Peter marks the trap’s safe edge with a fallen twig, then leads Corrin and Desdemona back toward the concealed turn. Fiona and Maddie remain behind at the farmhouse, safely out of sight.
Peter Fellows
There. We can follow this track now. It should join the charcoal-burner’s path before the thieves’ road, if the old map was honest.
The concealed turn winds beneath blue pines, where the light thins and damp needles soften every footfall. Hoofprints and boot marks overlap, but the route remains passable.
The trees open onto a roofless stone shrine, its altar exposed to the gray sky. Old protective sigils cover the inner walls, several split cleanly as though something forced its way through them.
Desdemona Blackwood
These protections were meant to keep something out, or keep something within. They have not failed naturally.
Inside the shrine, black residue stains the inner stone in thin branching smears. Its dull sheen and magical pressure match the trace Corrin found around the guildhouse service passage.
Peter Fellows
I have never seen this shrine disturbed. Should we turn back, or is this the reason the path has been used again?
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine what breached the shrine's protections
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the charcoal-burner's path