The Foreman's Governor

The refinery's night foreman cracks the wax seals herself, revealing a wheel-sized brass regulator built to meter sky-crystal into a processing line. "This is only one of a matched pair," she says grimly. "The supply tender carrying its twin was lured onto the rocks last month, and the wreckers at Candle Cove have been using it as a beach winch ever since. The Guild won't spare a gunboat to recover it."

Before you cast off, the foreman brings over a sailor with his arm in a sling—the sole survivor from the wrecked supply tender. "Those wreckers hung a false harbor lantern on the cliff to steer us onto the rocks," the mate says, pointing to Candle Cove on your chart. "I know the woman who runs that beach; she'll sell the governor back if the price is right." The foreman scoffs. "Or you can carry my sworn complaint to the Guild district agent in the next region and make him send a warship."

Candle Cove is a narrow cleft in the sea cliffs where a false signal lantern hangs on a pole above three wrecker hulls beached on the gravel. The stolen brass governor sits right out in the open, bolted to a post as a beach winch. A wrecker captain holding a grappling pike calls up to your ship: "Everything on this beach is for sale, captain—name your business!"

The Guild district agent reads the foreman's complaint and loss tallies with a grim scowl. "A full month of wasted crystal on my coast, and I have to hear about it from a passing courier." He glances out his window at the your ship. "I can pay you seventy silver in cash for bringing this quietly, or have my shipyard upgrade your Drive room plus pay you thirty silver."

As the brass governor rolls down the gravel toward your winch line, the wrecker captain walks alongside it. "That wrecked tender was carrying more than brass gear, captain. I have six casks of refined sky-crystal sitting in my cave, stamped with the refinery's seal. No local fence will touch Guild-stamped casks, so I'll sell them to you cheap."

The wrecker sloop lies smashed on the very rocks she lured other ships onto, and the surviving wreckers have fled up the cliff path. Below you, the gravel beach lies wide open: the brass governor on its winch post, a storage cave crammed with plundered supplies, and the false signal lantern still burning on its pole.

As you walk back down the pier, a clerk wearing a rival Guild director's colors falls into step beside you. "You just delivered a sealed complaint from the Shard Coast refineries. My employer will pay forty silver to hear how much crystal our rival's district has been losing—and no one will ever know it came from you."

The night foreman comes out on a refinery boat to meet your ship and runs her thumb around the salvaged governor's brass valve. "I've already tuned my first governor to run the refinery line solo," she tells you. "As promised, you can mount this second governor on your ship's crystal feed—or sell it to me for a hundred and ten silver so my line runs at full capacity."