Dungeon Master (Karma System)

The response from the Sanctuary arrived six days after Rod sent the inquiry.

It did not contain a scout.

A gnome contract clerk appeared through the communication plate in Dorran Stonewake’s office. The connection showed her from the shoulders upward, seated behind a desk covered with numbered folders. She confirmed Rod’s identity, repeated the reference code attached to his inquiry, and asked whether everyone present was authorized to hear the response.

Rod looked around the private room. Lana, Dirk, Dain, Nessa, and Renn sat around the table with him. Dorran remained near the door because the reply had come through his business plate.

The clerk opened the first folder.

”Your request produced seven responses. We removed two before forwarding them because the applicants refused background verification. One misunderstood the assignment and believed you wanted armed protection for a survey expedition. Four remain.”

Renn leaned toward the plate. ”Can any of them do the work?”

”That is your decision. The Sanctuary provides access to contract notices. We do not guarantee an adventurer’s competence or assign our security personnel to private work.”

The limitation was reasonable. Rod had asked the Sanctuary to help them locate someone beyond Ironcloud’s networks. He had not asked Max’s people to take responsibility for the family conflict.

The clerk displayed the first response.

The applicant was an experienced trail scout who had spent twelve years guiding parties through unsettled mountain territory. He knew how to avoid patrols, conceal camps, and identify recent traffic on roads that appeared abandoned. His listed abilities made no mention of locks, wards, or occupied buildings.

Dirk read the record twice.

”He could get close.” The archer said. ”Once he reached the property, he would be doing work he hasn’t claimed he can do.”

The second applicant possessed the opposite problem. He specialized in magical security and could identify several families of dwarven wards from a safe distance. His previous contracts involved accompanying legal inspections. Every reference described careful work performed after the property owners admitted him through the front entrance.

”He understands the defenses.” Lana said. ”Nothing here says he can pass them without being noticed.”

The third response came from a two-person exploration team. One member handled wilderness travel while the other specialized in entry and recovery. Their combined experience covered nearly everything in Rod’s request.

They would not separate.

Taking two people increased the chance of detection and required both to have no connection Helmar could exploit. More importantly, their response demanded the destination and the client’s family name before they agreed to verification.

Renn rejected them before Rod finished reading.

The final applicant was the closest fit. He had worked as a military scout, entered enemy camps during a border conflict, and completed several contracts involving ruined fortifications. He agreed to background verification and had never worked in dwarven territory.

His answer included one condition.

He would accept only if the client permitted him to bring four companions and attack any guards found on the property.

”He wants a raid.” Nessa said.

”He wants support.” Dain replied.

”For a different job.”

Rod agreed with her. The entire purpose of the first visit was to learn how Helmar used and defended Blackwater Reach without revealing that Renn’s side had traced the old Ruskell records to it. Five adventurers fighting their way through the property might return with information, but Helmar would immediately know what they had discovered.

”Decline all four.” Rod told the clerk.

Renn’s hand tightened around the chain holding the green-stoned ring. ”How long before someone else answers?”

”The notice can remain active for another month.”

They did not have a month to spend hoping the right person wandered into the Sanctuary. Helmar had learned about Blackwater Reach years ago, and every new record supported the conclusion that his faction already controlled it. His recent request for the public survey meant he was checking what other people could learn. If he discovered that Renn had reached the same conclusion, he could reinforce the property, remove records, or prepare a trap before their scout arrived.

”Can the notice be sent beyond the Sanctuary?” Lana asked.

The gnome clerk closed the applicant records. ”Not through the public contract board. We can transmit ordinary requests to partner halls, but yours asks for covert entry into property claimed by another party. Most recognized adventuring organizations will not display it without proof that the client owns the site.”

Renn could prove a connection to the Ruskell family. He could not prove ownership of land held by a dissolved company whose records had been deliberately divided.

”Then the Sanctuary search ends here.” He said.

”The public search does.”

The clerk lifted a smaller envelope from beneath the folders. Its wax seal bore no Sanctuary mark.

”One of the rejected applicants asked me to forward this to the client. He said your contract requires an organization accustomed to protecting identities rather than an individual seeking work from a board.”

Rod did not ask for the applicant’s name. ”Did you open it?”

”No. It passed the standard inspection for harmful magic and concealed objects. Its contents remain private.”

Dorran provided a blank receiving sheet. The communication plate reproduced the envelope’s written contents without physically transferring the original.

The message contained no sales pitch. It provided a numbered contact route through a Sanctuary merchant exchange and identified the organization behind it as the Hidden Ledger.

None of them recognized the name. That suited the requirement better than discovering another organization already entangled with Ironcloud.

The gnome clerk offered no opinion.

”The Sanctuary does not endorse the organization.” She said. ”If you use the contact, the resulting contract is outside our board. We will not investigate a payment dispute or guarantee the conduct of whoever accepts.”

”Can Helmar monitor the exchange?” Renn asked.

”Anyone can watch a public counter. The contact number does not reveal your destination or identity. What you choose to provide afterward is beyond my knowledge.”

That was enough for the moment.

Rod thanked her and ended the connection. Dorran locked the communication plate so no employee could reopen the record without his authorization.

Renn read the copied message again.

Dirk examined the contact route. ”The applicants prove the skills exist separately. The Ledger may have someone who combines them.”

”Or someone willing to claim he does.”

”Then we verify him before he learns where he is going.”

They had already agreed upon that requirement in their original inquiry. Nothing about the private referral changed it.

The first message contained only the Sanctuary reference number and a request to establish private contact with the Hidden Ledger. The contract clerk sent it through the same exchange that delivered notices between the Sanctuary and distant cities. Nothing tied the message to Blackwater Reach, the Ruskells, or Dorran’s office.

An answer returned the following afternoon.

The Hidden Ledger would consider the work if the client provided a description of the required skills, known threats, general terrain, and limits of the assignment. It did not request the client’s name, the property’s name, or the reason for the reconnaissance.

That suited Renn better than an organization demanding the entire story before deciding whether it possessed a scout.

They prepared the contract information in layers.

The first layer described an isolated mountain property containing abandoned roads, a river valley, and structures controlled by a hostile faction. It required a contractor experienced in wilderness travel, covert observation, ward recognition, and quiet entry into secured outer buildings.

The second explained the limits. Fighting was not the objective. The contractor should withdraw rather than expose the investigation. They could copy documents if doing so left no sign, but were not to remove property merely because it appeared valuable. The deepest secured areas were outside the initial assignment.

The third layer described the threat without explaining the family dispute. A powerful dwarven faction maintained the property through guards, private air access, false ownership records, and people willing to kill an intruder. The number of guards, the active buildings, and the full extent of the defenses remained unknown. The chosen contractor could have no known connection to Ironcloud, Helmar Ruskell, or any Ruskell branch.

Renn began adding Tharic’s assassination and the belief that the ring was a key. Lana stopped him.

”Does the scout need either fact to approach the property?”

”He needs to understand why Helmar wants it.”

”We don’t know what waits there. Telling him about our random guesses gives him a reason to search beyond the contract.”

Renn looked down at the ring.

The argument did not accuse the eventual scout of being dishonest. Curiosity alone could cause a competent person to take one extra step, inspect one additional chamber, or remain after the safest time to leave.

Renn removed the information.

They named Helmar because the scout needed to recognize him and his people. They did not identify Renn or explain how the conflict began.

Dirk added questions the contractor would need answered during a full briefing. Were any approach routes known to be watched? What kinds of ward housings had been delivered during construction? Could an airship land nearby? Which buildings appeared on the oldest survey?

They had partial answers to each. Rather than choosing the interpretation they preferred, the group separated confirmed facts from assumptions.

The old air charts showed a landing shelf above the valley. A later notation claimed a rockslide made it unstable, but no inspection record supported the warning. Ventilation shafts reached the southern slope on the oldest plans, though their current condition remained unknown. Two settlements lay within travel distance, but neither appeared on recent freight schedules.

Dain organized the relevant combat reports. He included the use of assassins, false documents, and unmarked airships while removing details that identified Rod’s party or Five Knots. The scout needed to know how Helmar’s faction operated. He did not need the history of every attack.

Nessa reviewed the completed request for promises they could not keep. The draft offered a bonus for entering the central structure. She removed it.

”If we reward the scout for going deeper, we can’t complain when they take a risk to earn it.” she said.

Rod approved the change. The contract paid for accurate reconnaissance and an undetected return, not for reaching an arbitrary room.

The final message went through the merchant exchange under a numbered client designation. Dorran’s business appeared nowhere in the contract. Blackwater Reach remained unnamed. The maps and complete identities would be shown only after the Hidden Ledger produced a candidate who passed the initial checks.

Three days later, the organization requested clarification about magical defenses and the expected length of observation. The questions were specific enough to suggest that someone with relevant experience had read the contract.

Lana answered the ward question. Dirk estimated that a proper survey could require several days at the property even after travel. Rod made clear that the contractor controlled the decision to enter an outer building. Renn added that confirming Helmar’s personal presence was more valuable than risking discovery to learn what he was doing inside. His faction’s control of Blackwater Reach was already part of the assignment, not a question the scout needed to answer.

The reply came on the fourth morning.

The Hidden Ledger had accepted the request for internal review. It believed one of its members might meet the requirements, but it would not reveal the contractor’s identity or promise his participation until he examined the available terms.

If he remained interested, the organization would send him to Ironcloud for an in-person briefing. The client could reject him after the meeting. He could also refuse if the complete information changed the assignment.

Renn read the message twice.

”How long before he decides?”

”They didn’t provide a deadline.” Rod said.

Renn disliked giving an unknown infiltrator control over their next move. He disliked every alternative more.

They continued preparing while the request traveled through the Hidden Ledger. Dirk refined the route maps so the scout could select his own approach. Lana copied the known ward designs. Dain created a clean list of Helmar’s identified allies. Nessa arranged payment that could not be traced back through a Ruskell account.

The ring remained locked away whenever Renn did not wear it.

Until the Hidden Ledger responded, the maps remained spread across the protected room while Renn’s group prepared for whoever might arrive.

Far from Ironcloud, their numbered request entered Caldris.