Tululu enters a secluded forest clearing where silver trunks lean over a moss-lined path. Their caretaker stands near a stone dais, while an elven emissary waits beside a covered litter. The air smells of damp earth and bitter herbs.
Valerius
Princess Tululu, you arrive at last. The noble is inside the litter, and their breathing has turned shallow since the cup was shared.
The Caretaker
I found the signs too late. The wine was laced with something old, something that clings to the blood.
A faint green sheen glimmers beneath the litter cloth, pulsing once like a trapped heartbeat. Tululu’s spell blades catch the forest light as the branches above stir without wind.
Tululu
The stain on the cloth is spreading.
Valerius
You know of curses, do you not? If this is the work of a hex, then speak quickly. If not, I need the truth before the noble slips beyond reach.
The Caretaker
Search the cup, or wake the noble, but choose one. The wrong touch could finish what the poison began.
The forest falls silent around the three of them, and the covered litter trembles once, as if something inside has heard its name.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether the noble is cursed
“Does the noble show any physical signs of a lingering curse or magic?”
YES (Likely, rolled 25)
As Tululu leans over the noble, a faint, unnatural violet shimmer pulses beneath the skin of the noble's throat, tracing the veins like creeping ink.
The Caretaker
Look there, Princess, the mark only appears when the moonlight hits the bedchamber just so.
Tululu
That is no natural ailment, but a woven hex.
“Is the hex familiar?”
EXCEPTIONAL YES (Likely, rolled 3)
Tululu recognizes the intricate, pulsing pattern as the signature of the Void-Weaver, a forbidden art thought lost to the archives of the ancient dark elf dynasties.
Valerius
You recognize it, Princess, I see the realization in your eyes.
Tululu
This is the mark of the Shadow Throne, a curse that binds the victim's soul to the very essence of the abyss.
“Do I know the counter spell?”
YES (Unlikely, rolled 17)
Tululu
The incantation for the binding reversal is etched into the back of my mind, a secret lesson from the royal archives.
Valerius
If you possess the knowledge to break this, Princess, you must speak it before the abyss claims them entirely.
“I cast the reversal”
SUCCESS (Superb Magic, rolled +0)
Tululu lowers their hands, and the air answer comes at once. The violet runes snap into a ring above the noble, then stream downward like silver thread into the curse-mark.
The glow on the throat flares, resists, and breaks. Blackened vapor peels away into the clearing, thin as ink in water.
Under the fading light, the hex shrivels into a harmless bruise. The noble’s breathing steadies.
The Caretaker
It is gone... by the trees, it is gone.
Valerius
Then it was a curse after all. Princess, you have confirmed what we feared.
One final rune lingers in the air, bright as a warning sigil, then curls inward and reveals a narrow trail of ash leading away from the litter.
Quest Complete
Determine whether the noble is cursed