The tunnel blooms open into a crystalline grotto, and amber light hits like a blow. The walls glitter with wet facets. At the heart of it all, a pulsing core hangs above the stone, tethered by rootlike veins of gold.
The Hooded Figure
You feel it now, Xarsthos. This ward was never only a shield.
He steps aside, revealing the glowing core to be fed by the ward ring below. The pulse matches Xarsthos's own seal, every beat a tug inward, as if the chamber is drinking the strength from his body and sending it back into the village above.
The Hooded Figure
It keeps Oakhaven standing by taking from you. Your life, your breath, your years. The ward is a siphon.
Xarsthos
The seal and the pulse are the same thing.
Bera emerges at the tunnel mouth, frozen by the glare. The hooded man does not turn to her. He keeps his gaze on the core, calm as stone, while the amber light throbs faster, eager and hungry.
✓ Quest Accepted
Break the siphoning ward