A street encounter where the player characters' six characters find two NPCs fighting, one of whom is about to attack the other with a dagger.

Veyruin stands where the Ashen Road crosses the Brinewater Canal, a place chosen because salt caravans can transfer cargo directly from mule trains to barges. Basalt terraces rise above the water like dark steps, giving the town dry ground during ordinary floods and a commanding view of the road. The founding refuge, Old Harwick Hill, lies beneath newer streets, its sealed chambers still accessible through cellars and drainage tunnels.

Whenever the old warning bell rings, conversation in The Crooked Chime dies for three heartbeats. Then each patron resumes speaking as if nothing happened, except that at least one person has shifted seats, gripped a utensil like a weapon, or forgotten the end of a sentence. Maela keeps a tally of these changes beneath the bar. She never places six chairs around one table because, in her words, 'six shadows make the bell curious.' The tavern's crooked sign swings even when there is no wind, and black salt sometimes gathers in a neat line beneath it. Staff members have learned to serve drinks with both hands during bell weather, since startled patrons have been known to knock cups aside as if expecting an attack.

Sableglass Curios is a narrow storefront wedged between a shuttered kiln house and a leaning tenement near Veyruin's old glassworks. Its windows are crowded with colored lamps, trade seals, protective charms, and finely crafted blades whose glass hilts catch the street light like trapped embers. The air smells of hot sand, lamp oil, copper, and rain on old brick. A row of tiny glass chimes hangs above the entrance, each tuned to a slightly different note. Ilyra claims they are decorative, but she uses their changes in tone to tell whether someone entered through the front door, forced the latch, or disturbed the back passage. The owner is Ilyra Quench, an outsider glasswright with soot-dark hair, copper-brown skin, and a guarded manner that becomes brisk whenever anyone mentions the Council or the old bell. She wears a leather apron over travel-stained clothes and keeps one furnace glove on her left hand even when no work is underway. Ilyra is not cruel, but she expects betrayal from officials, frightened locals, and anyone who asks too many questions about her suppliers. She bargains readily with apprentices, injured workers, and travelers who offer useful information. She offers little mercy to thieves, unless they reveal who sent them. The street encounter begins outside the shop, where the player characters find two NPCs fighting. One has a dagger raised and is moments from attacking the other. The weapon is recognizable as Sableglass work because of its smoky colored-glass pommel. If disarmed or inspected, the pommel reveals a sliver of bell-metal sealed inside. The metal subtly intensifies anger and causes fragmented memories, especially memories involving bells, furnaces, or a ringing heard beneath the streets. The attacker may insist that the victim betrayed them, stole a memory, or caused the old bell to ring, but parts of the accusation are confused and may not be true. Ilyra knows that she repaired the dagger and remembers being asked to add a resonant metal core to the pommel. She does not know that the metal came from the old bell, nor does she understand the full source of its influence. Her work ledger can link the dagger to its purchaser, while the blackened shard in her furnace room bears the same crescent-and-line mark found on fragments from the sealed bell foundation. These clues provide evidence without immediately proving who is responsible for the disturbances. The shop has become a target for both merchant investigators and frightened townsfolk for plausible reasons. The dagger was repaired here, several recent customers reported anger, memory gaps, or hearing distant bells, and Ilyra's outsider status makes her an easy scapegoat. Merchant investigators want the ledger, the bell-metal samples, and proof that no trade house is secretly distributing compromised weapons. Frightened townsfolk want the shop closed or burned before another fight breaks out. Ilyra fears that either group will destroy the evidence or blame her for a danger she only partly understands. Bargaining hooks include offering to recover the dagger without damaging the glass pommel, identifying the attacker's true memories, finding who supplied the bell-metal, protecting the shop from a mob, or convincing Ilyra to surrender a copy of the repair ledger rather than the original. She may trade a charm, lamp, or minor blade for a promise to investigate the old bell, but she will not willingly hand over the Bell-Sliver Dagger until the immediate street violence is under control. The shop's most notable quirk is that every piece of colored glass appears to reflect a different version of the viewer's face for a heartbeat when a bell rings nearby.