Morning light follows Kynes and Bren along the road beyond Talon Tower. Their three-day provisions ride in balanced packs, while the open road bends north toward Daggerford.
At a crossroads shrine, Jessa Vale, a weathered middle-aged woman with sun-browned skin, a russet headscarf, and a handcart of ribbons, spices, and tin cups, raises one hand.
Jessa Vale
Travelers, are you bound for Daggerford? I ask because I have wares there, and the road has been quieter than usual.
Bren slows beside Kynes, one hand resting near the folded letter while her gaze measures the peddler, the shrine, and the empty road behind them.
Jessa Vale
The record-keeper who sent that letter has a respectable room near the west market. Owes two months’ rent, though, and has missed several appointments.
Jessa Vale
Three people went looking for them recently. None stayed long. I heard no talk of sorcery, only unpaid debts, closed shutters, and neighbors asking questions.
Bren
That is more useful than a dramatic warning. We are traveling openly, but we prefer to know what sort of welcome waits in town.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the people who have been looking for the record-keeper
“" anything about these three we should know about?" I ask”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +3)
Kynes
Is there anything about those three people we should know?
Jessa Vale
Aye. One was a tall man with a red scarf and a soldier’s bearing. He asked too many questions about the room, the letter, and who else had visited.
Jessa shifts the ribbons on her handcart, lowering her voice as a wagon passes. Bren listens without interrupting, her attention fixed on the peddler.
Jessa Vale
The second was a narrow-faced woman in a blue traveling coat. She paid for nothing, but watched the west market from the baker’s doorway. The third stayed behind them, a young man carrying a green pack.
Jessa Vale
They were not friends. The woman gave orders, the red-scarfed man argued, and the young one kept checking the road. They left separately before sunset, heading toward the old ferry path.
Jessa Vale
One more thing, free of charge. The baker saw the woman leave a note beneath the record-keeper’s door. I can take you to that doorway without crossing the crowded market.
Jessa points north along a narrower lane between orchards. Bren glances toward Kynes, the new route offering privacy and a clear way to inspect the record-keeper’s lodging.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine who altered the record-keeper’s meeting arrangements
Quest Complete
Identify the people who have been looking for the record-keeper
“" I don't want to impose on your day lass, you have been mighty helpful though" I say to her”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +3)
Kynes
I don’t want to impose on your day, lass. You have been mighty helpful, though.
Jessa Vale
You are no imposition, traveler. A useful warning is worth more than a ribbon sold at market.
Jessa smiles and turns her handcart toward the orchard lane. Bren falls into step beside Kynes, while the peddler leads them away from the busier road.
Jessa Vale
Come along, then. I have a delivery near the west market, and the lane passes close enough to the record-keeper’s door.
She points out a baker’s yard, a narrow side entrance, and a shuttered upper room marked by faded blue paint. The route avoids the crowded market entirely.
Jessa Vale
That blue mark is the place. The baker keeps an eye on it, though she dislikes questions. If the note remains, check beneath the left shutter.
Bren gives Jessa a grateful nod and studies the quiet doorway. The peddler’s warning has become a private approach, a local witness, and a precise place to search.
“Once we get to the door I thank Jessica for the information and slip her 1 gold coin. Then I descretly use sea of shadows to grab the note left under the door.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +1)
Kynes
Thank you for the information, lass. You have been mighty helpful.
At the blue-marked doorway, Kynes presses one gold coin into Jessa Vale’s hand. Her brows lift, but she closes her fingers around it with a grateful nod.
Jessa Vale
May it buy you a good answer, traveler. Keep your eyes open in that market.
Jessa guides her handcart onward down the orchard lane. Bren watches her depart, then turns toward the shuttered room and the quiet baker’s yard.
Kynes lets a thin Sea of Shadows spread along the ground. Darkness slips beneath the left shutter, curls around the hidden note, and draws it silently into his waiting hand.
Kynes
The note is still sealed, and no one has seen the handoff.
The folded note rests securely in Kynes’s grasp, its plain outer surface undisturbed. Bren steps closer, keeping her voice low as the lane remains empty.
+ New Item Acquired
Sealed note
“I inspect the note for any spell craft.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled -1)
Kynes turns the sealed note beneath the lane’s pale light, examining the wax, folded edges, paper fibers, and any disturbance around the closure.
His arcane senses find no spellcraft, ward, compulsion, or sympathetic mark in the note. The seal is ordinary dark wax, pressed with an unfamiliar open-door emblem.
Kynes
The note carries no magic. The seal was made to identify its sender, not control its reader.
Bren
Nothing hidden in the paper, then. That leaves us with ink, intent, and whoever thought this doorway was worth watching.
Bren leans closer without touching the note. The shuttered room remains silent, while faint flour dust marks recent movement across the baker’s threshold.
Bren
We can read it here, or carry it somewhere less exposed. Either way, the seal tells us who expects to be recognized.
At the edge of the folded wax, a tiny impressed line resembles a tally rather than a crest. It is deliberate, but contains no hidden writing or active enchantment.
“I open and read the note.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +0)
Kynes breaks the ordinary wax seal and unfolds the note beneath the pale lane light. The paper carries a careful, compact hand and no concealed writing.
The message reads: “If you bear the open door, come to the west market room before sunset. Ask for the ledger of absent names. Come with one companion, and trust no one who arrives before you.”
Bren
That is not a welcome. It is an appointment wrapped around a warning, and someone expects us to be watched before we arrive.
A second line, written smaller beneath the signature, names no sender: “The three searchers were not seeking me. They were confirming whether the letter reached you.”
Bren
Then the note did its work. They know we are coming, but they may not know what we learned from Jessa.
The final instruction gives a time and place: the west market room at sunset, through the baker’s side entrance. Beneath it, a single sentence has been added in darker ink.
Bren
“Bring no sealed record.” They are asking us to arrive without the register or ledger. We can decide what they earn before we step through that door.
“"jokes on them, the archive and by extension, the ledger no longer work." I smirk. " As for what they earn. " I shrug "depends on my mood, and sofar they might get a scowl. " I say giving Bren a mock brooding look”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +1)
Kynes
Jokes on them. The Archive, and by extension the ledger, no longer work. As for what they earn, it depends on my mood. So far, perhaps a scowl.
Kynes gives Bren an exaggeratedly brooding look beside the shuttered room, one corner of his mouth betraying the performance.
Bren
A terrifying prospect. We should warn the record-keeper that their carefully arranged meeting may be defeated by your expression.
Bren folds the note along its original creases and returns it to him. The lane remains quiet, with only the baker’s distant clatter beyond the side yard.
Bren
Still, the warning matters. We leave the register and ledger with the Hall, carry only what we need, and arrive before sunset through the baker’s entrance.
Bren
His confidence is easier to trust when it leaves room for caution. I can meet this stranger beside him, not beneath their rules.
Bren
And if they expected fear, they can settle for your scowl. Come on, then. Let us see whether this ledger of absent names is worth our time.
“" I could treat them as an inquisitor." I say in a serious tone, knowing Bren dealt with a version of Kynes that was a inquisitor.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +0)
Kynes
I could treat them as an inquisitor.
Kynes says it seriously, and the remark lands differently for Bren. She remembers facing a version of him who questioned every answer as evidence of guilt.
Bren
Then do so carefully. You know exactly how an inquisitor listens, and exactly how quickly suspicion can become a verdict.
Bren
He has stood on the other side of that scrutiny. I will not let an old pattern decide who he becomes now.
Bren studies the shuttered room, the baker’s side entrance, and the lane behind them. She points out the ordinary places where a watcher might wait, keeping the plan practical.
Bren
Ask for the ledger, but make them account for every claim. Who sent the letter, who searched for them, and why the absent names matter.
Together they leave the note’s wording unchanged and conceal it among their papers. Bren leads them toward the west market by the quieter lane, alert for anyone matching Jessa’s description.