The

Canal Job
Ben Hamilton (Order #13445113)
 The crew is brought together one day at sunset by
Yellow-Toothed Cyrus, a member of the cartel known as
the Forgotten. Cyrus looks like a mad beggar, his clothes
little more than rags that hang off him; he is perpetually
filthy, his long, oily gray hair hanging down to almost
cover his face. When Yellow-Toothed Cyrus speaks, he
sounds as though he is constantly imparting great and
wonderful secrets upon his listeners.
He summons the characters to his “apartment,”
located in an abandoned stretch of shops in an area of
particularly poor and dangerous city slums. He calls
the place his “Web” because the walls are covered with
scraps of parchment, notes scrawled in charcoal, and
a jumble of small objects, all connected by lengths of
string that make the collection look like a paranoid
madman’s diagram.
Tell the Players...
Before the Job begins, give the players a very brief précis
of the proposed Job so they can decide on the kind of
characters they want to create:
Grackenwald
Depository
Members of the crew who know about merchants
know these things. Otherwise, they can do legwork
to learn them without smaking die rolls.
✦✦ The Grackenwald Depository is a privately held
bank that consists of a single location, the treasury
building. The fortress-like building is as defensible
as any castle. Attempting to gain access to the
gondola or the taxes while they are still in the
Depository would require more time, preparation,
and manpower than time allows.
✦✦ Like most depositories, this particular banking
institution handles accounts from large trade
groups and commercial entities, wealthy
merchants, and nobles; the depositories do not
have individual commoners as customers.
A Little Digging
These things can be learned by doing legwork.

“ This Job involves the theft of an extremely

well-guarded tax collection while it is in
transit between impenetrable locations.”
✦✦ The Depository has a private canal entrance that
runs through a secure checkpoint into the side
of the treasury. Gondolas can depart or arrive
through this private canal to make the transport

The Basics of large amounts of valuables more secure. The

gondola will depart from this internal dock.
The characters learn these essential pieces of ✦✦ A man named Phinneas Copperleaf oversees
information after accepting the Job. the collection of taxes and the transfer of the
The Score: An armored gondola full of this quarter’s coin to the Crown.
tax collections, being transferred from the Grackenwald ✦✦ A Dredger named Vexasia Salzedonia has been
Depository to the Royal Palace treasury. The taxes inside hired by the Depository as the head of security
the gondola are the target of the Job. for the transfer.
Time Limitations: The transfer will happen in four
days (eight segments), during the daytime. If there are
fewer than four crew members, the crew has six days/
twelve segments before the transfer takes place.
The Broker’s Reward: If the crew succeeds in the Job,
they receive 1 XP tied to the Forgotten.
Extra Respect: The crew can earn 1 extra XP by
bringing the intact armored gondola (but none of its
guards) back to a warehouse in the Greywater (a slums
district) that the Forgotten makes available to the crew.
Extra Respect: The crew can earn 1 extra XP if no
alarm is raised regarding the theft until after the delivery
is made to the Royal Palace treasury.
Extra Respect: The crew can earn 1 extra XP if no
agents of the Crown are killed in the process of stealing
the tax collection.

2
Ben Hamilton (Order #13445113)
 The Palace
Treasury
Members of the crew who know about the Crown
know these things. Otherwise, they can do legwork
to learn them without making die rolls.
✦✦ The treasury is located inside the palace grounds,
within the highly secured perimeter of the
extended castle. Attempting to gain access to
the gondola or the taxes after they have arrived
at the treasury would require vastly more time,
preparation, and manpower than time allows.
A Little Digging
These things can be learned by doing legwork.
✦✦ The Royal Palace treasury rests in a vault built into
the first sublevel of the palace. This vault was filled
with coins, jewels, and other treasures before the
rise of New Dunhaven’s large counting houses and
depositories eliminated the need for keeping large
amounts of physical currency on hand. Now, much
of the space has been converted to safe storage for
royal heirlooms and gifts from foreign dignitaries.
✦✦ The tax collection will be loaded into the vault by
way of a direct access canal that enters this sublevel
through a secure gate.
The Route
Members of the crew who know about the canals
know these things. Otherwise, they can do legwork
to learn them without making die rolls.
✦✦ There is only one viable route for the armored
gondola to take between the depository and the
royal palace. Any other route would wind through
the city’s slums, the canals of which are mostly
blocked; the treasury would delay the delivery
rather than use a route through the slums.
✦✦ The gondola will be departing the depository at
noon of the fourth day from the day the crew
receives the Job.
✦✦ Traversing the entire route should take no
more than an hour.
A Little Digging
These things can be learned by doing legwork.
✦✦ The gondola will be most vulnerable at
two spots along the route: when it passes
through the Canyon and when it passes under
Broadwater Bridge.
Ben Hamilton (Order #13445113)
The Taxes
Members of the crew who know about the Crown
know these things. Otherwise, they can do legwork
to learn them without making die rolls.
✦✦ Tax collections are usually delivered in the form of
gold and silver bars.
A Little Digging
These things can be learned by doing legwork.
✦✦ This quarter’s tax collection consists of:
•• 11 large iron-banded wooden chests filled with
gold and silver bars. Each one is heavy enough
to require two people to move.
•• 23 small iron-banded wooden chests filled with
gold and silver bars. Each one is heavy enough
that a healthy adult can carry only one at a time.
•• 14 small water-tight wooden crates, filled with
letters of credit and other forms. A healthy
adult could carry one under each arm.
✦✦ The chests are all constructed from alchemically
treated wood, making them as hard as solid iron
of the same thickness. Smashing through one
requires the same effort as breaking into a safe.
Deep Secrets
Members of the crew can learn these things by spending
Influence or as a result of rolling boons during legwork.
✦✦ Each of the chests has a built-in lock. If someone
attempts to open the lock without the correct
key, an alchemical mechanism fuses the lock
shut, making it impossible to open with the key
thereafter. When this happens, it also sprays a
bright green ink all over anyone standing in front
of it. The ink does not wash off normally and takes
up to 10 days to fade. The key will be entrusted to
Vexasia Salzedonia by the depository, and she will
carry it on her person during the transfer.
✦✦ The armored gondola is carrying only two-thirds
of the tax collection. An armored coach—also
alchemically treated—will depart twenty minutes
after the armored gondola and travel through
a different route into the palace grounds. The
nondescript coach appears as a passenger coach
carrying nobles, with heavy curtains blocking the
view of the passengers from the outside. Its driver
controls a team of four horses, and two armed
guards (disguised as footmen) cling to the sides of
the coach as it travels.
✦✦ Secret Objective: The crew can earn 1 extra XP by
bringing this coach’s contents to the broker.
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 The Gondola
Members of the crew who know about the canals
know these things. Otherwise, they can do legwork
to learn them without making die rolls.
✦✦ The gondola on which the tax collection will travel
is constructed of alchemically treated wood that
makes its hull as hard as iron of the same thickness
while remaining as light and buoyant as wood. The
gondola is roughly 20 feet long and 10 feet wide.
✦✦ An armored gondola usually requires two
gondoliers hired and vetted by the depository
to pole the vessel through the canals, due to
the gondola sitting much deeper in the water
when fully loaded.
A Little Digging
These things can be learned by doing legwork.
✦✦ Armored gondolas that are not loaded visibly
higher in the water than when they are laden, just
as normal gondolas do.
✦✦ The gunwales of armored gondolas are usually
constructed with security guards in mind, and
crenellated like the parapet of a castle to allow
guards to hunker down behind them for cover
and fire crossbows out through the gaps. When a
guard is taking cover behind an armored gondola’s
gunwale, they are almost completely protected
from attacks coming from that side of the gondola.
✦✦ During transit, the taxes will be held in a fully
enclosed cargo hold in the middle of the gondola.
This is accessible only through the single door, also
made of alchemically treated wood. The door can
be locked from the inside, and it will be locked
during transit.
Deep Secrets
Members of the crew can learn these things by spending
Influence or as a result of rolling boons during legwork.
✦✦ The key to the cargo hold door will be carried
by one of the private security guards inside the
cargo hold. This guard has instructions to only
open the door when a command is given by
Vexasia Salzedonia that is also accompanied by a
predetermined knock.
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Ben Hamilton (Order #13445113)
The Escort
Members of the crew who know about the canals
just know these things. Otherwise, they can do
legwork to learn them without making die rolls.
✦✦ Armored gondolas usually have four armed guards
stationed on the deck of the gondola. Two stand
near the bow and two near the stern, keeping clear
of the two gondoliers.
A Little Digging
These things can be learned by doing legwork.
✦✦ The Dredger Detective Agency is providing the
guards for the vessel. Dredgers conduct an intense
interview process and background investigation
before they are hired to weed out undesireables.
✦✦ Six armed private security guards will keep pace
with the gondola from the streets that follow the
canals as the vessel winds its way through the city.
✦✦ Lord Arthur Bornworth, the Crown’s security
representative, will walk along the route with
the street escort.
✦✦ The Grackenwald Depository is paying nearly two
dozen unarmed lookouts to watch the gondola
during the transfer. Stationed on rooftops every
few blocks, they are positioned so that the gondola
will always be within line of sight of at least one
lookout, and usually two or more. Each lookout
has a spyglass with which to watch the gondola
and a horn to blow in case of any discrepancy
during the transfer, to alert the Dredgers that
something is going wrong.
Deep Secrets
Members of the crew can learn these things by spending
Influence or as a result of rolling boons during legwork.
✦✦ Four additional armed private security guards
stationed within the enclosed cabin are instructed
not to leave the cabin until the vessel has arrived
at the Royal Palace grounds. One of the topside
guards will give a signal—a secret knock,
established when the guards are sealed in with the
cargo—when the gondola is safely ensconced on
the palace grounds.
✦✦ Vexasia Salzedonia, the Dredger, will also be in
the cargo cabin.
 The Canyon Broadwater
Members of the crew who know about commoners
know these things. Otherwise, they can do legwork
Bridge
Members of the crew who know about the docks know
to learn them without making die rolls.
these things. Otherwise, they can do legwork to learn
✦✦ The Canyon is a long winding stretch of the city’s them without spending resources or making die rolls.
canals that has no streets on either side of it,
✦✦ The Broadwater Bridge connects the Olverhollow
only tall buildings with sporadic alleys between
Barony to the docks, crossing over the canals
them. This part of the route is mostly used for
at one of their broadest points. The Broadwater
freight shipments.
Bridge is among the largest bridges in the city,
✦✦ The buildings on either side of the Canyon
rivaling those that connect the mainland to the
range from three to six stories tall and consist of
island of Longharbor in width.
apartment-style housing for many of the city’s
common laborers. People who live in them say A Little Digging
they “live on the side of the Canyon.” These things can be learned by doing legwork.
A Little Digging ✦✦ Despite its size, Broadwater Bridge is unusually
These things can be learned by doing legwork. low to the water of the canal section it crosses. Not
only does the bridge cast everything underneath
✦✦ Both ends of the Canyon widen into a holding area
in shadow, it also heavily obscures anything
and shipping checkpoint. Gondolas full of freight
underneath from the view of anyone standing on
frequently stop at these checkpoints to wait for
the streets to either side of the canal.
the canal to clear. Gondolas can travel only in one
✦✦ Since both the Broadwater Bridge and the canal
direction at a time through the Canyon, and they
section it covers have been widened multiple
coordinate this movement at each checkpoint by
times to accommodate greater amounts of freight
having the final gondola in the line carry a red flag,
traffic coming from the docks, the bridge features
which is then transferred to gondolas traveling in
more support struts than most others. This creates
the other direction.
many lanes of passage underneath the bridge,
✦✦ The trip through the Canyon will take no more
and it is impossible to see into other lanes once
than ten minutes.
you are in one.
✦✦ Some sections of the Canyon are permanently
✦✦ Traffic lanes under the bridge usually run one way;
under construction; the apartment buildings
the canal is only wide enough to accommodate
that line the Canyon are usually in some state
a single freight gondola, or two much smaller
of disrepair, and the Crown forces the buildings’
personal gondolas side-by-side. Signal flags draped
owners to remodel them to maintain structural
from the arches leading into each lane designate
integrity. The owners habitually drag their feet, and
which direction a lane should be flowing, and these
some buildings remain half- renovated for years.
flags change throughout the day to allow gondola
✦✦ When the armored gondola reaches the Canyon,
traffic to flow more smoothly.
all other freight traffic halts. The six walking
guards will board the gondola at the holding area
at one end and then disembark at the holding area
at the other end.

5
Ben Hamilton (Order #13445113)
 Arthur Phinneas
Bornworth Copperleaf
Members of the crew who know about the nobility Members of the crew who know about commoners
know these things. Otherwise, they can do legwork know these things. Otherwise, they can do legwork
to learn them without making die rolls. to learn them without making die rolls.
✦✦ Lord Arthur Bornworth was, until recently, a ✦✦ Phinneas Copperleaf is the Chief Tribute
member of the Palace Guard. He is nobility, though Solicitor for the Grackenwald Depository, a
he and his family are almost completely unknown wealthy commoner who has risen high in the
to high society. treasury’s ranks.
✦✦ Lord Bornworth’s wife Ellia was a well-
regarded instructor at the Archduke’s College of
A Little Digging
These things can be learned by doing legwork.
Dunhaven, where she taught law. She retired less
than two years ago. ✦✦ Copperleaf oversees the treasury’s tax collection
departments. He has always been involved in tax
A Little Digging collection, ever since he was a young man working
These things can be learned by doing legwork.
as a scribe for tribute collectors in the city.
✦✦ Lord Bornworth was born a commoner, elevated
to the nobility less than two years ago. His family is
Deep Secrets
Members of the crew can learn these things by spending
not wealthy, though the royal family gifted him an
Influence or as a result of rolling boons during legwork.
estate and a hefty chest so his family could enjoy a
lifestyle befitting members of the aristocracy. ✦✦ Copperleaf has been skimming tax money off
✦✦ Lord Bornworth is steadfast, upstanding, and loyal the top since he became a tribute collector: never
to the Crown. Despite being born into a common more than a few coins from each collection, and he
family, he always had higher aspirations of duty, modifies the records to cover up his misdeeds. He
planning on being elected as a Senator even has quietly squirreled away a small fortune that,
before his ennoblement. He sees his entry into the when combined with his on-the-books wealth, is
aristocracy as a sign from the Silver Judge that he turning into a large fortune.
is meant to be a force for good among the nobility.
✦✦ Lord Bornworth and his wife are pious, attending
services every Holy Day and spending at least one
other day each week doing community service.
Deep Secrets
Members of the crew can learn these things by spending
Influence or as a result of rolling boons during legwork.
✦✦ Lord Bornworth was given noble lands and title
as a bribe. He rescued a member of the Royal
Family who snuck off in disguise to a Vesper-
run poppy den (the Florist of Dreams) and was
nearly abducted while in a drug-induced haze.
The bribe ensured Lord Bornworth’s silence as to
where, and from what, he rescued her; too many
other members of the Palace Guard knew he had
been involved in some kind of rescue to simply
dispose of him through banishment (or other
harsher methods).

6
Ben Hamilton (Order #13445113)
 Vexasia
Salzedonia
Members of the crew who know about the Right Kind
of People know these things. Otherwise, they can do
legwork to learn them without making die rolls.
✦✦ Vexasia Salzedonia is the bane of criminals. Once
a bounty hunter, she now works for Dredger
Detective Agency and is personally responsible
for the arrest and incarceration of over 100 of the
Right Kind of People.
✦✦ Salzedonia is a hard-faced woman who looks to
have been in her share of tavern brawls, with scars
aplenty on her face and arms, and a nose that looks
like it has been broken one too many times. When
she speaks, he voice is raspy and deep, almost like
someone whose windpipe has been damaged by a
failed attempt at hanging them.
✦✦ Salzedonia is missing one hand and one eye; she
keeps an eyepatch over the missing eye and her
tailored jackets have closed cuffs to hide her stump.
A Little Digging
These things can be learned by doing legwork.
✦✦ Salzedonia is so good at thinking like a criminal
that she can anticipate when and where crimes will
take place as a part of her investigations. The Right
Kind of People say she has a sixth sense for crime,
and that if she had joined one of the cartels instead
of becoming a bounty hunter she would probably
be leading her own crew.
Deep Secrets
Members of the crew can learn these things by spending
Influence or as a result of rolling boons during legwork.
✦✦ Vexasia’s missing hand and eye are not the result
of battle scars, but rather her reckless dabbling
in sorcery. She sacrificed them both to perform a
sorcerous ritual she purchased from a Gravedigger
parlor woman, who in turn “salvaged” it from the
home of a recently deceased noblewoman with an
interest in the occult. Her “sixth sense for crime”
is what she received for her sacrifice, and she
correctly identifies any crew members who directly
interact with her as the Right Kind of People, even
if they are in disguise.
Ben Hamilton (Order #13445113)
For the Judge
In the execution of the Job, the players need to account
for the following challenges:
✦✦ A squad of 4 private security minions on the
deck of the gondola
✦✦ A squad of 4 private security minions in the cargo
cabin of the gondola
✦✦ Vexasia Salzedonia (use the statistics for the
Dredger), in the cargo cabin of the gondola
✦✦ Two gondoliers, a size 2 squad of minions
✦✦ A squad of 6 private security minions, the walking
escort for the gondola
✦✦ Lord Arthur Bornworth (use the statistics
for the bravo), walking with the guards
escorting the gondola
✦✦ The chain of two dozen observers on the
rooftops, watching the gondola and waiting to
sound the alarm
✦✦ Law-abiding citizens along the route who
could witness the gondola being robbed (an
obstacle with 100 luck)
Plot Twist (Spend 20 Heat)
When you introduce this plot twist, you should give
the players some basic information that lets them
know of this additional wrinkle in the Job. One of the
large chests secretly contains alchemical explosives,
planted by anarchists who infiltrated the Grackenwald
Depository and made the switch before the taxes were
loaded. When an internal timing mechanism expires
(set to coincide with the chests being unloaded into the
Royal Palace treasury), the explosives detonate violently.
The explosion will be strong enough to destroy the
entire armored gondola and kill anyone within 30 feet
of it instantly, dealing 1 wound to anyone within 100
feet from the shockwave alone. Include the following
obstacles during the final scene:
✦✦ The timing and detonation mechanism is a
complex device of both clockwork and alchemy.
Disarming it requires a crew member’s full
attention, an obstacle with 100 luck. Any failures
on checks made to disarm the device, or a
combination of 4 drawbacks rolled across all
attempts to disarm it, cause the explosives to go off.
✦✦ The chest has a motion-activated trigger as
well. Jostling it too much, especially dropping it,
triggers the explosion.
✦✦ The anarchist revolutionaries have a plant
among the guards inside the cargo cabin of the
gondola. Use the statistics for the Hired Killer for
this revolutionary.
7