the birth | +| **Kate Renshaw** — interviews | Persuade 63 (Joan, Sowerby, Teague, **the vote**), Insight 63 (the farm, Marlow), Listen 63 (the humming) | +| **Arun Bhattacharya** — Registry | Research 63 (**the register against the faces**, the studio log) | +| **Marek Kowalczyk** — engineer | Repair (Mechanical) 58 (the periscope), Repair (Electronics) 58 (**the tape cut**, the mast) | +| **Marta Holloway** — lead | Tradecraft 63, Stealth 63 — the Enquiries desk, and getting out of the mushroom gallery | +| **Dr Chidi Nkemdirim** — medic | Backs Insight at 58; goes up the vent with Larkhall | | **Ben Okonkwo** — containment | The detention. His best move is to stand still and not hit anyone | -**At four players,** cut Okonkwo and Nkemdirim. Nothing essential needs them. **The detention -is much harder at four**, and the table above says how much. +**At four players,** cut Okonkwo and Nkemdirim. Nothing essential needs them, and the detention +gets much harder — the table above says how much. --- -## Locations — quick reference +## The map -**The underground is thirteen blueprint scenes** in the Adventure, one sheet each, drawn as the -1962 drawing office issued them with fifty years of pencil amendments. They are 2800×2000 at -five feet to the square, so tokens and the Foundry grid line up. **North is to the left on -every sheet**, matching the section drawing (SO-H04): +**Thirteen blueprint scenes** are in the Adventure, one sheet each, 2800×2000 at five feet to the +square, **north to the left** like the section drawing (SO-H04). Level 1 runs lobby → sick bay +(sheets 1–4); Level 2 runs crèche → canteen (5, 6, 9, 10); an incline drops to the pit galleries — +coal roads, Sump, Vigil hall, the Estate (7, 8, 11–13). -- **Level 1** runs from the lobby at the north end to the sick bay and the stair down at the - south (sheets 1–4). -- **Level 2** runs from the crèche under the sick bay north past the pipe room, the plant, the - dormitories and the canteen (sheets 5, 6, 9, 10). -- **An incline from the plant floor** goes down to the pit galleries: the coal roads and the - Sump, the Vigil hall, and the Estate (sheets 7, 8, 11–13). +**Which sheet when:** **Sheet 1** the arrival and the interview · **Sheet 3** the register · +**Sheet 4** Marlow · **Sheet 7** Hatcher and the cells · **Sheet 8** the vote · **Sheet 2** the +tape · **Sheet 5** the crèche and the cure · **Sheet 6** the mast. Sheets 9–13 are how people +live: the dormitories, the canteen, and 213 homes on three coal roads. -Every corridor end says which sheet it leads to. **Nothing on a sheet gives away a GM secret**; -the pencil notes are what the people below wrote. - -| # | Location | Act | Blueprint scene | One line | -|---|---|---|---|---| -| 1 | Wetherlaw farm | 1 | — | Coal soot, green hay from four summers ago, and a dog of thirty-one | -| 2 | The soot edge | 1 | — | A straight line of soot across the fields | -| 3 | The vent | 1 | — | Warm, smells of coal; the crossing; exhibit (a) is taken here | -| 4 | The postal pipe | 1/2 | — | How Centre's letters arrive — and Hatcher's | -| 5 | The adit | 1 | — | Filled in in 1975 | -| 6 | Lobby and Enquiries | 1 | **Sheet 1** | Mr Ogden; the blast lock; the Seat's counter reading hot since 1974 | -| 7 | Control Room and studio | 2/3 | **Sheet 2** | Sowerby's office, the wall map, the studio safe, the tape | -| 8 | Registry | 2 | **Sheet 3** | Pennyfeather, the Standing Order, **the birth register** | -| 9 | Sick bay | 2/3 | **Sheet 4** | Marlow's side room and her box; Larkhall's notes; the delivery room | -| 10 | Crèche | 2/3 | **Sheet 5** | Kit, Nell, the drawings, the three o'clock speaker | -| 11 | Pipe room | 2 | **Sheet 6** | Centre's in-tray | -| 12 | Plant floor | 3 | **Sheet 6** | The transmitter room — the mast route | -| 13 | Vigil hall | 2/3 | **Sheet 8** | The chant; **the vote**, with the whole Seat standing at the back | -| 14 | The vegetable tunnels and the mushroom gallery | 2 | **Sheet 7** | Beds, trout tanks, hens — and where the Undersigned meet | -| 15 | The Sump | 2 | **Sheet 7** | Four cells; the detention ends here | -| 16 | Dormitories | 2 | **Sheet 9** | Four halls, 240 berths, the laundry | -| 17 | Canteen and officers' cabins | 2 | **Sheet 10** | Four sittings a meal; Sowerby sleeps in cabin C1 | -| 18 | The Estate | 2 | **Sheets 11–13** | 213 family homes on three coal roads — Teague and Nell, Ruth Cotter, most of the Seat | - -**Which sheet when:** -- **Act One:** Sheet 1 for the arrival and the first interview. -- **Act Two:** Sheet 3 for the register, Sheet 4 for Marlow, Sheet 7 for the Undersigned, and - Sheet 8 for the vote. **The Estate is the best place to run and the worst place to fight:** - narrow roads, doors on every side, children in every one. -- **Act Three:** Sheet 2 for the tape, Sheet 5 for the cure, Sheets 8 and 6 for the broadcast. -- **Colour:** Sheets 9–13 when the table wants to see how people live. - ---- - -## GM notes — four things that do not get resolved - -1. **What Mr Smith is for.** He is a messenger. Whose, and what he reports, the case does not say. -2. **Why the slow never took Edith Marlow.** She signed. Nobody says it out loud. -3. **Where the stockpile comes from.** Do not explain it. -4. **What happens to a thousand people who start ageing again**, and whether the dream ever - stops for the born-below. +**The Estate is the best place to run and the worst place to fight** — narrow roads, doors on +every side, children behind all of them. --- ## Open questions for Tim -- **The vote as a set piece.** It replaces the old Act Two chase with a committee scene. Does it - hold a convention table for fifteen minutes, or does it need a physical complication running - under it (Hatcher at the blast lock) as standard rather than as a failure branch? -- **Ending B.** Arguing your own case backwards is the heaviest thing in the scenario. Check it - reads as a real option and not as a punishment. -- **Ages in brackets.** Useful at the table, or clutter? The register trick depends on the - players feeling the gap before they can prove it. -- **Runtime.** Unmeasured. Act Two now carries the exhibits, the Undersigned and the vote; desk - pass 1 should time it hard and cut the Undersigned first if it overruns. +- **Is the vote enough of a set piece on its own,** or does it want Hatcher at the blast lock + running under it as standard rather than as a failure branch? +- **Ending B** — arguing your own case backwards. A real option, or a punishment? +- **Runtime.** Unmeasured for this version. Act Two carries the exhibits, the pressure and the + vote; time it hard on the first desk pass and cut Hatcher first if it overruns. diff --git a/packs/standingorder/000003.log b/packs/standingorder/000003.log index fad6be6..74da4e9 100644 Binary files a/packs/standingorder/000003.log and b/packs/standingorder/000003.log differ diff --git a/packs/weapons/000008.log b/packs/weapons/000006.log similarity index 100% rename from packs/weapons/000008.log rename to packs/weapons/000006.log diff --git a/packs/weapons/CURRENT b/packs/weapons/CURRENT index 875cf23..cacca75 100644 --- a/packs/weapons/CURRENT +++ b/packs/weapons/CURRENT @@ -1 +1 @@ -MANIFEST-000007 +MANIFEST-000004 diff --git a/packs/weapons/MANIFEST-000004 b/packs/weapons/MANIFEST-000004 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e0cdc92 Binary files /dev/null and b/packs/weapons/MANIFEST-000004 differ diff --git a/packs/weapons/MANIFEST-000007 b/packs/weapons/MANIFEST-000007 deleted file mode 100644 index 58a4aaf..0000000 Binary files a/packs/weapons/MANIFEST-000007 and /dev/null differ