The tavern is loud with luck and candle smoke, a warm place where fortunes usually wobble before they break.
Supernovame enters beneath a hanging sign and finds the room pinned to one table, where a merchant's daughter guards a rolled map with both hands.
Merchant's Daughter
If you are here for the map, you will need to pay, or prove you need it more than I do.
The parchment lies half-unfurled now, its inked paths circling a marked point like a question that wants an answer.
Supernovame
The map is old, and the mark is freshly darkened.
Merchant's Daughter
They call it a map with answers. I call it my last chance to keep my father's business from vanishing in Xanadu's bad luck.
She slides the map a finger's width closer, then stops, watching Supernovame as if his reputation might be worth more than coin.
Merchant's Daughter
So. Do you buy it, or do you tell me why the tavern keeps drawing fools to this table?
✓ Quest Accepted
Obtain the map with answers
“What do you say we team up? We could form a party to follow the map. Having the map is one thing, but you really need what the map leads to. You can't do that alone. You have the map, I have magic. We could use a healer, a rogue, and a warrior too. You keep whatever it is you need to save your father's shop. I'd like some magical things. A warrior will probably be happy with a weapon and armor. A cleric with a book or holy item. A rogue with something unique or valuable. There's safety in numbers. What do you say?”
SUCCESS (Poor Persuasion, rolled +0)
The merchant's daughter studies Supernovame over the rim of her cup, then lets out a breath she has been holding too long.
Merchant's Daughter
A party, then. That sounds less lonely than a ledger and a prayer.
Merchant's Daughter
I keep the map, and I keep enough coin to keep the shop open. You get the chase, and whatever wonders are buried under it.
Supernovame
Then we travel together. You bring the map, and I bring the magic.
Merchant's Daughter
He makes it sound simple. Dangerous people always do, but he also sounds serious.
Merchant's Daughter
A healer, a rogue, and a warrior. You have already thought this through more than most sell-swords ever do.
She smiles, small and tired, then slides the folded map closer across the table, not surrendering it so much as inviting him to share the burden of it.
Merchant's Daughter
All right, Supernovame. If we are making a party, tell me who we find first.
“A warrior first. We'll need good protection. A good offense and good defense. Preferably someone with lots of experience.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +1)
Supernovame taps the map with two fingers, then lifts his gaze. A warrior first, he says, someone seasoned enough to keep a party alive.
Merchant's Daughter
A knight would cost too much, but experience is worth coin. He is thinking like a leader, not a gambler.
Merchant's Daughter
Then we start with steel. There is an old sellsword in the room tonight, scarred, silent, and bored enough to listen.
She turns her cup in one hand and nods toward the back tables, where a broad-shouldered veteran sits alone beneath the lantern smoke.
Merchant's Daughter
If you can win him over, I will say the first name belongs to us.
The folded map stays on the table, but now her palm rests on it like a promise. Across the room, the veteran's head begins to tilt in their direction.
“I go talk to the veteran and tell him out offer of joining our party in exchange for a weapon and armor that we might find.”
SUCCESS (Poor Persuasion, rolled +1)
Supernovame rises from the table and crosses into the lantern smoke. The veteran watches him come without moving his hands from the table.
Merchant's Daughter
He really is doing this. No flourish, no bluff, just walking right into it.
Veteran
You have my attention, wizard. Speak plain.
Supernovame
Join our party. We are hunting a map with answers, and any weapon or armor we find can be yours for the trouble.
Veteran
That offer is honest enough to matter. Maybe the boy is not all smoke.
Veteran
Answers are worth hearing. Gear is worth keeping. If I travel with you, I want first claim on anything that keeps a blade in my hand.
Merchant's Daughter
Then say yes before he spends the night convincing someone else.
Veteran
I say yes. Start with the map, and let us see where it tries to drag us.
“Next we need a cleric. One who is good at healing and maybe has enough pull for a resurrection if we get desperate.”
FAILURE (Poor Persuasion, rolled -4)
The veteran's hand settles back to the table, but his eyes go past Supernovame, to the merchant's daughter, then to the folded map.
Veteran
A cleric is sensible. Healing first, miracles second, if the gods are feeling generous.
Merchant's Daughter
The monastery of chance keeps a cleric in the south cloister. If anyone can mend a body and bargain with fate, it is one of theirs.
She draws the map closer, but does not open it yet. The lantern smoke above the back tables curls low, like it is listening.
Veteran
Resurrection is not a tavern promise. But I have heard the old cleric at the monastery will hear a desperate coin if the cause is worthy.
Merchant's Daughter
Then we have our next stop. I will not send you blind without someone who knows the prayers here.
For a moment, the three of them sit with the shape of the plan between them, and the map stays stubbornly folded.
“Sounds good. Let's head to the cloister to find a skilled cleric then.”
SUCCESS (Fair Agility, rolled +1)