The Guild’s report hall opens around Vespera, crowded with notice boards and fresh accounts from the wilderness beyond Argentis. Mana lamps glow over ink, maps, and pinned route markers.
Blarnards sits at a cluttered desk beneath the newest postings, reviewing danger ranks with tired eyes. He has not left, and several untouched cups show how long he has been working.
Blarnards
You came to check on me, didn’t you? I am all right enough to finish these reports. The Guild cannot afford unclear warnings.
He gestures toward the boards, where ordinary beast sightings form familiar clusters. One group of reports is different: tracks, movements, and attacks coordinated across distant wilderness routes.
Blarnards
These accounts should not line up this neatly. Different beasts, separate territories, the same timing. I have marked them high, but I do not yet know what they mean.
Blarnards rubs his eyes, then straightens another report instead of resting. The hall remains calm, but the repeated route marks draw the eye toward Argentis’s outer approaches.
Blarnards
If you truly came to make sure I am not overworking myself, perhaps you can look at this cluster with me. Tell me what you notice before I rank it again.
✓ Quest Accepted
Help Blarnards accept support with the Guild’s warnings
“I study the coordinated tracks and attacks with Blarnards.”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +1)
Vespera bends over the reports with Blarnards, comparing claw marks, broken brush, and attack times across the pinned routes. The Seer’s Crystal Lattice rests beside the map, its amethysts aligning over each account.
Silver lines gather between distant marks as the lattice clarifies shared intervals and identical changes in direction. The pattern shows the beasts are not merely migrating; they are being driven along chosen paths.
The Oath-Bound force tightens whenever the conclusion reaches beyond the evidence, refusing a grander claim than the reports can support. Vespera’s study narrows instead, separating witnessed attacks from uncertain rumor.
Vespera
The routes converge on Argentis’s outer approaches, but the attacks begin elsewhere.
Blarnards
So the beasts are being herded toward us, not gathering by instinct. Someone is testing the approaches without showing their hand.
The lattice settles into a clear route pattern: several wilderness incidents form a funnel toward the city, while the timing reveals deliberate pauses between each disturbance. Blarnards marks the cluster as coordinated movement and raises its warning accordingly.
✓ Quest Accepted
Have Blarnards acknowledge the coordinated threat to Argentis’s approaches
Quest Complete
Help Blarnards accept support with the Guild’s warnings
“I'll head to those locations and. Earns, earns for once. But I do need some help. In case I run into danger somehow. I can take care of myself with my magic, but hood? Do you have an adventurer that could help me? Escort me to the location and I need to know because. I need to make sure it's not. What it is or if it is? Then I'll come back to you who? Who to give you the report.”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled -1)
Vespera
I will investigate those locations and return with a report. I need an adventurer to escort me, in case danger finds us there. Do you have someone suitable, Blarnards?
Blarnards studies her request, then calls toward the adjoining equipment room. A young adult elf woman steps out, lean and weathered, with copper-brown skin, cropped black hair, a green travel cloak, and a scar through one eyebrow.
Blarnards
Selka, take the outer routes with Vespera. Guard her passage, observe what the reports leave uncertain, and bring every finding back here.
Selka
I am Selka. I know the western approaches and the old game trails beyond them. I will escort you, and I will report what I witness rather than guess.
The Seer’s Crystal Lattice rests over the route map, its amethyst crystals aligning in silver wires to clarify the first crossings. Bridges Cultures makes the arrangement mutual, while the Oath-Bound force constrains every promise to the evidence and the agreed return.
Blarnards
Then it is agreed. Selka escorts you to the marked locations, and you return here with what you learn. I will place the report before the Guild and revise the warning from facts, not fear.
Selka gathers a travel cloak, route chalk, and a short field ledger. Together, she and Vespera leave the report hall with the first western marker fixed in mind and the Guild awaiting their return.
Quest Complete
Have Blarnards acknowledge the coordinated threat to Argentis’s approaches