The fragment suddenly darkens in ShadowForge DreamStalker's hand. Beneath the torchlight, the seal's carved rings begin turning like slow stone wheels, grinding dust into the air.
Buried stones shift around the chamber, exposing ancient names cut in several elven hands. A sealed side passage emerges beyond them, its lintel marked with a broken crown.
The Three-Jointed Seeker
No. That is not an opening.
The three-jointed seeker recoils, folding its long limbs close as the turning rings send a deeper tremor through the threshold chamber. The sealed stair behind ShadowForge DreamStalker remains blocked.
The Three-Jointed Seeker
The broken crown is a summons. Something below has called the bearers, and the stones are answering.
Dust veils the torch flame. Between settling clouds, more elven names appear and vanish along the rotating rings, while the passage's crown-mark gives no sign of yielding.
The Three-Jointed Seeker
Do not touch the crown, bearer. The last summons opened for no one who entered it willingly.
The rings continue their patient rotation, trapping ShadowForge DreamStalker and the three-jointed seeker together beneath the chapel. The dark fragment stays cold and utterly silent.
✓ Quest Accepted
Open the sealed side passage
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what summoned the bearers
“Ask the seeker what summons the bearers”
FAILURE (Fair Reasoning, rolled -2)
ShadowForge DreamStalker
What summons the bearers?
The Three-Jointed Seeker
The broken crown answers the fragments. It summons the bearers toward the refuge, but I cannot tell you who first gave it that command.
The question passes into the turning stones. The carved names flare one after another, but each vanishes before its letters can be read, leaving the answer fractured and incomplete.
The Three-Jointed Seeker
I witnessed summons, not its making. The crown called through the fragments, and every marked bearer who followed disappeared beneath its shadow.
The broken-crown lintel opens a hairline seam, revealing darkness and a cold breath from below. The rotating rings stop, fixing the passage as the only changed feature.
The Three-Jointed Seeker
That is all the stones will surrender. The summons has heard your question, bearer. It now waits for your answer.
The fragment remains cold in ShadowForge DreamStalker's hand, while the narrow seam breathes steadily. The seeker watches the opened darkness, no longer explaining what lies beyond it.
Quest Complete
Learn what summoned the bearers
Quest Complete
Open the sealed side passage