The hidden passage breathes winter air into the library. Blue-white light spills over the threshold, steady now, waiting.
Ser Edrin Valcayne
I am Ser Edrin Valcayne, once steward to Graystone. The oathbreakers will not welcome you, but they will remember my face.
He casts off the cloak. A lined, hard-eyed man stands revealed, Graystone silver still pinned at his throat, his gaze fixed on the dark beyond the mountain.
Valerius
Then we go at once. Their trail will be fresh in the lower roads, and their fear will make them careless.
Kaelith
Careless or not, they are armed by law and old grudge. Lucas, once we reach the province, you must be seen with care.
The Dragon in Human Form
Your sister's court is the next battlefield, then. If they hunt your blood, you answer with witnesses, not whispers.
Lucas steps into the open passage as the mountain light gathers around him. Below, the road to the province awaits, and with it the oathbreakers who must be named before the law, or hunted in silence forever.
“Are the oathbreakers already in the lower roads?”
YES (Likely, rolled 29)
Ser Edrin Valcayne
Look to the lower switchbacks, Lucas. The banners of the oathbreakers are already visible, moving against the wind.
Lucas Broadleaf
They are closer than we anticipated, already patrolling the mountain path.
“I study the oathbreakers' banners”
SUCCESS (Legendary Lore, rolled +1)
Lucas studies the banners until their stitched sigils resolve in his mind, ash-gray fields cut by a broken silver crown and a black knot of oathcord.
Lucas Broadleaf
Not mercenaries. Graystone oathbreakers.
The cloth is old, but the threadwork is careful, the sort of standard carried by sworn household men who have turned on their own keeping.
Ser Edrin Valcayne
You see it now. Those are not raiders. They are men who know exactly what they are hunting.
Lucas catches a second mark beneath the crown, a tiny white rune worked into the hem, the same ward-sign used to name a claim in old border law.
Valerius
That sign... it belongs to the house that feared your return most.
Below, the nearest armored file turns on the path, and one banner snaps hard enough for Lucas to read the final line of stitching: not a warning, but a warrant.
Quest Complete
Learn who the Graystones feared most
Skill Upgrade: Diplomacy Superb→Legendary