The ceiling of the pasture vanishes in a thunderous roar of collapsing earth. Yllamaris and Elowen plummet into the suffocating dark, landing hard against freezing, slick stone. Above, the sky is a jagged, closing tooth of debris, cutting off the hunters' horns.
Elowen
We are buried alive, but at least the shadows cannot reach us here.
The runes etched into the cavern walls pulse with a violent, rhythmic violet light, hungrily drawing the necrotic vapor from Yllamaris’s blade. He stands, his silver hair wild, scanning the suffocating tunnel as the floor beneath them shudders with the weight of the collapsed pasture.
Yllamaris
This place is waking up. It feeds on the very curse I carry.
Elowen
Do not sheath that steel, Yllamaris. Look at the walls. The stones are trying to seal us in.
The walls groan, shifting like grinding teeth. The runes flare brighter, casting long, distorted shadows that dance independently of their owners.
+ Scene Quest Added
Escape the collapsing cavern
“I use my magic from the imbued sword to cause the walls to be at peace. They are the same runes. Arcana check”
SUCCESS (Good Arcana, rolled +3)
Yllamaris
The resonance is not discord, it is an echo of my own blood. Listen to the rhythm.
Yllamaris thrusts his blade into the vibrating bedrock, channeling the necrotic energy into the stone. The violet runes flare with blinding intensity, then shift from a chaotic, jagged flicker to a slow, pulsing hum. The grinding of the walls halts, the screech of stone against stone falling into a heavy, unnatural silence. The jagged ceiling shards cease their descent, hovering in mid-air as if suspended by the very gravity Yllamaris commanded.
Elowen
You speak to the mountain as if it were a companion. That is not elven magic, Yllamaris. That is a heresy of the deepest kind.
The cavern stabilizes, but the air grows frigid. The shadows, once recoiling from the runes, now begin to stretch toward the light, sensing a new, darker authority in the room.
Yllamaris
It is not heresy to survive. We have a path now, if you are fast enough to take it.
Quest Complete
Escape the collapsing cavern
Skill Upgrade: Arcana Good→Great
