Adventure of Rika Everwood

The three workers remain beside the closed cistern inlets while rainwater threads harmlessly around the yard. Rika’s scraped forearm stings as the burned sigil darkens beneath the runoff.

Thin symbols kindle across the drainage stone, linking the black mark to the harborward channel. Their lines resemble written paths, but each flickers with a dull, oily sheen.

One worker crouches without touching the stone, following the symbols with a hesitant finger held above them. The others keep watch over the sealed inlets and the rain-dark doorway.

At the final connection, the sigil gives a faint pulse. For one breath, the rain around it glimmers with the same dark sheen, then clears as the symbols stretch toward the harbor.

The workers fall silent. The trail now offers a direction toward whoever prepared the poison, while the strange rain leaves behind one unsettling question: source, carrier, or accomplice?

The three workers spread around the cistern mouths, keeping the iron covers under watch as Rika kneels beside the harborward trail. Rain slips past her boots, but the oily symbols remain visible.

Her elven Keen Senses separate the sigil’s faint magical residue from ordinary runoff and catch a concealed disturbance beneath the nearest channel stone. The moving symbols bend around it rather than crossing directly over.

Rika traces the safer line with her eyes, following each dull pulse through the yard and beneath the cooperage wall. It leads toward the harbor, where the markings gather at a narrow drainage arch.

Rika lowers herself beside the channel stone and studies the disturbance without laying a finger on it. Rain beads on the surface, but her scraped forearm stays clear of the runoff.

Her elven Keen Senses sharpen the scene: the buried shape is a narrow iron-bound tube beneath the stone, wrapped in tarred cloth and set across the water’s path. A hair-thin ward circles it.

The moving sigil avoids the tube because the ward is drawing the poison around it, not blocking the flow. Small etched arrows on the casing point harborward, matching the magical trail.

Without touching the stone, Rika identifies the disturbance as a concealed diversion conduit. Its sealed ends lead beneath the cooperage wall toward the narrow drainage arch.

The inspection reveals the buried device’s purpose: it redirects contaminated water beneath the yard, while the sigil guides the flow toward the harbor. The route is clear, and the workers remain at their posts.

Rika’s Keen Senses map the ward’s tension before her fingers move. She finds the tiny fastening beneath the tarred cloth and avoids the hidden pressure points.

Her reputation for impulsive action works against her as haste pulls her hand toward the casing. She checks herself, then twists the fastening with precise, controlled force.

The ward snaps out. Rika wrenches the conduit’s inner gate shut, and the oily trail gutters away from the harborward channel as the buried tube falls silent.

Water surges around the loosened stone and presses against her scraped forearm. Pain flashes sharply through the scrape, and her elbow strikes the channel edge before she steadies herself.

The symbols fade to dull stains. Beneath the stone, the conduit is disabled and the poison’s guided route is broken, though the rain continues rushing toward the harbor by ordinary channels.