The route descends beneath the old marker into a narrow stone passage, its walls threaded with older copper lattice. Merovan’s recent rendezvous mark glimmers ahead.
Fresh footprints darken the dust beyond the last bend. A faint voice carries through the stone, too muffled to identify, while the copper strands answer with a wary shimmer.
Bren
Someone reached the crossing before us. I will observe the passage and the evidence, but I will not decide what either of them means for you.
Bren lowers her voice and studies the footprints without touching them. One set turns toward the glimmering mark; another pauses beside a hair-thin copper loop sunk into the floor.
Sil'Thalis
The lattice is older than Merovan’s mark, and the footprints are fresh.
Bren
The voice is coming from ahead, not behind. If the crossing is active, it may already be sorting whoever waits there.
The unseen speaker falls silent. Merovan’s mark brightens once, drawing a narrow line of copper light deeper into the passage, while the footprints continue toward the unseen crossing.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the unlisted crossing
“I inspect the copper loop without touching it, then advance toward the crossing.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled -2)
Sil’Thalis studies the hair-thin copper loop without touching it. Its threads carry Merovan’s routing pattern, but beneath that false source lies an older witness-anchor, still separate and intact.
Sil'Thalis
The loop redirects passage, but it does not command the lattice’s origin.
His staff absorbs the loop’s reflected resonance for the inspection. A sharp numbness travels from his burned palm to two fingers, and one stored reserve gutters dark.
Bren
I saw the distinction. The anchor remains older than Merovan, and the false source is only attached to it.
Sil’Thalis advances without disturbing the copper loop. The passage opens into a circular crossing chamber where three waystone channels meet beneath a suspended copper ring.
A cloaked figure stands beyond the ring, hands lowered and empty. The recent footprints end there, while the lattice records Sil’Thalis’s arrival without claiming his identity.
the cloaked figure
You came through the old marker without accepting Merovan’s route. Then the crossing can hear you as yourself.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether the crossing permits independent passage
Quest Complete
Reach the unlisted crossing
Skill Upgrade: Athletics Fair→Good