The eastern markings guide Ankura Anura, Erie Dawnski, Feshu, and Mayor Tibben up to a ring of weathered stones above the burrows. The traveler remains behind at the shrine, guarding the beacon.
Tribal elders and swift runners gather along separate paths. Each standing stone bears a different memory: floodwater, burial fires, nesting grounds, and the first tunnels cut beneath the hills.
Erie Dawnski
These routes meet here, but they do not agree. Before any alliance is celebrated, someone must witness which memory the land will protect.
Erie steps toward the central stone and lowers one clawed hand near its moss-covered face. The green road marks dim, leaving the old carvings to speak without magical guidance.
an elder of the burrows
The disputed route crosses ground where our dead were carried. No builder may claim it merely because the path is convenient.
Roots begin shifting beneath the stones, pressing upward through the soil in slow, deliberate ridges. One runner retreats, while Feshu watches the movement with grave attention.
Erie Dawnski
Ankura Anura, stand as witness to the first judgment. Let the roots reveal whether this route asks for passage, protection, or refusal.
“I cast wind and praise its god”
SUCCESS (Great Arcana, rolled -2)
Ankura Anura raises his hands, and wind pours around the stone ring in a clean spiral. It lifts leaves and dust without disturbing the burial ground.
Ankura Anura
Aerdrie Faeyna, guide this wind with your open sky. Let it honor every path and every memory.
The wind answers with a high, flute-like note. It circles the central stone, then divides along the ancestral routes, touching each carved memory in turn.
At the burial path, the current lowers respectfully. Around the nesting ground, it rises to carry seeds and scent, while the flood route receives a steady clearing breeze.
Erie Dawnski
The wind does not choose one memory over another. It gives each route its proper breath, and marks the crossing as protected passage.
an elder of the burrows
Then the dead are honored, and the builders are warned. This way may be walked, but never claimed.
The spell succeeds, but its cost bites into Ankura Anura’s strength. His cape snaps sharply in the fading gust, and his hands tremble as the roots settle into a clear, sheltered route.
Quest Complete
Protect the ancient tribal routes