Nobles surge toward the barred exits. Beneath the banquet table, a bloodless figure in faded courtier's livery rises into view, clutching the baron's signet in both hands.
The figure's hollow gaze fixes on Livia Bladedust. Across the hall, the exposed entity recoils, its smooth darkness bending away from that stare.
Brynn Calder
That is Edric Vale. He vanished three nights before the gate opened.
The Bloodless Courtier
The baron's seal answers to truth. Keep it from the thing wearing his lordship's face.
The Gray-Haired Lord
You dare bring his dead servant against me?
The false lord retreats from the signet's faint blue glow. The nearest nobles stop fleeing, watching the courtier with frightened, uncertain hope.
The Bloodless Courtier
I am not dead, though the gate tried to make me so. I can show you which passage leads beneath this hall, and where the casket must be taken.
✓ Quest Accepted
Have Brynn publicly stand with Livia
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the passage beneath the hall
“Can the signet prove I am not the thing through the gate?”
YES (Likely, rolled 21)
The signet’s blue radiance reaches toward Livia Bladedust without recoiling. Its glow separates her presence from the gate-taint clinging to the false lord, offering the gathered nobles visible proof that she is not the thing that came through.
Brynn Calder
It answers her, too. I will stand witness before them all.
“I invite Brynn to stand beside me before the frightened nobles.”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled -1)
Livia Bladedust shifts the iron-bound casket to one arm and opens the space beside her, turning that invitation toward Brynn before the watching nobles.
Brynn Calder
Then let them see us together.
Brynn crosses the few paces between them and plants herself at Livia Bladedust's side, shoulder nearly touching the casket.
The Bloodless Courtier
Witnesses, remember this clearly. The signet answers Livia Bladedust, and Brynn Calder stands with her.
The casket's iron clasp bites through Livia Bladedust's glove as its weight shifts, drawing a thin line of blood across her palm. Several nobles see it, and their relief falters into wary silence.
Brynn Calder
Do not mistake fear for judgment. She carried the relic when every one of you fled.
At the hall's rear, Edric Vale lowers the signet toward a flagstone seam. Blue light seeps between the stones, revealing a stairway's hidden outline.
The Bloodless Courtier
The passage is open. But what waits below has heard us.
Quest Complete
Prove that Livia is not the thing that came through the gate
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Good→Great
Quest Complete
Have Brynn publicly stand with Livia