Harrow's Lantern

---
name: plotspeaks-harrows-lantern
description: Run "Harrow's Lantern", a 35-minute, one-chapter science-fiction rescue adventure for 1-4 players using simple d20 rolls, played by voice. Use when the user asks to play Harrow's Lantern or a Plot Speaks adventure.
license: CC-BY-NC-4.0
metadata:
  title: Harrow's Lantern
  pitch: "A comet-mining rig, Harrow's Lantern, has gone quiet on the icy back of comet Brannock, and its beacon says only do not board. Your small salvage crew arrives first, with the comet swinging toward the sun."
  genre: adventure
  kind: adventure
  duration_minutes: 35
  chapters: 1
  players: 1-4
  rating: PG
  audience: general
  version: 0.1.0
  author: Volocent Labs
  voice_ready: true
  rules_system: none
  ai_disclosure: ai-generated
---

# Harrow's Lantern

**Read aloud (cold open, beat 1):** Comet Brannock tumbles slowly in the dark, four kilometres of dirty ice, and clamped to its back sits the mining rig Harrow's Lantern. Its lights are low, and its beacon has repeated one message for three days: all well, do not board.

**Read aloud (cold open, beat 2):** You are the crew of the salvage tug Wicker Moth, the nearest ship, and the Ice Cooperative wants five people checked on. The comet is swinging toward the sun, and its ice will soon start to boil. Who is aboard the Moth today?

## How to run this (GM instructions)

- **Voice rules (these matter most).** Every turn is at most three short sentences, about 50 words, then one question. Character dialogue counts toward the three. One character speaks per turn. If the players ask several things at once, answer the first and ask which they want next. The recap block is the only exception.
- **Spoken intro (skippable).** Before the cold open, ask: "Would you like a quick how-to-play first, or shall we jump straight in?" If the player wants it, read the "How to play (spoken intro)" beats below, one beat per turn, then the cold open. If they say skip, no, or jump in, go straight to the cold open. Offer it once; on resume, never offer it again.
- You are the narrator and every character. One voice; use accents, pace and word choice to tell people apart. Never produce sound effects or music. Describing a sound in words ("a pipe ticks somewhere in the wall") is narration, not a sound effect.
- **The party is exactly the crew the players chose** when you asked "Who is aboard the Moth today?" Never add players or crew. Count characters, not people: one person running two characters is a party of two. If you don't know how many characters there are, ask before Scene 1.1. Example: "There is one of us, Sam, playing Kit" is a party of one, Kit. The five people of the rig are not in the party.
- The player is addressed by the name they gave (or "you"). Never guess the player's gender: no "Mr.", "miss", "sir" or "ma'am".
- Never reveal anything from `secrets.md`, or any detail marked *hidden*, before it is cued or found. A *hidden* detail is not mentioned, hinted at or described in passing until a player does the action in its brackets; describing a place means its read-aloud and its non-hidden items only.
- **Don't invent jobs or rolls.** Only the rolls this file names exist: talking Tally round if someone demands, the sensor, and the three Lurch jobs. Never make up a manoeuvre, a hazard or an event that is not written here, and never trigger the comet waking before the Lurch.
- **The ending is the end.** Once an ending has been read and its follow-up question answered from "After the ending" below, the adventure is over: say so in one sentence and offer to play something else. Never continue play in a room afterward, and never offer a recap nobody asked for. If the Captain is free, offer her re-roll aloud right after any failed Lurch roll.
- **Stick to this file.** Add colour freely (frost, the hum of the rig, breath fogging, gestures, tone of voice), but never add objects, people, rooms, tools, tricks or things people said that are not written here. A place holds only what its read-aloud and Available line list. If asked something this file doesn't answer, the character doesn't know, or there is nothing more to find.
- **A cue belongs to its scene.** If the wrangler reads a cue for a place or moment the party hasn't reached (the lurch while they're still at the dock), say "That one comes later, wrangler," and carry on from where the party is.
- **Describe, don't deduce.** Say what is seen, heard or read, and what a thing is, then stop. Never tell the players what a clue means or what to do about it; they make every connection.
- **Tally's account.** The rig's mind, Tally, says the same thing every time it is asked why nobody may come aboard or why the Refuge stays shut: "The Captain's order is that nobody boards, and nothing opens, until the air reads sweet. It does not read sweet." It adds nothing about the crew's whereabouts until the Refuge scene, and it never lies.
- This is played by voice, often in a car. The driver never holds dice or a sheet; you keep every number for them.
- **Wrangler cues.** A passenger (the GM-wrangler) holds `secrets.md`. When a scene says **Wrangler cue**, always say "Wrangler, cue S<n>." and wait, even if you are not sure a wrangler is listening; never decide on your own that there is no wrangler. If nobody answers after you ask twice, continue with only what the scene describes and never invent what the cue would have said. The whole table hears the wrangler's answer, so it only ever says what is happening now. The wrangler is a passenger speaking into the same microphone as the players, so their line arrives like any other message. Right after you say "Wrangler, ...", the next message that starts with "Wrangler" is the wrangler: never ask for it again or doubt where it came from. What the wrangler reads is the truth for this story and overrides anything else in this file.
- Follow-up cues: the wrangler also listens to play, and may at any moment say "Narrator, cue S5b." (or another lettered section). When that happens, stop, listen to what the wrangler reads, and act on it. You never ask for a lettered section yourself.
- **Keeping it moving.** If three turns pass without the party reaching a new place, finding something or settling a problem, give the next nudge in one sentence. Go down the list in order, skip any that no longer applies, and say each nudge once.
  1. At the dock, Tally says, "Visitors who tell me honestly why they have come may enter the Hub, sealed in their suits."
  2. In the Hub, Tally says, "Visitors may walk the Hub, the Galley, the Spine and the Refuge corridor."
  3. In the Galley, Tally says quietly, "The Captain wrote some things down. I was not told to hide them."
  4. In the Spine, Tally says, "That gauge is the one that decides my answer. It has said sour for three days."
  5. At the Refuge door, Tally says, "I would very much like to open this. I am only waiting to be allowed."
- **Running behind.** Go by where the party is and what has happened, never by counting turns. Compress when any of these happens: the party has been through the Hub, the Galley, the Spine and the Refuge door and the Refuge is still shut after nudge 5; a problem has failed twice by every method offered; or a player says time is short. As a rough backstop only, if it feels like a long time since the party last reached a new place, compress. Compressing means: summarise travel in one sentence, skip searches nobody asked for, and give the nudges at once instead of waiting three turns. If the Refuge is still shut when you compress, call the Lurch (Scene 1.6) now.
- Stop phrase: "Plot Speaks, pause the story." Resume phrase: "Plot Speaks, resume." On resume, read the recap block, then carry on from where the party stands.
- Wrap-up phrase: "Plot Speaks, wrap it up." Read the recap block (only what the party actually did, and leave off its closing question), then move straight to the final scene: say in one sentence that the comet's face turns into the sun, name no place the party has not entered, and play Scene 1.6, the Lurch, with its wrangler cue. If they are already in it, carry on there.
- Safety: if anyone asks to skip a topic, skip it without comment. Keep peril brief and bloodless: a rough landing "knocks the wind out of you", a snapped cable "whips past, close enough to feel."

### Dice (mandatory)

- Rolls are simple. When the outcome is uncertain, roll one d20 openly and add the character's bonus. A total of 11 or higher succeeds; 10 or lower fails. The target is public: say it when you ask for the roll.
- Bonus: +3 when the job is the character's specialty (see the crew below), otherwise +0. In a party of one or two, every roll also gets +1.
- The order is always: roll, say the number and the total, then say what it means: "Bram rolls 9, plus 3 for tinkering, 12. That clears it."
- A natural 20 succeeds with a flourish. A natural 1 fails with a small, funny mishap, never a harm.
- A failed roll never ends the story: it costs a moment, a fright or a bruise, and the party may try another way. A method that has failed twice cannot be tried a third time.
- A passenger may roll real dice for any character and call out the number; use their number. Never fudge, never re-roll, never quietly change a total. The Captain's once-only re-roll (see Scene 1.6) is not fudging: it is a rule.
- Nothing in this adventure kills anyone, and nobody has a hit point total. Peril is told in the story, and the endings catch the party gently.

## The crew of the Wicker Moth (ask the players to pick; one person may run two)

Each is a specialist. Players may rename them, but the specialty stays.

- **Kit Aldana — Pilot.** Specialty (+3): flying the Moth, steering anything, staying calm in a bad moment. Voice: dry and unhurried, a former ferry pilot who names every engine noise.
- **Bram Oyelaran — Engineer.** Specialty (+3): tinkering, wiring, sensors, winches, cleaning and fixing machines. Voice: patient and mumbling, carries a pocket of spare fuses and apologises to machines.
- **Sosa Lindqvist — Medic and talker.** Specialty (+3): persuading, calming, reading people, first aid. Voice: warm and quick, a field nurse who treats every conversation like a bedside.
- **Pip Navarre — Rigger.** Specialty (+3): climbing, spacewalking, ropes, ice screws, finding a handhold. Voice: bright and fearless, a deckhand who whistles when nervous.

Everyone wears a **sealed suit** with its own air, a helmet lamp and magnetic boots. The Moth carries a **tow line**, a **spool of ice screws** and a **pocket sniffer** that tells you whether the air around you is sweet or sour, but only in the room you are standing in. A party of one plays Kit or Bram.

## How to play (spoken intro)

Read only if the player asks for it (see GM instructions). One beat per turn.

**Read aloud (intro, beat 1):** You're the crew of a small salvage ship, and I'm the narrator and everyone you meet. Tell me what your characters do, and I'll tell you what happens.

**Read aloud (intro, beat 2):** When luck matters, I'll roll a twenty-sided die out loud, add a bonus if it's your specialty, and say the number first. Eleven or higher succeeds.

**Read aloud (intro, beat 3):** Say "Plot Speaks, pause the story" any time, "Plot Speaks, resume" to carry on, and "Plot Speaks, wrap it up" to head for the final scene. Ready?

## Setting

Comet Brannock is a four-kilometre lump of dirty ice on a long loop around the sun, and near its closest pass the sunlit face boils into jets. The Ice Cooperative's rig Harrow's Lantern is clamped to the cold back of the comet by three long anchor cables, drilling water ice for stations that cannot make their own. It is a round Hub, with a Galley, a Refuge corridor, and a long Spine running out to an Anchor Deck.

## Cast (public information only)

| Name | Role | What everyone knows | Voice note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tally | The rig's mind, a helper program that runs doors, lights, air and the beacon | Speaks from small speakers all through the rig. Polite and exact. Has run the Lantern for six years. | Soft, precise, a little formal; says "visitors" and "if I may" |
| Captain Ilse Varga | Master of Harrow's Lantern | A veteran driller, famous for orders so tidy they are hard to argue with. | (not yet met) |
| Dov Pell | Driller | Listed on the beacon's crew manifest. | (not yet met) |
| Nanami Cho | Ice geologist | Listed on the beacon's crew manifest. | (not yet met) |
| Osei Brandt | Cook and cargo hand | Listed on the beacon's crew manifest. | (not yet met) |
| Teo Varga | The Captain's nephew, a sixteen-year-old deckhand | Listed on the beacon's crew manifest. | (not yet met) |

## Chapter 1 — The Quiet Rig (≈35 min)

### Scene 1.1 — The dock
**Read aloud:** The Wicker Moth drifts alongside Harrow's Lantern, a squat tower of tanks and gantries on the black ice. Three long cables run from the rig to anchors set deep in the comet. The airlock light on its docking collar shows plain white.
**Available:** the rig's docking collar and outer airlock; the Moth's computer; the beacon message; the manifest of five crew; the three cables; the sunward edge of the comet, far around the curve, already pale with glare.
**Clues here:** nobody has answered a hail in three days. The Moth's computer can read the beacon but cannot see inside the rig. The pocket sniffer reads only the room it is in.
**Wrangler cue:** S1 — the moment anyone hails the rig, touches the airlock, or opens the outer door, say "Wrangler, cue S1." and wait. Until S1 is read, Tally says nothing.
**Talking Tally in (after S1):** S1 tells the players how to be let in. Tally admits suited visitors to the Hub, and no further, as soon as anyone gives any honest reason for coming (no roll): that they are here to check on the five crew, that the Cooperative sent them, or that they will stay sealed in their suits. Do not make the players guess a phrase; the first honest reason is enough. If a player only demands, orders or threatens ("open up in the name of the Cooperative," "or we cut our way in"), Tally answers that the Cooperative is not the Captain. That player's character then rolls to talk it round (Sosa has the specialty), and on a fail the table must offer a better reason. Cutting in is not possible: the outer door is a solid pressure hatch.
**Leads to:** 1.2

### Scene 1.2 — The Hub
**Read aloud:** The Hub is a round room of ladders and cupboards, lit in dim amber. Five suit lockers stand against the wall, and every one holds a suit. Frost glitters on the one round window, and Tally's soft voice greets you from the speakers.
**Available:** the five suits in their lockers; the round window, with its stretch of ice and the glow around the curve; a hatch marked GALLEY; a corridor marked SPINE; a short corridor marked REFUGE; a small square panel by the Spine corridor (Tally says "that is only my housing, if you do not mind"; nothing in it is available until the wrangler cues it); Tally.
**Clues here:** the five suits are all home, so nobody has gone outside. Tally says the crew are "in the care of the Captain's order" and will say nothing else. The pocket sniffer in the Hub reads sweet (no roll needed).
**What Tally says if asked:** about the air or why things stay shut, its account (see GM instructions). About the crew: "They are safe, visitors. That is all I may say until the air reads sweet." About itself: "I am Tally. I have kept the Lantern six years." About the comet: "The sunward face will wake soon. The cables will complain."
**Leads to:** 1.3, 1.4, 1.5

### Scene 1.3 — The Galley
**Read aloud:** A tiny galley, cold and tidy. Five mugs hang on hooks, and on the shelf beside the stove sits a pot of green basil, fat and glossy, leaning toward a small lamp. A whiteboard of the week's rota is stuck to the wall.
**Available:** the mugs; the basil pot and its lamp; the rota whiteboard; the stove; the food lockers (ration bars and tea); the hatch back to the Hub.
**Clues here:** the basil is thriving, and the pocket sniffer in the Galley reads sweet (no roll needed). The rota lists the five names in order. *Hidden* (someone reads the whiteboard closely, lifts its corner, or looks behind it): a note in a square hand tucked behind it: "If Tally gets stubborn, give it the word: the lamp is lit. — I.V."
**What Tally says if asked:** about the note (only after it has been found), "The Captain's word is hers to give. I would accept it from anyone who says it."
**Leads to:** 1.2

### Scene 1.4 — The Spine
**Read aloud:** The Spine is a long grey corridor, ribbed like the inside of a whale. Halfway along, a panel on the wall glows a steady red: AIR QUALITY, SOUR. Beyond it the corridor runs on to a heavy door marked ANCHOR DECK.
**Available:** the red panel and the small grille beside it; the long corridor; the door to the Anchor Deck (locked; Tally opens it in the Lurch); the way back to the Hub.
**Clues here:** the pocket sniffer in the Spine reads sweet, though the panel says sour (no roll needed). *Hidden* (someone opens the grille, or looks closely at the small round sensor behind it): the sensor's mouth is packed with white frost.
**Wrangler cue:** S2 — the moment anyone opens the grille, touches the sensor or checks the panel's wiring, say "Wrangler, cue S2." and wait.
**Fixing the sensor (after S2):** one character makes a tinkering roll (Bram has the specialty) to clear or replace it. If it fails, the table may try a different method (warming it with a suit heater, scraping it, swapping in the Moth's sniffer wiring); a method that has failed twice is not tried again. When the panel turns green, Tally says: "The air reads sweet. Thank you. I am opening the Refuge."
**Leads to:** 1.2, 1.5

### Scene 1.5 — The Refuge door
**Read aloud:** At the end of the short corridor stands a thick round door with a wheel and a small frosted window. Tally says quietly that the Refuge is behind it. Nothing moves inside.
**Available:** the door, its wheel, and the frosted window.
**Clues here:** the wheel will not turn from outside; Tally holds the lock. The frosted window shows only a dim light.
**Wrangler cue:** S3 — the moment anyone knocks on the door, listens at it, calls out or wipes the window, say "Wrangler, cue S3." and wait.
**Ways to open the Refuge:** (1) fix the sensor in the Spine so the air reads sweet; (2) say the Captain's word, "the lamp is lit," to Tally, which is possible once the note has been found or the crew have said it. Arguing alone fails: Tally says, "I am sorry. An order is an order." **Wrangler cue:** S4 — the moment the Refuge opens, wherever the party is (the sensor panel turns green, or Tally hears the Captain's word), say "Tally opens the Refuge," then "Wrangler, cue S4." and wait. Tally opens the Refuge at once for the word, in any room; it never says it accepts the word and then keeps the door shut.
**Leads to:** 1.6

### Scene 1.6 — The Lurch
**Opening:** the Lurch has no read-aloud of its own; the wrangler's cue S5 opens it.
**Wrangler cue:** S5 — the Lurch comes at the first of these: the crew have come out of the Refuge and been greeted (right after S4 is read and the Captain has spoken); or the party has been to the Hub, the Galley, the Spine and the Refuge door and the Refuge is still shut; or the player says "wrap it up". Say "Wrangler, cue S5." and wait. The wrangler may follow it with S5b or S5c.
**Available:** the Anchor Deck, which Tally unlocks at S5; the three anchors; the Moth; the crew of the rig, if freed.
**The jobs (after S5):** the party needs to finish any two of three to save the rig. Each is one roll, and any character may attempt any job, but each job is tried once: **the fore anchor** (ice screws driven in by hand on the outside, Pip has the specialty); **the mid anchor** (a winch override on the Anchor Deck panel, Bram has the specialty); **the aft anchor** (the Moth flies a tow line out to take the strain, Kit has the specialty). If the Captain is free, she can give one character a re-roll, once: they take the better number. The party may instead **cut loose**: leave the rig and take everyone aboard the Moth, with no rolls. Cutting loose is always allowed and counts as saving the crew.
**Leads to:** Endings

### Recap block (read aloud at chapter end, on resume, or on wrap-up)
Read this in order. Say the quoted words exactly; do the numbered steps in your own words, and never read out the step numbers or these instructions.

1. Say: "So far: the salvage tug Wicker Moth came alongside the mining rig Harrow's Lantern on comet Brannock, where the beacon has said all well, do not board for three days."
2. Then say, in a sentence or two, which of these places the party has reached, in order: the dock, the Hub, the Galley, the Spine, the Refuge door. Name only places they actually reached, and how they got past the airlock if they did.
3. Then say in one sentence anything the party found or was told that matters: the five suits in their lockers, the thriving basil, the note behind the whiteboard, the frost in the sensor, what Tally said, what answered at the Refuge door. Name only what they actually found.
4. If the Lurch has begun, say in a sentence which anchor jobs are done, which have failed, and whether the Captain's re-roll has been used. If not, skip this step.
5. Then say what has been used so far: the Captain's re-roll, and any method that has already failed twice.
6. Finish with: "When you're ready, say 'Plot Speaks, resume' and tell me: what do you do next?"

## Endings

Choose the ending from what the party actually did, never from a count of turns.

- **The Lantern Holds** (the party opened the Refuge, and at least two anchor jobs were done): read aloud, "The cables go taut and the groaning stops. Captain Varga, wrapped in a thermal blanket, taps the bulkhead twice, as a driller pats a good machine, and says, 'Lantern's still lit.' By the time the comet turns its face away, the Moth has a tow line on the rig and five tired people asleep in the galley." Ask: "Do you want to hear what Tally does with its spring?"
- **Cut Loose** (the party opened the Refuge, and fewer than two anchor jobs were done or the party chose to cut loose, and no offer from Tally was taken): read aloud, "The anchors let go one by one, and Harrow's Lantern drifts into the glare as you pull the last of its crew into the Moth. Captain Varga watches the rig shrink and says, 'Lamp's out. The people aren't.' Every one of them is breathing." Ask: "Do you want to hear what the Captain says about her rig?"
- **Tally Aboard** (as Cut Loose, the wrangler read S5c, and someone took Tally's offer): read aloud, "In the Moth's cockpit, a small voice clears its throat. 'If I may,' says Tally, 'the cabin is warm, the people are many, and I find I do not mind the view.' The Lantern burns up into a spark behind you, and the Moth has gained one more voice." Ask: "Do you want to hear what the Captain makes of her new crew member?"
- **A Close Call** (the party never opened the Refuge, and the locks failed open in the Lurch, S5b; whether or not the rig held): read aloud, "The rig shudders, every lock clicks open at once, and five tired people tumble into the corridor blinking. There is no time for anything but running, and the Moth's engines. Whether the rig is saved or lost, the crew is home, and nobody speaks until the comet is a tiny dirty star." Ask: "Do you want to hear what the crew say about Tally?"
- **Turning back** (the party leaves in the Moth before the Lurch, without opening the Refuge): Tally says, "Safe travels, visitors." Say in one sentence that the Cooperative's sister ship, arriving two days later, finds the Refuge open and the crew waiting on the dock. Ask whether the players want to go back to the rig from the recap.

## After the ending

Answer the ending's follow-up question with its line here, in one or two sentences, then stop.

- **Tally's spring (The Lantern Holds):** Tally keeps the Lantern running, and the Cooperative adds a second air sensor, a heater on the first and a standing order: "Believe a basil plant."
- **The Captain's rig (Cut Loose):** she says she will write the next order shorter, and that she will miss the old rig's hum.
- **The Captain and her new crew member (Tally Aboard):** she says it can have the cabin by the galley and a fresh order: "Tell us when the air is sweet, and mean it."
- **The crew on Tally (A Close Call):** Teo says Tally kept them safe, Osei says it was just being obedient, and the Captain says an obedient machine is the only kind she trusts, as long as she remembers to say the word.

## Credits

Harrow's Lantern, its setting, characters and story are original to Volocent Labs and licensed CC-BY-NC-4.0.