Fog coils across the Moor crossroads. The mud still holds the fresh drag marks where the Mayor vanished, and one lone shoe sinks half-buried beside them. Butch stands in the silence, the beast's stink thinning on the wind.
From behind a jagged stone, a hooded figure steps into view. They keep a heavy iron staff planted at their side, hood low, eyes faintly shining in the mist like wet glass.
The Hooded Figure
You saw it take him. Good. Debt does not vanish just because a man begs.
The figure points at the churned mud where the beast entered the fog, then at the shoe, as if marking the cost of a failed bargain.
The Hooded Figure
The unpaid remain, one way or another. Crossroads remember.
They do not approach further. The staff stays grounded, the hooded stranger waiting to see whether Butch asks, threatens, or leaves.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the hooded figure’s role in the beast’s debt
✓ Quest Accepted
Discover the beast’s origin
“Butch snorts in amusement and asks what's in it for him if he does this for the hooded figure”
SUCCESS (Superb Intimidation, rolled -1)
Butch gives a rough snort, the sound steaming faint in the cold. He tilts his head at the hooded figure, waiting on the answer with his weapons still low.
Butch
What’s in it for me?
The Hooded Figure
Fair coin, if coin is what you mean. But the deeper reward is simpler. I can tell you why the beast came for that man, and what it was owing.
The hooded stranger lifts their staff and sets its iron point near the buried shoe, not quite touching it.
The Hooded Figure
That creature is not random hunger. It is collection. Long ago, a pact was made at this crossing, and the debtor fed others to keep his own skin.
Mist drifts between them, but the meaning lands plain. The hooded figure watches Butch closely, as if measuring whether that truth is enough.
The Hooded Figure
Help me finish this business, and I tell you the name of the power behind the debt. Will you hear the rest?
Quest Complete
Learn the hooded figure’s role in the beast’s debt