Maryam reaches the marked gate with Carmin and Arthur beside her. Orren waits with spear in hand, while the scar-cheeked guard watches the jungle road and the farmers’ empty trail.
Orren
The village is secure. No farmer has returned from the eastern path, and no one here reports hearing the shrine bell.
Sela Vey
The gates are watched, and the villagers remain indoors. We were about to send Arthur back for you.
Carmin
Please look. The marker is changing.
The pale hardlight above the gate gutters. For one breath it reshapes into the shrine-symbol, its hooked lines pointing along the jungle path where the farmers fled, then fades back into a wavering beacon.
Arthur
Does that mean the farmers are protected, or that the shrine has found them?
Carmin
I cannot tell from the sign alone. But if the bloodline ritual reaches this far, we should learn whether the villagers are still themselves before the marker changes again.
✓ Quest Accepted
Clean up the destruction and regroup the villagers
Director's notewhole tale
Maryam asks the guards to repeat their names.
Maryam
Sela, Orren, repeat your names and your reports. Then seal the eastern path. No one follows that sign alone.
Sela Vey
Sela Vey. The gates hold, and the villagers are inside. I saw no farmers return from the eastern trail.
Orren
Orren Hale. I watched the breach and the road. Nothing crossed except the rain and that failing light.
The names settle into Maryam’s command like newly set stones. Sela moves to bar the eastern gate, while Orren gathers two farmers’ spears and watches the jungle beyond the palisade.
Maryam's turn“I try to clean up rubble and find stray goblins or trapped villagers.”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled +0)
Maryam clears fallen timber and cracked stone from beside the eastern gate. Beneath the rubble, muffled breathing answers her search, while rain darkens the dust.
She shifts the last beam aside and exposes two villagers wedged beneath a collapsed section of wall, shaken but alive. No goblin crouches among the debris or nearby shadows.
Trapped Villagers
Help us, please! We thought everyone had gone.
Sela Vey
I have them. Orren, bring blankets and clear a path inside.
Sela kneels and helps the villagers crawl free, checking their limbs before guiding them through the gate. Orren gathers the requested supplies, leaving his spear within easy reach.
Carmin
You found them, Maryam. I am sorry I did not notice the breathing beneath the wall.
The cleared passage reveals no second hiding place, blood trail, or goblin spoor. The eastern gate stands open only long enough for the rescued villagers to pass, then Sela bars it again.
Maryam's turn“"Keep searching. Could be goblins or villagers hiding out anywhere," I suggest, and I, too, keep searching.”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled +3)
Maryam
Keep searching. It could be goblins or villagers hiding anywhere.
Maryam searches beneath carts, behind the storehouse, and along the palisade’s shadow. Her keen hearing catches a faint scrape beneath the abandoned grain shed.
She finds a concealed trapdoor under loose straw. Below it, two shaken villagers huddle in a dry storage hollow, while a narrow drainage passage leads safely beneath the eastern wall.
Trapped Villagers
Please, guards, do not leave us here. We heard goblins outside, then hid when the wall fell.
Sela Vey
Four rescued now. Orren, get them inside and bar this opening after they pass.
Orren helps the villagers climb out. The passage remains clear and dry, giving the defenders a hidden route to the eastern wall and confirming no goblins are concealed in the shed.
Maryam's turn“Continue the search.”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled +2)
Maryam continues along the grain shed’s foundation, checking beneath stacked baskets, loose stones, and the dark seam where the drainage passage meets the eastern wall.
Her search finds a thumb-wide clay tube concealed beneath a warped floorboard. Its sealed mouth bears the same hooked shrine-symbol, scratched beneath a smear of dried mud.
Maryam
The symbol was hidden inside the village, not only carried from the jungle.
Carmin
Please let me see it, Maryam. I can open the seal without breaking whatever record it contains.
Carmin kneels beside the floorboard and gathers a thin amber edge around the tube. The hardlight loosens the clay seal cleanly, revealing a strip of waxed cloth marked with three village names.
Sela Vey
Those are farms along the eastern trail. None of their people came through our gate today.
Orren
Then this cache was placed before the attack. I will check the trail for matching marks while Sela keeps the villagers inside.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the marked cloth
Maryam's turn“"Do you recognize this?" I ask him.”
SUCCESS (Fair Oratory, rolled +1)
Maryam
Do you recognize this?
Carmin
Yes. The cloth is a village registry strip, not a spell. These names identify farms and likely record deliveries, debts, or warnings.
Carmin turns the waxed cloth toward the gate’s pale marker, careful not to crease it. The three names remain legible despite rain and grime, with no hidden writing emerging beneath the wax.
Carmin
I recognize the eastern farms, but not this particular record. Someone wanted these households accounted for before the attack, and I can copy the names for comparison.
Sela Vey
I know two of those families. Their fields supplied the storehouse last month. I will check whether their neighbors have seen them.
Orren
I will search the trail for their carts, tools, or footprints. If the farmers left signs behind, I should find them before the rain takes everything.
Maryam's turn“"Good thing, then. Once you're done, help me with clean-up- then, we'll be done here" I said.”
FAILURE (Fair Oratory, rolled -1)
Maryam
Good thing, then. Once you’re done, help me with the clean-up. Then we’ll be done here.
Carmin
Yes, of course. I will help, but I should copy this first. If I rush, we may lose the only useful record we have.
Carmin sets the waxed cloth beneath the gate’s pale light instead of folding it away. His hardlight stylus traces each name onto a dry scrap, while Sela waits beside the open shed.
Sela Vey
Maryam, I can begin the clean-up without him. The villagers need the broken timber moved, and the eastern passage must be barred again.
Sela gathers the nearest villagers’ tools and starts clearing splintered boards from the gate. Orren returns from the trail with mud on his boots and a strip of red-dyed twine in hand.
Orren
I found this tied to a thorn beside the eastern track. It matches the wax on the registry strip. The farmers’ trail does not end at the village. It turns toward the shrine.
✓ Quest Accepted
Seal the eastern passage
Maryam's turn“"We'll ignore it. The captain and his assistant are investigating the ruins, it's out of our hands now," I dismissively said. Though, deep down... suspicion stirred. What I saw weas familiar, but I'll chose to ignore it.”
SUCCESS (Fair Oratory, rolled +1)
Maryam
We’ll ignore it. The captain and his assistant are investigating the ruins; it’s out of our hands now. Help me finish the clean-up.
Orren
If you say so, Maryam. I will keep the twine and report the turn toward the shrine to the captain when he returns.
Orren knots the red-dyed twine around his spear shaft and joins Sela at the gate. Together they drag broken timber clear, while Carmin finishes copying the registry names.
Carmin
The copy is complete. I will store it with the village records, unless you would rather carry it yourself.
Maryam
The red twine is familiar, though I cannot place where I saw its color before.
Sela Vey
The passage is barred, the villagers are inside, and the gate can hold. We can finish the repairs before nightfall.
The guards stack the last boards against the eastern wall. Beyond the rain, the jungle path disappears beneath green shadow, carrying its unanswered marks toward the shrine and the captain’s investigation.
Quest Complete
MaryamSeal the eastern passage