At the first landing, blue light from Edric Vale's signet spills across old masonry carved with the baron's crest. Beneath the stone, a calm voice speaks his name.
The Bloodless Courtier
Edric. You bring the casket back to the door.
The Bloodless Courtier
The seal remembers me. It should not.
His hollow expression tightens. Below, fresh blood seeps from the seams of a sealed door, threading across the stair like red roots.
Brynn Calder
That blood is new. The door was sealed when we crossed the hall.
The voice rises through the stone again, intimate enough to seem spoken beside them.
The Bloodless Courtier
The casket was never meant to leave the depths. Give it back, Edric, and the old bargain can remain buried.
The carved crest splits along its ancient lines. Blue radiance pours into the crack, revealing a second mark beneath the baron's seal, a black hand clasping a crown.
The Gray-Haired Lord
You knew this place, courtier. Tell us what waits beyond that door.
The sealed door shudders. The blood draws itself into a thin circle around the lowest step, while the voice waits for Edric's answer.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether Edric was changed by the gate
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what waits beyond the sealed door
“I raise the signet and inspect the black hand beneath the crest.”
SUCCESS (Fair Perception, rolled +0)
Livia Bladedust raises Edric Vale's blue-lit signet toward the split crest. Its radiance gathers over the black hand beneath the baron's seal.
The mark is not carved into the stone. It lies beneath it, pressed into the masonry like a brand, and its fingers curl around a second shape hidden in the crown.
The Bloodless Courtier
Do not bring the light closer.
Therefore the signet flares. For one breath, the black hand reflects across Edric Vale's raised fingers, matching their long, bloodless shape.
Brynn Calder
That mark is in him.
The reflection vanishes, but a black crescent remains beneath Edric Vale's signet finger. The sealed door answers with one heavy knock from within.
The Bloodless Courtier
I can guide you through the door. But if you open it, the thing that changed me will know your name.
Quest Complete
Reach the passage beneath the hall
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Great→Superb
Quest Complete
Determine whether Edric was changed by the gate