Morning settles gently over the southern wayhouse. The dun gelding drinks at the eastern rail, its tack hung nearby, while pale sunlight warms the quiet yard.
Wayhouse Keeper
Bread, Thanebroken. The road is easier taken with something in your stomach.
Inside, the keeper sets a heel of bread and a clay cup on the trestle table. Beyond the open shutters, reeds glitter with dew and no rider approaches.
Wayhouse Keeper
South takes you through Reedmere hamlet by noon, then toward Low Fen Crossing. Westward lies a market road, with work for hands that travel.
Wayhouse Keeper
East is poorer ground, but two waystations keep their roofs sound. Travelers seeking residence often find steadier welcome near the market roads.
He points across a rough charcoal map marked on the tabletop. No question follows about the north, and the wayhouse remains open, calm, and unhurried.
Wayhouse Keeper
Choose your road when you are ready. Your horse is watered, your saddle is dry, and the southern paths are clear.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach Reedmere hamlet
“Has Orien ever heard of Reedmere?”
NO (Likely, rolled 90)
Orien studies the rough charcoal map without recognizing the name Reedmere. The hamlet is only another southern place, marked between this wayhouse and Low Fen Crossing.
Orien Thanebroken
I have never heard of Reedmere.
Wayhouse Keeper
Reedmere is small, but it has a well, a common green, and a reeve who keeps the road orderly.
The keeper taps the southern line with one blunt finger. Beyond Reedmere, the road divides toward Low Fen Crossing and the busier market roads.
Wayhouse Keeper
You will find no northern court customs there. Folk care more for sound tack, honest coin, and whether a traveler keeps the raised road.
He folds the charcoal map’s corner flat beneath the clay cup. Outside, the dun gelding shifts at the rail, ready for the morning road.
Nothing in the keeper’s directions suggests danger or distinction. Reedmere remains an unfamiliar hamlet ahead, and the southern route stays open beneath the clear sky.
“Travel to Reedmere.”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +0)