Gobbo lies low in the hollow, bracken crowding her shoulders and damp fern-fronds brushing her cheeks. Above, the bandits’ boots scrape somewhere along the rim, muffled by brush.
A soft blue pulse kindles in the dark. It drifts closer, a small floating wisp, no bigger than a fist, its light washing the hollow in cool silver.
Gobbo the Goblin
It is not alone down here.
The Wisp
Easy now. I mean no harm. You are loud for one trying not to be found.
The wisp hovers at eye level, curious rather than threatening. Its glow picks out Gobbo’s tracks in the leaves, and, higher up, the dark line of watching shapes at the rim.
The Wisp
If they see my light, they will come closer. If you want, I can dim it, or lead you through the roots.
✓ Quest Accepted
Follow the wisp through the roots
“*i followed the wisp*”
SUCCESS (Legendary Stealth, rolled +0)
The wisp slips into the roots ahead, and Gobbo follows its dim blue trail, flattening herself where the hollow narrows. Ferns part, then close behind her, swallowing the last clear line back to the rim.
Above, the bandits’ silhouettes falter at the edge of the slope, their view broken by bark and hanging moss. The glow stays low, never rising high enough to betray Gobbo’s exact place.
The Wisp
This way, quietly. The old roots remember paths the boots do not.
Gobbo slips under a rib of exposed root, then another, each turn tighter than the last. The hollow opens into a narrow tunnel of tangled wood, dark except for the wisp’s little pulse ahead.
The Wisp
Keep close. If you drift, the forest closes its mouth.
The bandits’ scraping steps fade behind bark and distance as Gobbo clears the last twist of roots. The hollow is gone now, replaced by a hidden runnel threading deeper under the trees.
Ahead lies the secret way through, but the wisp’s light is thinning in the dark, and the path still bends out of sight.
Quest Complete
Follow the wisp through the roots