The concealed stair spills Carciel and Serren into an old keeper’s house beneath the shrine. Damp stone gives way to warped floorboards, and the air smells of dust, ash, and rain trapped underground.
A cold hearth crouches beneath a blackened chimney. Beside it, a travel cloak hangs untouched, its hem powdered with gray dust. Across the room, fresh footprints lead toward an iron-banded inner door.
Serren Vale
“Maelin used this place when the shrine became unsafe. She kept supplies here, and records no lord’s clerk could find.”
Serren kneels beside the nearest print without touching it. The mud is still dark in its deepest grooves, though the surrounding dust has settled undisturbed.
Serren Vale
“Someone came after her, or came looking for what she left behind. Either way, they went straight to that room.”
At the locked door, a thin line of pale light shows beneath the threshold. From within comes one soft scrape, followed by silence. The old house seems to hold its breath around them.
✓ Quest Accepted
Retrieve Maelin’s hidden records
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify whoever entered Maelin’s refuge
“Investigate the cloak”
SUCCESS (Superb Perception, rolled -1)
Carciel turns from the inner door and examines the travel cloak, lifting its dusty hem into the faint light.
But the gray dust is deliberate. Beneath the lining, a second seam runs against the weave, too straight to be damage.
Serren Vale
“Maelin hid things where haste would overlook them.”
Therefore Carciel finds a narrow packet sewn into the hem and draws it free. Waxed cloth protects several folded pages, marked with Maelin’s hand.
Serren Vale
The treaty proof. She kept it here after all.
The hidden records are now in Carciel’s possession. Before the packet can be opened, a muffled knock sounds from beyond the iron-banded door.
Serren Vale
“We have the evidence. Now we must decide whether to read it here, or carry it straight to Pell.”
Quest Complete
Retrieve Maelin’s hidden records
+ New Item Acquired
Waxed records packet