Renee, Tomas, and Mara reach the collapsed wayhouse and shelter beneath its remaining stone wall. Frost clings to the rubble, while recent boot tracks cut sharply through the mud nearby.
Mara
The ruin has not been empty for long. I see no one now, but someone used this shelter recently.
Mara takes position beside the fork, watching the hill track, the smoke-marked lower road, and the open road behind them. Her hand rests near her knife.
Tomas
The western road matches the records. The hill track bends toward the wardens’ house, while the lower road leads toward the village marked in older entries.
Tomas kneels beside the broken threshold and compares the recovered notes with the ruts beyond. One set of recent tracks follows the hill road, then disappears among the hedges.
Tomas
If those tracks belong to the wardens, the house may still be watched. If they belong to travelers, the records may be safer than we feared.
Mara
No movement on either road. We can inspect the wayhouse first, follow the tracks, or take the lower road before darkness deepens.
“I search the wayhouse for a safer route”
SUCCESS (Superb Perception, rolled -3)
Renee searches the wayhouse methodically, lifting loose stones, checking the collapsed hearth, and tracing the threshold where old traffic has worn the floor smooth.
Behind a fallen shelving frame, she finds a narrow service passage leading beneath the rear wall. It opens onto a sunken ditch hidden from both roads, offering a safer route around the hedges.
The passage gives a sharp crack when Renee shifts the frame aside. A rusted nail catches her glove and tears the leather across two fingers, drawing a thin line of blood.
Mara
Quietly done, though not quietly enough. That sound may carry to anyone watching the hill track.
Renee follows the passage to its exit and finds recent boot marks continuing through the ditch, but the concealed route bends away before reaching the wardens’ hill road.
Tomas
This ditch reaches the old boundary lane. We can approach the hill house from behind, screened by the hedges, instead of following the exposed track.
Mara studies the torn glove and the hidden exit, then marks the wayhouse wall with a small scratch. The safer route is theirs, but someone nearby may now know the ruin was searched.
“I ask Tomas what the tracks reveal”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled -2)
Renee
Tomas, what do the tracks reveal?
Tomas crouches in the ditch and studies the impressions where damp soil has preserved their edges. He compares heel depth, stride, and the direction of crushed weeds.
Tomas
Two people passed here, not one. The heavier walker followed the hill road first, then returned through this ditch toward the wayhouse. The lighter tracks continued to the house.
He points to a heel mark pressed over a broken reed and then to a faint turn in the mud. The returning walker paused beside the hidden exit, close enough to find it if searching.
Tomas
The lighter person went toward the wardens’ house. The heavier one was watching the route behind them, likely guarding their retreat or checking whether they were followed.
A thread from Renee’s torn glove clings to the nail at the passage entrance. Mara removes it and folds it into her palm, while the fading light shortens their safe approach.
Mara
Then our search has left proof behind. We know the house is occupied, and whoever watched the passage may now know we are using it.
“I lay a false trail toward the lower road”
SUCCESS (Good Survival, rolled +2)
Renee returns to the wayhouse and drags a broken branch from the ditch toward the lower road, pressing its tip through the mud to imitate a hurried passage.
She adds misleading boot marks with a loose stone, scatters crushed reeds across the trail, and leaves a faint thread from her torn glove near the lower-road fork.
Mara
That points toward the village, not the wardens’ house. Anyone tracking us should believe we abandoned this ruin and took the easier road.
Mara studies the false trail, then wipes Renee’s original passage marks from the threshold with a handful of dry grit. The hidden ditch remains concealed.
Tomas
The heavier walker will notice the disturbed mud first. If they follow it, they will search the lower road while we approach the hill house from behind.
From the hedge beyond the fork comes a faint scrape of leather against stone. No figure appears, but the sound stops after the false trail reaches the lower road.
Mara
It has been seen. We have our diversion. Keep low, and we can use the ditch before whoever is watching returns.
“I ask Tomas how to bypass the watcher”
SUCCESS (Superb Diplomacy, rolled +1)
Renee
Tomas, how do we bypass the watcher?
Tomas
Stay in the ditch until the hedge bends east. Then cross beneath the thorn growth and use the dry streambed behind the house. The watcher will be searching the lower road.
Tomas points through the reeds toward a dark break in the hedge. Beyond it, the dry streambed runs unseen behind the hill house and its rear wall.
Mara
The scrape has stopped. Whoever watched us took the bait. We have a clean passage while their attention remains below.
Renee, Tomas, and Mara slip into the concealed ditch. Mud muffles their steps as the hedge closes around them, hiding the fork and the false trail.
Tomas
There. Follow the stones, not the grass. The streambed reaches the rear service door, and the house cannot see us from its windows.
They cross beneath the thorn growth and emerge behind the wardens’ house. The service door stands within reach, screened from both roads, while the watcher remains diverted toward the village.
Quest Complete
Reach the wardens’ western house
Skill Upgrade: Survival Good→Great