Torchlight jumps over wet stone as Frieda and the others descend into the crypts. Above them, blows hammer the hidden door, muffled and impatient. Below, sarcophagi line the passage like sleeping judges.
The Inquisitor
Keep close. The ledger must reach the record, or this whole truth dies here.
A second passage opens ahead, half swallowed by shadow. From it comes the scrape of boots and a low command, too near, too many.
Sir Eleutherius
They have found the crypts. Frieda, take the lead, I will hold the rear.
Frieda
The side passage is the only clean route forward.
Frieda moves toward the split in the corridor as water drips on her boots. The flicker ahead reveals a narrow stair rising toward the chapel records, and the deeper tunnel behind it bends toward darkness and pursuit.
The Inquisitor
There, the archive stair. If the Bishop's men seize us, they seize the case. Go.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the archive stair
“I signal the Inquisitor to follow me closely as I climb the stairs.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +0)
Frieda turns from the split and takes the stair two at a time, her spear kept tight so the haft does not strike the stone. The Inquisitor falls in close behind her, the ledger hugged to his chest.
The Inquisitor
Close behind, chaplain. If we lose this stair, we lose the record.
Water beads on the steps and the torchlight jumps up the narrow shaft. Sir Eleutherius remains below, a dark shape at the bend, sword set against the press of boots in the rear tunnel.
Sir Eleutherius
Go. I hold them here.
Frieda
Stay with me.
Her words carry up the stairwell as she climbs, and the Inquisitor shortens his stride to match her pace. Behind them, the clatter in the crypts grows louder, but the stair opens ahead into a cleaner draft.
At the top, a low landing and a barred chapel door come into view. The archive stair ends there, at last, with the way forward still closed but reached.
Quest Complete
Reach the archive stair