The Guild's doors slam wide. A dust-covered merchant, a lean middle-aged man with a weathered face, graying brown hair, and a patched ochre cloak, rushes inside, a torn inventory sheet clenched in one hand, his travel cloak stained from the road.
The Dust-Covered Merchant
Guild aide, please! My cart was looted on the road below the hill. They took nearly everything.
He stumbles to the nearest table and spreads the ragged sheet across it. Inked columns list tea, silk, medicine, and sealed wooden crates, several marked missing.
The Dust-Covered Merchant
Witnesses saw the thieves carrying the crates toward the dark forest road. I can pay for recovery, but the trail is already growing cold.
Beyond the windows, Lavendara's perfumed breeze drifts up from the city. Far below, the forest road disappears beneath a wall of blue-black pines.
The Dust-Covered Merchant
Please. Every hour costs me more than I can afford. Will you take the contract?
The merchant waits beside his incomplete inventory, breath still ragged, while the Guild's open doorway frames the fading road and its vanishing trail.
✓ Quest Accepted
Recover the merchant's stolen goods
“I can handle this one. This is, after all, my area of expertise. Can you recall any identifying features of the thieves who assailed you?”
SUCCESS (Fair Persuasion, rolled +1)
Corrin
I can handle this one. This is, after all, my area of expertise. Can you recall any identifying features of the thieves who assailed you?
Corrin's confident claim draws the merchant's narrowed gaze. The man gathers the inventory sheet close, weighing the rogue's assurance against the value of his missing cargo.
The Dust-Covered Merchant
Then take the contract, guild aide. But if your expertise is worth boasting of, I expect you to stake your guild standing on its success.
His suspicion becomes the price of the agreement, and his signed mark joins the ragged inventory. The contract is Corrin's, though the merchant now expects a personal accounting if it fails.
The Dust-Covered Merchant
The thieves wore dull green scarves over their mouths. One limped badly, another carried a hooked pole, and their leader had a silver ring shaped like a thorn.
He taps each detail on the inventory sheet, then adds that two local witnesses saw the band moving toward the blue-black pines before sunset.
“Corrin looks the sheet over, memorizing the details. He then walks over to another member of the guild, a burly warrior carrying a battleaxe and motions for them to follow. The two set off for The Sea of Trees.”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +0)