Before either side can continue, the frozen road splits in a thin circle around the black hound’s paws. Blue-white light leaks through the hairline crack.
The buried ice exhales a voice from below, old and muffled, yet clear enough to reach the roadside. Its words turn toward the skeleton beneath the shelter.
the buried voice
You still bear the bone-mark. Did the old master send you back to finish his watch?
The hound strains toward the opening, claws scraping frost, while the elderly man plants his iron staff and raises his free hand. The young woman catches the hound’s lead.
the young woman
Hold position. Everyone. No one crosses the road, and no one answers that voice until we know what it wants.
the elderly man
The old master has been silent for thirty years. If that thing remembers him, then this road was waiting for more than travelers.
Under the shelter, the skeleton’s kris glimmers violet. It turns its skull toward Lazorus, awaiting command, while Meris keeps his scythe lowered and Garran guards the fire.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the skeleton bound to Lazorus
“I command the skeleton to remain bound to me and hold position.”
SUCCESS (Great Arcana, rolled +0)
Lazorus Kane
Remain bound to me. Hold position beneath the shelter.
The command settles through the skeleton’s violet rib-mark and into the bone-carved kris. Its posture stills, and the binding answers Lazorus without resistance.
The skeleton lowers its weapon and remains beneath the shelter, firmly tethered to Lazorus’s will. It does not approach the cracked road or the buried voice.
the young woman
It obeys. Good. Keep it there, and perhaps the thing below will understand that none of us intend to disturb its watch.
the elderly man
The bone-mark answered you, not the voice beneath the ice. That distinction may matter more than the old master’s name.
The blue-white crack widens by a finger’s breadth, but the buried presence remains silent. Frost gathers around the circle while the hound watches the motionless skeleton.
the buried voice
Bound, then. The watch continues through another hand. Ask what lies beneath, bearer, and the road may open.
Learn what lies beneath the road
Quest Complete
Keep the skeleton bound to Lazorus