The caravan guard leads Ethan along the mine track toward the broken copper shrine, keeping his marked palm wrapped in a strip of cloth. Behind them, the sellsword remains at the sealed entrance with the suspended key.
Gray light thins beneath the leaning timbers. Fallen copper slabs surround the shrine, and beneath the largest stone, faint black residue glistens around a crack hidden from the track.
the caravan guard
There is something I did not tell you. Before I lifted the shrine stone, something was already waiting beside the seal.
The guard stops short of the rubble. His wrapped hand trembles near his chest, while the black residue draws into tiny threads along the crack.
the caravan guard
It was not a voice this time. A shape crouched beside the stone, facing the sealed place as if it had been waiting for someone to open it.
the caravan guard
I should have remembered its eyes before bringing him here.
The crack gives a soft inward click. No stone shifts, yet a breath of cold air rises from beneath the shrine, carrying the smell of wet copper and ash.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the shape that waited beside the seal
“I ask the guard to describe the shape's eyes before we approach the stone.”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +0)
Ethan Graves
Describe its eyes before we approach the stone.
the caravan guard
They were wide and pale, without any white around them. Copper-red rings moved across the pupils, watching the seal instead of me.
The guard swallows and points toward the largest slab without touching it. His wrapped palm stays pressed against his chest as the residue threads along the crack.
the caravan guard
The shape had no lantern, yet I saw those eyes clearly. They reflected nothing, not the shrine, not the daylight, not even my face.
Ethan Graves
The crack is breathing cold air, but the stone has not moved.
At his answer, the black residue gathers into two dark crescents beside the crack, echoing the remembered eyes. The cold breath fades, leaving wet copper and ash in the air.
the caravan guard
That is all I remember clearly. Whatever waited there was facing the seal, as though it feared what rested beneath it.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get the guard clear of the shrine