Kynes steps into the annex as the iron door shudders behind him. Dusty shelves tower on both sides, packed with Phandelver’s old accounts, and the recovered ledger in Kaelen’s hand seems to tug toward the stacks like a compass needle.
Kaelen
The crest code is here. If this index is right, the annex records point to a hidden payment chain, not just one clerk.
Bren
Then find it fast. I hear boots outside.
Kaelen pulls a slim register free. A hidden strip of red wax slips from its spine and lands on the floor, stamped with the same crest as the ledger scrap. The mark flares once, then goes dull, like it has been waiting for Kynes to arrive.
Kynes
This is the link. Annex records, payment trail, and the void-lattice seal are tied together.
From the far aisle, a clerk in ink-stained sleeves freezes with a page half-torn from a file box. He has been here already, ahead of them, and now he is trying to hide the original route map.
The Clerk In Red Ink
You should not have come down here. If the architects learn you saw the chain, they will cut you out before dawn.
Kaelen looks from the clerk to Kynes, then to the open register. The path is plain now, straight from the annex to the architects behind the lattice, and the room tightens around that truth.
✓ Quest Accepted
Confirm the payment chain to the architects
✓ Quest Accepted
Stop the clerk from destroying the route map
“Kynes: “Kaelen, take the map. Bren, take the clerk alive. I want names, locations, and who authorized the payments.””
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +2)
Kynes snaps the order through the smoke, and Kaelen seizes the map at once.
Bren moves like a drawn blade, cutting off the aisle and driving the clerk back from the file box.
The Clerk In Red Ink
Wait, no, that route is copied wrong, the original is still in the box.
He lunges for the torn page, but Bren hooks his wrist and slams him against the shelves.
The box tips open, and the original route map spills free beneath a sheet of red wax marked for the architects.
Kaelen
This is it. The payment chain runs straight through the annex to the architects.
Outside, the boots stop at the door. Inside, the clerk goes white, caught alive and empty-handed.
Quest Complete
Confirm the payment chain to the architects
Quest Complete
Stop the clerk from destroying the route map