Rekvas arrives beneath the mage's tower as violet light spills from a glowing planar rift. Armed figures surround a bound noble at its threshold, their blades bright with warding runes.
Sergeant Vael
Hold there, dragon. The ambush on the road was necessary. This lord meant to reach the ritual and disrupt its closure.
The rift churns without sound, revealing fragments of distant stars and a vast shadow moving behind them. Tower stones tremble beneath Rekvas's feet.
Lord Caerwyn
Do not believe him. They seized me because I learned the truth. They are not closing the breach. They are feeding the tower's magic into it.
Sergeant Vael
His titles have made him arrogant, not wise. Stand aside, healer, and this need not become your burden.
A thin crack of pale frost crawls across the rift's lower edge, though the surrounding air is warm. The armed figures glance toward it, suddenly less certain.
Lord Caerwyn
Look at the seal, spirit-healer. It bears no mark of closure. If they complete the rite, something ancient will cross into this world.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the ritual's true purpose
✓ Quest Accepted
Prevent the ancient entity from crossing into this world
“I study the rift's seal for a way to stop the rite.”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled +2)
Rekvas studies the seal through the rift's violet glare. Beneath the false closure sigils, he traces three feeding channels converging on a hollow central glyph.
Rekvas Spiritheart
The center is not sealed. It is a passage, and the channels sustain it.
The frost crawling along the rift sharpens his reading. Its pale pattern reveals a countermark hidden inside the central glyph, shaped like a broken crown.
Lord Caerwyn
You see it now. The countermark can sever the offering lines, but only if the rite's anchor is named.
Sergeant Vael
Silence, Caerwyn. Do not let him tamper with what holds the breach contained.
Rekvas identifies the anchor's name etched in spirit-script: the ancient presence beyond the rift. Speaking it backward would invert the seal and halt the rite.
Sergeant Vael
Dragon, step away from the threshold. Whatever you have learned, you must not utter that name.
Quest Complete
Expose the ritual's true purpose