The Sentries Demand Teeth

The reliquary finally answered the party's math with its own. Morgan turned a corner carrying loot, and two stone sentries activated. They detected stolen cathedral property and demanded payment in teeth. The demand was absurd, grotesque, and completely consistent with the place: a holy market where everything had a price, even the body. Morgan immediately began looking for a way to produce teeth. Her first idea was practical in the worst possible way: summon a zombie and pull them out. The joke landed because the dungeon had already made moral accounting ridiculous. If the room wanted a tithe in teeth, Morgan was ready to ask what counted. Then the situation got worse. A rival band entered from the south, announcing that there was gold to scrap for. The party was now caught between automated relic guardians, stolen goods, and living competitors who had come to loot the same ruined holy economy. The next move would not be negotiation in a quiet room. It would be initiative.