Gray dawn lies across the warehouse stacks. The Carter leads John Smith and Healer Gaston between crates toward the south stacks, where a lone clerk waits beside a shuttered loading door.
The Carter
That is Gervais. He comes before sunrise, always alone. But the ferryman knew this mark before any of us did.
Gervais turns at the sound. His calm gaze fixes on the torn paper in John's possession, then on the seal smeared across its fold. Recognition crosses his face before alarm can replace it.
Gervais
So the river carried the paper to you after all. I wondered whether the ferryman would sell you, or warn you.
Healer Gaston stiffens. From beneath his coat, Gervais draws a red cloak clasp and sets it on the crate between them. Its insignia matches the wax mark on the letter.
Gervais
The Red Cloak Brotherhood is no band of foreign cutthroats. We are the Cardinal's hidden hand, paid to erase names that threaten the throne's peace. Your assassin was sent because this ledger names the men who command us.
Healer Gaston
And the ferryman? He was weighing whether to deliver us to you.
Gervais
He recognized the seal. His caution was not kindness. It was calculation.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the Brotherhood ledger
“Burn down the warehouse”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled -1)
John Smith strikes a coal from the warehouse brazier into the nearest burlap bundle. He drives it beneath the stacked crates, and the dry packing catches.
Therefore, flame races along the spilled straw and climbs the timber supports. Smoke rolls low across the south stacks as the warehouse begins to burn.
Gervais
You would destroy the evidence, and everyone with it? The ledger is in the clerk's chest. Take it, if you mean to expose the hand behind mine.
But the cost lands at once. A collapsing crate showers sparks across John's injured shoulder, and the damaged paper in his grip takes a fresh blackened tear along its fold.
Healer Gaston
The fire has taken the rafters. We have moments before this place becomes a furnace.
Gervais backs toward the loading door through the smoke, leaving the red clasp behind on the crate. Behind him, iron shrieks as the clerk's chest drops from a shelf into the flames.
Gervais
Choose, Smith. Save the ledger, or save the men trapped beyond that door.
Quest Complete
Confront Gervais
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Good→Great