The mill lamps blaze. Ashen Oath warriors burst from the reeds and outer doors together, striking Grahamin’s encircling soldiers from riverbank and yard as steel rings through the rain.
Effruin’s mount rears beneath him, wrenching his bound shoulder. Grahamin reaches the yard through the first rush, blade already drawn, and takes position at Effruin’s flank.
High Marshal Grahamin
With me. Break their center before they reach the horses.
Grahamin’s sword opens a path, and Effruin turns his mount through it, striking with one hand. Their movements fall into a brutal, unexpected rhythm, each covering the other’s opening.
At the mill doors, a scarred middle-aged drow woman raises a relic of blackened bronze, its scorched sigils pulsing like banked coals. The Ashen Oath captain speaks a word no one else hears.
Black fire rolls across the yard as invisible millstone-force crushes the air. Soldiers scatter, the riverbank seals behind a wall of flame, and Grahamin’s line breaks apart.
The sorcery leaves Effruin and Grahamin isolated before the mill, smoke twisting between them and the captain. The relic brightens, gathering power for another strike.
“I strike beside Grahamin through the black fire”
SUCCESS (Superb Melee Combat, rolled +0)
Effruin drives his mount into the black fire beside Grahamin. Heat claws through his cloak as the two warriors force a narrow path toward the Ashen Oath captain.
The sorcery bucks against steel and hoof. Effruin’s shoulder tears with fresh strain, but he keeps his balance and turns his one-handed strike through the smoke.
His blow lands against the captain’s raised relic, knocking the blackened bronze from her grasp. It skids across the wet stones, and the crushing force vanishes from the yard.
The black fire gutters into oily smoke. Ashen Oath warriors stagger in the sudden quiet, while Grahamin’s soldiers regain their footing along the riverbank.
High Marshal Grahamin
The relic is down. Press them now, before their captain can call the fire again.
Grahamin advances through the smoke toward the fallen relic. Effruin remains beside him, shoulder burning, while the captain reaches for a short blade and the warriors close around her.
The mill yard belongs to neither side yet, but the Ashen Oath’s great weapon lies disarmed between Effruin and Grahamin. Rain hisses over the dying sorcery.
“I dismount the horse, launching myself into the air several dozen metres in order to hit the Ashen Oath captain with a devastating diving attack”
FAILURE (Great Athletics, rolled +0)
Effruin throws himself from the saddle and launches above the smoke, one hand tucked close as he arcs toward the Ashen Oath captain.
The captain sees the descending shadow and dives aside. Effruin’s wounded shoulder jolts under the strain, twisting his aim as the disarmed relic lies just beyond her reach.
His strike crashes into the mill yard stones where she stood. The impact scatters rainwater and smoke, leaving Effruin sprawled hard beyond the relic instead of atop his target.
Pain locks his shoulder as he rolls clear. The failed leap has carried him past the captain, placing the fallen bronze between them and leaving his mount behind.
High Marshal Grahamin
Stay down for one breath, Effruin. She is reaching for the relic.
The captain scrambles toward the blackened bronze while Ashen Oath warriors tighten around her. Grahamin’s soldiers advance from the riverbank, but the gap now favors the enemy.
✓ Quest Accepted
Kill the Ashen Oath
“With my one hand, I eviscerate the captain”
SUCCESS (Superb Melee Combat, rolled +0)
Effruin surges from the stones with one hand leading. His wounded shoulder tears under the motion, but he reaches the Ashen Oath captain before she can seize the relic.
His hand drives through her guard and across her torso in a single brutal sweep. Her body folds, and the blackened bronze slips from her fingers onto the rain-slick stones.
The captain collapses beside the relic, dead before the surrounding warriors can close. Effruin drops to one knee, clutching his shoulder as his balance fails.
For one breath, the Ashen Oath warriors stare at their fallen leader. Then their formation breaks, some retreating toward the mill while others raise weapons against the advancing soldiers.
High Marshal Grahamin
The captain is dead. Take the yard, but leave the relic where it lies.
Grahamin’s soldiers surge through the opening. The Ashen Oath warriors are forced back from the relic, while Effruin remains kneeling amid smoke, rain, and the sharp cost of his strike.
“I grab the relic, and use it to imprison myself and Grahamin in a shadow dimension”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Effruin lunges through the smoke and closes his hand around the blackened bronze relic. Its scorched sigils flare against his palm as the mill yard falls silent around him.
He wills the relic open, not toward the Ashen Oath, but inward. Shadow spills from its bronze heart and swallows Effruin and Grahamin before either can cross the widening dark.
High Marshal Grahamin
Effruin, what have you done?
The yard vanishes. Effruin and Grahamin stand upon a featureless plane of black glass, while the mill, soldiers, and rebels hang beyond it like dim reflections sealed behind night.
The relic remains clenched in Effruin’s hand, its heat fading to a cold pulse. Across the shadow distance, Grahamin’s sword is drawn, but no road leads back to the living yard.
High Marshal Grahamin
You have imprisoned us both. Release this sorcery, or face me here.
For one stark instant, Effruin’s will falters beneath the relic’s demand, and Grahamin sees the hesitation. Then the shadow seals completely, leaving the two enemies alone together in the dark.
+ New Item Acquired
Blackened bronze relic