Tempestra and Aeorolus return to the high ravine as dawn reaches the narrow trail toward the heights. The eastern valley glows beneath scattered cloud.
Fresh impressions cross the dust beside much older road-stones, leading away from the sealed descent rather than toward it. Aeorolus carries their younger brother’s memory in silence.
Aeorolus
These tracks were made after the old road fell quiet. Someone came up from the valley, then chose the heights.
The trail ends at a weathered watch shrine above distant farms and layered valleys. Its stone altar remains, but the iron bell once hanging beneath the lintel has been recently removed.
Aeorolus
The bell was taken deliberately. Whoever climbed here wanted the shrine silent.
No voice answers from the shrine. Veyrath remains below with the drowned road, while Caedryn and Mareth guard the shelter and its wounded beneath the mountain.
Wind moves through the empty bell frame, carrying faint metal scent and the distant sounds of farms waking. The fresh trail continues beyond the shrine toward the high passes.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify who removed the watch shrine bell
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect the settlements beneath the heights from the bell-taker
“i sniff the air and gag. "ugh that smell is unmistakable, a demon walks these roads, perhaps even "the thing"”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled +1)
tempestra
Ugh, that smell is unmistakable. A demon walks these roads, perhaps even the thing.
Tempestra lowers her snout to the shrine’s wind-carved stones and draws in the air. The scent is unmistakable: scorched mineral, bitter iron, and something cold beneath it.
Aeorolus
The thing. You know that stench from the pits?
Aeorolus turns toward the high passes, pale lightning stirring beneath his storm-dark scales. The fresh tracks carry the same foul trace, strongest beyond the silent shrine.
Aeorolus
I remember it around our little spark’s final chamber. Not as proof that it came here, but as a trail worth fearing.
The empty bell frame creaks in the wind. Below, farms continue waking, unaware, while the scent threads upward toward a narrow pass between black ridges.
Aeorolus
We can follow it now, or return to the shelter and warn the others first. I will not choose for you, sister.
“NO, that beast needs to either die or be sent back to the hells from witch it came”
tempestra
No. That beast dies, or it goes back to the hells it came from.
Tempestra follows the foul trail beyond the silent shrine, her four wings cutting the cold pass wind. The scent thickens beneath a black ridge where scorched stones form a rough circle.
A horned shadow rises within the circle, wrapped in ember-red cracks and smoke-dark hide. It turns toward her, but the old road’s blue marks flare beneath its feet.
Aeorolus
There it is, sister. The thing that haunted the pits has found no shelter here.
Tempestra releases a concentrated bolt. White lightning fills the circle, pinning the demon’s outline against the stones as the ancient marks open like a waiting gate.
The demon’s form breaks apart into smoke and cinders without blood or struggle. The gate draws the remnants downward, and the foul scent vanishes into the sealed dark.
Aeorolus
It is gone, sister. The road has sent it back, and no trace of it remains on the path to the valley.
“there are to things i hate, water, and demons”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +0)
tempestra
There are two things I hate, Aeorolus: water and demons.
Her words carry through the cold pass. Below, the drowned road lies sealed beneath stone, and the demon’s last cinders vanish into the ancient gate.
Aeorolus
Then today has tested both your hatreds, sister. The water stayed below us, and the demon is gone from these roads.
Aeorolus looks from the sealed dark to the black ridge, his pale lightning settling beneath his storm-dark scales. The foul scent has completely faded.
Aeorolus
I will remember. No needless descent into water, and no demon remains unwarned while we can prevent it.
tempestra
The demon is gone, and the water is beneath stone.
Wind moves through the silent shrine and carries cleaner air from the valley. The trail ahead remains open, while the sealed gate holds the darkness below.
“now we can head to the nesting grounds, and finally rest for a while”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +0)