The ash gate opens into a vast basalt vault. Coins, weapons, and blackened crowns spill across the floor, while a sealed inner stair bears Beelzebub’s crest.
A dozen orcs crowd the hoard, broad silhouettes beneath patched armor and wolf-hide cloaks. Their argument breaks as the expedition emerges, and a massive orc steps forward, one tusk capped in bronze.
Orcs
The dragon’s gold belongs to whoever claims it! Break the seals, take the crowns, and leave no rival standing!
Brakka
Silence. Newcomers have crossed the ash gate. I am Brakka, war-chief of this hoard, and these riches are under my claim.
The orcs close ranks around the coins. Several hands settle on sword hilts and hooked axes, while Brakka, a young adult orc man with dark green skin, a broad jaw, and tangled black hair angles his iron axe toward Jannie and the sealed stair beyond her companions.
Jennifer
That stair carries the relic route. If the orcs mean to seize Gilmax’s treasure, they may already stand between us and our goal.
Brakka
Then choose quickly, cat woman. Leave the vault, bargain for passage, or test whether your blood is worth more than the dragon’s gold.
✓ Quest Accepted
Gain passage past Brakka and the orcs
“We will not let you touch that gold it belongs to Gilmax if you touch it we will have to cut off your heads and feed them to him”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +2)
Jannie Welcome
We will not let you touch that gold. It belongs to Gilmax. If you do, we will cut off your heads and feed them to him.
Jannie’s threat carries through the basalt vault. The orcs’ hands leave their weapons, and the ring around the hoard loosens as every eye turns toward Brakka.
Brakka
Enough. We do not touch the dragon’s hoard. The cat woman has made the price plain, and I will not feed my warriors to Gilmax’s appetite.
Brakka lowers his iron axe. At his command, the orcs retreat from the coins and clear a broad path to the sealed stair, leaving the crest unobstructed.
Orcs
The hoard stays untouched. Let the relic-seekers pass.
Jennifer
That settles the vault. The stair is ours to open, and the orcs have chosen survival over dragon’s wrath.
Silence returns beneath the vault’s black arches. Beyond the abandoned hoard, Beelzebub’s sealed stair waits in the clear passage, its carved crest catching the torchlight.
Quest Complete
Gain passage past Brakka and the orcs
“You where going to take the gold you must sacrifice one of your men and cut off there heads and put the body in frount of Gilmax and profusely apologize”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +0)
Jannie Welcome
If you were going to take the gold, one of your men must pay for it. Sacrifice him, place the body before Gilmax, and apologize profusely.
The demand leaves Jannie’s mouth like a drawn blade. Her composure falters for one visible breath, and Brakka sees the hesitation before she masters it.
Brakka
You ask for one of my warriors to pay the price of our greed. Very well. The hoard will remain untouched, and Gilmax will receive his due.
The orcs choose one among them. What follows passes beyond the torchlit vault without display; afterward, the chosen body rests before the ash gate, and the surviving orcs stand silent behind it.
Brakka
Gilmax, we trespassed against your claim. We are sorry. We offer this life for our theft, and swear the rest of your gold remains untouched.
Beyond the arch, smoke rolls through the forest and a vast shadow passes over the vault entrance. The orcs bow their heads, while the sealed stair remains open behind them.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach Beelzebub's relic chamber
“I descend Beelzebub’s stair toward the relic chamber.”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +0)
Jannie descends the sealed stair, boots finding firm purchase on worn basalt. Gandolf, Scooter, and Jennifer follow close behind as torchlight dwindles above them.
The carved crest repeats beneath her hands, its lines faintly warm against the cold stone. Dust slips from the ceiling, but the ancient stair remains sound.
Jannie Welcome
The stair is older than the vault above.
Jennifer
The air is changing. We are beneath the hoard now, and the relic chamber cannot be far.
The stair ends at a broad black threshold. Jannie crosses it with the others and enters a hidden chamber where pale fire burns in sconces without fuel.
Scooter
There. The relic chamber. The map brought us exactly where it promised.
At the chamber’s center, a black stone pedestal rises from a circle of silver dust. Upon it rests a wrapped relic beneath a faintly shimmering seal, fully within Jannie’s reach.
Quest Complete
Reach Beelzebub's relic chamber