White padding presses in on all four sides. Sally Tavener stands in a gown and straitjacket, the room humming with fluorescent light and a locked silence.
The heavy door starts to creak open. A woman in scrubs slips through first, fast and low, one hand on a paper file with Sally Tavener’s name on it.
The Undocumented Nurse
Don’t look up. I know you’re not a patient.
The Undocumented Nurse
If the head administrator sees you like this and knows that, you do not leave here alive.
She crosses to Sally Tavener, shoves a second layer of fabric into place, and signals hard toward the floor, urgent and sharp.
The Undocumented Nurse
Play catatonic. Right now.
The door opens wider. A shadow fills the gap in the frame, and the nurse freezes with the file half-raised as footsteps approach.
Sally Tavener
The file has my name on it.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the head administrator from discovering Sally's identity
“Can I see the administrator's face from this angle?”
YES (Unlikely, rolled 26)
Sally Tavener
The shadow shifts, and the light catches the administrator's sharp, angular features as he steps fully into the room.
The head administrator stands framed in the doorway, his gaze scanning the room with cold, clinical precision.
“Let my head loll to the side as if I am completely sedated.”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled -1)
Sally lets her head tip sideways, slack and empty. The movement costs her a sharp jolt in the neck brace of the straitjacket, but she holds the limp pose.
The nurse freezes for a half second, then lowers her eyes and keeps still, file pinned tight to her chest.
The Head Administrator
This one is sedated?
He steps closer, peering at Sally’s face from the doorway, one hand lifting as if to test for breath or response.
The Undocumented Nurse
Heavy dosage. She’s been like that since before the alarm.
The administrator’s stare lingers. The nurse’s knuckles whiten on the file, and the paper edge bends under her grip.
For a moment, he does not speak. His gaze flicks from Sally’s drooping head to the nurse’s face, and the room tightens around that silence.
“I let the nurse answer every question”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -3)
Sally stays utterly still, letting the silence do the work. The administrator’s hand hovers, then lowers, and his attention shifts to the nurse instead of her face.
The Head Administrator
How long has she been like this?
The Undocumented Nurse
Since the alarm. She barely responded to the sedative.
He studies the bent file, then the nurse’s fixed posture. The question changes shape on his face, less certainty now, more calculation.
The Head Administrator
You were not assigned to this wing.
The Undocumented Nurse
No. I was pulled in when staffing broke.
The administrator’s gaze lingers on the nurse a beat too long. Sally keeps the vacant mask in place, and the room’s pressure eases by a fraction.
The Undocumented Nurse
If you need the chart, I can read it to you here.
Quest Complete
Keep the head administrator from discovering Sally's identity
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Good→Great
“I let the nurse keep talking”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
The nurse takes the opening and keeps her voice level, reading from the bent file with practiced calm. Sally stays slack and distant, giving the lie room to breathe.
The Head Administrator
Sedated before the alarm, and this is the best chart you can produce?
The Undocumented Nurse
It is the chart I found. The note is incomplete, but the vitals are stable.
He reaches for the file at last. The nurse does not flinch, but her grip tightens just enough to show she is measuring him back.
The Head Administrator
Name.
Sally hears the pause in the room more than the words.
The Undocumented Nurse
You do not need her name to see she is not fit for questioning.
For a moment, the administrator only watches the nurse. The file stays between them like a small shield, and his expression turns unreadable.
“Is he satisfied with the nurse's answer?”
NO, AND WORSE (Unlikely, rolled 93)
The Head Administrator
You are stalling, and your hands are shaking. Give me the file, or I will have security escort you both to the holding wing for a formal review.
Sally Tavener
He knows. The file is not a shield anymore, it is a target.
The administrator steps fully into the room, his eyes locking onto Sally with a sudden, sharp intensity that ignores the nurse entirely.
“I will let my head loll to the side to appear completely unresponsive.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Sally lets her head go slack, the movement slow and unmistakable, her chin drifting toward her shoulder as if the room has already taken her mind away.
The Head Administrator
He stares at the change, then reaches for the chart again. "Still sedated, then. Good. Open the file."
The Undocumented Nurse
"No." Her grip tightens, and the bent folder stays hidden against her hip. "She is not your paperwork."
The administrator's gaze flicks from Sally's limp posture to the nurse's hands, measuring the gap between them like a door that can still be forced.
The Head Administrator
"Then show me the list she came in on." His voice stays even, but the order lands hard. "Now."
The nurse shifts one step back, still shielding the file, while the administrator angles closer to the bedside as if he expects the truth to twitch.
The Undocumented Nurse
If he gets the list, he gets her name.
“I keep playing catatonic”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Sally stays limp, and the stillness finally lands. The room takes her for gone in the simplest way possible, not sleepy, not defiant, just absent.
The Head Administrator
Sedated enough. But not named yet. I want the list.
He lowers his hand from the chart and turns that cold attention on the nurse instead, as if the answer can be pulled from her face by force of stare alone.
The Undocumented Nurse
You already have a room full of patients. Leave this one off your board.
The administrator gives her a small, humorless smile. His eyes do not leave the file at her hip.
The Head Administrator
Then prove she belongs to someone else.
The nurse’s shoulders tighten. She shifts the folder closer, and for the first time she looks less like a shield and more like a witness deciding whether to lie harder or break.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get the Undocumented Nurse to protect Sally's identity
“I let out a shallow, ragged breath to signal my presence to the nurse.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -1)
A thin, ragged breath slips out of Sally at last, small enough to miss unless someone is listening for a lie.
The Undocumented Nurse
There. Keep going.
The nurse does not look away from the administrator, but her grip on the bent file loosens a fraction, the edge of it no longer jammed so hard against her hip.
The Head Administrator
You hear that? She is still in there somewhere. That means she can be named.
The Undocumented Nurse
It means she is breathing. Do you need paperwork for that too?
For a beat, the nurse’s eyes flick to Sally, quick and private, as if checking whether the faint signal landed.
Sally Tavener
The nurse is looking at me, not him.
The Undocumented Nurse
Stay with me, then. Just enough to make him doubt himself.
Quest Complete
Get the Undocumented Nurse to protect Sally's identity