The Reliquary Road
Category: medium
Prerequisites: complete vigil_of_ash
The Reliquary Must Move
The cult buying ash and grave-coin has a name now — the Hollowed Hand — and what it wants sits in the order's chapel: the reliquary of the barrow-saints. Maren won't wait to be robbed. The relics go north to the mountain vault, and you're the escort. First: scout the road by lightening the pockets of everyone watching it.
Objectives:
- THIEVE: miner ×130
Rewards:
- ✨ 8,500
Thieving XP - 4,500 gp
Clearing the First Mile
The road's first mile runs through bandit country, and the Hollowed Hand has been paying them in advance. Clear the toll-camps before the wagons roll.
Objectives:
- KILL: kill bandit_1 ×50
Rewards:
Bones ×60- 5,000 gp
Crates Worthy of Saints
Relics don't travel in grain sacks. The wrights want bitter mahogany for the reliquary crates — heavy, hallowed, and hard to pry. Fell it.
Objectives:
- CHOP: Mahogany Logs ×140
Rewards:
- ✨ 55,000
Woodcutting XP - 5,000 gp
The Hand's Ciphers
The Hollowed Hand's messages travel in the satchels of hired mages who think themselves unpickable. Prove otherwise. Every cipher you lift maps another ambush.
Objectives:
- THIEVE: mage ×90
Rewards:
- ✨ 9,500 Thieving XP
- 5,500 gp
Leathers for the Escort
The escort walks nine days through wet country. Green dragonhide turns rain and arrowheads alike. Craft bodies for the wagon-guards.
Objectives:
- CRAFT: Green D-hide Body ×8
Rewards:
- ✨ 7,000
Crafting XP - 5,500 gp
Wolves at the Ford
The ciphers marked the river ford as 'cleared for the Hand's beasts.' The beasts turn out to be wolves — wrong-eyed, like the ones on the mounds. Hold the ford.
Objectives:
- KILL: kill dire_wolf ×50
Rewards:
Big Bones ×30- 6,000 gp
Rites at the Waymarks
The road north is older than the order — its waymark stones each cover a traveler who never finished the journey. Maren's instruction: bury an offering at every stone the wagons pass.
Objectives:
- BURY: bones_big ×50
Rewards:
- ✨ 6,000
Prayer XP - 6,000 gp
The Turncoat Camp
A lumber-camp along the route sold the Hand its wagon-schedules — Tobin recognized the foreman's hand in a cipher. Walk in friendly, walk out with everything in their pockets.
Objectives:
- THIEVE: lumberjack ×140
Rewards:
- ✨ 10,000 Thieving XP
- 6,500 gp
Ore for the Ward-Blades
The vault-monks' price for sanctuary is steel they can't mine themselves: mithril, for ward-blades consecrated against the restless. Dig their fee out of the ridge.
Objectives:
- MINE: Mithril Ore ×100
Rewards:
- ✨ 8,000
Mining XP - 6,500 gp
Silvered Steel
'Silver remembers,' Tobin recites again — but this time it's the vault-monks' specification: mithril blades, silver-plated, one per escort. Forge them at the order's anvil.
Objectives:
- SMELT: (S) Mithril Sword ×3
Rewards:
- ✨ 7,500
Smithing XP - 7,000 gp
The Boneyard Pass
The high pass is walled with old battle-dead, and the Hand has been singing them awake. Cut a path through the risen for the wagons — and gather what falls.
Objectives:
- KILL: kill skeleton_1 ×45
Rewards:
- Big Bones ×45
- 7,000 gp
Faith on the Road
Nine days out, the escort starts leaving the rites to you without being asked — even the vault-monks defer. Give the battle-dead of the pass their long-overdue rest, and the wagons roll through quiet ground.
Objectives:
- BURY: bones_big ×40
Rewards:
- ✨ 5,500 Prayer XP
- 7,500 gp
- 💎 30 gems
The Hand's Paymaster
One cipher names the paymaster who funds every ambush on this road — travelling disguised as a prospector. Find him among the miners and empty him to his boots.
Objectives:
- THIEVE: miner ×150
Rewards:
- ✨ 11,000 Thieving XP
- 7,500 gp
Rations for the Last Leg
The mountain leg is cold and slow, and the escort's rations are down to hardtack and opinions. Land tuna and smoke it for the climb.
Objectives:
- CATCH: raw_tuna ×140
Rewards:
- ✨ 50,000
Fishing XP - 8,000 gp
A Quiver for Every Guard
The vault-monks' scouts report the Hand massing for one last try before the gates. The answer is volume: mithril arrows, fletched by the thousand-count. Get to work.
Objectives:
- CRAFT: Mithril Arrow ×300
Rewards:
- ✨ 7,000
Fletching XP - 8,000 gp
The Last Ambush
They come at the switchbacks, masked and silent, grave-coin sewn into their coats. The escort holds. Hold with them.
Objectives:
- KILL: kill bandit_1 ×60
Rewards:
- Bones ×80
- 8,500 gp
The Fallen of the Road
The Hand's dead get the same rite as anyone — Maren is immovable on this. Bury the ambushers' bones at the switchback waymarks, names or no names.
Objectives:
- BURY: bones_normal ×110
Rewards:
- ✨ 6,500 Prayer XP
- 8,500 gp
The Vault Gate
The reliquary crosses the vault threshold as the monks sing the sealing-hymn, and for the first time in weeks Maren's shoulders drop an inch. Outside, one last of the Hand's mages watches from the rocks. Relieve him of everything he's carrying — the cult's plans most of all.
Objectives:
- THIEVE: mage ×110
Rewards:
- ✨ 12,000 Thieving XP
- 10,000 gp
- 💎 38 gems