The gray road climbs toward a weathered shrine where three ancient paths meet. Sir Silas carries Mara’s clay lamp and Vaeroth’s ember, while the ash-wyrm remains behind with the dragon’s bones and Teren keeps the Last Lantern.
At the crossing, Halwen, an elderly woman with a slight frame, silver hair braided beneath a brown hood, and a weathered green mantle, tends the shrine’s stone altar. One cloudy eye catches the lamplight.
Halwen
A traveler bearing two lights, and neither one kindled for himself. Come nearer, death-priest, if the road permits it.
Halwen sets her ashwood staff against the altar and studies the little flame first. Then her gaze lowers to the warmth pulsing beneath Silas’s scorched glove.
Halwen
That lamp carries a living remembrance. The ember carries something older, and farther from this world. Whose names do they preserve?
Three worn milestones surround the shrine, each carved with a different road’s vanished destination. Wind moves through the meeting place, stirring both lights without extinguishing either.
Halwen
Tell me their names, death-priest. The paths remember what the living neglect, and I may know which road will receive them.
“The ember belongs to Vaeroth and the lamp belongs to Mara Vale”
SUCCESS (Great Diplomacy, rolled +2)
Sir Silas Mori
The ember belongs to Vaeroth. The lamp belongs to Mara Vale.
Silas speaks quietly at the meeting of the ancient roads. The clay lamp burns steadily in his keeping, while Vaeroth’s ember answers beneath his scorched glove.
Halwen
Vaeroth. I have heard that name in old ash-songs, though never spoken by a living tongue. And Mara Vale, keeper of the first lantern.
Halwen’s cloudy eye lifts toward the distant Ashlands, then returns to the two lights. Her weathered fingers trace the nearest milestone, where faded letters emerge beneath the dust.
Halwen
The lamp should take the Lantern Road, where remembrance is carried among the living. The ember belongs upon the Cinderward Path, which bends toward the elder dead.
Halwen
Bear Mara’s light eastward when your duty permits. For Vaeroth, follow the gray stones north. That road will receive the name before it fades.
The wind settles. On the northern milestone, a thin golden mark kindles briefly, and Vaeroth’s ember warms Silas’s palm with unmistakable recognition.
Quest Complete
Deliver Vaeroth’s name to the elder
Skill Upgrade: Diplomacy Great→Superb