Every ledger slams shut at once. The black stone table splits along a hairline seam, and darkness opens beneath the register’s empty space.
Ordan
Maerith. You found Maerith’s name. Do not trust the singer, Valkir’s heir. She brought you here for Caelvar.
The voice rises from below, strained but clearly conscious. No face appears in the narrow darkness, only a faint chainlike chiming beneath the stone.
The Veiled Elven Singer
Lies from a buried tongue. Stand back, both of you. The seal must be closed before the Hall answers.
The Veiled Elven Singer reaches toward the table’s thorn-and-eye seal. Sella moves nearer to Verner, her rain-dark hair brushing her grey scarf.
Ordan
Caelvar already knows you found the register. He will come beneath the Hall, and she will give him the key.
Sella
Verner, listen carefully. The captive may be bait, but the singer is touching the only proof we have. Decide before that seal answers her.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the Hall’s trap
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the captive’s connection to Maerith
“Can I free the captive before the Hall answers the seal?”
YES, BUT (Likely, rolled 53)
Before the singer’s fingers reach the seal, the black stone table convulses. Its split widens, and a chain of pale runes snaps apart in the darkness below.
Ordan
Now! The Hall has released one lock. Pull me clear before the seventh answer seals the rest!
The darkness heaves upward, spilling a gaunt elderly elf man into the chamber. Rusted chains hang broken from his wrists, and his ash-grey robes are marked with years of dust.
The Veiled Elven Singer
You have freed him, but the Hall heard the breaking. Caelvar will hear it too.
A bell tolls somewhere beneath the city, though no hand strikes it. The freed captive stumbles against the table, and the open register bursts into blue flame.
Ordan
I am Ordan, keeper of the payment rolls. Maerith lives, but Caelvar has sent her to erase every witness below.
Sella
Then the proof is burning, the Hall is answering, and our escape has become a race.