Adventure of Valornor Gladewarder 1

Valornor steps onto the muddy river road, and the chill from the hall follows him. Behind, the Lord Commander still stands in the doorway, half-lit in violet frost, while the Talonford Guard holds him at spearpoint.

The Talonford Guard glances from the doorway to the river road, jaw tight. One choice pulls toward the open marsh. The other keeps the hall contained.

A thin wash of violet light flickers across the wet reeds ahead. Valornor sees where the hedge-wizard fled, and where the corruption is leaking into the land.

Valornor holds the token over the shimmering violet reeds, but the stone remains cold and inert. It offers no guidance or reaction to the corruption bleeding into the marsh.

The tracks vanish into the thick, stagnant mud of the marsh, leading nowhere. The trail does not head into the depths of the Dread Marches, but simply ceases to exist.

Valornor turns from the dead trail and moves along the marsh edge, keeping to firmer ground where the reeds thin. The stagnant water lies black beside him, but northward the bank bends in a shallow curve.

He follows the bend, and the mud finally gives up a sign, a crushed strip of sedge and a drag mark leading inland again.

The track does not belong to a boot alone. Something light was hauled there, wrapped or dragged, and then set down hard.

Ahead, the marsh edge opens around a half-sunk willow, its roots clawing at a narrow game path. A faint violet stain clings to the bark.

Valornor reaches the turn and sees the path lead north toward a low rise, where broken brush hides a cramped opening in the earth.

The air chills there, and a thin draft slips out from the opening, carrying the same wrong cold he has already learned to hate. Something below is waiting, and the way ahead is no longer empty.