The silver trail pulls across the blackened flats toward the old ash cathedral. With every step Thyrddin takes, the wound in his palm pulses, answering something buried ahead.
The roofless nave rises from the ash like a broken rib cage. Funerary statues lean inward, their stone faces worn smooth, while the trail vanishes beneath the altar stones.
the necromancer's apprentice
These names are not prayers. They are entries, scratched one beneath another, as though the dead were counted for a purpose.
The apprentice kneels among the dust and traces a carved name without touching it. Several inscriptions bear fresh silver grains, despite the cathedral's long ruin.
Veyra Ash-Tongue
Do not mistake a ledger for a tomb. My master's first conduit was laid beneath this altar, and the names mark those it has learned.
Veyra follows at a wary distance, stopping beyond the nave's collapsed threshold. Her cracked bronze robes stir though no wind reaches the cathedral's hollow interior.
the necromancer's apprentice
The stair is open now. Thyrddin, your mark is waking it, but I cannot tell whether it calls us downward or warns what waits below.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the reservoir’s hidden gathering place
✓ Quest Accepted
Interrupt the reservoir’s remaining power
“Before entering, Thyrddin tries to heal the mark on his hand to mute the linkage with what he will likely fight below.”
FAILURE (Fair Healing, rolled +0)
Before the stair, Thyrddin raises his marked palm and gathers healing magic around the silver wound. Pale warmth closes the torn flesh, but the mark remains beneath it.
Thyrddin
The wound is healed. The linkage is not in the flesh.
The mark flares once, drawing a thin silver filament from his palm into the cathedral floor. The stair answers, and its first steps briefly become visible beneath the dust.
the necromancer's apprentice
Your healing reached the surface, not the bond. But it exposed the path. The linkage descends through that central stair.
Veyra Ash-Tongue
Then do not waste another spell trying to cleanse what was carved into the conduit. The first gate below bears the severing countermark.
The silver filament settles into a narrow groove between the altar stones, revealing a small inverted crown etched beneath the stair's threshold. It pulses apart from the deeper mark.
the necromancer's apprentice
That countermark may mute the reservoir's claim long enough to pass. It will not destroy the bond, but it gives us a door instead of a dead end.
“Thyrrdin heads to the countermark and augments it with his own magic.”
SUCCESS (Superb Magic, rolled -2)
Thyrddin approaches the inverted crown beneath the stair and lays his marked palm over its etched silver. His staff braces against the altar stone as he feeds magic into the countermark.
The crown accepts his power reluctantly. Silver lines rise around his hand, interlocking with his thousandth seal until the stair groans and the buried conduit falls silent.
the necromancer's apprentice
It worked. The reservoir's claim has been muted, and the bond no longer announces every breath we take below.
A sharp recoil travels through the mark. The healed flesh splits open again in a narrow silver line, and a few drops darken the threshold before the magic seals it shut.
Veyra Ash-Tongue
You have made the countermark answer to your name. That may hide you from the reservoir, but the gate will remember who altered it.
The inverted crown turns beneath Thyrddin's hand. Dust slides from the first steps, revealing a descending stair of black stone and faint inscriptions that point into the buried dark.
the necromancer's apprentice
The way is open. Whatever waits below cannot summon you through the conduit now, though it may still hear the spell you used.
“Thyrddin looks around. He is sure he has books about this place. He wracks his memory for hints of what waits below.”
SUCCESS (Great Investigation, rolled -1)
Thyrddin surveys the broken nave, the stair, and the ledger-like names. Dust, stonework, and the inverted crown summon passages from his own neglected books.
He recalls an account of the Ash Cathedral: beneath its altar lies a mnemonic vault, where the first conduit taught the reservoir to recognize names and oaths.
Thyrddin
The lower vault contains the reservoir’s listening chamber, and its inscriptions describe what it has learned.
The recollection comes with a cost. Silver heat needles through Thyrddin’s healed palm, and his staff strikes the threshold hard enough to echo down the stair.
the necromancer's apprentice
So you know what waits below. Not the reservoir itself, but the chamber where it remembers every bound name.
Veyra Ash-Tongue
The vault also keeps a witness-stone. Read it, and the old design will reveal whose oath first taught the reservoir to hunger.
The echo fades beneath the cathedral. Veyra’s warning confirms the memory, while the reopened mark leaves a bright silver stain across Thyrddin’s palm.
Quest Complete
Expose the reservoir’s hidden gathering place
Skill Upgrade: Magic Superb→Legendary