Three days later, Corinth’s eastern gate rests beneath a clear morning sky. The restored foundations are quiet, their household names steady beneath the protection Thanatos preserved.
Thanatos waits among the old stones as Heracles approaches from the harbor road, dust clinging to his limbs after another labor.
Heracles
You called, and I came. Travelers have seen Zyodai’s agents moving toward a hidden refuge near the harbor roads.
Heracles lowers his voice, glancing toward Corinth’s busy streets. His report carries uncertainty, but a surviving witness left a strange trace along the road.
Heracles
The testimony is incomplete. Still, the trace is there. You and I are the only ones who can follow it before Zyodai vanishes again.
Thanatos
The foundations hold, but the harbor roads carry a new trail.
Near the gate’s shadow, a faint silver residue glimmers between two paving stones, visible only to divine sight and the hero’s sharpened perception. It bends toward the harbor.
✓ Quest Accepted
Locate Zyodai's hidden refuge
““That silver trail leads into the harbor. Follow it. I will keep watch over Zyodai’s men in secret and attempt to learn more.” I instruct Heracles. But just before we split up, I reassure Heracles, “You once forcibly hindered my work in Thessaly, to save the wife of Admetus from death. But once you’ve completed this favor for me, your debt to the Underworld shall be wiped clean.””
FAILURE (Mediocre Persuasion, rolled +1)
Thanatos
Follow the silver trail into the harbor. I will watch Zyodai’s men unseen and learn what I can.
Thanatos
You once hindered my work in Thessaly to save Admetus’s wife from death. Complete this favor, and your debt to the Underworld is wiped clean.
Heracles
Then I will follow it. Not for the debt alone, but because Zyodai’s reach should end here.
Heracles bends over the silver residue and follows its narrowing gleam toward the harbor. Thanatos slips into the gate’s shadows, keeping the moving agents within sight.
The concealment holds until one agent pauses beside a fishmonger’s cart and scatters black ash across the paving stones. The silver trail divides, and the men vanish among the crowded quays.
Thanatos reaches the fork too late to identify their refuge, but his divine sight catches a bronze token left beneath the cart, stamped with Zyodai’s broken seal and pointing toward a shuttered warehouse.
Heracles
The trail ends at the water, but the harbor keeps its secrets. I found another silver mark beneath the warehouse doors.
“I veil myself in shadow and infiltrate the shuttered warehouse.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Stealth, rolled +2)
Thanatos gathers the harbor’s shadows around his pallid form. His soot-stained wings fade into the warehouse’s darkness as he crosses the threshold without stirring dust or hinge.
Inside, the shuttered warehouse smells of salt, tar, and old grain. Crates line the walls, while narrow strips of daylight reveal fresh footprints crossing the floor.
Heracles
I will watch the quay. If they return, I will keep them from reaching the streets.
Heracles remains outside beneath the warehouse doors, his presence drawing no alarm. Within, Thanatos moves between stacked crates and finds a concealed stair descending below the harbor floor.
At the stair’s base, Zyodai’s broken bronze seal hangs above a barred inner room. Silver residue threads through the lock, carrying the trace of several bound names.
Thanatos passes through the shadowed bars and enters the hidden chamber. Ledgers, chains of dark script, and sealed clay tablets fill its shelves, while the stolen names pulse faintly within.
Quest Complete
Locate Zyodai's hidden refuge
Skill Upgrade: Persuasion Mediocre→Fair