Free scenario
The Silent Light
Gull Rock lighthouse went dark three nights ago. The keeper has not been seen since, and the fishermen of Port Ansel refuse to row out. Someone has to find out why.
- Players
- 1 to 4 players
- Length
- 2-3 hours
- Era
- 1920s
- Setting
- A fishing village on the New England coast
Content warnings : drowning, grief, death of a child
In Grimoire, the scenario plays scene by scene: one-click rolls, players’ sheets on their phones, sounds and an ambiance screen.
The secret
November 1923. Last February, keeper Elias Varnum was rowing his son Thomas, seven, back to the rock when a squall overturned the dinghy. Elias reached the landing; the boy was never found. Something lives in the deep water under Gull Rock. The old people of Port Ansel only call it what's under. It has no shape of its own: it wears the drowned, the way their mourners remember them, and it can only come ashore where no light falls on the water. The lighthouse was raised in 1851 to keep it down, after the forty drowned of the packet Constance were seen walking the rocks. Four nights ago it spoke to Elias in his son's voice: put out the light three nights, open the door on the third, and on the fourth I come up to you and stay. He drained the lamp, padlocked the oil store and threw his key into the sea. Night one, it swam at the landing. Night two, it stood on the rocks and waved. Night three, it stood dripping in the hall and went no further. Tonight, the fourth night, it climbs the stairs. If nobody relights the lamp, Elias lets it into the lamp room at midnight and it walks him into the sea; the next night, still wearing Thomas, it walks up the pier to Martha's door. A beam of light on it burns it back to seawater. Nothing else harms it.
Main beats
- The harbour (afternoon): Port Ansel, the rumours, and an old saying: 'Keep the light, keep them under.'
- Martha Varnum: Martha Varnum gives the boat and the spare keys, and remembers the coat Thomas drowned in.
- The crossing (dusk): something follows the dinghy, and a lantern on the water drives it off.
- Inside the lighthouse (evening): the logbook, the salt footprints, the locked oil store.
- The lamp (towards midnight): fill and relight the lamp while the thing climbs, and talk Elias down.
- Dawn: dawn, and what it cost.
Must not miss
- The logbook, open on the watch-room desk (no roll needed): the bargain, night by night.
- Oil: the lamp is dry and the oil store padlocked. Martha's spare key opens it; otherwise the padlock must be forced (Inside the lighthouse).
- Light hurts it: the saying (The harbour), the lantern on the water (The crossing), the logbook, the rule card and the brass plate (The lamp). Fighting it does nothing.
Branches
- If they land after dark (failed crossing, or a long evening in the village), the thing is already on the rocks: less time to search, and it comes in as soon as they go upstairs.
- Without Martha's key, forcing the oil store costs time and noise, and brings Elias down the stairs with a boat hook.
- Elias can be saved if someone talks him down (The lamp); he then helps with the lamp.
- If they reach the rock after midnight, Elias is gone and the door stands open. Relighting the lamp that night still keeps the thing from Martha's door.
If the players are stuck
- Martha remembers the last thing Elias asked her: 'If Thomas came back different, would you still let him in?'
- Tobias, a drink in hand, tells the story of the Constance and why the light was built.
- A gull smashes into the dark lamp-room glass: the lamp is the key.
Keeper tips
- Play Elias as a broken father, not a villain.
- The creature never runs. It walks, dripping, and calls for its father.
- It wears the summer sailor suit from the photograph, not the brown coat Thomas drowned in: it is Elias's memory of his son, not his son. Let the players notice.
- Every key fact has more than one source. Rolls add detail or save time; they never hide the truth.
Act 1 · Port Ansel
Scene 1
The harbour
Arrival, rumours, and a boat nobody will lend.
Read to the players
Port Ansel smells of tar and cold fish. A dozen boats knock against the pier, and every one of them is tied up tight, though the sea is calm.
Out past the breakwater, on its black rock, the lighthouse stands like a dead candle. Men mending nets stop talking when you pass.
Scene flow
- 1
Ask around
The fishermen won't row out. 'Not with the light gone.'
RollCharm or Fast Talk
SuccessOld Old Tobias saw a small figure on the rocks at night. 'Like a boy. But no boy swims that cold water.' And the light didn't fail: 'It went out at sundown, neat, like a man pinching a candle.'
FailedShrugs and shut doors. An old man mutters 'Keep the light, keep 'em under' and spits in the water.
- 2
The supply boat
The grocer's boy rowed supplies out four days ago. Elias met him at the landing and sent him back: 'Don't come again till I send.' His hands were cracked and white with salt.
Elias is alive, and wants nobody on the rock.
- 3
The old saying
Asked about 'keep them under', Old Tobias tells it for a drink: in 1851 the packet Constance broke on Gull Rock and forty drowned. That winter, folk saw them walking the rocks on dark nights, calling people by name. The town raised the light in the spring, and nobody saw them again.
RollHistory
SuccessWithout Tobias: they remember the wreck of the Constance from an old newspaper, and that the lighthouse was built because of it.
- 4
Find a boat
Martha Varnum has her husband's dinghy. → Martha Varnum
NPCs : Old Tobias
Scene 2
Martha Varnum
The keeper's wife, worn thin by grief.
Read to the players
The cottage is spotless and very quiet. On the mantel, a photograph of a small boy in a sailor suit is turned face down.
Martha listens to you without blinking. 'He hasn't been right since Thomas drowned,' she says at last. 'Bring him home. Whatever he's become.'
Scene flow
- 1
Gain her trust
RollPsychology or Persuade
SuccessElias began talking to the sea at night, 'as if it answered'. The last time he came ashore he asked her: 'If Thomas came back different, would you still let him in?'
FailedShe gives them the boat and the keys, nothing more.
- 2
The keys
Martha gives them the dinghy, its storm lantern, and Elias's spare key ring from the hook by her door: the lighthouse door and the padlock of the oil store.
The oil store key saves time and noise in Inside the lighthouse.
- 3
The photograph
If they turn it over, describe the boy carefully: summer, the sailor suit, squinting at the sun → Photograph of Thomas.
They will see that face, and that suit, again.
- 4
How he drowned
If they ask, or mention the figure on the rocks: 'In February. In his brown wool coat, the one I made him. They never found him.'
The thing on the rocks wears the sailor suit, not the coat.
NPCs : Martha Varnum · Documents : Photograph of Thomas
Act 2 · Gull Rock
Scene 3
The crossing
A short row at dusk that feels much longer.
Read to the players
The oars dip into water as dark as ink. Halfway across, the gulls fall silent all at once.
Something bumps the hull from below. Once. Then again, gently, like a hand testing a door.
Scene flow
- 1
Rowing
RollSTR
SuccessThey land before full dark.
FailedThe current fights them: they land after nightfall, and the thing is already on the rocks.
- 2
Something below
RollThe bump under the hull · SAN 0/1D3
- 3
A light on the water
If anyone holds the storm lantern (or a torch) over the side, the bumping stops at once and something pale slides away from the beam. It comes back as soon as the light moves.
RollSpot Hidden
SuccessIn the beam, for a heartbeat: a small white hand letting go of the keel.
The first proof that light drives it off.
Scene 4
Inside the lighthouse
Wet footprints, a cold stove, the logbook, a locked oil store.
Read to the players
The door is unlocked. Inside, the stove is cold and the air smells of seaweed.
Small wet footprints, a child's, lead from the door to the spiral stairs. They stop on the first step, in a crust of salt, as if whoever made them stood there a long time, waiting.
When the thing comes in
- It rises at full dark and climbs the rocks.
- It comes through the door when the search is done, or as soon as they go upstairs if they landed after dark. Midnight at the latest.
- Then it climbs the stairs: start the Stairs climbed tracker in The lamp.
Scene flow
- 1
The logbook
Open on the watch-room desk, beside an empty bottle → Keeper's logbook, last entries. No roll needed to find it.
RollThe last entries · SAN 1/1D4
- 2
Search the keeper's room
RollSpot Hidden
SuccessUnder the pillow, another print of Thomas's photograph, soft from handling. On the wall, the keepers' rule card → Keepers' rule card.
FailedAn unmade bed, an empty bottle. The rule card is on the wall, too dark to read without a lamp.
Pushed roll failedThey find it all, but the noise brings Elias down the stairs, wild-eyed and holding a boat hook.
- 3
The footprints
RollTrack or Natural World
SuccessBare feet, a child's. They come in from the sea and never go back out. Tiny shells in the salt are still moving.
FailedWet prints, a child's. Nothing more.
- 4
The lamp is dry
Anyone who looks at the lamp, or reads the logbook, knows it has no oil. The kerosene is in the stone store at the foot of the tower, padlocked. With Martha's key: no roll.
RollLocksmith or Mechanical Repair
SuccessThe padlock gives. Two full cans of kerosene.
FailedThey break it with an iron bar: it takes time, and the noise brings Elias down the stairs with a boat hook.
Without oil, the lamp cannot be lit.
- 5
Listen
RollListen
SuccessSomeone is sobbing in the lamp room above. And, outside, something small is climbing the rocks.
NPCs : Elias Varnum · Documents : Keeper's logbook, last entries, Keepers' rule card
Scene 5
The lamp
Relight the lamp while the drowned child climbs.
Read to the players
The lamp room is a cage of glass and brass. Elias Varnum kneels by the great dead lens, a cold match in his fingers.
Far below, a small voice calls up the stairwell. 'Papa? Papa, it's cold. Let me in.'
Scene flow
- 1
The thing on the stairs
Each round it climbs one turn of the stairs. After 5 rounds it reaches the top. It wears the sailor suit from the photograph, wet through, and does not shiver.
RollSeeing the drowned child · SAN 1/1D6
- 2
The brass plate
On the lens pedestal → Brass plate, lamp room. Elias has gouged at the last line with a knife.
Last nudge: the lamp is the answer.
- 3
Relight the lamp
Pour the oil, prime the burner, light the mantle, wind the clockwork that turns the lens. Without oil from the store, it cannot be lit.
RollMechanical Repair or Operate Heavy Machinery
SuccessThe beam sweeps the sea. The voice on the stairs becomes a gurgling shriek and the thing collapses into seawater.
FailedTry again next round.
Pushed roll failedThe lens cracks: the lamp lights, but at half strength. The thing survives and flees to the sea.
- 4
A hand lamp
A lantern or torch shone down the stairwell makes it stop and shield its face: it loses its next turn of the stairs. Once per light: after that it climbs with its eyes shut.
- 5
Talk Elias down
He tries to stop them: 'He's my son!' Reminding him of the brown coat (it is wearing the wrong clothes) gives a bonus die.
RollPersuade or Psychology or Charm · hard difficulty
SuccessHe weeps and helps relight the lamp (bonus die).
FailedHe fights to keep the light dark.
- 6
If it reaches the top
It takes Elias's hand and walks him into the sea. Then it turns to the others.
RollCold grip · Damage 1D6
NPCs : Elias Varnum, The drowned child · Documents : Brass plate, lamp room
Scene 6
Dawn
Rewards and consequences.
Read to the players
Morning comes grey and ordinary. Out on Gull Rock, the light is still turning, though no one needs it now.
Outcome
- Lamp relit before the thing reached the top: each investigator gains 1D6 SAN.
- Elias saved: Martha's gratitude, and a friend in Port Ansel.
- Elias lost: 1/1D4 SAN. Some nights, small wet footprints appear on the pier.
- Lamp never relit: the next night, someone knocks at Martha's door. 'Mama? Let me in.'
Who knows what
| To | Best | Otherwise |
|---|---|---|
| Open the oil store | Martha's key | Locksmith, Mechanical Repair |
| Relight the lamp | Mechanical Repair | Operate Heavy Machinery, or Luck |
| Calm Elias | Psychology | Persuade, Charm |
Trackers
Stairs climbed · 5 turns
At 5, the thing reaches the lamp room.
Characters
Old Tobias · Retired fisherman
Superstitious, kind, drinks too much.
What they know
- Saw a small figure on the rocks at night.
- The light went out at sundown, on purpose.
- The wreck of the Constance and the saying: 'Keep the light, keep them under.'
HP 9 · Dodge 20
Martha Varnum · The keeper's wife
Composed, exhausted, fiercely loyal.
What they know
- Elias talks to the sea at night.
- Thomas drowned last February in his brown wool coat; he was never found.
- Elias asked if she would let Thomas in 'if he came back different'.
- Where the spare keys hang.
HP 10 · Dodge 25
Elias Varnum · Lighthouse keeper
A grieving father who has stopped sleeping. He was at the oars when Thomas went over.
STR 65 · CON 60 · SIZ 70 · DEX 50 · INT 55 · POW 40 · HP 13 · Dodge 25
AttacksBoat hook 45 % 1D8 · Fists 50 % 1D3+1D4
The drowned child · Something wearing Thomas's shape
What lives under Gull Rock, wearing the boy as his father remembers him: the summer sailor suit, the squint.
HP 12 · Dodge 0 · Armour 0 · SAN loss 1/1D6
AttacksCold grip 50 % 1D6 On a hit, the victim is held and dragged toward the sea.
- Weapons pass through it like water: it takes no damage.
- Destroyed by the lighthouse beam.
- A lantern or torch in its face stops it for one round (once per light).
Handouts for the players
A boy of about seven in a sailor suit, squinting at the camera. On the back, in Martha's hand: Thomas, summer 1922.
Night one. Lamp out at sundown. Drained the reservoir, locked the store, threw my key off the landing so I can't go back on it. The sea said it would bring him. It said it can't come up through the light.
Night two. Saw him on the rocks. He waved. He didn't shiver. Thomas always shivered.
Night three. Opened the door like it said. He stood in the hall, dripping, and wouldn't come up. 'Tomorrow, Papa.' He had on the sailor suit. I can't think where he found the sailor suit.
Night four. Tonight he comes up. Tonight he stays.
PORT ANSEL LIGHT BOARD, 1851.
Rule the first. The light to be kept from sunset to sunrise without fail, that the sea keep what it has taken.
Rule the second. No keeper to let the lamp go dark for any cause whatever.
GULL ROCK LIGHT, 1851.
Raised in memory of the forty souls of the packet Constance.
KEEP THE LIGHT AND KEEP THEM UNDER.
“The Silent Light” is published by Grimoire sample under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 licence: you may copy, adapt and share it, even commercially, as long as you credit Grimoire sample.