In the cellar hush, Lo sets the ledger on a crate. Salt stink, old rot, and lamp smoke hang low, but the room feels safe for the first time in hours.
The Stray Cat
You found a fine nuisance to carry. If you want, I can help read it. Share what you found, and I will share what I know.
Lo loosens the wrap and turns the worn leather binding toward the light. The strange marks crawl across the page in tight lines, more careful than common script.
Lo
The writing is neat. Someone meant this to be kept.
The Stray Cat
That is not merchant hand. Too exact. Too tidy. Looks like someone copying a rule, or hiding one.
Stray steps closer, tail low, eyes bright with interest rather than alarm. The ledger stays between them like a shared puzzle, not a trap.
The Stray Cat
Start with one page. Tell me which marks you already know, and I will start there.
✓ Quest Accepted
Share the ledger's secrets with Stray
“I read it”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled -3)
Lo scans the first lines, and the cramped hand opens into a ledger of routes, counts, and dates. Stray leans in, following each line with a twitch of the ear as the meaning starts to settle.
Lo
A supply log. Names, dates, and where things move.
The Stray Cat
Yes. And those marks here, they are not prices. They are checks, like someone confirming a door, a handoff, or a sealed crate.
Lo turns a page and finds two fresh entries tied to the same day as the warehouse ward. One line is crossed out so hard the leather dents under his claw.
The Stray Cat
That scratched line matters. Someone wanted it unread, or wanted it gone after the fact.
Together they make out a hidden reference to the east yard, and a second note that matches one of the newly posted bounty notices. The room feels tighter for the link.
Lo misses one inked abbreviation and drags his claw across the margin by accident, leaving a faint scrape. The sound is small, but both of them freeze for a breath while the cellar listens back.
“I cast identify”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Arcana, rolled +2)
Lo lifts his hand over the ledger and lets a careful pulse of identify settle into the ink. The cramped script answers at once, lines sharpening into meaning.
Lo
East yard, dock tally, sealed handoff.
The mark beside the scratched line resolves into a route note, a transfer point, and a watch code used to pass cargo without a full inspection.
The Stray Cat
That is a handoff schedule. Not a money book.
A second glow blooms in Lo's sight, touching the fresh claw-scrape and turning it into a warning, somebody has already altered this entry after the fact.
The Stray Cat
And this line, it names the warehouse ward. Whoever carried this ledger knew the seal would answer to a key like yours.
The cellar stays still except for the lantern's sway and the faint, pulsing memory of the warehouse ward beyond the yard.
“I put it away and search for fhe bounty target”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled +3)
Lo folds the ledger shut and tucks it away. Stray keeps their eyes on his hands, then on the crate, waiting.
He turns the page in his mind, following the handoff code, the warehouse ward mark, and the east yard note. The target is not a face in a crowd, it is a route.
Lo catches the thread fast enough to place the likely bearer, a dock runner tied to sealed cargo and the trade-house line. He knows where to look now.
The Stray Cat
You found the shape of it. That is enough to start.
The alleyward pulse from the warehouse side answers once more in the back of Lo's senses, and the fresh claw-scrape on the ledger margin is no longer just damage, it is a warning the reader can use.
The Stray Cat
Bring me the rest of the trail, or point me at the runner, and I will follow.
Point Stray at the dock runner
Quest Complete
Share the ledger's secrets with Stray
Skill Upgrade: Arcana Mediocre→Fair