Maren leads Bottu beneath the ruined city, down a processional avenue lined with sealed tombs. Dust veils the carved dead, and old ward-light glimmers beneath their doors.
Far below, a bell tolls once. Muffled voices answer it, followed by the long scrape of stone dragged across stone through the buried dark.
Maren
He is inside. Ilyan has reached the lower galleries, and he is moving faster than I feared.
The sound dies, but the tombs do not return to silence. Fine dust spills from several sealed thresholds as something shifts behind the stone.
Maren
Do not touch the doors. The guardians wake when the catacombs feel their dead are being disturbed.
A hairline crack races across a nearby tomb seal. Behind it, a dry voice murmurs without words, while another slab groans deeper in the avenue.
Maren
Stay close, Bottu. We reach the descent before the dead surround us, then we find out what Ilyan has opened.
✓ Quest Accepted
Rescue Ilyan's intended victims
“Then let us hurry without disturbing anything. To the depths of the crypt.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +1)
Bottu
Then let us hurry without disturbing anything. To the depths of the crypt.
Maren
Quietly, then. Follow my steps and leave the dead to their silence.
Bottu moves with swift, careful precision, placing each bare foot where Maren indicates. Dust settles undisturbed as they pass the sealed tombs and descend the hidden stair.
The murmurs behind the doors fade above them. The stair winds through cold stone without a single seal breaking, while the distant tolling gives way to a deeper subterranean pulse.
Maren
We are below the processional galleries. This is where the old records place the Scale, and where Ilyan has gone.
The stair opens into the catacombs’ deepest gallery. Ancient burial niches ring the vast chamber, and a black stone passage leads onward beneath a dim, motionless arch.
Maren
There. We reached the depths without waking them. Ilyan’s trail continues beyond that arch.
Quest Complete
Reach the Ebony Catacombs
Skill Upgrade: Survival Good→Great
“He must be heading to the deepest chamber with his intended victims if what you said is true. We must hurry.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +2)
Bottu
He must be heading to the deepest chamber with his intended victims, if what you said is true. We must hurry.
Maren
Then keep close. I will not let him reach them first.
Bottu surges beneath the arch, swift and silent despite the bruised shoulder that protests as he catches a falling stone. Maren follows his exact path through the black passage.
The passage opens directly into the deepest chamber. A sunken altar stands at its center, ringed by pale ward-light, with three frightened captives bound beside it and Ilyan facing the black relic dais.
Ilyan is a tall adult man in a dark green coat, broad-shouldered and sharp-featured, with a silver-streaked beard and a hooked iron staff in hand. His weathered tan skin and close-cropped dark hair are visible. He turns as Bottu enters.
Ilyan
Maren. You brought the relic-bearer to me after all. Step closer, little seeker, and watch what the Onyx Scale demands.
Maren
No. We reached them before you could begin. Bottu, the Scale is beneath the altar. Free the captives, and I will keep Ilyan from touching it.
“*While deep down I’d love to claim the Onyx Scale immediately, I know Maren speaks the truth and I need to get the victims out of here. I go to rescue them first.*”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +0)
Bottu darts along the altar’s edge, slipping beneath the pale ward-light before Ilyan can intercept him. His bruised shoulder protests as he severs the first binding cord with a claw.
Ilyan
Fool. The Scale is the only thing keeping their lives from meaninglessness.
Bottu ignores him and crosses the altar in a blur. He cuts the remaining cords, catches one captive as they stumble, and pulls all three beyond the ring of ward-light.
Maren
They are free. Keep them behind me, Bottu. Ilyan will not reach them now.
Maren plants herself between the rescued prisoners and Ilyan, bronze mask lifted into place. The captives huddle behind her, shaken but breathing, while the black dais waits exposed.
Ilyan
Then you have chosen delay over power. Very well. Let us see whether your relic-bearer can protect what he saves.
Quest Complete
Rescue Ilyan's intended victims
Skill Upgrade: Stealth Good→Great