The well falls silent beneath the Greywatch plate. Along the western route, wardens hold their posts while traders keep back, leaving Dale, Mara, and the cloaked figure beside the covered mouth.
A mud-streaked courier staggers into the square. Tamsin Rook, a young adult woman with a lean build, cropped dark hair, and a torn brown riding coat, wears a Greywatch token at her throat.
She reaches the covered well, then collapses beside it on one knee. The token swings against the stone, bearing a fresh black mark identical to the broken crown on Mara’s fragment.
Tamsin Rook
You. The one who carried the keys. Listen before the road finds us again.
The cloaked figure stiffens. Mara lowers the fragment but does not approach, while the nearby wardens tighten their formation and the traders fall silent.
Tamsin Rook
I came from the prisoners’ returning route. Greywatch’s people are not all safe. Something followed the road beneath them, and this mark appeared on my token.
Tamsin Rook
The warden is not calling from the well anymore. It is waiting where your people will pass next.
✓ Quest Accepted
Warn Greywatch’s rescued people about the approaching warden
✓ Quest Accepted
Win the Greywatch party’s trust in Tamsin’s warning
“Did the warden follow the prisoners to Greywatch?”
YES, AND MORE (Likely, rolled 3)
Tamsin’s black-marked token trembles against the stone. Beneath the covered well, a faint answering knock travels east, then turns toward the road Greywatch’s rescued people took.
Tamsin Rook
Yes. It followed them from the buried works to Greywatch, hidden beneath the returning route. It has been waiting ahead of them, not chasing behind.
The Cloaked Figure
Then the silence here only severed its voice. The warden abandoned the well-path and entered the old road beyond the town.
Tamsin pulls a folded strip of oilskin from her torn coat. Inked beneath the Greywatch route is a narrow side passage, marked with the same broken crown, leading toward the prisoners’ next resting place.
Tamsin Rook
This is the advantage it gave us. Its mark opened a forgotten courier way, and I came through before it sealed behind me. We can reach the prisoners by that path first.
Mara Vey
A road revealed by the enemy is still a road we can use. If the passage remains open, Greywatch’s people may be warned before the warden reaches them.
The cloaked figure stares at the oilskin, then at Dale. Outside the covered well, wardens shift into a tighter ring as the distant knock sounds once more beneath the eastern road.
“I compare Tamsin’s marked token with Mara’s fragment and the oilskin route.”
FAILURE (Great Perception, rolled -1)
Dale studies Tamsin’s token where it hangs against the stone, then compares its black crown to Mara’s fragment and the crown inked on the oilskin.
The marks share the broken outline, but the token’s stain is fresh and irregular, the fragment’s crown is scorched, and the oilskin shows only a careful copy.
Mara Vey
They resemble one another, but resemblance is all this comparison proves. The fragment cannot authenticate the token or the route.
Dale traces the alignments with his gaze, finding no shared symbol, scale, or directional feature that binds the three marks into one certain trail.
Tamsin Rook
Then the oilskin may show a passage the mark opened, not the warden’s true road. I cannot swear which way it waited.
The Cloaked Figure
Do not follow the crown by likeness alone. The old works can copy a claim onto tokens, stone, and ink.
The comparison leaves the route unverified and the token’s mark ambiguous. Tamsin keeps the oilskin folded in her hand, while Mara shields the fragment from the wind.
“I ask Tamsin how to reach the prisoners”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +2)
Dale Trackfinder
How do we reach the prisoners?
Dale’s question settles over the covered well. Tamsin unfolds the oilskin fully, revealing a route skirting Bellwether’s eastern fields before descending beneath an abandoned wayhouse.
Tamsin Rook
We leave by the eastern gate, then take the dry ditch north until the standing stones. Beneath the third stone, a stair drops into the courier way.
She points to a fork drawn in faded ink. One branch ends at a sealed culvert; the other bends beneath the old road and emerges beside the prisoners’ next resting place.
Tamsin Rook
Take the lower branch. The culvert is a dead end, but the lower passage opens behind the rest stop’s retaining wall. I marked its hidden latch.
The Cloaked Figure
Then we can reach them before the warden does. The passage is old, but its direction is certain if Tamsin’s mark holds.
The route is clear: eastern gate, northern ditch, third standing stone, then the lower courier way to the prisoners’ resting place. Tamsin folds the oilskin for departure.
“I ask Mara to verify Tamsin’s route”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled -1)
Dale Trackfinder
Mara, verify Tamsin’s route before we leave. I need to know whether this passage truly leads to the prisoners.
Mara spreads the oilskin across the covered well and compares its old road marks with the fragment, the standing stones, and Bellwether’s eastern fields.
Mara Vey
The route is genuine. The third stone marks a courier stair, and the lower branch does emerge behind the wayhouse retaining wall.
She follows the faded measurements with one gloved finger, pausing where the ink crosses an older boundary line. The distant knock sounds again beneath the eastern road.
Mara Vey
But verification costs us time. This map was copied after the passage shifted, so the hidden latch may sit several paces from Tamsin’s mark.
Tamsin Rook
I can identify the wall when we reach it. The latch was there when I passed, though I had no time to test what waited beyond.
Mara Vey
We can trust the route as a way to the resting place, not as proof the warden has left it undefended. That is the danger we carry forward.
“I lead us through the courier way”
SUCCESS (Superb Survival, rolled -1)
Tamsin hands Dale the folded oilskin, and he studies its faded marks before leading Mara, the cloaked figure, and the courier north through Bellwether’s eastern gate.
He keeps the dry ditch on his left, reading old hoofprints, windblown grit, and the standing stones until the third rises from the weeds exactly where the map promises.
Tamsin Rook
There. The stair is beneath this stone. Your reading matches the old route.
Dale guides them down the concealed steps and through the courier way, choosing the lower branch by its dry stones and clean draft. The passage opens behind the wayhouse retaining wall.
The Cloaked Figure
We are at the resting place. No warning has reached the prisoners before us.
Beyond the wall, muted voices and shifting camp sounds carry from the wayhouse yard. The group arrives unseen, with the hidden latch within reach and the prisoners close ahead.
Mara Vey
Your route held, Dale. We have reached them before the warden, and now we can warn them quietly.
+ New Item Acquired
Folded oilskin