Before dawn, Artok’s forge holds a packed quiet. Sera’s charcoal map lies beside rope, lamps, food, and water, while Katie checks the bundles near the cold rune-stamped anvil.
Sehra enters in her City Guard uniform, a young adult beastfolk woman with pale skin, vivid teal eyes, silver-white hair, and large pointed ears held sharply alert. She sets a rune-marked dagger beside the map.
Sehra
Its inscription has begun pulling toward the old hills. If it has awakened, your careful departure may already be late.
Sera’s hand pauses over the route. The map promises a measured road out and back before nightfall, but the dagger’s dark lines seem to lean toward the same distant hills.
Sera
We leave at first light and return before darkness. If the mark is drawing us, we follow it with supplies and a way home, not haste.
Katie
The dagger and the map point toward one another, but neither marking should be touched until we understand the pull.
Artok looks to his daughter and her friend, grabs his gear, and cracks his neck. Sera gives him water; he washes his healed palm, then lightly wraps it from his thigh bag as the two markings wait on the bench.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish a guarded alliance with Sehra