E3 — The Gilded Ledger Tavern Challenges
The Gilded Ledger Tavern — GM & Challenges
Rumors, River Passage, Captain Sella, and Transport Jobs
Karland has already sent word to Captain Sella Varn that a group of adventurers may come looking for passage downriver to Reiver's Right. He gave her enough of a description to recognize the party if she gets a reasonable look at them, but he did not arrange passage on their behalf or promise that Sella would help them.
Sella therefore knows why they are likely here, but she still intends to negotiate on her own terms. She does not announce herself across the tavern or interrupt whatever the characters choose to do when they enter.
Does Sella Notice the Party?
When the characters enter, decide whether Sella has a clear opportunity to see them. The Gilded Ledger is busy enough that recognition does not have to be immediate.
- Sella sees them clearly: She recognizes the party from Karland's description. She watches them for a few moments rather than immediately approaching.
- Sella only glimpses them: She notices unfamiliar adventurers but is not yet certain they are Karland's people. She continues watching until she gets a better look.
- Sella does not see them: She remains occupied elsewhere in the tavern. The characters can explore, speak with Garrick, listen for rumors, inspect the ledger, or approach her on their own.
Sella being prepared for the party does not mean the party automatically speaks with her. Characters may enter the Gilded Ledger, buy food, question patrons, speak with Garrick, inspect the ledger, or leave without ever approaching her.
If Sella recognizes them and they remain in the tavern for a while, she may eventually make contact, but give the players time to decide what interests them first.
The weathered river captain glances in your direction, pauses for a moment, then returns her attention to the mug in front of her.
A few moments later, you catch her looking your way again.
This does not reveal why Sella is watching them. She could simply be assessing unfamiliar adventurers. If the characters approach her, proceed into the Captain Sella interaction normally.
If they do not approach her, Sella does not immediately chase them down. Karland told her they might come; he did not hire her to recruit them.
Tavern Challenges
Challenge 1: Gathering River Rumors
The party spends time buying drinks, engaging off-duty timber crews, and listening in on conversations to gather intelligence regarding Reiver's Right and the downriver conditions.
Challenge 2: Passage on the Long Dividend
The fastest route to Reiver's Right is aboard the Long Dividend, a broad, shallow-draft cargo barge captained by Captain Sella Varn. Sella knows the river better than almost anyone in Old Macridi and is willing to take the party downriver—but she has two problems she needs solved first.
LN female human river captain
Sella is lean, weathered, relentlessly practical, and almost impossible to hurry. She has spent twenty years carrying timber and trade goods through Profit's Flow and insists that every favor, injury, delay, and risk has a value whether or not anyone bothers writing it down.
She is not particularly impressed by adventurers, but she respects people who solve problems without creating three more.
Personality: Dry, suspicious, transactional.
Tell: When concealing something, Sella begins describing irrelevant details with unusual precision.
Sella is willing to conceal information when her own interests are threatened, but she does not casually break bargains. Once she agrees that a problem has been solved, she considers the resulting debt hers to honor.
Transport Downriver
Sella can only transport the party downriver as she is not schedule to return for one week (unless they want to wait that long, then she is open to discussing)
The Darkwood at Mudjaw Beach
A timber tow broke loose from one of Sella's upriver contacts during a storm. Six valuable darkwood boles drifted into a sluggish backwater called Mudjaw Beach, where few river crews willingly work because the flooded banks are infested with aggressive reefclaws.
Sella wants the timber recovered before another merchant claims it as salvage.
- Objective: Recover the six marked darkwood boles from Mudjaw Beach and return them to Sella.
- Threat: Reefclaws lurk beneath the floating timber and react aggressively to anyone entering the water or disturbing the logs. Grindylows and blue ringed octopi also are known to frequent the area.
- Alternative Approaches: Clever characters might avoid or reduce combat by using Athletics to haul timber from shore, Survival or Nature to predict the reefclaws' feeding territory, magic to manipulate the logs, or another plausible plan.
- Reward: Recovering the required cargo earns passage downriver for free.
Sella takes a drink, considers you for a moment, and sets the mug down.
"Six boles. Not five. Six."
"Fourteen to sixteen feet each. Blue double-slash cut into the bark, near the butt end. You'll know them when you see them."
She taps one finger against the tabletop.
"Bring those logs back and I'll carry you to Reiver's Right."
Sella describes the lost wood as "six darkwood boles, fourteen to sixteen feet each, marked with a blue double-slash." This is considerably more detail than she gives about almost anything else—and matches her established habit of becoming unusually precise when concealing something.
There are indeed six logs—but one has been carefully hollowed and resealed. Hidden inside is a waterproof copper cylinder containing several packets of unregistered Cedar Court amber, acquired through an illicit arrangement with an upriver timber broker.
The amber itself is not inherently evil or dangerous. The problem is that it was harvested and transported outside Macridi's approved trade agreements with the fey courts and never entered into the municipal ledgers.
This is why Sella cannot simply request Blackjacket assistance. Recovering the logs through official channels would expose the smuggling arrangement immediately.
Sella would like all six logs recovered if the party remains ignorant of the secret because that preserves the appearance of an ordinary salvage job. In truth, only the hollowed bole matters to her.
Reading Captain Sella
A character paying attention while Sella describes the timber can notice that her manner changes when the missing cargo comes up. She becomes far more exact than the practical captain usually bothers to be.
Why Not Use the Blackjackets?
Characters familiar with Drumish commerce can find another weakness in Sella's story. Six valuable darkwood boles are supposedly sitting within reach of Macridi, yet she has filed no formal salvage notice, hired no licensed recovery crew, and requested no Blackjacket assistance.
Put the Contraband on the Table
Characters who realize Sella is hiding something can confront her here at the Gilded Ledger. They do not need to wait until Mudjaw Beach to discover what the job is really about.
If the party produces direct evidence of the smuggling arrangement, Sella knows the deception has failed and admits the truth without a check. Otherwise, a character who has uncovered either of the clues above can press her.
Sella watches you across the table without speaking. Around her, the Gilded Ledger carries on—mugs striking wood, dice rattling, somebody laughing too loudly near the hearth.
Finally, she leans forward.
"All right. Enough."
"I don't care about the damned darkwood."
"One bole is hollow. There's a copper cylinder sealed inside it. Cedar amber. Unregistered."
"That's why I'm talking to you instead of a Blackjacket."
She drums two fingers against the tabletop.
"Blue double-slash, same as the others. But the hollow one rides higher in the water. Bring me that log intact."
Sella's Real Job
If Sella admits the truth, the objective for Scene 3: The Darkwood at Mudjaw Beach changes before the party ever reaches the encounter.
- Objective: Recover the hollowed darkwood bole containing Sella's contraband.
- Identification: It bears the same blue double-slash as the other timber but floats slightly higher because its core has been removed.
- Other Timber: Sella no longer cares whether the remaining five boles are recovered.
- Tactical Consequence: Because the party needs only one lighter, hollowed log rather than six massive boles, Stealth becomes a viable way to complete the Mudjaw encounter.
- Reward: Returning the hollowed bole intact earns free passage downriver.
If Sella keeps her secret: The party arrives at Mudjaw Beach believing that all six darkwood boles must be recovered. Moving that much timber creates enough noise and disturbance that stealth cannot realistically complete the entire job.
If Sella admits the truth: The party arrives knowing that only the hollowed bole matters. They can identify it from Sella's description and may attempt to reach it, secure it, and float it away without ever alerting the reefclaws.
The social victory here therefore creates a real tactical advantage later rather than merely revealing background information.
Once Sella admits that the hollowed bole is her real objective, she does not later demand the other five logs. Returning that single bole completes this Transport Job.
Sella may be irritated that the party uncovered her secret, but competence matters to her. Characters who expose the deception without immediately threatening to turn her in can earn a measure of grudging respect.
Garrick's Missing Scout
Garrick Vance pulls the party aside. He secretly dispatched a trusted young mercenary scout, Joran, downriver two days ago to investigate rumors near Reiver's Right, but Joran has failed to report back.
- Objective: Locate Joran or discover what happened to him in the vicinity of Reiver's Right.
- Identification: Joran carries Garrick's old Blackjacket signet ring on a leather cord beneath his shirt.
- Reward: Garrick awards the party 25 gp, a voucher for one week of free lodging at the tavern, and a salvaged striking rune from his old Blackjacket gear.