The old forest path lies twisted beneath dripping branches. An ambush has already sprung: a young green-scaled kobold adventurer, a wiry young male with narrow amber eyes, a blunt snout, and a patched ochre vest over a dark shirt is pinned beneath a fallen limb, one satchel spilled beside him, while four bandits fan across the road and press toward the brush where Rose hides.
Pip
Please! I did not see the snare. Someone, please help me before they find us!
The kobold claws uselessly at the mud, his short horns slick with rain. The branch has trapped his leg, and every movement makes the wood groan loud enough to carry through the trees.
Road Bandits
Search the bracken. The little beast had company, and company leaves tracks.
Boots crunch closer. One bandit raises a hooded lantern, its narrow beam sliding over wet ferns and the dark hollow beyond. The others spread wide, closing the path behind Rose.
Pip
They are almost here. I cannot lift it. I cannot even reach my knife.
Road Bandits
There! Something moved.
✓ Quest Accepted
Free the pinned kobold adventurer
“{wordlessly, Ekko sneaks into the shadows of the forest out of view before the bandits can spot her amidst the bushes, giving a quiet sigh to herself before readying some magic at her fingertips. Instead of wasting the energy to attack the bandits, she throws an illusion over the kobold to hide him from their sight while they aren't paying attention, moving over quietly to help unfree him. Placing a finger on his lips to keep quiet, she scrapes some mud out from under the kobolds legs, letting him pull free of the log.}”
SUCCESS (Good Arcana, rolled +0)
Rose slips deeper into the forest shadows, her three tails folding close as the lantern beam passes over the bushes without finding her. A quiet sigh leaves her.
Fuchsia light gathers at Rose's fingertips. She bends it into a wavering illusion over the trapped kobold, making the limb and spilled satchel resemble slick roots and black earth.
The bandits' attention drifts toward the farther bracken. Beneath the false roots, the kobold vanishes from their sight, though the spell trembles whenever rain strikes the illusion.
Rose crawls to the log and presses one finger lightly to the kobold's lips. Her other hand scrapes mud from beneath his trapped leg, patient and nearly soundless.
Pip
Do not breathe too loudly. Do not move until she says.
With the mud loosened, the kobold pulls free. The log settles with a dull groan, but the illusion holds and the searching bandits remain focused elsewhere.
The magic drains sharply from Rose's hand, leaving two fingertips numb and pale. The kobold crouches beside her, free but shaking, while rain swallows their smallest sounds.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the ambush
Quest Complete
Free the pinned kobold adventurer
The caster expends energy and becomes tired according to the spell's difficulty.
“{wordlessly, Ekko takes the finger off the kobolds lips, moving them under their chin to turn his head in a good direction to get around the bandits, the fox silently bidding him follow as she sneaks her way through the underbrush around the bandits.}”
SUCCESS (Great Stealth, rolled -1)
Rose lifts her finger from the kobold's lips and hooks it beneath his chin, turning his head toward a narrow route between dripping thorn bushes. She slips forward, three tails flattened against her back, and beckons him after her.
Pip
Quietly. I follow.
The pinned kobold crawls through the underbrush behind her, clutching his satchel to keep its buckles from chiming. Rose threads them around the bandits' flank, using fern shadows and the rain's steady hiss as cover.
A wet branch catches Rose's hip and snaps. The sound is small but sharp; lantern light jerks toward the bushes as her fuchsia tail tips vanish behind a curtain of leaves.
Road Bandits
Hold there. Search that side.
Rose keeps moving without looking back. She and the pinned kobold clear the bandits' line, reaching a hollow beyond the road where tangled roots conceal them from the lanterns.
The illusion over the abandoned log gutters out behind them. Rose's numb fingertips throb with spent magic, and the pinned kobold crouches beside a mossy root, breathing hard but free.
Quest Complete
Escape the ambush