Bren leads everyone up a narrow stair into a modest room above the market. Below, vendors call, carts creak, and ordinary town life carries on.
A simple meal waits on the table. Slaan keeps the woven journal concealed beneath her cloak, while Nhal rests one hand against the window frame and watches the streets.
Bren
This is enough for tonight. Four walls, a lock, and food that has not been carried through a crypt.
Slaan
Daggerford is close enough to matter and far enough to remain a story. I dislike stories that arrive with too many missing pages.
Nhal
The town is not pretending to be anything grand. People argue over bread, children chase one another, and someone has burnt a stew.
Bren
Then we can begin there. We decide what the Daggerford tale means after we have slept, eaten, and heard one another clearly.
“I agree with slaan" yeah daggerford is a days walk ahead of warlocks crypt, so for anyone keeping score." That can be our destination. I want to see if the grey gloves and corven can keep trek." I pause. " Since we both befuddled the town watchmen and the ledger, no honest trace of us since we left buldars gate." I plainly say with a grin”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -3)
Kynes
Daggerford is a day's walk ahead of Warlock's Crypt, so for anyone keeping score, that can be our destination. If the Gray Glove or Corven can keep the trek, they can try. We befuddled the town watchmen and the ledger, so there is no honest trace of us since Baldur's Gate.
Kynes's grin lands with the confidence of a settled route. Below, a cart jolts over the market stones, and his final words carry through the open window.
Bren
Daggerford, then. A public road, ordinary rooms, and no need to pretend we are chasing anyone. But close that window before the whole market learns our travel plans.
Slaan
A destination chosen plainly. I approve. The journal can wait beneath my cloak until we reach a place where its pages do not invite questions.
Nhal
The town hears confidence as easily as fear.
A vendor below pauses mid-call and looks up toward the room. No alarm follows, but the open window has spent the party's quiet. Bren reaches toward the latch, waiting rather than deciding for Kynes.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the vendor's attention from becoming a public alarm
“I close the window and give the vendor nothing more to notice. Slaan studies the her journal.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +1)
Therefore, Kynes crosses the room and draws the window shut with a smooth, quiet motion. The latch settles without a knock.
Below, the vendor lowers his gaze and resumes calling out prices. The market swallows the room's brief attention.
Bren
That is better. No audience, no rumor, no reason for anyone to remember us.
Meanwhile, Slaan unfolds the woven journal beneath the table's edge, keeping its pages hidden from the street.
Slaan
The weave is deliberate. Someone wanted this record carried, but not announced.
Nhal turns from the darkened window and studies the companions instead. The room returns to its modest meal, but the question of what to reveal travels with them.
Bren
When we leave, do we tell the innkeeper only that we are travelers, or do we give the town a fuller story?
Quest Complete
Keep the vendor's attention from becoming a public alarm
“" a traveling family or a group of pilgrims is all anyone needs to hear"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +0)
Kynes
A traveling family, or a group of pilgrims. That is all anyone needs to hear.
The plain answer settles over the table, practical and easy to repeat. It gives their presence a shape without offering the town anything worth remembering.
Bren
Then that is what we say. No invented names, no tale polished enough to invite questions.
Slaan
Pilgrims suit the journal better. People expect pilgrims to carry old things and speak carefully about where they found them.
Nhal
They are choosing a story that leaves room for each of them, rather than forcing one voice to speak for all.
Bren eases away from the latch and takes her place at the table. The meal resumes, and the woven journal remains hidden beneath Slaan's hand.
Bren
When we reach Daggerford, we use the same answer together. If someone asks more, we decide in the moment, not by hiding things from one another.
Nhal
That sounds less like a disguise, and more like an agreement.
✓ Quest Accepted
Leave the rented room together
“I open the door and lead us down to the market together. Me, slaan, and nhal befuddle anyone who looks to be watching our progress.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Therefore, Kynes rises and crosses to the door. The room's plain story stays folded between them as he lifts the latch.
The stairwell receives them one by one. Kynes leads, Slaan keeps the woven journal hidden beneath her cloak, and Nhal follows with quiet attention.
Bren
Together, then. No one drifts ahead.
At the stair's foot, Kynes lets his will settle across the watching faces below. Glances slide away, memories lose their edges, and the party becomes merely another group descending from rented rooms.
Slaan
That was clean. Even the curious ones have forgotten what they were curious about.
They step out beneath the market awnings together. The street accepts them without alarm, though a spice seller pauses beside his stall and studies the four travelers with a frown.
Nhal
That one is trying to remember us. Do we pass him by, or give him a better story?
Quest Complete
Leave the rented room together