Beyond Eitria’s royal chamber, the skeletal battalion advances beneath the Border Hold, armor clattering softly along a road newly carved in black runes. Chester marches at its head, while Juntire keeps close to Glalin.
Chester Woodsquire
Formation steady. Shields outward. Nothing crosses the marked road without my command.
Cold blue light pulses through each death sigil, traveling beneath the stone like a buried heartbeat. The royal seal answers from afar, its authority binding the ward to Eitria’s throne.
Juntire Parrywills
The runes are drawing power downward, but not evenly. Something beneath the Hold is interrupting the pattern.
Ahead, the buried road ends where the ground has split apart. Ancient stairs descend into darkness beneath the Border Hold, their worn edges exposed around a breach the ward did not seal.
Juntire Parrywills
That stair predates the kingdom. If the breach reaches the myst, the royal seal may be feeding the danger instead of containing it.
Chester raises one armored fist, halting the battalion. Dust drifts through the blue radiance, and from below comes a slow, hollow resonance. The passage waits for Glalin’s command.
✓ Quest Accepted
Redirect the breach's stolen ward-power
“Are there any enemies nearby?”
YES, BUT (Likely, rolled 60)
The hollow resonance changes beneath the stairs. Among its echoes comes the faint scrape of metal on stone, followed by several muffled breaths below.
Juntire Parrywills
Yes. Someone is beneath us, close enough to hear the ward breathing. The breach has concealed their approach.
A shadow passes across the lowest stair, then vanishes. The death sigil nearest the breach gutters as unseen pressure draws its blue fire downward.
Chester Woodsquire
Enemies in the dark. Shields hold here. No one advances until Glalin gives the word.
The nearest rune cracks with a sharp report, expending its stored power to keep the breach from widening. Its light goes dead, leaving one section of the ward unguarded.
Juntire Parrywills
The ward found them, but it paid for the warning. Whatever waits below now knows we are here.
“Get ready, friends. The forces of good are upon us, but we may indeed still win this battle. Juntire, see what you can do to Redirect the breach's stolen ward-power. Chester, you're with me. We hold against the good until Juntire finishes. Understood, people?”
SUCCESS (Superb Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Glalin Moondale
Get ready, friends. The forces of good are upon us, but we may still win this battle. Juntire, redirect the stolen ward-power. Chester, with me. We hold until he finishes. Understood?
Beyond the broken stair, horns answer from the darkness. White-gold radiance spills upward as armored forces of good descend toward the unguarded section of the ward.
Juntire Parrywills
Understood. I will turn the breach’s hunger against itself, and send the stolen power back through the living runes.
Juntire kneels beside the dead sigil, drawing narrow blue symbols through the dust. The breach answers, but his pattern catches the current and bends it into the neighboring marks.
Chester Woodsquire
Then stand firm, Glalin. I will make this stair a wall.
Chester plants his shield at the stair mouth as the first radiant figures emerge. Glalin takes position beside him, and their opposing powers meet in a storm of sparks.
Juntire Parrywills
The power is redirected. The ward holds again, and the breach now feeds Eitria’s death sigils instead of draining them.
✓ Quest Accepted
Repel the forces of good
Quest Complete
Redirect the breach's stolen ward-power
Director's note
A fireball emerges at Glalin's Palm, then shoots forward at the radiant figures of good.
“Come on, then. If it's battle they want, it's battle they shall get. Ignatia Maxima!”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +0)
Glalin Moondale
Come on, then. If it's battle they want, it's battle they shall get. Ignatia Maxima!
Fire erupts from Glalin’s palm in a roaring sphere, turning the stairwell crimson. It shoots toward the descending forces of good and strikes their radiant formation.
White-gold shields flare as the blast breaks across them, scattering the foremost soldiers and driving the rest back up the stairs. The warded stones drink the excess flame.
Chester Woodsquire
Their line is broken! Hold the mouth, and let the runes take the ground they surrender.
Death sigils ignite in sequence beneath the retreating host, their blue fire threading through the fading blaze. The breach contracts as redirected power seals fresh cracks in the stone.
Juntire Parrywills
Excellent. The spell drove them away without touching the deeper current. I can reinforce the ward while their formation is scattered.
Chester Woodsquire
Then do it now. Their commanders are regrouping above, and the next descent will test every mark we have.
Quest Complete
Repel the forces of good