Captain Arnold Runner steps into his quarters, still rattled from the blockade breaking and the hard run through the Bay of Bones. Salt, smoke, and singed oak hang in the air.
The Quartermaster follows him in quietly, closes the door, and lays a handful of marked coins on the desk. They catch the lamplight like tiny warning eyes.
The Quartermaster leans over the coins, grave and certain. These are not ordinary plunder, he says, they are tokens stamped with the seal of the Masked Observer's true masters.
The Quartermaster
I know that mark. These coins are not cargo payment. They are counting pieces, meant to track where the hold goes next.
He taps one coin with a claw, and the stamped seal seems suddenly less decorative and more deliberate. The implication lands hard, like a cannon shot heard after the fact.
The Quartermaster
The Masked Observer was not just buying cargo, Captain. They were watching it for someone else.
A thin draft stirs the charts on the desk. The coins lie between them, quiet as a ledger, waiting for Arnold's next order.
✓ Quest Accepted
Deal with the coins' true masters