The black mist is gone, sunk into the carved ridge like breath into a grave. Ahead, a narrow track of firmer peat trembles between slick pools, leading straight toward the deepest dark.
Kaelus
That way. The bargain’s origin lies beyond the ridge. If we do not reach it now, the threshold keeps spreading.
Elias
Or it leads us into a sinkhole and a lie. You have a remarkable talent for choosing the worst path.
Kaelus extends his sigiled wrist toward the track, then lowers it, as if even touching the air there costs him something. Elias keeps his weapon close, eyes fixed on the mud’s surface, where dimples tremble and vanish.
Imogen
The ridge is acting like a seal, not a wall.
Kaelus
The bundle woke the old passage. The only answer now is the place where it was first promised.
From somewhere under the bog comes a wet, childlike cry, thin as a thread, and the carved stone beneath their feet answers with a faint, hungry pulse.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the place where the bundle was first promised
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the origin of the bargain
“Step onto the trembling track and follow Kaelus toward the source of the cry.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +1)
Imogen steps onto the trembling track. The peat gives under her boot, then holds, as if testing her weight before deciding to bear it.
Kaelus
Careful. Stay on the firm line. The bog remembers where the vow was first spoken.
She follows him past the pulsing ridge. The faint cry rises underfoot, not ahead of them, and the path narrows to a scar of black earth stitched with old roots.
Elias
Do you hear that? It is not a child anymore. It is the place itself answering.
Kaelus slows at a split in the track and lowers his marked wrist toward the mud. The sigils there catch the ridge's pulse, then flare pale as though struck from within.
Kaelus
Here. This is where the bargain took root.
The peat parts in a thin seam, revealing a circle of ancient stones buried just below the surface, each one cut with the same worn sign as the bundle.
The seam widens with a sickly sigh, and cold water begins seeping up around their feet.
Quest Complete
Reach the place where the bundle was first promised
Quest Complete
Learn the origin of the bargain