Finn walks into the apartment with his long brown hair windblown and his cookie box crushed at one corner. Street noise follows him through the closing door.
A news report murmurs from the television: witnesses describe an angry confrontation, then a metal sign tumbling onto a passing train. No injuries are confirmed.
His roommate, Marcus, a stocky young adult man with dark skin, close-cropped hair, and a yellow hoodie, rises from behind the couch. A magnifying glass hangs from his pocket.
Marcus
There you are. Tell me you saw the lights before the sign fell.
Marcus grabs the remote and pauses the broadcast on a blurred frame of the train, where sparks and dust obscure the damaged roofline.
Marcus
The customer was not angry about cookies. That was cover. The sign was placed there to send a message, or erase one.
On the kitchen table, Marcus has arranged Finn's remaining cookies beside newspaper clippings, a transit map, and three handwritten circles around the same station.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify who placed the sign
✓ Quest Accepted
Discover what message the sign was meant to send
“I think the sign was made to tell people what time the train would arive and depart”
SUCCESS (Fair Reasoning, rolled +0)
Finn
The sign showed when the train would arrive and depart.
Finn studies the paused frame, then the transit map and the circled station. The lettering and placement fit a timetable, not a warning. His phone slips from the table and clatters loudly against the floor.
Marcus
A schedule? You think they dropped it because it was showing the wrong time?
Marcus snatches up the phone before it slides beneath the couch. Its screen has cracked across the corner, though the transit app still displays the station's next arrivals.
Marcus
Look here. The sign's old arrival panel was facing the tracks. Someone wanted passengers watching it, not reading a message.
He rotates the newspaper clipping beside the map. A handwritten departure time matches the train in the broadcast, while a second time is circled in red.
Marcus
That later departure is tonight. If the sign was a clock, somebody may still be waiting for it to strike.
Quest Complete
Discover what message the sign was meant to send