The floor dissolves into shadow. Nogandar plummets, his heavy granite frame a stone plummeting through the earth, until he slams into a floor of freezing, slick stone. Silence rushes back into his ears, deafening and absolute.
Nogandar
This is not the hive. The air here is ancient, stale, and untouched by the spider queen's rot.
Far below the stone, a rhythmic vibration pulses through the soles of his feet. Thrum. Thrum. It is the heartbeat of something vast, waking from a slumber that spans centuries.
Nogandar
Whatever sleeps beneath this tomb... I am glad I am no longer part of that wretched trap.
He rises, his claws scraping against the damp rock. The chamber is cavernous, illuminated only by the faint, bioluminescent moss clinging to towering, forgotten basalt pillars carved with archaic runes.
Nogandar
Eulstria wanted to lock me in her hive. If this is the foundation of the world, perhaps I can find a way to tear it all down from here.
+ Story Quest Added
Find a way to destroy the foundation of the world
− Story Quest Removed
Infiltrate the spider queen's hive
“None arcana i use my natural talents to look for structrual weaknesses in the room, while staying stealthy”
FAILURE (Good Perception, rolled -2)
Nogandar scans the basalt walls, his eyes tracing the flow of ancient magic through the runes. He shifts his weight, expecting to find a pressure point to collapse the hive structure.
Nogandar
If I can destabilize the central pillar, the upper tunnels will seal themselves. The spider queen will lose her foothold here.
As he reaches out to channel his intent into the stone, his talons scrape against a hidden glyph, triggering a violent surge of necrotic feedback.
Nogandar
A trap. They have woven a pulse of energy directly into the foundation.
The cavern floor groans. Instead of yielding to his touch, the runes flare with a sickening violet light, and the walls begin to sweat a viscous, corrosive sludge that drips toward his feet.
Eulstria
Did you truly think your pathetic clawing could undo the work of ages, little gargoyle?
+ Scene Quest Added
Escape the collapsing cavern
“Directly above me i tilt my head and look in the shadows for a gaint spider”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled +2)
Nogandar
The runes are a distraction. They are loud, drawing my focus to the floor while something else breathes in the dark above.
Nogandar
My infravision cuts through the gloom. There. Hiding in the rafters of the jagged ceiling. A massive, motionless silhouette.
Nogandar cranes his neck, his thick muscles bunching as he tracks the faint heat signature of the creature clinging to the cavern arch.
Eulstria
You are far from your tomb, Nogandar. Did you believe the walls would keep your secrets buried forever?
Nogandar
Your venom is thin, Eulstria. I smell the rot of your hive on every surface here.
The gargoyle crouches low, his claws digging into the stone, as a massive spider drops from the ceiling, blocking his path to the central pillar.
“Using my gargoyal stone arcana i cast the floor beneath us gone and talon scale the wall”
SUCCESS (Superb Athletics, rolled -1)
Nogandar
The ground is a trap. I feel the resonance of the stone shifting beneath my weight, but I will not be the one to fall today.
Nogandar
You hide behind constructs and shadows, queen. Let us see how you fare when the foundation itself rejects you.
Nogandar slams his massive palm into the cavern floor, flooding the ancient stone with raw, crushing arcana. The tectonic plates beneath the tomb groan and fracture, shearing apart with a sound like shattering glass.
Eulstria
Foolish brute. You only accelerate the inevitable collapse.
The floor drops away into a bottomless chasm, dragging the screeching spider into the darkness. Nogandar leaps, his stone claws raking against the uneven wall, finding purchase in the jagged rock as he scrambles upward.
Nogandar
I am rising above her game. I can feel the tremors, the webs snapping, and the cold air of the lower depths rushing up to greet me.
Quest Complete
Escape the collapsing cavern
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Good→Great