The Scout gives the same soundless metal groan from before, and the hollow answers. His feet sink deeper into the western stone, armor knitting into the marker as if the earth is reclaiming a lost fitting.
Eadric
By the saints... it was never a guide.
Varyn's iron charm jerks hard in his grip, then starts to drag toward the Scout's hooked limbs. The weak red flicker in the ring trembles, and dust shivers down from the blackened stones.
The Hedge Wizard
The charm is not a token. It is a mating piece, a key made to find its lock.
The Scout's body twists with a final grind of fused mail and old iron, and the hooked arms settle toward the charm like hungry clasps. Whatever prison this hollow guards, it is trying to close around its missing parts.
Eadric
Hold it away from him. If that charm seats, it may finish the seal... or wake what is beneath it.
The western notch glows faintly, exposed at last, while the charm thrashes between Varyn's hand and the stone. The hollow hangs on the edge of either binding shut or breaking open.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the seal
“I force the charm into the western notch to lock the seal.”
SUCCESS (Fair Strength, rolled +1)
Varyn drives the iron charm straight into the western notch. Old metal kisses old stone with a hard, clean bite, and the hollow answers with a deep shudder.
The red flicker snaps inward. The pull on Varyn's hands vanishes at once, replaced by a steady, locked weight in the ring.
The Scout
...locked.
The Scout's hooked limbs drag tight against the marker, then sink as the stone takes them. Fused mail flattens into the seam, and his outline goes still, half memory, half fitting.
Eadric
It holds. Keep your hands off it now.
The Hedge Wizard
Saints preserve us. The seal has taken the key back into itself.
Dust settles over the exposed notch. The charm no longer thrashes, and the hollow falls quiet except for the Scout's remaining shape, sealed into the stone.
Quest Complete
Secure the seal