The tiefling keeps one hand near her knife while the bronze case rests between her and Sirveris, its chain drawn taut around her wrist.
Crimson light reveals royal survey marks and boot prints circling the chamber. No companion followed Sirveris into the quarry; the blacksmith and Captain Veyr remain behind at the tavern.
Vaelith
The case holds records taken from beneath the quarry. Routes, names, perhaps the truth about the thing your captain hunts.
She nudges the case slightly with her boot. Its bronze plates are etched with cramped symbols, and one angular sigil glows faintly beside the lock.
Vaelith
That mark is protective. Force the lock, and it may call whoever placed it. Perhaps Veyr knows. Perhaps he is the reason it was sealed.
Vaelith
So tell me, warrant-bearer. Are you here to claim the records, or learn what the crown has buried?
✓ Quest Accepted
Open the quarry records
“As a sign of good faith I’ll pick the cases lock. In return all I want is your name.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Thievery, rolled +1)
Sirveris
As a sign of good faith, I’ll pick the case’s lock. In return, all I want is your name.
Sirveris kneels beside the bronze case and works the exposed lock with careful tools. The faintly glowing sigil stays dark as the mechanism yields with a soft click.
The chain slackens as the case opens. Inside lie folded survey maps, wax-marked reports, and a narrow slate covered in names and dates.
Vaelith
You could have taken the records and run. That is a better answer than most men offer.
Vaelith
My name is Vaelith. I was sent to find what the crown buried here, before Veyr's soldiers decided the truth belonged to them.
Vaelith draws the case toward herself but leaves it open between them. Crimson light catches a repeated name on the topmost report: Captain Veyr.
Quest Complete
Open the quarry records
“I’m also trying to take the king down. I stole those warrants so I could travel easier.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled -1)
Sirveris
I oppose the king. I stole those warrants so I could travel more easily under his authority.
Vaelith studies him across the open case. The crimson crystal pulses over her horns and the repeated reports bearing Veyr's name.
Vaelith
Then you are no warrant-bearer. You are a thief wearing the crown's permission, and perhaps the first honest thing in this chamber.
Vaelith
He admits treason without bargaining for trust. Either he is reckless, or he has already chosen his enemy.
She unfolds the top report and turns it toward Sirveris. Beneath Veyr's signature, a red-ink notation marks the quarry as a containment site, not a mine.
Vaelith
The crown buried a living power here and called its prison a quarry. Veyr is not hunting a dragon. He is securing what sleeps below.
Vaelith
If you truly mean to bring the king down, help me read these records before Veyr returns with enough soldiers to seal the entrance.
Quest Complete
Investigate the dragon rumor
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Fair→Good
“We read them”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +1)
Sirveris and Vaelith spread the maps across the crystal-lit stone. Their fingers follow routes beneath the quarry, matching dates, names, and sealed annotations.
Vaelith
Here. The western ravines are a decoy. The true passage runs below this chamber, behind the old survey shaft.
The reports describe a vast chamber beneath the quarry, marked with binding circles and a single designation: the Emberbound Sovereign. The crown records it as dormant, not dead.
Vaelith
Veyr's orders changed three nights ago. He was told to reinforce the prison after the thing began answering the crystal.
The slate names six workers who vanished during the first excavation. Beside the final name, a fresh notation reads: transferred below, allegiance uncertain.
Vaelith
The soldiers are not searching for a lair. They are preparing a ritual, and these records show where the crown hid its materials.
A map corner reveals a concealed stair descending beneath the chamber, while red ink circles a storage vault near its entrance. The records now give them a route, a prisoner, and Veyr's purpose.
✓ Quest Accepted
Stop the crown's ritual
“We should move together. It’s safer that way”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +3)
Sirveris
We should move together. It is safer that way.
Vaelith
Agreed. You take the front. I will watch our backs and keep the records close.
Vaelith gathers the maps and slate into the bronze case, then follows Sirveris to the concealed stair. A hidden catch yields beneath his searching fingers, opening the stone steps without a sound.
They descend together through a narrow shaft veined with red crystal. The air grows warmer, carrying ash, old incense, and the faint vibration of something immense below.
Vaelith
This passage bypasses the soldiers entirely. The crown hid it behind the survey marks, but whoever built the prison expected someone to return.
At the stair's foot, a grated alcove opens beside them. Within rests a sealed satchel bearing the same royal insignia as Veyr's reports, untouched and plainly marked for the missing workers.
Vaelith
If the satchel survived below, then at least one of the vanished workers may have left more than a name behind.
✓ Quest Accepted
Open the workers' satchel
“We open it”
SUCCESS (Legendary Thievery, rolled -1)
Sirveris lifts the sealed satchel from the grated alcove and examines its royal insignia. The leather is stiff with age, but the clasp gives beneath his careful fingers.
The seal parts without a snap or flare. Inside are a worker's journal, a ring of tarnished keys, and a blood-darkened strip of cloth bearing the quarry mark.
Vaelith
That journal may tell us who went below, and whether any of them returned.
Vaelith crouches beside him, keeping one hand on the bronze case while her other reaches toward the journal. The deep vibration travels through the stone beneath their knees.
Vaelith
The keys are labeled. Storage vault, binding chamber, lower gate. The crown expected its wardens to move through this place.
The journal's first pages list six workers and supply counts. On the final written page, a hurried line identifies one survivor: Oren Vale, confined below the lower gate.
Vaelith
Then we have a living witness, a route to him, and proof the crown's prison still has wardens. Choose the key, and I will follow.
Quest Complete
Open the workers' satchel
+ New Item Acquired
Worker's satchel