Seris descends first, carrying a pale flame cupped in one hand. Each step awakens silver inscriptions, while the apparent victim follows in wary silence.
Seris Vale
Edran witnessed the Hall’s first judgment being altered. The sentence was written to condemn an entire kingdom, then placed upon him when he refused to sign it.
The stair opens into a sealed archive. Black stone tablets stand in ordered alcoves, their surfaces blank until Seris’s flame passes over them.
Kael Veyran
Which parts of that account deserve belief? Explain what Edran witnessed, and why the Hall condemned him.
Seris Vale
He saw the verdict’s authors erase their own names. He spoke against them, and the Hall named his testimony treason. The tablets preserve what the judgment could not consume.
Kael Veyran
And you. Apparent victim, identify yourself and state your role in this sentence.
A disputed inscription flares beneath the apparent victim’s feet. The archive gives no answer, but one black tablet turns outward, revealing a final line: Ask who survived the verdict.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine the apparent victim’s role in Edran’s sentence
✓ Quest Accepted
Uncover the authors of the altered verdict
“I ask Seris to reveal which tablets preserve the authors' erased names.”
SUCCESS (Great Reasoning, rolled +1)
Kael Veyran
Seris, reveal which tablets preserve the authors’ erased names.
Seris turns her pale flame toward the ordered alcoves. Three tablets answer at once, their blank faces opening into veins of silver script.
Seris Vale
These three. The first bears the hand of High Adjudicator Maeron Voss, the second records Archon Ilyra Sen, and the third names the unseen Crown Witness.
The inscriptions sharpen beneath the flame. Erased names emerge from beneath layers of black stone, each one ringed by the same broken-star sigil.
Seris Vale
Voss composed the kingdom-wide sentence. Sen altered its terms. The Crown Witness supplied the authority that made the Hall obey, but concealed their name even from the other authors.
On the third tablet, the hidden script gathers into a surviving title rather than a name: The Voice Behind the Throne. Beneath it, a final inscription records the authors’ pact.
Seris Vale
Now you have what Edran died protecting. The authors were Maeron Voss, Ilyra Sen, and the one who ruled through judgment without ever sitting upon a throne.
Quest Complete
Uncover the authors of the altered verdict
Director's notewhole tale
Points to the apparent victim
“So what is your role in all of this?”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +1)
Kael Veyran
So what is your role in all of this?
Kael directs the question toward the apparent victim. The three tablets dim, while the disputed inscription beneath their feet brightens into a narrow ring of pale fire.
the apparent victim
I was the sentence’s first surviving witness, though the Hall named me its target. My testimony was meant to vanish with Edran’s.
The apparent victim steps into the ring., a gender-ambiguous figure whose face, hair, and clothing remain hidden within the indistinct outline Their outline remains indistinct, but silver script crawls across the floor, joining their mark to Edran’s broken-star sigil.
the apparent victim
I carried the altered verdict beyond these stones. I found Seris, showed her what the authors erased, and brought her back to the archive.
Seris Vale
They were the witness the Hall tried to turn into evidence. Without them, I would have inherited only my father’s silence, not the truth.
The final tablet opens beneath the apparent victim’s shadow, revealing a sealed fragment of testimony. Its first words name the Hall’s judgment a deliberate falsehood.
Quest Complete
Determine the apparent victim’s role in Edran’s sentence
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Great→Superb