The inner chamber holds its breath. Then the footsteps come, slow and heavy, striking stone like a verdict. Jinen tightens his grip on his blade, pale beneath the ash-stained light.
The sealed door groans outward. Dust shakes from the lintel. Whatever stands outside is pushing with calm, immense force, as if the shrine itself is only a gate to be tested.
Jinen
He has come himself... the Ashen Abbot.
Jinen
He is not sending hands to clean this. He is here to judge us.
The pressure on the door deepens. The black-thread seal on the inner chamber altar seems to tremble in the draft, and the chanting’s absence feels like an opening wound.
Cactusthorn and Jinen stand at the center of the shrine’s hidden trial, with the Abbot at the threshold. The chase ends here, or the shrine silences them both.
✓ Quest Accepted
Survive the Ashen Abbot's arrival
“Use your stealth and combat skills to throw your stars and smoke bombs to confuse the abbott. Injure him to submitting. And asking him questions to satisfy jinen”
SUCCESS (Great Hand-to-Hand Combat, rolled +3)
Cactusthorn moves first. Stars flash from his hand in a tight, flat burst, then smoke blooms low across the floor, climbing the Abbot’s shins as the door shudders open.
The Ashen Abbot slips through the gap anyway, robe dragging ash, one arm raised against the glare. Steel and smoke catch him together, and his momentum breaks.
Cactusthorn closes the distance before the gap can widen. A hard strike lands, then another, forcing the Abbot back into the threshold with a hiss of pain and powdered stone.
Jinen
His balance is gone. Cactusthorn, now.
One star bites into the Abbot’s sleeve and rips free a narrow strip of black-thread cloth. It falls at Cactusthorn’s feet, stamped with the same seal as the altar.
The Ashen Abbot
Enough. Speak, or I end this chamber with you in it.
Cactusthorn
Who sent you here, and what are you hiding?
Quest Complete
Survive the Ashen Abbot's arrival
“Tell jinen, that you believe the abbott is old and weak. This is his problem to deal with and that I have decided to wander the countryside alone. Use your stealth to enter back into the surrounding area.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Stealth, rolled +0)
Cactusthorn
He is old and weak. This is your problem to finish. I am wandering the countryside alone.
Cactusthorn's words hang in the smoke, then his shape thins at the edge of sight. He slips backward into the haze, using the broken threshold and drifting ash to swallow his outline.
Jinen
Cactusthorn? Wait... if you leave now, then what was all this for?
The Abbot steadies in the doorway, breathing hard, robe torn at the sleeve where the seal-cloth was ripped away. He does not charge. He listens.
The Ashen Abbot
So the thief runs when judgment speaks.
Cactusthorn is already gone from the chamber. The smoke closes behind him, and his footfalls vanish into the surrounding dark beyond the shrine.
Jinen
He chose the shadows. Then I must choose what remains here.
“Go outside into the country side and head towards a village. I want to find food and shops and places with people in the market. Look for people to interact with.”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled -1)