The mathom house breathes out dust and cold iron. Will’s lantern throws long, wavering shadows across shelves of old spears, cracked shields, and battlefield keepsakes.
Boffo steps in with the orc arrow still in hand. The point gleams by the lantern light, ugly and practical beside all this relic-clutter.
Will Whitfoot
Look at the ordering of it. Not plunder, Boffo, search. Someone has been here before, and knew what they sought.
Sawyer Krump
If orcs are sniffing through the mathom house, then the thing they want is here. Hidden in plain sight, maybe, among all this old junk.
Will lifts the lantern toward a tall case at the back wall. Beneath a faded battle banner, a locked oak chest sits marked with a blackened iron clasp, its dust disturbed more recently than the rest.
Boffo Hardbottle
The chest has been handled lately. Not by mice.
Will Whitfoot
Boffo, that is your trail now. The orcs are hunting an artifact stored in this house, and if they find it first, Greenfields is still in danger.
✓ Quest Accepted
Discover the relic the orcs are after
“Before opening the oak chest, he studies it a moment to see what clues can be gained about whoever came here before him.”
SUCCESS (Superb Perception, rolled -2)
Boffo leans closer to the chest and studies the disturbed dust, the blackened clasp, and the faint scuff along its lid. The marks show more than handling, they show haste, as if someone opened and shut it with shaking hands.
Boffo Hardbottle
The clasp has been touched recently, and not gently.
He notices a thin smear at the lock seam, dark wax rubbed aside by a ring or key. The chest was secured again after being opened, but not by someone trying to hide a theft.
Will Whitfoot
Someone knew this box mattered. They came for a specific thing, checked it, and left the rest untouched.
Boffo traces the edge of the banner above it and finds a narrow tear behind the hanging cloth, just enough to reveal an old paper tag tied to the chest’s handle. The tag bears a fading mark of the North Farthing post, and a hand-written name beneath it.
Sawyer Krump
Read it, Boffo. If that name matches the orcs’ trail, we have our answer.
Boffo reads the tag, and the relic is suddenly plain, a sealed Greenfields token-case once carried on the Bounds, the sort that would matter to raiders hunting a border route or a hidden oath.
The scrape of the lid costs him a splinter in his thumb, and a drop of blood freckles the dust. Will lowers the lantern a little, waiting for Boffo to say whether the case is the one the orcs want opened.
“He reads the note.”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +0)
Boffo angles the tag into the lantern light. The handwriting resolves into a name, then a warning mark beneath it, the kind used on parcels meant to be opened only by the Bounds keeper.
Boffo Hardbottle
A boundary case, labeled for the road, not the house.
Will Whitfoot
That settles it. The orcs were not hunting trinkets, they were hunting what this case means.
Sawyer straightens at the word, and his hand drops from the chest lid. The paper tag trembles in Boffo's fingers, half-hidden still by the lifted banner.
Sawyer Krump
Open it, carefully. If it links Greenfields to the border, we need to know now.
Boffo works the lid free. Inside lies a worn relic, a carved border token wrapped in oilcloth, stamped with the old North Farthing mark and tied with a strip of faded red cord.
Will leans in, grave and certain. The token is no village keepsake, it is a route-sign, old enough to matter to anyone who once moved under cover along the Shire edge.
Will Whitfoot
There. That is what they came for.
Quest Complete
Discover the relic the orcs are after
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Superb→Legendary
Quest Complete
Explain why the orcs targeted Greenfields
New Gift: Hard-Won Insight