The mountain pass roars as the High Chapel Zealots break from the snow, holy blades flashing toward the towering bane stone. Slaan holds fast beside it, the tether to the Tree of Life humming tight above her head.
The first zealots strike the tether line, but the warded snow beneath them splits open. Black, jagged things claw up from the permafrost, all hooked limbs and crooked hunger.
Bram
They are not the only ones coming.
Dravin
Hold the stone. If the tether breaks, the whole trap dies with it.
More zealots press in, then falter as the shadow-warped creatures slam into their flank. Steel and frost scatter everywhere, and the Chapel line buckles.
Lord Markul
Good. Let them show their hand. Slaan, keep the pillar alive.
The standoff becomes clear in a single breath, Slaan keeps the bane stone active for seventy-two hours, and every hidden watcher, zealot, and Chaos-twisted beast now reveals the route's true cost.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the hidden route’s true cost
✓ Quest Accepted
Maintain the bane stone tether
“Am I the only one who knows how banes work I mutter to myself " twenty minutes, and then we're good until the seventy two hour make, then all hell breaks lose" I shout., I let spells like steal breath and shadow bolt fly as I do with my shadow daggers, I cast shadow mantle across the enemy lines to stop the healers work”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +0)
Slaan
Am I the only one who knows how banes work?
Slaan
Twenty minutes, and then we are good until the seventy two hour mark, then all hell breaks loose.
Slaan flicks her hand and the air darkens. Steal-breath hammers into the nearest zealot line, while shadow bolts crack through the storm and her twin daggers flash in the same motion.
The healers at the rear stagger as a shadow mantle spills over them, swallowing their light and cutting their hands off from the wounded.
Bram
That works. Keep them blind.
Dravin
The tether holds, Markul. They are losing their center.
One zealot tries to rally the line, but the shadow-warped creatures hit first, dragging the charge into the snow. Around the bane stone, the tether stays taut, bright, and alive.
Quest Complete
Expose the hidden route’s true cost
“For the next 20 minutes until the tether is in sync with the tree of life, the undead Lords and their northern allies fight tooth and nail pushing the army of the all father back, the doomsayer watches as his forces get folded, true followers of the all father see that the undead alliance is focusing on the chaos beasts”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled -1)
Twenty minutes grind by in bloodless weather, and Slaan keeps the tether alive. The bane stone holds steady, bright as a wound in the storm, while the undead lords and northern allies drive the Chapel line backward through shattered snow.
Bram presses the flank hard, cutting off any zealot who tries to reform. Dravin watches the doomsayer’s forces fold in real time, their clean ranks broken by panic and the chaos beasts ripping through the gaps.
Lord Markul does not speak. He only points once, and the allies answer by surging into the breach, forcing the all father’s faithful to turn their shields toward the wrong enemy.
The true followers hesitate as they see the undead alliance hammering the shadow-warped creatures instead of chasing the records. For a heartbeat, the battlefield changes shape, and the Chapel’s certainty cracks.
Slaan
The tether still stands.
The pillar of light remains anchored to the Tree of Life, taut and unbroken, as the storm takes the smoke and the screams away.
Then the far edge of the pass shudders. New movement stirs beyond the fighting, and Lord Markul turns his head toward it as if he has heard a name the rest of them have not.
Quest Complete
Maintain the bane stone tether
New Gift: Bane Stone Attunement