Baseva leaves the rain-dim hideout behind and follows the muddy road toward the Heroes' Arena. Its stone walls rise ahead through a gray veil of drizzle, and the air grows loud with hammer taps, shouted wagers, and the scrape of practice blades.
At the arena gate, a knot of competitors and handlers parts around her bulk and gleaming armor. Sawdust clings to wet boots. Every eye seems to flick, briefly, to the baronial seal hidden with her note.
Karr
You picked the right road, Baseva. If the chain starts anywhere, it starts with someone here.
Karr steps in beside her, earnest and tense, scanning the bustle like he expects a knife in every sleeve.
The Hooded Courier
No names aloud. No shortcuts. Ask for the keeper of registrations, then ask who reads sealed marks.
The courier keeps their hood low and their hands tucked away, already edging back toward the crowd after the warning.
Baseva
The seal draws attention here. Someone in the arena knows the chain.
Ahead, near a plank table under a sagging awning, a lean clerk in a green sash sorts ledgers while glancing toward the entrants. He looks like the next link.
+ Story Quest Added
Find out who reads sealed marks
“I slip through the crowd toward the ledgers”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled -1)
Baseva threads through the press of cloaks and boots, her shield turning shoulders aside without a word. Wet ledgers and wax seals flash at the plank table ahead.
The clerk looks up, startled by the sudden shadow of her armor at the table edge.
The Hooded Courier
That one reads the sealed marks. Quietly.
Karr
Good. Ask him plain, and keep your voice low.
Baseva reaches the ledgers at last. A stamped roster lies open beneath a thumb, and one page is marked with the baronial seal.
The Hooded Courier
He keeps the chain list. If the Baron is here, his trail is in those pages.
The clerk shuts one ledger with a nervous slap and lifts another toward her, as if deciding whether to hide it or hand it over.
Quest Complete
Find out who reads sealed marks