Palermo Styles hums with clippers, cigar smoke, and low voices. Francesco stands in the chair-side crowd while the Dockman guides him toward the back, where a senior Corvo watches every reflection in the mirrors.
The Dockman
This is the boy I told you about. He sees what others miss.
Ignazio "The Elegant" Bagnini
Then let him look. We have a leak, and Benny Mallory is not the only man feeding it.
The barber combs through Ignazio’s hair as if nothing in the room matters, but the talk sharpens. A name comes up above Benny, then another, then a delivery lane that should not exist on paper.
Francesco Fontaine
The leak sits higher than Benny. Someone is matching ledgers to routes before the docks even move.
Ignazio "The Elegant" Bagnini
If you want to earn your place, Francesco Fontaine, tell me who passes the information.
Francesco leans in on the ledger memory and the barber’s mirror catches his face as the room waits. The answer will point the Corvi at the traitor, and push Benny’s operation one step closer to collapse.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify who passes the information
“Does the ledger's ink match the signature on the dockman's permit?”
NO, AND WORSE (Likely, rolled 94)
Francesco focuses on the ledger's ink, comparing the frantic scrawl against the official permit held by the Dockman. The chemical composition of the ink is entirely different, and the handwriting style is a clumsy forgery that suggests the permit was never signed by the port authority at all.
Francesco Fontaine
The permit is a fake, and the ink is fresh enough to still be tacky.
“Trace the ledger's handwriting to the clerk I saw at the shipping office.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled -2)
Francesco follows the pen strokes back through the ledger, then across the permit copy, and the same cramped wrist keeps surfacing in both places. The clerk at the shipping office has copied the schedule, the stamp position, and even the awkward loop on the final letter.
Francesco Fontaine
It is the same hand. The shipping clerk writes the permit copies.
The Dockman leans in, his approval hardening into a quiet, dangerous stillness. The match is no guess now, it is a trail.
The Dockman
Then we have our leak, and we have his paper trail.
Ignazio’s fingers tap once against the counter, then stop. The old barber shop feels smaller with the truth named in it.
Ignazio "The Elegant" Bagnini
Good. Now we know where to press, and who signs when he should not.
The ledger edge catches Francesco’s chest again when he shifts, a small sting under the shirt, while the circled names on the handbill seem to glare up from the paper like witnesses.
The Dockman turns toward the door, waiting for Francesco to decide whether he wants the clerk watched tonight or followed to the men above Benny.
Quest Complete
Identify who passes the information