The culvert slopes beneath the wine road, its cramped brick throat carrying river damp and the distant clang of bells. Gervais leads, Gaston follows, and John brings up the rear.
Gervais
Keep your head low. The vault entrance is close, but the Brotherhood may have watchers below.
Gervais reaches a rusted iron ladder and climbs toward a stone hatch. Pale daylight seeps through its seams, revealing old wine racks and dust beyond.
Healer Gaston
You said the commanders gather tonight. Why are we approaching now, with the alarm already spreading?
Gervais
Because the burned chest sent its warning ahead of us. If we wait for night, the vault will be prepared.
Above, footsteps cross the cellar stones. Gervais freezes beneath the hatch, one hand raised. A muffled voice speaks, followed by the scrape of a bolt being drawn.
Gervais
They found the lower door. If Smith forces the passage, every commander in Nesle will know his face.
“I search for another way around”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled -1)
John studies the cellar walls instead of the barred hatch. Dust lies undisturbed beneath the oldest wine racks, except where a narrow draft stirs grit along the floor.
John Smith
The draft comes from behind the racks.
He shifts the lowest rack aside with controlled force. Behind it, a low service passage opens into darkness, its brickwork older than the cellar and wide enough for a crouching man.
Gervais
A servants' way. I did not know it remained open. It should emerge beyond the watchers, near the vault stairs.
Gervais slips through first, then Gaston. John follows, leaving the hatch and the muffled voices behind. The passage bends twice, swallowing the sound of the bolt being drawn.
Healer Gaston
We have lost time searching, and I cannot swear which stair reaches the vault. Still, this is better than announcing ourselves at the door.
The passage ends beneath a loose flagstone beside a shadowed stairwell. Beyond it, muted voices gather below, close enough to prove the hidden route has brought them around the watchers.
✓ Quest Accepted
Slip past the watchers below
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the identities of the Brotherhood commanders
“Have the commanders already been warned?”
YES, BUT (Likely, rolled 63)
The loose flagstone settles behind them. Below, the gathered voices sharpen into orders, and a second door groans open somewhere beyond the stairwell.
Gervais
Yes. The warning reached them before we did. They know the warehouse burned, and they know the clasp is no longer in their hands.
A muffled voice below calls for the vault doors to be barred. Another answers that the intruders must be trapped between the stairs and the river passage.
Healer Gaston
Then the warning has done its work, but not cleanly. They are sealing the room against us before we can hear the names.
Through the cracks beneath the flagstone, candlelight moves across boots and hems. The commanders are already assembling below, their meeting hastened into a guarded council.
Brotherhood Commanders
Bar the river stair. Search every passage. Whoever carries the clasp must not leave Nesle alive.
Gervais
They are warned, and the vault is closing. But we reached the stairs before they found this passage. We still have one narrow chance to listen.
“I press to the flagstone and listen for the commanders' names.”
FAILURE (Great Perception, rolled -2)
John presses his ear to the flagstone and listens through the cold stone. Voices gather below, but the masonry turns their words into broken murmurs.
A title reaches him, then vanishes beneath a scrape of chairs. The next voice speaks farther away, its name swallowed before more than the first syllable carries upward.
Gervais
Nothing clear. The stone is too thick, and they are moving the council deeper into the vault.
Below, a commander notices the silence overhead. Boots shift across the cellar, and a hand strikes the underside of the flagstone, testing for hollowness.
Brotherhood Commanders
Search the stair. Check the servants' passage. No one leaves until the clasp is found.
Healer Gaston
We cannot listen from here now. They are searching upward, and this stone will soon betray us.
Gervais withdraws from the flagstone and gestures toward the darker bend of the passage. The chance to identify the commanders has closed, leaving only their guarded route and hurried voices below.
“I slip through the darker bend of the passage”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled -1)
John slips through the darker bend, turning sideways where the passage narrows. His shoulder scrapes hard against the brick, tearing skin and leaving a hot line of pain, but he clears the constriction without dislodging a stone.
Gervais
Quietly. The searchers are still above us.
Gervais follows into the bend, then pauses beside John while Healer Gaston crouches behind them. The passage drops sharply, carrying the muffled movement of men searching the servants' way.
Healer Gaston
Your shoulder has paid for the passage. Keep it against your side, or the scrape will worsen.
The bend opens into a low junction beneath the vault stairs. John is through, with the searchers cut off behind the cramped turn, though every movement now pulls at the fresh scrape.
Gervais
There. The vault stairs begin beyond that arch. We have passed beneath their search, but not beyond their hearing.
Gervais points toward the shadowed arch. Gaston steadies himself against the wall, and below, the guarded voices continue shifting through the stone as the hidden route carries them nearer the vault.
Quest Complete
Slip past the watchers below
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Great→Superb
− Story Quest Removed
Secure the Brotherhood ledger