The stone floor parts beneath Veyrath’s taut chains, revealing a narrow stair descending into blue-black depth. Pale tablets line the walls, while suspended name-slips turn in a windless current.
Mehrunes, the employer, and the smuggler captain descend together. Behind them, Veyrath remains chained at the passage mouth, while the disarmed crew guards the cove above and the pilgrims remain gone.
The recovered folio opens against Mehrunes’s hands. Its three village seals glow in sequence, casting green, amber, and white reflections across the tablets before pointing toward a sealed inner threshold.
the smuggler captain
That is no shrine door. The chain-binders used thresholds like that to separate records from the places where they kept their captives.
the employer
Then the seals are a guide, not a key. Keep the folio open, and do not let the hollow rewrite what we have recovered.
Veyrath
The seventh gate remembers every name placed before it. When it opens, the tablets will show who carried them below.
At the stair’s end, the sealed threshold trembles without opening. Suspended name-slips gather before it, their blank faces turning toward Mehrunes as the three village seals burn brighter.
✓ Quest Accepted
Preserve the surviving records from the hollow
“Mehrunes hed the tome higher, reciting the names as she saw them to return them to their place in the tome.”
FAILURE (Good Willpower, rolled -3)
Mehrunes raises the recovered tome above the threshold, holding its pages toward the blue-black stair. The three seals flare beneath her hands.
Mehrunes Daegon
Mara of Reedmere. Tovin, son of Hal. Sella Vey.
Her recitation reaches the final name, but the tome’s leaves shudder violently. The letters lift from the page as pale threads and stream into the sealed threshold.
the smuggler captain
No. You are returning them to the gate, not the book. Close it before the records are taken.
Mehrunes’s grip holds the tome open, yet the glowing seals rotate out of sequence. The threshold accepts the names and stamps each one across its stone face.
the employer
The gate has marked them. We cannot restore the names by reciting them now. Preserve the tome, or lose the proof entirely.
Veyrath
The seventh gate has claimed their places. It will open only when those marks are answered by the hand that carried them below.
“Mehrunes held the tome higher, reciting the names as she saw them while channaling her divine blessing to return the names to their rightful place in the book.”
FAILURE (Good Willpower, rolled -3)
Mehrunes lifts the tome higher and channels her divine blessing through the three seals. Pale letters gather from the threshold, drawn toward the open pages.
Mehrunes Daegon
Mara of Reedmere. Tovin, son of Hal. Sella Vey.
The blessing catches the names, but the gate twists them into hooked strands. They scour across the parchment, burning the rightful entries away instead of restoring them.
the smuggler captain
Close it! The gate is feeding on your blessing. It is making the book another chain.
The tome’s covers slam against Mehrunes’s hands. Silver-black roots burst from its spine and coil around the three seals, binding the folio to the threshold.
the employer
The proof is trapped with the names. If that binding spreads, Varun’s record may become the gate’s property forever.
Veyrath
Your power answered the gate, not the dead. The seventh threshold now holds both book and testimony, and it will demand the carrier’s hand.
“Mehrunes held the tome higher, reciting the names as she saw them while channaling her divine blessing to return the names to their rightful place in the book.”
FAILURE (Good Willpower, rolled +1)
Mehrunes Daegon
Mara of Reedmere. Tovin, son of Hal. Sella Vey.
Mehrunes raises the tome and channels her divine blessing through its three seals. Pale letters lift from the threshold, drawn toward the open pages.
The gate twists the letters into hooked strands. They scour across the parchment, burning the rightful entries away as silver-black roots burst from the spine and coil around the seals.
the smuggler captain
Close it! The gate is feeding on your blessing. It is making the book another chain.
the employer
The proof is trapped with the names. If that binding spreads, Varun’s record may become the gate’s property forever.
The binding stops at the final seal. Beneath the scorched letters, a hidden impression appears: a seven-fingered hand bearing Varun’s signet, pointing toward a narrow keyhole in the threshold.
Veyrath
Your power answered the gate, not the dead. Break the chain through the hand that carried them below, and the names may yet be freed.
“Mehrunes held the tome higher, reciting the names as she saw them while channaling her divine blessing to return the names to their rightful place in the book.”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +2)
Mehrunes Daegon
Mara of Reedmere. Tovin, son of Hal. Sella Vey.
Mehrunes holds the tome higher and channels her divine blessing through its three seals. The hooked strands unravel, their pale light settling cleanly into the scorched entries.
The rightful names return to the book in clear, steady script. Silver-black roots loosen from the spine and withdraw into the threshold, leaving Varun’s seven-fingered impression preserved beneath them.
the employer
The names are restored. The proof remains intact, and Varun’s mark cannot be dismissed as an accusation.
the smuggler captain
The gate yielded to you. Those entries are genuine, every seal and village notation preserved.
Veyrath
The dead have their record again. The hand that carried them below is named, and the seventh gate now stands answered.
The keyhole opens beneath the hidden impression with a deep stone click. Beyond the threshold, blue darkness parts around descending steps, while the restored tome lies secure in Mehrunes’s hands.
Destroy the source feeding the hollow
Quest Complete
Preserve the surviving records from the hollow
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Good→Great