Patter creeps from beneath the cart, fox-bright eyes fixed on the warm, mostly-empty pot. He noses the rim while Octavius and Edrin fold canvas and secure the bundles.
Edrin Vale
Careful, little thief. There is onion in that broth, and I will not have you blaming us for your poor judgment.
A mud-streaked traveler appears along the eastern road, a young adult woman with a lean build, brown braid, gray cloak, and one hand pressed to her bloodied side. Her other hand rises openly.
Mara Venn
Please. I mean no trouble. Bandits, or those pursuing them, drove me from the eastern track. I know Edrin Vale is bound for Dunmere.
She stops well short of the cart. Mud obscures her boots and hem, while her guarded gaze moves from Edrin to Octavius, then briefly toward the road behind her.
Mara Venn
Let me walk beside you. I can tell you which crossings remain passable, and where the road has become unsafe. I need only reach Dunmere.
Edrin Vale
You know my name, yet offer no name of your own. Octavius, I think this deserves an answer before we close the cart and go.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the traveler's identity and connection to Edrin
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn why Mara is fleeing the eastern track
“she holds her side. Can I smell blood, or tell if she is faking it with something the same colour and a pretend limp?”
YES, BUT (VeryLikely, rolled 70)
The wind carries the sharp, unmistakable scent of fresh blood from the woman's pressed hand. Her limp is uneven, but not wholly feigned; pain tightens her stride.
Octavius
The blood is real, though the limp is partly performed.
As Octavius studies her, the loose buckle on his herb satchel slips against a bronze clasp with a small, bright click. The traveler hears it and turns wary.
Mara Venn
You inspect me like a snare, woodsman. I cannot blame you, but I assure you, the wound is no painted trick.
Edrin Vale
No one said it was. Still, a name would help us decide whether compassion and caution can share this road.
The woman lowers her raised hand by an inch, revealing dark blood soaking through the gray cloak beneath her fingers. Her eyes remain fixed on Octavius's satchel.
Mara Venn
Call me Mara Venn. I was cut escaping the eastern track, and I made the limp worse when I heard riders behind me. Dunmere is still my safest hope.
− Scene Quest Removed
Learn the traveler's identity and connection to Edrin
“I leave my arrow nocked, but the draw is null and the aim is groundward. Ready to draw and aim, but not ready enough to loose immediately. I glance back to Edrin, taking only a second to judge his face- if he remembers her, or is suspicious of her. Then I turn back to Mara, unable to turn just my hip. "Mara Venn. I am Octavius. You already know of Edrin. May we ask how, before we decide on your company? Edrin, what do you think?"”
SUCCESS (Great Persuasion, rolled +0)
Octavius keeps the enchanted bow nocked, its draw slack and its aim lowered toward the muddy road. He glances to Edrin, then turns his whole body back toward Mara.
Octavius
Mara Venn. I am Octavius. You already know of Edrin. May we ask how, before we decide on your company? Edrin, what do you think?
The bronze clasp on Octavius's satchel clicks again as he turns. Mara's gaze drops to the bowstring, and her guarded expression hardens, though she does not retreat.
Mara Venn
I know Edrin from the reeve's old routes. He carried messages through the eastern villages, and once warned my brother away from a false patrol. I recognized his cart.
Edrin Vale
That is true enough. Her brother was a miller's son near Kestrel Ford, and I remember warning him. Mara, however, has not explained who pursues her.
Mara Venn
Men wearing no colors, traveling with two bandit scouts. They wanted the sealed letter I carried for Dunmere's reeve. I lost them in the alder marsh, but they may search this road.
Edrin Vale
I believe she knows me, and I believe the wound is genuine. Her pursuers concern me more. If she walks openly beside us, we should leave before they reach this stretch.
Quest Complete
Learn why Mara is fleeing the eastern track