Raedwulf reaches the reed-choked ford with Sava beside him, ash bow and Willowmere provisions in hand. On the near bank, rising marsh water surrounds a mud-streaked courier pinned beneath a fallen pack frame.
Ilyan Voss, his angular face pale beneath the rain, is a young adult man with a lean build, rain-dark brown hair, and a torn ochre cloak over travel leathers. His courier satchel lies split beside him.
Ilyan Voss
Help me before the ford takes me. Three attackers came from the wooded rise, and they dragged the treaty documents away.
Water swirls higher around Ilyan’s ribs, tugging at the broken frame. Beyond him, bootprints and broad drag marks vanish into reeds before climbing toward the wooded rise.
Sava
Raedwulf, the trail is fresh, but the courier will not last long. The stolen papers may include the seal we came to recover.
Ilyan Voss
They carried a treaty seal among the papers. Green wax, silver tree, broken circle. If those thieves reach the rise, the seal is gone.
A snapped branch cracks somewhere beyond the reeds. The marsh keeps rising, the drag marks remain visible, and the wooded rise waits through curtains of rain.
✓ Quest Accepted
Rescue Ilyan Voss
“I haul Ilyan free from the fallen pack frame.”
FAILURE (Good Strength, rolled +0)
“I haul Ilyan free from the fallen pack frame.”
SUCCESS (Good Strength, rolled +4)
Raedwulf plants his digitigrade feet in the sucking mud, braces against the fallen frame, and hauls Ilyan upward with a powerful wrench. The courier comes free onto the near bank.
Sava
Easy. Keep breathing, courier. You are out of the water.
Sava drags the broken frame aside while Raedwulf settles Ilyan against a willow root. Rain streams from the courier’s cloak, but his chest rises steadily.
Ilyan Voss
You saved me. The thieves went uphill, toward the charcoal path. They were carrying the document case.
As Raedwulf lifts the torn pack, something hard knocks against the mud. Beneath the frame lies a sealed green-wax tube marked by the silver tree and broken circle.
Sava
The treaty seal survived. We have their trail, and now we have what they came to steal.
Ilyan grips Raedwulf’s forearm, grateful and shaken, while the opened path to the wooded rise stands clear beyond the reeds.
Recover the treaty seal
Quest Complete
Rescue Ilyan Voss