>>6228847“Well now,” the voice croons from the dark beyond, "was that a tune I heard? Secrets passed like verses in a dying song. And here I thought I was the only poet in this choir of rats."
The Black Bard.
You’ve heard his voice before, soft and lilting in the silence. A minstrel once, perhaps - a singer for lords and ladies before the fall. But there’s something too precise in the way he listens. Too knowing. You've never heard him beg. Never scream. He simply… waits. And now, he speaks.
“I don’t mean to intrude," he continues, the words shaped with elegance, "but it’s a rare thing, you know - to hear the whisper of doors with no handles and girls with broken fingers. Rare, and… valuable.”
A pause. Then, a chuckle. Dry as paper.
“I’ve bartered with worse than ghosts. And I’ve played for kings who never knew I was playing. So tell me, little oathkeeper… shall I sing your song too?”
His cell across the corridor between you and Vaella - close enough to have heard everything. The Whispering Man says nothing. You cannot see Vaella, but you can almost hear her heart pounding from three cells away.
You're not sure yet what the Black Bard truly wants - perhaps a chance to escape, perhaps leverage over you, or maybe he simply delights in entangling himself in other people’s stories. But he knows something now. And he isn’t going to forget it.
What do you do now?
>Offer the Black Bard a deal. If he helps you escape and find a way out of here, you’ll find a way to free him. Given he keeps his silence until then, of course.>Offer to escape together. You don’t know much about him, but both of you are stuck down here with no way to know how much time you have left. You will make your way out together.>Threaten him. The next patrol is not due for some time. If he so much as hums the wrong note, you’ll find a way to silence him. Even in here, steel may still find its way through bars.>Ignore him. Let the Bard talk. Stay calm. If he wants to play his games, let him. He’s just a man with a pretty tune, but this place isn’t for singers. He may be testing your nerves, not your secrets.>Write-in 