Under Archmage Valerius’s stare, Zacvi drives the monks back to the truth they have been dodging since the token first smoked violet in his hand.
Archmage Valerius
Speak plainly. What is hidden in your chant?
The Serene Shrine Monks
We did not know. We only followed the rhythm, and it answered.
At Zacvi’s pressure, the nearest monk jerks up his hood. Beneath it, the eyes burn with trapped moon-pale light, and faint Shadow Gem shards gleam through the skin at the temples and throat.
The Elderly Merchant
By the gods... they are lit from within.
Archmage Valerius
There. The blight is not on the token alone. It is in them, riding their bodies like a conduit.
The violet mist curls harder from the shard-marked flesh, pooling toward the square and then thinning as if fed by breath. The monks recoil from their own hands, horrified, as the crowd finally understands the corruption has a living source.
✓ Quest Accepted
Force the monks to explain the moon-pale light in their bodies
“Grab the monk by the robes and demand he tell me who gave them these gems.”
SUCCESS (Great Strength, rolled +3)
Zacvi snatches a monk by the robes and yanks him forward. The cluster breaks apart in a gasp as the violet mist stirs around their feet.
Zacvi
Tell me who gave you these gems.
The Serene Shrine Monks
We were given no gems. We were given a hymn, and the hymn led us to the shard.
The monk in Zacvi’s grip shakes hard, then twists his wrist to show a split in the skin at his throat. Tiny Shadow Gem flecks glitter there like buried stars.
Archmage Valerius
Not a gift, then. A latch. Someone is opening them from the inside.
At that, one monk blurts a name through chattering teeth, pointing past the square and toward the road out of Batoco. The crowd surges back from the line of pointing fingers as if the answer itself burns.
The Stranger
That is not what my pitch was for... I was told this was for a tourney.
The pointed road and the monks’ trembling confession lock the whole square onto the same destination, while the violet mist thins toward it like a trail.
Quest Complete
Force the monks to explain the moon-pale light in their bodies