Redmane enters the sealed counting floor with the master key clenched in hand. Don Hernán Valdés follows close behind while guards thunder through the eastern passage, chasing his false alarm.
Dusty ledgers crowd the counting tables, and locked drawers line the walls. Beneath an accounting chest, a narrow iron fitting suggests a concealed compartment.
Don Hernán Valdés
The signet will be with the payment records, not the common books. The governor’s authority is guarded by what it has bought.
Hernán lifts a ledger and reveals a blackened keyhole beneath it. From outside come shouted orders, then boots pounding past the sealed floor without stopping.
Don Hernán Valdés
That chest is the one. I saw it opened only when the governor’s private payments were recorded. The signet should lie beside those accounts.
The master key meets the concealed lock, but the chest resists with a second mechanism. Hernán bends over the ledgers, searching for the sequence before the guards discover the deception.
Don Hernán Valdés
Here, Captain. These payment amounts form the order. Turn the key by the marked sums, and the harbor signet will be yours.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the harbor signet
“I search the payment ledgers for the sequence and hidden authority while I turn the key.”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +1)
Redmane studies the payment ledgers while turning the master’s keys through the concealed lock. The wanted poster snags her sleeve, obscuring a column, but Silver Tongue frames Hernán’s clues into a precise question.
Don Hernán Valdés
The largest sums mark authority bought, not cargo paid. Read them as a harbor course: three, seven, two, then five.
Reads Naval Tactics turns the figures into a sequence of directional marks. Redmane follows them across the private payments, while Ibarra’s key confirms the concealed chest’s second ward.
She rotates the master’s keys by the marked sums, using Ibarra’s key as the final alignment. The mechanism clicks, and the blackened chest opens beneath the accounting table.
Inside rests the governor’s harbor signet beside sealed authority accounts. Redmane lifts both from their velvet recess, completing the quiet seizure before the Governor's Guards reach the counting floor.
Don Hernán Valdés
That is the signet. With it, the harbor’s officers will recognize whoever bears lawful command.
Quest Complete
Secure the harbor signet
+ New Item Acquired
Governor's harbor signet
+ New Item Acquired
Sealed authority accounts