Captain Valerius raises his blade, then stops, listening. The battering at the gate has gone dead quiet, as if the ruin is holding its breath with him.
From the far corner, a figure begins to move with a du Morvannoux lord's measured stride. It is too smooth, too familiar, and its face is only a shifting shadow where a face should be.
Tancred du Forgietan
That gait is not human... but it knows the house.
Valerius edges forward, guarding the exit without looking away. Tancred stays inside the reliquary's cold circle, while the thing lifts a rusted key between two pale fingers.
Captain Valerius
Do not move. If that key fits the crypt, it is no accident.
The shadowed figure halts in the doorway between Tancred and the stairs, as if choosing not to strike. Frost crawls over the ledger margins, and the air turns sharp enough to taste.
Captain Valerius
Tancred, tell me if you know it. Is that one of yours, or something wearing your house like a mask?
✓ Quest Accepted
Confront the shadowed figure at the reliquary
“I raise my blade as a deterrent to get the shadow to stop where it is, "Honored Ancestor, thou hast the bearing of my kinsmen. Though I know not with whomst I speak. What is thy business within this chamber, seek thee to harm us, or to provide succor?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +1)
Tancred lifts his sword between them, not lunging, only setting a hard line in the frosted air. The shadow at the threshold stills at once, key held steady, as if it recognizes the courtesy in the challenge.
Tancred du Forgietan
Honored ancestor, thou hast the bearing of my kinsmen. I know not with whom I speak. What is thy business in this chamber, dost thou mean harm, or succor?
The Shadowed Figure
Succor was once spoken here, often enough to rot into a lie. I am what remains when the house remembers its debts.
Captain Valerius
A du Morvannoux dead, or something wearing that memory. Either way, it knows the ledger.
The Shadowed Figure
Your house did not merely bury its records in bone and ash. It buried its witnesses with them.
Frost creeps over the crest basin and along the ledger's edge, making the carved lines look like white scars. The figure lowers the rusted key a fraction, not in surrender, but in answer.
The Shadowed Figure
If you want my name, Lord du Forietan, ask it cleanly. If you want the truth, ask what your blood was made to carry.
Quest Complete
Confront the shadowed figure at the reliquary