Warm lamplight spills over the tavern floor, but the room feels trapped. Kristian Fairhaven steps in as every head turns toward the hearth.
A pilgrim lies still beside the fire, his travel cloak splayed across the boards. The bard stands at the room’s center, one hand hidden behind his back, his fingers shaking around something small and gold.
Harlen
There! He had it in his hand. Guards, seize him before he bolts!
The tavern keeper points hard enough that his sleeve trembles. Patrons pull back from the tables, chairs scraping on the floor.
Kristian Fairhaven takes in the scene at a glance, the pilgrim, the ring, the fear in the room.
The Bard
I did not kill him. I found the ring, that is all. Someone set this on me.
The bard shifts one step back, still hiding his hand. Outside, bootsteps crunch in the street, drawing nearer to the door.
Harlen
Then speak quick, paladin. Do you seize him, or do you let him run?
✓ Quest Accepted
Discover the ring’s true nature
“Does the ring bear any markings of a dark enchantment?”
YES (Likely, rolled 14)
Kristian Fairhaven
The gold is cold, and those etched runes pulse with a faint, sickly violet light that feels like a curse.
The ring hums with a dark, rhythmic vibration that seems to draw the very warmth from the surrounding air.
“I ask the bard about the ring”
SUCCESS (Good Persuasion, rolled -1)
Kristian Fairhaven
What is that ring?
The Bard
I found it in the pilgrim’s pouch, after he fell. I swear it was already wrong, cold as grave-stone.
Harlen
Lies. He had that thing in his hand when I turned.
The Bard
Then look closer, keeper. It bites at skin, and it will not leave me be.
Kristian’s question draws a sharp answer from the bard, and the ring’s violet pulse answers back. For a heartbeat, the stolen gold seems to drink the lamplight, then a thin wash of darkness slips over the bard’s fingers like a stain.
The Bard
Saints preserve me... it is clinging to me. I cannot pass it off, not even if I try.
The keeper goes pale, because the mark on the bard’s hand is not blood. It is a blackened ring of soot, shaped exactly like the band, and the hidden dead pilgrim’s satchel lies open beside the table with a second matching clasp inside.
“I inspect the matching clasp in the satchel”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled -1)
Kristian slips the satchel wider and peers inside. The clasp is not just matching, it is made to meet the ring’s inner seam, a twin fitting for a hidden socket.
Kristian Fairhaven
This was part of a set.
The metal on Kristian’s fingertips turns icy as he lifts it free. A faint violet thread shivers across the clasp, then dies, leaving a smear of ash on the leather.
The Bard
No... that was not in his pouch by accident.
The bard stares at the soot on his own hand, and the keeper follows the look to the clasp. The shape is the same. The stain is the same. Someone set this thing to bind itself to whoever touched it first.
Harlen
Then the dead pilgrim was carrying a trap, not a trinket.
The room seems to tighten around that truth. Kristian now has the clasp, and the question becomes who planted a ring that chooses its bearer.
Quest Complete
Discover the ring’s true nature
Skill Upgrade: Persuasion Good→Great
+ New Item Acquired
Matching clasp