init

2. World Almanac/Regions of Baltun'ia/Falduhir/Brefield/Information/Decoded Ledger.md

@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+[[Hierophant Vezra Gearbloom - Obsidian Archives|Vezra]]'s ledger is a payments record, double-entry style, written in the [[House of Suits Overview|Suits']] cipher. Decoded, it reads as a list of disbursements "for services in [[Brefield]]." The recurring name is the one that matters.
+
+**The official:** [[Magistrate Corvin Hale - Brefield|Magistrate **Corvin Hale**]], Brefield's Mine-Warden — the office that certifies shafts safe, condemned, or flooded. Publicly a [[Belter Overview|Belter]], rode the new majority into a bigger seat, runs on "ore for honest hands, not iron ones" (anti-[[Automatons|automaton]] labor rhetoric). He's the signature on the flooded-shaft condemnation.
+
+**Ledger entries (decoded):**
+
+- **C. Hale, Mine-Warden** — three payments. First: "_condemnation filed, shaft III sealed to inspectors._" Second, larger: "_silence re: dig crews + equipment hauled past the scales._" Third, pending/unpaid: "_retainer — continued blindness through the season._" The unpaid third is leverage: he's in too deep to stop, not yet fully paid, and therefore squeezable.
+- **[[Hobb Tallow - Brefield|"The scale-master"]]** (ore-weighing station) — small recurring sums to wave the Suits' equipment caravans through Brefield's ore-scales without manifest.
+- **Vezra** — his own retainer plus an expense line for "_assessor papers + binding spirit-gum_" (matches the disguise kit), confirming the ledger is his and the forged identity was Suits-issued.
+- **"Tithe to [[The Collapsed Reach|the Reach]]"** — a large lump sum routed out of Brefield marked only this way. No recipient. This is the money flowing up to the dig itself, and the phrase ties the cash directly to site III.
+- **Margin note, last page:** "_Hale grows nervous. If he breaks, the tailors mend it._" — Hale is a liability the Suits are already prepared to kill. That's the party's opening: get to him before the Suits do.
+
+**What it gives the party:** a named, corrupt, _frightened_ official they can pressure or protect; proof the shaft was deliberately falsified, not flooded; a money-trail from Brefield up to the Reach; and a second target (the scale-master) if they want to trace the equipment.