Veyrholt rises in soot and stone, all shuttered windows, wet cobbles, and the smell of coal smoke over old rain. Refugees crowd the lanes, clutching bundles and hopes alike, while distant bells toll through the murk.
Maerwyn leads Lyra under a sagging awning behind a fishmonger’s stall, where a narrow hideaway opens between stacked crates. A woman waits there, one hand on a folded map inked with red marks.
Eris Thornwake
You took your time, Maerwyn. I was beginning to think the Covenant had swallowed your healer whole.
Maerwyn Silverleaf
Save your bite, Eris. We need your eyes, not your wit.
Eris Thornwake
My eyes are dearer than my wit. Both cost extra today.
The stranger unfolds the map, revealing black-smeared routes and circles around ruined shrines, border roads, and a mark near the vale’s edge. Her gaze flicks to Lyra’s staff, then back to Maerwyn.
Eris Thornwake
There. Fresh movement, Ashen riders and veiled healers. If you mean to stop them, you will need speed, and caution. The Covenant hunts traces of your kind.
+ Story Quest Added
Warn the refugees of the Covenant
+ Story Quest Added
Stop the Ashen riders
“I ask where the Ashen riders were seen”
FAILURE (Fair Persuasion, rolled -3)
Eris Thornwake
Seen? North road, by the ash gate. But if I hand you more, I name myself in your trouble.
Maerwyn Silverleaf
She means the ridge road, beyond the granary walls. Three riders, maybe four. And one veiled healer with a lantern charm.
Eris folds the map halfway shut, thumb pinning the black-marked circle near the vale’s edge. The stall feels smaller at once, the awning dripping dust and rain-dark soot.
Eris Thornwake
You ask like a public notice. If the Covenant hears that question, they will start checking mouths for your name.
Maerwyn’s hand drifts toward Lyra’s staff, then stops short. Her eyes stay on the lane beyond the crates, where refugees pass in tight, anxious knots.
Lyra
The riders are closer than the map first made them seem.
Eris Thornwake
If you want the road clear, you need more than fear. You need a route, a bribe, or someone brave enough to mislead them.
“I seek a route past the riders”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Survival, rolled +2)
Lyra slips the folded map from Eris with a quick, practiced motion and studies the black-marked road. Their finger finds a narrow goat track skirting the ridge, then a spillway cut through old drainage stone.
Maerwyn leans in, reading the route at a glance. Beyond the stall, refugees press along the lane in a restless current, and a cart’s wheel splashes through damp cobbles.
Lyra
The spillway runs under the granary wall. It hides movement.
Eris Thornwake
That path is ugly, narrow, and mostly forgotten. Which is why riders hate it.
Eris taps the map’s edge, then glances toward the lane. Her voice drops as a cluster of refugees passes close enough to hear only fragments.
Maerwyn Silverleaf
Then we use it. Lyra, warn the people near the ash gate. Tell them to keep to cover and away from the ridge road.
Lyra turns from the stall as Maerwyn steadies the map against her palm. The market opens ahead, crowded and exposed, while the hidden route lies clear in their minds.
Eris Thornwake
If you take that way, move before the lanterns come around the bend. Can you do that, healer?
“I warn the refugees at the ash gate”
SUCCESS (Fair Persuasion, rolled +1)
Lyra steps into the lane and lifts their staff where the refugees can see it. The ash gate ahead is a churn of boots, bundles, and worried faces.
Lyra
Keep to the cover of the walls. Stay off the ridge road, the riders are watching it.
Heads turn. A woman with a soot-dark shawl clamps both hands over her child’s shoulders and steers him under a hanging cloth awning.
Refugee Man
Ashen riders?
Lyra points once toward the hidden spillway route, then toward the shadowed side streets. The warning passes down the crowd faster than fear can settle.
Refugee Woman
Inside the walls, now. Move, all of you, move!
The stream of refugees breaks and folds inward, drawing away from the exposed road. Beneath the gate arch, a loose cart is abandoned and forgotten in the push.
At the far bend, two armored riders appear in the haze, slowing as the lane empties before them.
Quest Complete
Warn the refugees of the Covenant
Skill Upgrade: Survival Mediocre→Fair