Smuggling has a long history, and a lot of it is not exactly what you would expect. While now smuggling might make you think of drugs or people, smuggling has generally been a means to avoid taxation rather than a prohibition—though Canadian breweries and distilleries made a mint through smuggling during the US Prohibition-era, when alcohol was banned. Did the tea smugglers or the salt smugglers of the day face a criminal underworld like those that inhabit the drug smuggling world of today? Almost certainly. These were not cooking enthusiasts who just wanted to get ingredients to their favourite chefs! Smugglers did undertake some jobs we might think of as humanitarian—and some probably still do—but they were in it for the money, and not looking to better humanity.
But that would make a boring story.
Story
The PCs are smugglers—or at least have a relationship with smugglers so that they can access the needed skills and equipment. They’re focus is on a benign substance—think tea, cardamon, or chili peppers—that state taxation has made unaffordable to most people. They’re making money, sure, but they aren’t doing anything specifically harmful. Along with their latest cargo, they’re looking to get a young witch away from those looking to prosecute them.
Places
Origin: The place where the PCs take on cargo is a theocracy and has some weird laws, but right now, it’s the only place to get what the PCs move. Part of the underworld in which they work are non-believers who just want to live free of the religious doctrine of their theocratic overlords. Smuggling makes these people money they use to help the persecuted.
Forsburh: A powerful, merchant city-state, Forsburh is extreme in its own way—it’s all about the money—but it has no laws against accessing or using magic, as long as one doesn’t harm another. The university here has expressed interest in having The Witch join its student body, so much that it has waived its usual fee—very unusual in Forsburh.
People
The Witch: Persecuted because of a natural affinity to magic, the Witch is hoping to find a place they can live openly and pursue an education. They want to use their gift to benefit others and are not profit-motivated or an extremist of any sort.
The Benefactors: Those looking to help the Witch are not rich, but they are good contacts for the PCs to have. One of the reasons they can help the persecuted is that they have a level of political influence that helps protect them. That’s useful if the PCs ever get into trouble. Can a deal be struck?
The Inquisition: The theocrats are not happy with only imposing their authority at Origin. They believe they have the natural right to extend their dictates even to those places that have other traditions and other laws. Agents of the Inquisition are chasing the Witch and will seek to return them to Origin so that the Witch can be properly burned at the stake—as is right and good. Trial? Trials are for people and those who access magic are not people.
Events
The Departure: Someone alerted the Inquisition, and the PCs need to get the Witch and get the heck out of Origin before they get snatched. They’ll lose their vessel and face public punishment—probably a ‘scourging’ and then branding as sinners.
Inspection: These are smugglers, so its not just the Inquisition that the PCs worry about. At some point, there are authorities that suspect the PCs of doing what the PCs do—smuggling! This is not linked to the Witch, although the PCs might suspect it is.
The Interception: Either on the way or at Forsburh or once they reach the city-state, the Agents of the Inquisition find the PCs and the Witch. The Witch must be returned to be burned in public, but the PCs? Well, they can be punished anywhere. Oh, and their vessel must be destroyed—it has angered the god. If they die as well? Shrug.