The black seal lies half buried in blue fire at the broken threshold, close enough for Shan to reach. Beyond it, the kneeling dead raise their pallid faces as one.
The Disgraced Knight
Take it, Shan. If the seal refuses you, I will hold them as long as steel and bone permit.
The Disgraced Knight braces before the advancing dead, sword lifted. Blue fire crawls along his blade, and every corpse halts just beyond its arc.
The Figure
The crown does not contest your courage. It contests your right.
Behind the kneeling horde, the dead king rises within the opened tomb. His crown burns without flame, and a pressure like a buried avalanche bears down upon the living.
The Dead King
Living claimant, seize the seal. Let the dead judge the hand that would command them.
✓ Quest Accepted
Retrieve the black seal
“I reach through the blue fire and seize the black seal.”
SUCCESS (Fair Willpower, rolled +1)
Shan's gauntleted hand enters the blue fire. The flame bends around his fingers, cold rather than burning, and the black seal closes against his palm.
The instant Shan seizes it, the split tomb seal flashes with the same dark mark. A ring of blue radiance races across the crypt floor beneath the kneeling dead.
The Disgraced Knight
It answers him.
The halted dead lower their faces. Their weapons touch stone in a single thunderous submission, and the pressure bearing down on the crypt breaks.
The Figure
The hand is accepted. The crown may hear the claimant now.
The Dead King remains upright within the tomb, but his stern gaze fixes on the seal in Shan's grasp. Blue fire withdraws from the threshold, leaving the black mark cold and solid in his hand.
The Dead King
Bearer of the black seal, speak your command.
Quest Complete
Retrieve the black seal
+ New Item Acquired
Black seal