The broken floorboard gapes beneath the foreman’s desk. The ledger lies beside the custody slate and succession record, while the quiet quarry makes every restrained breath audible.
Bren
Then we do not descend until the route is clear. Odran, tell us who went with Pellan, and what they intended to do with the witness.
Odran Pell
A woman accompanied him. I never learned her name. She carried a narrow brass key and spoke as though the chamber already belonged to her.
The first watcher shifts against his bindings. Slaan notices the movement and places one boot across the loose cord, keeping him still without drawing her blade.
Slaan
You heard that description. Which woman, and where did she go? Answer plainly, or remain silent and let the others decide your usefulness.
the first gray-cloaked watcher
Maelin’s deputy, I think. She wore no gray glove, but she knew the quarry marks. She went below with Pellan before we reached the office.
Nhal
Two people entered through the western cut, carrying a key and a purpose. We should follow their trail, but leave someone here to guard Odran and the prisoners.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify Pellan’s companion
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish what Pellan and his companion intended to do with the living witness
“I look over the situation. " Bren, you and the girls keep an eye on the prisoners. I'll take Pellan’s trail.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +0)
Kynes
Bren, you and the girls keep an eye on the prisoners. I’ll take Pellan’s trail.
Bren nods and moves the bound watchers closer to the gallery wall, while Slaan and Nhal take positions with clear sight of every prisoner and the open door.
Bren
Understood. Odran stays with us, and no one leaves this gallery without being noticed.
Slaan
Go. We have the prisoners, the evidence, and the laborer. If Pellan returns, he will find us ready.
Kynes follows the western drainage marks beyond the foreman’s office. Dust scuffs and fresh bootprints lead behind the weighing room, confirming Pellan’s route through a narrow service passage.
Kynes
The newest prints belong to two people, and both entered through the western cut.
The passage opens behind the weighing room, where an old brass key-mark is scratched into the stone beside a concealed stair. Pellan’s trail continues downward, plainly visible in the dust.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reconcile Pellan’s account with the evidence
“I follow the two fresh prints down the concealed stair.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +1)
Kynes follows the two fresh prints down the concealed stair, placing each boot beside the clearer marks. Dust settles softly from the old stone overhead.
Kynes
Two people descended recently, carrying a key and moving without haste.
The stair ends beneath the weighing room in a low service passage. Pellan’s prints continue through dust, while the woman’s narrower steps turn toward a timbered doorway.
Beyond the doorway, Kynes finds a neglected records alcove with empty shelves and a stone table. A brass key-shaped impression marks the table’s edge.
Fresh scratches surround the impression, and a faint line of disturbed dust leads from the table toward a second passage descending beneath the western wall.
Bren
Kynes, report when you can. We have the gallery secured, and no one has moved.
The voices from above reach him faintly through the stairwell. Pellan’s trail remains clear below, and the hidden route opens farther into the quarry’s buried works.
“I head down further”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +1)
Kynes descends farther beneath the western wall, following the disturbed dust past the timbered doorway. The air grows colder, carrying the smell of wet stone and old timber.
Kynes
The woman’s footprints are narrower, but both trails remain fresh.
The passage levels into a buried workroom beneath the quarry. A cracked weighing platform occupies the center, surrounded by abandoned crates and a low stone arch.
Pellan’s heavy prints cross the room toward the arch. Beside them, the woman’s steps stop at a half-open wooden door, where fresh brass scratches mark the threshold.
Bren
Kynes, the gallery remains quiet. Take what you find, and call if the passage opens into something larger.
Kynes passes through the wooden door and reaches a lower chamber cut directly into the quarry bedrock. Pellan and the brass-keyed woman have already entered, leaving their tracks plainly visible.
At the chamber’s far wall stands a sealed stone doorway beneath an old foreman’s mark. The route ends there, with Pellan’s footprints before the threshold and the woman’s beside them.
“I telekineticlly pull the key to me, and pin them in place telekineticlly as well”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
The brass key tears free from the woman’s hand and flies across the chamber into Kynes’s grasp. Pellan and his companion halt mid-step.
Invisible force locks both intruders against the bedrock wall. Pellan’s boots leave the dust, while the woman’s raised hand remains fixed beside the sealed doorway.
Pellan
Put me down. We came to inspect the chamber, not fight you.
Sereth Vale
You misunderstand what that key opens. Holding it does not make the doorway yours.
The key settles heavily in Kynes’s palm, cold and ridged from long use. Its teeth match the brass-shaped impression found above, confirming the woman carried the needed tool.
Pellan
The door is sealed by the foreman’s mark. We can explain the route, but you will have to decide what comes next.
“" I didn't like your attitude, nor your company you keep." I use a cold menacing vocal pattern of Sil'thalis " now speak"”
SUCCESS (Superb Intimidation, rolled +1)
Kynes
I dislike your attitude, and the company you keep. Now speak.
Kynes delivers the command in Sil’thalis’s cold, menacing cadence. The chamber seems quieter around the words, while the brass key remains firm in his hand.
Pellan
The woman is Maelin’s deputy, Veyra’s former claimant, and no friend to either of them. She brought me here to open the custody chamber.
Sereth Vale
My name is Sereth Vale. The foreman’s mark seals a record left by the Crypt’s Benefactor. I intended to take it before Maelin could reach it.
Pellan’s boots settle back onto the dust, though neither prisoner risks moving. Their answers come quickly now, stripped of their earlier confidence.
Pellan
The chamber contains succession papers and a witness register. We found the door, but not the means to open it.
Sereth Vale
The key opens the first seal. The second requires a name freely given by someone who carries the chain. That is why Maelin wants Kynes alive.
Quest Complete
Establish what Pellan and his companion intended to do with the living witness
Skill Upgrade: Thievery Good→Great
“" he wants the back door into the archive to undo what I've repaired, eh?" I ask coldly”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -2)
Kynes
He wants the back door into the archive to undo what I repaired, eh?
Kynes asks coldly, the brass key resting motionless in his palm. The accusation settles over the chamber, stripping away the pretense of a mere succession dispute.
Sereth Vale
Not to undo it. To reach what you sealed away. Maelin believes the archive can be made useful again, and she thinks you are the lock.
Pellan
She wants the repaired passages reopened, yes. The records beneath them would expose every altered claim, including hers. That is why she needs your name.
The cost of the question becomes plain when Sereth studies Kynes with new caution. His suspicion is no longer hidden, and she now understands exactly what he protects.
Sereth Vale
You have made your position clear. If you open this door, you will see the witness register and the back route into the archive. The choice remains yours.
The brass key turns in Kynes’s hand as the first seal releases with a dry click. The stone doorway opens onto a plain records passage, and the route into the archive lies accessible beyond it.
“" uh huh" is all I say not buying what they say, I start to close my hand over the key and crush them telekineticlly. " I suggest you convince me, so far your actions dictate otherwise, and then there is the matter of Ilyds involvement" I say coldly full of athorty”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Kynes
Uh huh. I am not buying what you say.
Kynes closes his hand around the brass key. Invisible pressure folds Sereth and Pellan against the stone, pinning them hard enough to steal their breath without breaking bone.
Kynes
I suggest you convince me. Your actions say otherwise, and then there is the matter of Ilyr’s involvement.
Sereth Vale
Ilyr Domini created the first custody chain, but he did not authorize our succession. He hid the register from the archive itself, fearing later custodians would weaponize it.
Pellan
The foreman’s records preserve Ilyr’s instructions. He ordered the witness route severed from bloodline authority and named the living witness the final judge.
The pressure tightens. Sereth’s composure cracks first, while Pellan’s boots scrape helplessly against the floor. The sealed passage remains open behind them.
Sereth Vale
I came to recover Ilyr’s original limitation, not reopen the archive for Maelin. Pellan helped me because he believed the register could expose her forged claim. That is the truth.