Maurice leads the bride and the unsteady Ser Aldric Venn onto the western shepherd’s track. The road whistles fade behind them, swallowed by wind over the bare fields.
A wounded adult woman climbs from a drainage ditch ahead. Mara Quill, a human adult woman with a narrow, freckled face, is lean, weather-browned, and dark-haired beneath a mud-streaked hood; a torn green thread circles her wrist.
Mara Quill
Do not turn back. I am Mara Quill, a field scout. I escaped the riders closing Saint Orra’s Cross.
the bride
You came from the chapel road. How many riders are there?
Mara Quill
Enough to seal the crossing, and more waiting beyond it. They are not searching blindly. Someone is directing every movement.
Mara draws a small sealed token from inside her torn coat. Its dark wax bears neither the baron’s mark nor any ducal emblem, only a narrow device like three hooked lines.
Mara Quill
This identifies the warlord’s receiving party. They will recognize it, even if we do not. Keep it hidden, and Saint Orra’s Cross may still be reached unseen.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach Saint Orra's Cross
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the faction directing the riders
“I ask Mara what she knows of the three-hooked device.”
SUCCESS (Good Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Maurice Headsman
What do you know of the three-hooked device?
Mara studies Maurice beneath her mud-streaked hood, then glances toward the fields before breaking the dark wax and unfolding the token’s narrow paper lining.
Mara Quill
It marks the warlord’s collectors. I saw it on sealed orders carried by two men at Saint Orra’s Cross.
Mara Quill
The hooks are not a family crest or a baron’s badge. They mean the bearer has authority to receive what others have gathered.
She turns the token over in her palm. Beneath the device, a hairline groove runs along the edge, hiding a second mark that matches the first.
Mara Quill
There is more. The device appears twice on every order, once outside and once beneath the seal. Someone feared forged instructions.
the bride
Then showing it may pass us through the crossing, but it also tells them exactly what they expect us to deliver.
Quest Complete
Identify the faction directing the riders
“I ask Mara to guide us around the collectors”
SUCCESS (Good Diplomacy, rolled +1)
Maurice Headsman
Mara, guide us around the collectors.
Mara Quill
Follow me, then. We will leave the track before the next rise and use the drainage run beneath the alder trees.
Mara Quill tightens her torn hood and leads them west across the stubbled field. She chooses hollows between the furrows, keeping the chapel road hidden behind low ground.
Mara Quill
No talking here. The collectors post watchers where the land opens, but they neglect the wet ground. Keep your feet in my prints.
The bride gathers her ivory gown and follows silently. Ser Aldric Venn leans on a walking stick cut from the hedge, his breathing rough but controlled as the group descends into the drainage run.
the bride
The device stays hidden, and their receiving party will find no delivery on the chapel road.
Mara Quill brings them through a screen of alder trunks and out beside a sunken cartway beyond the collectors' view. Saint Orra's Cross stands ahead, its chapel roof visible through the bare branches.
“ask the bride how she is feeling”
SUCCESS (Good Diplomacy, rolled +4)
Maurice Headsman
How are you feeling?
The bride stops beneath the alder branches and steadies her torn gown. The chapel roof rises beyond the cartway, its bell rope hanging still in the open belfry.
the bride
Shaken, but sound enough to walk. My throat aches where the brand touched me, and I can still feel my patron answering beneath it.
the bride
He asks as though I am a person to protect, not power to be gathered.
Mara Quill
Then fortune favors us. The chapel's side door is unbarred, and the collectors have left it unwatched. It opens into the old vestry.
Mara points through the alders. A narrow path leads from the sunken cartway to the chapel wall, hidden by nettles and the collapsed edge of a stone fence.
the bride
I can make it there. Once inside, I may find a place to rest and learn whether the brand has weakened my bond.
“I scout the chapel entrance before entering”
SUCCESS (Fair Perception, rolled +0)
Maurice moves ahead through the nettles, keeping low beside the collapsed fence. He studies the chapel's side entrance, its threshold, hinges, and the shadows beneath the eaves.
Maurice Headsman
The door is unbarred, and no watcher stands within sight.
A thread of horsehair crosses the lower jamb, tied to a small clay cup hidden behind the door. Maurice spots the crude alarm before touching it.
He eases the thread loose and confirms the vestry beyond: empty benches, dusty shelves, and a second passage leading toward the chapel interior.
The brittle cup slips as he works and breaks against the stones. The crack is sharp in the quiet, and a shallow cut opens across his palm.
Mara Quill
Quietly done, but not quietly enough. No voices answer, and the entrance is clear.
the bride
Then I can enter. Aldric should follow while the sound remains only a warning, not an alarm.
“lead them into the chapel”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +1)
Maurice opens the side door and leads them through the vestry threshold. Dust stirs beneath their feet, while the chapel's dim nave waits beyond.
Mara follows close behind, pressing her hood against the door until it settles without another sound. She leaves the broken clay cup outside the entrance.
the bride
Inside, then. Keep the door closed. I do not want the collectors seeing where we went.
The bride crosses into the old chapel, gathering her torn ivory gown above the dusty floor. Pale light falls through narrow windows onto empty benches and a neglected altar.
Ser Aldric Venn
I can manage the vestry wall. Give me a moment before we move farther.
Ser Aldric Venn enters last, leaning on his hedge-cut stick. Mara eases the door shut behind him, leaving the chapel interior still and concealed.
Mara Quill
We are in. The nave has two exits, but no voices carry from either. For now, Saint Orra's Cross has not found us.
Quest Complete
Reach Saint Orra's Cross
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Fair→Good