Before Sara can finish examining the disappearing-ink route, a masked traveler climbs from the ravine. She is a lean adult woman in a weathered green cloak, iron-gray hair braided beneath a bone-white mask, and she carries a crooked ash staff bearing the open-eye sigil.
Merrin Voss
I am Merrin Voss, a waykeeper. Put the waystone shard and binding pins back in the satchel, and return them to me.
The shard pulses sharply toward Merrin's staff. Blue light jumps between the matching sigils, making the parchment's fading route flare across the stone.
The silver-backed hare bursts from the fern shadows and bolts into the undergrowth. Its flight scatters damp leaves across the open satchel.
Merrin Voss
Slowly. The shard is attuned to a threshold, and the pins keep that threshold from opening where it should not.
Merrin stops several paces away, staff planted but not raised. The mask hides her expression, while the ravine mist curls around her boots.
Sara remains alone on the forest shelf with the satchel, shard, rods, and sealed route-map before her. No companion waits above, and no one else follows Merrin from the ravine.
“"Oh yeah and how do I know it's yours strange masked lady!?" I say suspicious”
SUCCESS (Fair Persuasion, rolled +1)
Sara Grimm
Oh yeah, and how do I know it’s yours, strange masked lady?
The question hangs above the open satchel. Merrin’s masked head tilts slightly, while the shard answers her staff with another measured pulse.
Merrin Voss
You do not know. A claim is not proof. Watch the sigil, and judge what it recognizes.
Merrin lowers the crooked ash staff until its open-eye mark faces the shard. Blue light stretches between them, forming a thin, unbroken thread.
Merrin Voss
The shard was cut from the Seventh Threshold. The pins were forged to fit its anchor-runes. I can name their maker, their purpose, and the route they guarded.
At her words, the bronze rods roll once across the stone and settle into a precise triangle. The parchment’s disappearing ink briefly redraws the same open-eye sigil.
Merrin Voss
That is evidence, not ownership. Keep them in your hands if you wish, but do not activate them together. The threshold would answer.
“"ok but why'd you just leave then out here for anyone to find!?"”
SUCCESS (Fair Persuasion, rolled +0)
Sara Grimm
Then why did you leave them out here where anyone could find them?
The question cuts through the ravine’s measured hum. The shard dims, and the bronze triangle loosens as Merrin’s staff lowers a fraction.
Merrin Voss
I did not leave them here. A flood carried the satchel from the threshold’s old chamber, and the ravine buried it. I followed its pulse only after the ward woke.
Merrin gestures toward the mud still clinging to the leather. Beneath the satchel, a thin blue line glows in the stone, pointing toward the ravine’s submerged roots.
Merrin Voss
The concealment held until your levitation spell disturbed the shelf. You found it because you saved it from falling, not because I placed it for discovery.
The route-map’s disappearing ink flares once, then burns away a final section of its markings. The loss leaves Merrin watching Sara more carefully.
Merrin Voss
Now I know the threshold has reacted to an untrained keeper. That makes your curiosity useful, and dangerous.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the history of the threshold and its warded relics
“"alright fine but you better teach me over food was looking for food when I found satchel I'm starving"”
SUCCESS (Fair Persuasion, rolled +1)
Sara Grimm
All right, fine. But you better teach me over food. I was looking for breakfast when I found the satchel, and I am starving.
Merrin studies Sara across the open satchel. The waystone gives a faint pulse, and the last scraps of route-map ash drift into the ravine mist.
Merrin Voss
Agreed. I will teach you what the shard can safely reveal, over a meal. But you will tell me every spell you used to reach it.
She reaches into her weathered cloak and produces a wrapped heel of dark bread, dried berries, and a small flask. The portion is modest but plainly meant for one traveler.
Merrin Voss
Eat first. Then return the shard and pins to the satchel. Your hunger explains the risk, but it does not excuse repeating it.
Merrin sets the food on a flat stone within Sara's reach. In exchange for the lesson, her suspicion remains fixed on Sara's scorched glove and the disturbed threshold shelf.
Merrin Voss
The bargain is made, young keeper. You get food and instruction. I get the truth, and the relics remain untouched until I say otherwise.
“"my name is Sara Grimm the brave and daring mage and don't forget it!!" I'd say before I start eating the bread you gave me”
SUCCESS (Fair Persuasion, rolled +1)
Sara Grimm
My name is Sara Grimm, the brave and daring mage. Do not forget it!
Sara takes the dark bread from the stone and bites into it. Its crust is tough, but the dense grain and faint salt quickly settle the sharp edge of her hunger.
Merrin Voss
Sara Grimm, then. I will remember the name, though bravery is best tested after breakfast.
Merrin folds her arms beneath the weathered green cloak while Sara eats. Dried berries follow the bread, tart and bright against the ravine’s damp, mineral air.
Merrin Voss
A mage who announces herself before examining a dangerous relic may be daring. Whether she is wise remains to be seen.
The flask offers a swallow of cool water. Beside it, the open satchel waits with the blue shard and bronze pins undisturbed, their sigils faintly glowing.
Merrin Voss
Finish eating, Sara Grimm. Then tell me how you shaped the snare, the anchor, and the levitation spell.
Gain permission to continue investigating the warded relics