The eastern stair ends at a guarded bronze door bearing Histol’s crown and master seal. A broad-shouldered guard in blue-and-gold stands to either side, hands resting near their sword hilts.
Royal Guard One
State your business. The High Chancellor is at work.
Beyond the door, attendants arrange silver bowls around a ritual basin while Maerith Sol, a middle-aged woman with a slim build, dark skin, and a narrow, sharp-featured face, studies copied ward diagrams. The middle-aged chancellor’s crimson robe and silver-threaded braids stand out beneath the chamber’s cold lamps.
Maerith Sol
Set the basin beneath the crown-mark. When the eastern seal answers, I will summon every surviving warden.
The copied diagrams show the same command lattice Bottu traced in the diary. A counter-sign, if exposed now, could reveal the master seal’s weakness before the summons travels beyond Histol.
Royal Guard Two
No one enters without the chancellor’s leave. The council has had enough surprises for one night.
Inside, Maerith reaches toward the first ward diagram. The bronze door remains between Bottu and the ritual chamber, its master seal gleaming within easy reach of his scrutiny.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the master seal’s weakness
“There’s no way these two would allow a Kobold to walk through the front doors. I needed a second plan. Getting rid of this woman would be such a massive advantage. Perhaps there’s a window….”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled -1)
Bottu’s attention slips from the bronze door to the corridor’s high clerestory windows. The guard on the left narrow casement stands ajar behind a hanging royal banner, its outer ledge hidden from the guards below.
Bottu
The window opens into the chancellor’s chamber, not the stairwell.
Beyond the casement, Bottu can see a narrow service balcony running behind the chamber’s carved screens. It reaches the ritual room without crossing the guarded door, and the latch is loose enough to lift from outside.
Maerith Sol
Begin the eastern invocation. I want the first response before the council disperses.
The ritual attendants lower the silver basin beneath the crown-mark. Their movement briefly blocks Maerith’s view of the balcony, while the banner stirs and exposes the casement’s full opening.
Bottu has a clear alternate entrance: the high casement and its hidden service balcony. From there, he can reach the chamber unseen while the attendants occupy the ritual basin.
✓ Quest Accepted
Prevent a unified warden response against Tiamat
“I need to call upon the Pearl Claw and freeze the basin. I had to destroy this so they can’t call upon anyone!”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled -2)
Bottu slips through the ajar casement onto the hidden balcony. The Pearl Claw is not in his grasp, yet its bond answers from within the Crown, gathering a hard white cold around his claws.
He extends that borrowed resonance through the carved screen. Frost races across the silver basin, sealing its rim, its runes, and the water within beneath opaque crystal.
The Ritual Attendants
The invocation is cut off! The basin will not answer!
The frozen basin gives a sharp crystalline crack, then goes utterly dark. Its crown-mark dims with it, and no summons passes beyond the chamber.
Maerith Sol
Who has touched the master rite? Guards, search the balcony!
Cold backlash tears through Bottu’s merged relic bond. The Pearl Claw’s presence vanishes behind a sealed hush, while pain grips his wounded side and the balcony stones frost beneath him.
Below, the attendants abandon the dead basin as the guards rush toward the bronze door. The eastern invocation is destroyed, but the chamber now knows an intruder reached it.
Quest Complete
Prevent a unified warden response against Tiamat
“My damned wound. I can’t fight everyone here with such a grave injury. I need healing. I need Tiamat to open a rift to bring me back to her.”
FAILURE (Legendary Willpower, rolled -4)
Bottu
Tiamat, heal me. Open a rift and bring me back to you.
Bottu presses the Crown with both claws and reaches through its bond. His grave wound tears hot beneath the effort, and his spell falters as the chamber’s warded air resists the call.
Tiamat
I hear you, bearer, but Histol’s master ward grips the path between us. I cannot draw you through it.
A red-edged fissure opens above the frozen basin, showing Tiamat’s vast red-scaled silhouette beyond reality. It shudders, narrows, and collapses before Bottu can cross.
Tiamat
The failed passage has revealed the ward’s anchor. It now knows your bond, and the road home will not open again from this chamber.
The Crown’s red light gutters to a thin ember, leaving a sharp image of the ward’s anchor burned across Bottu’s vision. The guards’ footsteps reach the balcony door.
Quest Complete
Expose the master seal’s weakness
New Gift: Sealbreaker’s Insight
“I need to escape. Find a spot further from here so a rift can open for me to leave.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +2)
Bottu slips along the service balcony as the guards reach its door. He follows the anchor’s burned pattern into a disused archive alcove beyond the chamber, putting stone and distance between himself and the master ward.
Inside the quiet alcove, he presses the Crown against a blank wall. Its colored reflections gather into a precise circle, while his grave wound pulls sharply under the renewed spell.
Tiamat
Now, bearer. This distance loosens Histol’s grip. Hold the path steady, and I will receive you.
Bottu traces the anchor’s shape across the circle. The alcove wall parts into a dark rift, and red radiance spills through it from the Maw’s distant halls.
Behind him, bronze hinges crash open and the guards shout from the balcony. Bottu steps through the rift before they can reach the alcove, carrying his Crown beyond Histol’s warded reach.
The passage closes behind him. Bottu emerges in the Maw’s outer halls before Tiamat’s colossal red form, safely away from the chancellor’s chamber and free to continue preparing for the kingdoms’ response.