Erin pulls the farmhouse door nearly shut, leaving only a blade of orchard light. Before she can continue, a floorboard near the pantry shifts with a damp creak.
Erin
Quiet. I searched this room twice. Whoever is beneath us knows another way through.
The board lifts. A wounded middle-aged man crawls from the narrow crawlspace, lean and mud-streaked beneath a torn gray coat. Blood darkens his sleeve, and one eye is swollen nearly closed.
Joren Pell
Joren Pell. Caravan witness. I hid here when the last search party came through. They were looking for Erin, and for anyone who had seen the transfer.
Erin
What transfer? Who carried me away, Joren?
Joren reaches toward the wall for support, but three sharp birdcalls answer from the orchard. A moment later, a fourth signal rises near the farmhouse well.
Joren Pell
They found the trail. The caravan guards are still at the river, and Tavian stayed with them. If those signals are theirs, we have moments.
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect Joren from the search party
“I will confront them. Erin, stay here and protect John. And watch how I fight. I will need to teach you the ways of the Bladesinger one day.”
SUCCESS (Good Melee Weapons, rolled +0)
Verner
Erin, stay here and protect Joren. Watch how I fight. One day, I will teach you the ways of the Bladesinger.
Verner opens the farmhouse door and steps into the yard, silver-hilted rapier and Echo drawn. Erin guides Joren behind the sturdy pantry wall as the signals converge.
Four searchers emerge between the apple trees: adult men and women in dark oilskin coats, faces hidden by plain iron half-masks, thorn tokens stitched at their collars.
Erin
I will guard him. Do not let them draw you away from the house.
The first searcher rushes with a cudgel. Verner turns aside, crosses both blades in a bright ringing arc, and sends the weapon spinning into the mud.
His second step folds the attacker down without bloodshed. Echo catches another searcher's blade at the hilt, while Verner's rapier stops beneath the masked leader, an adult human woman of tall, lean build whose iron half-mask and dark oilskin coat mark her as the leader's chin.
The Masked Leader
Hold! We yield the yard. The half-elf is not ours to lose, and you have made your lesson plain.
Get Erin safely away from the witness purge
Quest Complete
Protect Joren from the search party