Wind hisses through a circus camp in tatters. Splintered poles lean at crooked angles, and striped canvas flaps like torn banners in the dusk.
Wrenera steps into the wreckage, boots sinking in churned mud. No horses whinny, no fiddles play, no crowd lingers.
Only one figure stands amid the ruin, cloaked in black, holding a glowing orb that stains their hands with pale fire.
Elian
You came. Good. The lost one said you would.
Wrenera
The tents were torn apart recently.
Elian
Take it. The orb keeps the dragon from the valley.
The ground gives a low, warning shudder. Loose ash jumps across the mud.
Elian
If you do not, then it comes down before nightfall. Now choose.
✓ Quest Accepted
Take the glowing orb
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect the valley from the dragon
“I reach out and take the glowing orb from the stranger's hands.”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +1)
Wrenera reaches in and closes her fingers around the orb. The stranger lets go at once, as if the thing burns them more than her.
Elian
Good. Hold it steady.
Pale light surges through the mud and up the torn poles. The low shudder beneath the camp steadies into a hard, thrumming pulse.
Elian
Yes... the barrier takes it.
For one sharp breath, the air tastes clean. Then the glow spreads outward in a thin, trembling ring beyond the camp.
Elian
Do not let it slip.
Quest Complete
Take the glowing orb
+ New Item Acquired
Glowing orb