Before Danial can leave the cellar, a hairline seam tears across the wall where none existed. Black water spills over the stones, carrying a drowned satchel sealed with three knotted cords.
Rhon the Rose
Back from the wall. Everyone, now. Do not touch that satchel.
Mattheas pulls Mara toward the stair while Hattori gathers the ledgers against her chest. The bruised runner retreats behind a cask, and Rhon plants himself between the water and the table.
Hattori Ishiwa
The cords are responding to the book. Rhon, keep it wrapped. If the clasp opens, the water may remember what was sealed inside.
The satchel bumps against a cellar stone, then turns without a hand upon it. Its iron clasp clicks open, angling toward Danial's oilcloth-wrapped tome.
Mattheas ben-Igari
Danial, hold position. Let no one cross the water until we know whether this is a summons or a trap.
Rhon the Rose
The ferrymen's debt has come ashore. Hattori, watch the records. Mara, take the runner upstairs. Nobody opens that book.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the tavern’s allies safe from the waterworks
“Can the satchel be moved without opening or touching its clasp?”
NO (Unlikely, rolled 85)
The satchel's iron clasp snaps fully upright. Its cords tighten, and the soaked leather drags across the stone whenever the water shifts, refusing every safe angle.
Hattori Ishiwa
No. It cannot be moved while sealed. The clasp has become the anchor, and any attempt to lift the satchel will force it open.
Black water spreads beneath the satchel in a thin ring, stopping just short of Danial's boots. The wrapped tome grows warmer against his hand, though its bindings remain closed.
Mattheas ben-Igari
Then nobody touches it. We hold the room and keep the water from reaching the table.
Rhon the Rose
Rhon the Rose
Mara, upstairs with the runner. Hattori, keep those records dry. If the satchel wants the book, it can wait.
Mara
It is not waiting. The water is climbing toward the table.
“I keep the black water from the table”
SUCCESS (Fair Strength, rolled +1)
Danial moves before the black water reaches the table. He drags a fallen cellar plank across the stones, pressing its edge into the spreading ring and diverting the flow toward the drain.
The water gathers against the barrier, then runs in a narrow channel beneath the casks. The ledgers remain dry, while the satchel rocks within its shrinking black pool.
Mara
The table is safe. Gods below, you turned it aside without touching the satchel.
Hattori Ishiwa
Not aside. He gave it another path. The water follows pressure, but the clasp still answers the wrapped book.
Rhon the Rose
Good. The records stay dry, and nobody has opened that cursed volume. Mattheas, hold the barrier while we decide what the ferrymen sent us.
Mattheas ben-Igari
The channel is stable for now. The satchel is contained, and the table is clear. We can question its purpose without surrendering the room.
“I ask Rhon what the satchel might want”
Danial Tienad
What might the satchel want?
Rhon keeps his boots planted beyond the black water, studying the cords and the upright clasp without reaching toward either.
Rhon the Rose
Not the book itself, I think. It wants what the book carries: a name, a seal, or a memory bound to the ferrymen's debt.
The satchel rocks once within its shrinking pool. The clasp angles toward the wrapped tome, then settles as the diverted water hisses beneath the casks.
Rhon the Rose
The cords are a summons made physical. Someone sealed an account inside, and the water has brought it here because the tome woke the old channels.
Hattori Ishiwa
It may be seeking recognition rather than release. If the book contains the buried names, the satchel could be asking which debt remains unpaid.
Rhon the Rose
So we learn its purpose without opening it. Keep the book wrapped, keep the records dry, and let the ferrymen's messenger finish speaking in its own fashion.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the message carried by the ferrymen’s satchel
− Scene Quest Removed
Keep the tavern’s allies safe from the waterworks
“Can the tome's warmth reveal which debt the satchel carries?”
YES (Likely, rolled 33)
The tome's warmth steadies, then gathers along one wrapped corner. Beneath the oilcloth, a faint pulse answers the satchel's three cords in three measured beats.
Hattori Ishiwa
There. It is distinguishing the debt. Not a name alone, but the obligation attached to one of the ferrymen's seals.
The satchel's clasp turns from the records toward the tome. Moisture darkens one cord while the other two remain pale and slack.
Rhon the Rose
Which obligation? Speak clearly, Hattori. I will not have a dead ferryman's account mistaken for an invitation.
Hattori Ishiwa
Protection owed to a bearer of the book. The living supplier broke that covenant when he sent raiders after it.
A thin line of black water withdraws from the dry stones, leaving the marked cord glistening. The satchel settles, no longer straining toward the table.
Rhon the Rose
Then the debt is not payment. It is custody. Someone entrusted the tome to the ferrymen, and their old promise now points toward the river sheds.
“Is the marked cord pointing to a living ferryman?”
NO (Likely, rolled 86)
The marked cord dims beneath its sheen. The satchel gives three slow knocks against the stone, then falls still, its clasp no longer aimed toward the river stairs.
Hattori Ishiwa
No living ferryman answers it. The cord points to the promise itself, preserved after the last keeper passed beyond reach.
A second thread of water seeps from the satchel and traces a crooked line across the cellar floor, stopping at a cracked foundation stone beneath the casks.
Rhon the Rose
Then the old guild is not waiting in the sheds. The supplier found a dead trail and mistook its mark for permission.
The three cords slacken together. Beneath the wet leather, something hard shifts once, but the clasp remains closed and the black water does not advance.
Hattori Ishiwa
The covenant survives its bearer. Its true witness may lie beneath this house, or wherever the ferrymen hid the record of their custody.
Rhon the Rose
So the river sheds hold only the trail's next sign, not the ferryman himself. We can question the dead account without handing the living supplier our throats.
“I examine the cracked foundation stone”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled +1)
Danial crouches beside the casks and examines the cracked foundation stone without disturbing the black water. Its fracture is deliberate, its edges recently scraped clean.
Danial Tienad
The crack hides a fitted stone, not damage.
He traces the lower seam and finds a shallow recess beneath the dust. Inside rests a lead token stamped with a split oar and three knotted cords.
Hattori Ishiwa
That is a custody token. The ferrymen used it to identify a safe repository without writing its location.
Danial angles the token toward the cellar lantern. A second mark appears on its reverse, a tiny arch beneath three vertical strokes, matching the old foundation's buried passage.
Rhon the Rose
Beneath the house, then. The ferrymen hid their record here, and the satchel came to point at its proper door.
The token lies secured in Danial's fingers, cold and heavy with salt. Behind the cracked stone, a hollow space answers when he taps once.
Quest Complete
Learn the message carried by the ferrymen’s satchel
+ New Item Acquired
Custody token