The violet palisade throbs in time with the pale horn, just as before. Then the soil beneath the spikes darkens, bruising into a wet crimson. The roots are not holding the clearing. They are feeding.
Rozah the Goblin
The ground is taking the blood.
Thicker roots push up through the stained earth, hungry and bright, curling farther than Rozah left them. The barrier grows teeth, and those teeth turn toward the camp.
Hooded Rider
By the horn... it is pulling from the dead ground.
The Hooded Rider stares at the crimson seams spreading under his boots. Even the Lookout recoils as a knot of violet vine snakes along the edge of the clearing, testing the way home.
A Goblin Lookout
Rozah, it is moving on its own!
The pulse comes again, and the roots answer by lunging low, no longer a wall but a feeding thing with a path in mind. Rozah stands at the center of it, bound to the current as the camp braces for what she has awakened.
✓ Quest Accepted
Survive the forest’s hunger
“Is the roots feeding on the blood bad for me as their anchor?”
YES (VeryLikely, rolled 35)
Rozah the Goblin
The roots are not just feeding on the ground. They are drinking from me, and the more they take, the less I can hold them back.
Hooded Rider
You are the tether, Rozah. If the forest grows too hungry, it will hollow you out to fill the void.
A Goblin Lookout
My name is Kraz, and I have seen the old trees do this before. You have to let go, or you will become part of the soil yourself.
“I force the roots to draw their strength from the earth instead of my own veins.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Rozah bares her teeth and digs her will into the writhing bind. The violet light jerks off her arm, then surges down into the bruised ground as the roots take the earth's hunger instead of her veins.
The pulse in her arm slows. The root-wound along her skin darkens, then loosens, its glow sinking outward through the soil like ink in water.
At the palisade, the feeding roots shudder and change course, their teeth turning from Rozah toward the bloodied earth beneath them.
Hooded Rider
It takes the ground now. Good. Keep pushing it there.
Kraz
Yes. There. Let the tree drink the dirt, not you.
The pale horn gives a faint, rhythmic vibration from somewhere in the clearing, answered by a wet whisper from the shattered brass residue near the stump.
Rozah is still standing, but the roots cling to her like a warning, waiting for the next command.
Quest Complete
Survive the forest’s hunger