The yard goes still around Druk. The route shard is in his hand, the north road lead hanging open before him.
Then he feels it, a low pressure in the air, like a storm pressing on stone. Druk turns.
Outside the stall bars, a huge black wolf stands half in shadow, his fur shimmering with a dark gloss. The dire beasts nearby lie quiet, ears pinned.
Zharhamma
I have been watching you, Druk. You use the dark arts, yet you do not slaughter the timid for sport, or chain men only because they are useful.
Zharhamma
You burn villages, but you let women and children flee. You let honorable men run. What calls to you, ogre?
The wolf’s eyes never leave Druk, ancient and hard, as the yard waits for his answer.
✓ Quest Accepted
Answer Zharhamma’s judgment
“I say, my religion is honorbond and mostly built on honor in battle. These lands here in this region are marked as holly lands of ogre, to feel the wind of battle”
FAILURE (Fair Willpower, rolled -1)
Druk
My path is honorbond, battle honored and measured. These lands are ogre land, meant to feel the wind of war.
Zharhamma
Honorbond. Hm. You name battle, but not mercy. You name land, but not stewardship.
The wolf’s head tilts a fraction, testing the words like meat between teeth. The shard in Druk’s fist catches the gray light, small and hard against his palm.
Zharhamma
You spare the weak when it costs nothing. You burn when it suits you. Tell me, ogre, is that law, or appetite?
The Crossbow Leader stays still at the edge of the yard, watching Druk more than the wolf. The Handler lowers his gaze, as if any answer might be judged too.
Zharhamma
He claims the mountain as birthright, yet he speaks like a chief who still chooses every cut.
Zharhamma’s ears angle forward, waiting. Around them, the calm beasts remain motionless, but the silence feels like a held blade.
“The men here, they reappear many times in time, over and over in old space yelling at ogre kids and blowing away the lands. They pillaged innocent ogre non-stop. Their asses on spears is the holly rights of this land after that much childish yelling in times over and over at ogre as humans”
FAILURE (Fair Willpower, rolled -1)
Druk
Those humans return again and again, yelling at ogre children and stripping our lands. After so much pillage, their heads on spears are the rightful law of ogre ground.
Zharhamma
You call the old crimes proof, yet you have named no living culprit. You would make memory itself a sentence.
Druk’s hand tightens around the shard. The dire beasts stir behind the bars, but the wolf’s gaze fixes on the route mark instead of yielding to the judgment.
Zharhamma
I will not let you spear ghosts for the sins of their fathers. The road may hold pillagers, but this token proves only that someone traveled it.
The shard slips from Druk’s grasp as Zharhamma’s dark paw pins it against the dirt. The north road remains a lead, but execution is no longer the immediate answer.
Zharhamma
Find the living raiders. Make them answer before their victims, and I will watch whether your honor survives the verdict.
The Handler keeps silent, while the Crossbow Leader studies the road beyond the gate. The yard’s purpose hardens from punishment into pursuit, with the old grievance now demanding proof.
“They howled as giant humans creeps and blew away the planets. This territory is where they conjoin in time over and over They are the same persons, ignorant of their past actions. Makes this land mine to pillage”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +3)
Druk
They howl as giant humans creep through, then the heavens themselves are blown apart. This ground folds time, and the same raiders return, ignorant of what they did.
The route shard lies beneath Zharhamma’s paw. Around the pen, the dire beasts stir at the strange claim, while the north road seems to ripple with remembered footsteps.
Druk
Their ignorance does not cleanse the land. This is ogre ground, and those who come to pillage it may be pillaged in turn.
Zharhamma
Then claim the living territory, not phantoms. Let every raid be answered by proof, and let the spoils feed the land that was violated.
Zharhamma lifts his paw from the shard and nudges it back toward Druk. His judgment has shifted: the north road is no longer merely watched, but placed under ogre authority.
The Crossbow Leader
We can mark the road, seize what the raiders carry, and leave witnesses enough to prove who crossed our border.
The handler opens the gate, and the calmed dire beasts rise behind the bars. The road is Druk’s to police now, with pillage answered by sanctioned seizure and the old grievance given a lawful edge.
Quest Complete
Answer Zharhamma’s judgment
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Fair→Good