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