Embers crashes through black ferns into the Dark Forest, roots snatching at her boots as the shouting behind her fades into the trees.
The silence here is wrong, heavy enough to make every breath feel loud. Ahead, a pale strip of moonlight opens between trunks, a possible path.
A branch snaps behind her. The Man in Gray cuts into view at the edge of the gloom, moving fast, eyes fixed on Embers.
Grayman
Run if you like, little ember. You still belong to the end of this road.
Embers’ sling is already in her hand, but before she can turn, a wolf bursts from the brush to her left, teeth bared at the hunter.
The Woodsman
This way, Embers. Move now.
The Woodsman steps out between the trees ahead, blade low and ready, while the Royal Courier appears on the hunter’s flank with a raised spear. The hunter slows, boxed in again.
The narrow opening in the trees becomes Embers’ only clear route, straight toward her allies and away from the hunter’s grasp.
+ Scene Quest Added
Escape the Man in Gray
“Using the opening created Embers will Dash through the woods jinking left and right in a random pattern hoping to throw off her pursue. she rushes by a particularly stout looking limb from a Fallen Tree catches her eye and she snags it for an improvised Club”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled -1)
Embers breaks from the moonlit gap, feet skimming roots as she zigs hard left, then right, vanishing into black ferns.
A stout limb juts from a fallen tree. She snatches it on the run, the bark rough in her grip, and keeps moving.
Behind her, the hunter’s path falters in the tangle. Leaves whip up where he was, but the darkness swallows his shape.
The Woodsman
Keep low. Cut through the brush, not the open ground.
The Royal Courier
This way, Embers, come on.
The wolf wheels back into the cover of the shrubs, and the hunter is left staring after a trail that no longer runs straight.
Embers is already deeper in the trees, club in hand, the shadows closing around her as the voices behind her recede.
Quest Complete
Escape the Man in Gray
+ New Item Acquired
Rough branch-club