Three weeks after the refuge seals behind them, Embers forages near the broken entrance, where frost clings to roots and old stones. The red wards still pulse faintly below the earth.
A dry twig snaps. An elderly woman steps from the brush, leaning on a staff topped with a dark stone that catches the wardlight like a bruise.
The Elderly Woman
Keeper of the Red Door, at last. I have walked too many roads for this meeting to be a dream.
She studies Embers with sharp, tireless eyes, then lets the staff point past the refuge, toward the far jagged outline of the Dragon Tooth Mountains.
The Elderly Woman
There is a hidden path if you know the old marks. I came to warn you, and to take what rests behind that seal.
The stone on her staff gives a low, hateful thrum. Embers feels the warded ground answer it, as if the refuge itself recoils.
+ Story Quest Added
Warn the refuge about the elderly woman
+ Scene Quest Added
Stop the elderly woman from taking what rests behind the seal
“"Who are you?" her voice not as rusty as it used to be, is soft with caution, but still firm enough to demand answers. "What do you mean you will take what rests behind the seal? Are you a Grayman?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -1)
Embers Firestarter
Who are you? What do you mean, take what rests behind the seal? Are you a Grayman?
The Elderly Woman
Grayman is a name for men who take with their hands. I take with doors, with vows, with memory.
The Elderly Woman
I am called by old roads and older hunger. You may call me keeper, if you must name me at all.
Her eyes soften for one brief, strange instant, and the bruise-dark stone on her staff dims beneath her fingers.
The Elderly Woman
That seal is not a wall, child. It is a lock on a hurt that never finished dying.
The Elderly Woman
Your warning is late, but not useless. The refuge hears you now, and it knows I have come.
Under the roots, the red seam gives one slow pulse, like a sleeping heart turning in its dream.
“"I don't understand." She says with confusion. "Help!" she yells back toward the refuge, trusting the woodsman and the others to come to her aid. "If you mean us harm," she says pulling her knife, "we will fight back!"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -1)
Embers Firestarter
I don't understand.
Embers Firestarter
Help!
Embers Firestarter
If you mean us harm, we will fight back!
Embers snaps her knife free and plants her feet beside the seal. The shout carries into the roots and stone, sharp enough to make the red seam shiver.
The Elderly Woman
Good. Fear that speaks is better than fear that freezes.
The Elderly Woman
I do not come to steal your home. I come because the road behind this door remembers me, and I remember what waits at its end.
The Elderly Woman
That child knows how to call for aid. And she still stands her ground.
The Elderly Woman
If the Woodsman hears you, let him come. If he still keeps faith with old vows, he will know my name before I speak it.
Quest Complete
Warn the refuge about the elderly woman
New Gift: Guardian of the Vulnerable