The golden grooves flare in the mud, then crawl forward toward the trees like a living thread. From the undergrowth comes a heavy, measured clank, metal striking stone, slow and deliberate.
Mara
There, by the briars. Elysia, stay close to the carriage.
Mara lifts her ornate dagger, keeping her body angled between the shard and the pasture. The horses flick their ears, tense but still.
Bran
Easy. I am not here for your horses, and I would rather keep my ribs intact.
A cloaked figure steps out of the trees, one hand raised in plain sight. Mud clings to his boots, and a short iron chime hangs from his belt, still rocking from the sound that followed him.
Bran
Name's Bran. I heard the ringing from the road and followed it. Whatever you opened, it is calling something bigger than me.
The clanking stops at the edge of the pasture. In the dark behind Bran, something shifts, then goes still again, as if listening.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the nature of the golden shard
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep Mara and the carriage safe
✓ Quest Accepted
Get Bran to explain the golden shard
“Can I see anything in the dark behind him?”
NO (Even, rolled 51)
Elysia peers into the dense shadows stretching out behind Bran, but the darkness remains impenetrable and empty. No movement or hidden figures reveal themselves within the gloom.
“"Easy there. Let's try to be friends, yes? Can you tell us anything about what's coming?"”
SUCCESS (Good Persuasion, rolled +0)
Elysia
Easy there. Let's try to be friends, yes? Can you tell us anything about what's coming?
Bran
You talk like that with a blade at your throat and I almost believe you mean it.
Bran
The shard is a lure. It sings to whatever hunts it, and whatever it touched on the road was dragged after it.
His shoulders loosen a fraction. The wary edge in his stance gives way to something plainer, tired and earnest.
Bran
If you keep the shard near the sheep, you will draw the thing straight through this pasture. Put distance between them, and keep it wrapped in wool or iron.
Mara
Then we move now. Bran, if you know more, you say it while we walk.
Bran
I do know one more thing. It was never meant for a merchant's cart. It came from a place that should stay buried.
Quest Complete
Get Bran to explain the golden shard