A scrape of boots breaks the ledge’s silence. Silas Quill appears between the black stones, breathless, his assigned watch abandoned somewhere below while the cutter and the others remain out of sight.
Silas Quill
The ritual site matches something I concealed from the crew. A detail about the door, and why Veyr wanted this route kept secret.
Arven turns sharply. Fear is plain in Silas’s face, but the survivor’s own expression hardens at the sight of him, as though an old escape has arrived wearing a new excuse.
Arven Sile
You were not at the cleft when I saw the fragment leave. You told us you never reached this ledge. Which part of that story was false?
Silas Quill
The part where I said I followed the survivor blindly. I saw the door open once. Not for the bell, but for someone carrying a piece of the drowned crown.
The three crown-shaped grooves seem to deepen in the fading light. Arven denies the memory with a tight shake of his head, while the stone door waits inward, its threshold untouched.
Arven Sile
No one opened it while I watched. If you saw that door move, Silas, then you were not watching the same place.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn why Veyr kept the ritual route secret
“I study the three crown grooves for signs of recent opening.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +2)
Oju studies each crown-shaped groove without touching the stone. His keen ears catch the faint settling tick of grit inside the left channel, while his keen nose separates fresh mineral dust from the older salt and cliff-dust around it.
The middle groove bears a recent abrasion along its lower edge, polished where something hard passed through. The right groove is undisturbed, but the left and middle channels hold traces of the same pale residue.
Oju
The door opened recently, and the middle groove guided the piece into place.
Oju follows the marks across the lintel and down to the threshold. A hair-thin scrape runs inward from the middle groove, while no matching drag mark leads outward, confirming the door was opened from this side and then shut.
Arven Sile
You found it. The middle crown was clean when I stood here. Someone opened the door after I fled the cleft.
Silas Quill
Then my memory was true. The crown fragment entered the middle groove, and the door opened inward without calling the outer wards.
The evidence settles the question: the door has opened recently, the middle groove received the missing crown fragment, and whoever used it bypassed the silent outer defenses.
✓ Quest Accepted
Have Silas identify who carried the crown fragment
“I ask Silas to explain what the crown fragment is, and who used it.”
SUCCESS (Fair Persuasion, rolled -1)
Oju
Silas, explain what the crown fragment is, and tell me who used it.
Silas’s mouth tightens, but Oju’s Reads Motives catches fear beneath the evasion and a stronger fear of being left behind. The pressure lands where plain threats would not.
Silas Quill
The fragment is not merely a map piece. It is a tooth of the drowned crown, cut from the sovereign’s old regalia. The three grooves are a lock, and the middle tooth tells the door which authority is being invoked.
Silas Quill
Veyr used it. I saw him place the fragment in the middle crown and enter before the door shut. He wore a grey travel cloak, but his face was veiled, and I never heard his true voice.
Arven’s stare fixes on Silas, while the fading light deepens the three grooves. Silas has given Oju the answer, but his admission leaves his earlier secrecy exposed before everyone present.
Arven Sile
Then you knew Veyr had entered before you hid aboard our cutter. You have earned a hearing, Silas, but not trust. Oju will have to spend that trust for you now.
Quest Complete
Have Silas identify who carried the crown fragment