The First Heart Piece Comes From Renfield

Ash found the Lawful guard's fate before anyone found a clean path forward. The guard who had been so committed to defending his post was dead or petrified near a spectator and a cyclops, reduced from procedure to warning. Meanwhile Maine found a dead gnome protected by only a weak Lawful spectral warning. Even death had paperwork here, but the protection was not strong enough to stop the party from taking what the maze had left behind. The corpse was Renfield Hoek. From him, Maine recovered 200 gold, the Flame of the Last Vow pendant, and the party's first confirmed heart piece. That corrected the maze's tracking immediately. Vic was not confirmed as a heart-piece holder. Braska had pointed toward a minotaur lead, but the first real piece came from a dead gnome. The Flame of the Last Vow carried its own danger: a pendant able to cast Fireball at fourth level once per long rest. The maze had finally given them progress, but it came from a corpse under weak law.