• 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.

Resin smoke leaks into the street, sharp and sweet at the same time, carried on the damp night air. Inside, lantern light spills through open shutters, cutting long shadows across the Public Services Ring. Laughter erupts — loud, rough, and just a little too close to anger — followed by the crack of tankards.

When you step inside, heat and noise hit at once. The taproom is packed shoulder to shoulder with laborers fresh off shift. Broad-backed lumberjacks, soot-streaked smiths, distillery hands with red eyes and heavy laughs. Boots scrape on sap-stained planks. A massive hearth roars at the center of the room, resin logs popping as smoke curls up into a blackened hood.

At the bar, a Butler Bot pours Space Beer into battered tankards with mechanical calm, while patrons shout orders over one another. At the tables, cards slap down hard — Twenty One — curses fly, and someone laughs too loudly at a bad loss.

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.

—

Unlocks only if the PC did not get arrested earlier or had to escape the bar.

• 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: Rumors in the taproom surface through proximity, timing, and restraint. Pressing too hard shuts conversations down.
• Twenty One is a social risk, not a minigame: Winning draws attention and resentment; losing invites mockery. Either way, the PCs become visible — and visibility has consequences.
• Sagan is unavoidable and uncomfortable: He is placed in the PCs’ guest room on purpose. The smell, the silence, and the forced proximity are the hook — not his willingness to talk.
• Sagan knows enough to be dangerous — to himself: He shares what he experienced, not what he understands. His fear, isolation, and uncertainty are as important as the facts he provides.
• J.W.’s property should feel real but obscured: Location, wealth, and security are confirmed — layout, routines, and scale are not. Maintain fog, distance, and uncertainty.
• No recovery if mishandled: If the PCs mock, threaten, or dismiss Sagan, the information flow stops permanently. Do not provide alternate NPCs to replace him.
• This scene narrows the world: By the end of Saw’s End, the PCs should feel that Morningstar points outward — north–northwest — and that whatever waits there does not want to be found.
• 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.