The stone-lined trail opens onto a roofless shrine tangled in pale roots. Elian leans against Davis as they enter, while moonlight spills across a cracked altar ahead.
Fresh blood glistens across the altar’s inscription, filling old grooves that bear the names Voss and Carmathen. Beneath the carved words, something pulses faintly under the flagstones.
Rowan
That is no shrine my grandmother ever described. Keep clear of the altar until we know what lies beneath it.
The pale roots tighten around the altar’s edges without breaking the stone. Each muted pulse sends a tremor through the flagstones and stirs dust from the empty rafters.
Rowan
The old inheritance found a door. It may have been waiting for both of us.
Elian’s weight shifts heavily against Davis, and his breath catches as the altar answers with a brighter throb. A hairline crack appears between two flagstones.
Rowan
If that inscription truly bears both our bloodlines, then the thing below may recognize us. We should decide carefully what we awaken.
Davis of Carmathen
The pulse is coming from beneath the stone, not from the roots.
✓ Quest Accepted
Interpret the bloodline inscription
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what the inherited curse means
“"We will be wary. We want to know what it means. Maybe we chance this and we will know more. But be ready." I pull my dagger ready for anything. We walk closer to the inscription to interpret it”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +0)
Davis of Carmathen
We will be wary. We want to know what it means. We may chance this, but be ready.
Davis draws his dagger and keeps its point low but ready. Supporting Elian with care, he advances until moonlight fully reveals the blood-filled inscription and the pulsing crack beneath it.
Rowan
I am ready. Read it before the blood sinks farther into the stone.
Davis studies the carved letters, tracing their archaic forms without touching the wet grooves. The inscription resolves into a warning: when Voss blood meets Carmathen blood, the buried heir wakes, and one descendant becomes the door.
Davis of Carmathen
The final line is obscured beneath the altar’s blood.
The meaning comes clear, but only after precious moments spent comparing worn symbols. The last phrase remains hidden, leaving the warning’s purpose certain while its consequence stays unknown.
Rowan
Then it recognizes us already. We know what the door is, but not what the heir will be when it wakes.
Beneath their feet, the pulse steadies into a slow answering rhythm. Elian braces himself against the altar’s edge, while the dagger’s steel catches a thin gleam from the moonlit crack.
Quest Complete
Interpret the bloodline inscription
“"If it's a curse then it isn't good. And both our blood has already met so let's hurry and read the last part and get out of here."”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +3)
Davis of Carmathen
If it is a curse, it is not good. Our blood has already met, so let us read the last part and get out of here.
Davis angles his dagger beneath the altar’s lip and catches the moonlight across the blood-filled groove. The hidden letters emerge where the stone dips lowest.
Davis of Carmathen
The final words are a warning, not an invitation.
The inscription reads: when the buried heir wakes, the door must choose one blood to carry it, while the other becomes the chain. The pulse beneath the altar answers once.
Rowan
Then we leave before it chooses. I will remember the words, but I will not let this place decide which of us it owns.
Elian pushes away from the altar and hooks his arm over Davis’s shoulder. Together they cross the root-choked shrine, pass beneath the broken lintel, and reach the pilgrim road.
Behind them, pale roots draw across the shrine entrance as the pulsing light fades under the flagstones. The moonlit trail bends downhill toward distant trees and safer ground.
Quest Complete
Get Elian Voss safely out of the grove
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Good→Great
Quest Complete
Learn what the inherited curse means
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Great→Superb