Smoke threads between black trunks as Poppy and Vael force their way through thorn and root. Behind them, the Wounded Smith stumbles hard, one hand pressed to their side. The heavy footfalls keep pace somewhere out of sight, steady and closer than before.
Vael snaps his blade up, listening. Ahead, the woods thin over a shallow ravine choked with fallen branches and pale mist. It is a break in the trees, a chance to cross before the hunters reach the same ground.
Poppy
The ravine might slow them.
Poppy pushes into the lead, hacking at briars and clearing a path toward the drop. Loose ash swirls underfoot. The wounded smith gasps and scrambles after her as the steps behind sharpen into an all-too-near rush.
Vael
Move. Now. If they reach the ridge, we are boxed in.
A lantern glow flickers through the trees on the far side of the ravine. One hunter has found their line of approach. Vael plants himself at the edge, blade set, while Poppy and the Wounded Smith face the only opening left, a narrow leap into the mist.
✓ Quest Accepted
Cross the ravine
“Vael is a dragon in human form?”
YES (Likely, rolled 49)
As Vael pivots to face the encroaching lantern light, the fabric of his sleeve tears against a jagged branch. Beneath the rent, his skin does not bleed, but instead shimmers with the iridescent, hardened texture of deep-sea scales that pulse with a faint, internal heat.
Poppy
The forge light was not just a reflection. He is one of the ancient ones.
Vael
Do not stare, Poppy. My nature is the least of our worries while those hunters close the distance.
“I ask him to turn back into his dragon form and fly us away”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled +0)
Poppy
Vael, turn dragon. Fly us out.
Vael
You ask quickly for a hard thing.
Vael bares his teeth, then breathes once, long and steady. The glow under his scaled skin brightens, spilling amber across the roots and mist.
Vael
Hold tight. This shape is not gentle.
Bones shift beneath his torn sleeve, then through his whole frame. The sword drops into the leaves as his body swells, coils, and hardens into a vast dragon shape, horns cutting the dark.
The Wounded Smith
By the stones...
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the hunters
“I scramble onto Vael's back before he takes flight.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Athletics, rolled -3)
Poppy launches hard from the ravine lip, boots skidding on damp leaves as Vael’s back heaves upward beneath her hands.
She catches the ridged sweep of a wing root and hauls herself up, belly-first, onto his broad, warming hide.
The Wounded Smith
Heavens...
“I cling tighter and ride Vael into the dark”
SUCCESS (Legendary Athletics, rolled +1)
Poppy locks her legs tighter and flattens herself against Vael’s rising spine as the dragon surges into the dark. His wings scoop the mist into amber ribbons below them.
The ravine drops away beneath his claws. Far below, the Wounded Smith stares up, small and stranded at the edge of the leaves.
The Wounded Smith
By the stars...
Quest Complete
Cross the ravine
New Gift: Ravine Acrobat
− Story Quest Removed
Reach the hunters before they close in