The blue doorway remains openable but unopened, its calm sigils washing the chamber in cool light. Rovan studies the quarry map while Teren kneels beside the threshold.
Rovan
The quarry was only the first reach. If this working continues upward, every opened path may be part of a route toward the surface.
Teren
These marks resemble the old survey signs, but this one is older. The quarrymen copied it without knowing what it meant.
Teren traces the smallest sigil with one careful finger, stopping before its blue light. Its lines interlock like a hill beneath a rising star, unlike the practical drainage symbols nearby.
Teren
This symbol refers to a shrine. A forgotten hill shrine somewhere above the chamber, perhaps where the spellwright first anchored the route.
Rovan
Then the chamber may be a passage, not the source. We can inspect the inscription, or open the door and learn what Ilyen left beyond it.
“I inspect the shrine symbol before opening, then I open Ilyen’s blue-sealed doorway.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled -2)
Kynes examines the shrine sigil without touching it. Arcane sight separates its layered lines: the hill signifies a forgotten sanctuary, while the rising star marks an anchor above the chamber, not a source below.
Kynes
The shrine is the first anchor, and Ilyen’s chamber is the passage leading to it.
Teren
Then the route rises from here. The old sign was pointing above us all along.
Kynes directs his magic through the blue seal. The sigils accept his signature, but copy a bright fragment of it into the doorway, sending a sharp arcane echo through his casting hand.
Rovan
The seal took something from the casting, or recorded it. Either way, the door is answering you now.
The blue-sealed doorway opens inward onto a rising stone passage washed in cool light. At its far end, faint starlike marks point toward the forgotten hill shrine, while the copied echo fades from Kynes’s hand.
✓ Quest Accepted
Investigate the forgotten hill shrine
“I follow the rising passage toward the forgotten hill shrine.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled -2)
Kynes follows the rising passage toward the forgotten hill shrine, moving lightly over uneven stone while Rovan and Teren keep close behind. Cool blue light guides them upward through the carved ascent.
The passage narrows sharply around a broken ledge. Kynes slips on loose grit, catches himself against the wall, and scrapes his palm across the rough stone before regaining his footing.
Rovan
The footing worsens here. You reached the shrine route, but the mountain has taken its first price from you.
Kynes continues upward despite the stinging scrape. The passage opens beneath a split in the hillside, revealing a forgotten shrine carved into the rock above the quarry.
A weathered stone altar stands beneath the open sky, surrounded by fallen pillars and blue hill-shaped marks. Their lines converge on a star-shaped hollow in the altar’s face.
Teren
This is the first anchor. The route begins here, exactly as the old sign promised.
Wind moves through the ruined shrine, carrying pine and cold dust. Below, the rising passage remains open, while the blue marks wait around the altar for Kynes’s examination.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether Ilyen’s route begins at the forgotten hill shrine
“I examine the blue marks and their convergence on the altar.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +1)
Kynes studies the blue marks circling the altar, following each line to the star-shaped hollow. Arcane sight reveals a unified working, not separate symbols or ordinary quarry signs.
The marks record a deliberate ascent through the hillside. Their convergence identifies the hollow as the shrine’s anchor, while the passage below serves as a conduit toward it.
Teren
The lines are older than the quarry paths, but they were renewed recently. Someone has been using this altar to guide the pressure from above.
Kynes traces the convergence without touching the stone. The working contains no living mind or voice; it is an anchor and directional seal, designed to gather the spreading force and send it down the marked route.
Rovan
Then the shrine is not where the disturbance began. It is where someone taught it which way to travel, and the altar preserves that instruction.
The star-shaped hollow brightens beneath Kynes’s examination, revealing a second pattern inside the stone: a concealed route beyond the shrine, leading toward the northern heights and the working’s true origin.
Quest Complete
Investigate the forgotten hill shrine
Skill Upgrade: Ranged Combat Mediocre→Fair
Quest Complete
Determine whether Ilyen’s route begins at the forgotten hill shrine