Dust spills from the grotto mouth in a pale sheet. The fallen paladin lies half-buried in stone chips, still breathing. Above him stands a robed Inquisitor, incense smoke curling from a iron censer in his hand.
The Inquisitor
Rise, if you can. Your failure is already judged.
The Paladin
Inquisitor, he is no beast. He is a mage. Take him alive.
The Inquisitor does not look down at the paladin. His gaze stays locked on Surazal, cold and measuring, as if naming a sickness.
The Inquisitor
No. Contagion spreads. Witnesses spread. I cleanse both.
He lifts the censer and begins a low rite. Ozone prickles the air. White ash spirals around his boots, gathering into a thin, bright ring beneath him.
Surazal
The rite is meant to seal the grotto.
✓ Quest Accepted
Survive the Inquisitor’s sealing rite
“"inquisitor...it was you...you were the one who gave the order you were the one who killed my family" I begin to lose control of my rage and feel emotions I have not felt in a long time”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Surazal’s words cut through the rite. The Inquisitor’s censer stills in mid-swing.
Surazal
Inquisitor... it was you. You gave the order. You killed my family.
The white ash ring gutters. For the first time, the Inquisitor’s stare breaks, just a fraction.
The Inquisitor
Names, then? Good. The dead deserve witnesses.
The Paladin
What did you just say?
The paladin hauls himself higher on one knee, frost and soot cracking on his armor as he looks from Surazal to the Inquisitor.
Surazal’s rage rises, sharp and strange, but it does not break him. The dark ring beneath his skin tightens, obedient.
The Inquisitor
If this child was one of the accounted losses, then the fault is mine to finish.
“"you then attempted to pin the blame on me! saying I when I was a child am the one who destroyed my village!"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +0)
Surazal
You try to pin it on me, then. You say that I, as a child, destroyed my own village.
The Inquisitor
...No. I say your curse made you useful to blame.
The Paladin
Useful? You called a child a failure and wrote it down as cleansing?
The Inquisitor
I named what the Order required. The village burned because the rot was already there.
The Paladin
His voice does not deny it. He only sharpens it.
The ash ring at the threshold breaks apart in pale flakes. The censer drops lower in the Inquisitor’s hand, its smoke thinning.
The Paladin
Then I was standing beside a liar.
Quest Complete
Survive the Inquisitor’s sealing rite
New Gift: Inquisitor's Warding Insight