Waylan and the woman burst into a fern-choked clearing, breath ragged, mud on their boots. Ahead, Rae Olson Daughter kneels beside a sapling split and darkened at the roots.
Waylan Grey
Conceal our trail, and keep an ear for footsteps.
Rae’s head lifts at once. Her blue-violet eyes sweep the brush behind him, then the wounded tree, then back to Waylan.
Rae Olson Daughter
I hear them. Stay low, both of you. What happened to this grove?
Waylan Grey
Quietly... what's wrong with the blighted tree?
Rae Olson Daughter
Not a blight of season or soil. Something has been pressed into it, foul and deliberate. Give me one breath, and I can hide your passage and read the wound.
She rises in one smooth motion, palm over the sapling’s split bark, and the leaves around the clearing begin to tremble as if listening.
✓ Quest Accepted
Earn Rae Olson Daughter's help
“Give her a moment to conceal your past steps as you raise your bow to check the path. Quietly listening”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled -2)
Waylan lifts his bow and goes still, letting Rae’s words carry into the brush. The clearing hushes around him, fern tips trembling as she starts to work.
Waylan Grey
Footsteps. Not far, and trying to stay light.
He catches the path in the undergrowth, sees broken stems bent back the wrong way, and holds that line in his mind while he listens.
Behind him, the woman remains low and quiet. Rae’s hand stays on the split bark, but her other hand pinches a dark crumb from the wound and rolls it between her fingers.
Rae Olson Daughter
There are hunters on your trail... and something fouler riding with them.
Her gaze sharpens at the edge of the clearing, then she nods once, deciding fast. The leaves stir harder, and the scent of wet earth thickens as if the grove itself is drawing a veil.
Rae Olson Daughter
Stay where you are. I will hide you, but if they bring fire here, I answer for my woods.
Quest Complete
Earn Rae Olson Daughter's help