The Gatehouse Tavern squats inside The Keep on the Borderlands, all smoke-dark beams and ironbound door. Valornor Gladewarder steps in from the cold, and the warmth inside dies around him instead of greeting him.
A sour bite of ozone hangs above the ale stink. Beneath it lurks the damp reek of ancient forest rot, as if rain has been trapped under roots for a hundred years.
He moves toward the bar. The room is crowded, but the patrons are strangely still, their shadows lagging behind them like torn cloaks.
Those shadows stretch. They thin and bend, shaping long-eared forms with lifted hands, as if some unseen dance has begun behind every seated back.
At the bar stands The Proprietor, a hard-eyed keeper with a towel over one shoulder, watching the room as though he has already noticed the wrongness and hates it.
A low creak sounds under the floorboards near Valornor’s boots. Something below the tavern shifts, patient and hungry for attention.
The Proprietor
You there. Ranger. If you have coin, or steel, speak quick. If not, keep your feet light and your mouth shut. The house is being listened to.
The shadows twitch again, closer this time, and the floor gives another slow, deliberate groan. The Proprietor’s gaze snaps to Valornor, waiting.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the tavern’s hidden nature
“He asked the Proprietor. "Have you had this problem for very long?"”
SUCCESS (Fair Reasoning, rolled -1)
Valornor Gladewarder
Have you had this problem for very long?
The Proprietor
Long enough to know it is no drunken trick. Three nights, maybe four. It started with the cold, then the shadows began moving where nobody stood.
The Proprietor
Keep your voice low. They listen through the boards, through the smoke, maybe through the walls themselves. I have not named it aloud in here for fear of giving it more teeth.
The Proprietor
Fey work, I think. Not the bright sort from songs. The hungry sort that comes where old paths break and old bargains rot.
The floor answers with a soft, wet thump from beneath the bar, and the nearest lantern flame bends sideways as if something unseen has breathed across it.
The Proprietor
If you mean to help, ranger, tell me what you see. If you mean to run, do it before the boards start talking back.
“I watch the floorboards under the bar”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled -3)
Valornor lowers his gaze to the bar and stills his breathing. Under the boards, the bulge shifts in a slow crawl, then pauses as if it has noticed him watching.
A thin seam of pale light leaks between two planks, too cold and clean for lantern glow. It traces a hidden line beneath the bar, outlining a sigil scratched into the underside of the floor.
Valornor Gladewarder
That mark is not tavern work.
The Proprietor goes rigid behind the counter. He follows Valornor's stare, and the color drains from his face as the boards give a faint, answering creak.
The Proprietor
There. You see it now. By the saints, it is in the room with us.
The hidden shape shifts again, and the lantern flame snaps sideways toward the floor as if drawn by a breath from below.
The Proprietor
If you know any way to break fey craft, use it now, or tell me if we run.
“I break the sigil under the bar”
FAILURE (Fair Reasoning, rolled -2)
Valornor presses his palm flat to the boards and sends the flat of his blade down beside the seam. The strike lands with a dull crack, but the light does not shatter. It ripples, bends, and crawls sideways under the bar instead.
A bitter chill blasts up through the floor. The sigil flashes once, bright as frost, and the nearest plank splits along a hidden line, exposing a narrow gap into black space below.
Valornor Gladewarder
It is deeper than the floor.
The Proprietor
No, no, stop. If you open it wider, it will know the room has seen it.
The lantern flame whips hard toward the gap. For a heartbeat, a pale, hungry shape seems to pass beneath the bar, then vanish into the dark beneath the tavern.
The Proprietor
Now you have seen enough. Will you run, or do you mean to face what lives under my floor?
The broken seam keeps bleeding cold light, and the bar creaks as if something below has turned to listen.
Quest Complete
Expose the tavern’s hidden nature
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Fair→Good