{"type":"location","location":{"title":"The Charred Courthouse Steps","description":"You stand before the blackened remains of what was once the courthouse of Pingyang Province. The winter wind cuts through your official robes as ash swirls around your boots. Three weeks ago, your predecessor, Judge Wu, perished in this very fire—though whether by accident or design, no one will say aloud.\n\nThe main structure is a skeletal frame of charred beams. However, a small stone administrative building adjacent to the courthouse still stands, its wooden doors intact though scorched. Smoke-stained papers litter the ground, many bearing the seal of the provincial court.\n\nTo your left, the town proper stretches down the mountainside: clay-tiled roofs, narrow streets, and the distant sound of voices. To your right, the mountain peaks rise into gray winter clouds. Behind the courthouse, a path winds into the forest.\n\nTwo figures wait near the stone building. One is an elderly man with a carefully groomed beard, the other a younger woman with ink-stained fingers. Both bow stiffly as you approach. Your new post begins now, Judge. Forty cases await your judgment, and winter grows colder with each passing day.","suggestedActions":["Speak with the elderly clerk by the stone building","Speak with the younger clerk by the stone building","Examine the charred remains of the courthouse","Walk down the path toward town","Search through the scattered papers on the ground"],"conversation":"wzp3gz4f9ojuixkwce8swo"},"conversationLength":1,"maxFreeConversationLength":10}