The Hush
The Hush
Read aloud
The morning bell over Hearthfall rings its usual three, and the quiet afterward feels wrong. Fishers mend nets without talking; three grey-cloaked delegates eat bread at the edge of the square, listening to the bell instead of the crowd. When one notices you watching, she turns her face to the wall.
Run the session
Cheat sheet
Objectives
- 1Learn why the returned delegates refuse to speak about the Renewal.
- 2Recover and read the missing page from the Watch’s Renewal-night ledger.
- 3Stop the nest feeding on Hearthfall’s conduits and bring the southern hearth back to life.
- 4Gain Brede’s trust and hear the count he can bear to share.Optional
The clock
The Hush Track has 6 boxes. Mark one whenever the party learns a true but unfinished fact about the Renewal. Suggested facts include Orsolya’s statement, “We read it and we signed it”; Leif’s statement, “It was a fair trade, they said”; the one-beat heat dip on the ledger page; the “Counted twice. Different hands” margin note; the nest’s feeding rhythm; and Brede’s silent count. When the track fills, Brede breaks his oath in front of the party. Failed social checks do not remove boxes or block clues. On the third social failure, advance the relevant faction clock by 1 if using one.
Scenes
- 0:00The Bell and the Quiet
- 0:35The Council Hearing
- 1:35The Missing Ledger Page
- 2:25The Hearthfall Conduits
- 3:40The Silent Delegate
Cast
- Orsolya VennikWitness
- Maren TolleAlly
- Brede AldunWitness
- Hearth-Mother YrsaQuestgiver
The hook
Set the scene
Begin with the morning bell in Hearthfall, then give the players room to notice the unusual quiet before explaining anything. After they have had a chance to observe the square, a Warmwater Watch runner arrives with the Council of Three’s summons. Use the delegates’ silence and the cooling southern hearth as two leads, not as a single mystery with one immediate answer.
How Hearth-Mother Yrsa asks
After the players have witnessed the morning bell and the crowd’s quiet, a Warmwater Watch runner finds them and delivers a summons from Hearth-Mother Yrsa.
The Council asks for a discreet inquiry, with particular care not to turn the delegates’ fear into a public spectacle.
Rumours
Scenes
about 4.5 hours0:00
35 min
socialThe table is here
1. The Bell and the Quiet
Hearthfall square and the Council’s nearby meeting room.
Open on the three-note bell and the unnatural hush in Hearthfall. Let the party decide what to observe or ask. Once they have felt the mood of the square, a Watch runner delivers Yrsa’s summons. The Council gives the party permission to investigate quietly and points them toward both the delegates and the Watch’s records.
NextThe summons leads into the party’s first chosen lead. They may travel to Auroraville for the hearing, investigate the Watch-house annex, or descend to the conduits.
0:35
60 min
social
2. The Council Hearing
The Council hall in Auroraville, with a quieter follow-up conversation possible at a nearby inn.
The Council of Three hears Orsolya Vennik, Leif Stenholm, and Brede Aldun in Auroraville’s council hall. The delegates are under oath. A direct question earns a refusal; patience, privacy, a Favor, or an act of care can earn a single unfinished fact. A Religion check or History check recognizes “counted twice” as a Registry formula for a debt settled at the cost of delay. Hostile questioning ends the public session at the second outburst, but the party can try again privately at an inn that evening.
NextWhen the hearing ends, the party can follow the paper trail back to Hearthfall’s flooded Watch-house or take the road to the conduits.
1:35
50 min
exploration
3. The Missing Ledger Page
The flooded annex beneath the Warmwater Watch-house in Hearthfall.
Maren Tolle shows the party the Renewal-night ledger, whose page has been cut out. The annex is chest-deep in near-freezing water; a Dexterity saving throw avoids taking cold damage on entry. The page is pressed under a flagstone beside the sluice gate. It records a heat dip of exactly one beat on the night of the Renewal. A margin note reads, “Counted twice. Different hands.” Older ledgers, if Maren trusts the party, show one similar dip during the early Cooling Years, between 203 and 211 HC.
NextThe restored page gives the party reason to return to the delegates or continue beneath Hearthfall, where the cooling is already affecting the town’s heat lines.
2:25
75 min
combat
4. The Hearthfall Conduits
The conduit chamber below Hearthfall’s southern hearth.
The party descends into a damp conduit chamber where Sipho-Mites feed along the three-way junction. Pale bodies crawl in measured pulses; a larger Matron rests in the warm-water vent. Run the encounter with the valve as a clear alternative objective to defeating every foe. Studying the nest for a minute with a Intelligence (Investigation) check reveals its feeding pattern: three swarms feed, the fourth waits, then another feeds. When the valve opens, the swarms scatter and the Matron retreats. The party may kill her or herd her away to a dead vent.
The Hearthfall ConduitsNextThe southern hearth’s warmth returns up the stairwell, carrying the party back into the town’s changed mood and toward the delegates’ final response.
3:40
35 min
social
5. The Silent Delegate
A private room in Hearthfall or Auroraville, followed by the restored southern hearth.
If the party has learned six true but unfinished facts, or shows the restored ledger page to the delegates, Brede taps a slow count against the table: five taps and a pause. He says only, “It's counting. It's always been counting. Please do not make me say more.” The town’s southern hearth burns again. A fisher’s child laughs at the top of the conduit stairs, and when the bell rings its three notes, people stay in the square.
NextThe warmth carries into the party’s next journey: two days toward Kelpstrand, past cooling vents and a roadside hearth-keeper who asks if the Council has spoken yet.
Behind it
What people believe
The Dawn Compact was renewed at the Dawn Nexus a month ago, but the delegates who returned to Hearthfall will say only that it was done.
The Council of Three asks the party to learn why they will not speak before the town’s unease becomes panic. At the same time, a vent field beneath Hearthfall is cooling, and the Warmwater Watch has found an unexplained gap in its records.
Background
The Dawn Compact was renewed a month ago at the Dawn Nexus.
Three delegates returned to Hearthfall with the same narrow account: the Renewal was done. They still eat, work, and sleep, but they avoid speaking about what they witnessed. As the town grows uneasy, a vent field beneath Hearthfall has gone quiet and something is drawing heat from its conduits. The party can investigate the hearing, the Watch’s records, and the failing heat lines in any order.
The stakes
If the party cannot restore the heat lines, Hearthfall’s southern hearth remains cold and the town’s fear deepens.
If they pressure the delegates publicly, the Council hearing may close and the silence may become a public conflict. Even if the party succeeds, the evidence points toward a count without explaining its meaning.
Encounters
1The Hearthfall Conduits
Combat
A 40-by-30-foot chamber beneath Hearthfall, with a 10-foot-diameter pit of warm water at its center. Copper pipes cross the walls; the brass wheel-valve is 25 feet from the entry stair. A creature standing in the vent pit has half cover against cold effects, but the swarms have advantage on attacks against it. A conduit pipe has AC 15 and 20 hit points; breaking one releases scalding steam in a 10-foot cone, requiring a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or causing 2d6 fire damage.
Foes
4 Sipho-Mite Swarms (custom creature, CR 1/2 each)
1 Siphon Drone (custom creature, CR 2)
1 Mite Matron (custom creature, CR 3)
ComplicationThe three-way junction is failing. At the start of round 4 and every third round afterward, the chamber cools sharply. Each non-Thermalist creature in the room must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of exhaustion. A character can end the fight early by reaching the valve and opening it with two successful DC 14 Strength (Athletics) checks on separate turns. The valve housing vents scalding steam unless the junction lever is first closed; a character can find the lever with a DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation) check or appropriate tools. Once the valve is open, the swarms disperse and the Matron retreats toward the vent.
ScalingFor three characters, remove the Siphon Drone. For five characters, add one Sipho-Mite Swarm. For a party with substantially fewer or more than four characters, adjust the number of swarms first. These creatures are custom campaign creatures, not presented as official D&D monsters.
Cast
4Orsolya Vennik
Witness, veteran sea-route trader and one of the three sworn delegates.
WantsOrsolya wants the town to understand that the delegates’ silence comes from fear of what their words might mean, not disdain for the people asking.
““I've sailed forty winters. I know a quiet harbor and a held breath. This is the second kind.””
Maren Tolle
Ally, Warmwater Watch ledger-keeper.
WantsMaren wants the Warmwater Watch’s records restored and treated carefully. She distrusts guesses, but will share older ledgers with anyone who approaches her respectfully.
““A reading is a reading. If it's missing, someone took it. If someone took it, someone knew it mattered.””
Brede Aldun
Witness, Ursoid warden and sworn delegate.
WantsBrede wants the party to stop probing the Renewal before fear turns into panic. He is not protecting a person or faction; he is afraid of the entry itself.
““It's counting. It's always been counting. Please do not make me say more.””
Hearth-Mother Yrsa
QuestgiverQuestgiver, member of the Council of Three.
WantsHearth-Mother Yrsa wants a truthful account before Hearthfall’s unease spreads to Auroraville. She will support a patient inquiry and resist public pressure tactics.
““Find out what is frightening them, and do it without making the whole town afraid first.””
How it ends
Rewards
Items
A Warmwater Watch lantern, still lit and usable as a mundane lantern.
A coil of Watch rope recovered from the conduit maintenance niche.
On a win
The party establishes what the delegates can safely say, restores the missing Watch record, and stops the siphon-mites from draining Hearthfall’s heat.
The town’s southern hearth flares back to life. When the three-note bell sounds again, people remain in the square instead of turning away. The party reaches level 5 by milestone, and the Kelpstrand bell-crew’s report opens the next leg of the investigation.
What it leaves open
If it fails
- The party uses hostile questioning in open session.
- The hearing is halted at the second outburst. The party earns no Hush Track box from that public session, but can approach a delegate privately that evening or return after the ledger investigation.
- The party fails to restore the page without damaging it.
- The margin note is torn, but the page still provides the recorded one-beat heat dip. The party misses the clue that the count was recorded by different hands.
- The party retreats from the conduit chamber or cannot stop the nest.
- The southern hearth continues to cool until the nest is cleared or the junction valve is opened. Residents begin rationing heat, but the adventure can continue and the party can return to the conduits later.
- The party fails a social check. The failure costs time, not a Hush Track box. On the third such failure, advance the relevant faction clock by 1 if the campaign is tracking it.
- The delegates remain guarded. The party can still earn their trust through a private conversation, an offered Favor, or an act of care; no clue is permanently lost.
Complications (d6)
- 1A crowd gathers outside the Council hall after hearing that the party has questioned the delegates. A character must calm the crowd with a DC 13 Persuasion check or the hearing is suspended until evening.
- 2The annex sluice shifts with the tide, raising the chest-deep water by a foot. Anyone searching the flooded room must succeed on a DC 12 Strength (Athletics) check to keep their footing.
- 3Maren notices a visitor handling the Watch ledgers without permission and orders the records closed. A sincere apology or a small act of service restores access; arguing costs an hour.
- 4A conduit coughs out hot vapor across a narrow passage. Each creature in the area makes a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 1d6 fire damage on a failure.
- 5One delegate is absent from the public hearing, having gone to an Auroraville inn. A DC 13 Wisdom (Insight) check during a discreet conversation identifies the right hearth-room.
- 6A Watch runner reports the southern hearth is cooling again. The party can continue its current task, but Hearthfall’s residents begin gathering fuel and asking whether the Council knows what is happening.
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