Border Pressure

Scene Four: Border Pressure

Scene type: Roleplay (4A) or action (4B) Location: Harrowspan Station — docking ring, cargo corridor, Ember Drift bay

Scene 4A: The Inspection

Tone: Tense, careful, negotiation with real stakes Characters: Inspector Oll, the crew

The Situation

The hold order has either arrived or the crew has chosen to cooperate before it does. Either way, Oll is coming aboard the Ember Drift, or meeting the crew at the foot of the ramp.

The hold order is legal. Oll has authority. He cannot open the container without a full warrant, which requires treaty-channel processing that takes longer than a hold order. The hold order is roughly equivalent to "you may not leave"; the warrant is roughly equivalent to "I may open that."

He has not received the warrant yet. This is the window.

Read-Aloud: The Inspection Begins

Oll arrives at bay seven with two documents in hand and no backup. He is not, apparently, expecting trouble. He presents his credentials and the hold order at the foot of the ramp, holds them long enough for the crew to read them, and then lowers them.

"I am not here to cause difficulty," he says. "I am here because I have a professional obligation I am not willing to ignore. The container in your cargo bay is associated with communication traffic the Directorate has been monitoring for two weeks. I do not have a warrant to open it. I do have a hold order that prevents your departure pending inspection. I would like to resolve this without the warrant."

He waits. He is good at waiting.

What Oll Has and What He Needs

Make this clear to the crew. They should understand the mechanics of their position.

What Oll currently has:

• A hold order: the crew cannot depart without his sign-off.
• Intelligence indicating the container is connected to Nerezza Compact encrypted traffic.
• Suspicion that the container holds something of Directorate interest.
• No warrant to open the container.
• No physical ability to stop the crew from doing something drastic if they choose to (though doing something drastic in front of an Irnan inspector on a treaty station has serious downstream consequences).

What Oll needs: Information. Specifically, confirmation of what the container holds. He wants this on record, from the crew, voluntarily. That allows him to close this as a cooperative inquiry rather than an adversarial inspection, which has different implications for everyone involved.

What happens when the warrant arrives: If the crew delays long enough, the warrant clears the relay. At that point Oll has full legal authority to open the container. Read the header of the charts, note their content, take custody of them, and hold the crew as material witnesses. This is bad for the crew, bad for the Compact, and bad for the job. It is not bad for Oll.

The warrant takes approximately two hours from the point the hold order was filed. Track the time in the scene accordingly.

Three Ways Through Scene 4A

Path One: The crew tells Oll what they know.

The crew explains the situation: they were hired by Vorn, believed it was medical supplies, discovered the container holds navigational charts, and did not know the charts were restricted. They can share Maren's message. They can share Vorn's admission via comm.

On this path, Oll does the following. He pulls the hold order. He notes in his report that the crew cooperated voluntarily with an active Directorate inquiry. He does not take the container. He does not arrest anyone. He tells the crew:

"You were hired as a transit crew, not as principals. Cooperating now separates you from the people who set this up. I am satisfied with that."

He asks for Vorn's contact information, which the crew can provide without consequence. He clears their departure. He does not pursue with the Sentinel. See Scene Five for a clean departure.

Path Two: The crew negotiates without giving Oll everything.

This is harder. The crew wants to leave without handing Oll full knowledge of what they are carrying.

Available checks:

Savvy + Negotiation (Average) — Propose a deal: The crew offers Oll something of value without giving him the container: Maren's security log, the information about Sev and the Pale Table, Vorn's contact information, the partial decryption notes. This is intelligence about a criminal operation targeting the same container. On a success, Oll accepts this as sufficient for his report and clears the hold. He is satisfied because the intelligence has value to the Directorate even if the charts are not in their hands.

On a failure: Oll listens, thanks them for the information, and still holds the ship pending the warrant. He is reasonable but he is thorough.

On a Boon with success: Oll also shares that the Pale Table has been moving through the Verge for six months and this intelligence is genuinely useful to him. He treats the crew as informants rather than suspects and offers to relay a clean transit certification to Saint Orra's Rest on their behalf.

Savvy + Deception (Hard) — Mislead Oll about the contents: The crew attempts to convince Oll that the container genuinely holds medical supplies and the Directorate's intelligence was a false flag.

On a success: Oll is not convinced but he cannot disprove it without the warrant. He files a note in his report and releases the hold. He will investigate further after the crew departs. If the charts later surface, this deception will become a problem.

On a failure: Oll notes the inconsistency formally and adds it to the hold record. The warrant timeline shortens by thirty minutes because he now has cause to accelerate it.

Intellect + Lore (Easy) — Identify the leverage: A crew member who makes this check knows that information about the Pale Table has significant value to the Directorate independently of the charter contents. Giving Oll the Pale Table intelligence, even without confirming the charts, is a legitimate bargaining position.

Path Three: The crew refuses to cooperate.

Oll waits. The warrant arrives. He opens the container. He takes the charts into custody.

The crew is held as material witnesses for four hours, then released. The Pale Table is still watching. Oll's Sentinel will be between them and the slipstream corridor when they depart.

This is the worst outcome for the mission but it is a legitimate ending. The crew can still depart Harrowspan; they just depart without the container and with a formal Directorate notation on the Ember Drift's registry. The adventure continues in Scene Five with the Sentinel likely shadowing them as they depart, not pursuing, but present.

Oll as a Person, Not a Bureaucrat

Oll is doing his job. He is not enjoying the pressure he is applying. At some point in the conversation, if the crew is engaging seriously rather than stonewalling, he can step slightly out of his professional register:

"For what it's worth, I don't think you knew what you were carrying. That is not the same as it not mattering legally. But it affects how I handle this."

If the crew shares information about Maren's death and expresses that they are troubled by it, he responds:

"I am looking into the harbormaster's accident as well. The station's ruling was... expedient. I do not intend to let it stay that way."

He is not corrupt. He is not hostile. He is a professional who has some respect for people doing a hard job in a complicated universe.

Transition from Scene 4A

Whether the crew cooperated fully, partially, or refused, Scene Four ends with the Ember Drift either cleared for departure or the crew finding their own way out. Move to Scene Five.

If Oll is an ally: the Sentinel does not pursue. Departure is clean.

If Oll is neutral or uninformed: the Sentinel may shadow briefly but stands down.

If Oll is an active opponent: the Sentinel undocks two minutes after the Ember Drift and pursues. See Scene Five for full ship encounter rules.

Scene 4B: The Pale Table Moves

Tone: Urgent, physical, confined Characters: Sev (Rival), Rinn (Minion, with a second Minion if the crew is large), the crew Location: Cargo corridor, docking bay seven, the foot of the Ember Drift's ramp

Read-Aloud: The Pale Table Moves

You are three-quarters of the way to the Ember Drift's ramp when the cargo bay access panel at the end of the corridor chirps: an access request, using a maintenance credential code. The panel light goes green. Someone is coming in from the maintenance side.

From behind you, Sev's voice is close and very calm: "I'm sorry. I gave you two hours. You didn't use them."

The Environment

The cargo corridor runs from the station's main spine to the docking bays. It is approximately forty meters long and four meters wide, lit by overhead strips with one dead section halfway down. The walls are lined with locked cargo containers belonging to other ships and the station's own stores. These provide hard cover.

The Ember Drift's ramp is at the far end of the corridor, bay seven. The ramp is down. The ship is accessible. If a crew member reaches the ship, they can begin undocking procedures from inside.

The maintenance corridor hatch is on the left wall, roughly halfway down. This is where Rinn enters.

Cover and terrain:

• Locked cargo containers on both walls: Heavy cover if you get behind them
• The dead lighting section: anyone standing in it has Light concealment against ranged attacks
• The Ember Drift's ramp: if the crew gets to the ship, they have High cover from the ramp edge and can try to close the ramp (one Maneuver from inside the ship)
• The maintenance hatch: Rinn can re-enter the maintenance corridor if outmaneuvered; the crew can follow, but it is a tight crawlspace and fighting in there is worse

Adversaries

Rinn (Pale Table Operative)

Rinn is one of two Minions representing Pale Table field operatives. If the crew has three or more players, add a second Minion in the same Minion group. Both Minions act on the same initiative slot and share a single Wound track.

• Group Size: 2 (add 1 for a crew of four or more)
• Skills: Ranged 2, Melee 1, Stealth 2
• Abilities: None
• Equipment: Light pistol (Damage 5, Crit 5, Range Short/Medium, Accurate), light body armor (Soak 1)

Rinn's tactics: Enter from the maintenance hatch, move toward the container, try to get past the crew rather than through them. Rinn is not here to fight; they are here to grab the container and leave via the maintenance corridor with it. They will fight if cornered.

Sev (Pale Table Field Operative)

Sev is a Rival. They are dangerous individually and significantly more capable than Rinn.

• Skills: Ranged 3, Melee 2, Subterfuge 3, Perception 3, Negotiation 2
• Abilities: Coordinated Strike (once per round, Sev may spend a Boon from their attack to grant the Minion group a Boon on their next check), Cool Exit (if Sev is reduced to 3 Wounds or fewer, they attempt to disengage as a Maneuver using Agility + Stealth, Average difficulty; on success they retreat into the maintenance corridor)
• Equipment: Compact pistol (Damage 5, Crit 4, Range Short/Medium, Concealable), holdout blade (Damage 3, Crit 3, Range Engaged), light body armor (Soak 1)

Sev's tactics: Sev positions to cover Rinn's movement toward the container. They prefer to create separation between crew members, use cover, and fire controlled shots rather than charge in. They are trying to complete the mission, not kill anyone. If things go badly, they will attempt to disengage and retreat. They will not sacrifice themselves to complete the mission.

If Sev is captured or pinned: They talk. They do not reveal the Pale Table by name or confirm their employer's identity. But they will negotiate. "Let me go. I will tell the Pale Table this cargo was burned before we arrived. You never existed to us." This is the kind of offer that may or may not be worth trusting. The crew can make that call.

Running the Fight: Round by Round

Round One: The Setup

Sev is behind the crew, toward the station spine end of the corridor. Rinn enters from the maintenance hatch at the corridor's midpoint. The crew is between them, roughly at Short range from both threats.

Sev's opening: they fire one controlled shot at whoever looks like the most immediate threat, then move to a cargo container for cover.

Rinn's opening: they push past the crew toward the container bay, trying to avoid engagement.

The key question for Round One: Does the crew split up to handle both threats, or focus on one?

Round Two: Momentum

By now one of three things is happening:

• The crew is fighting toward the ship and trying to get aboard
• The crew has pinned Rinn or Sev and is fighting the other
• Rinn has reached the container bay and is trying to move the container

If Rinn reaches the container bay (the crew did not intercept them): Rinn cannot move the container alone. It takes two people or one person with a loader, which is at the bay mouth. Rinn spends this round trying to either get help or find the loader. This buys the crew a round.

Round Three: Resolution

Sev uses Cool Exit if they are at 3 Wounds or fewer. Otherwise Sev is still fighting.

One of these outcomes is likely by the end of Round Three:

• The crew has dealt with both Sev and Rinn (defeated, captured, or driven off through the maintenance hatch)
• The crew is aboard the Ember Drift with the container and undocking while Sev and Rinn regroup
• Sev has escaped into the maintenance corridor; Rinn is down

If the fight lasts more than three rounds: After Round Three, an alarm trips on the station. The cargo corridor's access monitoring flagged the unauthorized maintenance credential entry. Station lights shift to amber. An automated announcement plays over the intercom: "Unscheduled access alert, cargo corridor, docking section." Within five minutes, Oll and two station workers will arrive. This changes everything. Sev and Rinn immediately disengage and retreat if this happens.

Aftermath of Scene 4B

If the crew won and Sev/Rinn are down or fled: The cargo is secure. The crew should get aboard the Ember Drift and undock quickly. The station alarm is running. Oll is coming. They have roughly five minutes before docking clamps initiate a soft lockdown.

A crew member who is not piloting can attempt an Average Craft check to delay the clamp timer by cutting a power coupling to the bay's clamp system (a Maneuver to reach the coupling, then the check). On success, the clamps stay open for an additional five minutes.

If Sev escaped: The Pale Table knows the crew by ship registration. They may appear again in a later job. Note this in the Between Jobs chapter.

If Rinn was captured: Rinn will not talk beyond confirming they work for "a consortium with interests in navigational data." If left with the station, Oll will take them into custody. If brought aboard the ship, the crew has a prisoner for Scene Five.

If Oll arrived during the fight: This is complicated. Oll saw Pale Table operatives attacking the crew in a cargo corridor. That puts the crew in a better position than Oll's original suspicion. He will not fire on the crew. He will want answers. If the crew engages with him honestly now, the path forward is cleaner than it was. See Scene 4A guidance for how Oll handles cooperation.

Transition from Scene 4B

The crew is aboard the Ember Drift or about to be. The station alarm is either running or it is not. Sev and Rinn are dealt with in some fashion.

Move to Scene Five.

If the station lockdown initiated (clamps engaged):

• Pilot check, Hard, to force undock before the clamps fully engage. On success, they scrape out. On failure, they need the Craft bypass (Average) to get the clamps released.

If the lockdown did not initiate:

• Normal undock, Pilot check Easy.

If Oll is now an ally after seeing the fight:

• Oll signals the Sentinel to stand down. They will not pursue.

If Oll is still an opponent:

• The Sentinel undocks two minutes after the Ember Drift. See Scene Five for the pursuit.