The watchtower door hangs open on a gust of cold night air. Inside, torchlight shudders across old stone and a chalk ring smeared by dragging heels.
Jackstar steps into the light. On the floor, the village witch lies collapsed, her limbs warping in ugly, twitching pulses as magic leaks off her like heat.
A stranger stands over her, staff planted hard, one hand raised in a tight weave of binding signs. The spell hums, strained but steady.
The Stranger
Do not cross that line, Jackstar. Pick a side, now.
The stranger turns fully. Their eyes blaze with the same unnatural light flickering from the witch's body, bright enough to stain the stone around them.
Jackstar
The binding is holding, barely.
The Stranger
Help me keep her contained, or stop me and let the tower crack apart. Make your choice before she changes again.
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect the witch
“I shove the stranger away from the witch to disrupt the binding spell.”
SUCCESS (Superb Strength, rolled +0)
Jackstar drives in hard and shoves the stranger sideways. The raised hand breaks its pattern, and the binding spell jerks off the witch in a flash of sputtering light.
The Stranger
No, wait! If it slips, she will tear through the tower!
The stranger staggers into the wall, staff scraping stone, while the witch gasps and claws at the chalk ring. The glow around her body wavers, then pulls inward instead of bursting outward.
Her warped limbs shudder, then settle. The ugly pulses fade from her skin, leaving her trembling and human again, breath ragged in the torchlight.
Jackstar
The spell broke cleanly.
The Stranger
You have made this far worse, or far better, and I cannot yet tell which.
Smoke-thin wisps of magic drift off the chalk ring, and the tower falls quiet except for the witch’s shaking breaths. The stranger lifts their staff again, staring between Jackstar and the recovered witch.
Quest Complete
Protect the witch