Thranduil
Bring the sealed archive chests. We will compare every dispatch before Maereth offers another explanation.
At Thranduil’s command, four archive bearers enter with iron-bound chests. They set them beside the map table, while Maereth watches the locks and Tuiwen remains near the altered reports.
Thranduil breaks the first seal himself. Dust rises from dispatches bearing the marks of southern roads, abandoned watchposts, and the long-lost refuge of Caras Amarth.
Thranduil
Here. The archive lists a folio received from Caras Amarth, yet no surviving copy bears its witness mark. Maereth, why was this source used?
A clerk’s inventory confirms the entry: one folio received, examined, and later removed from the southern dispatches. The chest contains only its empty sleeve.
Maereth
I used the source because its warning agreed with what our border reports suggested. If the folio vanished, someone feared what its witness mark would reveal.
Thranduil
That is not an answer. You altered the reports, concealed the folio, and built a withdrawal upon evidence no one can now inspect.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the source of the withdrawal evidence
“She looks Maereth directly in the eyes. "The time has come to tell us truthfully where these reports came from."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Tuiwen
The time has come to tell us truthfully where these reports came from.
Tuiwen holds Maereth’s gaze across the open archive chest. The chamber quiets around them, and the counselor’s practiced composure finally falters.
Maereth
They came from Saruman’s agents, though I did not know that at first. I received them through a courier bearing the seal of Isengard.
Maereth lowers her eyes to the missing folio’s empty sleeve. Her voice remains controlled, but the admission settles heavily among the dispatches.
Thranduil
And when did you learn the courier served Saruman?
Maereth
After the first reports had already shaped your counsel, my king. The courier vanished, and a second message demanded that I suppress the witness mark from Caras Amarth. I obeyed because I believed the withdrawal would save lives.
Thranduil closes the archive chest with measured care. The source is known now, and the proposed withdrawal stands exposed as a design carried into his court through Saruman’s hand.
Hear Radagast's testimony about Saruman's agents
Quest Complete
Identify the source of the withdrawal evidence