Rain threads through Blackthorn Hollow, turning the village lane into black glass. Candlelight shivers behind warped shutters and veils the halted funeral procession.
At the graveyard gate, a coffin hangs in iron chains above an open plot. Sister Agatha grips a broken ashwood charm while the reeve and pallbearers crowd her.
Sister Agatha
I buried an empty coffin three nights ago. The dead beneath it were never mine to name.
The coffin gives a slow, wooden knock. Then its voice seeps through the rain, speaking Malrec Voss's name.
Beyond the graves, a white-haired woman floats above the mist, her funeral veil lifting in wind that touches nothing else.
The White-Haired Woman
The Testament of Ash waits where the faithless kneel. Come closer, priest, and learn which corpse remembers you.
High on the abandoned castle, a chapel window ignites with crimson light. The chained coffin jolts toward it, dragging the pallbearers off balance.
Sister Agatha
Stop it, whatever you serve. If that coffin reaches the chapel, the Briar Sisters will begin the harvest tonight.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether the coffin’s voice is Malrec’s contact
✓ Quest Accepted
Prevent the Briar Sisters’ harvest
“I demand Agatha tell me how to stop the harvest.”
SUCCESS (Good Diplomacy, rolled +2)
Malrec Voss
Tell me how to stop the harvest.
Agatha's terror steadies beneath the demand. She tears her gaze from the straining coffin and faces Malrec Voss through the rain.
Sister Agatha
The Briar Sisters need three things: the coffin at the chapel, a living witness beneath its window, and the bell rung thirteen times. Break any one before the thirteenth stroke, and the harvest fails.
She thrusts the broken ashwood charm toward the castle. A splintered rune glows faintly in her palm, answering the crimson window.
Sister Agatha
The charm can silence the bell, but only at the chapel threshold. I cannot reach it while the coffin pulls the procession.
The coffin jerks again. One chain snaps taut toward the castle, while the chapel window flares and reveals a bell rope descending behind the glass.
The White-Haired Woman
Choose, priest. Guard the frightened sister, or follow the coffin to the bell.
“Follow the coffin”
FAILURE (Fair Agility, rolled +0)
Malrec Voss follows the coffin's pull through the rain, boots grinding over drowned gravestones.
But the taut chain snaps sideways around a sunken marker. The sudden drag catches Malrec Voss off balance and hurls him against the stone.
Sister Agatha
Not that way. The coffin is choosing the ground beneath you.
The procession lurches onward without him. Its chained runners scrape across the graves, leaving a dark furrow that stops at the chapel steps.
The impact cracks the grave marker open. Beneath it, a narrow stair descends toward the chapel's side threshold, untouched by the coffin's path.
Sister Agatha
That passage reaches the bell chamber. Take it, and the charm may still silence the first stroke.
Ahead, the coffin strains up the chapel steps. Behind its lid, the familiar voice calls Malrec Voss's name again, but the rain swallows the next words.
“I descend the stair toward the bell chamber”
SUCCESS (Fair Agility, rolled +0)
Malrec Voss descends the narrow stair, one hand sliding along wet stone while his armor scrapes the wall.
The final step gives way beneath his boot. He catches himself on the iron bell frame and reaches the chamber below, but the impact rings through the chapel.
Sister Agatha
Quietly, Malrec. The bell heard you.
From the stair mouth, Sister Agatha hears the coffin answer. Its voice no longer comes from the lid alone. It rises through the chapel stones, shaped in the scholar's familiar cadence.
Sister Agatha
That is not a corpse calling from within. Something beneath the chapel is wearing your contact's voice.
Above, the first bell rope jerks taut without a hand upon it. The cracked ashwood charm burns cold in Agatha's grasp, while the hidden voice whispers Malrec Voss's name from below the floor.
Quest Complete
Determine whether the coffin’s voice is Malrec’s contact
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Fair→Good