Read All About Death!

A one-shot adventure for Crystal Heart

Puftzburg, Bogovia’s non-official capital city,
is a place of contradictions. The residents
Adventure Synopsis
are known for being some of the toughest, The Agents are sent to track leads around
roughest people in the world, yet most of Puftzburg, after two mailmen are found
them are afraid of black cats and broken dead, supposedly because the newspaper
mirrors. The Tower of the Moon stands they were meant to distribute contains some
proudly in the middle of town, a centre of news that someone wants to cover up. Af-
scientific study of the heavens, but most of ter uncovering the stories behind the most
its findings are used by astrologists and in suspicious articles, the Agents realise none
heated sermons. And it has new, urban tech- of them are related to the case.
nologies, suspiciously eyed by a traditional, After someone breaks into the Mail Ser-
stubborn society. vice’s printing room, the Agents follow the
Customising the Adventure: This adven- trail of ink to the Assembly Hall, where they
ture requires a big, medieval city and the face off against the true culprit: the tradi-
basic Savage Worlds rules; it doesn’t have to tionalist alderman Nachs and his crazed rats,
be run in the Crystal Heart world. The rules which were drawn to the Crystal-touched
for Crystals are summarised in the free-to- ink in the newspaper.
download Starter Set, but if your PCs aren’t
Agents, these rules are not needed, since this Shards
adventure has no Crystals. This adventure features a Crystal shard. A
shard is a broken piece of a larger Crystal,
that is only capable of creating a single, spe-
cific, supernatural effect. Unlike Crystals,
anyone who touches a shard can use its pow-
er safely, by making a Spirit roll.

Written by Eran Aviram Adventure

Art by Aviv Or
Graphics based on design by Manuel Serra
Background
Saez and Ruben Smith-Zempel Recently, the Puftzburg Mail Service start-
This game references the Savage Worlds game ed using their brand new printing press to
system, available from Pinnacle Entertainment print a weekly pamphlet in which they de-
Group at www.peginc.com. Savage Worlds scribe various occurences from the city and
and all associated logos and trademarks are beyond. They call it “the News Letter”, and
copyrights of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. it’s the latest innovation of Clara Blaum, the
Used with permission. Pinnacle makes no head of the Mail Service. Having recently
representation or warranty as to the quality, vi- come into office, inheriting the title after
ability, or suitability for purpose of this product. her father died, Clara brought in the fancy
(and costly) printing press all the way from
© 2019 Eran Aviram and Aviv Or, Up to Four
Fjordstad, but had nothing to actually do
Players www.uptofourplayers.com
with it, until she came up with the idea for
the News Letter, just a few weeks ago. Then
her mailmen started dying.
The person responsible for all of Blaum’s
troubles is Nachs Fitzroy, an alderman, one
of thirty Representatives of the People that

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gather in Puftzburg’s Assembly Hall to give The News Letter’s ink draws the atten-
directives and dictate laws. He’s a strict be- tion of rats. For most readers of the Letter,
liever in a stronger, more cohesive Bogovia, this just means that it tends to be stolen or
and has been trying to nationalise the Mail bitten by rats. The two dead mailmen, how-
Service for years. With Clara’s father out of ever, were carrying large bundles of Letters,
the way, he believed he could push Clara into and thus were killed by hungry, half-crazed
giving in—but she refuses, in typical Bogovi- swarms.
an stubbornness, claiming the Service is, and No one is aware of this fact; even Nachs
shall remain, her family’s business. While doesn’t know what his shard actually does
there are other delivery services around
Puftzburg, none of them are as praised as
the Mail Service—if Nachs wants to create a Beginning the
national service, he’ll have to convince Clara
or take her property by force. He’s chosen
Adventure
the latter. The international agreements that allow Syn
After Clara bought the printing press and Agents to scour the Lands in search of Crys-
began offering copying services, Nachs se- tals without coming into conflicts with lo-
cretly used his influence in the Scribers and cal authorities, also allow said authorities to
Bookbinders’ guilds to push against the use ask—essentially, demand—that Agents help
of the machine, and with some help from with policing and maintaining the peace.
the Church managed to ban the machine for While the Agents travel through or around
“creating mere echos of the True Words of Puftzburg, a local
Men, unfit to be read by any Moon-fearing police constable
individual, for these “printed” words shall asks them to visit
erode the soul!” the Puftzburg’s
The ban was what forced Clara to start Mail S ervice
her own publication. She started gathering and help Clara
news from around town, printing them in a solve the mys-
weekly bulletin, and have her mailmen of- tery of her dead
fer these News Letters to the recipients of mailmen.
their packages and letters, for cheap. Despite
the Church’s objection for printed text, the
people loved it.
Nachs’s response came two weeks ago.
One night, he managed to sneak into the
Mail Service’s cellar, and placed a Crystal
shard he owns into the ink barrel. Nachs
wasn’t sure what the shard actually does, but
it seemed to poison drinks (just ask Clara’s
father…), so he hoped it will poison the ink
as well, perhaps ruining the machine. In-
stead, something else happened—mailmen
started dying.

What's Going On
The shard’s only ability is to attract rats.
Nachs’s previous “poison” assassination
attempts didn’t actually poison his victims;
instead, when the bodies were found, every-
one just assumed the many rat bites came
after the death, when in fact they were the
cause of death.

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 The police forces, being corrupt, lazy for a second round (of regular mail) around
and superstitious, will not come near this noon. No one saw or heard anything, the
case themselves. Everyone already “knows” bodies were found around late morning.
that the “blasphemous” printing press is to Clara believes the cause to the murders
blame somehow, but the police cannot just is something printed in the News Letter
force Clara to destroy it, nor are they willing itself—one of the articles must contain
to come near the machine. They have better something so scandalous, so dangerous,
things to do than to draw the attention of that someone is willing to kill in order to
the Church. prevent the word from spreading. Having
just created free press in Bogovia, she is so
Clara Blaum’s excited by its amazing power, that she just
Introduction can’t fathom any other possible reason one
Clara is very happy to see the Agents, and would want to kill her people. In this, she
will tell them everything she knows (In- is both right and wrong, but mostly wrong.!
cluding most of paragraphs 1, 3 and 4 in
the Adventure Background. Clara is unaware
of Nachs’s involvement in her father’s death
Chasing Headlines
or the ban). She explains all about the News Clara will give the Agents a copy of the
Letter, because she believes it’s important News Letter. It’s a single sheet, with sever-
to the case. al articles printed on one side and a simple
Fritz and Genna are dead. Fritz’s body was message at the bottom, “5 Penny—2 penny
found in an alley, a week ago. The cause of discount if you bring news we can print—
death is unknown, but the body was bitten not including Magra, stop bothering us
by rabid rats, which is why it was exhumed with your stories about inflated frogs, no
that evening. Genna’s body was found two one cares”
days ago in a different alley. (It too was bit- The following are the headlines from the
ten by rats, but this doesn’t seem strange to News Letter, most of them look suspicious
Clara, so she will not mention this unless and worthy of investigation.
someone asks for more details about the
“Y Requires M to the G Alley Half
body). Genna’s body is now in the Medicari-
Moon”
um, where the doctors have probably already
The article itself is just a simple, somewhat
cut her to bits. Bogovian medical science is
boring poem about love.
in its infancy, and very messy.
Clara says this article was paid for by an
Clara noticed a strange connection be-
anonymous contributor. She can give the
tween the two deaths: Both Fritz and Genna
Agents a description of the person: young,
were carrying bundles of the News Letter,
athletic man, tried to cover his well-made
and only bundles of the News Letter. This
clothes with a large cloak, was wearing a
was never done before—the News Letter
Forkhead hat. Forkhead is the name of a
started as an added bonus to the regular
nearby village (less than an hour’s walk),
deliveries, but proved very successful, ne-
famous for their distinctive style of hats
cessitating its own delivery man. The News
and for the noble Forkhead family who’s in
Letter themselves were found near the bod-
charge of the place.
ies, spread out around the alleys, ripped to
shreds. Both Fritz and Genna carried the Yovesh Forkhead is in love with the beau-
same issue of the News Letter; the issue tiful, naive Moichta, a resident of Puftzburg’s
Fritz was about to deliver never made it to Shelter for the Orphaned and Diseased (She’s
the public, and even though a whole week an orphan, not diseased). Moichta recently
passed, Clara saw no reason to print a new joined the beggars’ choir in one of the city’s
one. squares, and Yovesh heard her enchanting
singing voice and fell in love. The two can’t
Both mailmen were walking outside
be seen together in public, so they meet in
during the early hours of the morning, in
various secret hideouts—Yovesh uses the
order to finish with the deliveries in time

4
News Letter to inform Moichta of their next realise all of this with a Commom Knowl-
meeting, using a simple code. He enjoys the edge check, or by asking Clara.
thrill of being secretive a little too much, and Shmorp will clear time in his schedule to
doesn’t have any plans for when his forbid- meet the Agents in the aldermen’s Assembly
den relationship will eventually be discov- Hall. He employs a bodyguard, Bella the Big.
ered. The young noble will probably blame Should the Agents imply or accuse Shmorp
Moichta for seducing him, in order to avoid for being behind the murders, Bella will be
punishment by his parents, for consorting insulted, turning to her boss in anger, ask-
with the poor. ing why he didn’t just use her to shake the
The Circus is in Town! man (she has d10 in Intimidation, and loves
The Amazing Mudbath and his Amazing to use it).
Squeaking Cow are back in town, after Shmorp, of course, has no idea what
doing a tour of the countryside during the they’re talking about, and searching his of-
summer. The cow, unfortunately, was eaten fice doesn’t reveal anything, except for some
by wolves. So was Mudbath. The circus is hidden caches of cigarettes, all empty now
in shambles, and most details in the article because Shmorp really is trying to change
are false, an effort by Mudbath’s employees his ways and atone.
to draw a crowd. Some of these false details, Shmorp is an avid reader of the News
such as “A dancing man-eating crocodile!” Letter, he has been collecting all of them
and “the secret, deformed bastard son of a in a drawer in his desk. If the Agents open
famous lord!” might draw some suspicion the drawer and take out the pile of Letters,
from the Agents. the action incites the local rats to become
The employees, trying to keep people from a swarm, which attacks at once.
learning about Mudbath’s absence, will be During their visit to the Assembly Hall,
mean and uncooperative (Persuasion -2). Nachs notices the Agents in action; this
They’ll refuse to show any of the attractions might be the trigger that makes him go af-
until the big show, in a few days time. The ter the printing press.
desperate employees are hoping to scam as
many people as they can into the great tent, Rats Eat Old Man Humfrey’s
then run away with the ticket money while Mango
the audience waits for the non-existent at- Most of the article is dedicated to a futile
tractions. effort to explain what’s a mango and what
does it looks like; it assumes everyone al-
Alderman Shmorp Caught ready know who Old Man Humfrey is.
Smoking (Common Knowledge check for Bogovian
The Bogovian religion is against smoking, Agents—he’s a famous alderman who retired
claiming the vapours obscure the eyes, years ago, and is still held in much respect).
which should always remain clear to allow
This headline seems unrelated to the mur-
the light of the Sun and the Moon to en-
ders, but it’s actually relevant—Humfrey
ter the body. While many commoners still
never used to have rat problems, until he
smoke, people in important positions are
started getting the News Letter.
expected to refrain from indulging in the
pleasure (in other words, they need to do Other Leads
so in secrecy).
The Agents might decide to chase other
Shmorp, a thin fellow with a scruffy beard, leads, and might uncover what’s going on.
is a relatively new alderman. The Bishop
has already censored him for being caught Rats
smoking, but the common people in the If visiting the homes of people who buy the
street aren’t aware of this fact; The article in News Letter on a regular basis, the Agents
the News Letter will make his indiscretion can hear them mentioning offhandedly that
known to the public, and for a new alder- the Letters is always stolen or bitten by rats,
man, that’s really bad news. The PCs can or they can witness signs of the presence
of rats. If the Agents carry a large stack of

5
 News Letter for some reason, they might Several rat traps are placed around the
get attacked by a swarm of rats. This might room, which is quite normal in Puftzburg.
bring them to investigate the printing room, After using the machine (about once a week,
where the News Letter is made; see the next for the Letter), she needs to come down
act. several times a day to get rid of the dead
rats, because so many of them seem to run
Medicarium
around; this is somewhat unusual.
Genna’s body, dissected beyond recognition,
is no longer available for examination. The The Break-in
doctors might be willing to discuss the cause
Nachs has been following the events from
of death with the Agents—they don’t have
afar, beginning to suspect that the shard
an autopsy (who cares about a commoner?)
he left in the ink barrel had something to
but the doctor who received the body did
do with the deaths. While he didn’t intend
notice that the only cause of death seemed
for anyone to get killed, he’s not apologetic
to be vicious rat bites, which seemed bizarre.
about “having done what needs to be done”.
The doctors, all female (Bogovians believe He is, however, not interested in seeing any-
all things biological are best understood by one else die, and so he decided to retrieve
women), are condescending, disgusted by the shard. In his mind, the fact that this will
Syn’s unholy ways, and generally obnoxious, also make it harder for investigators to re-
requiring a Persuasion roll with -2 to agree alise his involvement, is just “a fortunate
to any request. coincidence.”

Printing Room
At the end of the first day of investigation,
Nachs and his men sneak into the printing

Break-in room under the Mail Service, in order to

steal back the shard he left in the ink bar-
Technically, the printing room holds a ma- rel. The brutes will open the windows, and
jor clue—the shard. However, because it’s Nachs will rappel down on a rope. He’ll
buried in an ink barrel, it’s unlikely it’ll be break open the ink barrel and kick it, spill-
found even with a meticulous search of the ing the ink over the floor. He’ll then pick
room. Nachs Fitzroy left very little clues to up the shard and escape with his men back
his first break-in. toward his chamber in the Assembly Hall.
He already plans to blame the breaking-in on
The Printing Room a gang of local teens, “proving this infernal
Clara uses the large cellar under the Mail machine is inciting our youth to violence!”
Service’s building as the printing room. It Clara will be alerted by the echoing sound
has a very high ceiling (about 15 feet). During of the fallen ink barrel, but will be too late to
the day, it’s lit thanks to wide, dirty windows catch the culprits in action. Nachs, however,
along the upper northern wall (at street lev- was stained by the ink.
el), and an oil lamp. During the night, the The Agents can use Notice to follow
door is locked and no one is supposed to the ink stains throughout the streets (-2,
be here. the black ink blends with darkness in the
The room hosts the large, hand-operated streets), or Persuasion to ask around for a
printing press, build up of various pieces group of “four man-sized shadowy figures”,
into a contraption about the size of a cart. which is all Clara managed to see before they
Next to the press is a stack of large rolls of disappeared. The ink stains keep drawing
paper, on top of a heightened wooden plat- hungry rats throughout the night, and by
form for when the cellar is flooded by rain, morning, a trail of dead rats, poisoned by
and a barrel of ink (with the shard inside), the ink, connects the Mail Service house and
tightly closed. There’s a replacement barrel the Assembly Hall. Most people see this as
of ink in the corner, next to a pile of dis- a sign (of what, that’s up to them).
carded crates.

6
Confronting the An Intimidation or Persuasion check can
make Nachs get to the matter at hand. He’ll
Alderman confess to all of his deeds, explain that it was
necessary, and at most say that he was “sad-
Should the Agents arrive at his office during dened to hear of the brutal deaths”, although
the day, Nachs will do everything in his he has no intention of paying compensations
power to avoid them, and then use some of to the families of Fritz and Genna, nor is he
his influence to have them detained by the going to allow any of this become public
police or the Church—just long enough to knowledge.
enact his plans for the evening. In any case, Nachs will demand the Agents
The final confrontation can take place af- leave the city by tomorrow morning and not
ter the Agents track Nachs back to his cham- return. Should they refuse, he will not hes-
ber in the Assembly Hall. It might also begin itate to attack.
in the printing room, if the Agents are there
when Nachs breaks in. Rat fight!
Nachs is conniving and brutal, but par- By the time the Agents face Nachs, he has
adoxically, believes that “a true Bogovian already realised the shard can control rats
never allows a lie to roll off his tongue”. He in some way. Should it be in his possession,
will avoid direct answers if possible, talking he’ll activate it, summoning two swarms of
about the importance of Bogovian values, rabid rats right before initiating combat.
and the danger of having the printing press
in private hands—the masses should only
know what the Church deems worthy of
knowing!

7
 Major Players and
Important Items
Nachs Fitzroy, Alderman Brown Shard of Rat Allure
“Alderman Fitzroy to you”, is a stern men A person holding the shard firmly with one
in his mid-20’s, who will go to any length to hand can use the Summon Ally power with
push his beloved Bogovia out of the swamps. no Power Points cost, but only to summon a
He believes the best way to do so is to “do swarm of rats ("Swarm", Savage Worlds), with
what we always did, but harder”; should he an additional swarm for every raise beyond
ever find himself in quicksand, he’ll dis- the first (the first raise gives the Resilient
appear beneath the surface in seconds as ability).
he thrashes about, while being completely The user rolls a Spirit check instead of Ar-
sure that he’s trying his best to free himself. cane Background, with a -1 for every swarm
Nachs is stubborn, and absolutely sure his already present. In case of a Critical Failure,
way is the right way. the rats appear, but attack the user.
Nachs is always accompanied by 3 Bogo-
vian brutes (Bogovian Town Watch, Crystal
Heart, p.160) who do his bidding. He never
sends them to do the dirty work for him (as
a true idealist, he believes that “A Bogovi-
an should deal with his problems with his
own two hands”), but they accompany him
as bodyguards.
Nachs is a Bogovian Town Watch Captain
(Crystal Heart, p.160) Wild Card, with d10 in
Smarts and Spirit, and the Strong Willed
Edge. He also has a d10 in Taunt, and pre-
fers to engage in a Test from afar while his
brutes and rat swarms close on the Agents.
Clara Blaum
Young and enthusiastic, Clara is showing
the first signs of a true entrepreneur. She’s
living in a city where “doing it yourself” is
a virtue, so there’s a surprising number of
people who support her and believe in her.
On the other hand, there’s nothing more
Bogovian than sticking to the old ways and
knowing your place, so there’s an unsur-
prising number of people who believe she
should stop stirring the pot and just deliver
the damn mail.
Clara doesn’t care much about what other
people think. She is stubborn and absolutely
sure her way is the right way. As a believer
in Progress, Clara trusts Syn a lot more than
most people (+1 in social interactions). She
is a Bogovian Tonwnsperson (Crystal Heart,
p.159).

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