Cedric arrives in a small village with a young bandit bound and walking ahead of him. The settlement’s muddy lane leads toward a squat stone watchhouse and its weathered notice board.
The bandit is a thin young man with a bruised cheek, tangled brown hair, and a patched green tunic. He keeps his eyes lowered as villagers watch in wary silence.
the watch sergeant
A bounty, then? The village can spare little, but the crown’s seal makes it binding.
An older woman sergeant in a faded red tabard counts a meager handful of coins onto the watchhouse counter, then takes custody of the prisoner.
While waiting, Cedric notices a fresh parchment nailed above the others. Black ink names a local witch, accused of owing a debt to the baron, with payment promised for her capture.
the watch sergeant
That one is trouble dressed as a bounty. If you are considering it, mercenary, ask yourself how badly you need the baron’s coin.
✓ Quest Accepted
Capture the local witch
“I think I will look into it. Is there something behind this debt? How does she come to owe the baron?”
FAILURE (Poor Persuasion, rolled +0)
Cedric
I think I will look into it. Is there something behind this debt? How did she come to owe the baron?
The watch sergeant’s hand pauses over the coins. Around the lane, villagers grow still, listening without pretending otherwise.
the watch sergeant
You ask plainly. I respect that. The debt is for healing, or so the baron’s clerk claims.
the watch sergeant
Three winters ago, fever took half the hamlets near the baron’s keep. This witch brewed remedies when his own physicians would not come.
She lowers her voice and taps the parchment’s black seal. The wax bears the baron’s mark, but the listed sum is written in a different hand.
the watch sergeant
She says the baron turned mercy into a bill afterward. I cannot call that truth in an official report, and I will not send my watch against her on rumor.
the watch sergeant
But the old apothecary in the north lane kept the fever records. If you want more than a sealed accusation, start there.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether the witch's debt is legitimate
Director's note
I leave the prison and take the north lane to the apothecary
Cedric leaves the watchhouse behind, the bandit and the sergeant remaining within its shadow. He follows the muddy north lane as villagers quietly resume their work.
The lane narrows between leaning cottages and herb gardens gone brown with winter. A faded green sign, painted with a mortar and pestle, hangs above a low timber shop.
An elderly woman apothecary opens the door before Cedric knocks. She is slight, with silver hair braided close to her scalp, amber-brown skin, and a dark wool shawl pinned by a brass leaf.
the apothecary
If you have come for fever remedies, I have little left. If you have come about the witch, step inside and shut out the cold.
The shop smells of dried mint, bitterroot, and old smoke. Ledgers crowd one shelf, while bundles of labeled herbs hang from the rafters above a scarred worktable.
the apothecary
Her name was never written on the baron’s account. The records say she treated three hundred and twelve souls, and charged no one.
the apothecary
Then his clerk arrived with a bill for medicines, lodging, and protection. I kept a copy, but copies become dangerous when powerful men dislike the arithmetic.
“I say, "I'm just trying to do the job, but I don't want to hurt an innocent woman. If the baron's claim is legitimate, I'll turn her in. If not, I'll move from there. Will you give me the records?"”
FAILURE (Poor Persuasion, rolled +1)
Cedric
I'm just trying to do the job, but I don't want to hurt an innocent woman. If the baron's claim is legitimate, I'll turn her in. If not, I'll move from there. Will you give me the records?
The apothecary studies Cedric across the scarred table, then draws a narrow ledger from beneath a stack of herb wrappers. Her fingers remain tightly around it.
the apothecary
I will show you what I can. I will not place the whole record in a stranger's hands, not while the baron's men search for it.
She opens the ledger. Several pages have been cleanly removed, leaving pale stubs among entries for fever powders, willow bark, and winter lodgings.
the apothecary
These are my copies, and the missing pages held the clerk's bill. He took them after threatening my apprentice. The figures remaining prove treatment, not debt.
the apothecary
But I hid the original account before he came. It is sealed beneath the old millstone in the abandoned chapel cellar, beyond the north fields.
She closes the ledger and presses one ink-stained thumb against its cover. The accusation remains unproven, but the missing account offers a direct path beyond the baron's parchment.
“"Thank you. Whatever happens, I will keep your involvement secret." I leave the apothecary and head to the abandoned chapel.”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +0)