The antechamber settles into silence. Three ruined armors cool beside the eastern arch, their black residue dulling as the last ash drifts across the floor.
Brother Caldus
Hold still, Maurice. Celia’s burn is clean, but Tomas has bruising, and Iven’s old wounds are opening again. I will bind what I can.
Brother Caldus works beneath Elianor’s steady lampglass, wrapping Maurice’s knuckles and checking Celia’s shallow burn before turning to Iven at the arch.
Brother Caldus
Iven, what do you remember beyond the fissure? Not the voices. Tell us what the stone revealed before you fled.
Iven Marr
A buried landmark lies east of here, beneath a collapsed quarry road. Two standing stones lean together above a dry shaft, and old mason marks circle its rim.
Iven traces the scrape marks with one finger, following their direction toward the sealed stair. Maurice, Elianor, and Tomas listen without interrupting.
Iven Marr
The burden passed beneath those stones, but the shaft was not a doorway. If the marks remain, they can show where the source approached without opening any sealed door.
✓ Quest Accepted
Verify Iven’s testimony about the leaning standing stones
“I ask Maurice to protect me as a meditate and consult with the death god to determine if the leaning stones are related to the source”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled -1)
Celia Graves
Maurice, protect me while I meditate. I will consult the death god and learn whether those leaning stones are tied to the source.
Maurice Headsman
Then sit, and let the dead find no path to you. Nothing reaches you without crossing me first.
Maurice Headsman takes position before Celia, weapon ready, while Elianor lowers the lampglass to a guarded glow. Brother Caldus keeps Tomas Rusk and Iven Marr behind the broken pillar.
Celia settles beside the eastern stair and stills her breathing. The chamber’s dust fades from her senses, replaced by a vast cold silence beyond mortal stone.
The Death God
The leaning stones mark the source’s approach. Beneath them, the dry shaft records where its root first touched the buried world.
The death god’s presence withdraws, leaving the answer sharp within Celia’s awareness: the landmark is related to the source, but it is a trace and vessel, not the source itself.
Maurice Headsman
You have returned. Say what you learned, Celia. We will follow the truth beneath those stones.
Quest Complete
Verify Iven’s testimony about the leaning standing stones