The hidden passage narrows, then opens above a dry cistern gallery beneath Lantern Row. Ancient channels divide the chamber, crossed by cracked inspection walks and rusted ladders.
Mattheas emerges behind Danial, carrying the failing lamp and the recovered keys. Ahead, Hattori Ishiwa kneels beside a channel, studying black residue while a small stoppered vial glints in her hand.
Hattori Ishiwa
Do not bring that book closer. Its presence has drawn something through the old waterworks.
Hattori rises sharply, lavender hair catching the weak lamplight. She points toward the gallery's darkest arch, where the residue gathers in branching streaks against the stone.
Mattheas ben-Igari
Something living?
Hattori Ishiwa
Something that remembers being alive. The channels run beneath half of Lantern Row, and now three exits carry its spoor.
Beyond the arch, water drips where no water should remain. One inspection walk leads toward the salt gate, another toward the cooperage, and a stair descends beneath the gallery.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine how to keep the tome from waking the waterworks
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the warded passage beneath the gallery floor
“Is the residue tracking the tome?”
YES, AND MORE (VeryLikely, rolled 14)
The black residue lifts in thin threads from every channel, bending toward the oilcloth-wrapped tome. Where its spoor crosses old stone, faint silver letters emerge beneath the grime.
Hattori Ishiwa
Yes. It follows the book, but not blindly. The tome is waking the waterworks, and the waterworks are showing us their buried map.
The letters join into a route marked with three signs: salt gate, cooperage, and a fourth passage hidden beneath the gallery floor. The lowest mark bears a warding seal.
Mattheas ben-Igari
A map revealed by pursuit. That is an advantage I would not have expected from a cursed trail.
Hattori Ishiwa
The spoor cannot cross the sealed route. Whatever waits below, it fears that ward more than it seeks the tome.
Behind them, boots scrape within the hidden passage. The residue gathers toward the stair beneath the gallery, while the newly revealed warded route remains untouched.
Hattori Ishiwa
Choose quickly. The thing is tracking the book, but it has also given you the only path it cannot follow.
“I keep the tome close and search for the warded route's entrance.”
SUCCESS (Superb Thievery, rolled +0)
Danial keeps the oilcloth-wrapped tome tight beneath his arm and searches the gallery floor, following the silver letters where they vanish beneath cracked inspection stones.
Near the warding seal, dust lies undisturbed except for a narrow crescent beneath a rusted ladder. The stone there bears the faint outline of a concealed hatch.
Hattori Ishiwa
There. The seal is not painted on the floor. It is the lock's boundary. Do not break its pattern.
Danial clears the grime with his sleeve. Four shallow sockets appear around the seal, matching the plain iron keys recovered from the raiders.
Mattheas ben-Igari
Then the keys were meant for this place. Give me the lamp, and I will watch the passage while you work.
He sets the keys in the sockets according to the silver map's signs. The ward answers with a muted chime, and a square section of floor rises without disturbing the seal.
Hattori Ishiwa
The route is open. Whatever hunts the tome cannot follow you below, but the ward will not remain silent for long.
“I ask Hattori to study the residue”
SUCCESS (Fair Reasoning, rolled +1)
Danial Tienad
Study the residue, Hattori. Tell me what follows the tome and what the waterworks remember.
Hattori kneels beside the nearest black streak, keeping her vial sealed. She traces the branching spoor with a silver-tipped finger while the warded hatch hums faintly behind them.
Hattori Ishiwa
It is not a creature's trail. It is a memory made mobile, drawn from drowned offerings and old necromantic runoff.
She holds a shard of dark residue beneath the lamp. Threads within it turn toward the tome, then recoil from the warding seal as though recognizing an ancient command.
Hattori Ishiwa
The book is acting as a summons, but not its master. Something below is using its buried names to call the dead water upward.
Hattori Ishiwa
The spoor marks three passages because the waterworks once carried bodies, reagents, and messages separately. The sealed route was reserved for the one who maintained the wards.
Hattori rises and points to the concealed hatch. Silver letters now sharpen around its boundary, revealing a warning: the ward admits the tome, but demands silence from whoever bears it.
Quest Complete
Reach the warded passage beneath the gallery floor
Skill Upgrade: Thievery Superb→Legendary
“I ask Hattori how to silence the tome”
SUCCESS (Good Knowledge (Occult), rolled +1)
Danial Tienad
How do I silence the tome?
Hattori studies the oilcloth bundle, then the warning circling the hatch. The black residue trembles in the channels, drawn toward the book but held back by the ward.
Hattori Ishiwa
Place it within the warded boundary and keep your hand upon its cover. Speak no name, no oath, and no command. The silence must be offered, not forced.
She uncorks the vial and draws a thin silver line across the hatch's inner rim. The ward brightens, while the residue withdraws from the stones.
Hattori Ishiwa
Now close the book without opening it. Let the ward hear only its weight. When the hum stops, the summons is sealed until the cover is broken again.
Following Hattori's instruction, Danial settles the oilcloth-wrapped tome inside the warded boundary and closes his hand over its cover. The silver letters flare once, then fade.
The channels fall still. Black residue sinks into the cracks, the hidden hatch loses its hum, and the tome becomes silent beneath Danial's hand.
Quest Complete
Determine how to keep the tome from waking the waterworks
Skill Upgrade: Knowledge (Occult) Good→Great