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
“save the men trapped beyond the door”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled +0)
John Smith reaches the loading door through the smoke and wrenches its swollen bar free. The door bursts outward, spilling gray air across the warehouse yard.
Three trapped workers stumble through the opening, coughing and clutching one another. John braces the door against the flames until every man clears the threshold.
Healer Gaston
They are out. Smith, leave the door and come clear.
Therefore, John releases the door. It slams against the wall as burning rafters crack overhead, and the freed men hurry beyond the smoke.
Gervais
You chose lives over proof. Then hear this, the ledger names the Cardinal's commanders, and the next name is not mine.
Gaston emerges with the red clasp clenched in one hand, while the damaged paper remains blackened and torn against John's chest. Behind them, the clerk's chest burns beneath the collapsing shelf.
Healer Gaston
The ledger is still in that chest, but the roof will not wait. Gervais, tell us where the commanders meet.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the burning warehouse
“Does Gervais know where the commanders meet?”
YES, BUT (VeryLikely, rolled 71)
Gervais
I know. They meet tonight beneath the old Hôtel de Nesle, in the disused wine vaults. The Cardinal's commanders gather there after compline.
Smoke pours through the loading door behind him. Gervais keeps one hand raised, while the red clasp glints in Gaston's grip like a captured warning.
Gervais
But the fire has changed the hour. The chest is not merely burning. One commander will already know this warehouse is compromised.
Healer Gaston
Then the meeting may become a trap before we reach it. Can you name the commander who has been warned?
Gervais
No. The warning goes by sealed token, not voice. Whoever finds that chest first will carry the alarm straight to Nesle.
A section of roof crashes inward behind them, sending sparks across the yard. Gervais points toward the river road as the warehouse bell begins to ring.
Gervais
Take the clasp. Show it at the vault door, and they may admit you before suspicion hardens. But if you arrive after the token, they will be waiting.
“Will john acept the clasp and escaprewith the healer”
NO, AND WORSE (Likely, rolled 99)
John does not take the clasp. Gaston keeps it clenched while smoke thickens around the yard, and the burning warehouse bell cries through the dawn.
Healer Gaston
Then we leave without their badge. Whatever waits at Nesle, we face it honestly.
Hooves hammer the river road. A pair of mounted guards, two young adult men in dark blue coats and iron helmets, their stern faces shadowed beneath the brims, appears through the smoke, followed by men carrying pikes and buckets, a cluster of young adult men in soot-streaked brown tunics and leather caps,. Their captain, a broad-shouldered middle-aged woman in a scarlet sash over a black coat, her cropped gray hair visible beneath a peaked helmet, points straight at the fugitives.
Gervais
Too late. The bell summoned more than firemen. They will see the clasp, the burned warehouse, and three convenient suspects.
The workers, three young adult men in rough, smoke-darkened work clothes, their faces pale and streaked with ash, scatter toward the reeds, but the guards spread across the road. Behind them, a burning beam crashes through the loading door, sealing the warehouse yard in sparks.
Healer Gaston
Smith, the river is behind us and the guard ahead. Gervais, if you know another way, now is the hour.
Gervais
There is a drainage culvert beneath the wine road. It leads toward Nesle, but the entrance lies beyond those pikes.
“I order Gervais to lead us through”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled -1)
John Smith
Gervais, lead us through.
John’s order cuts through the bells and smoke. For one exposed moment, his resolve falters beneath the guards’ gaze, and the hesitation shows in his tightened jaw.
Gervais
Then stay close. Do not question the path, and do not lose sight of me.
Gervais turns toward the pikes, then veers along the burning wall to a weed-choked drain beneath the wine road. He drops to one knee and tears away its warped grate.
Healer Gaston
The culvert is open. Move, before the smoke betrays the entrance.
Gervais slips inside, Gaston follows, and John enters last. The tunnel carries them beneath the road, its brick walls sweating river water, while hooves and shouted orders fade above.
Gervais
We are through. This passage rises near the old Hôtel de Nesle, beneath the wine vaults.
Quest Complete
Escape the burning warehouse