The Inquisitor reads in silence, one page at a time. His fingers shake once, then still over the seal and the torn ribbon. Sir Eleutherius does not move from the threshold.
Frieda holds her ground before the desk, the packet open, the accusation plain. The bell sounds again through the stone, slow and cold.
The Inquisitor
This is not Bishop Eisenfaust's hand alone.
The Inquisitor
These papers name a conspiracy. If they are true, then the Bishop has hidden much from the Church.
Sir Eleutherius
Then say it aloud, before God and witnesses. Do not bury truth beneath office.
The Inquisitor lifts his eyes from the page toward Frieda, measuring her, then the knight, then the door behind them. Somewhere in the passage, a boot scrapes once and stops.
The Inquisitor
I will acknowledge the evidence, but not in private. Bring the clerk, the witnesses, and the seal chain. If this is a trap, I will not walk into it blind.
✓ Quest Accepted
Bring the clerk and witnesses to the Inquisitor
“"Mercy, good Father! I have swum and climbed and wiggled through slime to get here, all the while pursued by Bishop Eisenfaust's men, who doubtless await in ambush outside. I am exhausted and ragged and bootless and covered with mud and barely able to defend myself. If I go out the door alone, I will never return alive. But if you truly wish me to bring the witnesses from Schweinfurt, I will need some horses and a stout escort."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Oratory, rolled +0)
Frieda
Mercy, Father, I am spent and mud-caked. If I must fetch the clerk and witnesses from Schweinfurt, I need horses and a stout escort, or I will not return alive.
The Inquisitor
You ask plainly, and I hear you. If the witnesses are real, I will not send you out bare-backed into waiting knives.
He reaches for the bell cord instead of the papers, and a monk in the passage answers with hurried steps. Sir Eleutherius stays at the threshold, watching the door and the shadows beyond it.
The Inquisitor
Bring two horses from the monastery stable. Wake the clerk's office, and fetch the witnesses under guard.
A younger monk appears in the doorway, pale from the cold hall, and bows hard. The seal chain is lifted from the desk and set aside for the clerk to bear.
The Inquisitor
Go with him, Frieda. Do not let the packet leave your sight, and do not let any man outside hear more than he must.
The monk turns with a lantern toward the passage, and the first draft of the escort begins to form. Beyond the study, boots stir somewhere in the stone corridors.
“"I hear boots," she thinks. "Perhaps someone has an extra pair."”
SUCCESS (Superb Perception, rolled -1)
Boots sound in the passage, measured and light, with a second set lagging behind in a poorer rhythm.
Frieda
Two men. One wears leather soles, one walks like a clerk in haste.
The Inquisitor turns his head toward the corridor, hand still near the bell cord, his attention sharpening.
The Inquisitor
Good. Bring them in, if they are under guard.
At the doorway, Sir Eleutherius straightens and shifts aside, making room without lowering his watch.
Sir Eleutherius
Let them be seen plainly. No one leaves this study uncounted.
The monk with the lantern pauses at the threshold, then turns his head back into the hall as footsteps close on the door.
From beyond the jamb, a breathless voice starts to answer, and the corridor begins to fill with whoever the Inquisitor has summoned.
“Frieda waits to see who is coming.”
SUCCESS (Superb Perception, rolled +1)
The passage coughs up a clerk first, breathless and wide-eyed, with two witnesses behind him and a third figure in a plain cowl close at their backs. Frieda sees the red ribbon on one wrist, damp from travel and twisted hard as if someone has already gripped it too tightly.
Frieda
The clerk is here, and the witnesses with him.
The Inquisitor
Step forward. All of you. Let the room see who speaks for this matter.
The clerk stops dead at the threshold, swallowing hard. The witnesses hover behind him, while Sir Eleutherius keeps his body angled to block the door without sealing it shut.
Sir Eleutherius
Stand in the light. If they are honest, they have nothing to fear.
The Inquisitor’s gaze moves from the packet in Frieda’s hands to the trembling arrivals, weighing them like proof on scales. The seal chain lies aside on the desk, ready, but untouched.
The Inquisitor
Good. Then we do this properly. Bring them all within, and no man speaks over another.
Quest Complete
Bring the clerk and witnesses to the Inquisitor
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Superb→Legendary