The Merchant's Secret
You are escorted into a back room of a quiet, unassuming tavern by a nervous, sweating merchant named Barlos. He wears a thick, heavy coat despite the warmth, and his hands are clasped tightly together. He locks the door behind you and slides a small pouch of coins across the table.
"I know you're working for Venna," he whispers. "But what she doesn't know is that her own Guild is rotten. I've seen the merchants unloading crates at the Pulgari Estate. They aren't just logging. They're smuggling something... something that hums. And they're wearing white robes with golden hands stitched into the sleeves. They are part of a cult. They call themselves the Society of the Golden Hand. They are planning to open the gate to Hell permanently. I paid a fortune to get this proof."
He pushes a rough, charcoal rubbing across the table—a copy of a stone tablet with the symbol of a pale hand and a blackened blade. "They killed the last person who had this. Please. Keep it safe. And if you go to the estate... don't trust anyone in white."
GM Note: The Hook. If the party presses Barlos, he admits that the leader of the Golden Hand in Macridi is actually Guildmaster Venna's own Bureaucrat—a man named Tollen, who operates out of the very Logging Hall the party is working for. This adds a significant layer of internal paranoia to the Act.