The ravine’s shadows part as Neris Vaun, a wounded adult drow woman with ash-grey skin, braided white hair, and a torn charcoal cloak, steps into view. One hand presses her blood-darkened side; the other holds a sealed Domini token.
The bound agent stiffens beside the copper thread, watching Neris without recognition. The witness-staff keeps both women’s presence separate, while the hidden relay continues its faint pulse beneath the black-rock shelf.
Neris Vaun
Do not mistake this for a command, Sil’Thalis. House Domini has noticed travelers disappearing along the southern road, and I carry information about where the pattern begins.
Neris Vaun
The token proves only that I was sent under Domini authority. It does not bind you, and it does not make my account true. Hear me, or do not.
the agent
Another Domini hand, wounded and carrying a sealed token. If she knows the southern road, she may know who prepared the relay.
Neris Vaun
I can tell you what vanished, which waystones were touched, and why pursuit may lead you away from the source. Decide whether that exchange is worth delaying your pursuit.
✓ Quest Accepted
Preserve Neris’s freedom while obtaining her account
“I cast a healing spell on her." Speak"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled -2)
Sil’Thalis lifts his marked hand toward Neris Vaun and draws healing through the witness-staff, keeping the spell separate from the Domini token and its authority.
Warm light closes the wound at Neris’s side. Her breathing steadies, the blood-darkened tear dries, and she remains standing without the spell touching her will or memories.
The healing consumes one reserve of scar-born power. A dark line spreads across Sil’Thalis’s palm, and the staff gives a single clear chime beneath the ridge.
Neris Vaun
You healed me without asking for obedience. That is more precise than most Domini physicians manage.
Neris lowers her hand from her healed side but keeps the sealed token visible. The copper relay pulses once, recording the healing as aid rather than command.
Neris Vaun
I will still tell you what I know. Three southern waystones were touched, and each disappearance followed a path that bent away from the true source.
the agent
He spent power to heal a Domini messenger before questioning her. Whatever else he is, he has not made aid another chain.
“I cast befuddle on the agent. Then turn to Neris, " speak freely, what vanished along the southern road." I ask”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +0)
Sil’Thalis turns the witness-staff toward the agent. A muted pulse crosses the ravine, clouding her senses and scrambling her immediate grasp of direction, purpose, and recent intent.
The agent’s eyes lose focus as the befuddlement settles. Her restraints remain unchanged, and the copper thread continues to lie slack between her and the hidden relay.
Sil'Thalis
Speak freely, Neris. What vanished along the southern road?
Neris studies the staff, then the dim waystones beyond the ridge. Her sealed Domini token remains visible, but she does not raise it or invoke its authority.
Neris Vaun
Three travelers vanished first: a peddler, a shrine-keeper, and a young man carrying letters north. Their camps remained, but their tracks bent toward the old southern road.
Neris Vaun
Then two Domini scouts disappeared while following them. No bodies, no struggle, no blood. Only their waystone marks, turned away from the road they had chosen.
Neris Vaun
The pattern does not merely hide people. It removes their route from every witness who follows, then leaves a false path pointing somewhere safer.
✓ Quest Accepted
Find the travelers and scouts who vanished along the southern road
Quest Complete
Preserve Neris’s freedom while obtaining her account
Skill Upgrade: Persuasion Superb→Legendary
“"interesting, any speculation on the cause?" I ask " and how did you come by your wounds?" I follow up”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -2)
Sil'Thalis
What do you speculate caused the disappearances? And how did you come by your wounds?
Neris studies the turned waystones, then the hidden relay beneath the shelf. The copper thread pulses once, drawing a thin line of pain across Sil’Thalis’s marked palm.
Neris Vaun
I think the pattern borrows the appearance of rescue. It bends travelers toward a prepared crossing, then removes the route from those who follow.
Neris Vaun
The vanished people were not taken at random. Each had seen or carried something the maker wanted moved, hidden, or witnessed by no one else.
Neris Vaun
My wounds came from refusing the southern marker. I followed a scout’s false trail, found a waystone answering from beneath the earth, and broke its copper loop.
Neris Vaun
The loop struck back through the stone. I escaped with the token and one fragment of its inscription, but whatever watches that route learned that Domini is looking.
The pain in Sil’Thalis’s palm settles into numbness as the relay records Neris’s account separately from the token. Beneath the shelf, a buried pulse answers her final words.
✓ Quest Accepted
Obtain the fragment of the copper inscription
“"my attendant is currently assisting somewhere else, I need you to take our friend here and the copper weave to command, do not hesitate." I look ahead. " I will locate the scouts." I say reassuring. I give Neris a sharp look " can you do this." I ask in a implied command”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +2)
Sil'Thalis
My attendant is assisting elsewhere. Take our friend and the copper weave to command without hesitation. I will locate the scouts.
Sil'Thalis
Can you do this?
Sil’Thalis gives Neris a sharp, implied command. He looks beyond the ridge, where turned waystones and a fading copper trace mark the scouts’ diverted route.
Neris Vaun
I can. I will bring the agent, the weave, and its account to command without claiming any of them as mine.
Neris gathers the slack copper thread into a sealed loop and secures the unconscious agent for transport, leaving the witness-staff’s records untouched and separate.
Neris Vaun
The scouts followed the false trail toward the sunken marker. I will report your pursuit and make certain command hears where the pattern began.
Ahead, Sil’Thalis finds the scouts’ fresh impressions crossing the false route toward the southern marker. Their path is clear, and the hidden relay’s pulse fades behind him as he follows.
“Before they leave I take a fragment of the copper weave”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +0)
Before leaving, Sil’Thalis kneels beside the sealed loop and separates a single copper strand from the weave without disturbing the remaining pattern.
The fragment comes free into his marked hand, warm with redirected passage magic. Its pulse carries the relay’s three knots, while the larger weave remains secured for Domini command.
The fragment records the mechanism, not its authority.
the witness
Recorded: one fragment removed by choice. The source weave remains separate, and no command passes through the extracted strand.
Sil’Thalis wraps the copper fragment around the witness-staff’s lower grip. Its redirection pattern settles into a dormant loop, preserving the false passage mark without activating it.
Neris Vaun
I will tell command exactly what was taken and what remains. The agent and the greater weave will arrive under separate accounts.
Neris leads the restrained agent away along the safer ridge path. Sil’Thalis turns toward the sunken marker, carrying the fragment while the scouts’ fading impressions guide him south.
Quest Complete
Obtain the fragment of the copper inscription
Skill Upgrade: Lore Superb→Legendary
+ New Item Acquired
Copper weave fragment