First light slips through the loft shutter, turning the rafters gray. Below, the household still sleeps as Mara climbs quietly and touches Iris's shoulder.
Mara
Wake now. The ovens will be lit soon, and I would rather have you beyond the yard before anyone rises.
Mara lifts the ladder cover and leads Iris through the rear bakehouse, past cooling ovens and flour sacks. The door opens onto a dew-bright yard.
Mara
This way. Keep to the wall, then follow the old charcoal path north. It will take you into the wooded hills.
She guides Iris between the shed and the cold kiln, where last night's fire leaves only a faint warmth. Beyond the fence, worn stones vanish beneath fern and bracken.
A weathered marker leans beside the first stones. Unfamiliar fox symbols cover its face, their shallow cuts dark with age, while newer footprints disturb the moss nearby.
Mara
I have never seen those marks, but someone still tends this road. I go no farther. May it carry you well beyond the shrine.
✓ Quest Accepted
Discover who tends the charcoal path
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether the shrine controls the northern path
“Iris bends down to the unfamiliar symbols and attempts to determine who they were made by, because they were made by the charcoal path's tender.”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled -1)
Iris bends over the weathered marker, tracing the fox symbols with her eyes without touching the moss-dark cuts. Their shapes repeat in a deliberate sequence.
Iris
These are not shrine signs. They mark the charcoal keepers who maintain this path.
The oldest cuts name the road as a charcoal route, but the newer symbols carry a distinct household seal: three fox tails around a split flame.
Basic ward-sense finds no command hidden in the stone. Instead, the marks record stewardship, identifying the current tender as a descendant of the family that first opened the path.
Mara
So someone from that family still comes here. I thought the charcoal burners abandoned these hills generations ago.
A faint line beneath the seal points north, toward a fork concealed by fern. Fresh heelprints follow it, smaller than the older tracks and pressed deeply into the damp earth.
Mara
If those marks are current, the path tender may have a shelter farther in. Whoever they are, they know this road better than I do.
“"Thank you for all your help Mara!" Iris says happily, before rushing down the charcoal path to find the shelter of it's keeper.”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Survival, rolled +0)
Iris
Thank you for all your help, Mara!
Iris turns north and hurries along the charcoal path, silver fur flashing between fern fronds. Mara remains by the marker, one hand raised in farewell.
The hurried descent catches Iris's ankle on a buried root. She stumbles, scraping her skin against bracken, and a sharp crack of wood carries through the hills.
She keeps moving despite the sting. Fresh heelprints guide her beneath leaning pines to a stone-lined hollow where a low timber shelter rests against the hillside.
A middle-aged charcoal keeper steps from the doorway. He is a weathered, broad-shouldered man with soot-dark hair, a russet cloak, and a pale scar across one eyebrow.
the charcoal keeper
You followed the fox-tail seal. Come inside before the path announces you to everyone in the hills.
The keeper opens the shelter's plank door, revealing a dry chamber, stacked firewood, and a cold brazier. Iris has reached the path tender's refuge, though her ankle bleeds lightly.
Quest Complete
Discover who tends the charcoal path
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Superb→Legendary