The slave princess leads Ravellorn and the surrendered guard through a narrow lane, leaving the beast behind to watch the deserted market. Their destination is a roofless shrine neglected by the hall.
Broken stone saints ring a soot-black altar beneath the open sky. The guard remains awake and shaken, while midnight approaches like a closing hand over the city.
The Slave Princess
You said the ruler descends after midnight. What does he seek in those meetings, and what symbol marks the chamber?
Northern Hall Guard 1
A black hand, yes, but older signs are cut beneath it: a crowned serpent devouring its own tail. I never learned the meaning.
The slave princess crouches beside the altar, tracing neither soot nor stone, only the air above them. The guard watches her fingers and edges nearer the shrine wall.
The Slave Princess
And the servants forbidden to speak of? Names, faces, or the work they perform. Do not spend my patience on frightened guesses.
Northern Hall Guard 1
They wear ash-gray veils and carry no steel. I saw three enter below the throne once. None came back before dawn.
“I press the guard to name their hidden master”
FAILURE (Good Intimidation, rolled -1)
Ravellorn seizes the guard by his surcoat and shield strap, turning him toward the shrine's dark opening as though to march him back into the beast's reach. His bruised ribs tighten under the strain.
Northern Hall Guard 1
No. Not there. I will name no master for a dead man to hear.
The guard wrenches free and stumbles against the shrine wall, shield raised between them. His courage fails before his tongue does, and his eyes fix on the soot-black altar.
The Slave Princess
You press the wrong door. He fears the name more than the beast, which means the name has power here.
Northern Hall Guard 1
The hidden master is called the Voice Beneath. I never saw a face. Find the crowned serpent, and you will find the door that hears him.
He has not given a personal name, but the refusal has cracked open a usable path: the serpent sign is not merely a mark below the throne, but the way to reach the unseen power behind it.
“Check the altar; perhaps there is a clue or maybe something within in it or beneath it”
FAILURE (Fair Perception, rolled -1)
Ravellorn kneels at the soot-black altar and runs his fingers beneath its cracked rim, probing for a seam or hidden hollow. Dust coats his knuckles, but the old stone yields no clear sign.
Ravellorn
The soot is newer than the carving.
He presses harder. A loosened fragment shifts beneath his palm, and the altar's upper slab drops crookedly with a grinding crack. A narrow darkness opens below, too deep for his hand.
Northern Hall Guard 1
Leave it. That stone has stood untouched since before the hall was built.
Ravellorn reaches toward the opening, but a breath of bitter ash rises from it, stinging his eyes. The slab grinds back into place, sealing whatever waited beneath.
The Slave Princess
A clue, perhaps, but not one meant to be taken by force. The altar has hidden its answer again.
The altar now bears a fresh black fracture across its face. Whatever mechanism lay beneath is closed, and the serpent-marked passage below the throne remains the clearer path.
Director's note
check the room for something heavy and solid that can be used to pry the crack further
Ravellorn lunges across the shrine and seizes the surrendered guard by his surcoat and shield strap. He hauls him toward the lane where the beast waits beyond sight, ribs twisting under the strain.
Northern Hall Guard 1
No! The beast is gone from here. You cannot throw me into empty darkness and call it mercy!
The guard braces his boots against the shrine stones, shield scraping the floor. His courage holds only because the lane offers no visible jaws, and his eyes keep darting toward it.
The Slave Princess
The beast is not here, soldier. Find your leverage in the stone, not in a threat already spent.
Ravellorn releases the guard and searches the roofless shrine. Among the fallen saints, he finds a thick stone forearm, heavy enough to serve as a pry bar against the altar's fresh fracture.
He wedges the broken stone limb into the crack and leans his weight upon it. His bruised ribs flare as the slab grinds upward, revealing a finger-wide black seam beneath.
The Slave Princess
There. The altar yields, but listen before you widen it. Something below may hear the stone moving.
From the narrow opening comes a dry whisper, not wind but a murmur shaped through hidden hollows. The surrendered guard goes rigid, while ash trembles along the altar's edge.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get the witness to identify the voice beneath
+ New Item Acquired
Stone forearm
Director's note
threateningly and grabbing him by the front of his shirt say the following to the guard
“"Whether you like it or not, we are in this together. Whose voice was that? Tell us what we know. You're only way out of this depends on our success because your life surely forfeit if we get caught"”
FAILURE (Good Intimidation, rolled +0)
Ravellorn
Whether you like it or not, we are in this together. Whose voice was that? Tell us what we know. Your only way out depends on our success, and your life is forfeit if we are caught.
Ravellorn catches the guard by the front of his shirt and hauls him close. His ribs twist against the effort, pain tightening his breath, while the black seam whispers between them.
Northern Hall Guard 1
I do not know its name! I heard only the Voice Beneath, and never from a throat. It spoke through stone.
The guard's shield slips from his fingers. Beneath the raised slab, the finger-wide seam widens by a hair, exposing a thread of carved stone: part of a crowned serpent's looping body.
The Slave Princess
You have frightened the truth out of him, but not obedience. The serpent is a path, not merely a mark. Widen the crack, and we may learn where it leads.
Northern Hall Guard 1
Do not open it here. If the Voice hears the stone break, it will know we have found its door.
His warning leaves a choice sharpened in the dust: pry the altar wider and risk alerting the hidden power, or carry the serpent's clue back toward the hall.
“"Give us a reason besides your fear for not opening the crack? What other path shall we take and what is it that has you trembling so, guard?"”
SUCCESS (Good Intimidation, rolled +4)
Ravellorn
Give us a reason besides your fear for not opening the crack. What other path shall we take, and what is it that has you trembling so, guard?
Ravellorn's fist remains knotted in the guard's shirt. The threat is quiet, but the altar's whisper fills the pause, and the man's courage gives way before his fear can recover.
Northern Hall Guard 1
Because the Voice does not merely hear stone break. It sends the ash-veiled servants through the old ways, and they drag the discoverer below alive.
Northern Hall Guard 1
Take the hall's old cistern passage instead. From the shrine it runs beneath the north wall and enters behind the throne. I can show you the concealed grating.
His shaking hand points beneath a fallen saint's pedestal. There, half buried in dust, a rusted ring marks a stone grating, and a narrow draft carries the smell of cold water and old mortar.
Northern Hall Guard 1
The servants fear that passage, though I do not know why. Use it, and the Voice may not know you come until you stand beneath its throne.
Quest Complete
Get the witness to identify the voice beneath
Skill Upgrade: Intimidation Good→Great