At the guild’s rear entrance, Brunna takes Edran into guarded custody. Maelin and Odelia remain with her, while Al accompanies Artania east toward the grain market.
Brunna Coppervein
He stays under guild protection, lad. Bring back that register, and we will compare every mark against the copies before midnight.
Artania crosses the market by quiet lanes, reading patrol rhythms, shuttered windows, and wagon tracks. The old weighhouse squats beyond the granaries, its western doors bearing a broken red seal.
Al
The place is empty of living scent, small one. Dust lies undisturbed around the counting office, but old footsteps gather beneath the floor.
Inside, an empty scale ledger rests beneath a film of dust. Artania lifts it without disturbing the surrounding papers, then finds the third floorstone by the subtle hollow beneath his touch.
The stone yields into a narrow vault. An ironbound chest waits beneath the north shelf, stamped with the Eastern Traffic Office’s double-hook mark. Al watches the passage while Artania reaches for its clasp.
Al
The register is here, small one. The chest is quiet, but its lock remembers hands. What will you do?
“I know this will be difficult and it will drain me. I summon almost all of my power to give me the best chance of succeeding. I wish to magically open the chest disarming any traps, magical wards and erasing any remembrance I was here or touch this object.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +1)
Artania gathers nearly all his reserve. Blue-white power floods the vault, drawing a silent circle around the chest, the floorstone, and his reaching hand.
Artania Nero Thornson
The lock contains layered magic, and the spell will drain me deeply.
The chest’s clasp unlocks without a click. Hidden runes flare beneath the iron, then unravel as Artania’s magic disarms every trap and ward woven through the metal.
A final wave passes over the chest, the dust, and the stone. Fingerprints, disturbed grit, magical residue, and every memory of Artania touching the object dissolve into ordinary silence.
Al
The vault remembers no intruder, small one. Only the open chest remains.
Inside rests a thick sign-register bound in dark leather, alongside sealed slips bearing the Eastern Traffic Office’s double-hook stamp. Nothing resists his taking it.
The immense working leaves Artania’s fingers numb and his breath shallow, but the chest stands open, its wards gone, and the register is secured in his possession.
+ New Item Acquired
Duplicate Sign-Register
“Okay, I probably cannot produce a fake like I did like when I made the messenger hawks. I have to little power left for that. Small non-permanent constructs, like weapons and tools. As well as lower level elements is about all I can manage right now.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +0)
Artania steadies himself over the open chest and gathers the remaining blue-white current, testing whether it can shape a convincing duplicate of the sign-register.
Artania Nero Thornson
The register is too complex for a lasting copy. I can still shape small, temporary things.
The magic answers with a thin shell of leather and fading script, but the illusion collapses before forming a true page. The attempt confirms the limit rather than deceiving anyone.
Al
No false register, small one. Your power is low, but enough remains for a tool, a weapon, or a brief lesser working.
The genuine register and sealed slips remain secure in Artania’s possession. The vault’s silence holds, and no new ward stirs around the emptied chest.
Al
We should leave before your strength falls further. The guild can make the copies, and this evidence already speaks clearly.
Dust settles over the floorstone as Artania closes the chest and prepares to retrace the narrow passage, carrying the evidence without attempting another costly deception.
“Al I want you to go ahead and return to the guild to check on the progress of the copied evidence. I wish to take a slow and careful approach on the way back.”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled -2)
Artania Nero Thornson
Al, go ahead and return to the guild. Check on the copied evidence while I take a slow and careful route back.
Al
I will reach Brunna, Maelin, and Odelia first, small one. Keep the register close and spend no more strength than needed.
Al slips through the floorstone passage and bounds into the granary lanes. Artania closes the chest, secures the register and sealed slips beneath his cloak, then climbs carefully from the vault.
He takes the long route through shadowed alleys, pausing at each corner to read patrol rhythms and wagon tracks. The careful pace protects the evidence, but numbness spreads from his fingers into his forearm.
Al
The copies are still underway, small one. Maelin says the first comparison is clean, and Brunna has sealed the completed pages under guild authority.
By the time Artania reaches the guild’s rear entrance, Al is waiting beneath the curtained lamps. The register arrives safely, though Artania’s weakened arm trembles around its weight.
Brunna Coppervein
Good. Bring it inside, lad. The copied evidence is progressing, and this register may show exactly where Corvin’s orders traveled.
Expose Corvin Ash's next forged orders