The mountain air thins into a cold hush as Butch, Sable, and Brin descend into the ravine. The dark line on the ground draws them forward like a wound that never closes.
Grey husks of weeds and brush crowd the path. Ahead, a cavern mouth swallows the light, and a sickly pulse throbs from within, steady as a heartbeat.
Sable
That is no natural cavern. Something is feeding on the shadow you drew out.
Brin
Then it knows we are here.
Butch the Wereboar
The light matches the corruption in my shadow.
Butch steps to the threshold. The pulse brightens once, and the ravine answers with a low tremor, as if the thing inside recognizes him.
Sable
We end this now, before it reaches the child’s first descent.
✓ Quest Accepted
Enter the cavern
“I signal Sable and Brin to hold their formation as we cross the threshold.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Intimidation, rolled -1)
Butch lifts one hand and cuts the air low, a silent order. Sable answers by tightening her stance at his left, and Brin falls in on his right without a word.
They cross the threshold together. The dark line under Butch’s feet seems to pull at his shadow, but his pace does not break.
Inside, the cave swallows the ravine light. The sick pulse rolls over stone and bone, and the entrance behind them shrinks to a thin gray slice.
Sable
Hold tight. No wandering.
Brin
My wrist is still sore, but I am in step.
Butch’s formation command lands cleanly. Sable and Brin match his advance, shoulder to shoulder, as the corruption’s glow gathers ahead in the dark.
Quest Complete
Enter the cavern