Thornton Smith steps into the Adventures Guild hall and finds a slaughtered hush, blood slick on the flagstones, torchlight trembling on broken tables and overturned benches.
From the far shadows, Kethrak watches, black scales half-lost in the dark, his stillness heavy as a curse.
At the center of the hall, a decadent sorcerer staggers behind a wavering ward, hurling desperate spells at a mass of shackled slaves surging from the stairs.
The Sorcerer
Hold them back! By ash and bone, hold them back!
The front ranks do not stop. Their leader, a concubine with blood on her palms and a voice like a knife on stone, chants in a guttural tongue that makes the floor itself weep red.
The Concubine
Beneath this hall, wake. Beneath this hall, rise.
The air shudders. Cracks spider through the guild floor, and something vast stirs under the stone, hungry for the first breath of daylight in centuries.
The sorcerer turns toward Thornton Smith, face draining white, while the chanting swells and the blood begins to seep toward his boots.
✓ Quest Accepted
Interrupt the ritual
“Can I reach the concubine before the floor collapses?”
YES (Likely, rolled 17)
Thornton Smith
The floor is buckling along the western seam, but the structural stress leaves a clear, narrow path of solid stone directly to her.
Thornton Smith spots the fracture lines, realizing that the stone beneath the concubine is the last to give way, offering a fleeting window to reach her before the abyss opens.
“I rush the concubine with my guandao”
SUCCESS (Great Melee Weapons, rolled +2)
Thornton Smith lunges down the narrow stone path, guandao sweeping in a hard, flashing arc. The blade bites into the concubine before she can rise, and her chant breaks on a sharp gasp.
The Concubine
No, wait, the seal, I must...
Her arms drop. The violet glow in the crack stutters, then sputters unevenly under her blood-slick hands.
The Sorcerer
Yes, keep her from the fissure! Do not let her finish it!
Kethrak leans from the shadows, head tipped as the hall shudders. The chanting dies into scattered cries, and the widening break no longer answers to her rhythm.
The Concubine
Too late. It hears us either way...
A low pulse rolls up through the flagstones, but the ritual pattern is broken, the light below trapped in ragged flashes instead of a clean ascent.
Quest Complete
Interrupt the ritual
“Offer concubine hand in marriage to spare her life.”
SUCCESS (Good Oratory, rolled +2)
The concubine goes still, then lifts her head with a sharp, unbelieving laugh. The crack beneath her flares violet, but the pulse breaks against the shattered rhythm.
The Concubine
Marriage? After this? You would bind yourself to ruin for me?
Thornton Smith’s offer lands cleanly. The sorcerer stares, stunned, as if the hall itself has changed shape around the words.
The Sorcerer
He has turned the blade aside with a vow. Impossible... but useful.
Kethrak straightens in the dark, cold interest sharpening into calculation. The fissure keeps glowing, yet its flare loosens, no longer fed by the chant.
Kethrak
Clever. One spark snuffs another, if the marriage is believed.
The concubine pushes herself upright beside the blood-wet crack, breathing hard, eyes fixed on Thornton Smith instead of the abyss.
The Concubine
Then take my hand, hero, and say it before the thing below decides for us.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the collapsing guild hall
“Take her gently by the hand and safely leave with her.”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled +0)