The floating dais groans, the stone grinding against the void. The Wandering Swordsman hauls his torso upward, his knuckles white against the crumbling, jagged lip of the platform.
Wandering Swordsman
He knows I am a vessel. He knows the blade is the master.
Wandering Swordsman
You hold the power of the ancients, yet you let the platform crumble beneath your own feet. Catch me, or we both fall into the abyss.
Arion Touvengard
His arrogance is refreshing, yet he clings to life like a common beast. Should I save the tether, or let the gravity of this shattered realm claim us both?
Arion Touvengard
You seek a hand, yet you struck at me with cold iron. Tell me why I should preserve a life that sought to extinguish my own.
Arion Touvengard
The teal energy hums beneath my skin, a puppet master pulling strings that have grown weary and frayed. I will extend the offer, but he will pay for his insolence in blood.
“As the wandering swordsman hangs over the abyss, Arion begins casting a spell to seal the rift to beyond. While performing the seal it creates a brief link to the outerrealm potentially allowing things to reach across.”
FAILURE (Great Arcana, rolled +1)
Arion channels the arcane, teal veins pulsing across his host’s skin. He reaches for the fracturing reality, intent on knitting the void shut. The air shrieks as the spell misfires, the tether of reality snapping like a taut wire.
Arion Touvengard
The geometry is wrong. The anchor point has shifted.
Instead of sealing the rift, the incantation rips a jagged, pulsing wound into the fabric of space. A viscous, obsidian sludge pours from the breach, accompanied by the wet, clicking sounds of something hungry reaching through. The dais tilts violently as the spectral pressure slams into the platform.
Arion Touvengard
This is not an ending. It is a doorway for things that should remain forgotten.
Wandering Swordsman
What have you done? That is not sealing the rift, that is feeding it!
The swordsman’s grip slips. He tumbles backward, his fingers scrabbling against the slick, crumbling stone, eyes wide with the realization that he is plummeting into the reach of the encroaching horror.
“Arion reluctantly turns towards the swordsman reaching to pull him back onto the dias, "Now you can see those dark masters who whispered you promises of strength, help me cast them back and begin to redeem yourself"”
SUCCESS (Great Athletics, rolled +2)
Arion’s hand snaps out, his fingers locking onto the swordsman’s wrist just as gravity claims him. Teal energy erupts from his own skin, surging into the host’s arm with a violent, electric crackle. He hauls the man upward with strength that defies the crumbling architecture.
Arion Touvengard
Now you can see those dark masters who whispered you promises of strength. Help me cast them back and begin to redeem yourself.
Arion Touvengard
He is a pathetic vessel, but the rift requires more than one will to seal. The void is hungry, and it knows my signature.
Wandering Swordsman
The shadows... they burn! I never wanted this!
The swordsman claws at the stone, his eyes darting to the writhing obsidian tendrils leaking from the rupture. He grips the hilt of his own steel, his knuckles white, as he stares into the abyss that Arion has just widened.
+ Scene Quest Added
Seal the rift with the Wandering Swordsman
“Standing at the ready, attempting to figure out what kind of creature is spilling forth in order to use the proper magic to send it back. "Well what will it be, do you wish to be consumed by you old master or help me in spiting their overreach into this realm"”
SUCCESS (Great Arcana, rolled +3)
The veil between worlds ripples like oil on water. From the churning rift, a singular, cyclopean eye wreathed in black, ethereal smoke focuses on the dais. Arion recognizes the rhythmic pulse of the creature; it is a Void-Stalker, a hound of the very abyss that held him for aeons.
Arion Touvengard
So, you wish to feast on a soul already thrice-dead? You arrive too late, abomination.
Arion Touvengard
It feeds on the hesitation of the host. If I channel the blade’s essence through his veins, I can anchor the rift before this thing fully manifests.
Arion Touvengard
Steel yourself! If you want to survive this night, feed the blade your intent! Do you wish to be consumed by your old masters, or will you help me spite their overreach into this realm?
Arion slams the pommel of his sword into the dais. Teal flames erupt, spiraling into the air to weave a shimmering, geometric sigil against the encroaching darkness. The Void-Stalker shrieks, a sound like grinding metal, as it attempts to claw its way through the thinning barrier.
Quest Complete
Seal the rift with the Wandering Swordsman
Skill Upgrade: Arcana Great→Superb
+ Story Quest Added
Anchor the rift before the Void-Stalker manifests