Randwulf climbs the narrow stair with Eomer and Eowyn close behind. The wall vibration grows louder, each clang deep in the stone like a hammer striking iron.
Ahead, the half-open door spills violet light over old dust and blackened mortar. The air bites with ozone, and the service stair ends at a landing cut into the heart of the fortress.
The Lieutenant
This is where they keep the doors shut. Saruman gave the word, and none are to pass without leave.
Eowyn
Then he is not guarding Helm's Deep, he is sealing something inside it.
Eomer
Open the door. If the garrison is trapped, we take this to Theoden at once.
The Lieutenant swallows, then reaches for the iron ring. Beyond the gap, a chamber glows with the same unnatural violet haze, and shadowed figures move in uneasy silence around stacked stores and barred inner passages.
Randwulf sees it plainly now, Saruman's quarantine is a cover, and the path to the fortress's hidden core lies through this door.
✓ Quest Accepted
Infiltrate the inner keep
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose Saruman's blockade to King Theoden
“"And where might I find Captain Gamling in this confusion?"”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +1)
Randwulf
And where might I find Captain Gamling in this confusion?
The Lieutenant
In the inner keep, where the stores are watched and the barred ways are guarded. If he is anywhere, it is there.
The Lieutenant
He lowers his eyes a moment, then steadies himself.
Eomer
Then we go to him at once. He will speak plainly when others will not.
Eowyn
And if Gamling cannot make Saruman answer, we will still know who hides behind this silence.
The Lieutenant
Careful. The men inside are uneasy, and the stair is watched. Gamling will want to know who sent you, and why you come by that way.
The Lieutenant
He glances toward the violet light, then back to Randwulf. "I can bring you to him, if you mean to face what is inside."
“"You are most kind. Let us go. I can hardly wait to hear what the good captain has to say."”
SUCCESS (Fair Diplomacy, rolled +3)
Randwulf
You are most kind. Let us go. I can hardly wait to hear what Captain Gamling has to say.
The Lieutenant gives a curt nod, then turns and leads them through the violet wash of the doorway into the inner keep.
Randwulf falls in beside him, shield steady, while Eomer and Eowyn close ranks behind, their impatience sharpening into focus.
The stair narrows under their boots. Faint glow leaks through the barred ways ahead, and the air tastes of dust and old stone.
Above them, the purple haze still clings to the open door, as if the fortress itself is holding its breath.
At the bend, a watcher shifts in the shadows, and a faint scrape answers from deeper within the keep.
Quest Complete
Infiltrate the inner keep
Skill Upgrade: Diplomacy Fair→Good