Overview

In three days, the town of Gale’s Landing votes on selling its old lighthouse to a developer who will tear it down. The heroes have until then to learn why the dark lighthouse has started shining again, and to prove a hundred-year-old crime.

The ghost in this story can’t speak. She talks through light, cold air, and objects that move. The heroes who solve this mystery are the ones who notice, listen, and act, not the ones who talk the most.

For the GM’s eyes only: what really happened

• October 1926. A great storm wrecked half the fishing boats in Gale’s Landing. The town raised a relief fund of $3,000 in gold and bills to help the families, and kept it in the lighthouse safe for protection.
• Keeper Eliza Marsh tended Gray Rock Light on Whisper Island. She was famous for keeping the lamp burning through the storm and guiding three boats home.
• Cornelius Thorne, a rich shipping owner, wanted the island for himself. He stole the relief fund, hid it in the lighthouse’s old cistern, and made it look like Eliza took it. He also stole her logbook, which held the town’s deed to the island and her notes proving his visits that night.
• The town believed him. Eliza was dismissed in disgrace and never cleared her name. But she had hidden a copy of her log, and the deed itself, behind a loose stone in the lantern room. No one ever found it.
• Today. Victoria Thorne, Cornelius’s great-granddaughter, runs Thorne Coastal Development. She has found her great-grandfather’s diary, knows the deed exists, and knows that if it’s found, the island legally belongs to the town forever. She’s secretly searching the island at night, and she’s happy to let people believe her red lantern is “the ghost.”
• The real ghost. Eliza has stirred because her lighthouse is in danger. She can’t speak. She signals with the lamp, cold air, and moving objects, and she’s waiting for someone kind and clever enough to understand her.

The heroes right two wrongs: clearing Eliza’s name and saving the lighthouse for the town. As a bonus, the stolen relief fund can finally go to the families it was meant for.

The ghost’s signals

Eliza communicates with light. The GM can play her with a flashlight in a dim room, or flash the room lights.

A Listener’s Heart Sense, or a good Kind roll, reveals what she feels. Show the player an emotion or an image on a card instead of saying it aloud, if that’s easier for them.

Cast

Places

• Gale’s Landing: a small harbor town. Finch’s Books & Tea, the library, the harbor and bait shop, the Thorne office, and the Grange Hall where the vote happens.
• Whisper Island: a rocky island a 15-minute boat ride away. It has a dock, the ruined keeper’s cottage, the 80-foot lighthouse tower, the old cistern beneath the cottage, and the north cliffs where Dunk digs.

A rough sketch of the island on a sheet of paper helps a lot, since players can point at it.

GM tools: spooky happenings

Use these to set the mood on the island. Roll a die when it’s quiet:

1. A cold draft carries the smell of lamp oil.
2. Footsteps on the stairs above, then silence.
3. A door slowly swings shut, then opens again.
4. Breath fogs, and a fingertip draws a line in the frost on the window.
5. The old foghorn moans once, though it hasn’t worked in decades.
6. Pages of an old book flip by themselves and stop on a picture of the lighthouse.

Session 1: Arrival at Gale’s Landing

The heroes arrive in town, hear the legend of the thief keeper, gather clues, and end the night watching the dead lighthouse flash a message straight at them. Quoted passages are read aloud; everything else is for the GM.

Scene 1: Finch’s Books & Tea (20 minutes)

The bell over the door jingles. Finch’s Books & Tea smells like old paper and cinnamon. Through the front window, across a mile of gray water, a white lighthouse stands on a rocky island. Its lamp has been dark for fifty years. A tiny woman with silver hair and very bright eyes looks up from behind a stack of books. “Oh, good,” she says. “You’re just in time.”

If this isn’t the heroes’ first mystery, skip the introduction: Ada greets them as old friends and hands them the folder from her case board.

Ada Finch pours cocoa and explains the situation:

• On Sunday night, the town votes on selling Whisper Island and its lighthouse to Thorne Coastal Development, which wants to build luxury condos.
• The town is short on money after a bad fishing year, and Victoria Thorne is offering a lot.
• Everyone says the island is haunted by Eliza Marsh, the keeper who “stole the storm money” in 1926. Ada never believed it.
• Lately, people have seen lights on the island at night.

She asks the heroes to find out what’s really going on, and anything that could save the lighthouse.

If players want to ask Ada questions, lay out option cards: The 1926 storm, Eliza Marsh, The Thorne family, The lights. Ada answers whatever they tap with one good story each.

Gideon’s cameo. While the heroes are in the shop, a thin, polite man in a gray coat browses the shelves. Before he leaves, he asks Ada whether any of Eliza Marsh’s papers survive. Ada says no. He thanks her and goes. Ada mentions he’s Mr. Shale, who opened the new antique shop on Water Street.

Scene 2: Exploring the town (60–90 minutes)

Lay out four option cards, one per place. The heroes can split up or stay together, and visit as many as they like. Each place holds at least one clue.

The library. A dusty back room holds bound copies of the Gale’s Landing Gazette.

• With a Look card or Clever roll, they find the October 1926 front page: “Keeper Marsh Accused! Relief Fund Vanishes from Lighthouse.” It quotes Cornelius Thorne as the witness. Evidence: Old Newspaper.
• On a 6, they also spot a small photo caption: Thorne’s boat, the Silver Gull, was “stormbound at Whisper Island” the night the money disappeared. Why was he there?
• Any roll: a photo of Eliza in her keeper’s coat, with a locket at her throat and a ring of keys on her belt.

The harbor. Captain Roy Tibbs is mending a net and talking to no one in particular.

“Ghost lights? Oh, there’s two kinds, and nobody listens when I say so. One’s a little red lantern, bobbing low by the north cliffs. Any fool with a lantern could make that one. The other comes from the top of the tower. White, with a bit of blue in it. Lamp’s got no oil and no bulb. Explain that.”

• With a Talk card or a Kind roll, Tibbs agrees to run them out to the island tomorrow. On “Yes, but,” he’ll only go at dawn, before the storm comes in.
• If they don’t win him over, Jess (below) knows where a rowboat is.

Alvarez Bait & Tackle. Jess Alvarez is behind the counter, half reading a book about shipwrecks.

• Jess is shy around adults but warms up fast to anyone who’s kind, or who shows interest in her book. A Talk card or a Kind roll works. So does just playing Wait and letting her come to them.
• She’s been taking photos of the lights from her bedroom window. Her best one shows a red lantern on the north cliffs and a big man with a shovel. Evidence: Jess’s Photos.
• Another of her photos, taken at dawn, shows a man in a long gray coat on the island, pressing a sheet of paper flat against the tower wall. Campaign clue: The Gray Coat.
• Jess wants to help and can join the heroes as a guide. The GM plays her as a helper who never takes the spotlight.

Thorne Coastal Development. A shiny office with a model of glass condos on a table, labeled “Lighthouse Point Residences.” The lighthouse isn’t in the model.

Victoria Thorne stands to greet you with a perfect smile. “Visitors! Please, sit. Have you come to hear about the future of Gale’s Landing?”

• Victoria is charming. She asks what brings the heroes to town and what they’ve heard. If they mention the ghost, she laughs: “Old wives’ tales. That tower is dangerous and falling apart.”
• With a Look card or Clever roll, a hero notices an old leather diary on her desk stamped “C.T.” and a map of Whisper Island with three red X’s near the north cliffs.
• With Sneak, a hero can snap a photo of the map while another keeps her busy (Help). On “Not yet,” she notices, and her smile goes cold: “I think we’re done here.” She now knows the heroes are trouble.
• Her handyman, Dunk Pike, is in the back room, muddy to the knees. He won’t meet anyone’s eyes.

Scene 3: The harbor at night (30 minutes)

After dinner, Ada, Jess, or Tibbs suggests watching the island from the harbor. Turn the lights down for this scene.

The harbor is quiet except for the slap of water on the pilings. Wind picks up off the ocean. Out on Whisper Island, a small red light bobs near the cliffs, then goes out. For a long moment there’s nothing. Then, at the very top of the tower, the lamp blooms awake, white and faintly blue. It sweeps slowly across the water and stops on you.

The GM flashes the flashlight: three flashes, pause, three flashes. (Help me. Come here.)

• Let the players react. They can answer with their own flashlights. If they flash once (yes), the lamp glows long and steady, then fades.
• When the light goes out, the air turns cold. On the bench beside the heroes, frost spreads in the shape of a hand. Where it fades lies an old brass key with a paper tag reading “Lantern Room.”

The ghost has chosen them. End the session here.

Running long or short? If time is short, combine the town locations into a single walk with Ada. If you have extra time, add a short chase: the heroes see Dunk sneaking a rowboat out after the red light goes dark.

Session 2: The Lighthouse

The heroes cross to Whisper Island, meet the ghost, find the hidden logbook and deed, and hold the tower against Victoria as a storm rolls in. A storm is due by sunset, which gives the session a natural clock.

Scene 1: The crossing (15 minutes)

Captain Tibbs’s boat, the Lucky Penny, smacks through the gray chop. Spray stings your faces. Whisper Island grows ahead: black rocks, a slumped stone cottage, and the white tower, taller than it looked from town. Out past the island, the sky is turning the color of a bruise. “Storm by suppertime,” Tibbs says. “I’ll come back for you at four. Don’t make me wait.”

• Landing on the slippery dock takes a Bold card or Brave roll. On “Yes, but,” someone drops a piece of gear in the water. On “Not yet,” someone gets soaked: take 1 Fright, and Tibbs laughs kindly.
• If they took Jess’s rowboat instead, the crossing takes a Brave roll from whoever rows, with Help from others.

Scene 2: Exploring the island (60–90 minutes)

Put the island sketch on the table and let the players point where they go. Use a spooky happening every so often.

The keeper’s cottage. The roof is half gone. Inside: a rusted stove, a rocking chair, a bed frame.

• The rocking chair starts to rock as the heroes enter, then stops.
• With a Look card or Clever roll, they find a torn page from a logbook stuck in a warped drawer. In faded ink: “Oct. 14, 1926. Mr. Thorne came ashore at 11 o’clock, soaked through, and asked to see the safe. Storm too fierce to send him away.” This proves Thorne was here, but it’s only a scrap. Evidence: Torn Page.
• In the floor is an iron hatch marked “Cistern,” rusted shut. Opening it takes tools and time. Let them notice it, then leave it for Session 3.

The north cliffs. Three fresh holes are dug near the edge, matching the X’s on Victoria’s map. A shovel and a red lantern lean against a rock. Dunk Pike is digging a fourth hole and muttering.

• The heroes can Sneak close to watch, or Talk to him.
• Dunk is gruff but not cruel. With a Kind roll, or by showing him Jess’s photo, he admits Victoria pays him to dig at night for “an old box” and to let people think he’s the ghost. He doesn’t like it.
• If they really win him over (a 6, or a kind gesture like sharing cocoa), he warns them: “She’s coming out at sunset with crowbars. Says the box might be in the tower.” Mark Evidence: Dunk’s Word for Session 3.
• On “Not yet,” Dunk chases them off with a roar and a waved shovel (1 Fright), but he won’t hurt anyone. He can still be won over later.

The tower. The door creaks open on 112 iron steps spiraling up into the dark.

• Halfway up, a section of stairs has rusted through. Crossing it takes a Bold card or Brave roll, and rope, a pulley rigged by a Tinkerer, or a teammate’s Help makes it easier.
• Near the top, a figure stands at the turn of the stair: a woman in a long keeper’s coat, so faint the wall shows through her. Her finger rises to point upward, then she’s gone. (1 Fright, or none for any hero who plays Wait or Talk instead of running.)
• The lantern room door is locked. The brass key from Session 1 opens it.

Scene 3: Talking with Eliza (30 minutes)

This is the heart of the adventure. Turn the lights down and use the flashlight.

The lantern room is a glass cage at the top of the world. A huge lens, taller than you, sits at the center like a beehive made of crystal. Rain spatters the windows. Then the lens begins to glow, softly, from inside. The air smells like lamp oil and the sea.

Eliza can only answer yes (1 flash) or no (2 flashes). Before the session, write a few question cards the players can tap if they like, and leave blank ones for their own:

• “Are you Eliza Marsh?” (Yes)
• “Did you steal the money?” (No. Lights go out, a cold wind blows. She’s hurt by the question, but not angry at them.)
• “Did Cornelius Thorne take it?” (Yes)
• “Is something hidden here?” (Yes. A stone near the floor scrapes and shifts.)
• “Do you want us to help you?” (Long steady glow)

A Listener’s Heart Sense or a Kind roll shows what she feels: show the player a card reading “Tired. Ashamed of a lie that isn’t hers. Afraid for her light.”

When the heroes look closely at the base of the great lens, they find an iron plate: “THE FIRST WATCH: THE LIGHT. 1726,” beside a four-pointed star inside a circle. Campaign clue: The First Watch.

Prying out the loose stone takes a Fix card or Clever roll. Behind it is an oilcloth packet holding:

• Evidence: Eliza’s Logbook, her own copy, recording Thorne’s visit, the open safe, and his men hauling a heavy sea chest up from the cottage, then leaving at dawn without it.
• Evidence: The Deed, signed in 1926, granting Whisper Island and its light “to the people of Gale’s Landing, forever.”

One logbook entry from the night of the storm stands out: “The fog came in with the storm, and it spoke. It called me by my mother’s name. I kept the lamp lit, as Mother Gale taught, and it could not come ashore.” Campaign clue: Eliza’s Storm Entry.

On the logbook’s last page, in shaky handwriting: “The money lies where the rain goes. E.M.” (The cistern. Let the players work this out in Session 3.)

Scene 4: The storm and Victoria (30–45 minutes)

Lightning cracks over the water. In the flash, you see a sleek motorboat pulling up to the dock. A figure in a yellow raincoat climbs out, crowbar in hand, and starts up the path toward the tower.

Tibbs can’t come back in this storm, so the heroes are stuck until it passes. Victoria climbs the tower (with Dunk, unless the heroes won him over) and corners them in the lantern room.

Victoria’s smile is gone. “I’ll take whatever you found. Nobody is going to believe a few tourists and a fairy tale over a Thorne.”

Lay out option cards: Run for the stairs, Hide the packet, Stall her, Signal Eliza.

• Run: a Bold roll to slip past her down the spiral stairs. Thrilling, with a Fright on a low roll.
• Hide: a Sneak roll to tuck the packet somewhere clever, like the lens base or a companion’s beak.
• Stall: a Talk roll to keep her talking. Victoria gets smug and slips up: “My great-grandfather did what he had to.” She just admitted it in front of witnesses.
• Signal Eliza: any hero flashes three times. This one always works, but it’s best as the finishing move after one of the others.

When Eliza acts:

The great lens blazes to life, so bright you have to shield your eyes. Wind howls through the room though every window is shut. The door slams open behind Victoria, and a voice that isn’t a voice fills the tower: no words, just the feeling of a hundred years of being wronged. Victoria screams, drops the crowbar, and runs.

Victoria flees to her boat and roars off into the storm. If Dunk came with her, he stays behind, shaking, and asks how he can make it right.

If things go badly: on a “Not yet” at the worst moment, Victoria snatches the logbook and escapes before Eliza can stop her. The heroes keep the deed. In Session 3 they’ll need to get the logbook back.

Ending the session

The storm blows itself out. The heroes spend the night in the lantern room, and the lens glows softly all night long, like a nightlight left on for them. At dawn they hear Tibbs’s horn from the dock. End the session here.

Session 3: Justice for the Keeper

The heroes recover the stolen relief fund, protect their evidence from Victoria, and win the town vote, with a little help from a lighthouse that shines for the first time in fifty years. The heroes can’t lose this session; how well they do shapes how big the victory is.

Scene 1: Where the rain goes (30–45 minutes)

If the players are stuck on Eliza’s riddle, a Look card, a Clever roll, or Ada’s hint (“Old lighthouses stored rainwater, you know”) points them to the cistern hatch in the cottage floor.

• Opening the rusted hatch takes a Fix card or Clever roll, plus the toolkit, Dunk’s crowbar, or a Tinkerer’s rig.
• Climbing down takes a Bold card or Brave roll. The cistern is a stone room with knee-deep cold water. Every sound echoes.
• Spooky happening, every time: the water ripples in rings, as if someone is walking ahead to show the way.

In the far corner, half sunk in silt, is an iron-banded sea chest. Painted on the lid, under a century of grime: T.C.S., Thorne Coastal Shipping.

• Lifting it out takes teamwork: everyone who helps adds a die to one Brave roll.
• Inside, wrapped in oilcloth, are bundles of old bills and a pouch of gold coins, with a paper band reading “Gale’s Landing Relief Fund.” Evidence: Thorne’s Sea Chest.
• Thorne meant to come back for it once the island was his. It never was, because the deed stayed hidden.

Scene 2: Saturday in town (45–60 minutes)

Victoria knows what the heroes found, and she has one day to stop them. Lay out these option cards. The heroes have time for any three:

• Check the handwriting. Ada and the librarian compare the logbook to Eliza’s old letters in the archive. A Clever roll proves it’s real. This cancels Victoria’s “forgery” trick at the meeting.
• Make posters. The heroes draw posters and flyers about the real story of Eliza Marsh and hang them around town. No roll needed. This adds +1 Town Trust at the meeting. (A great job for anyone who’d rather draw than talk.)
• Win over Dunk. If Dunk isn’t already an ally, a Kind roll or a sincere gesture convinces him to tell the truth at the meeting. Mark Evidence: Dunk’s Word.
• Rally the harbor. Tibbs and Jess spread the word among the fishing families. A Talk card or Kind roll, or the heroes can just show up and let Tibbs do the talking. This cancels Victoria’s “money” trick at the meeting.
• Get the logbook back (only if Victoria stole it). It’s in a locked desk drawer at the Thorne office. A Sneak roll gets in after hours, and a Fix roll opens the drawer. Dunk may have a key.

Victoria’s move. That night, someone tries to break into Finch’s Books & Tea, where the evidence is kept. The heroes hear glass rattle downstairs.

• Lay out option cards: Hide the evidence, Set a trap, Confront them, Call for help.
• Any approach works. The intruder is a hired stranger who flees at the first sign of trouble, or Victoria herself, caught red-handed by a hero’s camera on a 6.
• On “Not yet,” the intruder escapes with one piece of evidence (the GM’s choice, never the Deed or the Sea Chest). They can’t use it at the meeting.

Scene 3: The town meeting (45 minutes)

The Grange Hall is packed: fishermen in rubber boots, kids on their parents’ shoulders, Ada in the front row with her best hat. On the stage, Victoria Thorne stands beside an easel showing glass condos glittering in the sun. “Gale’s Landing,” she says warmly, “it’s time to stop living in the past.”

Track Town Trust with tokens in the middle of the table. It starts at 0.

The heroes present their evidence by laying the evidence cards on the table one at a time. For each card, any hero can talk about it, hold it up, or simply place it and nod at Ada or Jess, who will read it aloud. Speaking is never required.

After any card, a hero may roll Kind or Clever to make the point land. A 6 adds +1 more. A low roll never subtracts; it just gives Victoria a chance to sneer.

Victoria’s two tricks. At some point, Victoria strikes back. Each trick costs −1 Trust unless the heroes canceled it on Saturday or answer it with a good roll now:

• “These papers are forgeries!” Canceled by the handwriting check.
• “I’ll pay the town two million dollars!” Canceled by rallying the harbor, or by pointing at the relief fund money on the table.

The vote

Ada stands. “I think it’s time we voted.” As the town clerk lifts her gavel, every light in the Grange Hall flickers and goes out. People gasp. Through the tall windows, out across the dark harbor, the lighthouse on Whisper Island blazes to life, brighter than anyone has ever seen. Its beam sweeps across the water, across the town, and comes to rest on the Grange Hall. It glows there, long and steady.

The vote is decided by Town Trust:

• 10 or more: unanimous. The town keeps the island, clears Eliza’s name, and gives the relief fund to the fishing families.
• 6 to 9: a clear win. A few grumble, but the lighthouse is saved.
• 5 or less: the vote is close, but the lighthouse wins after its light sways the last few voters. The heroes have saved it, by a whisker.

Victoria storms out. The deed shows she and Dunk were digging on town land without permission, and she leaves Gale’s Landing for good.

Epilogue: The keeper’s farewell (15 minutes)

That night, Tibbs runs the heroes out to the island one last time. Turn the lights low.

At the top of the tower, Eliza Marsh is waiting, clearer than she has ever been: a real face, laugh lines, a locket at her throat. She doesn’t speak. She doesn’t need to. She looks at each of you in turn and smiles. Then she presses her hand over her heart, and fades into a long, warm, steady glow.

Give each hero a moment. They can flash a goodbye, play a card, or just watch.

As the glow fades, one small spark stays behind, deep inside the great lens, like an ember that won’t go out. Eliza is at peace. But part of her is still keeping watch.

(In the campaign finale, that spark is how Eliza returns to hold the light one last time.)

• The town relights the lamp as a beacon and puts up a plaque: “Eliza Marsh, Keeper. She kept the light.”
• Dunk becomes the island’s caretaker. Jess starts a junior historical society.
• Ada gives the heroes a framed copy of the 1926 deed, with their names written on the back as witnesses.

Evidence tracker

• Old Newspaper (Session 1, library)
• Jess’s Photos (Session 1, bait shop)
• Brass lantern-room key (Session 1, harbor)
• Torn Page (Session 2, cottage)
• Dunk’s Word (Session 2 or 3)
• Victoria’s slip (Session 2, if stalled)
• Eliza’s Logbook (Session 2, lantern room)
• The Deed (Session 2, lantern room)
• Thorne’s Sea Chest (Session 3, cistern)
• Posters (Session 3, Saturday)
• Handwriting check (cancels “forgery”)
• Harbor rallied (cancels “money”)

Campaign clues in this mystery

• The Gray Coat: Jess’s dawn photo (Session 1, Scene 2)
• The First Watch: the plate under the lens (Session 2, Scene 3)
• Eliza’s Storm Entry: the logbook line (Session 2, Scene 3)

Gideon’s visit to the bookshop is a bonus hint, not a required clue.

Keepsake moments

• Compass: it spins and points at the loose stone or the cistern.
• Pocketknife: pries out the stone, or cuts a rope at the perfect moment.
• Sketchbook: a hero’s drawing of the tower shows a window that isn’t there anymore.
• Lucky stone: looking through the hole reveals Eliza clearly for one moment.
• Film camera: a developed photo shows Eliza standing beside the heroes.
• Silver whistle: its note answers the foghorn, and Eliza answers back.

Spotlight Checklist

Glance at this between sessions to make sure each hero gets a moment to shine, whatever their role.