Brother Thomas turns the wax-sealed placard among the chapel papers. The monastery signet, pressed beside the banqueting hall instructions, makes his face tighten with recognition.
Brother Thomas
This is no kitchen order. The wording names the preparations an authorized rite under monastery control, approved above Prior Silas.
the Northmere official
Then say who held that authority. Can such a command void the warrant and end this pursuit?
Outside, the mounted men shift uneasily beneath the chapel windows. Bren keeps Seamus low behind the altar rail, while Alexandre guards the barred door.
Brother Thomas
The placard invokes the Abbot’s seal, but its language speaks of a higher review and a gathered obedience. Silas used that ambiguity to claim command.
the Northmere official
Ambiguity will not protect armed men who crossed Willowford under a narrow warrant. Does the seal authorize seizure, or only the rite?
Brother Thomas
Only the rite. It does not authorize taking Timothy, Bren, or Seamus. I will name every superior who can confirm that, if you record my statement.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure Northmere’s legal protection for the chapel against the placard’s claimed authority
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the bishop’s office behind the placard’s hidden mark
“Does the seal authorize only the rite, not the seizure?”
YES, BUT (VeryLikely, rolled 80)
Brother Thomas
Yes. The seal authorizes the rite alone, not seizure or pursuit. But the placard bears a second mark, scraped nearly clean. Someone tried to remove the superior reviewer’s name.
Brother Thomas turns the placard beneath the candle. Wax flakes fall onto the chapel table, exposing the faint impression of a bishop’s crozier beneath the monastery seal.
the Northmere official
A concealed reviewer makes this more than Silas’s private abuse of authority. I will record the seal as limited, but the altered placard raises a separate suspicion.
Alexandre Reaper
And while we debate scraped wax, four armed men wait outside. Their patience is another resource this chapel may soon spend.
Brother Thomas
Record also that Silas knew the reviewer’s name and concealed it from me. If he ordered the alteration, he intended the rite to appear broader than it was.
The Northmere official folds the warrant beside the placard and signals through the shutter. Outside, harness rings and boots retreat several paces, but the horses remain.
the Northmere official
No seizure tonight. Yet until the bishop’s office confirms this hidden mark, no one leaves Willowford, and the chapel remains under watch.
“Can the hidden crozier identify the bishop’s office?”
YES (Likely, rolled 24)
Brother Thomas warms the placard’s wax above the candle. The scraped crozier resolves into a hooked staff circled by three small stars, the mark of the bishop’s visitation office.
Brother Thomas
This is the bishop’s visiting seal, not a private reviewer’s mark. It belongs to the office that audits monasteries, hears abuses, and confirms disputed rites.
the Northmere official
Then the placard was altered to conceal episcopal oversight. Silas did not merely stretch the Abbot’s authority. He hid the office empowered to judge him.
The official presses her thumb against the faint crozier impression, then folds the warrant away from the placard. Outside, the armed men grow quieter.
Alexandre Reaper
Can the bishop’s clerks confirm that mark before dawn, or are we guarding parchment against men who already know its worth?
Brother Thomas
The office can confirm it through its registry at Northmere. Until then, this proves the pursuit may have concealed a matter reserved for episcopal judgment.
the Northmere official
So be it. I will record the hidden crozier, suspend the seizure, and send a sealed inquiry to the bishop’s office. The men outside remain under my watch, not Silas’s.
“Will some of the men want to use their belts to punish my bare bottom?”
YES, BUT (Likely, rolled 65)
A mutter rises beyond the shutters. One of the armed men urges the official to surrender Timothy for immediate discipline, proposing their belts as instruments of correction. The demand carries through the quiet chapel.
the Northmere official
Enough. No prisoner is beaten at a chapel threshold, and certainly not by men whose warrant I have suspended.
The official steps nearer the door and raises her voice. Behind her, Alexandre’s hand closes around his sword hilt, while Bren keeps Seamus crouched beneath the altar rail.
the Northmere official
Put away your belts and remain by the horses. Any man who enters without my order will answer for assault before Northmere’s court.
Alexandre Reaper
They wanted a quiet punishment before the inquiry could begin. Now the whole chapel has heard their appetite for unlawful force.
Brother Thomas
Their zeal serves Silas, not justice. Record that they sought to punish Timothy before the bishop’s office could examine the altered placard.
The men retreat several paces, but one belt buckle strikes a mounting stone with a sharp clatter. The noise carries into the chapel, and the official adds attempted intimidation to her written record.
“Will it help the men within the chapel, if I surrender myself to the men outside/”
YES, AND MORE (VeryUnlikely, rolled 1)
Timothy steps from behind the altar rail and approaches the barred door, presenting himself as the warrant’s named subject. Bren catches his breath, but does not seize him.
the Northmere official
Stay where you are, boy. Your willingness to submit does not grant these men authority to abuse or remove you.
The official opens the shutter wide enough to be heard clearly, placing herself between Timothy’s offered surrender and the armed men beyond the threshold.
the Northmere official
He is now a cooperating witness under my protection. If your warrant demands custody, name the lawful charge and the office that confirms it.
the Northmere official
And you there, speak plainly. Who ordered immediate discipline before this inquiry? Was it Prior Silas, or Cerdic acting through the reeve?
A long silence follows. Then a mounted man, a stocky middle-aged man with a scarred cheek beneath a mud-dark hood curses and blurts that Cerdic promised the reeve’s men payment for Timothy’s capture, exposing a second chain of authority.
Brother Thomas
Record that admission. Timothy’s surrender has not delivered him to Silas. It has placed the pursuers themselves under examination.
“I willingly walk outside and submit to the authority of the older men, who quickly bind me with chains and ropes.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +2)
Timothy lifts the bar and walks outside with empty hands raised. The chapel door remains open behind him, framing Bren, Seamus, and Brother Thomas as witnesses.
the Northmere official
He comes willingly. Bind him for safekeeping only, and keep every knot where I can see it.
The stocky older pursuer with the scarred cheek steps forward, joined by another gray-haired man, a middle-aged human man with a lean build, weathered brown skin, and a narrow face, wearing a dark green reeve’s coat in a reeve’s badge. They loop rope around Timothy’s wrists and secure his arms without striking him.
the scarred pursuer
Cerdic paid for his capture. We were told the boy would resist, not walk out like a witness before a court.
Brother Thomas
That is precisely what he is now. Bind him, but understand that your admission and his surrender are both entered into the record.
Iron chains are fastened loosely around Timothy’s wrists and linked to a belt at his waist. The Northmere official watches each clasp, while Alexandre stands in the doorway with his sword drawn.
the Northmere official
He remains under my protection until the bishop’s office answers. Take him nowhere, and apply no punishment, without my order.
Quest Complete
Identify the bishop’s office behind the placard’s hidden mark
+ New Item Acquired
Rope bindings
“Is the official aware that I am an extremely dangerous person who might bewitch him at any moment?”
YES, AND MORE (Unlikely, rolled 6)
The official studies Timothy’s lowered hands and measured silence. Her expression hardens, not with contempt, but with the wary attention of someone who suspects every calm word may conceal a snare.
the Northmere official
Do not mistake these bonds for trust. I know you have turned abbey doctrine, Silas’s ambition, and my own warrant against one another.
Her gaze flicks to Brother Thomas, then the placard. She has heard enough testimony to fear Timothy’s influence, and enough contradiction to recognize him as a dangerous witness rather than a helpless fugitive.
Brother Thomas
He need not bewitch anyone. The documents and these men’s admissions already compel the inquiry. That is the danger: he makes concealed truths speak in public.
the Northmere official
Take him inside the chapel court, not northward. I will question him where witnesses can hear every answer, and where Cerdic’s payment cannot disappear from the record.
The scarred pursuer pales as a clerk’s satchel is brought from the official’s saddle. She orders his confession copied beside the warrant, giving Timothy’s testimony a written place before dawn.
the Northmere official
And mark this clearly: Timothy is not to be surrendered to the reeve, the monastery, or Cerdic until the bishop’s office rules. His captors will remain available as witnesses.
“I carefully slip out of my bonds, and run into the forest”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +0)
While the official dictates the confession, Timothy lowers his bound hands and works the loosened rope against the iron clasp. His fingers find the slack hidden beneath the knot.
The chain slips free without a clatter. Timothy darts through the chapel doorway, crosses the wet yard, and vanishes between the dark hedges before the guards understand.
the Northmere official
Do not loose arrows! He is a protected witness. Hold the yard and record who abandoned his post.
the scarred pursuer
The boy tricked the bonds. Cerdic will have my hide if he reaches the forest.
Timothy runs beneath dripping branches, following no road. Mud takes his footprints, bracken tears at his clothing, and the chapel’s voices fade behind the rising wind.
Alexandre Reaper
Let him go. Chasing him now would turn a lawful inquiry into the very seizure we stopped.
Brother Thomas
He has escaped their hands, but not the truth beneath the altar. Someone will seek him before dawn.