Adventure of Dagg Nabbitt

Dagg rides toward the abandoned east tollhouse with Rusk and your border collie close behind. The building crouches beneath gray trees, its shutters closed and its track overgrown.

Rusk slips from the saddle and climbs a broad oak overlooking the tollhouse. He settles his crossbow against a branch, watching every door, window, and approach.

Dagg leaves your border collie beneath the oak and approaches on foot, sword at his side. Inside, Pike’s surviving members occupy scattered posts, unaware of the watcher above them.

The door yields without a groan. Dagg crosses the dim entry, reaches the central hearth, and finds the loose stone exactly where the captured rider described it.

Beneath the stone lies a waxed packet and a narrow list of names, payments, and posts. Dagg lifts both free as quiet footsteps shift somewhere beyond the records room.

Outside, Rusk’s crossbow remains trained on the nearest path. Inside, Dagg closes his hand around the list while the tollhouse settles into a silence that will not last.

Dagg opens the waxed packet and counts the list. Harl Venn heads it, a young adult man with a lean build, cropped dark hair, and a weathered brown coat, heads it, followed by six others. Five names belong to guards inside the tollhouse, leaving only seven Pike loyalists alive in all.

Dagg returns through the records room with the list secured. Superstitious caution makes him scan every shadow for an unseen omen, but Steady Under Watch steadies his breathing, while Reads Hidden Signs maps each guard’s stance and escape line.

The sword exhales ghastly purple smoke and kindles into violet flame. Dagg crosses the room before the guards can coordinate, cutting down the guard at the entry and the guard beside the records door in swift succession.

The guard at the stair lunges; Dagg turns the blow aside and answers through the opening. The guard by the rear window reaches for a whistle, but the flaming blade stops him before it sounds.

The last guard attacks from beside the hearth. Dagg’s footing slips on scattered ash, wrenching his knee, yet Reads Hidden Signs reveals the attacker’s overreach. He recovers and delivers the killing stroke.

Five bodies lie among the tollhouse posts, and the violet flame withdraws into the sword. Dagg bears a sharp ache in his knee, but Harl Venn’s list is safely recovered and the tollhouse guards are dead.