Before anyone can cross the tavern, the circular silver ward fractures. Its sigils gutter out as ash pours from the rafters and veils the threshold.
A soot-stained pilgrim staggers to the doorway. She presses a jagged silver scrap against the failing ward, and the metal rings like a plucked string.
Sella Vey
Please. Do not cast me out. I followed the songbook’s call from the road.
The sealed songbook answers from Issac’s grasp with a deep pulse. Its wax briefly darkens. Black ash streaks the pilgrim’s cloak in hand-shaped trails, though no hand is there.
The Former Mentor
Something followed you, Sella Vey. Tell us what it is before that scrap opens the way for it.
Sella Vey
I never saw its face. I heard footsteps behind mine, always stopping when I stopped. The call led me here, and now it is waiting outside.
✓ Quest Accepted
Prevent what followed Sella Vey from entering the tavern
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what followed Sella Vey
“I stop them and ask them what do they want”
SUCCESS (Superb Diplomacy, rolled +3)
Issac
Stop. What do you want?
The restored silver ward answers Issac's command. Its broken circle draws tight around the threshold, halting Sella outside without touching her.
Sella Vey
Shelter. I want shelter from the thing behind me. It is following the songbook, not me.
The jagged scrap slips from Sella's hand and lands on the threshold stone. Its reflected light forms a thin path through the ash, pointing away from the tavern toward the old pilgrim road.
Sella Vey
It has no face. It wants the sealed name inside that book. Every time I stopped, it stopped because it was waiting for the door to open.
Beyond the ward, the ash gathers into a tall, faceless silhouette, then recoils as the silver boundary seals. Sella remains outside, alive and unharmed. The path in the fallen scrap stays visible, marking where the pursuer came from.
The Former Mentor
The tavern is safe for now. Issac, that road is the creature's trail, and Sella has given us its direction.
Quest Complete
Prevent what followed Sella Vey from entering the tavern
Quest Complete
Learn what followed Sella Vey