The emerald lantern hisses over the streambed, and the green seam in the mud leaps brighter. Bardronas, the deserter, and the Stranger freeze between half-buried ward-stones as a shadow peels away from the trees.
The battered Hooded Figure steps into the lantern glow, cloak torn, hood askew, one hand pressed to a bruised side. They stop short when they see the deserter beside Bardronas.
The Hooded Figure
There you are. Step away from him. He is owed, and I mean to collect.
Bardronas
No.
The deserter tightens his grip on his blade, glancing from the Hooded Figure to Bardronas. The Stranger lifts the lantern higher, and the fire in the mud curls toward its light like a living thing.
The Stranger
Careful. If that seam wakes fully, none of us gets him, or the road, intact.
The Hooded Figure looks past Bardronas, measuring the ward-stones, the lantern, and the deserter's fear. Their stance eases by a fraction, not yielding, only delaying.
The Hooded Figure
Then hear me. The soldier is tied to a debt you do not understand. Let me take him, or we all burn in what comes next.
✓ Quest Accepted
Neutralize the Hooded Figure
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the spreading magical fire
““Hes with me, he’s done me no wrong thus far””
SUCCESS (Superb Intimidation, rolled +0)
Bardronas does not move aside. His axe stays low, but his stance says enough.
Bardronas
He is with me. He has done me no wrong so far.
The deserter’s shoulders loosen a handspan behind him, blade still up, eyes fixed on the Hooded Figure.
The Hooded Figure
Done you no wrong yet. That is not the same as owing nothing.
The Stranger tips the lantern toward the seam, and the green fire curls away from the soldiers like a sniffing hound. The mud at their boots glows, then settles.
The Hooded Figure
Listen, then. I was sent to take him alive, and I mean to keep that bargain. But the debt is old, and it is mine to settle without spilling this road with all our blood.
The Deserter Soldier
Then say what you want from me. Plainly.
For the first time, the Hooded Figure lowers their free hand. The answer hangs between the ward-stones, waiting.
“Soldier what do you want?”
SUCCESS (Superb Intimidation, rolled +1)
Bardronas
Say it plainly. What do you want from him?
The Hooded Figure
His hand. His oath. Something he took and swore he would not give back.
The Deserter Soldier
I never swore to you.
The Hooded Figure
You did, when the road was burning and you begged for shelter.
The lantern tilts a little higher. Green light skates off the mud seam, and the fire bends away in a thin hiss.
The Hooded Figure
Let me take what is owed, and I leave with no blood on your axe.
The Deserter Soldier
That is not a promise. It is a knife with polite words.
“Without any hesitant I going for killing blow on the hooded stranger”
SUCCESS (Great Melee Combat, rolled -2)
Bardronas moves first. His axe flashes through the lantern light, and the Hooded Figure’s bargain dies before it finishes breathing.
Steel bites clean. The Hooded Figure folds backward into the mud, their hand falling slack as the streambed answers with a wet, choking splash.
The emerald lantern jolts in the Stranger’s grip. The green seam recoils from the flare of blood and blade, then flickers wider at the edge of the frame.
The Deserter Soldier
By the road... he is down.
The Stranger
Move. Now. That fire is waking again.
Bardronas’s strike costs him a hot slash across the forearm, and the Hooded Figure’s body lies still at his feet.
The streambed hisses louder. Green fire crawls toward the boots of the group, and the lantern must turn, or the whole path goes blind.
Quest Complete
Neutralize the Hooded Figure
Skill Upgrade: Intimidation Superb→Legendary