Lethira turns the three depositions side by side. A coded place-name repeats in each margin, written beneath different dates and witness marks.
Lethira Vaun
The name is Hollow Cairn. It is no cairn at all, but an old records site beneath the northern hills. Someone wanted its location disguised.
Beyond the inner chamber, the passage slopes toward a dim draft. Behind them, violet fractures spread through the refuge ward, making the blue lattice flicker across the stone.
Kynes
The lattice will not hold indefinitely. I can guide us through its remaining pattern, but I cannot promise the agents have not reached Hollow Cairn first.
The Wayhouse Keeper
I know the first stretch of the northern passage. After that, the riders moved beyond my sight, toward the records site.
Erin
Then we carry the testimony and move before the refuge fails. Lethira, will you come with us, or remain behind the ward?
Lethira closes the testimony chest and sets one hand upon its lock. Kynes watches the widening fractures, while the northern draft carries a faint scent of wet earth and distant smoke.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach Hollow Cairn
“I follow Kynes through the northern passage toward Hollow Cairn.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled -1)
Verner follows Kynes into the northern passage, placing each boot within the mage’s chosen path. The failing blue lattice bends around them, revealing safe stones beneath damp earth.
Kynes
Keep your pace measured. The refuge remembers our passage, and its remaining light will guide us without announcing us.
Erin stays close behind Verner with Echo ready, while the wayhouse keeper leads Lethira through the narrowest turns. No pursuers reach the passage before the group.
Lethira Vaun
The air changes here. Hollow Cairn lies ahead, beneath the hill where the old records were hidden from the court.
The passage rises through a cleft of stone and opens into a buried vault. Shelves of sealed tablets and rotted ledgers fill the chamber, marked with the coded place-name.
Kynes
We are at Hollow Cairn. The riders came through this site, and their trail continues among the records.
Behind them, the refuge’s blue glow fades to a thin line and vanishes. Ahead, fresh mud marks the vault floor beside a recently disturbed archive door.
Discover what the riders sought at Hollow Cairn
Quest Complete
Reach Hollow Cairn