The bark in Radagast’s hand flares cold violet, and Tuiwen’s gaze is dragged to the half-buried stone arch nearby. The warden’s arm answers with a pulse under the skin. The whole hedge goes still.
Radagast the Brown
No... not my grove. It is calling to something beneath it.
The bark twists in the wizard’s palm, its light no longer pointing at him, but through the earth, toward the arch’s broken runes. The dark thread in the warden’s arm writhes like a tether pulled tight.
Eldred
That is the same pull I saw in the shadows. We were led here on purpose.
Tuiwen
The sample is not marking Radagast. It is answering whatever lies under the arch.
Then the buried stone answers. Frost-white light flashes along the arch seam, and a thin black presence rises from the roots around it, patient and intent. The forest warden gasps as the thread in his arm tightens.
The Entity
At last... the trail returns to me.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what lies beneath the archway
“"And who would you be?"”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled +0)
Tuiwen
And who would you be?
The black presence gathers itself within the arch, and a voice comes from it like breath through a sealed tomb.
The Entity
I am the hand beneath the root, the hunger that teaches the wood to bind. I am no beast of this grove.
Radagast the Brown
A binding mind... not a wandering shade. This is deliberate craft.
Eldred
Then the wound in the warden is its leash. It has been steering us all along.
The forest warden’s shoulders sag as the dark thread loosens by a hair, while the hedge shivers in the spell-light and the arch’s broken runes glimmer frost-white.
The Entity
Know me now, elf. I am the snare set by Dol Guldur, and I know your road.
Quest Complete
Learn what lies beneath the archway