The scraping below the floor fades to a far-off hush. Dust settles in the lamplight as Neko keeps his sword wedged through the stair seam, breath slowing at last.
Iri steps close, rain-dark hair clinging at her temples, her shoulders loosening for the first time all night. The family watches in tired silence, all of them held together by the same shaky relief.
Iri
You saved me. I thought I had brought this hunt to your door.
She reaches up, cups Neko’s cheek, and kisses him softly, brief and grateful. The room goes still around them, not awkward, just stunned by how gentle it feels after all that fear.
The Mother
Let them have this moment. They have earned it.
The Brother
I think we can all spare a breath now.
The Father
Come sit. The worst of the night can wait while we warm our hands.
Iri’s fingers linger a moment at Neko’s sleeve, then she eases back with a small, shy smile. The barricaded stair creaks once, and the whole room shares a quiet, relieved pause.
✓ Quest Accepted
Deal with the hunters below the house
“I fight a knife and enter the crawl space”
SUCCESS (Legendary Melee Combat, rolled -1)
Neko shifts his weight, then wrenches the stair seam wider with the blade still wedged in place. Cord snaps taut, the iron wedge groans, and a dark crawl space opens beneath the stairs.
He drops to one knee and slips through first, sword angled low. Dust brushes his sleeves as he enters the cramped space under the floorboards.
A hunter lunges from the dark with a knife, but Neko meets it head-on. Steel flashes once in the narrow crawl space, and the attacker is driven back out of sight.
The passage shudders with the impact. Neko presses forward, forcing the way open with his shoulders and blade until he has room to move.
Iri
Neko, wait. The satchel is humming again.
From above, the iron-bound satchel answers with a low, uneasy vibration. The broken seal gives a faint pulse of light in the lamplight.
Below the floor, the scraping sound returns, closer now, as if the hunters have found the artifact’s trail. The family falls silent at once.
“I push deeper into the crawl space trying to catch up to the hunter and I stab it to death.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Melee Combat, rolled +0)
Neko drives deeper into the cramped dark, shoulder and sword forcing space where there is none. The hunter turns to flee, but the crawl space gives it no room.
He closes the distance in one hard surge. The blade goes in clean, and the figure folds into the dirt without a cry.
Above him, the satchel’s hum sharpens into a brief, tense note. Dust trembles from the joists, then settles again.
Iri
Neko... it felt that.
The scraping below stops all at once, as if the rest of the hunters have heard the same warning and gone still.
The family holds their breath in the lamplit room, listening to the hush under the floorboards while Neko stands over the fallen hunter.
Quest Complete
Deal with the hunters below the house
New Gift: Subterranean Combat Specialist