Rainwater glitters in the rutted street as Danial enters The Splintered Stool. Smoke, sour ale, and wet wool crowd the low room beneath its sagging rafters.
Rhon the Rose occupies a shadowed table near the back, broad shoulders still as a barricade. Cutpurses and watchful drinkers leave the space around him conspicuously clear.
The capo's thick fingers close over a sealed packet, keeping the promised details hidden. Somewhere inside it waits a job, a necromancer's tome, and enough gold to matter.
Rhon the Rose
Sit, Danial. The night has not yet decided whether this business profits us or buries us.
Before Rhon can open his hands, the tavern door bangs wide. A bruised runner stumbles across the floor, one palm pressed to his side, and drops a blood-marked scrap before the capo.
the bruised runner
Rose. They found the safehouse. They know you have the key.
Rhon reads the scrap without blinking. Around him, conversation gutters out, while every nearby hand drifts toward a knife, a cudgel, or the nearest exit.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the job's information and a viable path to the necromancer's tome and gold
“Can Rhon tell me where the safehouse lies?”
YES, AND MORE (Likely, rolled 4)
Rhon folds the blood-marked scrap once, then slides it beneath the sealed packet. His gaze fixes on Danial, measuring urgency against discretion.
Rhon the Rose
The safehouse lies beneath the old cooperage on Lantern Row, third door from the salt gate. Its cellar opens into the abandoned cisterns.
He taps two fingers against the packet. Beneath the tavern's muttering silence, rain ticks against the shutters like a patient code.
Rhon the Rose
More useful still, the key is not with the raiders. Their captain carries a false copy. The true key hangs behind the cooperage's cracked saint.
The bruised runner exhales sharply, recognizing the advantage. Rhon turns the packet toward Danial, leaving its seal unbroken but its destination no longer hidden.
the bruised runner
If you reach the cisterns first, Rose, half their trap becomes a door behind them.
Rhon the Rose
Exactly. Lantern Row is watched from the square, but the cistern passage comes up inside the safehouse. You can enter unseen.
“I discuss the profitable job with Rhon”
SUCCESS (Good Bargain, rolled +2)
Danial joins Rhon at the shadowed table. The capo keeps his voice low, and the nearest drinkers find reasons to stare elsewhere.
Rhon the Rose
The job is simple in shape, though not in consequence. Reach the safehouse, take the necromancer's tome, and leave the raiders blind.
Rhon breaks the packet's seal and unfolds a narrow ledger page. Ink marks the cisterns, the cooperage cellar, and a locked chamber beneath the safehouse.
Rhon the Rose
The book is worth more than the gold, but I will pay both. Three hundred crowns for its delivery, plus whatever coin you recover from the raiders.
He explains the watch rotations, the false key, and the hidden route beneath Lantern Row. By the time the alehouse noise returns, the profitable terms are clear.
Rhon the Rose
No guild hand follows you. No questions about what happens to their captain. Bring me the tome intact, and the purse is yours.
Rhon folds the map beside the sealed packet and leaves both within Danial's reach, the bargain fully laid before him.
Bring the necromancer's tome to Rhon
Quest Complete
Secure the job's information and a viable path to the necromancer's tome and gold