The well ring grinds wider, stone shrieking against stone. Hot, old air surges up from below, and the seal on Xarsthos's arm answers with a sharp, rhythmic burn.
Bera
Xarsthos, wait. If that shaft opens fully, what is in there may come up with you.
The Hooded Figure
It is already coming up. The question is whether he meets it as its jailer, or its door.
Xarsthos
The heat is pulling him toward the opening.
A faint amber pulse flickers deep in the dark passage, then steadies, like a heartbeat beneath the village. The well is no longer a well. It is a descent, and it knows Xarsthos by name.
Bera
Then tell me what we do to keep Oakhaven standing.
The Hooded Figure
He goes below, or the burden breaks the square from under your feet. This is where the danger is buried.
Xarsthos stands at the lip of the opening as the hidden path yawns beneath him, the village above held together by a seal that is now waking.
✓ Quest Accepted
Descend into the awakened ward beneath Oakhaven
“I take one last look to Bera. "I promise on all that I am, I will make it back to you" i lean in and kiss her on the cheek.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -1)
Xarsthos
Bera, I promise I come back.
Xarsthos turns from the shaft long enough to meet her eyes, the glow on his arm warm against the dusk. He leans in and presses a brief kiss to her cheek.
Bera
Then come back breathing, and with that thing under control.
The Hooded Figure
A good vow. The ward will remember it, and so will Oakhaven.
Bera draws a slow breath, steadier now, while the amber light below throbs once through the cracked stones. The square holds, but only just.
Bera
If you find anything under there that wants to follow you home, make it answer to you first.
The Hooded Figure
Go on, Xarsthos. The village above can wait for your steps, but not forever.
✓ Quest Accepted
Stabilize the awakened ward within Xarsthos
− Scene Quest Removed
Descend into the awakened ward beneath Oakhaven
“I enter and go downward. I finally reach my destination. At the ward. Channeling my power. I stabilize the ward, while gaining more power myself.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Xarsthos steps into the well shaft, and the square vanishes above him. The amber glow swallows his silhouette as stone sweeps past on all sides.
He lands in a damp chamber of root and old masonry, where the ward hums from the floor like a held breath. The pull in his chest answers it at once.
Xarsthos
The pulse matches my own.
Xarsthos lowers one hand to the cracked ring, then the other to the glowing seal on his body. Light spills between them, steadying instead of flaring.
The Hooded Figure
There. Let it take the shape of you, not the other way around.
The ward shudders once, then settles. The dark seams in the stone thin to hairlines, and the amber light sinks deeper, no longer boiling at the edges.
Bera
Xarsthos... the square is easing up.
Warmth floods the seal on his arm, heavier now, as if the ward has given him a share of its strength. Above, the well opening hangs quiet, waiting.
Quest Complete
Stabilize the awakened ward within Xarsthos