The black-crystal passage buckles behind Velocity, shedding shards as the escaping wards chase him downward. He bursts into a buried chapel where cracked saintly statues ring a black stone coffin.
As he passes, the coffin lid grinds open. Ser Caldrin Vey, gaunt and narrow-shouldered in dark bronze mail with a tarnished sun clasp,, an elderly elf man with pallid skin, hollow cheeks, and silver hair, rises in ancient ceremonial mail.
Ser Caldrin Vey
Halt, ember-bearer. I am Ser Caldrin Vey, last guardian of the vessel entrusted to this chapel.
He carries no visible weapon, yet old sigils crawl across his armor. Behind Velocity, the passage folds inward with a thunderous crack, sealing the laboratory's pursuit beneath stone.
Ser Caldrin Vey
The castle was abandoned, but my vigil was not. I guarded the ember until its chosen flame awakened beyond my keeping.
Red light pulses beneath the chapel floor, shining through seams between the flagstones. The statues' broken faces turn toward Velocity as dust rains from the vaulted ceiling.
Ser Caldrin Vey
Now the buried heart calls your name, and something below answers it. Tell me, bearer: do you come to claim the vessel, or to free it?
undefined / undefined
The red radiance beneath the flagstones abruptly turns black. Every saintly statue fractures along its throat, and a cold wind pours upward from the buried heart.
Ser Caldrin Vey
No. That voice belongs to the Hollow King. It should have been silenced before this chapel was raised.
The coffin behind Ser Caldrin splits from end to end. Its empty interior exhales ash, while the sun clasp on his armor flares with desperate gold.
Ser Caldrin Vey
The vessel is not calling you alone, ember-bearer. It is using your awakening to open the road beneath us.
A circular seam appears between the flagstones, widening into a stair that descends through red-lit darkness. Something immense shifts far below, and the chapel trembles around it.
Ser Caldrin Vey
If you claim the heart, claim it swiftly. If you free it, understand that the kingdom above will burn before dawn.
From the new stair rises a single ember, hovering at Velocity's eye level. It bears the same sigil as the cracked crystal coffin, now surrounded by a ring of unfamiliar runes.
“In the eye so use it myself. So no one else has to bear the burden of yielding such power. I would grab the object absorbing it into me. Somehow my biology naturally doing that as now the power fully unlocks within this would actually happen”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +2)
Velocity reaches through the hovering ember and closes his hand around it. The unfamiliar runes flare, but the sigil yields instantly to his touch.
Red fire pours through his fingers, then vanishes beneath his quills instead of burning them. His body draws the power inward with effortless, living precision.
Velocity the hedgehog
The power is becoming part of me.
The ring of runes collapses into sparks. Light races through Velocity's veins, and the buried stair answers with a deep chord that shakes dust from the chapel vault.
Ser Caldrin Vey
You have taken the heart into yourself. By the old vows, that makes you its vessel and its master.
The black radiance below recoils from the chapel floor. For one breath, the Hollow King's distant presence loses its hold, while warm crimson fire settles beneath Velocity's quills.
Ser Caldrin Vey
Then the burden is yours alone, ember-bearer. The road beneath us is open, and the thing below now knows exactly where you stand.
Prevent the Hollow King from burning the kingdom
Have Ser Caldrin Vey acknowledge Velocity as the ember's master
Quest Complete
Discover the nature of the red ember
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Good→Great
+ New Item Acquired
Red Ember