Three days after the court fell silent, Myk stands with Zalise at Ashen-Hold’s frontier. Ash drifts over broken watchfires and the black ribs of ruined barricades.
Far behind them, Zesh has escorted Nadira toward the witnesses’ refuge. Gonzalo departed alive under strict terms, leaving only fading tracks beyond the eastern road.
Zalise Zephyr-Ashe
My people held this land before Moa broke them. Now monsters use the old roads, and bandits mark the wells as their own.
Zalise crouches beside a cluster of deep tracks crossing the ash, then points toward red-painted stones near a collapsed watchtower. No campfire burns there, but someone has recently passed.
Zalise Zephyr-Ashe
A safe haven comes first. We need water, defensible ground, and allies who will not sell our location for marrow. Then we choose the first target.
The frontier spreads beneath the yellowed sky: three occupied approaches, a dry ravine, and the watchtower’s shattered foundation. Zalise studies each route in silence.
Zalise Zephyr-Ashe
You read pursuit better than anyone I know. Which approach would you examine first?
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine which occupied approach offers the first opening for liberation
“I examine the deep tracks and red-painted stones near the watchtower.”
SUCCESS (Superb Perception, rolled -1)
Myk kneels beside the deep tracks, brushing ash from their edges. The impressions are fresh enough to preserve weight and stride, leading from the watchtower toward the dry ravine.
Myk
The patrol came through recently, and it was larger than the tracks wanted me to believe.
Reads Pursuers separates the true trail from deliberate loops around the stones. Six bandits passed here, carrying uneven loads, then split toward the wells and the ravine.
Marked by Sorcery overlays the tracks with phantom impressions: extra feet, vanished turns, and a false return to the watchtower. The uncertainty does not erase the real route, but it costs precious minutes to identify it.
At the red-painted stones, Myk finds a thumb-sized smear of fresh marrow-paint beneath older ash. The mark means the wells are watched, while the ravine remains their quickest approach.
Zalise Zephyr-Ashe
Six occupiers, split toward water and shelter. We can reach the ravine unseen, but the wells are already theirs.
Zalise rises beside him, white-silver hair stirring in the ash-laden wind. The watchtower’s broken foundation offers cover, while the revealed trail gives them a clear choice of approach.
Quest Complete
Determine which occupied approach offers the first opening for liberation