The floating dais groans, stone grinding against stone as the Wandering Swordsman desperately lunges for a protrusion of jagged obsidian near the abyss.
Wandering Swordsman
He is losing his grip on the host. I can end this if I reach for the rift current. I just need a single gap in his focus.
Arion Touvengard
The human frame is brittle, failing under the weight of my intent. The soul within screams for release, but it will hold until this pest is discarded into the void.
Wandering Swordsman
You think you can keep me here, spirit, but your puppet is shaking. I can see the seams of your control flickering in his eyes.
The Swordsman abruptly twists his hips, abandoning his defensive stance to drive his elbow into the host's solar plexus, gambling his survival on the physical fragility of Arion's vessel.
+ Scene Quest Added
Survive the ambush on the dais
“"Tell me, who instructed you on how to open these rifts, and you can leave this place" Arion lies, fully intending to end this corrupted warrior either way.”
FAILURE (Good Willpower, rolled +1)
The strike lands true, driving the air from the host's lungs. Arion’s grip on the tethered soul slips, and the teal light pulsing beneath the host's skin flares violently, turning from a steady glow to a jagged, erratic strobe.
Arion Touvengard
The fool. He thinks a mere physical blow can disrupt the ancient weave binding me. My words were a courtesy, a path to his own salvation, but he chooses the path of the insect.
Wandering Swordsman
He is faltering. The energy is spilling out, uncontrollable. Now is the time to strike, while the puppet is blind.
Arion Touvengard
Tell me, who instructed you on how to open these rifts, and you can leave this place.
Wandering Swordsman
I answer to no one, especially not a rusted blade with a cracked ego!
The Swordsman lunges, not for the host's throat, but for the hilt of the ancient sword Arion inhabits. As his fingers brush the cold metal, the dais shudders, and a massive slab of floor beneath the Swordsman's boots shears away, plunging him into the swirling indigo mist of the abyss.
Quest Complete
Survive the ambush on the dais
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Good→Great