The dead young scout lies beyond the antlered gate, her gray cloak motionless on the frost. The surviving Covenant scouts have vanished down the old road.
Garran kneels near the threshold, studying the disturbed frost and dark stains where the confrontation ended. Lunaris remains beside Umbralia, silver wings half-spread toward the road.
Garran Vey
There is an abandoned watch trail beneath these pines. It runs east, circles the refuge, and joins the old road again beyond the bend.
He points past the gate, where old cut branches and sunken boot marks disappear beneath redwood needles. The trail is faint, but recent footsteps have disturbed its cover.
Garran Vey
If the scouts know it, the Covenant can reach this place without using the road. We must find where it crosses our defenses before nightfall.
Lunaris
Sable remains inside with Maelin and Ordan, and Rusk watches the eastern approach. The refuge is guarded, but this path gives our enemy concealment.
Beyond the gate, the watch trail waits beneath the trees. Inside the lodge, Sable’s voice carries faintly through the walls, while Garran turns toward Umbralia and leaves the next decision open.
✓ Quest Accepted
Prevent the Covenant from reaching the refuge via the abandoned watch trail
“i know that watch trail, lunaris and i will cull as much as their numbers as we can before they reach our refuge”
FAILURE (Fair Survival, rolled -2)
Umbralia and Lunaris slip beneath the redwoods, following the abandoned watch trail where disturbed needles reveal Covenant footsteps. Garran remains at the gate as their silent retreat closes behind them.
They move swiftly through the pines, circling ahead of the tracks. Umbralia spots three scouts before they reach the bend and drops from the branches with Lunaris beside her.
Their ambush scatters the scouts, but the narrow trail denies the wyverns room to surround them. One scout escapes east while the others retreat beneath the trees.
Lunaris
The trail is tighter than it looked. I can drive them from cover, but not stop all of them without exposing our flank.
Umbralia and Lunaris press the retreating scouts hard, forcing one to abandon a pack and another to flee wounded into the undergrowth. Neither falls, and their warning cries carry toward the old road.
The attempt breaks the Covenant’s advance but not its numbers. Fresh tracks branch around the ambush, revealing that the watch trail is already mapped beyond the point they reached.
Garran Vey
You have slowed them, not culled them. Their survivors know the trail is watched now, and they will approach the refuge from another direction.
“i know that watch trail, lunaris and i will cull as much as their numbers as we can before they reach our refuge. i say as me and lunaris leep for the trees and head for the watch trail”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +0)
“i know that watch trail, lunaris and i will cull as much as their numbers as we can before they reach our refuge. i say as me and lunaris leep for the trees and head for the watch trail”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +2)
umbralia
Lunaris, I know this watch trail. We will cull as many of them as we can before they reach our refuge.
Umbralia and Lunaris leap into the redwood branches, their wings beating once before the canopy carries them east. Below, Covenant scouts hurry along the hidden trail.
They overtake the fleeing scouts at a fork where the trail narrows. Umbralia drops behind the rearmost figure while Lunaris sweeps across the front, sealing the escape.
The ambush breaks the formation. Umbralia strikes one scout down, and Lunaris drives another from cover into the frost, where the fight ends swiftly and without a warning cry.
A third scout turns toward the refuge, but Umbralia cuts across the branches and lands before them. Her talons pin the cloak to the earth, ending the pursuit before it can continue.
Lunaris
Three stopped. Their packs carry maps of the watch trail, but no survivor is fleeing toward the gate.
The forest falls quiet except for shaken needles and distant birds. The Covenant’s approach is checked, their route exposed, and the refuge remains unwarned by any escaping scout.
Quest Complete
Prevent the Covenant from reaching the refuge via the abandoned watch trail
Skill Upgrade: Survival Fair→Good