The Ashwork Tally

Content for the "Adventurers from Hluthvar" campaign.

What the Red Fangs made Gerda do:

Plant “emberglass” fire vials outside the northern side of the The Temple-Library of Oghma (the copyists’ annex) to create a timed blaze that would pull The Watch of the Scroll and the librarians away for 10–15 minutes.  Under that smoke cover, a Red Fang crew would then slip into a secure bookstack to steal a sealed folio known as The Ashwork Tally (a proscribed necromantic index rumored to point to old phylactery caches along the Chionthar).

Why Gerda complied:

The blackmail was vicious, and Gerda was thus conscripted into the Red Fang as what is known as a Milktooth.  From the Evenshade article on The Red Fang:

Milkteeth are not members by choice--they are those who owe the Fang more than their coin could cover. A missed payment, a favor granted, a secret buried too deep to dig free--such debts are paid in service, not silver. The Fang calls them "Milkteeth" because they are soft, temporary, and destined to fall out--but not before chewing through whatever task the Fang sets before them. These tasks are rarely glamorous

Gerda believed it was an empty-room distraction and set the vials where instructed.  The emberglass burned far hotter than she’d been told; three acolytes were trapped and killed before the firebreak doors sealed.

 Gerda didn’t make it out of the city. She was seized approaching the River Harbor with emberglass resin on her cuffs and wood ash heavy on her clothes.

The reaction of the Village

Evenshade’s charges:

• Arson, blasphemous nature (fire set within the Temple-Library)
• Murder, intentional by artifice (deaths caused by a device)
• Collusion with an outlaw association (the Red Fangs)
• Theft of, and in furtherance of, Proscribed Knowledge (because of the stolen folio)

 It must be said that though the Red Fang was successful in their theft, it did not go unnoticed.  No Red Fangs were caught, but alarms in the secure bookstack were tripped.  The librarians quickly accounted for the books, scrolls, and artifacts in the room, and noted the missing Ashwork Tally.  It was only after three days that the Watch gathered enough evidence to tie the crimes to not only Gerda, but also the Red Fang itself.

 Evenshade’s justice is harsh where knowledge and order are endangered; killing inside the Temple-Library plus aiding a thieves’ syndicate that trafficks in necromancy is the sort of “make an example” case that gets the square roped off and the magistrate reading the sentence from the council hall steps.  A trial was convened, but it was quick, running only two days.

 The sentence (recorded): “By iron, ash and quill, for the furtherance of truth, and the satisfaction of justice, and the protection of the people, let it be known: for conscious and willful sacrilege by fire and murder by contrivance in league with a criminal organization, Gerda Farrow meets the Barony's final censure.  It is the demand of the Council and the House of Evenshade that she be hanged until dead.”

 The method of execution was swift and public (hanging in the yard outside the Watch HQ), followed by cremation, with her ashes scattered on the river, north of, and downstream of, the village. 

The missing charge of “Theft of Proscribed Knowledge”

Of particular note is the missing charge regarding proscribed--that is, forbidden--knowledge in the sentencing.

What happened procedurally: In open court, the fourth charge was left out. In truth, the Council, House Evenshade, and the Temple-Library’s priors invoked an old custodial rule—Temple Clause 27, Custodia Occulta—allowing matters “which might incite traffic in censured texts” to be removed from the public roll and recorded only in a sealed addendum kept under tri-seal (Council, House, Temple). This particular charge was never written in any official record visible to the public or truly anyone outside of The High Librarian, the six extant Council members, and Baron Edric Evenshade. Even The Watch of the Scroll leadership were not privy to this information.

Why they did it (and why it’s hypocrisy they tolerate)

• Oghma teaches that knowledge must be shared; yet Baron Edric’s conservatism emphasizes curation before circulation. The leadership recognizes the contradiction and accepts it as a “necessary trespass”: better to sin against the letter of the dogma than to broadcast a map to necromantic reliquaries.
• Their justification, written in the addendum: “To shield the flock from predation upon their very names, we dim the lamp—not from fear of light, but to deny light to carrion feeders.” Everyone at that level knows it’s a rationalization; they proceed nonetheless.

How it looks in the paperwork

• Public docket (what townsfolk can read): lists only the three charges of arson, murder, and association with the Red Fangs. A marginal glyph—three tiny ash-dots under the translucent wax—marks that “matter under seal” exists, but says nothing more.
• Sealed addendum (accessed only in camera): restates the suppressed charge, names the stolen item (The Ashwork Tally), and permits “quieted restitution” if it is ever recovered. The word "quieted," rather than "quiet" seems an austere, and perhaps threatening, choice.

Sealed Addendum, per Temple Clause 27 – Custodia Occulta
“Item: That Gerda Farrow, in concert with agents of The Red Fang, did remove from the Unseen Stacks one folio styled The Ashwork Tally, being a censured necromantic index, and did so in promotion of designs contrary to the peace of Evenshade and the dignity of the Oghmanyte Creed. Judgment upon this item is consolidated unto the previous counts for the purpose of public sentence, and this writing is sealed under tri-sign to prevent inducement to further theft of Proscribed Texts--or an attempt to produce the phylacteries alleged by said folio. It is further ordered that, upon recovery, officers of the Watch and the Temple-Library shall effect quieted restitution: to wit, the return and re-sheltering of the item without public proclamation, and with such suppression of rumor and record as the tri-signatories deem necessary to forestall renewed traffic in censured texts.”

Adventurers from Hluthvar campaign

How might this mesh with our campaign and Evenshade lore?

• Mirrors Yalerion’s arson motif and his background with the Red Hand. Arson is very unusual for the Red Hand, but there is a splinter group that has utilized far more extreme methods than the Hand permits, and this group was once led by Yalerion.
• Red Hand leadership (Karrin Var herself) doesn't believe their organization was involved. A smokescreen makes sense, but emberglass is a terribly and unnecessarily dangerous method for producing it.
• Bridges to the lich plot: the stolen folio may be a breadcrumb.
• Matches the note’s “example to preserve order,” and lets House Evenshade keep the secret archive deniable.
• Keeps Gerda morally gray: coerced, misled about harm, but still culpable.

Clue scatter & follow-ups

• Emberglass residue. Reddish, glassy slag with a faint honeycomb pattern; manufactured by a Waterdeep alchemist, Soryn Dath (who has a laboratory on the Street of Bells).  He normally sells “lamp-capsules” to dock guilds.  Someone bought a half-crate in cash a month before the fire under a false name.
• Witness. A junior scribe recalls a limping woman (Gerda favored her left) exchanging a wrapped parcel with a courier wearing a red-dyed leather throat guard—the Fangs’ subtle “collar mark" for messengers.
• Possibly an inside job. The Hawthorn Study Room's door to the underground secure stacks bears a door-warden’s wax seal that’s at a canted angle; the seal die was removed but somehow slipped back—suggesting an inside hand or a perfect copy.

Cady’s angle: Cady can shake Waterdeep for Soryn Dath’s buyer list and that red-collar messenger look.  She’s also heard of a quartermaster called “Old Thur” who fences alchemy stocks through the Iron Wings—clean path to play out Cady’s “Drop me a note” offer.

 Brekka tie-in. If Brekka ever trained in a Scornubel cloister of Oghma or Deneir, a surviving acolyte from the annex fire may recognize her surname and tread gently.  If she didn’t, the surname Farrow still rings in Evenshade, and is known in Berdusk and Scornubel; NPCs may go quiet when it’s spoken.