The joined trail descends into a shallow hollow where silver leaves knot overhead. A figure stumbles between the shrubs, one sleeve darkened with blood and one hand clenched around cracked bronze.
Mara Vey
Please, no... they are searching the shrubs.
Mara Vey catches herself against a bent ash, breathing hard. Her gaze sweeps the hollow without finding Tex clearly, while the bronze charm trembles in her grasp.
Mara Vey
Riders came from the road. I lost them among the silverleaf, but they are close.
A distant branch snaps along the trail, followed by another nearer crack. Leaves whisper overhead as unseen figures press through the darkness beyond the hollow.
Mara Vey
If the old shrine still stands, its ward might hide me.
Mara lowers herself behind the ash, clutching her injured sleeve and charm to her chest. The approaching footsteps remain obscured, but their measured pace draws steadily nearer.
✓ Quest Accepted
Preserve Tex's concealment
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn why Mara is being pursued
“I try to extend my senses toward her persuers to try and make out why they are after her”
FAILURE (Great Perception, rolled -1)
Tex lets the Void unfurl in thin, silent threads, reaching past silver leaves toward the measured footfalls and the minds moving along the trail.
The ancient curse catches those threads before they can settle. Distorted echoes flood back, carrying hoofbeats, leather creaking, and the sharp taste of warding ash.
Tex
The warding ash blocks their purpose, but not their voices.
Tex strains once more, and the effort makes nearby leaves blacken at their edges. Through the static, one pursuer speaks clearly enough to carry into the hollow.
Pursuer
The charm is the prize. Take Vey alive, and search every hollow before dawn.
The probing sense collapses inward, leaving the pursuers’ thoughts unreachable and the Void cost burning faintly through Tex’s weakened form.
Mara Vey
You heard them, did you not? They want what I carry. If you can move unseen, the shrine lies east, beyond the thorn ridge.
Quest Complete
Learn why Mara is being pursued
Quest Complete
Preserve Tex's concealment