Madd One and the Bard slip into the ash district, where soot drifts like old snow and every wall sweats grey. Ahead, a private chapel rises from the alley maze, its windows blacked out, its stones marked by pale wax seals.
The Bard
There, look. Wrye’s mark. He comes here, or sends others.
He hurries to the chapel door and finds it unlatched. A thin ribbon of candlelight leaks from the seam, then vanishes as someone inside snuffs it.
Madd One
The seal is fresh. The chapel is being used now.
Madd One pushes into the shadow of the adjoining wall, and the Bard freezes beside him. From within, low voices stir, measured and calm, like a lesson already rehearsed.
The Hooded Acolyte
The witness pattern holds. The curse draws them, then the questioning does the rest.
The Hooded Acolyte
Severin said the name would matter once it was found in enough mouths.
The Bard’s face drains of color. The chapel is no sanctuary, it is a counting room for the trap, and Madd One has reached the edge of its machinery.
✓ Quest Accepted
Observe the chapel's defenses
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn who is processing the witnesses
“I ask the Bard what he recognizes”
SUCCESS (Great Reasoning, rolled +1)
Madd One keeps his voice low, and the Bard turns from the chapel seam to him instead of the door. The soot-heavy alley muffles the chambered voices inside.
Madd One
What do you recognize?
The Bard
The phrasing. Process, witness, pattern. That is court language wearing a priest's robe.
The Bard
And the seal on the stone, that wax is not blessing. It is accounting. Someone counts who comes in, and who leaves changed.
The Bard
He exhales, relief flickering through the fear as the pieces fit together.
The Bard
Wrye built this neatly. If the Acolyte is speaking plainly, then they are not hiding the method, only the name on the ledger.
Below the chapel eaves, the Bard lifts a finger toward the blacked-out windows, tracing the line of sight without stepping into it. He waits for Madd One's next move.
Quest Complete
Observe the chapel's defenses