The back-room door opens without a knock. A bruised runner slips inside, pale and shaking, though the tavern guards swear no one crossed the corridor.
the bruised runner
Someone wearing the raiders' marks has been asking for Danial. They know his name, and they are searching every quiet entrance.
Rhon gathers neither ledger nor seal. Beneath the lamp, the records remain spread open, their altered ferry marks exposed beside the three knotted cords.
the bruised runner
There is worse below. Water is seeping upward through the dry cellar wall, black at the edges. I heard knocking behind it.
Rhon the Rose
Bolt the outer passage. Mattheas, keep Hattori with the records. If the wall opens, we learn whether the raiders found another road.
Mattheas moves to the corridor while Hattori shields the ledgers from the runner's dripping sleeve. Danial remains beside the table, the tome warm beneath its wrappings.
Hattori Ishiwa
It has not opened, yet it is answering something. The waterworks may have followed the book all the way here.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the infiltrator seeking Danial
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what the infiltrator wants from Danial
“Can the runner identify the infiltrator's face or voice?”
YES (Likely, rolled 17)
the bruised runner
I saw him clearly. A narrow-faced man with a scar through his right brow, wearing a clerk's gray coat beneath the raider's colors.
The runner swallows and wipes rainwater from his mouth. His voice drops as the cellar wall gives another hollow knock, answered from somewhere inside the tavern's foundations.
the bruised runner
He never raised his voice. That was the frightening part. He asked for Danial by name, and called the three cords a debt owed to the ferrymen.
Rhon the Rose
A clerk's coat and a raider's badge. Then our respectable supplier has shown his face, or sent someone trained to wear it.
Hattori Ishiwa
Did you hear him speak anywhere else? An accent, perhaps. A phrase that did not belong to Qa'anuress?
the bruised runner
He spoke like a registry man, precise and cold. But when he said the name Odran Vey, his voice changed. For one breath, it sounded drowned.
Black moisture beads along the cellar wall beneath the records. Rhon studies the runner's description, while Mattheas tightens his grip on the barred passage.
− Scene Quest Removed
Identify the infiltrator seeking Danial
“I question the runner about where the clerk went and who saw him.”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled -1)
Danial Tienad
Where did the clerk go, and who saw him besides you?
Danial’s quiet question cuts through the cellar’s hollow knocking. The runner looks toward the records, then toward the bolted passage, measuring which answer might keep him alive.
the bruised runner
He left by the river stairs, heading toward the old ferry sheds. I saw him enter through the tavern’s rear lane, but I was not alone.
the bruised runner
Mara, one of Rhon’s cellar hands, saw him too. She was carrying casks near the rain court. A lamplighter named Pell watched him cross the lane afterward.
The runner’s sleeve brushes the table edge. A drop of black water strikes the ledger beside the three knotted cords, and the nearest page curls from the damp.
Rhon the Rose
Mara and Pell, then. Mattheas, find Mara before she leaves the cellar. Hattori, lift the records. Danial has bought us a trail, but the wall has heard it too.
“I question Mara about the clerk's purpose”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +2)
Mattheas finds Mara beside the cellar casks, where black moisture creeps beneath the stones. She keeps one hand on a lantern and watches the rear lane.
Danial Tienad
What was the clerk trying to accomplish? Why come here wearing the raiders’ mark?
Mara
He was not searching for coin. He asked which room held the old ferrymen’s records, then demanded to know whether Rhon had received a wrapped book.
Mara lowers her voice as a dull knock travels through the cellar wall. Mattheas remains at the stair, giving her space but not trust.
Mara
When I lied, he showed me the split-oar mark and said the debt belonged to the living, not the dead. He meant to reclaim the tome and burn the records.
Mara
He carried a narrow iron case beneath his coat. Before leaving for the river stairs, he asked where the old ferry sheds kept their boats after sundown.
Quest Complete
Learn what the infiltrator wants from Danial
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Good→Great