Imogen breaks from the bog and hits the treeline, where black roots claw up through silver mist. The ground there is firmer, but wet leaves and old needles slick the slope beneath her boots. The bundle in her arms goes heavier, colder, and the dark leak drips into the fern-brake like ink.
Elias
Stop. Do not bring that any farther.
Elias comes after her between the alder trunks, one hand out, his patience finally cracking. Behind him, the bog swells and slaps at the bank, as if something in it is listening too.
The Spiritualist
The woods are marked. If it crosses the line, it will wake something older.
The frost from the bundle bites through Imogen's gloves. A ring of mushrooms ahead twitches in the fog, half-hidden among stones etched with faded carvings, like a boundary no one wants crossed.
Imogen
The mark is a threshold.
From deep in the trees, something answers with a thin, wet crying that does not sound human. Elias freezes. The Spiritualist strains against the unseen force in the bog, terror tightening his face as the leak from the bundle spreads toward the mushroom ring.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the wax-wrapped bundle from Elias
✓ Quest Accepted
Cross the marked threshold
“Can I use the carved stones to seal the bundle's hunger?”
YES (Even, rolled 28)
Imogen
The carvings on these stones match the sigils on the bundle's wrapping. They are not just markers, they are a lock.
Elias
Do not touch them, girl. You have no idea what you are inviting into your own skin.