A dull knock sounds inside the retaining wall, followed by a slow scrape. Dust shifts around the hidden latch, and the wayhouse voices fall abruptly silent.
The Voice Beyond the Wall
Greywatch stands where the helpless are carried. Open, bearer of the crown, and deliver the charge.
Mara Vey
That is the warning phrase, but the command form is older than any Greywatch oath I know. It may be an altered claim.
Tamsin Rook
The courier way should be empty. I passed through it alone, and nothing followed me to the latch.
The cloaked figure shifts closer to the wall without touching it. Mara keeps the fragment covered, while Tamsin watches Dale, her certainty visibly contested.
The Cloaked Figure
Someone reached the wayhouse first, or the wall is repeating a voice it learned. Either answer makes the passage a trap until proven otherwise.
Mara Vey
Tamsin’s route brought us here, but her warning is not yet trusted. We must determine whether that voice guards the prisoners, summons us inside, or lures us toward them.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the warning source from drawing the warden to the survivors
“I inspect the wall and latch without opening them, seeking the voice’s source.”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled +0)
Dale crouches beside the retaining wall and examines the latch without touching its release. The scrape has left fresh dust lines, but no footprints or disturbed earth mark the passage outside.
He traces the stones around the ironwork, finding a narrow hollow joint running upward through the wall. The voice travels through that concealed channel, not from the open wayhouse yard.
Dale Trackfinder
The latch has not been opened. The voice is coming through the wall, from above or within the wayhouse.
At the latch’s underside, Dale finds a sliver of fresh black wax pressed into an old groove. Its broken crown matches the mark on Tamsin’s token, though the seal has not been used to open the door.
The Cloaked Figure
Then the voice is being carried to us. Someone placed a speaking seal inside the wall, or the old works have found another channel.
Mara Vey
The seal confirms a connection, not the speaker’s location. The voice may be above us, below us, or repeating words stored in the masonry.
Dale’s inspection establishes the latch as untouched and the voice as a deliberate transmission through the wall. Beyond it, the wayhouse remains silent, with no sign yet that the prisoners have heard the call.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the source of the warning voice
“I trace the hollow joint upward through the wall to find the voice’s source.”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled +1)
Dale traces the hollow joint upward, pressing his ear to the cold stones and following the faint vibration through successive courses of masonry.
The channel rises above the retaining wall, then bends inward toward the wayhouse’s upper storey. A denser echo marks a small chamber beyond the plaster.
Dale Trackfinder
The voice is carried from an upper room, not the courier passage or the yard.
At shoulder height, Dale finds a concealed clay tube set behind a loosened stone. Black wax seals its mouth, and the broken crown has been pressed into it.
The Cloaked Figure
A speaking seal in the upper storey. Whoever placed it could address the latch without opening the way.
Mara Vey
Then the transmission has a physical source. We can search that chamber and learn whether the voice is a stored command or a living speaker.
The voice sounds again through the tube, clearer now: “Open, bearer of the crown.” Above them, a floorboard creaks once, then the wayhouse falls silent.
Quest Complete
Identify the source of the warning voice