The dockhand jerks in Kynes’s grip, and the quay falls quiet around the counting shed. The broker’s token at the belt gives a hard, red pulse. Nearby tally tags answer it, each scrap of script warming like embers.
Kynes
This is not a dockside dispute. It is a ledger chain.
Kynes keeps the man pinned and angles the glowing tags into view. The red House Xar script crawls across them, then spills up the shed wall in thin, patient lines. The crane rope above creaks as if something unseen shifts inside the timber.
Bren
Kynes, the shadows by the crane house are moving. He is here, or something that leads to him.
The laborers recoil as the script flares brighter, and the dockhand goes pale. His belt token cracks with a wet click, and a seam of red light opens under the shed door, cutting a line through the packed mud.
Kynes has the pattern now. The broker is not just a man on the quay, he is part of the same Xar network that marks the records, the tags, and the town itself. If Kynes wants the corruption to end, he must follow the light into the crane house and cut the node at its source.
“Kynes ignores the impossible Xar imagery as narratively false. House Xar and its entire network were permanently destroyed months ago and cannot be involved. The broker is already physically in Kynes's grip, so his location is known. Kynes searches the captured broker for ordinary documents, keys, correspondence, payment records, or other evidence identifying his accomplices in the magistrate's corruption scheme.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +3)
Kynes ignores the red ghosting at the edges of the quay and goes straight for the man in his grip. He turns the dockhand’s coat inside out, checks the seams, then digs through the belt and sleeves with sharp, practical motions.
A folded packet drops into his palm, damp with harbor spray, along with a brass key, a short tally slip, and a wax-sealed note bruised by the broker token’s crack.
The Dockhand
No, wait, that is not mine, I only carry it, I only carry what they hand me...
Kynes snaps the note open. It names a payment run, cites the magistrate’s seal, and marks the crane house berth with a hand-drawn ledger line. A second mark shows the quay clerk who signed it through.
Bren
There. That is the chain. He is not the only one they used.
The dockhand bucks once, then freezes as the brass key catches the light. It is stamped with the same careful tally as the passage walls, and it fits a small lock somewhere under the crane house.
From the shed, a hidden latch clicks. Red light spills wider under the door, and the workers on the quay start moving in a rough, angry knot toward the commotion.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the evidence against the magistrate
+ New Item Acquired
Brass key
+ New Item Acquired
Tally slip
+ New Item Acquired
Payment note
““I hand the payment note, tally slip, and other evidence to Bren for safekeeping, keep the broker restrained, and question him about the magistrate, the quay clerk, and everyone else involved in the payment scheme.””
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +2)
Kynes takes the papers cleanly from the dockhand and passes them to Bren without loosening the grip at the man’s collar. She tucks the note and tally slip under her arm, keeping the brass key in sight.
Kynes
Who paid you, who signed you through, and who else is on this run?
The Dockhand
The clerk, the quay clerk... I do not know the magistrate, only the seal. They hand me the bags, the keys, the slips. I take them to the crane house berth, under the marked lock.
His words come out in a rush, then break. He jerks his chin toward the shed, where the red glow thickens under the door like a bruise.
Bren
That is enough. The chain is real, and it runs through the clerk’s hand.
Kynes keeps the dockhand pinned with one forearm while Bren secures the evidence against her chest. The workers on the quay close in, not yet striking, but ready to decide for themselves what the harbor keeps and what it gives back.
The key is stamped to match the passage tallies.
Quest Complete
Secure the evidence against the magistrate