Two days later, Davis reaches Bellwater with Rowan, while Sella remains at the hospice. Beneath the shrine, dust seals a storehouse of ledgers, votive tablets, and bundled travel permits.
The cramped chamber smells of old paper and limestone. A young adult man with a narrow build, anxious brown eyes, and ash-blond hair pinned behind one ear hurries down the steps in a blue-gray keeper’s robe.
Davis’s fingers rest on a pilgrimage ledger whose binding is warped where several pages have been carefully removed. Fresh fibers and undisturbed dust show the theft happened recently.
Iven Tarrow
Please step away from that ledger. I am Iven Tarrow, junior keeper here, and I can explain the missing pages.
Iven stops several paces away, clutching a ring of keys against his chest. His gaze flicks toward the locked inner door, then back to Davis and Rowan.
Iven Tarrow
The pages were taken this morning. Someone requested them by authority of the shrine council, but the request was delivered in private. I know who asked.
Rowan
Then tell us before another page disappears. We came for records about the old curse, not a quarrel with Bellwater’s keepers.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn who ordered the removal of the ledger pages
“"We're not wanting trouble. We are just looking for help with the curse. And maybe you can point us to where the blacksmith is?"”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled -1)
Davis of Carmathen
We are not looking for trouble. We need help with the curse, and perhaps you can point us to the blacksmith.
The reassurance costs Davis a measured breath and a moment of hesitation. Iven notices it, but Rowan remains at his side, watchful and steady.
Iven Tarrow
I believe you. Bellwater’s curse records are kept for those who seek answers, not for those who make trouble. The blacksmith is Corren Vale, beside the eastern gate.
Iven lowers the keys from his chest and crosses to a narrow cabinet beside the inner door. His earlier alarm gives way to practical urgency.
Iven Tarrow
Corren can mend tools, shoe a horse, and tell you who has been asking after old shrine relics. I will take you to him after we secure these ledgers.
Rowan
That gives us a useful lead. We can learn who removed the pages and speak with the blacksmith without turning this into a quarrel.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn who has been asking after old shrine relics
Quest Complete
Reach Bellwater
Skill Upgrade: Survival Fair→Good
“"What was on those ledgers that could be so important that they came personally to get them? Someone you know, so they're important. I wonder if they're up to something"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +0)
Davis of Carmathen
What was on those ledgers that mattered enough for someone to come personally? You know them, so they must be important. I wonder if they are planning something.
Iven Tarrow
You are right to question it. Councilor Odran Pell came himself, though he claimed the request was routine.
Iven sets the cabinet key on the ledger chest instead of locking it. His anxious glance toward the inner door sharpens into reluctant certainty.
Iven Tarrow
The missing pages describe the last three bloodline pairs who reached the eastern gate, including what each pair carried and which warnings failed them.
Iven Tarrow
Odran has been asking about the buried heir for weeks. He believes the ledgers identify a way to open the gate without becoming its chain, and he took the pages to find it first.
Rowan
Then the theft is not about hiding the curse. Someone is searching for a method to use it.
Iven unlocks the inner cabinet and draws out a copied index, placing it in Davis’s reach. The entries mark the eastern gate, Bellwater’s sealed testimony, and Odran Pell’s request in fresh ink.
Quest Complete
Learn who ordered the removal of the ledger pages
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Good→Great
“"Thank you Iven. Your help has been much needed. We could use all the help we can get. Is therea anything you can give us before we go and talk to the blacksmith?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +0)
Davis of Carmathen
Thank you, Iven. Your help has been much needed. We could use all the help we can get. Is there anything you can give us before we see the blacksmith?
Iven Tarrow
Yes. Take this copied index, a shrine token, and a sealed note for Corren Vale. He will know the token proves you came seeking answers, not relics.
Iven adds a small clay token stamped with Bellwater’s open hand and folds a brief note around it. He ties both with blue thread, then gives them to Davis.
Iven Tarrow
The note asks Corren what he knows of visitors seeking eastern-gate relics. Show him the token first, and keep Odran Pell’s name out of the smithy unless Corren raises it.
Rowan
That gives us a way to ask questions without announcing everything we know. The blacksmith may have noticed who came before Odran.
The token rests beside the copied index in Davis’s hand, its stamped symbol catching the chamber’s pale light. Iven locks the cabinet and gestures toward the steps.
Iven Tarrow
Corren’s forge is beside the eastern gate. I will lead you there, then return before anyone notices the cabinet was opened.
+ New Item Acquired
Copied Index
+ New Item Acquired
Shrine Token
+ New Item Acquired
Sealed Note
“We follow Iven to Corren's forge. I watch for places we could learn more information. Maybe a place that has scrolls, bows, or other traders. When we get there we show Corren the token and then give him the sealed note”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled -1)
Iven leads Davis and Rowan up from the shrine and through Bellwater’s eastern quarter. Davis notes a shuttered scroll seller, a fletcher’s painted sign, and traders gathered near the gate.
The fletcher’s yard displays longbows and bundled arrows, while the scroll shop’s locked shutters bear fresh chalk marks. Davis cannot tell whether the marks are inventory signs or warnings.
Iven Tarrow
The fletcher is honest, and the scroll seller knows old roads, but both will cost time. Corren keeps closer watch on the eastern gate.
They reach a broad stone forge beside the gate. Corren Vale, a broad-shouldered middle-aged man with soot-dark skin, iron-gray hair, and a leather apron, looks up from a horseshoe.
Davis presents the clay shrine token first. Corren wipes his hands, studies the open hand stamped into its surface, and sets down his hammer.
Corren Vale
Bellwater sent you for answers, then. Give me the note, and tell me whether you want tools, records, or names of those asking about the gate.
Davis hands over the sealed note. Corren breaks the blue thread and reads it beside the forge, while Rowan watches the gate and Iven keeps the street in view.
“"Well, I have some metal that I can give you, and you can tell me if it's worth something. I also know how to forge and would only want to learn and help if I can. For information, we're wondering about who has been asking after old shrine relics?" I pull out the jagged piece of metal.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +2)
Davis of Carmathen
I have some metal you can judge. I can forge as well, and I would gladly learn and help here. We also want to know who has been asking after old shrine relics.
Davis draws out the jagged piece and lays it across Corren’s workbench. The forge light catches dull striations within the metal, unlike ordinary iron or steel.
Corren Vale
This is worth more as a clue than as scrap. It is worked metal, but not by any Bellwater smith. The grain is folded around something that resists the hammer.
Corren turns the fragment with tongs, careful not to touch it barehanded. Rowan leans nearer, while Iven watches the street and the gate beyond the forge.
Corren Vale
If you know the forge, I can use another pair of capable hands. Stay after I close, and I will show you how to test this without ruining it.
Corren Vale
As for relics, Councilor Odran Pell has been asking most loudly. Two cloaked buyers came before him, asking about eastern-gate fittings and old metal recovered from the shrine foundations.
Corren Vale
They paid in clipped silver and never gave their names. Odran came back afterward, wanting to know whether anyone had brought in a jagged piece like this.
Get the cloaked buyers identified
Quest Complete
Learn who has been asking after old shrine relics
Skill Upgrade: Lore Mediocre