The names beneath the chamber flare like submerged stars. A seam splits the floor beneath Veyrath’s chains, and blue light pours upward from a stair descending into darkness.
Discarded pilgrim tokens and torn records litter the steps below. Wet footprints lead deeper underground, vanishing where the radiance thins. Above, the smugglers remain at the cove, while the pilgrims are gone.
Veyrath
The source still feeds. Every name it takes strengthens the hollow beneath us. Do not mistake its silence for weakness.
Veyrath strains against the iron chains. The links shriek, and fresh blue fire crawls through the hooked sigil while the chamber trembles around the descending passage.
the employer
Mehrunes, secure proof before you destroy it. A token, a record, anything that can expose Oth Varun’s hand to the capital.
the smuggler captain
Those marks belong to the missing. I can identify the village seals, if the thing below has not swallowed them whole.
The employer gathers her records and stands beside Mehrunes at the broken floor. The captain remains close, pale but watchful, as something far below drags wetly across stone.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure credible proof of Oth Varun’s involvement
“mehrunes jumped down into the depths, her eyes lit with her father's divine bloodlust. "Both wi=ould be in the jaws of the beast. Dont be cowards."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Athletics, rolled +0)
Mehrunes Daegon
Both would be in the beast's jaws. Do not be cowards.
Mehrunes leaps through the broken floor, divine bloodlust burning in her eyes. She lands on the wet stone below as blue radiance folds around her.
The landing jars her left ankle, forcing a sharp pain through the joint. Her momentum carries her onward, but one discarded pilgrim token cracks beneath her boot.
the smuggler captain
Damn you, woman. If the beast takes you, those names vanish with you.
Above, the employer reaches the edge with the captain behind her. Neither follows yet. Below, the wet footprints continue into a vast chamber where pale ribs of stone curve around a dark pit.
Veyrath
The hollow hears your blood, Mehrunes. It will open for you, but it will not distinguish courage from hunger.
The cracked token slides into a groove between the stones. Its village seal flares blue, and a hidden slate rises from the floor, bearing Oth Varun's silver mark.
“Mehrunes stared at the glowing runes and immediately knew what to do. She looked up through the crack in the floor and called up. "I found it. Both the village runes and the snake's medling. I need help prying the slab loose."”
SUCCESS (Good Persuasion, rolled +3)
Mehrunes Daegon
I found it. Both the village runes and the snake's meddling. I need help prying the slab loose.
Mehrunes calls through the broken floor, one hand braced against the glowing slate. The silver mark pulses beneath her fingers, illuminating the wet chamber.
the employer
Hold it steady. Captain, with me. That proof leaves this hollow intact.
The employer and the smuggler captain descend carefully, gripping the crack’s edge before crossing the slick stone toward Mehrunes and the raised slate.
the smuggler captain
The village seals are genuine. That hooked serpent belongs to Varun’s chain-binders. Pry from the left, or the record will split.
Together they lever iron tools beneath the slab. Blue fire spills across their hands, but the stone rises cleanly, exposing a sealed bundle of names and Oth Varun’s signet impression.
Veyrath
The proof is yours. Now the hollow knows your purpose, and its silence will not last.
Quest Complete
Secure credible proof of Oth Varun’s involvement
Skill Upgrade: Persuasion Good→Great
“Mehrunes then read through the documents, looking for the names that had been erased.”
FAILURE (Good Reasoning, rolled -1)
Mehrunes unfolds the sealed bundle across the damp stone. The ink shivers under the blue radiance, and rows of village names emerge beneath Oth Varun’s signet.
As she searches for the erased names, the letters bleed together. Names vanish from the parchment one by one, leaving pale impressions like wounds in the fibers.
the smuggler captain
Stop turning the sheets. The hollow is answering through the record.
The bundle tightens into a single fused folio, its readable lines sealed beneath silver-black wax. Repeating the search on these pages will reveal nothing.
the employer
You found the mechanism, not the names. Look at the impressions. The shrine may have copied what Varun tried to erase.
Tilting the fused folio toward the blue fire reveals a second script beneath the lost entries: three village seals and a final notation, “transferred below, seventh gate.”
Veyrath
The seventh gate lies beneath the hollow. There, erased names remain bound to their first record, if the chain-binders have not moved them.
Prevent the hollow from destroying the fused record folio
+ New Item Acquired
Fused record folio
“Mehrunes then read through the documents, looking for the names that had been erased.”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +0)
Mehrunes reads the fused folio by blue fire, tracing each pale impression beneath the vanished ink. The erased names rise into clarity: Mara of Reedmere, Tovin son of Hal, and Sella Vey.
Mehrunes Daegon
The names were preserved beneath the erasures.
The silver-black wax leeches warmth through her fingertips. A thin line of blood opens across her palm where the signet’s edge bites, but the recovered names remain legible.
the employer
Read them aloud. Every name is testimony, and every seal ties Varun directly to the disappearances.
the smuggler captain
Mara’s seal is from the reed villages. Tovin’s belongs to Hal’s inland parish. Sella Vey was marked for transfer through the seventh gate.
The folio darkens after yielding its hidden record. Beyond the chamber, the hollow answers with a deep stirring, while Veyrath’s chains pull taut around the seventh gate’s descending passage.
Quest Complete
Retrieve the erased pilgrim records
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Good→Great