A tiny horned fairy tumbles into the slag shadow, black hair askew and jeweled ornaments rattling, a stolen patrol bell clutched beneath one arm. False lantern trails twist behind her across the ash.
Linghuo
Quiet, quiet. I borrowed the bell before the guards noticed they had lost it. They are following six lanterns, and none of them are real.
The freed captives press deeper beneath the slag ribs, silent as buried bones. Zalise raises one hand, while Zesh settles behind them and watches the tangled trails converge.
Zesh
The patrols are splitting. Linghuo has made them chase confusion, but confusion will not hide us forever.
A strip of dark metal is riveted beneath the bell. Its inscription names Myk as wanted alive, promising payment from a buyer who knows of the witness account. The claim carries no seal he recognizes.
Zalise Zephyr-Ashe
Someone is buying you, Myk, not merely hunting the captives. If that bell reaches the camp, every patrol will know where to look.
Linghuo
Then let us make them look everywhere else. Myk, decide whether we run now or let the hunters walk past our teeth.
✓ Quest Accepted
Find the buyer who placed the claim on Myk
“I examine the riveted claim for clues naming or locating its buyer. Ask the Nightwood sisters zesh and Zalise if they mind looking into this with you”
SUCCESS (Superb Perception, rolled +0)
Linghuo reluctantly offers the stolen bell. Myk removes the riveted strip and studies its worn letters while the blackened sword rests against his palm, sharpening the pattern of pursuit beneath the sorcerous distortions.
Reads Pursuers separates the buyer’s mark from the false flourishes. Myk identifies a courier cipher naming the buyer as a broker called the Pale Factor, operating from the abandoned red quarry tollhouse before moonrise.
Marked sorcery overlays the tollhouse with three phantom locations, costing several precious breaths before the sword’s dark edge anchors the true sign. The buyer’s trail is certain, but the exact number of waiting agents remains unclear.
Myk
Elyra, Eli, Zesh, Zalise, do you mind looking into this buyer with me?
Elyra
Not at all. If they are buying knowledge of your account, we should learn who is paying before they purchase another trail.
Zesh
I will investigate the tollhouse with you. Eli and I can watch the approaches while the sisters check the broker’s movements.
Zalise Zephyr-Ashe
Then we go before moonrise. If this Pale Factor is touching my people’s hunters, I want their route exposed before we strike.
Quest Complete
Find the buyer who placed the claim on Myk
The caster loses part of their memories, emotions, or physical senses as the cost of the spell.
+ New Item Acquired
Riveted claim strip