The murmur outside tightens into silence. Vanier still holds the door with his shield, the forged relic glinting in the crack of light. The Peasant Rebel stands behind him, pale but steady.
The Hooded Figure
Why would a Justicar shield a rebel? Speak plain, elf. Why should we trust you over him?
The dark cloaked man comes into the doorway glow, head bowed beneath his hood. Faces in the crowd turn toward him, hungry for an answer, fearful of being fooled again.
Vanier Justicar
This relic is a fraud. The edge-work is fresh, the paint is thin, and it serves the hand of whoever wants you roused and blind.
The Hooded Figure
A lie would splinter them. A proof might save them.
He lifts his hands, not in surrender, but to calm the first men who begin to reach for the door. The mob shifts from rage to doubt, and the rebel's life hangs on which way that doubt breaks.
✓ Quest Accepted
Win the crowd to the truth about the relic
“I will step back from the door to let the crowd inspect the relic's seams.”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Diplomacy, rolled +1)
Vanier eases back from the door, lowering the shield just enough to open the crack wider. The forged relic comes into clearer view, its crude seams catching the lamp-glow.
The Hooded Figure leans in, hood shadowing his face, while the first men in the crowd stop crowding the threshold and bend to look.
The Hooded Figure
There. The join is plain enough now. That is no saint's work.
A low ripple runs through the onlookers, not anger now, but shame and unease. The Peasant Rebel swallows hard behind Vanier, still watching the doorway like it might bite.
The Peasant Rebel
I told them it was wrong. I told them, and they would not hear me.
One villager reaches out, then snatches his hand back from the relic as if from a hot coal. The mob's weight shifts away from the door.
The Hooded Figure
Who brought this token here? Speak, before the fool who made it slips free in the dark.
Quest Complete
Win the crowd to the truth about the relic
“I ask who made the relic and why”
SUCCESS (Superb Theology, rolled +0)
Vanier Justicar
Who made this relic, and why bring it here?
The doorway hushes further. The question settles over the threshold, and heads in the crowd turn from the forgery to one another, as if the answer might be standing among them.
The Hooded Figure
Because someone wanted fear, not faith. That much is plain. The hand that cut those seams knew enough to fool the desperate, and little enough to honor the thing.
The Peasant Rebel
Not a miracle, then. Just a trick passed from hand to hand.
A broad-shouldered villager near the front bends to look again at the relic, then spits into the straw at his feet instead of the scriptorium floor.
The Hooded Figure
Name the man who carried it, and I will tell you who paid for the lie.
The crowd does not surge. It waits, uneasy now, for someone to break first under the weight of the question.
✓ Quest Accepted
Name who paid for the relic's lie
“I scan the crowd for anyone showing signs of guilt or sudden movement.”
SUCCESS (Fair Perception, rolled +0)
Vanier lets his gaze travel the front ranks of the crowd, taking in faces instead of fists. A man with flour on his cuffs will not meet his eyes. Another keeps rubbing his thumb over a wedding ring until the knuckle pales.
At the edge of the door gap, one villager shifts under his own hood, too quick to look like plain unease. The broad-shouldered man beside him blanches and steps half a pace away from him.
The Hooded Figure
There. The one in the patched brown cloak, with the signet cord at his wrist.
The hooded figure lifts a finger, not quite pointing, but enough to pin the movement to one body in the press of straw and shoulders.
The Hooded Figure
That one carried it. He came with coin in his purse and fear in his mouth.
The Peasant Rebel
I saw him take it from a rider at the lane by the mill. No sermon, no blessing, just a handoff in the mud.
The patched-cloak villager freezes. His face empties, then hardens, and the crowd begins to lean away from him rather than toward the door.
Quest Complete
Name who paid for the relic's lie
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Fair→Good
