The muffled bell gives one deep note beneath its funeral veils, though Mara’s hands remain still. Fog parts as a mud-smeared young woman emerges, clutching a lantern with an underwater-blue flame.
Sella Orne wears, a young human woman with a narrow face, weathered light skin, and a sturdy build, a soaked gray pilgrim’s robe beneath a patched green cloak. Her dark braid hangs loose over one shoulder, and marsh mud reaches nearly to her knees.
Sella Orne
Corin Vale? Edran warned me to find you. He said the drowned chapel would call your name, but never to answer it.
Behind Sella, the shallow water dimples. One footprint appears, then another, each filling slowly with black water as an unseen traveler approaches the chapel.
Corin
Sella Orne. You were with the northbound pilgrims. How did you reach this marsh alive?
Sella Orne
I followed Edran’s voice until it stopped being his. Then the footprints began behind me.
Mara Venn
Do not let her cross the bell’s shadow. Whatever wears those tracks is already listening.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get the group past the advancing footprints
“If it’s a sprit Can I tell what the thing that made the foot prints is”
NO, AND WORSE (Likely, rolled 95)
Twyla’s sight reaches toward the black footprints, seeking the pale imprint of a spirit. Instead, the shapes blur together, empty of any soul-sign she can recognize.
The nearest footprint sinks deeper. Black water spills over its edges and crawls beneath the bell’s funeral shadow, where the veils begin to tremble.
Mara Venn
It crossed the shadow. The bell’s silence is breaking.
Sella’s blue flame gutters. Behind her, the unseen traveler stops following the old trail and appears directly beside her, marked only by a fresh, dripping footprint.
Sella Orne
It is here. I can feel it standing behind me.
Corin
Sella, do not turn around. Mara, keep that bell covered. Twyla, stay between us and the water.
The veiled bell gives a muffled second note. Far below the marsh, Edran’s voice breaks into a frightened whisper, and something answers in his tone.