The door opens onto darkness.

But as you step inside, light awakens. Soft purple luminescence rises from crystals embedded in the walls, the ceiling, the floor. The same light as the gem, but gentler. More intimate.

You’re in a vault.

The space is circular, perhaps thirty paces across. The walls are covered in murals—painted, carved, enchanted to move in the flickering light. Scenes from the founding. The four founders working together. Building Eldermoor. Raising the gem.

And then the scenes change.

Darker images. A man in armor with a blade raised. A woman in midnight blue falling. A man draped in gold on his knees, pleading. A woman wrapped in vines accepting her fate with a sad smile.

This is the truth. The unedited history of Eldermoor’s birth and the founders’ death.

“The shadow,” your ally whispers. “Where did it go?”

You realize you’ve lost track of it. The creature led you here and then… vanished.

Or was sent here deliberately.

Before you can process that thought, something shifts in the center of the room.

An altar rises from the floor. Stone, ancient, carved with the same symbols as the door. And resting on its surface, undisturbed for what might be centuries:

Three objects.

A quill made of silver, its tip dark with old ink.

A set of scales, perfectly balanced, crafted from gold.

A seed, still green despite its age, wrapped in a single dried vine.

Seraphine. Aldric. Thornwen.

“The founders’ relics,” your ally breathes. “I’ve read about these. Legends say they held fragments of each founder’s power. They were supposed to have been lost when…”

When Varek killed them. When he erased the truth.

But they weren’t lost. They were hidden. Waiting.

A voice fills the chamber. Female. Familiar. You heard it during the ceremony, inside the gem.

You found this place faster than I hoped. The shadows led you well—yes, I sent them. Even Varek’s servants can be turned against him by those who know their making.

Seraphine.

There’s no time. He’s noticed your presence here. I can protect this vault for a few moments more, but you must listen.

The relics hold the key to stopping Varek. Each one weakens him in a different way. But they’ve been scattered—hidden in places connected to each founder. You must find them all.

And you must do it before he completes his ritual.

“What ritual?” you ask the air.

He’s going to consume the gem. Consume me. Consume everything the founders sacrificed. When he does, nothing will be able to stop him.

Find the relics. Gather allies. And when you’re ready…

Come back to me.

The light begins to fade.

Go now. Before he finds you here. And remember—I’ve waited three hundred years for you. Don’t make my sacrifice meaningless.