The market square glitters under festival silks, but the air feels wrong, tight as a drawn bowstring. Jeniwei threads through the crowd toward the notice board, her boots quiet on the cobbles.
A local thug stands there alone, rigid as a post. He is trembling so hard the parchment rattles, and the bounty notice burns with a faint, sickly glow.
The Thug
Not gold. Debt.
He turns on Jeniwei with glassy eyes, as if some hidden hand has jerked him by the strings.
The Thug
Walk away. That reward is a lie. It wants blood, and it will not care whose.
The crowd keeps its distance, laughing too brightly beneath the silk banners, as if none of them can feel the charge crawling over their skin.
The Thug
If you are wise, thief, you will leave before it sees you too.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the source of the notice's enchantment
“Can I sense the source of the magic radiating from the notice?”
YES, BUT (Likely, rolled 54)
Jeniwei reaches out with her senses, but the magical signature is a chaotic, tangled knot that defies any clear origin. The energy pulses with a rhythmic, predatory hunger that masks its true source, leaving her unable to pinpoint where the enchantment begins or ends.
“I back away and scan for the trap's trigger”
FAILURE (Good Perception, rolled -1)
Jeniwei eases back from the board, keeping her eyes on the parchment instead of the crowd. The glow stretches after her like a tether, then snaps back across the notice in a jittering pulse.
She sweeps the square for a trigger. Nothing obvious answers, but the board’s lower edge shows a fresh smear of wax and a pinhole of spellwork, hidden where the frame meets the wood.
Jeniwei
The enchantment is anchored at the board, not wandering.
The Thug
See? It grabs at anyone who lingers. Don’t stand there.
The parchment flares once more, and the shadow of the board jitters across the cobbles in a shape that points toward the market’s side alley.
For a heartbeat, the wax at the frame edge shines like a seal, thin enough to scrape free if she reaches it without touching the cursed sheet itself.
The thug flinches hard, staring at the board, while the glow holds, waiting for Jeniwei’s next move.
“I ask the thug what he saw”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Persuasion, rolled +2)
Jeniwei
What did you see?
The Thug
I saw the board catch him first. A hooded man, clean gloves, no merchant’s hands. He leaned in, pressed something under the frame, and never touched the notice.
The Thug
Not a noble, not a guard. Someone careful. Someone paid.
He swallows, then points with two shaking fingers toward the alley the shadow marks. His gaze keeps darting back to the lower edge of the board.
The Thug
That seal, it was wax when he set it. Dark red. I heard him mutter, like he was tying the parchment to a place, not a person.
The glow steadies, as if listening. The board’s shadow stays leaned toward the side alley, patient and certain.
The Thug
If you’re going after him, go before the light turns again. I am not stepping any closer.
“I ask the thug who paid him”
FAILURE (Mediocre Persuasion, rolled -1)
Jeniwei
Who paid you?
The Thug
He said no names. Just a coin purse, and a warning to keep my mouth shut.
The Thug
If I say more, I am marked for it.
He jerks his hand back from the alley, then rubs his thumb hard against his palm as if trying to wipe off a stain that is not there.
The Thug
He wore clean gloves. That is what I remember best. Clean gloves in a market like this.
The notice gives one measured pulse, and the wax seal under the frame catches the light like a closed eye.
The Thug
If you need a face, look for someone who never had to touch the board twice.
“I ask the thug about the clean gloves”
FAILURE (Mediocre Persuasion, rolled +0)
Jeniwei
Those clean gloves. What else do you remember about him?
The Thug
Only that he looked too calm. He stood just outside the lamp glow, like he already knew where every eye in the square would drift.
He swallows, then taps two fingers against his own wrist, as if recalling the feel of a stranger’s careful touch.
The Thug
He used a signet too, maybe. I caught a flash of metal when he leaned in. No crest I know.
The notice pulses again, softer this time, and the shadow on the boards narrows toward the alley mouth.
The Thug
If you go there, go looking for the hands first. The face is the lie. The hands tell the trade.
For a breath, his fear loosens into grim usefulness, and he glances toward the alley as though measuring how much trouble he has already bought.
“I head for the alley and watch my back”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +3)
Jeniwei slips off the square edge and into the alley, keeping her shoulders loose while her eyes track the market behind her.
The glow from the notice board thins at once, as if the street itself stops feeding it attention.
Ahead, the alley mouth frames a narrow service door with fresh wax on the latch, the same dark red as the seal.
The thug stays behind, now only a tense shape at the square edge, watching her go with clenched worry.
Jeniwei catches the scent of hot sealing wax and lamp oil, fresh enough to have been laid down recently.
The alley shadow no longer points to the board, it points to the door.
Quest Complete
Identify the source of the notice's enchantment
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Good→Great