GM Quick Reference

Build Heller’s Position, discover which delegations know about the Ear, and expose the first link between respectable trade and the disappearances around Porto Sombra.

Must surface: The Ear is being offered indirectly, while Stroomdijk interests are using respectable trade structures and exemptions to hide another operation.

1. Name the public subject: trade, tariffs, security, scientific access, custody, cultural protections, or the official San Telmo account.
2. Ask which faction benefits if the discussion remains narrow and which benefits if it widens.
3. Let the DeSauros delegation handle technical wording. Ask the players for the strategic objective, concession, and threat.
4. Resolve one meaningful intervention in the chosen rules system. A clean success preserves Position; a mixed result gains the objective with debt, exposure, or a clock advance.
5. End with a private move: an invitation, bribe, disappearance, intercepted note, accusation, or request for protection.

• Captain Huan DeSauros: Pragmatic authority, crew loyalty, commercial judgment. Needs: A clear objective and warning before the party creates a public crisis.
• Isabella “Izzy” Ferraro: Numbers, tariffs, routes, insurance, and supply. Needs: Accurate evidence; she refuses to build strategy on rumor.
• Rafael “Rafa” Morales: Jurisdiction, treaty language, procedural traps. Needs: Custody plans, witness status, and the exact concession the party is willing to make.

Position 0 to 6, continues from Ash. Clean success preserves Position; mixed result gains the objective with debt, exposure, or a clock advance.

• Negotiations Collapse (8): Public accusations fail, violence reaches the conference, or delegations are humiliated. Full: The summit becomes a blockade, seizure, or armed standoff.
• Traffickers Erase the Route (6): Stroomdijk is accused, raids fail noisily, or witnesses disappear. Full: Ledgers burn, captives are moved inland, and the network sacrifices an intermediary.
• Albion Covert Command Identifies the Asset (6): The party displays evidence, uses Heller signals, contacts Vega, or exposes an Albion operative. Full: Drake begins armed extraction and the Wolf in the Clouds act starts.
• Project Custodian Completes the Ear (8): Resa is isolated, the party delays, technical records are recovered, or the custodian gains outside expertise. Full: The Ear can transmit toward the inland Source. The custodian schedules a demonstration, seizure, or sale.

• Opening Statements: The party must choose whether Heller argues as a loyal duchy, commercial intermediary, or quiet reformer. Each frame gains one ally and alienates another.
• Luminore Dinner: Juliette Armand offers cultural protection in exchange for access to inland records. Her motives are principled, but her delegation still wants ownership of knowledge.
• Albion Courtesy Call: Lysander offers support against the Project Custodian and hints at a shared enemy. Commander Drake has already identified a Heller signal pattern.
• Stroomdijk Ledger Session: Willem van der Zee hides a disputed cargo clause inside routine trade language. The clause legalizes inspection exemptions used by the trafficking route.
• The Rusty Anchor: Dockworkers, sailors, and thieves discuss a special machine and people moved under guard. The Convener’s observers notice anyone asking the right questions.
• Clann Coin: A triskele-marked Éirighdún coin appears beneath a mug or inside a pocket. Sharing it gains trust with one person and risks exposing the contact to another.

• Support Valdegracian procedure: Access to records and official protection. Cost: Workers and rebels assume the party will choose order over them.
• Publicly challenge the Convener or Project Custodian: Credibility with reformers and local families. Cost: Advance Negotiations Collapse and give the Project Custodian a reason to move Resa.
• Trade information with Albion: Fast access, transport, or a private file. Cost: Albion learns what the characters value and how to approach them later.
• Back Luminore protections: Cultural access and Juliette’s support. Cost: Luminore gains a legitimate path toward the Source.
• Pressure Stroomdijk privately: One concession and a route into the network. Cost: The traffickers begin erasing people rather than paperwork.

• Demand Access (One Position or proof of immediate danger.) Gain inspection, interview, or site access under named conditions.
• Protect a Person (A safe location, legal argument, or committed ally.) The person cannot be quietly removed without public cost.
• Expose a Contradiction (Two independent sources or one intact primary record.) Reduce a faction’s credibility and force a public answer.
• Trade Silence (Evidence the target believes can become public.) Gain a concession now; create permanent debt and moral risk.
• Force a Vote (Four Position and at least two delegations willing to be recorded.) Turn a private issue into binding public procedure.
• Break the Table (Proof of atrocity, armed attack, or active Source danger.) End normal negotiation and begin inquiry, blockade, or emergency authority.

• Stroomdijk hides the exemption clause deeper in routine trade language, or sacrifices an intermediary if pressed publicly.
• Albion trades a file or fast passage to learn what the characters value.
• Luminore offers cultural protection in exchange for inland access.
• The Shadowed Tide makes contact if the investigation stalls, rather than the route closing.
• Close the phase with a private move: an invitation, bribe, disappearance, intercepted note, accusation, or request for protection.