The dragon's shadow stops over the road. Beyond the jagged ridge, black wings fold and burning eyes glare through the snow as the earth groans beneath Alduin's landing.
A torn strip of the prisoner list slaps against Azritha Stormborn's boot. The ink crawls backward across the page, twisting into symbols no Imperial clerk could have written.
Edrin
That is no common cipher. Captain, keep your men back.
The Imperial Captain
You give orders now, soldier? Seize the strip, and seize her if she resists.
A muffled figure rises from a drift beside the road, one hand raised to show it holds no weapon. Snow streams from a gray traveling cloak and a leather case at the stranger's hip.
The Snowbound Scribe
Do not burn it, and do not read it aloud. The dragon has written over your names. I have seen this mark once before, beneath a barrow older than the Empire.
Alduin speaks from beyond the ridge. The single Dovahzul phrase rolls through the storm, and every altered symbol on the strip flares with cold blue light.
The Snowbound Scribe
He is calling to the one named by the storm. I will not hinder you, but I will not stand near that paper when it answers.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what the dragon's mark reveals about the prisoner orders
“I ask the scribe what the dragon's mark reveals about my name.”
FAILURE (Good Diplomacy, rolled -3)
Azritha Stormborn
What does the dragon's mark reveal about my name?
The scribe's raised hand lowers. Their gaze fixes on the blue symbols, then flicks toward the ridge.
The Snowbound Scribe
It reveals no true name. It reveals a claim. The mark names you as the storm's answer, not as the issuer of these orders.
The strip snaps from the ice and folds its glowing letters inward. A final symbol brands itself across the parchment, shaped like a broken Imperial seal.
The Imperial Captain
A forged seal. Then someone used the Empire's authority to send her to the headsman's block.
The revelation answers neither the sender nor the hidden name. Above the convoy, the black dragon circles once, and its shadow crosses every soldier on the road.
The Snowbound Scribe
That mark will not remain concealed. Choose quickly, storm-named one. The captain has seen proof, and his men are turning back toward you.
Evade the returning Imperial soldiers
Quest Complete
Learn what the dragon's mark reveals about the prisoner orders