The old track reaches a fortified tollhouse above Azarune’s harbor roads. Tomas guides his cart forward, while Peter leads Desdemona and Corrin behind him; Fiona and Maddie remain safely at the farmhouse.
A young adult woman stands beneath the gatehouse arch, a lean figure in rust-red leathers and a dark wool cloak. Her brown braid is threaded with copper charms, and a pale scar crosses one eyebrow.
Tomas Vale
Keeper, this sealed token bears my mark. The travelers aided me on the eastern road, and their business is lawful.
The keeper, her pale skin set above an angular face, examines Tomas’s wax seal, then lifts it toward the warded arch. Blue-white light crawls across the stones before snapping into the same angular geometry found in the cart’s residue.
The Tollhouse Keeper
Azara Quill, ward-keeper of this tollhouse. That pattern is not yours, merchant. Who carried the residue here, and why does your company bear its trail?
The gate’s geometry pulses once, answering the amulet near Desdemona’s hand. Behind the keeper, harbor roads descend toward crowded quays, while the raised portcullis begins to lower.
Corrin
Careful, dearie. She is asking about the trail, not merely checking a merchant’s papers.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get past the Azarune gate
Desdemona Blackwood's turn“Is Azara Quill tracking the passage-maker?”
YES, BUT (Likely, rolled 62)
Azara’s fingers pass over the glowing geometry without touching it. The ward unfolds into a trail-map, its eastern line brightening toward the lower harbor roads while a second thread curls back into the forest.
The Tollhouse Keeper
Yes. I have tracked this passage-maker from breach to breach, but the trail has changed hands at the harbor. Whoever carries it now is close enough to hear this ward answer.
The portcullis drops another span with a grinding boom. Blue-white fire seals the arch, cutting Tomas’s cart off from the descending road and leaving the merchant’s cargo trapped outside the gate.
Tomas Vale
You said the trail was close. Does that mean the person is inside Azarune, or has the ward caught us in the middle of their snare?
The Tollhouse Keeper
Inside, most likely. My ward can follow the passage, but its answer has announced us to the carrier. The gate will not rise until I know whether the residue clings to one of you or to the merchant’s cargo.
Corrin
That is a costly welcome, dearie. If the carrier knows we are here, we should keep the questioning sharp and the road ahead sharper.
Desdemona Blackwood's turn“I inspect Tomas’s exposed cargo for any trace of the passage.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled -3)
Desdemona kneels beside Tomas’s exposed cargo, lifting folded cloth and sealed spice jars while the portcullis grinds lower behind her. Tomas watches, tense but silent.
Her cleverness first chases patterns through every bundle, inventing connections where dust and dye offer only coincidence. She reins that instinct in, then presses the magic amulet over the nearest crate.
Arcane heritage answers like breath. Fire-born perception passes through the amulet and reveals a thin black filament beneath the cloth, coiled around a spice jar’s wax seal.
Desdemona Blackwood
The residue is here, but it is only a carrier trace, not the passage-maker’s body.
The filament bears the same angular geometry as the tollhouse ward, transferred recently from another object. Desdemona identifies its direction clearly, but the crowded cargo leaves the exact source uncertain.
Tomas Vale
Is it in the goods? Tell me plainly. I cannot have my cargo blamed for a stranger’s passage.
The inspection has taken precious moments, and the ward’s light now crawls across every crate. Desdemona has found the trace, though determining which parcel carried it will require another careful examination.
Desdemona Blackwood's turn“Desdemona continues her inspection before answering.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +1)
Desdemona continues sorting the cargo, letting her clever instincts chase false patterns through cloth, twine, and spice dust before deliberately setting those connections aside. Tomas watches, tense but silent.
She presses the magic amulet over each parcel in turn. Arcane heritage carries fire-born perception through the relic as naturally as breath, separating ordinary enchantment from the transferred residue.
The black filament brightens beneath a small blue-dyed cloth bundle tied around three sealed spice jars. Its angular geometry coils around the middle jar’s wax, while every other parcel remains clean.
The Tollhouse Keeper
There. The ward answers that bundle, not the cart as a whole. Keep your hands steady, and do not break the seal.
Desdemona traces the filament’s path without opening the jar. Her scheming mind tests several useful deceptions, but the amulet’s warmth rejects each invented link until only the middle jar remains certain.
Tomas Vale
The blue bundle, then. I packed those jars myself, and none carried that mark when I left the western road.
The specific parcel is identified: the middle spice jar in the blue-dyed bundle bears the carrier trace. The ward-map bends toward it, making the source clear without disturbing Tomas’s cargo.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the passage-maker
Quest Complete
Desdemona BlackwoodIdentify the source of the matching passage mark
Skill Upgrade: Lore Superb→Legendary