Chester guides the battered group away from the stair before the next descent. He leads Glalin and Juntire through a side passage, while the skeletal battalion remains behind to hold the warded mouth.
Chester Woodsquire
The next descent will come soon. We follow their retreat, find their command, and learn what they meant to breach.
Fresh scratches score the dust where radiant armor passed, and pale sparks cling to the walls. The trail ends at an abandoned command vault sealed by fallen stone.
Juntire Parrywills
The ward’s current reaches this place. Something below those stones is still drawing from it, though the assault has withdrawn.
Within the vault, a radiant standard lies pinned beneath broken masonry. Its white-gold cloth gives a weak, steady glow, and an unfamiliar crest crowns its field.
Juntire Parrywills
That crest belongs to their commander. The standard carries the order’s authority, and this sealed dispatch was hidden beneath it.
Chester clears the last stone without disturbing the seal. The dispatch rests in the dim radiance, while beneath the floor the ward answers with a faint, hungry pulse.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the enemy commander's next move
Director's note
Glalin inspects the crest, and attempts to learn about the Good's next plan.
Glalin kneels beside the fallen standard, studying its unfamiliar crest without touching the sealed dispatch. Its white-gold radiance reveals three hooked towers encircling a dark central line.
Glalin Moondale
The crest is not a kingdom's mark. It signifies a command bound to a single objective.
He traces the crest’s pattern through the air with one hand, invoking arcane sight. Pale symbols rise above the cloth, revealing impressions left by orders carried through the standard.
Juntire Parrywills
Carefully. If the standard remembers its bearer, it may also remember the hand that sent them.
The symbols sharpen into a fragmented vision: radiant troops descending again, not toward the stair, but toward the vault’s foundations. Beneath them, the ward’s buried current bends toward a hidden chamber.
Juntire Parrywills
Their next plan is below us. They mean to seize the source beneath the Hold and turn its power against Eitria’s seal.
Chester Woodsquire
Then we guard the foundations before their commanders return. The battalion holds the stair, and we take this warning to the deepest gate.
Prevent the enemy from seizing the Hold's power source
Quest Complete
Learn the enemy commander's next move