The young clerk steps between Lufy and the sealed evidence box, bracing one ink-stained hand against its lid. Her tired face has gone pale beneath the blunt dark bob.
The Young Clerk
The judge ordered its contents protected. Even if this room had to remain locked, I was not to let anyone open it.
The retired safecracker tilts his head toward the box, calm as the ringing telephones and the bars holding the doors shut. His gaze stays on the clerk.
The Retired Safecracker
That box is the only honest witness left in this room. You are protecting it from us, or protecting us from it?
The clerk's fingers tighten on the lid. At last she reaches into her jacket and produces a small, creased scrap of paper, its edge darkened by ash.
The Young Clerk
I took this from the judge's wastebasket. I should have said so sooner. Before the bars dropped, I saw someone waiting near these chambers.
She holds the scrap out without crossing the final step toward Lufy. Behind her, the sealed box remains untouched, its wax marked only by the room's cold light.
✓ Quest Accepted
Obtain the ash-darkened scrap
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the person who waited near the chambers
Director's note
do you remember what the person looked like who was waiting near the chambers?
“Lufy grabs the scrap and examines it to see if there is anything readable on it, while doing so he asks the clerk”
SUCCESS (Superb Investigation, rolled +4)
Lufy
Do you remember what the person waiting near the chambers looked like?
The Young Clerk
Yes. A medium-built man in a dark overcoat and a low felt hat. I never saw his eyes clearly, but he carried a silver-headed cane.
Lufy takes the ash-darkened scrap and angles it beneath the chamber light. Soot obscures the first glance, but the paper's folds preserve both ink and a faint pressure impression.
Lufy
The writing is hurried, but the pressure marks continue through the ash.
The readable words resolve: SOUTH SERVICE STAIR. 8:40. BRING THE BLACK LEDGER. Beneath them, an erased line leaves the judge's distinctive initials.
The Young Clerk
That stair opens into the records corridor. It is outside the sealed chambers, and the corridor has a street exit.
The scrap also yields a partial fingerprint in the softened soot, clear enough to preserve a ridge pattern for comparison. The waiting stranger, a middle-aged man with a weathered, clean-shaven face and a small scar at his chin, has left a trace, and a route out.
Quest Complete
Obtain the ash-darkened scrap
+ New Item Acquired
Ash-darkened scrap