Rain needles the Star Streak’s deck. Anna strides through the slick boards, blueprints clutched to her chest, her braid damp and her brow tight with worry.
She spreads the drawings near Kael Umal, pointing to a section of the hull where the wood has begun to bow inward, as if something below is pressing up from the dark.
Anna
This is not ordinary rot. The hull is warping under a force I cannot account for. It is coming from the cargo hold.
A low tremor rolls through the ship beneath their feet. The wet planks give a faint, unhappy creak, and the open washroom door shivers in its frame as steam drifts out behind them.
Anna
If we do nothing, the Star Streak may fail before we reach the war region. I need your leave to inspect the hold, now, before the pressure worsens.
Kael Umal
The hold is not staying silent.
The request hangs between them, sharp as the rain. Below deck, whatever the ship carries seems to answer with another faint, living creak, as if the Star Streak itself is warning them.
✓ Quest Accepted
Inspect the cargo hold
“Kael, Anna and Sophie go below to inspect the cargo in the hold where the mage, Sophie, discovers magic radiating from a particular room. They enter the room and find a plaque on the wall. Sophie reads the plaque and a glowing light appears with a woman's voice. She introduces herself as "Whisper".”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled -1)
Kael Umal gives the ship’s deck one last hard look, then turns toward the stairwell below. Anna falls in beside him, blueprints tucked tight, while Sophie follows with a wary glance at the trembling boards above.
The steps groan under rainwater and weight. Each lower landing grows warmer, older, and more wrong, until the air itself tastes of salt, damp wood, and something faintly lit from within.
Anna
The warp is stronger here. It is centered ahead.
Sophie
Magic. Not in the walls, but beyond them.
At the cargo corridor, Sophie stops short. Her head lifts, eyes narrowing toward one sealed room where the darkness seems to thrum.
Sophie
There, do you feel it? The room is giving off power.
Kael opens the door, and the three step inside. A plaque gleams on the wall, half-shadowed until Sophie leans close and reads it aloud.
Whisper
I am Whisper.
Quest Complete
Inspect the cargo hold