The warded party reaches the Black Tomb at dusk. Its ancient funerary vault is cut into the hillside, silvered doors bearing necromantic icons disturbingly close to those on Lazorus’s own tomb.
Meris and Garran remain near the entrance with the skeleton, guarding the warded approach. Lazorus enters with the young woman, the elderly man, and Harl, while dust rolls from shelves of sealed books.
He scours the cramped shelves for binding rites, capture circles, and names for things buried beneath roads. Several brittle volumes describe chains of obedience rather than destruction.
the elderly man
These rites were written for containment. Whoever built this place expected the buried to resist, and expected oath-bearers to fail.
The pilgrim’s letter lies beside sealed records bearing the same crest. Their entries speak of retaliatory purges and betrayed oath-bearers, each account ending before naming an executioner.
the young woman
Then the creature beneath the road is one link in a larger silencing. But this letter still does not tell us who murdered the pilgrim.
Harl
The dust remembers a prison. Something below was bound, but not forgotten.
✓ Quest Accepted
Bind the buried creature