• Location: Schmitz Funeral Home, Public Services Ring, New Kourou
• Type: Social · Negotiation · Acquisition · Conditional Exposure
• Era: Beta Age
• Tone: Eerie · cynical · oppressive · pragmatic

Atmosphere & Sensory Cues: The acrid stench of a slaughterhouse and battlefield · polished ironwood furniture · the wet snap of heavy rubber gloves · steel container ceilings · narrow chapel-like windows overlooking the intersection · muted activity outside

The Vehicle: The Mortician’s Cart is an enclosed Hoo-drawn hearse built from dark wood and oxidized copper plates. After this introduction, use Mortician’s Cart as its standard name. It is one vehicle, not a cart and a separate hearse.

Schmitz Funeral Home is built from two repurposed cargo containers stacked atop one another, salvaged from the belly of the Last Frontier.

Polished wood covers the interior walls in an attempt to create an air of dignity, but the illusion is shattered by the smell. The acrid stench assaults your nostrils like a mixture of slaughterhouse, battlefield and failing refrigeration.

The flat echo of your footsteps bounces from the cold steel ceiling. There are no bells, no music and no immediate answer to your call.

Then a heavy velvet curtain at the back of the room slides aside.

Ernest Schmitz steps through. He is tall and painfully thin, wearing a bloodstained rubber apron and thick black gloves that glisten with moisture. His expression carries the distant calm of someone who has seen every way a human body can break.

Slowly, he removes the gloves. The rubber snaps against his skin with a wet, clinical sound.

“Pardon the bouquet,” he says, his voice as dry as old wood. “I’ve been waiting six months for a proper Quantum Fusion Battery, but the Syndicate thinks the living need the energy more than the dead need to stay cool. I have twenty-five penal laborers from a tunnel collapse waiting out back.”

This phase applies only if the PCs have a High Exposure status AND blow their cover inside the funeral home. It also applies if Schmitz Funeral Home is the +1 Location visited after the Ticking Clock was triggered elsewhere on the streets of New Kourou.

If the PCs complete the purchase, record:

• Mortician’s Cart: Acquired
• Jop: With the Mortician’s Cart
• Rear-Door Key: Acquired
• Bilax Root Supply: Starter Supply
• Purchase Cost: 500 Kourou
• Current Location: Schmitz Funeral Home until the PCs depart

Carry these resources into Scene 3 and preserve their location whenever the PCs leave the vehicle behind.

• One Vehicle, One Name: The Mortician’s Cart is the enclosed funeral vehicle described in this scene. Do not treat “cart” and “hearse” as separate resources.
• Use the Established Ticking Clock: The Micro Clock follows the same rules as the other New Kourou scenes. Once PCs with a High Exposure status blow their cover, roll 1d4 rounds. The countdown represents the brief dramatic window before the Location Trap closes, not the literal travel time of a patrol starting from a distant station.
• Remember the +1 Location Rule: If the Ticking Clock was already triggered on the streets, Schmitz Funeral Home may become the next Location Trap. In that case, the Guarding Troopers arrive when the PCs linger, even if Ernest does not independently recognize them.
• Separate Cooperation from Concealment: Convincing or bribing Ernest prevents him from revealing the PCs’ location. The PCs must still hide successfully from the patrol.
• Ernest Values Practical Leverage: Money and credible self-interest influence him more effectively than flattery. Threats may force immediate compliance but make him hostile and create future legal consequences.
• The Price Is Fixed: Ernest knows that the vehicle is useful and that demand for his services is steady. Do not call for a haggling probe to reduce the 500-Kourou price.
• The Cart Provides Concealment, Not Immunity: Closed doors hide passengers and cargo from casual observation, but determined Troopers, Hands or other searchers can still open and inspect it.
• Remember the Rear Latch: “Lift while turning the key” can create a brief moment of tension when the loading doors must be opened quickly.
• Track Jop Separately: Jop normally remains with the Mortician’s Cart, but later events may separate the animal from the vehicle.
• Track the Bilax Roots: The starter supply supports the initial journey. Prolonged travel, loss of provisions or demanding terrain may deplete it.
• Preserve the Resources: The Mortician’s Cart, Jop, the key and the Bilax Roots may affect the approach to the compound, the escape and the return to New Kourou. Record where each remains.

• ↑↑ Start: Hunting An Unknown Hunter
• ★ Overview: All Scenes of Hunting An Unknown Hunter
• ☞ Resolution: Case Resolution and Discoverable Backstory
• ← Previous Scene: Scene 2 — Travel Preparations
• → Next Scene: If the PCs finish their preparations, continue with Scene 3 — Traveling to Morningstar.