The ravine swallows the wind. Slaan, Bram, Dravin, and Lord Markul stand in a hard little pocket of stone, with the smoke of the pass fading behind them.
Dravin lowers his hands at last. His calm slips away like a cloak set on a hook, and he gestures to the scroll in Slaan's grasp, then toward the distant black plume.
Dravin
No more half-truths. I serve the Undead Lords, not the Church.
Dravin
I wanted the Sun-Eater records because the route is a blade, and I needed to know whose hand holds it.
Lord Markul
Then speak plainly. Who else has been cut by it?
Bram shifts his weight, still watchful, but the tightness in his shoulders eases. The ravine holds their voices close, almost like a fireside chamber.
Dravin
Enough innocents to make this uglier than war. Enough guilty men to make it necessary.
Lord Markul studies him a long moment, then gives a slow, sharp nod. The ash on the scroll catches what little light there is, dull and pale in Slaan's hand.
Lord Markul
Then we count our allies, our debts, and what truth still remains. Speak on, Dravin.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn who still answers Dravin's route
✓ Quest Accepted
Decide whether to trust Dravin's alliance
“" who gave me the curpted bane scroll?" I get a grin " I do find it rather odd you would bring your phylactery to a warzone Dravin" pulling a golden phylactery with the last traces of an undead Lords human essence. " That is unless it's not yours. I picked when I was searching you."”
SUCCESS (Good Thievery, rolled +0)
Slaan lifts the hidden gold from beneath the scroll, and the ravine seems to tighten around the flash of metal.
Slaan
Who gave me the corrupted bane scroll? I find it odd you would bring your phylactery to a warzone, Dravin. Unless it is not yours. I picked it when I searched you.
She turns the phylactery in her fingers, its last trace of undead warmth dim in the mountain light.
Dravin
...That was not meant to be found.
Dravin
It is mine only by burden. A memory-token, not a weapon. The corrupted scroll was meant to test what you could carry without breaking.
Bram
You wrapped a test in a trap and called it trust?
Lord Markul
Then the question is simpler now. Did Dravin hide the route, or was he hiding from it?
Dravin
Both. And neither is safe to answer in full.
Bram exhales through his nose, still wary, while Markul watches the gold in Slaan's hand and waits for the next truth to land.
Quest Complete
Decide whether to trust Dravin's alliance
+ New Item Acquired
Golden phylactery