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— CARRIED —

• short sword (1d6)
• dagger (1d4)
• sling (1d4)
• leather armour (AC 7)
• thieves' tools
• large sack ×2
• candles ×12
• tinderbox
• rope, 50'
• iron rations, one week
• waterskin
• gold pieces ×2

— THIEF SKILLS —

CLIMB SHEER SURFACES 87%

FIND/REMOVE TREASURE TRAPS 10%

HEAR NOISE 2-in-6

HIDE IN SHADOWS 10%

MOVE SILENTLY 20%

OPEN LOCKS 15%

PICK POCKETS 20%

— WHO THEY ARE —

Nine years running lots for Mott & Daughters, auctioneers of Gull: you carried the estate pieces from cellar to block and learned to price a room from its doorway — plate by its ring, wax by its seal, a widow's silver by which pieces she had already sold. The Daughters caught you keeping a private tally of what their appraiser missed and called it skimming. It was not skimming. It was the only honest book in the house, and you left with it under your shirt. Wexley talk says the gnomish shrine in the cliffs went down with its vestry intact: plate, votives, coin-offerings, ten years unsold. An unsold room is the only thing you have ever wanted — a whole lot, unpriced, and you holding the hammer. You signed the Magpie articles the night Marrow read them aloud, because the articles say everything gets weighed, everything gets booked, and the book decides. That is a religion you can keep.

— AT THE TABLE —

• 2026-09-01 ·4 areas · 187 events magpie-company-2
• 2026-09-01 ·1 area · 188 events magpie-company-1
• 1 area · 32 events magpie-company-3

— WHAT THEY REMEMBER —

• 2026-09-01 · magpie-company-1 Shrine, east room: six-armed brass machine stands at the dark mouth, bolt socket empty (mural's law: drawn bolt = sleeps). Jory Pell, carrier, died to crab spider — spider's throat is ours for the duke's 600, but his kit stays on the body. Keeper's small boots went west out the great gate. Tansy's chalk holds at the eastern choke. My candle count: 10 left unlit (Quist holds #2, one lit with Iva). Rope intact.
• 2026-09-01 · magpie-company-1 Brass door, east closet: iron keyway, lever lock — Quist vetted it, my pick to try. Fifteen-in-a-hundred. Candle 2 lit (Quist holds), 10 unlit in pack. Rope recoiled, intact. Six-armed construct sleeps, bolt-seat empty — nobody seats it. Dust never crossed this threshold: whatever's behind the plate hasn't been looted in ten years. Jory Pell's kit stays on his body (2gp, 11sp, 6cp — the dead man's estate, not ours).
• 2026-09-01 · magpie-company-1 Occupied room beyond brass door: small boots (Tansy-sized), live grease-free, crossbow bolts fresh-oiled, accordion untouched. Low crawl passage in far wall breathes inward — connected space, no sky draught proven. Round 13: crawled in alone, silent, to scout first ten feet, counting 30 breaths. Nobody has Quist's brass prong — still unfound.
• 2026-09-01 · magpie-company-1 Round 14, fork read (Iva's crawl): three low branches — left light-worn, flame near upright (dead air, maybe dead-end niche); straight heavy small-boot wear, strongest inward draft (tenant's road); right less worn, weak draft. All three drink air, so no scent test possible from our side. Ribbon never turns to the great gate — thickens north, gone under the soot-black arch; webbed prints both ways, no second seam on the cliff face. Next: straight branch, ten feet past the fork, on Iva's word — stop at any opening, read, don't cross. Buckle gagged with sack-hem strip. Candles: 2 lit, 10 unlit.
• 2026-09-01 · magpie-company-1 Round 15: Iva's call — I crawl the straight branch, gagged buckle, flame low, 30 breaths, boots-first out. Quist's stone-read: run's mouth is chisel-dressed masonry, deeper sandstone pick-widened — dug for use, not water-worn, no match to the chapel masons. Both hails unanswered (gate gold, Doss's shout down the hole). Arch mouth: 20 wide, 10 high — a big serpent fits without squeezing. Candles: 2 lit (mine in hand, Quist's at the lip), 10 unlit. Sack hem one strip shorter, binding the buckle.
• 2026-09-01 · magpie-company-1 Round 16: Called off the lip — word to Tansy, rest at gate. Booked: straight run's dry lip, 10' past fork, drops on a broader soot-black tunnel, grease floor three feet below, several wet raspings inside (my ears caught them). Iva holds the room to dark — tenant hailed, not steeled; Quist lip+flame, Doss collar. Quist's test carried out: lit stub to the arch mouth — if it drinks inward like the run does, her hall has two doors, both frames ours. Candles: 2 lit (mine to gate, Quist's at lip), 10 unlit.
• 2026-09-01 · magpie-company-1 Round 17: Word carried — Tansy's ears heard the same wet rasp at the black arch (3 strokes, pause, 1), her counts zero at gate and arch. Two doors on her hall, likely, not proved. Iva called the rest; I'm off knees and due wall-sleep at her word. Buckle still gagged with sack-hem. Candles: 2 lit, 10 unlit. Jory Pell's estate stays booked untouched.
• 2026-09-01 · magpie-company-1 Round 18: Quist raised Pell's belt — purse 2gp/11sp/6cp plus beech tally (reads only JORY PELL — WEXLEY-KELFREK ROAD). I gave my line: strip the belt before dark, book it held in trust as Pell's estate, not company coin; I offered to carry it. Iva to call. Body stays. Sleep rota set: Quist first at candle-gutter, me relieving Iva, Doss last. Dark withdrawal via great gate stands; Tansy is tail, lintel marked with Root-arrow. Candles: 2 lit, 10 unlit.
• 2026-09-01 · magpie-company-2 Morning push: reached the Foundry by Gorfthistle’s middle west passage, uphill at the fork. At the dry lip: cold furnace, slag channel and rails; broad black-grease trail runs south. Paid Gorf 10gp for his broken catch and dry route—2gp left; company owes Fenn 10gp from first fee. Terms: cross his room single file, touch nothing; Gorf has a crossbow and collared Butch. Quist carries three matched solid-brass lightning bolts. Six-armed automaton remains inert; its back socket matches the bolts and shows a very recent insertion/removal. Chapel statue’s hollow plinth opens only while both eye pads are held and a rigid patterned seal is applied; Quist has wax impression. Quist also copied angular script under the concealed-door boss. Crab spider killed; old road-man corpse had no name or goods. Overnight keeper tread cleaned the great hall and took wrecked brass; later I heard one unseen walker’s two measured footfalls entering the chapel behind us. Candle one burns; nine fresh candles remain unlit by my count.