Several weeks after Tahu’s destruction, Effruin travels an eastern road beneath a gray afternoon sky. A roadside shrine leans among wet stones, its carved saint blackened by soot and rain.
A mud-streaked traveler waits beside the shrine, wrapped in a patched brown cloak. He is a small, athletic gnome man, heavily furred, with a thick dark-brown beard and long braided hair.
Vas the Vanguard
Keep walking, drow. The soldiers behind you are not the danger I came to name.
The traveler pulls back his hood. Familiar eyes glare beneath the mud, and weathered leather armor shows beneath the cloak. Vas’s hands rest near his belt, empty for now.
Vas the Vanguard
The empire is tightening its grip eastward. Villages are searched, prisoners vanish, and supply trains move under heavier guard each week.
Vas the Vanguard
I abandoned the remnants in the forest. They wanted hiding places and mercy. I wanted wagons, weapons, and blood, so I took men who wanted the same.
Vas the Vanguard
Every raid makes the next one easier. Soon they will stop calling me a rebel and start calling me a lord.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what Vas wants from Effruin
“I ask Vas what he wants from me.”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +0)
Effruin
What do you want from me, Vas?
Vas studies Effruin beneath the dripping shrine roof. Rain beads in his beard, and his gaze drops briefly to Effruin’s wounded shoulder before returning to his face.
Vas the Vanguard
I want you to break a supply train with me. Not for shelter, not for some dead banner. I want its weapons and the fear they carry.
Vas the Vanguard
Your name still travels faster than any horse. Stand beside me once, and frightened villages will remember that the empire can bleed.
A sharp whistle cuts across the road. Far behind the shrine, mounted soldiers appear through the rain, their dark pennants lifting above the hedgerow.
Vas the Vanguard
That is the cost of your answer. They have seen us together, and they will search this shrine before dusk. Choose quickly, drow.
Quest Complete
Learn what Vas wants from Effruin