Snow boils through the freight yard. Beneath stacked crates, Sharp Archer and the team hold still while the extraction car idles nearby. Then a figure lurches out of the whiteout, half falling, half dragging himself forward.
It is the German Officer, torn uniform crusted with blood and ice. He staggers to one knee beside the vehicle, a crumpled paper clenched in his hand, eyes fixed not on Archer, but on the bundle he carries.
The German Officer
Do not open it here. If that thing is activated, it will call them to you.
He coughs hard, then thrusts the paper up before it slips from numb fingers. Agnes Bell and the others stare, wary and ready to move.
The German Officer
It is not merely a weapon. It is a beacon. My superiors thought they could aim it. They were wrong.
Sharp Archer
The paper matters more than his uniform.
The officer sags against the crate stack, breathing raggedly, offering the warning with the last of his strength while the snow keeps erasing the yard behind him.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the artifact’s true nature
“I snatch the paper from the officer's hand to see what he knows.”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +1)
Sharp Archer hooks two fingers into the officer’s fist and strips the paper free in one clean motion. Snow gusts across the scrap as the man’s hand falls open.
The German Officer
Too late... it answers to heat, blood, and intent.
Agnes Bell leans in, then stops short as the artifact gives a low, hungry tremor against Archer’s coat, like something inside it has heard the warning.
The Operative
Read it. Now.
Mallory edges closer under the crates, eyes on the paper, while the extraction car sits ticking and idling in the drift.
The German Officer
If it is opened, it will pull every listener in the dark straight to this yard.
The scrap in Archer’s hand is crowded with cramped German notes, a sketch of the object, and one underlined word, beacon.
Quest Complete
Learn the artifact’s true nature
+ New Item Acquired
Crumpled paper
“This is one of the five artifacts to call the old gods, isn't it.”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled -2)
Sharp Archer
This is one of the five artifacts used to call the old gods, isn't it?
The German Officer
Yes. One of five. A key, a beacon... not a weapon. We were told to wake what listens.
Agnes Bell
Five pieces means this one is only part of the problem. That is worse, not better.
Mallory
Then the plan changes. We do not haul that thing anywhere near a depot, not if it can call company.
The Operative
Say the rest, officer. Who gave the order, and where are the others kept?
The German Officer
I do not know the full chain. I know the yard, the rail, the heat of engines... and that it answers when handled. That is all I was meant to know.
The artifact gives another faint shiver against Archer's coat. The crumpled note in his hand wrinkles tighter, and the extraction car ticks on in the snow, waiting.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get the German Officer to reveal where the other artifacts are kept
“How many more of the five do you have?”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled +2)
Sharp Archer
How many of the five do you still have?
The German Officer swallows hard and glances past the crates, as if the snow itself might be listening. He lowers his hand from his ribs and forces the words out.
The German Officer
Two. One is already in Allied hands, if your reports are true. The other two never came to this front.
The German Officer
The pair I know of are not stored together. One is kept with rail documents, under a station office seal. The other travels in a black case, on a protected line, never left with the cargo.
The Operative
Station office seal. Protected line. That narrows the map at last.
Agnes Bell
Then the dossier was not just a route key. It was a fragment of the trail.
Mallory
And if one is riding the rails, we are not dealing with a hiding place. We are dealing with a schedule.
The German Officer
Yes. You must not open it here. If it wakes, it calls to the others.
Quest Complete
Get the German Officer to reveal where the other artifacts are kept