The cellar settles into hush. One lantern paints the stone in honeyed light while Merrin kneels by the wall, sliding the ledgers toward a hidden compartment.
BonerFart eases down at the table with the others. Joe rubs his face, Steven keeps watch by habit, and Garrick finally lets his shoulders drop.
Merrin
If those pages had burned, we would be hunting blind. Keep that thought close.
Garrick
Aye. I have worn harder armor than this, but I would not mind a night without knives in the dark.
Steven
The cellar feels safer now, but only because everyone is too tired to move fast.
BonerFart
The lantern is steady. The room is, for once, still.
Edrin Vale
If I am to be useful, point me at the next task. I would rather earn my place than sit here and rot.
Merrin
Then rest first, Edrin. After that, we talk routes, names, and where to strike next.
✓ Quest Accepted
Solidify the allies’ next plan
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn where to strike Barack next
“We rest and prepare fully.. making our plan to strike more solid then ever.. planing a route full of traps and fatal misshapens in the road ahead for Barack and his followers. Using the cover of darkness, the aid of misdirection and poisons in the confusion thinning out his numbers before the final strike.. we prepare all of this as we get ahead of him, figuratively AND literally...”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +1)
The cellar answer comes as practical silence. BonerFart spreads the map beside the lantern, and the others lean in, no longer arguing about trust, only roads.
BonerFart
The lane by the canal is the cleanest line. Too clean.
Merrin
If we strike him on the road, we choose the ground first. I can supply smoke, bitter draughts, and marks on the bottles so no one mistakes them in the dark.
Garrick
Then give me the choke points. Bridges, turns, carts, anywhere a man must slow.
Joe hooks a finger along the route, Steven traces a second path with two taps, and Edrin quietly turns the map so the shortest line runs under a cramped archway.
Edrin Vale
That arch takes them past the old drainage steps. If we leave a false trail there, their scouts will waste the night on ghosts.
BonerFart’s bandaged hand rests on the paper as the route hardens into shape, one plan for misdirection and poison, one for the kill, and one for getting there before Barack does.
Quest Complete
Solidify the allies’ next plan
Quest Complete
Learn where to strike Barack next