The grain plaza in Harford is chaos on fair week. Farmers juggle turnips, a fiddler plays the same four bars on a loop, and the Rumour Mill's market stall smells of warm bread.
Then Karle Rumour comes out of the mill house holding an empty flour sack upside down, as if the flour might still fall out.
"It's gone," he says. "The bell-wheat. All of it. Gone."
Behind him, a large grey goose wearing a small brass medal honks once, in what everyone afterwards agrees was a very accusing tone.
Three days before Harford's Loaf Fair, the Rumour Mill's best flour has vanished, and Saraj Rumour's famous Singing Loaves will not sing without it. There is a ghost in the barn, a goose with a grudge, a gentleman from Witonbury who has opinions about scones, and a turnip that will not stop running.
A farce. Nobody is quite who they seem, everybody blames somebody else, and the party has three days to find the flour, win the bake, and stay on the right side of the goose, who is one of the judges. Light on combat, heavy on social skills, chases and ridiculous checks. Four Level 1 characters; one long session.
Harford is a market town on the Horsfield, in Hawthornfell Earldom: three mills turning on the river, a grain plaza, a Market Hall, a Flametemple, and the Rumour Mill, a sprawling inn and mill at the river-road junction where every deal and disaster gets discussed.
This is fair week. The plaza is full of stalls, the Market Hall is hung with corn-dollies, and the town is arguing about bread. The Rumour Mill's yard has geese in it. The geese are in charge.
Lean into it. Every serious moment can be undercut by a goose, a costume or a flour explosion. Reward creativity, especially if it involves geese, flour or the dramatic reading of a recipe.
The Rumour Mill: A Comedy of Errors
The one-page handout for players. It prints on one page.
Print one per player. Nothing here is a secret.
The job. Three sacks of the Rumour Mill's special bell-wheat flour have vanished, three days before Harford's Loaf Fair. Karle Rumour will pay you to find them before his sister Saraj has to bake.
Who's who.
| Name | Who they are |
|---|---|
| Karle Rumour | Factor of the Rumour Mill. Measures flour with a ruler. |
| Jered Rumour | The miller. Calm. Currently eating dough. |
| Saraj Rumour | The baker. Her Singing Loaves have won the Fair three years running. |
| Gasgoine Rumour | Their father, seventy, by the fire. Owns the goose. |
| Sir Quacksalot | The goose. Wears a medal. Is in charge of the mill yard. |
| Lord Puffington | A gentleman of Witonbury. Thinks the Rumours are overrated. |
Rolling. Say what you want to do. The GM names the skill (or the attribute) and the tier. Read your target number for that tier from your sheet and roll d100: over the target number succeeds. Your chance is 100 minus the target number.
What the tiers mean (target numbers for a skill total of 45):
| Tier | Target number | Chance | Feels like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Routine | 30 | 70% | ordinary work for someone trained |
| Simple | 40 | 60% | straightforward if you're prepared |
| Easy | 50 | 50% | favourable, still needs attention |
| Moderate | 66 | 34% | the usual real challenge |
| Hard | 77 | 23% | risky, pressured or opposed |
| Very Hard | 86 | 14% | severe opposition or awful conditions |
| Improbable | 91 | 9% | at the edge of what's possible |
Raw attribute rolls (senses, Faith, Strength, Discipline, Memory) use three quarters of the attribute (rounded down) as the total.
The bands.
| You roll | Result | At the table |
|---|---|---|
| 96–100 | Critical Success | it works, with something extra |
| Over the target number | Full Success | it works |
| At it, or less than 20 under | Partial Success | progress, with a cost |
| 20 or more under | Partial Failure | no progress |
| 01–05 | Critical Failure | trouble gets worse |
Opposed checks. Your chance is your total ÷ (your total + theirs). 45 against 45 is 50%.
In combat. On your turn you get your movement and one main action. Initiative is on your sheet. An attack or a defence needs a Full Success: in combat a Partial Success is a miss. (There is almost no combat in this adventure. There is a goose.)
Fatigue. Your pool is on your sheet. Climbing a smoking roof or churning butter costs fatigue. At 40% of your pool spent you are Winded (−5 to physical skills), at 70% Taxed (−10). A short rest gives back 2–3, and one of Saraj's Courage Buns, eaten during it, gives back 1 more (once a day).
Helping. Say how you help. A Full Success on your help check gives the leader +5; a Partial Success still gives +5, with a cost. Two helpers at most.
Statuses you might meet. Prone (melee and defence −20; a main action to stand). Off-Footing (your next social check −10). Rattled (Discipline −10 on social checks for the scene). Shamed (social checks in that town −15, until you put it right).
Money. You start with your trade's starting kit and a small purse set by your social standing: from 2 Silver Boars and 5 bits for an outcast to 60 Silver Boars for a noble. 1 Boar = 10 Copper Skarns; 1 Gold Stag = 10 Boars. Fair-week prices: a loaf 1 Boar, a pie 2, an apron 3, a parade costume 5, a Courage Bun 3 Skarns.
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