The Lantern Road

4 processed sessions · 11 entities tracked · 3 open loops

Session 4: What the Harbormaster Owed

The party traced the missing shipment to the Drowned Lantern, a dockside tavern that Kaelin Dusk uses as a front for moving contraband out of the harbor. Mira Tallowind talked her way past the door watch while the rest of the party searched the cellar, where they found Harbormaster Vess Corrin's ledger — proof he's been waving smuggler ships through customs for a cut of the take.

Corrin caught them mid-search and tried to buy their silence. The party refused, and Kaelin — caught between her employer and her conscience — quietly slid them the name of the ship leaving at dawn. Session ended with the party deciding whether to expose Corrin to the harbor guard or use the ledger as leverage of their own.

Campaign wiki

Mira TallowindPlayer Character

Party rogue, ex-dockhand

Grew up on these docks before the party found her a better class of trouble. Knows every corrupt watchman in the harbor by name — including Corrin.

Kaelin DuskNPC

Informant, double loyalties

Runs messages for the smuggling ring but has quietly fed the party good information twice now. Motive still unconfirmed — the party suspects she wants Corrin gone as much as they do.

Vess CorrinNPC

Harbormaster, on the take

Controls which ships get inspected and which don't. The recovered ledger names at least six vessels he's waved through in the last year.

The Drowned LanternLocation

Dockside tavern & smugglers' front

Low ceilings, one working lantern, a cellar that connects to the harbor tunnels. Officially a tavern; unofficially where half the contraband in the city changes hands.

Transcript excerpt

GMThe cellar door's ajar — lantern light spilling out from underneath. You can hear a ledger's pages turning.

MiraI signal the others to hold and try to get a look through the gap before we commit.

GMRoll me a stealth check.

MiraSeventeen.

GMYou see Corrin himself, alone, going through the shipment ledger by lantern light — and he hasn't heard you yet.

Kael (party wizard)I say we take the ledger and leave before he even knows we were here.

MiraNo — if we leave now he'll know it's missing by morning and move everything before the guard can act. We need him to see us.

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