Adventure Two · Player Packet

Masks at the Table

Everything players need for the summit. Safe to share: it contains no GM secrets.

Open the printable Player Kit

Where the story stands

The summit in Boca Serena is underway. Every accredited delegation wants influence over the terms that follow the San Telmo Incident. Public procedure and private bargaining are already pulling apart, and rumors of disappearances and disputed trade papers are adding pressure outside the conference hall.

If your group played The San Telmo Incident and Ash on the Ledger, carry your characters, their promises, and what they learned forward. These are the public facts everyone at the summit works from:

San Telmo suffered a serious incident involving Éterlumin infrastructure.

What people disagree about: Whether the chamber was an accident, an ancient machine, or evidence of a larger inland system.

The DeSauros mission represents Heller within a Valdegracian political framework.

What people disagree about: Whether Heller seeks stability, leverage, independence of action, or all three.

Albion, Stroomdijk, Luminore, Valdegracia, and local interests have arrived for negotiations.

What people disagree about: Which delegations know about covert operations already underway.

Trade and legal authority are the summit’s official subjects.

What people disagree about: Whether the real auction concerns custody of people, proof, and access to the Source.

Your mission

Your characters are attached to the DeSauros mission from the Duchy of Heller. The visible task is to support the delegation during negotiations. The real work is to build leverage while protecting people and credibility, and to decide which truths can be proved.

Captain Huan DeSauros

Role: Chief negotiator and captain of Aurora Ventus.

Strength: Pragmatic authority, crew loyalty, commercial judgment.

Isabella “Izzy” Ferraro

Role: Trade and logistics adviser.

Strength: Numbers, tariffs, routes, insurance, and supply.

Rafael “Rafa” Morales

Role: Legal and diplomatic adviser.

Strength: Jurisdiction, treaty language, procedural traps.

How negotiations work at the table

The delegation handles technical wording. You decide what the mission wants. When a subject is on the table, the GM will ask you for three things:

  • Strategic objective: what the mission is really trying to get.
  • Concession: what you are willing to give up for it.
  • Threat: what you can credibly make happen if you are refused.

One meaningful intervention is then resolved in your rules system. Most exchanges do not come down to a single social roll. Every public posture wins someone's trust and costs someone else's.

Position

Position is the DeSauros delegation's political standing at the summit, from 0 to 6. It carries over from the previous adventure. Some negotiation moves need Position or specific proof before they can be made:

Demand Access

Requirement: One Position or proof of immediate danger.

Result: Gain inspection, interview, or site access under named conditions.

Protect a Person

Requirement: A safe location, legal argument, or committed ally.

Result: The person cannot be quietly removed without public cost.

Expose a Contradiction

Requirement: Two independent sources or one intact primary record.

Result: Reduce a faction’s credibility and force a public answer.

Trade Silence

Requirement: Evidence the target believes can become public.

Result: Gain a concession now; create permanent debt and moral risk.

Force a Vote

Requirement: Four Position and at least two delegations willing to be recorded.

Result: Turn a private issue into binding public procedure.

Break the Table

Requirement: Proof of atrocity, armed attack, or active Source danger.

Result: End normal negotiation and begin inquiry, blockade, or emergency authority.

The public agenda

Opening

Public subject: Recognition and procedure

Trade

Public subject: Tariffs, convoy access, and insurance

Security

Public subject: Escort rights and naval presence

Culture and Science

Public subject: Historical sites, research, education

Private Bargaining

Public subject: Bilateral concessions

Final Terms

Public subject: Custody, publication, and enforcement

People you will meet

  • The Convener: the authority who summoned the delegations.
  • Edmund Lysander: Albion ambassador.
  • Helena Drake: Albion delegation security liaison.
  • Willem van der Zee: Stroomdijk envoy.
  • Juliette Armand: Luminore attaché.
  • Captain Huan DeSauros: your chief negotiator.

New to the campaign? Choose a role

Continuing characters need nothing new. A group starting here can build characters in any system around one of these campaign roles:

Envoy or legal aide

What you bring: Procedure, rhetoric, rank, and public access.

A question to answer: Which law do you still believe deserves obedience?

Naval officer or marine

What you bring: Command, discipline, violence, and shipboard authority.

A question to answer: Whose order would you refuse in public?

Investigator or intelligence operative

What you bring: Surveillance, documents, covert contacts, and inference.

A question to answer: Which earlier assignment still follows you?

Engineer, physician, or scholar

What you bring: Technical knowledge, care, evidence, and specialist credibility.

A question to answer: What discovery would you refuse to weaponize?

Local guide, dockworker, or survivor

What you bring: Routes, communities, memory, and practical legitimacy.

A question to answer: Who on Canula Prime expects you to protect them?

Free captain, smuggler, or privateer

What you bring: Mobility, deniable access, criminal contacts, and flexible loyalty.

A question to answer: What debt can still alter your course?

Table safety

This adventure involves political pressure, coercion, and people who go missing. Agree on lines and veils before play, use whatever check-in tool your table prefers, and remember that anyone can pause or redirect a scene. Harm to vulnerable people is handled off-screen unless the whole table wants otherwise.

Handouts and rules