The evening air stays still as Bren unfolds Alexandra’s vellum note beside the road. The Lord Mayor’s careful hand and the chapel token fit together too neatly, like two halves of a lie.
Bren Riverglade
This token is not a relic. It is proof.
The seal-mark and old tally lines on the token match the ledger entries in Alexandra’s note. Bren sees the chapel’s hidden name in plain ink, a record of kept favors, quiet payments, and a shameful bargain long buried.
His own past comes back with it. The atonement he seeks was never only for study or neglect, but for a hand once tied to this same secret, this same silence.
Alexandra
You see it now, don’t you? The Lord Mayor wanted that buried because it points back to you.
Bren closes his fingers around the token. The road feels narrower at once, but the truth is clear, and it will not stay hidden any longer.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the chapel's corruption
“Is Bren personally implicated in this corruption?”
NO (Likely, rolled 91)
Bren traces the ink, realizing the ledger entries describe a debt settled by his predecessor, not by his own hand. The weight of the past is heavy, but his own record remains untainted by the chapel's hidden bargains.
“Is the Lord Mayor tied to the corruption?”
YES (VeryLikely, rolled 22)
Alexandra
Look at the seal on the bottom of the ledger, Bren. It is the Lord Mayor's personal signet, pressed into the wax long before the chapel's debt was ever cleared.
Bren Riverglade
The Lord Mayor did not just oversee the collection of tithes, he orchestrated the very debt that Father Hallowell struggled to keep hidden.
Alexandra
He has been using the chapel as a ledger for his own greed, and now that you hold the proof, he will never let you leave Northmere with it.
“I ask Alexandra how we can confront the Lord Mayor when he is the chief authority of the town.”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled -2)
Bren Riverglade
Then tell me, Alexandra, how do I confront him when he is the highest authority in Northmere?
Alexandra
Not by pretending he is untouchable. You already have the Lord Mayor's own seal, and the note in your hand. He can dismiss gossip, but not his own mark.
She folds her arms and studies Bren's face, the road empty behind them, the gate rope hanging still in the dusk.
Alexandra
You do not shout first. You show the proof to anyone he cannot bully into silence, the clerk, the chapel folk, perhaps even Father Hallowell.
Bren Riverglade
The seal ties the Mayor to the debt itself.
Alexandra
If he tries to take it from you, make him do it in the open. A hidden theft is his strength, but a public seizure is a confession.
Bren closes his fingers around the folded note as Alexandra lowers her hand. The wax edge cracks softly, and a crumb of red falls to the road.
“"I must hear of this from Father Hallowell. You probably shouldn't be seen at the chapel, I will go alone." I tell Alexandra.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -1)
Bren Riverglade
I need to hear this from Father Hallowell. You should not be seen at the chapel, I will go alone.
Alexandra
Wise. If the Mayor is already circling, my face only sharpens his suspicion.
She looks past Bren toward the dark road, then back to him, as if weighing the distance to the chapel against the cost of being noticed.
Alexandra
Take the note, and tell Hallowell to be plain with you. He has carried enough silence for one village.
Alexandra
If he confirms it, then you do not bury it. You put the truth where the clerk, the chapel, and the Mayor must all stand before it.
She lets the last of the wax crumbs fall from her palm and steps half a pace aside, making room for him to pass.
Alexandra
Go, Bren. I will keep the road behind you quiet until you return.