The chapel doors groan wide. Wind rolls in with a pale man in its teeth, and the cracked bell still lets dust sift over the marked flagstone.
Elias the Miller stumbles to a stop, chest heaving. He clutches a torn strip of cloth in one shaking hand and stares past the Inquisitor, locking on Xaurier instead.
Elias the Miller
You found the bell. Good. I thought I was too late.
Elias the Miller
This came from the boy's sleeve. I saw him near the river path, walking with a woman I did not know. She was heading here.
The Inquisitor
A witness at last. Speak plainly, miller. What did you see at the chapel door?
Elias the Miller
I saw the child step onto that stone. I heard a prayer, then the bell answered. After that, the air went strange.
He thrusts the cloth toward Xaurier, fingers white with strain, as the dust keeps falling from above the seal.
✓ Quest Accepted
Find the missing boy
✓ Quest Accepted
Uncover the secrets beneath the chapel flagstone
+ New Item Acquired
Torn cloth fragment
““Ok we uncover what beneath the chapel first, because that could give us clues to the missing boy.””
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +0)
Xaurier moves to the marked stone and sets his staff aside. The Inquisitor shifts back to give him room, while dust keeps ticking down from the bell overhead.
Xaurier
Let us uncover what lies beneath the chapel first. If the boy left anything here, it may tell us where he went.
Together they pry at the flagstone. It yields with a harsh scrape, revealing a narrow hollow below, dark and dry, lined with old ash and a buried wooden box.
Elias the Miller
I did not see that before. The woman brought him to this very place, then she stepped back as if afraid of what was waiting.
Xaurier reaches down and lifts the box free. Inside lies a child’s worn charm, a chapel token blackened by smoke, and a strip of river mud-stiff cloth tied in a careful knot.
The Inquisitor
Ash, a token, and river mud. This is no random hiding place. Someone prepared this hollow for a crossing.
The bell above gives another faint tick. Dust spills onto the open cavity as the newly exposed seal waits for Xaurier’s next choice.
Quest Complete
Uncover the secrets beneath the chapel flagstone
+ New Item Acquired
Child's worn charm
+ New Item Acquired
Chapel token
+ New Item Acquired
Strip of river mud-stiff cloth
+ New Item Acquired
Small wooden box