At the mountain pass shrine, wind claws through cracked pillars and lifts the ash of long-dead offerings. Before the altar kneels a dying avatar, an elderly, gaunt man with bronze skin, white hair, and a torn crimson mantle. Pale fire leaks from the runes beneath him.
Avaros
Do not bow. The mountain has taken my strength, and I have little time left to spend it.
He presses both trembling hands to the altar. The shrine answers with a deep subterranean groan, and a ring of blue-white flame rises around Mugen without touching him.
Avaros
I am Avaros, last vessel of the Forge Below. My power must pass into living hands before the old seal breaks.
The avatar's flesh flickers translucent, revealing branching veins of molten light. Beyond the shrine, stones tumble down the pass as something massive shifts beneath the mountain.
Avaros
Stand within the circle, outcast. If you endure the rite, the fire will answer to your will. If you fail, it will answer to mine no longer.
Avaros lifts one shaking hand. The runes brighten, the cold wind dies, and the waiting circle opens before Mugen like a burning doorway.
✓ Quest Accepted
Endure the Forge Below rite
✓ Quest Accepted
Prevent the old seal from breaking
“*takes his hand without fear* I don't know your god but i will help those in need.”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +1)
Mugen
I do not know your god, but I will help those in need.
Mugen takes Avaros’s trembling hand without fear. The old vessel’s palm is cold at first, then blazing, as the blue-white circle closes around them both.
Avaros
Then let the Forge judge your hands by what they do, not by the blood that shaped you.
Light surges through Avaros and pours into Mugen’s grasp. It does not burn his flesh; it settles beneath his skin like a buried sun, answering the dense power already coiled within him.
Avaros
The fire is yours now, Mugen. Find the stolen, break their chains, and remember that power is a road, never a throne.
Avaros’s fingers loosen. His translucent form collapses into a stream of ember-bright runes, while far below, the mountain’s buried seal groans awake beneath the shrine.
Quest Complete
Endure the Forge Below rite