After leaving the frozen hunting party behind, Kylie and Mara reach the the tavern crowd the tavern crowd, where firelight, wet cloaks, and crowded voices soften the road’s cold.
Mara settles Kylie near the hearth, rubs warmth into the two numb fingers, and secures the royal bundle beneath her cloak while Kylie’s glacial plate steams faintly.
The Barkeep
Rest your hand. The frost will release it sooner if you stop pretending the cold has not taken hold.
A well-dressed swordsman, lean and pale-skinned, with a narrow, watchful face, approaches from the crowded taproom. He is a young adult man with a neat dark beard, polished traveling leathers, and a silver-hilted blade at his hip.
Ser Caldus Renn
Forgive the interruption, but your bearing is difficult to ignore. I am Ser Caldus Renn, and I would be honored to join your journey as a sworn blade.
The Barkeep
A sworn blade who knows which palace approaches are watched, and which are not. That is more than admiration, Ser Caldus.
Ser Caldus Renn
The city rewards a man for learning its doors. Whether I open one for you depends on whether you will hear my terms.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn whether Ser Caldus Renn serves Antioch’s ruling court
“I study Caldus and his silver-hilted blade for signs of court service. Since I was born into royalty, I should be able to tell.”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +2)
Kylie studies Ser Caldus Renn without touching her sword. Her trained eye notes the silver hilt’s court pattern, the balanced guard, and the discreet wear where a palace scabbard once hung.
She does not test him through threat or force; Code of Honor keeps the examination clean while he stands unarmed before her. The choice costs certainty about his present loyalties, but not the marks of his former service.
The cold still clings to Kylie’s sword hand, yet Frostborn Heritage leaves her senses sharp instead of dulled. In the blade’s pommel she finds a tiny celestial knot used by Antioch’s royal household guard.
The conclusion settles plainly: Caldus served the court, likely as an escort or household swordsman, before the usurper’s reign reshaped its oaths. His weapon is genuine, though its silver bears no current palace badge.
Ser Caldus Renn
You recognize the work, then. I carried that blade beneath Antioch’s banners before banners became accusations.
The Barkeep
Court service does not make him loyal to the throne that stands now. Ask which king he means.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish Ser Caldus Renn’s loyalty to Kylie
− Scene Quest Removed
Learn whether Ser Caldus Renn serves Antioch’s ruling court
“Does your loyalty lie with Antioch’s rightful king?”
YES (Likely, rolled 35)
Ser Caldus Renn
My loyalty lies with Antioch’s rightful king, not the usurper who wears stolen authority. I have served that truth in silence long enough.
The tavern’s noise thins around his words. Caldus lowers his gaze to the royal knot in Kylie’s blade, then removes one glove and reveals a narrow signet scar across his palm.
The Barkeep
Then speak plainly. The rightful cause has no use for another court man hiding behind careful phrases.
Ser Caldus Renn
I deserted the palace when its new masters ordered me to hunt loyalists. I know which captains obey from fear, and which obey because they believe.
Caldus sets his silver-hilted sword on the table within reach, hilt turned toward Kylie. The gesture offers service without disguising its cost.
The Barkeep
He has chosen a side, Kylie. Whether he has chosen you is the question that remains.
Kylie of Antioch leaves tavern behind and arrives at main city.
“Then I accept his terms and tell him to prepare, as we are about to set off towards the main city.”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +1)
Antioch’s main city rises ahead in tiers of dark stone, its towers veiled by chimney smoke and winter haze. Kylie, the barkeep, and Caldus reach the crowded outer gate beneath banners bearing the usurper’s black sun.
Kylie of Antioch
Prepare yourself, Caldus. We are entering the main city, and I expect you ready for whatever waits beyond these gates.
Ser Caldus Renn
My sword is ready, and so am I. I know a service entrance beneath the eastern wall, less watched than this gate.
Two dozen city guards in black-trimmed mail stand beneath the arch, spears crossed over the road. Their captain is a broad-shouldered middle-aged woman with iron-gray braids and a red scar through one eyebrow.
The Scarred Guard Captain
Travelers halt. The palace inquisitors have sealed the eastern quarter, and every entrant is being questioned for royal contraband.
The barkeep’s hand tightens beneath her cloak around the courier bundle. At once, the old seal answers: a faint silver star-crossing glimmers through the cloth, and somewhere inside the city, a buried ward replies.
Ser Caldus Renn
The ward has recognized its bearer. We cannot linger at the gate. Follow me, and the city’s forgotten roads will open before the inquisitors understand what they heard.
Quest Complete
Reach Antioch’s main city
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Good→Great
New gift: Urban Wayfinding
Quest Complete
Establish Ser Caldus Renn’s loyalty to Kylie
“I follow Caldus toward the eastern service entrance”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +1)
Kylie follows Caldus along the gate’s inner margin, using the guards’ shifting ranks and the city’s layered streets to vanish from the inquisitors’ expected line of sight.
Ser Caldus Renn
Keep close. The eastern wall bends around the old granaries. Their watch posts face the road, not the servants’ passage.
Caldus slips between laden carts and stacked snow-cleared crates. Kylie reads the cramped avenues instinctively, choosing each turn before he gestures and keeping the barkeep within her protection.
The Barkeep
The city still has room for roads its rulers forgot. That may be the first honest thing it has offered us today.
They reach a recessed arch beneath the eastern wall. Caldus presses his scarred palm to a rust-dark stone, and a concealed service door opens inward without a sound.
Ser Caldus Renn
There. The eastern service entrance. Inside, the wall will hide us from the gate and carry us beneath the sealed quarter.
Kylie passes through first, then the barkeep and Caldus follow into the narrow stone passage. Behind them, the service door closes, leaving the guards and their black-sun banners outside.
“I follow Caldus deeper beneath the sealed quarter”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +1)
The service passage descends beneath the sealed quarter, narrow enough that Kylie’s shoulders nearly brush the sweating stone. Caldus moves quickly, but she keeps pace without disturbing the hidden bundle beneath the barkeep’s cloak.
At each fork, Kylie reads the passage’s worn thresholds, drainage slope, and draft, recognizing the route that must serve the wall’s inner chambers. Urban Wayfinding turns Caldus’s hurried gestures into a clear map.
Ser Caldus Renn
You see it too. The left branch reaches the granary vaults, but the right descends beneath the inquisitors’ sealed quarter.
Kylie chooses the right-hand descent before Caldus can point. She slips around a fallen lintel, catches the barkeep’s arm as the woman follows, and brings them all through without a scrape or clatter.
The Barkeep
The ward is stronger here. I can feel it through the stone.
The passage opens into a buried corridor beneath the sealed quarter. Blue-white traces glimmer along its ancient paving, and the three travelers stand safely beyond the service entrance, deeper inside the city.
Learn whether Caldus has ties to the sealed quarter