With the storehouse behind them, Hugh Fen walks slowly, one hand braced against his ribs. Brindle limps ahead through trampled grass, nose low, while FOXY follows close behind.
The dog’s trail climbs to a ruined watch post overlooking the western camp. Its broken stones shelter scraps of harness, a cold smear of old ash, and claw marks scoring the dusty floor.
Brindle
Whuff.
Brindle stops beside the claw marks and presses his torn ear flat. Hugh reaches the post, staring down at the ash as though the years have fallen away.
Hugh
I served here the last night of the western camp. My name is Hugh Fen, and I was on watch when the horses began screaming.
He crouches with effort and points toward a collapsed stretch of wall. The harness scraps lie beneath it, buckles twisted, while the claw marks continue toward the dark slope.
Hugh
We found no raiders, no bodies, nothing that made sense. But something moved through the ash, and Lord Garran ordered us to keep silent.
✓ Quest Accepted
Gain Hugh Fen's cooperation
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify what moved through the ash
“Ask Hugh fen if he can tell me what happened exactly or identify what happened here”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled -1)
FOXY
Hugh, can you tell me exactly what happened here, or identify what moved through this ash?
Hugh
I can. The horses screamed from the eastern pens. I saw a dark shape cross the firelight, low as a crouching man, but it left no tracks.
Hugh rubs ash between his fingers and studies the claw marks. Brindle sniffs the broken stones, then retreats from the slope with a subdued whine.
Hugh
Those marks were made afterward. Whatever passed through the camp dragged something heavy toward that slope. I found Garran's torn standard there, but no sign of the lord himself.
FOXY
The ash shows a passage, but not what made it.
The answer comes at the price of lost daylight. While Hugh reconstructs each movement, the sun sinks behind the ridgeline, leaving the western camp in lengthening shadow.
Hugh
I cannot name the thing, FOXY. But I can show you where the trail ended, before darkness took the ground from sight.
Quest Complete
Gain Hugh Fen's cooperation