Nilsar returns to the seized watchhouse with Tomas and Edda. Bram remains outside, guarding the surrendered harbor guards while the quay crews keep the captured ships ready.
Inside, inspection rolls cover the watchhouse table. Tomas sorts them by berth, cargo, and date, then draws a folded toll record from beneath a ledger.
Tomas
Master Rognvald, this is the harbor toll record. The latest passage is marked here, but this seal is not Veshmyr’s.
The impression shows the crowned coastal device of the Kingdom of the Scenic Coast, pressed beside an unfamiliar northern routing mark. The latest passage was logged under protected authority, not ordinary merchant traffic.
Edda
The ships are ready to leave, Rognvald. Bram has the prisoners contained, and the crews can cast off when Captain Soren gives the word.
Tomas turns the record toward Nilsar, keeping one finger beside the unusual seal. Outside, Bram’s guarded prisoners wait while the captured cargo and vessels remain vulnerable to any claimant with authority.
Tomas
This passage may give the Kingdom grounds to contest the prize. If we leave without understanding the seal, we may carry their claim straight to sea.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the authority behind the protected passage
“Identify the authority behind the protected passage by asking captives and going through other taken records to find a name.”
FAILURE (Legendary Lore (Local), rolled -4)
Nilsar spreads the Harbor Ledgers beside the Patrol Documents and Rell Family Papers. Records Research aligns berth dates, escort marks, and noble seals, while Reads Legal Records separates authority from mere ownership.
The Coastmere ledgers match the toll record’s cargo descriptions, but the protected passage bears two authorities: a coastal crown seal and a northern routing mark. A margin names the harbor reeve as harbor reeve, yet no document states he issued this passage.
Nilsar Yarb
Which of you served under the harbor reeve? Who ordered this protected passage, and whose seal did you obey?
Edda brings the surrendered guards inside while Bram keeps the doorway watched. Nilsar lays the matching entries before them, using the patrol documents and Rell papers to show that the question concerns authority, not loot.
Surrendered Harbor Guards
The reeve’s office handled the tolls, but the sealed passage came from above us. We saw the crown device and were told not to ask whose order carried it.
Their answer narrows the trail but does not identify the authority. The records show the harbor reeve’s office received and copied the passage, while the foreign routing mark remains unexplained and the original order is absent.
Nilsar seals the conflicting record with the other papers instead of forcing a false conclusion. The protected cargo now carries a documented dispute, and the harbor reeve’s office becomes the necessary point of examination rather than a proven source of command.
“I must speak with Osmund Rell to reveal the true leader of the cargo smuggling.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -1)
Nilsar brings Osmund Rell before the watchhouse table, where the Rell Family Papers lie beside the Harbor Ledgers and the disputed toll record. Osmund’s household remains guarded nearby.
Nilsar Yarb
Osmund, these papers show your seal and the harbor’s copied passage. Tell me who truly directed the protected cargo, and I will record your answer accurately.
Reads Legal Records separates ownership from issuing authority. Records Research aligns the berth dates, routing mark, and copied entries, while the Rell papers place Osmund’s seal beneath an order he did not originate.
Osmund Rell
The passage was not mine. Caldus Merrow brought it to my office and ordered the harbor staff to copy the crown seal. He said the northern mark came from his own arrangement.
The Harbor Ledgers confirm Merrow’s access: his office appears beside every protected berth, while the toll clerk copied instructions without issuing them. The cargo route and foreign mark follow his private entries.
Osmund Rell
Caldus Merrow led the smuggling. He selected the cargo, used my seal through the harbor office, and paid the northern carriers. I knew enough to fear him, but not enough to stop him.
Nilsar records Caldus Merrow as the directing authority and Osmund’s admission as testimony. The ledgers, legal distinctions, and family papers now support one clear finding: the harbor reeve led the operation.
Quest Complete
Identify the authority behind the protected passage
New Gift: Identifies Authority