Behind the thorn brake, the sharp-eyed carter remains with Bracken and the silver-laden chest, watching the weigh-house. Arus sits alone beneath the hooded lamp, the sealed note untouched in his hand.
The weigh-house door opens. A lean middle-aged man steps into the lamplight carrying a narrow black case bound in green thread; his right hand is missing a finger, and his plain coat bears no badge.
The Rider
Arus Gandon. The Viscount’s authorization is a convincing introduction, though your scarf suggests you prefer less official recognition.
He stops beyond sword’s reach and keeps the black case visible, its green binding catching the lamp’s narrow glow. The dark doorway behind him offers no sign of another watcher.
The Rider
Give me the fishhook note, and I will give you names, routes, and the purpose behind the listening network. Refuse, and we part with neither trust nor advantage.
The Rider
I also offer safe passage for you and the carter. She may keep her horse and cargo, provided you leave this road without drawing steel.
The rider lifts the black case slightly, inviting inspection without opening it. Between the lamp, the silent doorway, and the sharp-eyed carter’s hidden position, the meeting waits on Arus’s answer.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the listening network’s routes and purpose
“I will hold up the authorization slip with the sealed note within it and gesture for the rider to reveal the contents of his case he invites examination of, while offering the object of exchange he was supposed to be expecting, first...”
SUCCESS (Superb Intrigue, rolled +1)
Arus raises the Viscount’s authorization slip, the sealed fishhook note held visibly within its fold. With his other hand, he gestures toward the rider’s green-bound case, offering the exchange without a word.
The rider studies the official seal, then the untouched wax. Behind the thorn brake, the sharp-eyed carter remains hidden with Bracken and the silver-laden chest, watching the negotiation.
The Rider
A fair exchange, then. You understand that secrets are worth more when both hands show what they carry.
He lays the black case on the bench, unfastens its brass clasps, and opens it beneath the hooded lamp. Inside rests a packet of copied reports, a coastal chart, and three lists of names marked by tavern and road.
The Rider
There is the network’s shape: paid listeners, relay points, and the names of those who purchase what they hear. Give me the note, and these become yours to read.
The rider extends one hand for the sealed note and leaves the case open. The authorization remains visible above it, turning the quiet exchange into an official-looking delivery neither side can easily deny.
The Rider
You have your contents, and I have the object I was promised. Now we may discuss who commands the ears of Cornwall.
“I will begin discussions of information brokerage with simple questions first, "Whom do you represent to work for? What do you seek to learn or what is your goal or primary aim to be achieved with your information exchange?”
SUCCESS (Superb Intrigue, rolled +2)
Arrus Gandon
Whom do you represent, and what do you seek to learn? State your purpose before I trade a sealed message for borrowed knowledge.
The Rider
I represent no lord, Crown office, or coastal tavern. I work for a private circle of merchants and magistrates who pay to know where influence travels before it becomes law.
The rider keeps one hand beside the open case, making no move toward the note. Behind the thorn brake, the sharp-eyed carter remains concealed with Bracken and the silver chest.
The Rider
Our aim is not gossip for its own sake. We map payments, favors, arrests, and appointments, then sell warning to those who can act before a rival does.
The Rider
The fishhook network is my instrument, not my master. I seek to learn who is buying coastal intelligence, which hands relay it inland, and whether one power intends to control the whole chain.
He taps the lists of names with one knuckle, then leaves the packet untouched. His answer offers a business without a banner, and a network whose highest customer remains concealed.
The Rider
Now you know whom I serve and what I seek. Decide whether your note buys the names behind my account, or merely confirms that we are pursuing the same hidden market.
Director's note
I hand over the wax-sealed note and accept the leather bound case containing the network information and records before preparing to leave
“I am a parcel messenger by training, my good sir, and thus a tradesman of a sort as well. I was bidden to deliver these contents in exchange for what you offer, and a bargain not honored is a bargain and a bargainer dishonored... So of course I will offer what you bargained for. and then offer the rider a regular exchange of information on a weekly basis if that interests him, then he should determine an effective means of slipping me a final note at my office in Pendennis Castle. Such a resourceful man should have no difficulty, and your ideal return message method may be discussed...”
SUCCESS (Superb Intrigue, rolled +1)
Arrus Gandon
I am a parcel messenger by training, and a tradesman of sorts. A bargain dishonored dishonors the bargainer, so I offer what you purchased. If it interests you, I can provide information weekly. Send your final note discreetly to my office at Pendennis Castle, and we can settle the method between us.
Arus extends the wax-sealed fishhook note across the bench. The rider accepts it with measured care, while Arus draws the leather-bound case toward himself and secures it beneath his cloak.
The Rider
You offer continuity, not merely a single purchase. I accept. A weekly exchange can be arranged, provided each message carries something worth the risk of receiving it.
He folds the sealed note inside his coat without breaking its wax, then closes the empty case and slides it fully into Arus’s keeping. The transaction leaves both men apparently satisfied.
The Rider
Your first return will come through a harmless commercial account, addressed to the office by a name we agree upon. I will leave the precise signal for our next meeting.
The rider steps back from the bench and turns toward the weigh-house door. The hooded lamp continues to conceal more than it reveals, but the exchange is complete and the road stands open.
Behind the thorn brake, the sharp-eyed carter waits with Bracken and the silver chest. Arus carries the network’s records, while the rider disappears into the darkened weigh-house.
+ New Item Acquired
Leather-bound case
“Without more words to exchange or business to conduct, I will quickly and as quietly vanish from the light of the covered lantern and return to Bracken and Mara waiting nearby. Once rejoined, I will insist she make ready to leave this location to someplace she considers safe enough to be truly secret and far from whichever prying eyes in the distance were able to identify me and possibly Mara's identity before I met the rider who knew me by name before we even spoke. I will not be comfortable until we have taken Bracken and his payload somewhere where we are safely hidden and anonymous again. There, I will insist that, in exchange for the unquestionably valuable use of my horse to transport a small fortune, she must tell me the backstory of how her cart became a waylaid target of the three men we managed to leave behind in the marshes, and how she came into possession of an entire chest full of such treasure. I will insist she shares all dangerous knowledge of who it belonged to...”
SUCCESS (Good Stealth, rolled -3)
Arus slips from the hooded lantern’s reach, keeping the leather case beneath his cloak. A loose board gives one dry click, and the dark weigh-house swallows the sound.
He reaches Mara and Bracken beneath the thorn brake. The chest remains secured, though fresh mud on Arus’s boot marks the narrow path behind him.
Arrus Gandon
Make ready to leave. Take us somewhere you consider truly secret, far from every eye that knew me before I spoke.
Mara Trevithick
There is an abandoned limeburner’s hut beyond the western lanes. No trader uses it now, and its well still runs clear. We can hide there before dawn.
Mara leads Bracken and the chest along a sunken lane. The detour costs them time, but thorn and darkness erase their trail before the hut takes them in.
Arrus Gandon
Your cargo bought this horse’s labor and my silence. Tell me how the cart became a target, who owned the chest, and every danger attached to it.
Mara Trevithick
It belonged to Josiah Vane, a customs paymaster who skimmed Crown silver and kept proof in that chest. I was paid to move it, then marked for arrest when he feared the evidence. Those riders were sent to recover it, and Vane’s partners will search every road until it vanishes.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the customs evidence from Josiah Vane’s partners
Quest Complete
Learn who is listening for Carter’s enemies
Skill Upgrade: Intrigue Superb→Legendary
Quest Complete
Secure the listening network’s routes and purpose
Skill Upgrade: Stealth Good→Great
“"Mara, I will tell you something I doubt you would have appreciated had you known it when you first saw me approaching upon dear old Bracken, but what he has really delivered for you is a choice like no other you've ever heard of before... I am, in truth Mara, an undisclosed agent of the Sheriff of Cornwall, who just by sheer random chance of odds came across your path while here on separate purpose, and thought that to strain both my own muscles as well as Bracken's was to save your personal heirlooms from thieves, and instead bought you a path not only away from danger, but, if you are willing to walk it voluntarily, may offer more safety than you have ever known. Will you hear out my offer?”
SUCCESS (Superb Deception, rolled +1)
Arrus Gandon
Mara, I am an undisclosed agent of the Sheriff of Cornwall. By chance I crossed your path, and chose to save your heirlooms. I can offer you more safety than you have known. Will you hear my offer?
Mara slows beside the limeburner’s hut, one hand resting on Bracken’s bridle. The clear admission catches her between suspicion and opportunity, while the leather case remains hidden beneath Arus’s cloak.
Mara Trevithick
I will hear it. You carried yourself like a man accustomed to command, but I took you for a fortunate traveler with a talent for lying.
She studies his face in the hut’s fading light, then glances toward the chest and the dark lanes beyond. Her grip tightens on the reins, but she does not retreat.
Mara Trevithick
If the Sheriff truly shelters men who carry secrets, say what protection means. A new name? Safe work? Or merely a stronger authority collecting my debts instead of Vane?
The hut’s broken doorway frames the empty lanes behind them. Mara turns fully toward Arus, ready to weigh his offer, while Bracken stamps once beside the secured chest.
Quest Complete
Keep the customs evidence from Josiah Vane’s partners
“I will smile and explain myself in greater detail. "Your instincts are not misleading you, Mara. Before I found my way into the Sheriff's service, I made my fortune in many ways, mostly legal, and some not as so, but all under the code of honor of all men of their word: even an outlaw cannot violate the natural law of a man's reputation. Become an oathbreaker once and the world is quick to dismiss your word as worthless like all other liars are attached to theirs, but keep your word a thousand times, to all men, king and scoundrel alike, and you become something more than just a man with a strong reputation, you become something so rare as to be whispered as legend: a man of honor..." I will look her seriously in her eyes, "You were truthful enough to not steal my horse and run off with a treasure chest full of silver when asked to keep your own word, and that may have seemed like a jest, but here you are, still with my horse, and not abandoning me to go live well?" I joke and smile”
SUCCESS (Legendary Intrigue, rolled -2)
Arrus Gandon
Your instincts are sound, Mara. Before the Sheriff’s service, I made my fortune in many ways, mostly legal and some less so, but always under the code of a man’s word. Break that code once, and the world calls you worthless. Keep it a thousand times, for king and scoundrel alike, and your reputation becomes something rarer than wealth: honor. You were truthful enough not to steal my horse and flee with a chest of silver. That may have sounded like a jest, but here you are, still beside me instead of living well without me.
Arus smiles, then meets Mara’s eyes without the easy evasiveness that served him on the road. The broken hut, the hidden chest, and the dark lanes become a quiet stage for his claim.
Mara Trevithick
You make a fine sermon of a dangerous bargain. Still, I stayed when silver, horse, and darkness offered me an easier life. I suppose that makes your legend partly my inconvenience.
Her guarded mouth bends into a reluctant smile. Mara’s suspicion does not vanish, but it loses its sharpest edge, replaced by the uncomfortable recognition of a promise kept.
Mara Trevithick
I will take your offer, Arus. I will ride with you to safety and keep faith with your authority, but my loyalty is not free. You owe me honest work, a clean name, and no convenient use of my story without my consent.
Mara offers her hand across the bridle rather than kneeling or bowing. The bargain grants Arus her trust, but its cost is plain: she now holds him to a personal promise he cannot casually evade.
“"I will give you this, Mara: the word of a man of honor... For as long as you serve me faithfully, you will have my honest answer about the truth of the nature of our work, even if I may not always be able to share all in every detail of such delicate, discreet work, and your name will stay clean of any legal stain while you work with me in the secret service of the Sheriff of Cornwall. And the only convenient use of your story will be yours, as a tool to assist me in the discovery of the Sheriff's enemies, with your anonymity intact and your true employer known only to me and his lordship, and few others. Do you understand? And do you have any objections, for I would hear them now before I bring you before my lord..."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Intrigue, rolled -2)
Arrus Gandon
You have my word as a man of honor. Serve faithfully, and I will answer truthfully about our work, withholding only details discretion forbids. Your name stays clean, your story remains yours to use, and your true employer is known only to me, the Sheriff, and a few trusted souls. Do you understand, and do you object before I bring you before my lord?
Mara studies him in the hut’s dimness. The promise gives her protection, but it also places her identity and future beneath a secret authority she cannot publicly invoke.
Mara Trevithick
I understand. Truth when you can give it, silence when you must, and no stain laid upon my name for work I cannot explain. That is a fair bargain, provided your lordship records it.
She extends her hand again, but this time her grip is firm and businesslike. Her acceptance is won, while the demand for written protection becomes a debt attached to Arus’s standing.
Mara Trevithick
I object to one thing only: do not ask me to trust a promise that vanishes when a superior finds it inconvenient. Put the protection before the Viscount, and I will serve faithfully.
Mara Trevithick
Bring me before him, then. I will answer his questions plainly, and I expect the same honesty from you when this secret work begins.
“"Agreed, Mara. I think you will find, when you meet his lordship yourself, that he is the sort of man who would not prefer it any other way. He is bred of duty and of principle, and I have thus far never seen any sign of him wavering from those guiding stars upon his heading, and as an ol' seaman, let me tell you, that is no small comfort to the heart of a man of honor that only seeks an equally worthy heart of a man of honor to follow in this world of deception and uncertainty... Keep faith with his lordship's cause of serving to distinguish himself as the true and effective Sheriff of Cornwall and keeper of the King's peace, and we will have an invisible hand on the tiller of Cornwall's justice, ensuring it remains on the course of true with all of the might a secret and steady hand can muster against the forces of corruption and wicked, monstrous appetites of men..."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Intrigue, rolled -3)
Arrus Gandon
Agreed, Mara. His lordship is governed by duty and principle. Keep faith with his cause, and together we can guide Cornwall’s justice with a steady hand against corruption and wicked appetites.
The grand assurance settles over the limeburner’s hut like a drawn banner. Mara hears not merely praise of the Viscount, but an invitation to place her future beneath his hidden cause.
Mara Trevithick
Then I will keep faith with his lordship’s cause. But your eloquence has purchased more than agreement, Arus. I will expect the protection written before I take any secret road for him.
Her acceptance is plain, yet the cost lands equally plain: Mara’s service now carries a formal debt against Arus’s standing. She will not let fine words substitute for the Viscount’s seal.
Mara Trevithick
Take me to him before dawn if the roads permit. I will answer his questions, name Josiah Vane, and explain the chest without hiding my own part in moving it.
Mara reaches for Bracken’s reins and checks the silver-laden chest once more. Her bargain with Arus is no longer tentative: she has chosen the Viscount’s protection, and now demands it be made real.
“Being only a short distance from the nearby roads to Flushing, is the road walked in anonymity still only a few hours from Pendennis Castle if Mara decides the safest route?”
YES, AND MORE (Likely, rolled 8)
Mara studies the paling eastern sky, then points beyond the limeburner’s hut toward a sunken road hidden between hedges. The route bends toward Pendennis Castle, not away from it.
Mara Trevithick
Yes. The road reaches the castle in a few hours, even at Bracken’s slower pace. We can be beneath its walls before the morning traffic thickens.
She unfolds a strip of old road map from her coat and marks a hedge-lined lane that avoids Flushing’s busiest approaches. Its final mile follows a private courier road maintained for Pendennis traffic.
Mara Trevithick
That is the extra fortune in our favor. The courier road has a locked postern near the castle grounds, and I know where the keeper hides the key. No crowded gate, no questions in the street.
Mara folds the map around the route and checks the chest’s lashings. The leather case remains secured beneath Arus’s cloak, while the sealed note is gone into the network’s hands.
Mara Trevithick
We leave by the western lane, cross the old commons, and take the courier road before sunrise. At the postern, your authority can become written protection, and my account can begin cleanly.
She leads Bracken from the hut and turns him toward the concealed lane. The road to Pendennis is short, the hidden postern offers a private arrival, and Mara now carries a precise route to safety.
“Then before we depart on this direct route of discretion towards safety and the politics of the castle, I will show Mara a demonstration of good faith and implore her to take several trinkets of value out of the wooden chest, preferably recognizable and wearable, including some currency of raw value, to create secret signals with more deliberation, before we leave the abandoned limeburner's hut.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Intrigue, rolled +1)
Arrus Gandon
Before we take the discreet road, let me show good faith. Choose several valuable trinkets from the chest, things wearable or recognizable, and some coin. We can make deliberate signals from them.
Mara studies Arus, then unlocks the chest beneath the hut’s broken roof. She selects a silver brooch, a garnet ring, a small chain, and a handful of clipped coin.
Mara Trevithick
These will speak more quietly than a letter. The brooch means safe passage, the chain means delay, and the ring means the road is watched. Coin can mark urgency without naming anyone.
She wraps the trinkets in separate scraps of cloth and places them in hidden pockets of her coat, leaving the remaining silver secured under the chest’s canvas.
Mara Trevithick
I accept the lesson and the share. If I display the brooch at an inn, you will know the route is clean; if I show the ring, we change direction. No spoken signal required.
Mara locks the chest again, checks Bracken’s harness, and conceals the first coin beneath her glove. The new signals are simple, portable, and valuable enough to command attention.
“With all preparation made, I will escort Mara into the grounds of Pendennis Castle and call some of the most trustworthy strongmen in the household servants ranks to place the locked wooden chest in my own office chambers and pass word to have the Viscount to meet me there with Mara when discretion and opportunity to do so inconspicuously present themselves. Then I will encourage Mara to relax and shed the cares of the road in comfort while we await the Viscount in private.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +2)