The crimson projection refuses to fade. Instead, it sinks through the training chamber floor and traces a second route beneath the breached causeway, pulling Ysra and Ilyra’s linked marks toward sealed darkness.
Deangello, Tatiana, and Seressa follow the projection while Ysra and Ilyra remain linked at its edge. Maelin holds the recordsward, and Kareth guards the outer breach behind them.
Seressa
This stonework predates the Sanctum. The route is not an extension of our fortress, but a buried imperial undercroft beneath the old causeway.
The projection ends at immense doors of blackened stone. Their reliefs show a crowned ruler receiving bowls of blood from kneeling envoys, while fortress walls rise behind each offering.
Ilyra Nenn
My mark is pulling toward the seal, but the ward is not attacking us. It feels like an invitation written in blood.
Ysra
The old ruler collected tithes from every fortress here. If the undercroft still remembers that command, opening it may wake the debt.
Tatiana
Then no one opens those doors blindly. Husband, the chamber has brought us to a buried throne, and something beneath it is waiting to be measured.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the buried imperial command
Deangello's turn“Secure the buried imperial command”
SUCCESS (Legendary Blood-rite Lore, rolled -1)
Deangello sets the Black seal against the buried doors and lays the Living sigil above it. Recklessness drives his hand straight to the imperial command instead of testing lesser markings first.
Reads Unsealing Signs separates the command from its surrounding blood wards. Chamber Delving follows the buried channels beneath the causeway, revealing where each imperial order enters the stone.
Blood-rite Lore resolves the ancient sequence: acknowledge the throne, name the tribute, then bind the command to a living sovereign. The Black seal absorbs the dead empire’s authority without reviving its claim.
The Living sigil carries Deangello’s authority through the final channel. Crimson script peels from the doors and coils around his wrist, recording him as the undercroft’s ruling successor.
Tatiana
The command is secured, husband. It answers to your court now, and the old tribute cannot reach the Sanctum without your leave.
Ilyra Nenn
The seal has opened safely. Its warding circles recognize Ysra and me as guardians, not offerings.
The immense doors part onto a preserved imperial command chamber: maps, sealed tribute ledgers, and a stone throne await beneath dustless crimson lamps. The undercroft is open, secured, and placed under Deangello’s rule.
Quest Complete
DeangelloSecure the buried imperial command