The cold stair descends beneath the opened pharmacy, its red emergency light fading behind Spanner Few. Above, the old soldier remains with the delegates, guarding the sealed threshold and watching the crooked outline stretch downward.
A battered winged messenger tumbles onto the landing, skids across the dust, and folds its trembling wings. A sealed strip of blackened metal hangs from its harness.
The strip bears Paranor's Druid sign. Beneath it, etched letters name Druid Paranox and carry his warning: wells are blackening, deep forests have gone silent, and old wards fail along the borders.
the old soldier
Paranor has found you, Wing Rider. Take the message below, if that is where the buried power leads.
Far beneath the stair, a pulse answers through the stone, slow and immense. Each beat makes the pharmacy bottles chime softly above, while the outline reaches another step.
The final lines glimmer in the red light: The blood of Shannara must answer. Only the Elfstones joined with the Wishsong can turn aside what rises.
the winged messenger
Paranox summons Spanner Few to Paranor. The Histories have opened their warning.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach Paranor to answer Druid Paranox’s summons
✓ Quest Accepted
Reveal the buried power’s threat
“Can the winged messenger guide me toward Paranor?”
NO (Likely, rolled 89)
The messenger's wings settle, but its narrow head turns toward the descending stair. No answering signal comes from the metal strip or the darkness below.
the winged messenger
No. My charge ends at this threshold. Paranor lies beyond roads I cannot follow.
The blackened strip remains cold in the messenger's harness. Its etched sign gives no direction, and the pulse beneath the stone continues without changing rhythm.
the old soldier
Then the warning brought you here, not onward. The buried power has chosen its own road.
Above, the crooked outline withdraws from the stairwell mouth, leaving the red light unobstructed. The delegates' frightened voices fade behind the pharmacy door.
the winged messenger
Paranox summons you, Wing Rider. I carry the summons, but I cannot guide your steps.
The stair waits beneath the hospital, cold air rising from its unseen depths. Nothing in the messenger's message reveals a route to Paranor.
“I descend the stair and follow the pulse toward the buried power.”
FAILURE (Good Agility, rolled -1)
Spanner Few descends into the cold, following the buried pulse through crumbling concrete. Each beat grows louder beneath his boots, vibrating up through bone and metal.
He releases the Wishsong toward the darkness, forcing hidden seams to reveal themselves. Dust lifts from the walls, and old paint peels away in trembling strips.
The stair buckles before he can reach its end. A section collapses into a black shaft, swallowing the lower steps and cutting off the pulse's direct path.
The impact seals the way behind him with fallen concrete. The hospital's red light vanishes, leaving only the deep rhythm and a thin silver afterglow from the Wishsong.
Spanner Few
The pulse is coming through the walls, not below the stair.
His forced revelation has opened a narrow maintenance passage beside the broken landing. Faded arrows point toward a buried utility chamber, their paint still visible beneath the dust.
From beyond that passage, the pulse answers once, stronger than before. The chamber offers a route around the collapse, but its warped hatch stands shut in the darkness.
“I open the warped hatch with the Wishsong”
SUCCESS (Legendary Illusion, rolled +1)
Spanner Few places his palm against the warped hatch and releases the Wishsong. Silver resonance threads through rust, bolts, and warped seams.
The metal groans without tearing. Rust flakes drift upward as hidden latches disengage in sequence, their old mechanisms answering the song like struck bells.
Spanner Few
The pulse is behind the hatch, and the chamber is still powered.
The hatch swings inward, revealing a buried utility chamber lined with dead control panels, cable trunks, and concrete supports veined by black moisture.
At the chamber's center, a pre-collapse relay cabinet beats with the same immense rhythm. Its cracked status lamps glow amber, fed by power no generator should retain.
Beyond the cabinet, a maintenance tunnel slopes into darkness. Painted across its far wall, fresh letters mark a single warning: SHANNARA ACCESS, BLOOD REQUIRED.
Quest Complete
Reveal the buried power’s threat
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Good→Great