David Clarkson slips into the derelict storehouse, where rot and old grain dust choke the air. A slit of lantern light from the market gate wavers across broken boards and spilled straw.
The Tannery Hand waits in the gloom, grim-faced, his palms gray with lye. He does not step aside.
The Tannery Hand
You took the road I showed you, and I put my neck under the knife for it.
The Tannery Hand
That help was no gift. It was a risk, and now I mean to be paid.
From the doorway behind David, a new figure fills the frame, broad-shouldered and rough in a marshy cloak. A hooked knife hangs at his belt, and his eyes fix on David like a creditor's.
The Reed Man
He brought you this far. I brought him the warning. Now you both owe me, if you want the gate to stay behind you.
The two men close the space between them, boxing David in with hard faces and harder bargains.
“I draw my blade and prepare to fight my way past the two men.”
SUCCESS (Good Melee Weapons, rolled +1)
David’s blade clears leather with a hard rasp. Straw stirs at his boots as he shifts his weight, staff and sword splitting his guard.
The Tannery Hand flinches back from the steel, while the Reed Man’s hand snaps to his belt and leaves the hooked knife half-drawn.
The Tannery Hand
Easy. I said paid, not cut down.
The Reed Man
He means to run. Stop him, or the gate learns your face.
David lunges through the gap their fear makes, the blade’s edge herding them apart rather than meeting flesh.
He bursts past the Reed Man’s shoulder and into the doorway light, boots hammering boards as the exit opens for him.
Behind him, the Tannery Hand lifts two fingers in a sharp little signal toward the market, and the sound of booted men answers outside.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get past the Tannery Hand and the Reed Man
+ New Item Acquired
Drawn blade
“Sprint into the street and lose myself in the alleyways.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +0)
David hits the street hard and keeps moving, his boots slipping once on wet cobbles before finding speed. The storehouse falls behind him in a single breath.
He cuts into the first alley, then the second, vanishing between close walls and leaning timber before the men at the doorway can settle on his trail.
Behind him, the tannery hand stays in the doorway light, two fingers still lifted toward the market. The Reed Man hesitates at the threshold, listening to the growing clatter outside.
The Tannery Hand
There he goes. Market side.
The Reed Man
Spread out. Don’t lose him in the lanes.
David is already gone from the frame, swallowed by stacked barrels, laundry lines, and a blind turn that drops the pursuit into confusion.
Quest Complete
Get past the Tannery Hand and the Reed Man