A month after Greywatch’s rescue, Dale enters Bellwether beneath bright autumn flags. Market stalls crowd the square, and wagon wheels grind through dust between shouting traders.
Near the town well, Mara Vey, with warm brown skin and a small silver nose ring,, a young adult woman with a lean build, dark braided hair, and an ink-stained green traveling coat, displays a blackened stone fragment.
Mara Vey
This was recovered from a forgotten warden site east of here. The inscription matches a fragment reported beneath Greywatch.
The archivist lifts the fragment in a gloved hand. Its scorched surface bears a broken crown and a line of pale symbols that seem to shift in the sunlight.
Mara Vey
My order maintains such sites when kingdoms forget them. We have kept them quiet for generations, until one began calling for a master.
Mara Vey
You were at Greywatch, Dale Trackfinder. Where did its people find the matching inscription, and what answered when they touched it?
Around the square, merchants continue their bargaining, unaware of the buried refuge’s true history. Mara watches Dale steadily, leaving the next word to him.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether Bellwether is threatened by an awakened warden site
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect Bellwether from the awakened warden site
“Can the fragment reveal whether Bellwether is already threatened?”
NO (Likely, rolled 79)
The fragment remains cold in Mara’s gloved hand. Its pale symbols shift once, then settle into ordinary cracks, offering no image, warning, or sign of Bellwether.
Mara Vey
Nothing. It will not show whether this town is threatened already.
She turns the stone toward the autumn sun and traces the broken crown with one finger. The mark reveals its origin, not the danger’s presence or distance.
Mara Vey
That establishes only that the fragment belongs to the same old works. It cannot tell us whether a warden site lies beneath Bellwether, or whether anyone has awakened one.
The square continues around them, bright with flags and bargaining voices. No hidden tremor answers from the well, and no symbol stirs beneath Mara’s hand.
Mara Vey
I hoped it would narrow the search. Instead, it leaves Bellwether unproven, not safe.
Mara lowers the fragment but does not conceal it. Her guarded attention remains fixed on Dale, while the question of Bellwether’s danger stays unanswered.
“Is Bellwether built over an old warden site?”
NO, AND WORSE (Even, rolled 91)
The fragment abruptly warms in Mara’s glove. A thin line of pale light escapes its broken crown and sinks into the dust beside the well.
Mara Vey
No. Bellwether is not built over a warden site. The old works lie elsewhere.
The well answers with a single deep knock from below. Market voices falter as the flags above the square twist against the still autumn air.
Mara Vey
But the fragment has just called to one. Not beneath Bellwether, but close enough for its signal to reach this town.
Pale symbols spread through the dust in branching lines, pointing east between the crowded stalls. The fragment’s light brightens with each distant, measured tremor.
Mara Vey
Someone has awakened it now, and it knows this fragment is here.
Mara Vey
The danger is moving toward Bellwether. If the warden reaches the town, it may claim the well, the roads, or anyone carrying its mark.
“Is the eastern tremor the warden’s path?”
YES (VeryLikely, rolled 68)
The eastern lines of pale light tighten into a single path, threading between stalls before vanishing beyond Bellwether’s eastern gate. Each measured tremor follows that route.
Mara Vey
Yes. The tremor is not a warning from the warden. It is the warden’s path, and it is moving directly toward us.
The fragment pulses in time with the distant impacts. Dust shivers along the eastern road, though nothing yet appears beyond the gate or autumn fields.
Mara Vey
That establishes its direction, not its speed. But the signal grows stronger, so the distance is closing.
Around the well, traders pull back from the branching symbols. The bright square has become a map of approach, with Bellwether standing across the warden’s chosen course.
Mara Vey
If it follows the old works, it may reach the eastern road before nightfall. We must learn whether the road leads through the town or around it.
Far beyond the gate, another deep tremor rolls beneath the earth. The eastern light answers at once, pointing onward through the dust.
“Does the eastern road lead through Bellwether?”
YES (Even, rolled 30)
The pale eastern lines bend across the square, pass beneath the well, and gather into a single road beyond Bellwether’s gate. The tremors follow that course without wavering.
Mara Vey
The eastern road leads through Bellwether. It will not skirt the town or pass harmlessly beyond the walls.
The fragment answers with a stronger pulse. Dust lifts from the road between the stalls, tracing the warden’s approach toward the gate and the crowded heart of town.
Mara Vey
Its path crosses the market, then the well. If the old works govern what they touch, Bellwether stands directly in its way.
Traders fall silent along the eastern side of the square. Beyond the gate, autumn fields ripple under the measured impacts, and the road remains empty to the eye.
Mara Vey
We have a route, but not an arrival hour. The signal proves the warden is coming through town, not how soon it will reach us.
The pale map settles into the dust, its eastern line ending at Bellwether’s well before fading. The next tremor comes closer, and every stall in its path now lies marked.
“Can the fragment reveal when the warden arrives?”
NO (VeryUnlikely, rolled 68)
The fragment’s pulse steadies, then weakens. Its pale road remains fixed in the dust, but no mark appears to measure the warden’s distance or hour of arrival.
Mara Vey
No. It can reveal the path and answer the warden’s approach, but it cannot tell us when the warden reaches Bellwether.
Mara turns the blackened stone in her gloved hand, watching its light fade to a dull ember. The eastern road stays empty beneath the autumn sky.
Mara Vey
The stronger pulse means the distance is closing, not that the arrival is imminent. We have direction and warning, nothing more precise.
The dust-map loses its branching lines and leaves only the road through the gate, the market, and the well. No tremor follows quickly enough to establish a measure of time.
Mara Vey
If the fragment cannot count the hours, Bellwether must prepare without knowing whether the warden comes before dusk or after nightfall.
Around the square, traders resume uneasy movement, glancing toward the eastern gate. The unanswered hour hangs over Bellwether, while the approaching path remains certain.
“I organize Bellwether’s eastern watch”
FAILURE (Good Reasoning, rolled -4)
Dale gathers Bellwether’s gate wardens, stall keepers, and able traders along the eastern road, dividing their attention between the gate, market, and well.
His arrangement exposes a weakness: no one can reliably relay a warning across all three points, and the dust-map offers no timing to guide their rotations.
Mara Vey
The posts are separated too far. If one sees movement, the others may learn only after the warden reaches the square.
As watchers trade places, two groups misunderstand the hand signals and converge at the eastern gate, leaving the market edge and well briefly unobserved.
The confusion spreads through the square. Traders abandon their stalls, blocking the marked road, while the people meant to carry warnings crowd together at the wrong post.
Mara Vey
This watch cannot hold. We need a single relay point and a clear route through the market, or our warning will arrive after the danger.
Dale’s attempt has made Bellwether more alert but less coordinated. The eastern approach remains watched unevenly, and the crowded market now obstructs the warden’s marked path.
Quest Complete
Determine whether Bellwether is threatened by an awakened warden site