Iven stands beneath the witness lamps, pale and gray-eyed, his ink-stained fingers held still. Maereth opens a fresh testimony leaf while a archive bearer keeps every original sealed.
Maereth
We will ask only what you personally saw, who instructed you, and where the copied titles were meant to travel. Earlier findings remain closed.
Maereth writes the limits at the top of the page. A archive bearer places the sealed register beside it without breaking its custody, and the lamps burn steadily over Iven.
Iven
I personally saw the three titles and the route marks when Lethwen showed me the list. I copied them at the southern archive office.
Iven
The instruction came through a sealed note bearing no office mark. The messenger called it lawful protection, but named no authority to me.
Maereth pauses over the distinction between the note Iven saw and the authority it claimed. A archive bearer records the wording separately, leaving the settled finding about Bereth untouched.
Iven
The copies were meant to travel back through the southern protection office, to Bereth’s custody. I was told they would then be carried onward, though I never saw the final recipient.
✓ Quest Accepted
Corroborate Iven’s account of the copied titles
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the authority behind the sealed instruction
“I ask Iven to describe the sealed note's wording and delivery.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +2)
Tuiwen
Iven, describe the sealed note's wording and how it was delivered.
Iven lowers his ink-stained hands and answers beneath the witness lamps. Maereth keeps the fresh testimony leaf separate from the sealed register.
Iven
The note said: “By lawful protection, copy the three titles and route marks, and return them to the southern office. Continued obedience preserves the protection.”
Iven
It named no lord, king, or office. It carried a private-review seal over a lawful-looking docket, but no witness line or custody mark.
The archive bearer records the wording as Iven recalls it, leaving the original note absent from the inquiry and preserving his limit about its authority.
Iven
A messenger delivered it to me at the southern archive office just before the copying. He wore a travel cloak, kept his face covered, and left without signing any register.
Maereth enters the wording, the seal's defects, and the unregistered delivery as separate statements. The inquiry gains the note's substance without claiming knowledge of the messenger's identity.
“I ask Iven whether he recognized the messenger”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +2)
Tuiwen
Iven, did you recognize the messenger who delivered the note?
Iven
Not by face. The hood hid it, and the messenger never gave a name.
Iven glances toward the sealed register, then steadies himself beneath the lamps. Maereth leaves the testimony leaf open, waiting for details he can personally support.
Iven
I recognized the voice only faintly. It was a man’s, low and deliberate, with a rasp at the end of each sentence.
Iven
He wore dark travel gloves and carried himself like a trained courier, but I saw no crest, weapon, or mark of office. I cannot identify him beyond that.
Maereth records the voice and bearing as observations, not identification. The archive bearer adds the absence of a crest and office mark to the separate testimony copy.
Maereth
Enter the recognition as limited: voice, bearing, and clothing only. No name or identity may be inferred from those details.
“Tuiwen searches her memory for anyone resembling the courier, who speaks with a rasp at the end of each sentence.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +1)
Tuiwen searches past roads, guarded thresholds, and Saruman’s hidden dealings, setting the rasped cadence beside every remembered voice. One encounter answers the comparison.
Tuiwen
That voice belonged to the covered messenger who carried Saruman’s sealed instructions between offices.
The memory resolves more than a likeness. The same low delivery, deliberate pauses, and rasped endings accompanied the covered messenger’s earlier handoff, though the hood concealed the face.
Tuiwen
I recognize the voice. It belongs to the covered messenger who delivered Saruman’s instructions.
Iven
Then my account places that messenger at the southern archive office, though I still cannot name him.
Maereth
Record Tuiwen’s recognition as a new lead, while keeping Iven’s limit intact. A voice identifies the messenger, not the hand behind the instruction.
“I question Iven about the messenger’s route”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +3)
Tuiwen
Iven, trace the messenger’s route from arrival to departure. Which road, gate, and office did he use, and what did you personally observe?
Iven
He came from the old watch road before dawn, entered the southern archive office through its public gate, and carried the sealed note beneath his cloak. I saw him leave by the same gate after handing it to me.
Iven speaks more steadily as Maereth marks the route on a fresh copy, keeping the testimony apart from the sealed registers. His account gives the messenger’s approach and departure without claiming what lay beyond the road.
Iven
He did not visit Bereth’s office while I watched. From the archive, he turned south along the covered way toward the protection offices. I heard no other name spoken.
Tuiwen
The route places the messenger between the old watch road and the southern protection offices.
Iven
There is more. He paused at the gatehouse ledger, though he signed nothing. The gate warden may remember the hour and which direction he took after leaving.
Maereth
Record the route as witnessed, and summon the gate warden separately. Iven has supplied a lawful lead without turning an observed passage into an accusation.
“I question the gate warden under witness”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +0)
The Court Herald brings the gate warden beneath the witness lamps. She is a broad-shouldered middle-aged woman with weathered brown skin, iron-gray braids, and a dark green cloak clasped at the throat, with a lined oval face and brown leather boots.
Tuiwen
Tell us what you personally saw when the covered messenger reached the gate, paused at the ledger, and departed.
Hessa
My name is Hessa. Before dawn, a hooded man came from the old watch road and entered through the public gate. He carried no crest and gave no name.
Hessa points to the gatehouse copy, leaving its original secured. Maereth records the testimony separately, while the warden keeps her account to what her eyes and ears witnessed.
Hessa
He paused beside the ledger without touching it. I heard him ask which way led to the southern protection offices. He then took the covered way south.
Hessa
He returned before the lamps were trimmed, alone. He left by the same gate and turned south again. I cannot say whether he reached Bereth’s office.
The testimony fixes the messenger’s arrival, a lean young adult human man in a charcoal wool hooded cloak, his face concealed, pause, departure, and direction without naming an unseen destination. Maereth enters those facts and the warden’s limit into the inquiry record.
Quest Complete
Corroborate Iven’s account of the copied titles
New Gift: Peerless Truth Seeker