The tavern’s rear door opens a finger’s width. The barkeep slips through carrying a tightly wrapped bundle, her scarred cheek pale as she glances toward the street, then the alley mouth.
The Barkeep
They found the loft. One demanded to see my old burn scar, as if I were hiding your ghost beneath it.
She presses the bundle toward Kylie. Beneath the coarse cloth, something hard shifts once, wrapped in oilskin. Bootsteps thud faintly through the tavern’s walls.
The Barkeep
Take it. I know a safer route through the old drainage run, beyond the millrace. I am coming with you, and I know part of why they came.
She pulls the rear door nearly shut behind her, abandoning the tavern and whoever remains inside to the hunters’ questions. Her eyes fix on Kylie’s frostblade.
The Barkeep
Your father’s old road ward was marked in the ledger I keep. Someone has been buying every scrap of information about that route.
The bundle waits between them, while the muffled search above draws nearer. Snow dusts the barkeep’s shoulders; the alley offers only one clear direction, toward the millrace.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach safety beyond the millrace
“I take the bundle and lead us toward the millrace.”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +0)