As Maurice helps Aldric across the vestry threshold, the chapel bell gives one muted strike despite the still air. A wax-sealed packet falls from the belfry stairs and lands in the nave.
Dust bursts around the packet. Its seal bears the ducal roads office mark beneath a smear of chapel grime, while the bell rope continues swaying in the empty belfry.
Mara Quill
No one is above us. I watched the stair, and nothing crossed the nave.
Ser Aldric Venn
Then someone prepared the drop before we entered, or left by another way. Do not touch that packet barehanded.
Brother Harl keeps one hand on the vestry latch and studies the fallen packet without approaching. The bride draws nearer to the wall, her restored bond quiet beneath the silver brand.
Brother Harl
That mark belongs to the roads office. The chapel dust is fresh, but the wax has hardened. It may contain the clerk’s record.
Mara Quill
The side door remains our safest exit, unless the packet is bait. We must decide before whoever rang that bell returns.
“grab and inspect the packet”
FAILURE (Good Perception, rolled -2)
Maurice crosses the nave and reaches for the packet. Its wax seal catches against the rough floor, and the paper tears as he lifts it.
A folded sheet and several narrow scraps slide into the dust. Damp has already blurred most of the ink, leaving only fragments beneath the broken roads-office mark.
Brother Harl
Do not gather them barehanded. The seal is damaged, but the scraps may still preserve the clerk’s notation.
Maurice turns the torn packet over without touching the scattered scraps again. A dark impression remains on its inner fold: three letters and the number seven.
Ser Aldric Venn
That is not a full name. It may be a filing mark, or the number of a road ledger. Keep every piece together.
Mara Quill
The packet was meant to be found, then. Whoever left it expected hurried hands and broken evidence.
Brother Harl produces a clean inner cloth from his seal-case and lays it beside the scraps. The packet can no longer be inspected intact, but its partial mark survives.
+ New Item Acquired
Torn roads-office packet
“leave the chapel”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled -1)
Mara Quill lifts the side-door bar and eases the chapel open. Maurice guides Ser Aldric Venn through first, keeping the wrapped seal and packet fragments secured beneath his coat.
Mara Quill
Out, quickly. The graveyard wall will hide us from the road.
The bride follows Maurice into the cold graveyard, with Brother Harl close behind. Ser Aldric Venn’s stick catches on the threshold and strikes the stone with a sharp crack.
Ser Aldric Venn
That sound carried. We are clear of the chapel, but whoever listens now knows which way we went.
Mara Quill pulls the door shut, but its old hinges groan before the latch settles. Across the bare graves, she leads them behind a leaning boundary wall.
Brother Harl
The evidence remains together, though the packet is spoiled. Keep the scraps dry, and the roads office mark may yet be read.
They leave Saint Orra’s chapel behind and crouch beneath the wall’s broken stones. The cost is clear: their escape made noise, and watchers may now search the graveyard.
“I examine the packet fragments for the clerk’s identity”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +3)
Beneath the leaning wall, Maurice spreads Brother Harl’s clean cloth and places each torn fragment upon it. He aligns damp edges by their surviving fibers and ink strokes.
The fragments join into a broken endorsement: “Clerk Odo Fen, Roads Office, Seventh Ledger,” followed by a date and the receiving mark.
Brother Harl
Odo Fen. I know the name. He records custody transfers from the western roads, and his countersign appears beneath every authorized seizure.
Ser Aldric Venn
Then Fen is the witnessing clerk. The packet names the hand that approved her restraint, and the seventh ledger should preserve the original entry.
A final scrap bears a route notation: Saint Orra’s Cross, then the old tollhouse at Redmere. Maurice keeps the pieces together beneath the cloth.
Mara Quill
Redmere lies east of the road watchers. If Odo Fen still serves there, we can reach the ledger before the collectors learn what the packet revealed.
✓ Quest Accepted
Preserve the evidence naming Odo Fen
“I wrap the fragments beneath Harl’s cloth and secure them under my coat.”
FAILURE (Great Agility, rolled -2)
Maurice gathers the aligned fragments and reaches for Brother Harl’s clean cloth, but Harl’s weathered hand already pins its edge against the graveyard stone.
The damp scraps slide apart beneath Maurice’s fingers before he can fold them. He catches the largest pieces against his coat, while the smallest remain on the exposed cloth.
Brother Harl
The cloth is mine to hold. Let me fold it around the evidence, and you may secure the bundle beneath your coat.
Harl draws the cloth inward without lifting it, enclosing the fragments where they lie. The broken endorsement stays visible through a narrow gap, including Odo Fen’s name.
Ser Aldric Venn
That gap gives us a safeguard. If the bundle opens, we can still identify the clerk without scattering the record again.
Brother Harl folds the cloth twice and ties its corners with a strip from his mantle. Maurice cannot take the cloth itself, but he secures the completed bundle beneath his coat.
Mara Quill
Redmere remains our path. Move while the graveyard still hides us, and keep Harl’s knot above the packet fragments.
Recover the seventh ledger
Quest Complete
Preserve the evidence naming Odo Fen