Jerashi spreads the blackened ledger fragments across the iron floor, weighing their corners with slag chips. Blue furnace channels pulse beneath the cipher like veins.
Jerashi Heladine
These marks correspond to the channels, not the forge itself. The living seal was tuned through resonance, then bound to a willing vessel.
Above, metal screams as Council enforcers force their way through the worktable. Dust rains from the ceiling, and the stair shudders under approaching weight.
Sivanus
They are inside. I can hold the stair briefly, but not while they bring the whole ruin down.
Sivanus takes position at the lower stair, lantern abandoned, blades low and ready. Her silhouette cuts across the furnace glow as armored shadows descend.
Jerashi Heladine
The next passage describes a tuning sequence. If I align these channels, the binding may loosen, or it may consume the host entirely.
The final fragments reveal three unlit channels and a circular socket shaped like Arion’s sword point. Council steel strikes the stair below, leaving little time for translation or choice.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure a usable method for altering the sword's binding
“I hold off the incoming minions while jerashi continues decoding”
Critical hit for 4 damage — Enforcer 3 struck back for 1 damage
Arion plants himself at the stair’s foot as the first armored shapes descend. Teal light hardens along his sword, turning the narrow landing into a killing ground.
Council Enforcer 3 lunges through the furnace glow. Arion catches the attack, twists inside the guard, and strikes with a short, crushing blow that drops the enforcer unconscious across the steps.
A second weapon slips past the guard and cuts Arion. The wound is shallow but real, and teal energy flickers unevenly through the host’s strained limbs.
Arion Touvengard
The socket accepts the sword point, but the channels remain unlit.
Behind him, Jerashi ignores the clash. She shifts slag chips across the ledger fragments, matching the ciphered marks to the three dark channels beneath the floor.
Jerashi Heladine
The sequence is not a command. It is an exchange. One channel draws vitality, one redirects the binding, and the third decides where the cost falls.
Above the unconscious Enforcer 3, surviving steel scrapes against stone. Arion holds the landing while Jerashi reaches the final line, her fingers hovering over the channel that bears his craft-mark.
“I move on to the next enforcer to cut them down”
Critical hit for 6 damage — Council Enforcer 3 struck back but missed
Arion steps over the fallen enforcer and turns on the next armored figure forcing down the stair. Teal radiance gathers along the sword’s edge.
The enforcer raises his weapon, but Arion’s cut arrives first. It tears through the guard and drops him mortally wounded beside Council Enforcer 3’s still body.
No counterstroke follows. The remaining Council soldiers halt above, staring into the furnace-lit landing where two of their number lie dead or dying.
Sivanus
They are hesitating. Keep them there, and I will buy Jerashi the time she needs.
Sivanus surges up two steps, blades flashing just enough to drive the foremost shadows back. Stone chips burst as the enforcers retreat from her reach.
Jerashi Heladine
I have the sequence. The marked channel draws from the vessel, but the socket can redirect that cost into the binding.
Below, the three channels awaken in order, blue light threading beneath the iron floor. The sword point waits over the circular socket while the ruin groans around them.
✓ Quest Accepted
Alter the sword's binding
− Scene Quest Removed
Secure a usable method for altering the sword's binding
“I place my sword body into the socket to allow jerashi to alter the binding.”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled -2)
Arion lowers the sword point into the circular socket. The iron accepts it with a deep, resonant clang, and teal light floods the three awakened channels.
The marked channel draws hard through the blade, pulling vitality from the host. His limbs jerk puppet-stiff as the cost settles into a sudden, draining weakness.
Jerashi Heladine
Hold steady. The binding is opening, and I am turning its hunger back upon the prison.
Jerashi moves the slag markers across the ledger’s cipher. One channel flares blue, another twists teal, and the circular socket locks around the sword point.
Sivanus
The stair will not hold much longer. Finish it, Jerashi.
A web of old runes crawls from the socket into the blade, then folds inward. The binding loosens and retunes, redirecting its siphoned cost into the prison’s ancient craft.
Jerashi Heladine
Done. The binding now answers through the socket, not against it. You have more control, but the sword will remember this alteration.
Quest Complete
Alter the sword's binding