Dallas holds the revolver steady as Dayton gasps in the mud. Behind them, the monument thumps like a buried pump, and the weak red blink keeps time with the boots in the brush.
Professor Dayton
Listen to me. That is not me coming through the trees. He brought someone to spring the hill.
Dallas Fontaine
The footsteps are too measured, too heavy for a lone runner.
Murderbone bares his teeth at the treeline. Dallas spots the split casing at the monument base, the open service door, and a coil of wire vanishing into darkness below the hill.
Professor Dayton
Bishop rigged the charge under the base. If the relay completes, the whole thing goes up. He wants you here when it does.
The brush parts. A hooded man steps into the red wash, one hand raised, the other hidden near his coat. He is not alone, just the first to show himself.
The Hooded Man
Drop the gun, Fontaine. The professor comes with us, and so does the evidence.
✓ Quest Accepted
Survive the ambush at the battlefield hill
“I take cover and shoot the hooded man”
SUCCESS (Superb Firearms, rolled -3)
Dallas drops behind the broken stone lip, fires once, and the hooded man jerks backward as the shot punches through his shoulder. Mud sprays under his heel, and his hidden hand flies open on empty air.
The recoil bites Dallas’s wrist. A sharp crack answers from the treeline, chewing bark off the monument instead of his face.
The Hooded Man
Get him! He is right there!
Professor Dayton
He is not alone. There are more in the brush.
Murderbone lunges to the edge of cover, snarling toward the new muzzle flash as the hooded man stumbles out of the red wash, clutching his ruined arm.
Dallas Fontaine
The shot lands. He is bleeding from the right shoulder.
Dayton scrambles toward the open service door at the monument base, one hand over his head as the hidden relay in the hill starts its frantic mechanical clicking again.
Professor Dayton
Dallas, leave him and move. They are coming through the lower path.
“Murdering and i descendants through the sevice door.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled -2)
Dallas grabs Dayton by the coat and drops through the service door with Murderbone at his heel. The hidden stair is narrow and cold, and the mechanical clicking rises behind them like teeth on metal.
They land hard in a cramped stone passage. Dallas twists, revolver up, while Murderbone plants himself between him and the opening above.
Professor Dayton
This way, if the lower path is not blocked.
Dayton stumbles ahead, one hand on the wall. Fresh bark chips and exposed wiring lead them deeper, and the open door above drops out of sight.
The Hooded Man
Down there. Seal them in.
A second shape flashes at the mouth of the door, then vanishes. Dallas catches a glimpse of the service spine map jammed in Dayton’s fist as the old hill vibrates underfoot.
Dallas Fontaine
The route is real. So is the chase.
The stair bends into darkness. Behind them, the monument clicks faster, and dust sifts from the ceiling as the lower passage forces Dallas to choose between the professor and the noise ahead.
Confront the ambushers in the lower passage
Quest Complete
Survive the ambush at the battlefield hill
Skill Upgrade: Firearms Superb→Legendary