Three years later, Butch and Sable step into a city that never seems to breathe. Spice, sweat, smoke, and hot bread roll through a market street packed shoulder to shoulder.
Sable, now broad-shouldered in polished plate, scans a job board nailed to a guild post. Her shield rides high on her back, and her hand hovers near the sword at her hip.
Butch stands beside her amid carts, cloaks, and shouting hawkers. The moor feels impossibly far away.
Sable
Three contracts, maybe four. Escort work, ruin clearing, a fat bounty on a river wight. Nothing worth your time yet.
A paper flutters free from the board and lands near Butch's boot. Its seal is black wax stamped with a broken crown.
Sable
That seal is not from the guild.
Sable turns the page with two fingers, her eyes narrowing as the crowd presses past them and the city noise swells around the fresh ink.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure a lucrative contract
“I tell Sable that we'll accept any bounty hunting contracts they have”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Butch the Wereboar
We take the bounty contracts. All of them if they pay.
Sable
Then let them see we are not here to wander empty-handed.
Sable snaps the black-sealed notice free and unfolds it against the guild post, her armored shoulder shielding the page from the crush of bodies.
Sable
Broken Crown. River roads. Missing caravan. Good coin, if the fine print is honest.
She taps the contract once, then turns it so Butch can read the seal and the offered pay. A second sheet slides loose behind it, already marked for claimant and witness.
Sable
This one is real, and it pays well. If you want it, say it now before the board fills.
From the edge of the crowd, a guild clerk in a green sash freezes at the black wax, then starts toward them with a sharp, measuring look.
“I let Sable handle the clerk”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Butch lets Sable take the front, keeping his broad shape steady beside her as the clerk closes in. The market noise swells around them, but he does not crowd her lead.
Sable
This contract is sealed outside guild law. We are asking for the notice and the pay, nothing more.
A Guild Clerk
Then state your names and your claim. Broken Crown notices do not land by accident.
Sable keeps the paper flat and her voice even, while Butch holds the line at her shoulder. The clerk’s quill pauses over the ledger, watching them both.
Sable
Butch the Wereboar. Sable. We can take caravan work and we can take silence. Which does your board need more?
A Guild Clerk
A pair that does not scare horses and does not vanish with the cargo. If you mean to sign, I need to see the mark on the bottom sheet.
Sable tilts the contract toward him, and the second sheet with the claimant line shows cleanly between her gauntlet and Butch’s stillness. The clerk studies them, wary but no longer blocking the way.
“I sign the contract with Sable”
SUCCESS (Fair Crafting, rolled -1)
Butch takes the quill from the clerk’s line of sight and signs where Sable points. The black wax cracks under the tip, and the mark on the page holds.
Butch the Wereboar
The ink bites cleanly.
The clerk exhales through their nose, then slides the ledger forward with two fingers. A coin chit follows, stamped with the broken crown seal.
A Guild Clerk
There. The board takes your claim. If the cargo matches the notice, the pay is yours.
Sable keeps the contract flat while the clerk notes the names. Behind her, Butch’s fresh signature sits bold and final, and the market crowd shifts as if sensing the bargain has turned.
A Guild Clerk
One more thing, Butch the Wereboar, if that crown mark draws trouble, you bring it to my door, not my board.
The clerk taps the chit once, then looks past them toward the street, where the press of bodies parts around a smear of old shadow on the stones.
Quest Complete
Secure a lucrative contract
New Gift: Master Negotiator