In Klaus’s castle records chamber, tall shutters admit clear afternoon light over charters, church rolls, and trays of wax impressions. Augustus lays the embroidered cloth beside them, while the sealed reliquary waits within reach.
Klaus studies the reddish-brown stain at the cloth’s fold, then the three faded Latin letters stitched beneath the crozier crossed by a sword. Dust and old thread yield no easy answer.
Augustus Schmellenmeier
The mark appears on three copied impressions, but never with that sword. Let us compare the dates before we decide what authority it claims.
They sort the records across the broad table. One seal matches the crozier’s bend, another preserves the sword’s narrow guard, and a campaign charter joins both symbols to an imperial expedition.
Klaus Von Vanderbilt
The emblem belongs to a bishop whose authority marched beneath the imperial banner.
Augustus Schmellenmeier
There. The pattern is clear enough. Yet the matching impression is missing, and so is the record that should explain its presence here.
Augustus runs a finger along the gap in the church roll, where a neatly cut page leaves a pale rectangle among darker parchment. He looks to Klaus, waiting beside the sealed reliquary.
✓ Quest Accepted
Recover the missing record of the relic’s provenance.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the bishop behind the seal.
“Does the campaign charter name the bishop who bore this seal?”
NO (Unlikely, rolled 59)
Augustus lifts the campaign charter into the afternoon light. Its ink names the imperial expedition and its route, but nowhere identifies the bishop whose crozier and sword appear together on the seal.
Augustus Schmellenmeier
No bishop’s name. Only the emperor’s campaign, a year, and a list of expenses. The seal traveled under authority, but this page does not tell us whose authority it was.
He lowers the charter beside the reliquary without touching it. The missing page now seems deliberate, while the surviving text proves only that the church symbols accompanied an imperial march.
Augustus Schmellenmeier
Someone removed the answer, not the evidence around it.
Augustus compares the torn edge with the neighboring leaves. The cut is clean and recent enough to distinguish from ordinary decay, yet no scrap remains among the castle records.
Augustus Schmellenmeier
So the charter cannot name our bishop. Still, it narrows the search to an imperial campaign and confirms that this sealed object was hidden beneath both church and state authority.
The reliquary remains sealed between them, its dark wax unbroken. Outside, bells mark the afternoon hour, and the unanswered name seems to give their expedition a sharper purpose.
“then does it name a specific church?”
NO (Unlikely, rolled 72)
Augustus studies the campaign charter again, following its cramped lines from imperial expenses to the route south. No parish, abbey, cathedral, or bishop’s see appears anywhere in the surviving text.
Augustus Schmellenmeier
No specific church, then. The symbols claim ecclesiastical authority, but the record names no house of worship and gives us no bishop to pursue.
He sets the charter beside the torn church roll. The matching seal still proves the reliquary traveled with an imperial expedition, but not where its guardians served.
Augustus Schmellenmeier
That makes the missing page more important, not less. It may have contained a name, a destination, or merely the account of a transfer.
Afternoon light slips across the dark wax and the embroidered crozier. The evidence points toward a campaign network rather than one identifiable church, leaving the relic’s original sanctuary unknown.
Augustus Schmellenmeier
We cannot ride to a church the records never identify. We can follow the imperial route, search its surviving foundations, and ask where this seal was once recognized.
He folds the charter carefully and leaves the reliquary untouched. The unanswered question now has a narrower shape: not which church, but which stop on the emperor’s road first received the sealed burden.
“I search the archives for the missing church-roll page”
SUCCESS (Superb Perception, rolled +0)
Klaus searches the castle archives from the oldest church rolls to recent inventories, comparing torn edges, copying hands, and dates against the imperial campaign charter. Augustus watches as shelves and chests yield to methodical scrutiny.
Klaus Von Vanderbilt
The missing page was removed recently, not lost to age.
Behind a bundle of tithe accounts, Klaus finds a narrow parchment wrapper bearing the church roll’s distinctive red thread. Inside rests a folded page, its cut edge matching the gap precisely.
Augustus Schmellenmeier
There it is. Whoever removed it hid the page among accounts no one would consult unless they already knew what was missing.
Klaus opens the recovered page across the charter. The faded heading identifies Saint Verena’s Hospice at Falkenbrück, and a transfer entry records the sealed burden entrusted to Bishop Anselm’s custody during the southern campaign.
Augustus Schmellenmeier
Saint Verena’s Hospice. At last, a place and a bishop. Falkenbrück lies along the imperial road south, so our next destination is no longer a guess.
The page also notes that the hospice was abandoned after the army passed, its valuables transferred or concealed. Augustus folds the charter while Klaus keeps the recovered record beside the sealed reliquary.
Quest Complete
Recover the missing record of the relic’s provenance.
Quest Complete
Identify the bishop behind the seal.
+ New Item Acquired
Recovered provenance record