Teren leads them along the quarry passage, then slips behind a fallen slab into a cramped alcove. Dusty air presses close, carrying the cold smell of buried stone.
Teren
This is one of the old drainage routes. The quarrymen used them to carry rainwater away from the cut face, and these marks measured the slope before the paths opened.
A rotted survey board still hangs against the wall. Its faded lines show the cut face, the eastern shelter, and a sealed route running toward the northern foothills.
Rovan
The sealed line is deeper than the route we came through. If it still connects to the opening, it may give us another way around the passage.
Teren
That is what I think. We can follow the drainage channel to the old measuring stones, then close the paths from the side without entering the deepest passage.
Teren brushes grime from a lower section of the board, revealing three small blue marks beneath the foothills route. Rovan studies them in silence as a muted tremor travels through the slab.
Teren
The first mark is a drain gate, the second is a measuring chamber, and the third should be the closure point. If the old stonework holds, we can reach all three from here.
“" ok and what are we sealing and why"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +4)
Kynes
Okay, and what are we sealing, and why?
Rovan
We are sealing the opened paths beneath the quarry, not the drainage route itself. Something below has folded stone into passages that never existed, and each opening is extending the disturbance toward the northern foothills.
Teren
The old marks are measuring pressure and direction. If the openings remain, they can shift beneath the roads, wells, or houses above. The closure point will return the stone to its proper shape and stop the paths from spreading.
Kynes reads the survey board again, comparing its slope lines with the tremor under the slab. The marks are not a summons or a claim of ownership; they are a practical map of a breach in the quarry’s foundations.
Rovan
The advantage is that this drainage route reaches all three points from the side. We can close the drain gate, confirm the measuring chamber, and seal the closure stone without entering the deepest passage or deciding anything for Teren.
As Rovan finishes, the lowest blue mark brightens and reveals a narrow panel beneath the survey board. Behind it lies a dry stair descending directly toward the drain gate, giving Kynes a clear, safe route to the first sealing point.
Teren
That panel was hidden when I came through. You have found the side entrance we needed. The path can be closed without risking the people who are already here.
“I tap into my shadow magic, and map the tunnels to see if they match the map, and to sence what is down there.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled -1)
Kynes taps into his shadow magic. Darkness pours across the survey board and slips through the hidden stair, tracing every tunnel, chamber, drain, and sealed junction beneath the quarry.
The shadow map overlays the faded lines precisely: the stair reaches the drain gate, the channel continues to the measuring chamber, and the third route ends at the closure stone beneath the northern foothills.
His senses travel deeper. He detects folded stone surrounding the proper passages, pressure moving through the breach, and a hollow expanse below the closure point where the unnatural paths originate.
Rovan
The map matches exactly, and you have found what lies beneath the final mark. The disturbance is centered there, contained but pushing outward through the folded stone.
Teren
Then the old measurements were right. The drain gate will let us reach the chamber, and the closure stone is still connected to the source below.
The shadow recedes, leaving the tunnels clear in Kynes’s mind. He knows the safe route, the breach’s location, and the exact sequence needed to close the opened paths from the side.
✓ Quest Accepted
Investigate the source beneath the closure point
“I follow the shadow map toward the closure stone and study the source below.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +0)
Kynes follows the shadow map down the dry stair, past the drain gate and along the measured channel. The stone grows colder as the route descends beneath the quarry.
The measuring chamber opens around him, its old markers still aligned. Beyond them, the closure route reaches a broad stone set into the floor, where folded passages converge around a dark hollow below.
Kynes studies the source through the stone. His arcane sight reveals no mind, voice, or deliberate will, but a pressure-born distortion: buried space folding against itself and forcing new passages outward.
The closure stone is the breach's anchor. Its blue markings measure the pressure rather than feed it, and the hollow beneath is contained by the surrounding bedrock, not yet connected to the surface roads.
Rovan
Can you tell whether the source is alive? If it is, we should know before we seal it.
The shadow map settles into a complete answer: the source is a natural magical pressure trapped beneath the quarry, without intention or awareness. Kynes knows the closure stone can return the folded passages to their proper shape.
Teren
Then we can close it without harming anyone below. The old measurements were meant for exactly this.
The chamber falls still around the revealed source. The drain gate, measuring stones, and closure point now form a safe sequence, and the way to end the spreading paths is fully understood.
Quest Complete
Investigate the source beneath the closure point