The hall lurches again. Stone grinds, dust rains down, and the exposed conduit below flares with sickly dark light.
The Second Enforcer
Stop... the architects ringed the district with this. Break the wrong line, and the whole hall falls through.
He jerks his chin at the scorched map in his fist, a marked route half-buried under rubble and shattered slate.
Kynes
Tell me where the core is.
The Second Enforcer
Under the magistrate's seal chamber. Beneath that is the feed spine, the thing they used to keep the portal fed.
Bren
If Kynes cuts the spine, the district might live long enough to breathe again.
A fresh crack splits the floor between Kynes and the pillar. The void below pulls at loose stone like a hungry tide, and the hidden conduit hums in answer.
Kynes stands on the edge of the break, the map, the pillar, and the living seam all aligned at once. The path forward is clear, destroy the architects' feed spine, or be swallowed with the hall.
✓ Quest Accepted
Destroy the architects’ feed spine
“I throw the second enforcer into the feed spine, " your it's last meal." I drive the Soul-Cutter into the feed spine to shatter the architects' hold.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled -2)
Kynes hooks the Second Enforcer by the collar and hurls him into the open seam. The man vanishes into the dark split with a raw cry as the feed conduit flares.
Kynes drives the Soul-Cutter down after him. The blade bites the spine with a shriek of cracking stone and red-black light.
The conduit bursts apart. A web of hidden script shatters across the floor, and the hall’s pulse stutters like a dying heart.
The Second Enforcer
Beneath the magistrate’s seal chamber. That is where they sit. The feed spine runs to the core.
The answer tears out of him as he tumbles into the void. His hand flashes once, the scorched map whipping free into the collapse.
Bren jerks back from the blast of heat and falling grit, one arm raised against the spray of splintered stone. The chamber below gives a long, shuddering groan.
Kynes
The spine is broken.
Quest Complete
Destroy the architects’ feed spine
“I then plung soul cutter into the second enforcers chest”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Melee Combat, rolled +0)
Kynes drives the Soul-Cutter into the enforcer’s chest as he drops through the split floor. The blade takes him clean through, and the body shudders once before going slack in the void-laced dark.
A sharp red pulse jumps through the broken seam, then gutters out. Something below coughs up dust, old parchment, and a flash of the scorched map spinning free.
The Second Enforcer
Beneath the magistrate’s seal chamber... the architects keep their core under the archive shaft.
The words come thin and broken, but they land. The enforcer’s hand falls open, and the map slips into the collapsing darkness.
Bren recoils, then steadies, one boot skidding on the shattered flagstones. Dust veils her face as she keeps her eyes on the breach.
Kynes
The archive shaft.
Below them, the void seam narrows with a long, hungry groan. The hall keeps sinking, and the exposed conduit crackles once with dead red script.
Quest Complete
Expose the architects behind the district records
New Gift: Record-Architect's Arcane Insight