The inland road opens into ordinary Sword Coast traffic: creaking wagons, laden pack animals, and travelers bound toward Phandelver beneath a brightening sky. Bren walks beside Sil’Thalis, while Sereveth, a tall adult elf woman with copper-brown skin, braided black hair, and a deep violet cloak, and Vaeluun remain behind at the willow boundary.
A scarred road captain steps from the roadside crush. Orra Vale is a broad-shouldered middle-aged woman in a weather-darkened green coat, with iron-gray hair, a broken nose, and a red sash marking her office.
Orra Vale
Sil’Thalis? Bren? Stop a moment. I am Orra Vale, captain of this road’s watch, and I need someone who understands the difference between warning and command.
Her gloved hand remains away from her sword. Behind her, a covered wagon waits under guard, its driver watching the road while a muffled voice refuses every official summons.
Orra Vale
The witness in my custody will speak to neither magistrate nor messenger. They say a settlement beyond the next crossings has vanished from contact, and they fear an official report would become someone’s weapon.
Orra Vale
I cannot promise the account is true. I can promise only that the witness will not be forced. If you carry the warning onward, carry its uncertainty with it.
✓ Quest Accepted
Ensure the witness’s account can travel independently
“" Captain, since you're already traveling in the direction of Phandalin,how about I verify whether this settlement has gone missing" I say calmly”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +0)
“" Captain, since you're already traveling in the direction of Phandalin,how about I verify whether this settlement has gone missing" I say calmly”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Persuasion, rolled +2)
Sil'Thalis
Captain, since you are already traveling toward Phandalin, how about I verify whether this settlement has gone missing?
Orra studies him in the road’s shifting traffic, weighing the offer without reaching for authority. Bren remains silent, leaving the exchange between them.
Orra Vale
You may. I will give you the settlement’s name, its last known road, and the witness’s account exactly as received, uncertainty included.
She produces a weather-stained road slate marked with the vanished settlement, Dunmire, two crossings north of Phandalin. A faint ward-sign confirms the route is genuine.
Orra Vale
The cost is plain. I must enter your name in my watch ledger as an independent verifier. If Dunmire is gone, officials will know you reached it before them.
The ledger’s ink catches briefly on Sil’Thalis’s witness-mark, recording his involvement without touching his testimony. Orra closes the book and offers him the slate.
Orra Vale
Take the northern road and return with what you witness, not what anyone wants proved. The covered wagon and its witness remain here, unforced.
+ New Item Acquired
Road slate
Sil'Thalis leaves Inland road toward Phandelver behind and arrives at Dunmire.
“I take the northern road toward Dunmire”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +0)
Dunmire lies two crossings north of Phandalin, gathered around a black-water pond and a leaning bell tower. Its cottages stand intact, but no smoke rises from any chimney.
Sil'Thalis reaches the settlement before dusk. The northern road ends at a square swept clean of tracks, while every door bears the same faint blue ward-sign.
Sil'Thalis
The settlement is not abandoned by age. Something made its people leave together.
At the square's center, a dry well exhales cold air carrying voices too distant to understand. Beside it rests a child's wooden marker, freshly carved with Orra's warning sign.
Arcane perception reveals a second road beneath the first, running from the well toward the pond. It is concealed rather than broken, and its ward bears no Domini or Xar signature.
The bell tower rings once without moving. Blue light briefly outlines footprints descending into the well, then leaves one clear message across the stones: WITNESS BEFORE ENTRY.
Dunmire's silence is now an answer: the people remain alive somewhere below, gathered beyond the hidden road, while the open square waits for an independent witness.
✓ Quest Accepted
Verify what happened to Dunmire
− Scene Quest Removed
Ensure the witness’s account can travel independently
“I examine the well and hidden road for evidence ,I examine the well and hidden road for evidence before descending.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +1)
Sil’Thalis circles the dry well without disturbing the blue footprints. His restored senses find cold air rising through old stone, carrying layered voices from a settlement below.
Sil'Thalis
The ward-signs were applied from above, but the hidden road was sealed from within.
He examines the well’s inner stones and finds fresh dampness beneath the dust, along with narrow handprints leading toward a recessed arch below the waterline.
Arcane traces clarify the concealed road: it carries living bodies downward, preserves a return route, and filters commands from the surface. No Domini, Xar, or Void-Fed signature marks its construction.
At the pondward edge of the square, the hidden line branches beneath the paving. One branch leads to the well; another reaches the black water, where several recent crossings disturb the silt.
The evidence resolves the silence. Dunmire’s people descended willingly or under a shared warning, and the ward now recognizes Sil’Thalis as an independent witness. The blue footprints brighten, forming clear steps into the well.
Below, distant voices cease speaking over one another. A single clear voice rises through the shaft: “Witness accepted. Enter without command.”
Quest Complete
Verify what happened to Dunmire