• Location: Saw’s End, Public Services Ring, Morningstar
• Type: Lodging · Social Risk · Rumor Consolidation
• Era: Beta Age
• Tone: Loud nights · working-class aggression · enforced order · danger held barely in check

Atmosphere & Sensory Cues: Resin smoke and stale alcohol · wet boots thudding on plank floors · axe-scarred tables · lantern light flickering through mist · laughter that turns sharp without warning · the low hum of threat under camaraderie

Saw’s End announces itself before you even touch the door. Above the raised wooden porch, oil lanterns flicker against the perpetual violet twilight, illuminating a weathered sign.

Suddenly, the tavern’s heavy doors squeal open. A man in stained coveralls is hurled out, his boots skidding across the gravel of the porch before he collapses into the muddy street. A towering, broad-shouldered man steps out onto the porch, a red neon light catching the hard, weathered angles of his face. Clutched in his left hand, a heavy, cold-forged prosthetic of dull industrial iron, is a Windstrike Rifle, its fingers clamping around the handguard with a sharp, mechanical hiss.

“And don't come back until your tab is as clean as your mouth!” he calls out with calm, terrifying authority. “Keep running before I use this grip to show you how a real foreman clears the timber.”

The drunken guest scrambles to his feet and vanishes into the gathering mist of the Public Services Ring. The foreman turns with a sharp, practiced pivot and steps back inside, the heavy timber doors swinging shut with a solid, echoing thud.

Stepping inside behind him, you are hit by a wall of resin-smoke haze and the warm glow of oil lanterns dancing off rough-hewn beams. The plank floors, reinforced with shimmering shards of reclaimed shuttle-canopy glass, creak under booted feet. The taproom is packed shoulder to shoulder with laborers fresh off shift. Broad-backed lumberjacks, soot-streaked smiths, and distillery hands with red eyes. At the bar, a Butler Bot pours Space Beer into battered tankards with mechanical calm, while patrons shout orders over one another. This isn’t a place for quiet conversations. This is where people come to forget the day — or make it worse …

This phase applies only if the PCs are wanted and their status is compromised. If the PCs are clean or successfully disguised, skip to Phase 1b.

This phase applies if the PCs are not wanted, are successfully disguised, or have dealt with Hammacher and fled before the Troopers arrived.

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OPTIONAL FLOATING TRIGGER: This block executes ONLY if the players did not trigger the Kettler Twins encounter previously along the trade route or in Hope. If they already had this encounter, skip this block entirely.

The twins are deeply distrustful of anyone digging into their business, especially characters disguised as Covenant monks. They answer player questions with increasing suspiciousness. They will tolerate 2 to 3 questions maximum before completely shutting down the conversation. They reveal as little information as possible. Depending on the party's line of questioning and successful CHA (Persuasion or Intimidation) checks, they will only ever reveal the following three pieces of context:

• The Scarcity of Veyra: Veyra is incredibly rare. They cannot be hunted locally; they only thrive out in the steppes of the western Asari Region bordering the Desert Side. Furthermore, the native Senti Tribe fiercely protects them and does not tolerate exohuman hunters in their territory. Anyone hunting Veyras out there has to be a highly seasoned tracker, or they become the hunted themselves.
• Their Business Model: They specialize in Veyra fur exclusively because it is rare and holds an immense premium market value. If Veyra fur ever becomes a common commodity, they will immediately drop it and specialize in something else.
• Their Operations & Supply Chain: They are merely traveling salesmen running their “wholesale tour” from settlement to settlement, comparing their economic route to the way the Honga tribe runs their seasonal “Cycle.” They openly state that they pick up their pelts wholesale at Hale & Hook in Morningstar. They don't know the mysterious producer of this Veyra fur personally, but reveal that he is a seasoned hunter specialized on rare pelts who sets his market prices entirely himself.

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• Saw’s End is not safe — it is tolerated: The tavern holds together through reputation and restraint, not hospitality. Order exists only as long as Orin allows it.
• Orin is the hard boundary: He does not negotiate, warn twice, or escalate emotionally. One decisive action ends any situation. If the PCs cause trouble, lodging is denied without discussion.
• Information is overheard, not extracted: New rumors in the taproom surface through proximity, timing, and restraint. Pressing too hard shuts conversations down completely.
• Twenty One is a social risk, not a minigame: Winning draws immediate attention and resentment from drunk lumber crews; losing invites mockery. Either way, the PCs become visible—and visibility has consequences under a bounty wire.
• Floating Safety Net Function: If the players skipped taprooms earlier in the sandbox loop, use the Kettler Twins block here to ensure they still capture the vital handwriting link and the corporate target target loop (Hale & Hook).
• Managing the Dialogue Budget: Enforce the 2-to-3 question limit strictly. Once the party hits that threshold or fails a check, the twins must deliver their mock salute and exit. This keeps the investigation tight.
• If the Ticking Clock Expires Here: If wanted PCs linger in the bar, the Guarding Troopers will track them down. Orin will not protect the PCs from the law. If a fight breaks out during an arrest attempt, Orin will actively help the Troopers subdue or eject the PCs to prevent his bar from being damaged or shut down.

• ↑↑ Start: Hunting An Unknown Hunter
• ★ Overview: All Scenes of Hunting An Unknown Hunter
• ☞ Resolution: Case Resolution and discoverable Backstory
• ← Previous Scene: Scene 4 - Arrival in Morningstar
• → Next Scene: When the PCs escape from the Guarding Troopers the story continues with Scene 4g — Escaping Morningstar. If they submit and get arrested, proceed directly to Scene 4f — Local Guarding Troopers Station. When the PCs secure a room and leave peacefully, please use the Morningstar Hub Overview to continue …

• Note: Morningstar contains many additional locations beyond the hubs listed above (see the full Morningstar wiki page). Player characters may freely visit any of these sites. As they are not directly tied to the core investigation, interactions there should be improvised using the respective location articles — focusing on atmosphere, local routines, and consequences rather than new plot-critical clues.