Hagrtich enters beneath the laboratory, where shelves of cracked skulls and sealed jars lean around a circular stone floor. Wards crawl across every surface in dying blue fire.
A lean adult man in layered crimson robes, the vizier, a dark-skinned adult man with a narrow face and close-cropped black hair visible around the veil, braces both hands against a sunken seal. Gold rings flash on his fingers; one eye is hidden beneath a black veil.
The Vizier
Break, ancient prison. Yield what your dead god has hoarded.
The seal splits with a sound like a mountain inhaling. Black radiance pours upward, swallowing lamplight, while three robed attendants hook chains around a shape thrashing in the breach.
The Vizier
Hold it! The relic lies beyond the threshold. Whoever reaches it first will command a fortune beyond kings.
Something inside strikes the chains. One attendant skids across the stones, his sleeves smoking where the darkness touches them. The laboratory wards shatter in sequence, dropping fragments of sorcery like burning glass.
Beyond the broken seal, an angular relic rests on a black altar, haloed by silent radiance. The breach widens, and every surviving gaze turns toward the tomb.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the relic
“I keep low to the ground, crouched among the shelves a distance away to remain undetected by the vizier or his attendants. The wild, untamed magic is certainly intimidating, and I want nothing to do with it. I bide my time and wait to see what happens next. I will retrieve the relic, but I need to find a way to do so either inconspicuously, or find a way to kill my competition.”
SUCCESS (Superb Stealth, rolled -1)
Hagrtich lowers himself behind the leaning shelves, cloak blending with their shadows. Dust and old incense cling to the stone as he remains still, well beyond the vizier’s notice.
Hagrtich Ssazar
The breach is widening.
From that concealed angle, he watches the altar clearly. The angular relic gives no light of its own, yet its silent radiance bends the darkness around it.
The Vizier
Chains tighter! Do not let the prisoner cross the threshold.
The two remaining attendants haul together.The two remaining attendants, two adult men in soot-stained brown work robes with close-cropped hair and sturdy builds, haul together. Their chained burden stays mostly within the breach, but one black limb or tentacle lashes across the stones, scattering blue ward-fire.
The Vizier
The relic first. I will deal with the creature when its prison is sealed.
The vizier steps toward the altar, leaving the attendants between himself and the hidden shelves. Their struggle draws every eye forward, while Hagrtich’s patience keeps him unseen.
“I continue watching, shifting to a different shelf as the blue ward-fire sprinkles over my previous hiding space. The panic and divided attention from myself works in my favor, and I quickly procure a plan. I need to find a way to create a distraction to attain the relic while still ensuring I remain hidden. So, I carefully sink down onto all fours and scour what I can from what is around me.”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled -1)
Blue ward-fire sprinkles across the shelves behind him. Hagrtich sinks onto all fours and glides sideways, claws finding gaps in the stone while the attendants shout over the breach.
Hagrtich Ssazar
The fire remembers where I was.
He scours the lower shelves by touch. Among cracked skulls, sealed jars, and fallen copper charms, his claws discover a squat clay vessel banded in tarnished silver.
The jar holds a knot of powdered bone and black resin, marked with a faded symbol matching the broken wards. It could flare loudly when cast into the dying blue fire.
As he draws it free, a sharp shard of pottery cuts beneath one claw. A bead of dark blood strikes the stone, but his cloak and the attendants' uproar conceal the tiny sound.
The Vizier
Stand aside, fools. The altar is mine.
Hagrtich folds the marked vessel against his chest and settles behind a second shelf, hidden again. The distraction is ready, though his wounded claw leaves a faint smear in the dust.
+ New Item Acquired
Marked clay vessel
“I act fast. I skitter back to my hiding spot and hurl the jar toward a particularly sizeable flare of the blue fare, directly where the black tentacle lashes across the stones and already has scattered some of the ward-fire. Immediately following the jar's shattering, I surge back to the bookshelf I'm hiding upon, and scale it until I'm at the very top. I intentionally lean forward in order to force it to collapse; the plan is to have it fall onto at least one of the two remaining vizier's attendants. While the bookshelf falls, I leap off of it and over the vizier's head with my arms outstretched to seize the relic.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +2)
Hagrtich skitters from cover and hurls the marked vessel into the largest blue flare, precisely where the black tentacle lashes across the stones.
The clay shatters. Bone powder and resin ignite in a violent blue-white burst, swallowing the tentacle’s strike and blasting ward-fire across the laboratory.
Before the attendants can recover, Hagrtich reaches the shelf, climbs its leaning tiers, and throws his weight forward. The ancient wood groans, then collapses.
One attendant vanishes beneath the falling shelves and jars. The other stumbles aside as dust erupts, while the vizier twists toward the upheaval.
Hagrtich springs from the collapsing bookcase, arms outstretched. He sails over the vizier’s veiled head and lands at the black altar, fingers closing around the angular relic.
The Vizier
Thief! Put it down, scaled carrion!
Hagrtich Ssazar
The relic is cold, and its silence presses against my claws.
Quest Complete
Secure the relic
Skill Upgrade: Stealth Superb→Legendary
+ New Item Acquired
Angular relic