Roots peel from the old stones as Brother Caldus leads Malrec Voss through the narrow service passage. The Living Witness remains close, wrists and ankles entangled in living roots, dragged gently along the damp floor.
Brother Caldus
The Sisters began this harvest with thirteen strokes. Here, the first ward was carved to deny them the last.
The passage opens into an undercroft. Extinguished votive niches line the walls, each beneath a carved name. At the far end, a sealed altar bears the same ashwood sigil that marked Agatha's charm.
Living Witness
Please... the bell is still listening.
Brother Caldus
The altar can silence it. No blood-price. No sacrifice. But the witness must touch the sigil while the seal is broken.
Above them, the taut bell rope groans through the stone. Dust rains from the ceiling. The carved names begin to glimmer one after another, ending at a blank space beneath the altar.
Living Witness
That blank place is waiting for my name.
✓ Quest Accepted
Silence the listening bell
“I help the Witness reach the ashwood sigil and examine the altar's seal.”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled -3)
Malrec Voss braces the Living Witness beneath the altar, forcing a path through the crawling roots without tearing them free. His shield catches the falling dust while his gauntleted hand guides the witness's shoulder toward the ashwood sigil.
Living Witness
It is cold. The mark knows I am here.
The Living Witness presses both palms to the sigil. The seal opens along hair-thin cracks, revealing a dark inscription beneath the stone.
Malrec Voss leans close to examine it. The altar's hidden words name the witness as the bell's final anchor, but they also mark the seal as a command that can be turned against the Briar Sisters.
The cost arrives immediately. Malrec Voss's gauntlet scrapes the exposed ward, and the bell rope above gives one violent pull. A single stroke rolls through the undercroft, while the ashwood charm burns cold beside the bell frame.
Brother Caldus
I was wrong about one thing. The seal does not need a sacrifice. It needs a name spoken into its command. Give it the Sisters' name, and their harvest turns inward. Give it the witness's name, and the bell claims them.
Brother Caldus
Which name will you place in the seal?
“I speak the Sisters’ name into the seal”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +3)
Malrec Voss
Malrec Voss speaks the Briar Sisters' name into the seal.
The name sinks into the dark inscription. Its letters flare crimson, then turn inward like thorns folding around a dying flame.
Living Witness
The roots are letting go.
Across the undercroft, every root recoils from the witness. Above, the listening bell gives one muted tremor and falls silent, its rope slackening.
Brother Caldus
The Sisters' name is bound now. Their harvest cannot begin. Every rite they call through this altar will return to them.
A second inscription rises beneath the first, revealing a map of briar-veined passages beneath the chapel. One path ends at the Sisters' hidden sanctum, marked by three empty thrones.
Brother Caldus
He has turned their own command into a weapon. If the Sisters come, the altar will answer them.
Confront the Briar Sisters
Quest Complete
Prevent the Briar Sisters’ harvest
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Good→Great
Quest Complete
Silence the listening bell
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Great→Superb