Rellian suddenly leaves the rising path, cutting between fir roots toward a steep ravine. Behind you, voices and splashing boots enter the alders, close enough to shake rain from the leaves.
Rellian Blackblade
They expect fugitives to seek high ground. We give them what they expect, then descend beneath the ridge by the old charcoal track.
He drops over the ravine's lip and finds a narrow shelf among wet roots. Below, the charcoal track winds into shadow, steep and slick but hidden from the alders.
Rellian Blackblade
It descends beneath the ridge, then climbs toward safer woodland. Keep your footing. A fall here will announce us better than any horn.
The pursuit reaches the flooded ditch behind you. Water splashes hard, brush snaps, and the Eastern Assassins call to one another as they enter the path you abandoned.
Rellian Blackblade
They are on the alder path now. Once we descend, stay close to the roots and let the rain hide our steps.
Rellian pauses beneath the firs, leaving the next move open. Above, the ravine rim disappears behind rain and branches; below, the charcoal track vanishes into darkness.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the assassins
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach safer woodland
“Is there a safer woodland area”
YES (Likely, rolled 21)
Beyond the charcoal track, the ravine opens into a sheltered hollow where old beeches crowd a spring-fed pool. The ground there is firm, tangled, and screened from the ridge by dense fern and fallen timber.
Rellian Blackblade
There is safer woodland below, where the beech roots drink from the spring. The ridge cannot see into it, and the rain will cover the descent.
Rellian points beneath the track, toward a darker cleft where broad leaves shiver under the rain. A faint thread of clear water runs from that direction, untouched by the muddy runoff.
Rellian Blackblade
The hollow served charcoal burners once. No one works it now. We can disappear among the beeches, then follow the spring west when the search passes.
Above, the Eastern Assassins reach the ravine rim. Their calls fragment in the rain, and none of them yet looks toward the concealed cleft below.
Rellian Blackblade
They will search the track first. Stay beneath the roots, and let them believe the ridge remains our road.
The safer hollow waits below, its beech trunks forming a natural wall against the pursuit. Rainwater threads down the ravine, carrying every fresh sound away from it.
undefined / undefined
A deep crack rolls through the rain. An old beech gives way above the hollow, its roots tearing free as the trunk crashes across the hidden cleft and blocks the descent.
Rellian Blackblade
Down, now. The fall has hidden us, but it has also changed the ground beneath our feet.
Rellian slides beneath the fallen trunk and tests the mud with his boot. The shattered roots reveal a narrow animal run descending beside the spring, barely wide enough for one person.
Eastern Assassins
The tree fell below. Search the hollow. They may be trapped there.
Rain drives a curtain of leaves across the ridge. Through it, several silhouettes move toward the blocked track, while the spring path slips away beneath fern and wet stone.
Rellian Blackblade
The run leads under the beeches. I will take the rear if they reach the roots. Go when the thunder covers us.
Thunder breaks over the forest. Rellian grips a low branch and holds the passage open, his attention fixed uphill as water begins rushing through the fresh gap.