Mist clings to the Nohara refuge as Doku leaves the elf witness secured beneath warded supervision. The masked clerk accompanies her, carrying copied testimony and the broken-winged moth emblem.
At the dispensary, Mistress Vale, Healer Tamsin, and the attendant remain at their assigned posts. Doku enters Veyra’s weaponwright workshop, where blades and signet molds crowd a scarred worktable.
Veyra
That is no common merchant’s device. Set it beside the palace impressions, clerk. Let the metal answer before the ink does.
The masked clerk places the copied emblem beneath a lamp. Veyra compares its broken wing, antennae, and surrounding beadwork against royal seals and noble signets.
The Masked Clerk
The witness named Lord Vaust, the Pale Benefactor. She saw this mark on the courier’s signet, but never his face.
Veyra lifts a bronze palace mold, then a silver noble seal, aligning each against the charcoal copy. The workshop falls quiet except for rasping files and rain.
Veyra
If it matches, someone borrowed authority. If it fails, someone forged the shape to make the palace look guilty. Either answer gives us a trail.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether the broken-winged moth emblem connects to the forged palace order
“"Personally I do think it does. Both operations are very much connected. So we will remove these tumors today. Let's liquidate them. When we find them, we capture them. Let's go." We search around.”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled -2)
Doku Nohara
Both operations are connected. We will remove these tumors today. When we find them, we capture them. Let us go.
Doku searches the workshop, signet molds, and adjoining storerooms with ruthless patience. Beneath a false worktable, she finds fresh wax, river silt, and a route ledger bearing Vaust’s broken-winged moth.
Veyra
The ledger names Pell Vey and Ardan Sile. They are not merely couriers. They have been using my rear passage to reach the old dye warehouse.
The search costs precious time and leaves one uncertainty unresolved: the ledger gives no reliable hour for Lord Vaust’s next payment. Still, the warehouse trail is fresh.
At the dye warehouse, Doku finds Pell Vey and Ardan Sile conferring over sealed packets. Veyra bars the rear exit while the masked clerk identifies both from the copied testimony.
Pell Vey
Lady Nohara, this is a misunderstanding. We carried sealed orders, nothing more.
Doku’s ambush leaves no opening for flight. Pell and Ardan are disarmed, bound, and taken alive into Nohara custody, while their packets and the route ledger are secured as evidence.
+ New Item Acquired
Sealed Packets
+ New Item Acquired
Route Ledger