The release channel remains open beneath Eadric’s hovering hand. Kaelith presses two fingers to the western notch, and the stone answers with three beats, then five, each deeper than the last.
The ember flares without heat. Black roots surge across its glow, strangling the moor from below, wrapping stone and buried soil in a slow, living knot.
Kaelith
Five beats. It is showing us the binding, not merely remembering it. Nhalor is part of what lies beneath.
The surrounding earth darkens as the seal drinks strength from it. Grass above the hollow pales in widening rings, while cracks creep through the western marker.
Eadric
Ask once, and listen carefully. Prisoner, guardian, or both. The lock may answer before it takes more from the land.
Kaelith
The next pattern is forming. If you mean to learn the truth, do it before the roots drink the hollow dry.
The ember beats once, then twice. Beneath the stone, something shifts against its confinement, and the five-beat pattern gathers for a third return.
✓ Quest Accepted
Restore the moor’s stability
“I brace the western marker and redirect the roots' stolen strength into the channel.”
SUCCESS (Good Strength, rolled +1)
Varyn braces against the western marker, spiked chain drawn tight for leverage. The roots strain beneath the stone, their stolen strength surging toward the seal.
He turns that force through the open channel instead of resisting it. The roots' dark flow bends, pulled into the carved passage as the marker settles beneath his hands.
Kaelith
Yes. Keep it there. The binding is feeding the channel instead of the hollow.
Black roots withdraw from the surrounding earth in slow coils. The grass stops paling, and the cracks in the western marker draw closed around the redirected current.
Eadric
The land is no longer paying for the seal. You have given the binding another road.
The ember dims to a steady pulse. Beneath it, Nhalor shifts once, but the pressure now travels cleanly through the channel and leaves the hollow intact.
Kaelith
The five beats are clear now. Whatever Nhalor is, the binding can be read without starving the ground.
Quest Complete
Restore the moor’s stability