The inn door crashes inward. An armored scout steps through, boots scattering splinters across the common room.
A Ramadi crest shines on the scout's cloak. Their gaze passes over the Isoptera Diplomat and fixes on the faint blue-white glow trapped between the floorboards.
The Ramadi Scout
Do not touch the light. The rift is sealed, not gone.
The glow pulses beneath the boards. Fine cracks spread toward the foundation stones, and the iron chains across the windows tremble in answer.
The Isoptera Diplomat
You claim knowledge of this phenomenon. Then tell us how to contain it.
The Ramadi Scout
Scout Hedd, Ramadi border watch. The energy is leaking downward. We must draw it back into the sealed mark before the inn becomes another tear.
Scout Hedd kneels beside the glow and opens a leather case of chalk, copper nails, and red thread. They glance toward Beatrix Galveston, measuring her readiness without yet giving an order.
✓ Quest Accepted
Stabilize the inn against the leaking energy
“Can I use my own binding line to reinforce the red thread?”
NO, BUT (Likely, rolled 66)
The red thread hums with a sharp, discordant vibration as it touches the floorboards, rejecting the coarse weave of the rope Beatrix offers. The energy within the wood flares, snapping the fibers of her line before they can even make contact.
“I use the copper nails and red thread”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Crafting, rolled -1)
Beatrix Galveston snatches up the copper nails and pins the red thread across the three converging lines beneath the sealed mark.
The thread bucks against her grip, but each nail bites into a crack and holds. The leaking energy bends inward, away from the foundation.
The Ramadi Scout
There. Keep the last crossing tight!
Beatrix drives the final nail home. The copper rings once, and the spreading cracks stop short of the walls.
The cost arrives in the same instant. A splintered floorboard snaps beneath Beatrix's knee, bruising her through the leather as the thread flashes white.
The Isoptera Diplomat
The inn is stable. But the foundation has shifted. We must decide whether to inspect it before anyone moves through the common room.
Ensure the inn's foundation is safe
Quest Complete
Stabilize the inn against the leaking energy