The warning returns as a low thrumming through the terrace wards. Beyond the cliff, the dunes writhe under oily clouds, and the first black shapes wheel low over the sand.
Earlise
They are here. They come straight for the nursery.
The Rootbound Caretaker turns from the glowing seals, roots and script tightening with alert force. The nursery chambers hum, steady for now, but the outer channels begin to tremble.
The Rootbound Caretaker
If they reach the brood, the wards must answer at once. Your claim must hold.
Huarti stands at the terrace edge as the dark cloud-bank spreads, his dominion stretching from the vault stones to the sleeping nests below. The threat is no longer distant, it is a line of attack aimed at his brood.
Earlise
Give the word, and I will brace the inner seals with you.
✓ Quest Accepted
Hold the nursery against the approaching black dragons
“I shock them with red lightning bolts”
FAILURE (Good Red electric, rolled -3)
The red bolts crack across the terrace and die in the warding air, leaving the nursery seals untouched but the warning pulse brighter, faster, almost accusatory.
Far beyond the terrace edge, the black dragon silhouettes keep coming through the desert haze, lower now, tighter together, their shadows stretching over the vault mouth.
Earlise
They felt that. Not the pain, the boundary. They are testing it.
Huarti's own red arcane recoil crawls back through his hands, sparking along his fingers before fading into the stone.
The Rootbound Caretaker
The ward takes the strike and learns its shape. A second bolt will teach them your rhythm.
A thin seam of black shadow touches the terrace edge, then withdraws, as if the approaching dragons have tasted the air and found the threshold real.
Earlise
Huarti, do you press the line with force, or shift the ward and make them come closer?
“I shock them with red lightning bolts”
SUCCESS (Good Red electric, rolled +0)
Huarti lifts both hands and answers the threat with a lash of red lightning.
The bolts arc over the terrace edge, striking the nearest black shapes in a burst of scarlet glare and crackling recoil.
The silhouettes break formation, diving wide through the haze as the nursery boundary flares brighter under the impact.
Earlise
They felt that one. The line holds.
The Rootbound Caretaker
Good. They have been warned, and the ward has answered back.
A farther shadow wrenches upward from the desert dark, shaken and retreating, while the warning pulse settles into a hard, steady beat.
Earlise
Do you strike again, or let them choose whether to come closer?
Quest Complete
Hold the nursery against the approaching black dragons
Skill Upgrade: Red electric Good→Great