Oren leads Sehra through a narrow stone passage into the castle records chamber. Joric follows, while Caldus, the gate sergeant, and two Harbor Watch guards remain in the outer hall.
Dusty ledgers fill the chamber’s shelves, and household rosters lie stacked beside a shuttered window. A newly arrived royal justice stands at the central table, an elderly woman with a severe narrow face, white hair beneath a black coif, and a scar crossing her chin.
Maelin Rusk
I am Justice Maelin Rusk. This writ orders the faction’s records opened under public crown oversight, including the household rosters and every warrant issued in its name.
Ser Joric Vale
Then your oversight may expose the refuge as surely as the faction’s enemies. Those records identify a living claimant and the people sheltering him.
Oren Pell
The writ does not publish the refuge’s location, Joric. Honest examination may distinguish the crown from those abusing its seal.
Maelin setsMaelin, slight-built in a plain charcoal wool gown with narrow sleeves, sets the writ beside the oldest ledger and breaks its red seal. Oren reaches for the household index, while Joric remains near the door, one hand clenched at his side.
Maelin Rusk
Captain, you witnessed the warrant’s factional mark. Stand with me while we trace who authorized it, and decide what must remain sealed.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the household responsible for the warrants
✓ Quest Accepted
Prevent the emergency order from overriding the records inquiry
“Is the responsible household named in the rosters?”
NO, AND WORSE (Likely, rolled 96)
Maelin turns the household roster page by page. The responsible household is absent, but several leaves have been cut cleanly from the binding, leaving ragged threads and pale scraps beneath the spine.
Maelin Rusk
No household is named here. Worse, someone removed the very pages that would identify the office responsible for these warrants.
The royal clerk opens the index and finds matching gaps in its entries. Dark pressure marks remain where names were once written, while Joric steps from the door to study the torn binding.
Maelin Rusk
The omission was deliberate. The missing pages concealed not merely a household, but the chain of authority behind its reach.
Oren Pell
Justice, this index also records an emergency order against the Harbor Watch. It accuses Captain Sehra's officers of obstructing the crown.
From the outer hall comes the scrape of boots and a demand to open the records chamber. The two Harbor Watch guards brace at the passage, while Joric reaches for his sword but does not draw it.
Ser Joric Vale
They came quickly. Whoever removed those pages knew this inquiry had begun, and now they mean to place your officers under suspicion before the truth can be entered.
“Can the missing pages be traced through the index's pressure marks?”
YES, BUT (Likely, rolled 56)
Maelin angles the index toward the window and brushes fine dust across the pressed marks. Letters emerge backward in the paper: a household initial, a clerk’s cipher, and a sequence matching the missing roster leaves.
Maelin Rusk
The marks trace to the household office that issued Joric’s warrant. The pressure is faint, but the cipher is consistent across every removed entry.
The royal clerk compares the cipher with the emergency order against the Harbor Watch. The match is exact, and beneath it lies a second impression naming the office’s receiving clerk, but the final name has been scraped away.
Oren Pell
We can identify the office and the clerk’s station, but not the clerk himself. Someone erased that last name after the pages were cut, and the surviving pressure marks now point directly to this chamber’s records.
The demand outside becomes a hard pounding. The Harbor Watch guards set their shoulders against the passage while Joric shifts between the door and the table, keeping the drawn attention from Maelin’s discovery.
Ser Joric Vale
Then the trail is real, but it has cost us the name we most need. Whoever waits outside may already know this chamber holds the surviving proof.
Maelin Rusk
Record the cipher and the station before we answer them. The chain of authority is traced, even if its final hand remains concealed.
“I order the guards to hold while Maelin records everything”
FAILURE (Good Willpower, rolled -3)
“I order the guards to hold while Maelin records everything”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +1)
Sehra
Hold the passage. Justice Rusk records everything before anyone enters this chamber.
The Harbor Watch guards plant themselves at the passage, shoulders firm against the pounding door. The demand outside continues, but no one crosses the threshold.
Maelin Rusk
Understood, Captain. I will enter the cipher, the station, the missing leaves, and the pressure marks into the record before we answer.
Maelin bends over the table and writes in a deliberate hand. She copies each surviving impression beside the matching entry, preserving the evidence before the chamber’s order can be disturbed.
Oren Pell
The emergency order and the removed roster leaves will be recorded together. That makes the faction’s reach answerable to the public crown.
Ser Joric Vale
I will keep the door in sight. Let them pound; the proof is safer while the record is being made.
The guards hold without drawing steel. Maelin finishes the cipher’s final strokes, then sands the page and places her hand over it, the chamber’s surviving proof now formally recorded.
Quest Complete
Prevent the emergency order from overriding the records inquiry