Adventure of DethStryder 1

The jailer leaves the messenger resting under the cell's watch, then leads DethStryder and the traveling bard into a narrow alley between leaning stone walls. The bard carries a hooded lantern, its light barely breathing.

Their footsteps soften beneath hanging laundry and rain-dark eaves. DethStryder keeps the bloodstained token and newly revealed iron key concealed as the town's last bells fade behind them.

The alley opens onto a weed-choked square. At its center, Skivesha's abandoned shrine crouches beneath a split stone roof, its cracked altar blackened by weather and neglect.

As they reach the altar, the sigil on the iron key dims to a dull ember. Beneath the cracked stone, something answers with a faint metallic click, while the jailer raises one warning hand.

DethStryder draws the traveling bard into the shrine's deepest shadow, keeping the hooded lantern covered. Together they cross the weed-choked square without disturbing its silence.

At the cracked altar, DethStryder fits the warm iron key beneath the stone. The hidden lock yields, and a narrow stairwell opens into darkness below.

DethStryder guides the traveling bard down first, then slips after her, one hand guarding the bloodstained token. Their shadows vanish beneath the altar as the door closes.

The entry succeeds, but the key grates loudly before the ward accepts it. Dust sifts from the ceiling, and a faint chime travels through the buried passage.

They stand inside the concealed lower chamber, where damp stone surrounds a table of sealed message tubes and a single red sigil glowing beneath the floor.

Secure the sealed message tubes