The sorcerer’s chant deepens, and the chamber trembles around the blood-slick sigil. The flicker in the circle shudders weaker with every pulse.
The Sorcerer
Hold fast, little butcher. I am not finished with your ritual.
The bounty hunter grits his teeth and plants his bloodied palm on the rune. His shoulders shake, but he keeps the summoning alive.
Kaelith
Arlyias, now. Break his focus.
Arlyias
The sigil is failing, and the floor crack widens again.
A fresh seam of black light splits from the crack toward the circle, as if the stone itself is choosing sides. Dust skitters across the floor.
The Sorcerer
Choose, tiefling. Aid the man and doom the gate, or stand aside and let me seal it cleanly.
The hunter lifts his head, desperate but steady. The sorcerer’s chant does not break, and the chamber’s next pulse hangs on Arlyias’s move.
✓ Quest Accepted
Break the sorcerer’s focus
“I channel my energy to shatter the stone beneath the sorcerer's feet.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Arlyias thrusts his will into the stone. The floor under the sorcerer fractures with a sharp crack, and a slab buckles upward through the black seam.
The sorcerer jerks off balance, chant snapping mid-breath as dust and chips of stone burst around their boots.
The Sorcerer
What have you done?
The broken landing gives way further, forcing the sorcerer back a step. Their raised hand drops, and the ritual’s pull stutters.
Kaelith
Yes, keep him moving!
The black seam on the floor falters where it reaches the circle, its light thinning as if starved. The chamber holds its breath.
The Sorcerer
You can delay me, tiefling, but look at the circle.
Quest Complete
Break the sorcerer’s focus
“I shield the bounty hunter from his next spell”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -3)
Arlyias snaps a fresh ward between the hunter and the landing, a thin wall of force that catches the sorcerer's gathering spell before it can take shape.
The backlash bites hard, a sting of heat across Arlyias's forearm, but the burst breaks harmlessly over the shield instead of the circle.
Kaelith
Ha. Good. Keep it there.
The Sorcerer
So you choose the lesser ruin.
Their cautious appraisal sharpens as they step back from the fractured stone, cloak twitching in the draft of black light.
The seam in the floor thins to a hairline glow, and the ritual circle steadies under the hunter's bloodied palm.
Arlyias
The ward holds.
The Sorcerer
But now the gate knows your shape, tiefling.
✓ Quest Accepted
Force the sorcerer to retreat
“I push the ward forward, forcing the sorcerer back toward the stairwell.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Arlyias drives the ward forward. The force swells like a pushed tide, and the sorcerer gives ground despite themself.
Boots scrape stone. The landing empties by half a step as the barrier shoves them back toward the stairwell.
The Sorcerer
Careful. He can hold this line.
Kaelith
Yes. Push. Keep them off me.
The black seam in the floor gutters, then dims to a thin stitch of shadow under the circle.
The Sorcerer
You have mistaken strength for victory, tiefling.
But the ward keeps advancing, shoulder by shoulder with Arlyias's will, until the sorcerer reaches the stair's first step and stops.
Quest Complete
Force the sorcerer to retreat