Tululu reaches toward the ash trail. The ground answers with a cold, brilliant flame that licks upward without searing the grass.
Smoke coils apart, and a Shadow-Bound Sentinel steps through it, dark armor caked in soot, void-light shivering between its plates. The Caretaker stumbles back and throws an arm over their face.
The Shadow-Bound Sentinel
Hold. By the seal, and by the ash.
The heavy rusted blade lifts toward Tululu, but the construct does not lunge. It waits, as if measuring whether she is threat or witness.
The Shadow-Bound Sentinel
The curse was drawn from the noble. The trail you follow is not the wound, it is the hand that made it.
Valerius
Then speak plainly, sentinel. Who sent you, and why guard this place now?
The violet glow in the sentinel's eyes flickers in the same rhythm as the fading bruise on the noble's throat, and the clearing holds its breath.
✓ Quest Accepted
Uncover the source of the Shadow Throne curse
✓ Quest Accepted
Speak with the Shadow-Bound Sentinel
“Do I have royal authority over the sentinel?”
NO (Unlikely, rolled 40)
The Shadow-Bound Sentinel remains unmoved by the mention of royal lineage, its posture suggesting that such titles hold no sway within these ancient, cursed woods. It stands as a silent wall, acknowledging Tululu's presence but denying her any claim to command.
“Ask the sentinel who is it's master?”
FAILURE (Good Reasoning, rolled -2)
Tululu’s question hangs in the cold air. The Sentinel does not answer at once, only tilting its head toward the ash trail as if listening to something beneath the earth.
The Shadow-Bound Sentinel
Master is not the right word. I was bound by a covenant older than crowns, and by the hand that fed the curse.
Valerius
Fed it? Then the poisoning was not a stray malice. It was directed.
The Caretaker steps closer to Tululu’s side, relief giving way to wary focus as the Sentinel’s ash-dark chest pulses once with dim violet light.
The Shadow-Bound Sentinel
I know the touch that shaped it. I do not know the name it now wears.
Valerius
Then tell us this, sentinel. Is the source a person, or a place?
A hush settles over the clearing. The Sentinel’s hands uncross slowly, one palm angling toward Tululu like a warning, or an offer.
Quest Complete
Speak with the Shadow-Bound Sentinel