House Corwin didn't just hoard grain—they weaponized hunger. While Veridia's eastern districts starved, their granaries overflowed with prime harvests shipped under Church protection. Their "charity kitchens" were fronts for recruiting orphans—children who vanished into Church wagons labeled "Sanctuary Transport." Lyra's stolen ledgers confirmed it: Corwin sold moldy scraps to the poor at triple price while exporting gold-grade wheat to the capital.
Kael knew killing Lord Corwin wouldn't end this. The man was a symptom. The disease was the **system**.
"We don't just kill him," Kael told the guild in the Root Cellar, oil lamp casting long shadows over their faces. Bastian sharpened a garrote wire. Elara practiced the voice of a Corwin steward. Lyra spread ledgers across the table. "We **starve his power**."
Their plan had three phases.
**Phase One: Economic Sabotage**
Bastian, working through the night at his forge, crafted **Void-Forged Nails**—tiny, light-absorbing spikes infused with slow-acting fungal spores harvested from the catacombs. Elara, disguised as a dockworker with Bastian's forged credentials, slipped them into Corwin's grain sacks during the night shift. Within days, entire shipments rotted from within. Corwin's profits evaporated. His merchants complained of "cursed grain."
**Phase Two: Truth in the Market**
Lyra forged duplicates of Corwin's ledgers, but with one critical alteration: entries now showed Corwin **stole tithes meant for the Luminous Church**. Elara, mimicking a panicked Corwin steward with perfect pitch and trembling urgency, delivered these fakes to rival noble houses and the local Bishop's office. Suspicion festered. House Varn cut ties. The Bishop sent Inquisitors to audit Corwin's books.
**Phase Three: The Reckoning**
On the night of the Harvest Moon Festival, Corwin hosted a lavish banquet on his manor's balcony to "reassure" allies. He stood before a hundred guests, raising a goblet of wine. "To abundance! To the Light's blessing upon House Corwin!"
Kael gave the signal.
Bastian, hidden in the rafters of the nearby stables, triggered the **Silent Collapse**—a network of Void-Forged wires woven into the balcony's support beams over three nights of infiltration. The wood groaned, then gave way with no explosion, no spark—just the quiet sigh of failing timber.
Corwin plummeted thirty feet, landing on the stone courtyard with a sickening crunch of bone. His spine snapped. He didn't die instantly. He lay broken, gasping, blood bubbling on his lips, staring up at the moon.
Kael phased down, landing beside him. Corwin's eyes widened in recognition. "Y-you… the Gutter Ghost…"
"The ghost who eats lies," Kael said, kneeling. He held up Corwin's *real* ledger—the one proving he sold children to soul-farms. "You fed your greed while children starved. Now, the world will know."
He didn't kill him. He left him broken, bleeding, and **alive**—a testament to his own failure. Templars arrived minutes later, but the damage was done. Whispers spread like wildfire: *Corwin stole from the Church. Corwin sold orphans. Corwin's blessing was a lie.*
The next morning, starving citizens stormed Corwin's granaries. They found only rotting grain and empty cages. House Corwin was finished—not by a blade, but by **shame**.
> **[QUEST COMPLETE: DISMANTLE HOUSE CORWIN.]**
> **[REWARDS: VOID ARTS — VOID SILENCE (CREATES 10-SECOND RADIUS OF ABSOLUTE SILENCE), PUBLIC TRUST +18%.]**
> **[NEW STATUS (KAEL)]**
> **STR: 5 | AGI: 8 | VIT: 6 | INT: 14 | WIS: 12 | CHA: 9 | VOD: 11**
> **[GUILD STATUS]**
> **LYRA: CHA +1, INT +1 | BASTIAN: STR +1, VOD +1 | ELARA: WIS +1, VOD +1**
> **[SYSTEM NOTE: PUBLIC OPINION — CAUTIOUS HOPE. TRUST: 29%.]**
Only then did Lyra approach Kael, her eyes wide. "How did you know leaving him alive would hurt more than killing him?"
Kael looked at the looted granary, at the people sharing moldy bread like treasure. "Death is mercy. Shame is eternal. And eternal shame… is a revolution."