Torin Highfoot steps into the town jail, where the air is stale with lamp smoke and damp stone. The office is little more than a cramped box off the cell block, lit by a twitching torch.
A stranger in black stands with his back to the door, still as a post. Torin's boot scrape reaches him, and he starts to turn.
Firelight catches a silver locket at the man's throat. It flashes once, bright as a memory Torin does not want.
Kaelith
You came. Good. I have a message for Torin Highfoot, from the woman he lost.
Torin Highfoot
That locket is the same silver.
The stranger lifts one hand, palm open, as if to prove he means no immediate harm. The other stays hidden in his coat.
Kaelith
If you want the truth, shut the door and hear me out. If not, walk away now, and she dies unheard.
✓ Quest Accepted
Hear the stranger out
“Is the stranger linked to my past?”
YES, AND MORE (VeryLikely, rolled 16)
The stranger pulls the locket from his coat, revealing an engraving of a farmstead Torin recognizes all too well. It is the very same crest his father carved into the barn door before the war took everything.
Kaelith
I was there the night the fires started, Torin. I did not just bring a message, I brought the only thing that survived the ash.
“I ask about the woman he mentioned”
SUCCESS (Fair Reasoning, rolled +1)
Torin Highfoot
Who is she to you?
Kaelith
Someone I failed to save. Someone who knew your family, and knew what was taken from them.
Kaelith
If he still has the crest in his eyes, then the message can reach him.
The stranger lowers the locket to the desk, not hiding it now. The engraving catches the weak lamplight, and his shoulders sag as if the weight of the room has finally found them.
Kaelith
Her name was Elira. She begged me to bring this to you if the worst came to pass.
He slides the open locket across the scarred wood, stopping it within Torin's reach. The cell door stands silent behind him, but the office feels smaller for the truth between them.
Quest Complete
Hear the stranger out