The guild office falls quiet around the opened request. Rain ticks against the shutters, while the red seal and scattered black-feathered seals mark the same route toward the threatened wards.
The Guild Attendant
I remain here. The guild cannot abandon its records, its members, or the city’s first warning. If you go, you will not have guild soldiers at your back.
Sereth Vey
I go with the little mage. I know the roads beyond the outer wards, and the force advancing there will recognize my seals before it recognizes your courage.
Sereth gathers the remaining seals into his torn bundle but leaves one beside the request. The attendant spreads a charcoal-marked route across the desk, its eastern line ending at a broken watchtower.
The Guild Attendant
The watchtower is the last confirmed sighting. Reach it, learn which path the host takes, and delay the vanguard if you can. Do not mistake that for an order to die.
Sereth Vey
There is an old pilgrim road beneath the eastern hills. It avoids the main patrols, though something has been moving through the stones lately.
The route, the seals, and the promise of approaching danger wait between them. The guild attendant stays behind the desk; Sereth stands ready by the rain-darkened doors, leaving the next choice open to Inkei.
✓ Quest Accepted
Delay the vanguard
Inkei Hitori leaves the location of the urgent request behind and arrives at the watchtower.
“Inkei nods at Sereth agreeing to go on the journey with him and they set out into the wilderness”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +2)
The broken watchtower rises from eastern hills under a whitening sky. Rainwater gleams in its fallen stones, and the pilgrim road divides below, one branch marked by fresh, deep impressions in the mud.
Sereth Vey
You chose well. The road has already chosen for us, and those marks are too broad for any ordinary patrol.
Sereth climbs the tower's broken stair with practiced balance. From the upper stones, the eastern branch reveals crushed brush and a faint procession of dark shapes winding toward the outer wards.
Sereth Vey
There. The vanguard is using the pilgrim road. If we reach the ravine first, we can force its lead units to lose the night.
A low tremor passes through the tower floor. Pebbles shift inside the old masonry, then settle, revealing a narrow stair descending beneath the watchtower toward the ravine.
Sereth Vey
The hidden stair. I heard stories, but never found it. It will put us ahead of them without crossing the open road.
Together, you leave the watchtower by the concealed descent. The route is confirmed, and the stone passage gives you a quiet advantage over the advancing vanguard.
“Will the monster take mroe than a week long to get to the country”
YES, BUT (VeryUnlikely, rolled 15)
The concealed stair opens onto a high shelf above the ravine. Far below, the monster vanguard threads between black pines, while the wider host’s dust lies faint beyond the eastern hills.
Sereth Vey
They will not reach Lifiar in days, little mage. The host must cross three mountain passes and a flooded basin. More than a week separates these hills from the country’s heart.
The delay is real, and it gives the kingdoms time to muster. But the vanguard has already entered the ravine, cutting off the safest descent and forcing any pursuit toward the old flood channel.
Sereth Vey
That is the cost. We have time, but not a clean road back. If they seize the channel, they can emerge ahead of us and reach the outer wards before warning spreads.
A horned silhouette pauses among the trees below, then vanishes behind a stone spur. Other shapes follow, too numerous for a lone scouting party, their passage shaking rain from the branches.
Sereth Vey
The host’s march is slow, but this vanguard is moving faster than the reports claimed. We can reach Lifiar before the main force, yet the warning route is already narrowing.
Below, the flood channel disappears beneath collapsed masonry. Beyond it, the ravine continues east toward the threatened wards, carrying the sound of distant stone being broken.
“Will the monster take mroe than a week long to get to the country”
YES, AND MORE (VeryUnlikely, rolled 3)
The distant host does not merely crawl toward Lifiar. Its dust fades beyond the eastern hills, and the mountain passes still lie between its vanguard and the country’s heart.
Sereth Vey
More than a week, little mage. The main host needs longer than that, perhaps much longer, before it can cross the passes and flooded basin.
The answer grants the kingdoms more than a few borrowed days. The vanguard below remains dangerous, but it cannot be mistaken for the invasion’s full strength.
Sereth Vey
And the river has done us a favor. The flood tore open an old maintenance path beneath the channel. It should bring us ahead of the vanguard.
A pale strip of stone becomes visible beneath the collapsed masonry, sloping east under the ravine wall. The hidden path offers a route around the monsters without crossing their march.
Below, the Monster Vanguard continues toward the blocked channel, unaware that the broken floodworks have exposed a passage above its route. Sereth turns toward the opening.
Sereth Vey
If the stones hold, we can reach the ravine’s far mouth before they discover this way. Then we can send the warning onward while their lead units remain behind us.
Inkei Hitori
The main host is more than a week away, and the exposed path gives us a way past the vanguard.