Months pass after Devia’s celebration. At dawn, Nabbitt Farms rests beneath silver mist as Dagg checks the fences, healed and unburdened by the injuries of the kiln.
A trained raven, a small adult male with glossy black feathers, a sharp beak, and bright watchful eyes, drops from the pale sky and lands on the gatepost. Wax seals a narrow message to its leg, bearing Devia’s mark and a hurried warning.
The report names an abandoned barrow road north of the city. A shepherd saw corpse-light beneath the stones and heard a voice promising service to a lich, though no witness saw its face.
Dagg saddles Peppers and secures the sealed report beneath his coat. The possibility of one of the Lich Queen’s servants gives the quiet morning a dangerous purpose as he rides from the ranch.
He has not traveled far along the eastern road when heavy footsteps approach behind him. Tarna emerges from the mist with shield raised and warhammer at her side, having left Devia’s watch to follow.
Tarna Óhagganlegur
You were leaving without me. I thought protectors were meant to stand beside the people they guard, not chase danger alone.
Tarna’s sternness softens as she draws level with Peppers, and a faint flush touches her face before she looks toward the mist-shrouded road. Ahead, the barrows wait in silence.
✓ Quest Accepted
Confront the possible lich's servant alongside Tarna
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn whether the barrow threat serves a lich
+ New Item Acquired
Sealed report
“Listen Tarna, I have no doubts that you will be fine, but i go to face a very dangerous foe, one that i usually have to fight alone. {Tarna stops and looks at Dagg. she speaks "Do you think me to be weak Nabbitt? Where you go, I go.} {Dagg sighs} I would never call you weak Tarna, You could pummel me into the ground before i finished that sentence. {Tarna winks at Dagg at the thought of "Pummeling" him}”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +1)
Dagg Nabbitt
I have no doubts that you will be fine, but I go to face a very dangerous foe, one I usually have to fight alone.
Tarna stops Peppers with one raised hand and turns to Dagg. Questions Witnesses makes him attend to her expression and stance, while his relaxed habit leaves his appeal plainly, almost casually spoken.
Tarna Óhagganlegur
Do you think me to be weak, Nabbitt? Where you go, I go.
Dagg Nabbitt
I would never call you weak, Tarna. You could pummel me into the ground before I finished that sentence.
Dagg sighs, and Tarna winks at the thought of it. He names her strength without surrendering his responsibility, then asks her to trust his judgment and remain with Devia’s people while he faces the barrow’s danger.
Tarna Óhagganlegur
Very well, Dagg. I will remain with Devia and guard the families. Face this foe, then return to us. I will expect to hear that you prevailed.
Tarna steps aside from the road and lowers her shield, accepting the boundary without surrendering her dignity. Peppers carries Dagg onward through the silver mist toward the silent barrows.
“No Tarna, you may as well come. Who knows, maybe I will sit back while you pummel other people for me. {Tarna lights up with excitement, she puts her shield on her back and walks quickly next to the horse} {They walk towards the location of this Lich}”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +1)
Dagg Nabbitt
No, Tarna, you may as well come. Who knows, perhaps I will sit back while you pummel the dangerous people for me.
Tarna lights up with open excitement. She swings her shield onto her back, takes up her warhammer, and strides beside Peppers as Dagg delegates the dangerous work instead of carrying every burden himself.
Tarna Óhagganlegur
That is a sensible arrangement. I will pummel what deserves it, and you will tell me when restraint matters.
The invitation settles the matter cleanly. Dagg’s relaxed preference for the ranch briefly shows in the ease of the bargain, but his civic trust gives Tarna a real duty rather than a reckless escort.
Together they follow the northern road through silver mist. Peppers’s hooves darken the damp earth, while Tarna’s measured footsteps keep pace and the barrows rise ahead like broken teeth.
Tarna Óhagganlegur
There. The stones are older than the road, and the air around them feels wrong. If a servant of the lich waits below, it will learn that Devia is not undefended.
A faint corpse-light flickers between the barrow stones. Beneath it, something whispers a promise of service, and the mist folds inward as though the buried earth has begun to breathe.
Dagg and Tarna reach the barrow road together, with Peppers halted at its edge. The silent mounds offer no welcome, only the unmistakable presence of the lich’s hidden servant.
Quest Complete
Learn whether the barrow threat serves a lich
Skill Upgrade: Lore (Local) Good→Great
“{Inside the rocky catacomb a purple haze rolls outside and covers what appears to be a burial site.} Well I think this is definitely what I came here to find {Daggs knowledge of Liches tells him this is without a doubt a telltale sign of one.} Now Listen Tarna, you may see some things in there that I dont really ever show anyone. I just hope you dont think anything less of me when this is over. {Tarna shield still on her back looks at Dagg confused, she says "I have seen you fight and kill people before, I doubt there is anything that would make me think less of you" She throws in some subtle flirts with him as the continue to walk towards the smoke.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +1)
Inside the rocky catacomb, purple haze rolls across a low burial site, spilling from cracks between ancient stones. Dagg’s sword answers with a faint violet glow beneath his hand, while Tarna follows with her shield still strapped across her back.
Dagg Nabbitt
This is definitely what I came here to find. The haze is a telltale sign of a lich.
Reads Hidden Signs clarifies the drifting currents: the haze is not natural mist but necromantic residue rising from the sealed grave. Dagg recognizes the pattern without doubt, though the Lich Queen’s enemy stirs his caution about revealing too much.
Dagg Nabbitt
Listen, Tarna. You may see some things in there that I do not really ever show anyone. I just hope you do not think anything less of me when this is over.
Tarna Óhagganlegur
I have seen you fight and kill people before, Dagg. I doubt there is anything in that tomb that would make me think less of you. Though if you need protecting, I suppose I can stand very close.
Tarna steps toward the burial site, her teasing softened by concern. The stone lid bears a fresh purple seam, and the haze pours from beneath it: the source is here, and something lich-touched lies within.
“{Dagg lives the lid off the stone coffin, purple smoke floods out almost filling the entire room. Inside the coffin lay a skeleton wearing a raggedy all black robe with silver stitching throughout it. The eyes glowed in the socket a deep purple. Its teeth like knives in the skull. Before Dagg is able to stab his sword through it, Tarna lives up her warhammer and smashes it into the skelton, breaking the coffin in multiple pieces and sending the bones of the skeleton flying everywhere. Dagg looking concerned says} Oh no Tarna, I think we lost the element of surprise.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled -2)
Dagg wedges both hands beneath the ancient stone lid and lifts. Relaxed reluctance slows the effort, but Reads Hidden Signs guides his grip along the safest seam, and the lid comes free with a grinding crack. A sharp scrape opens across his palm.
Purple smoke floods from the coffin, filling the chamber until the stones fade behind it. Within lies a skeleton, a gaunt adult undead man with exposed ivory bones, a narrow skull, and a crooked iron brooch at his throat in a ragged black robe stitched with silver, its deep-purple eyes burning above knife-like teeth.
Dagg’s sword answers the haze with violet light, the enchanted blade gathering smoke along its edge. He shifts to drive it through the skull, but Tarna moves first.
Tarna tears her warhammer free and brings it down with crushing force. The coffin bursts into broken slabs, and the skeleton’s bones scatter across the burial floor before Dagg’s blade can strike.
Dagg Nabbitt
Oh no, Tarna, I think we lost the element of surprise.
The last words vanish into the purple haze. Tarna stands amid the shattered stone with her hammer raised, while scattered bones glimmer faintly and the silver stitching catches Dagg’s swordlight.
Quest Complete
Confront the possible lich's servant alongside Tarna
Skill Upgrade: Melee Weapons Mediocre→Fair