The certified finding naming Saruman lies open beside the inquiry record. Beneath it, a fresh ledger notation points from the border settlement toward a Rohan office that authorized protection payments.
Galadriel
We should trace that administrative path before Saruman’s agents can alter it. The office, its authorizations, and every custody mark must be examined lawfully.
Galadriel places a slender marker beside the notation without touching the ink. The route runs through a chain of payments and approvals, each one a possible point of influence.
A archive bearer brings the custody register and sets it beside the ledger. Rohan’s counselors enter the chamber with witness tablets, prepared to observe every comparison and seal each copied page.
Rohan’s counselors
By the King’s order, we will witness the examination and preserve the original record. No alteration will be made without a separate notation.
Galadriel
Begin with the office named here. We must distinguish a lawful payment from the channel Saruman bent through it, and record precisely where the two meet.
The counselors arrange the tablets around the open ledger. The administrative trail waits beneath their lamps, leading away from the border settlement toward an office whose records may still hold Saruman’s first hidden instruction.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether the protection payments were lawfully authorized
“"It is imperative to move swiftly, before the payment records can be altered or destroyed."”
FAILURE (Superb Reasoning, rolled -4)
Tuiwen
It is imperative to move swiftly, before the payment records can be altered or destroyed.
Tuiwen works through the custody register and payment ledger, matching seals, dates, and authorizations against the border settlement record. The entries multiply faster than certainty.
Galadriel
Proceed by the marks that can be verified. We must not mistake haste for proof, even while the record remains at risk.
Tuiwen isolates the payment entries tied to the protection agreement, but the custody marks conflict. Several approvals bear lawful seals, yet their sequence cannot establish who altered the channel.
Rohan’s counselors
The office references are incomplete. We can certify the copies before us, but not identify the originating hand from these records alone.
The attempt yields a narrower finding rather than an origin: Saruman’s influence intersects the payment trail, but the surviving records cannot expose the first instruction. The counselors seal the copied pages, making another reading of this set unnecessary until the named Rohan office is examined directly.
“"Of the answer is not to be found in these documents, we should seek witnesses."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -2)
Tuiwen
If the answer is not in these documents, we should seek witnesses in the Rohan office.
The counselors exchange guarded looks, then lead the party through Meduseld’s records passage to the office named in the payment trail. Two robed clerks await beneath the royal seal.
Rohan’s counselors
By the King’s authority, these clerks will answer what they witnessed. Their testimony will be entered beside the certified copies.
The older clerk, a lean human woman with iron-gray hair and ink-stained fingers, her high-collared slate dress cinched with a narrow leather belt, studies the payment ledger. Her younger colleague, a broad-shouldered human man in brown office robes, his cropped brown hair and square, clean-shaven face visible above a pale linen collar, brings out the matching authorization chest.
Rohan Office Clerk 1
The first instruction came from a sealed dictation received before the payment schedule was copied. I recognized the hand as Saruman’s, though the office was ordered to attribute it to a royal intermediary.
Rohan Office Clerk 2
We can identify the originating hand and the false attribution. But our testimony binds this office to the concealment, and we will require your account attached to ours.
The witnesses sign their statements before the counselors. Tuiwen’s inquiry gains the originating hand and its false trail, but the office records her involvement as a necessary guarantor of the disclosure.
Quest Complete
Determine who directs the southern relay
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Superb→Legendary
“"Who gave the order to attribute it falsely to an intermediary?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled -1)
Tuiwen
Who gave the order to attribute it falsely to an intermediary?
The older clerk’s ink-stained fingers tighten around the ledger. Her younger colleague opens the authorization chest and withdraws a sealed memorandum bearing a copied royal mark.
Rohan Office Clerk 1
The order came from Saruman himself. He dictated that the instruction be credited to Lord Herun, a royal intermediary who had never seen it.
The younger clerk lays the memorandum beside the matching ledger entry. Its seal imitates Rohan’s authority, but the dictated phrasing and witness marks leave the false attribution plain.
Rohan Office Clerk 2
Lord Herun protested when he learned of it. The order required us to suppress his objection and preserve the fiction that he had authorized the payment.
The counselors record Saruman’s direct instruction, the false attribution to Lord Herun, and the office’s suppression of his objection. The chain of responsibility is now entered without ambiguity.
“"So it was Saruman himself who authorized protection payments to Saruman? This should be reported to the king."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -1)
Tuiwen
So it was Saruman himself who authorized protection payments to Saruman? This should be reported to the king.
The counselors accept the urgency without disputing its meaning. They retrieve the certified inquiry record from its sealed custody, place the memorandum beside it, and summon the king’s attention.
Rohan’s counselors
By the King’s order, this finding will be presented at once. The record, memorandum, false attribution, and suppressed objection will remain distinct and witnessed.
The party enters the royal hall beneath Meduseld’s golden beams. The counselors lay the certified record and memorandum before Théoden, while Galadriel stands ready to separate proof from inference.
King Théoden
Let the finding be spoken plainly. Did Saruman authorize the payments, and was Lord Herun falsely named as their source?
Galadriel
The memorandum, the clerks’ testimony, and the custody marks establish both points. Saruman authorized the payments, and Lord Herun’s name was imposed falsely.
Théoden orders the finding entered into the formal inquiry and commands that Lord Herun’s suppressed objection be sought. Tuiwen’s report reaches the king, preserved as a lawful conclusion rather than rumor.
Quest Complete
Determine whether the protection payments were lawfully authorized
New Gift: Unerring Truth Seeker