“The distance is half of the reason why they come here in the first place,” you explain. “Rihad must be almost as cold and damp as Anvil. If it wasn't for the Brena River, it would be only a day's travel between them. I doubt they grow anything there that can't be found on the Gold Coast.” Yet you can't offer a better reason for the lack of visitors. Hopefully when the dry spell is over and traders come to the city once more, they will be able to explain their absence.

You relieve the night shift, who are grateful to return to the Vault and enjoy a little respite. They claim that there has been a small spike in theft, thanks to the lack of commerce. In the absence of pay, some workers have been stealing from the warehouses that they work at, hoping to pawn off whatever they are able to snatch. You take note of this and prepare for a busy morning.

Sure enough, your patrol is regularly interrupted by irate merchants reporting missing stock. For each theft, you have Radan make a note of the suspects and the absent inventory, then you send Janos to the Vault with the information and a request for a warrant. After a couple of hours, you've already searched half a dozen houses and even arrested two workmen who you caught red-handed. Thankfully, neither of them put up a fight.

Instead, the first truly troubling encounter of your day involves a witch.

You are familiar with the Blackcaster Nalana – hardly a week goes by without the Vault receiving a complaint about her presence in the city. Few mages are brave enough to make their presence known in a Redguard city, even one as liberal as Taneth. Tradition demands that you feel revulsion when she approaches you, clad in jet black robes and with arcane symbols brazenly tattooed on her hairless head. Perhaps she was beautiful once, long before she made her eldritch nature so apparent.

“Stendarr preserve us,” Janos grumbles when he catches sight of her, just before she's in earshot.

“Officers,” Nalana begins, offering a stiff bow as she speaks, “forgive me for disturbing you, but I am afraid that I have been the target of vandalism.” Her tone is just as rigid as her posture. Though she is of Ra Gada stock, with tawny skin and strong, chiselled features, she clearly enjoys your company as much as you enjoy hers – not at all.

“What makes you think that?” Even the usually polite and timid Radan has little patience for the witch.

“The broken door of my workshop, the obscenities that have been painted all over the walls within it and the many reagents that have either been stolen or ruined. If it was a minor incident, I would not waste your time with this matter, let alone my own, but I believe, no, I know that I deserve justice and the return of that which was taken from me, no matter what the people of Taneth might think of my proclivity for the arcane.”