Black water pours from the submerged woman's split torso and spreads across the dry floor without soaking the boards. She keeps one hand pressed to the wound.
From the flooded hallway, the hooded woman steps into the fireless light. She is a slender young adult woman with sallow skin, wet black hair, and a narrow face marked by dark veins.
Drowned Keeper
You should have stayed with the dead above.
She lowers the hood completely. Her eyes are filmed white, yet they fix on John Murder with deliberate attention as the black water creeps around his boots.
Drowned Keeper
They are not yours to carry. Their voices belong to the house now.
Below the broken floorboards, metal scrapes against something that shifts in the darkness. The sound travels beneath the room, followed by a slow, wet knock.
Drowned Keeper
Your blade found only my doorway. What waits below has been hungry much longer.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the submerged woman's identity and purpose
✓ Quest Accepted
Discover what waits below
“"This heads were mine to claim, this is my territory. who are you and what do you want?"”
SUCCESS (Fair Willpower, rolled +3)
John Murder
These heads were mine to claim. This is my territory. Who are you, and what do you want?
The black water pauses around John Murder's boots. Beneath the broken floor, the scraping stops, as though the house itself listens to his claim.
Drowned Keeper
I am the Drowned Keeper. This reflection is my territory, and the dead inside it are my food.
The woman draws her blood-dark hand away from the wound. The torn flesh closes beneath her fingers, leaving only a vertical seam across her sallow torso.
Drowned Keeper
I want what you carried below. Three voices, three deaths, three pieces of the surface house. Give them to me, and I will let you leave with your blade.
Below, something knocks once against the underside of the floor. The sound answers her offer, deep and patient, while the machete glints between the boards in the darkness.
Drowned Keeper
Refuse, and the hungry thing beneath us will learn your name before I do.
Quest Complete
Learn the submerged woman's identity and purpose