Aldren reaches the grove beneath the ash roots with Elaris and the ash-bough chief. Merovan and the other clan leaders remain at the council to organize the mustering.
Supply wagons stand beneath the twisted branches, their sealed grain sacks swollen and blackened. Water in the wooden casks is clear, yet a bitter odor clings to the grove.
Elaris
Do not open another sack. The corruption has entered through the roots, and it is spreading along every buried vein.
Elaris kneels beside the nearest ash root. Pale veins thread through its bark like frost beneath skin, branching toward the wagons and the casks.
Clan Leader 1
My grandmother spoke of this in the famine tales. Grain failed first, then wells turned bitter, and the starving armies found nothing left to take.
Elaris
This is deliberate, or shaped by something that understands war. It poisons precisely what the eastern host needs us to defend.
Behind them, the grove’s roots give a faint cracking sigh. The ruined provisions mark the advancing host’s true weapon: not merely invasion, but the starvation of every clan that stands in its way.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify what is poisoning the clan supplies
“I inspect the pale veins for where the corruption first entered.”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled +2)
Aldren follows the pale veins with his eyes, but his old prejudice first draws him toward the ash-bough chief’s wagons, treating that clan’s presence as the likeliest source.
He forces that suspicion aside and studies the branching pattern instead. His noble bloodline recognizes the faint geometry beneath the bark: these are ancient ward-lines, twisted from outside rather than poisoned at the wagons.
Aldren Thornvale
The corruption entered where the ward-line was cut, not where the provisions stand.
The veins converge beneath a low stone at the grove’s eastern margin. There, a hair-thin puncture scars the root, and gray-black residue fills the surrounding soil.
Elaris
You found the first breach. Someone introduced the corruption through that cut, then let the roots carry it inward.
Clan Leader 1
That stone lies beyond my wagons and outside my clan’s watch. The entry was made from the eastern side.
The discovery fixes the corruption’s origin at the grove’s eastern edge, giving the coalition a definite breach to examine and defend before the advancing host can exploit it.
✓ Quest Accepted
Have Elaris judge the corruption
“I ask Elaris to judge the gray-black residue at the breach.”
SUCCESS (Good Lore, rolled +1)
Aldren Thornvale
Elaris, judge the gray-black residue at the breach. Tell us what entered through the cut.
Aldren kneels beside the punctured root. His old prejudice makes him scrutinize the ash-bough chief first, but his noble bloodline recalls the ward-lines’ older signs and redirects his attention to the residue itself.
Elaris gathers a pinch of the gray-black material onto a broad leaf without touching it. The residue clings like soot, yet faint silver threads glimmer inside its dull mass.
Elaris
This is ash of a severed ward-root, steeped in bitter sap and carried here from the eastern side. It was made to imitate decay, not born from it.
She turns the leaf toward the breach. The silver threads align with the ancient geometry beneath the bark, confirming that the residue was prepared and placed at the cut to corrupt the grove’s defenses.
Elaris
The poison’s purpose is clear. It teaches the roots to carry hunger inward, while leaving the first wound small enough to escape notice. We can burn out this breach before it reaches the deeper lines.
Quest Complete
Identify what is poisoning the clan supplies
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Good→Great
Quest Complete
Have Elaris judge the corruption
“I ask Elaris to burn out the breach”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled -2)
Aldren Thornvale
Elaris, burn out the breach before the corruption reaches the deeper lines.
Aldren’s old prejudice pulls his gaze toward the ash-bough chief, suspecting his clan’s handling of the wagons. His noble bloodline steadies the command, while his oath-bound spirit checks him before he acts.
Elaris
Stand clear. I will burn only what was brought into the cut.
Elaris lays two fingers above the leaf. Green fire descends without smoke, consuming the gray-black residue and tracing the puncture through the root’s outer bark.
The corrupted veins flare silver, then collapse into clean ash. The fire seals the breach completely, leaving the deeper ward-lines clear and the wagons beyond immediate danger.
Elaris
It is done. The roots will carry no further hunger from this wound, though the eastern side still holds whoever prepared it.
Aldren’s hesitation lingers after the flame dies, a visible weariness of spirit from forcing duty through suspicion and doubt. Elaris notices, but the sealed breach answers his request.
“I ask Elaris to cleanse the ruined provisions”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled +1)
Aldren Thornvale
Elaris, cleanse the ruined provisions. We need every clan fed when the eastern host arrives.
Aldren’s old prejudice first fixes on the ash-bough wagons, but his noble bloodline recalls the shared duty of the clans. Steady Coalition Builder turns that authority toward every hungry household.
Elaris
I will cleanse what can still carry life. Stand back, and let the roots separate true grain from the taint.
Elaris moves from sack to sack, laying her silver-leafed hand above each seal. Green radiance sinks through the cloth, drawing the bitterness out as dark vapor that vanishes into the soil.
Elaris
The grain is clean. The casks are clean. None of these provisions will carry the eastern corruption into the clans’ bellies.
The blackened sacks lighten to their true brown, and the bitter odor leaves the grove. Clear water smells of cedar again, while the provisions remain sealed and ready for the mustering.
Elaris
Your request has preserved the coalition’s food, Aldren. Now the clans can march without carrying hunger behind them.
“Is the eastern side hiding another corruption source?”
NO (Likely, rolled 91)
The cleansed provisions rest beneath the ash roots, their seals unbroken. Beyond the grove, the eastern ward-lines lie quiet, carrying no second taint toward the clans’ stores.
Elaris
No. The eastern side hides no other corruption source. The severed ward-root ash was the entire intrusion, and its breach is ended.
Elaris passes her silver-leafed hand above the nearest root without touching it. Green light travels eastward, then fades cleanly where the ward-lines meet the open hills.
Clan Leader 1
Then my wagons were not marked for a second poisoning. The danger to our food has ended, though the host still advances upon the road.
Elaris
Correct. Nothing remains hidden in these roots. The corruption sought to ruin the coalition’s stores, but it has failed.
The chief looks from the restored sacks to the eastern hills. Relief reaches the grove, but it does not soften the mustering’s urgency: the clans have food, and the advancing host remains their enemy.
“I ask Elaris to ward the wagons”
FAILURE (Superb Willpower, rolled -4)
Aldren Thornvale
Elaris, ward the wagons. Keep every clan’s provisions safe until we can move them.
Aldren’s noble bloodline gives the request the force of ancestral command, while Steady Coalition Builder turns it from protection for one clan into a charge covering every wagon. His old racial prejudice still makes his gaze settle first on the ash-bough chief’s stores, and his Oath-Bound nature prevents him from promising safety Elaris cannot guarantee.
Elaris
I will ward them, but not with a promise of permanence. The roots may accept a shield, or they may bind what they are asked to protect.
Elaris spreads her fingers above the wagons. Green light rises from the ash roots, yet Aldren’s divided attention pulls the first current toward the chief’s stores before his coalition-minded command redirects it across the whole line.
The ward does not settle as a veil. It hardens into luminous bands around every wagon, locking wheels and axles beneath living light. The grain remains safe, but the mustering cannot move these supplies until the binding is broken.
Elaris
The stores are guarded, Aldren, but the ward has taken the wagons as roots take stones. I cannot release it without dismantling the protection entirely.
Clan Leader 1
Then the food will not be poisoned, but neither will it reach the road. We must decide what moves first, and what stays beneath these branches.
The failed ward leaves the provisions secure but fixed in place, forcing the coalition to reorganize its supply plan rather than repeat the same spell.
✓ Quest Accepted
Make the coalition’s provisions movable for the mustering
“I examine where the living bands lock each wagon’s wheels and axles.”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled +0)
Aldren crouches beside the nearest wagon and examines the living bands where they cross each wheel and axle. His first glance favors the ash-bough chief’s stores, suspicion narrowing his sight before discipline widens it to every wagon.
Aldren Thornvale
The bands are not roots holding the wagons down. They are a single ward, joined beneath every wheel.
His noble bloodline recognizes the old pattern worked into the luminous bindings: protection has been shaped as restraint, with each wagon linked to the next through the axles.
Elaris
You see the joining now. Break one band carelessly, and the ward will loosen around every store at once.
Aldren traces the light without touching it. The bands tighten at four carved points beneath each axle, but those points are anchors, not locks. The binding can be released from the central wagon without harming the grain.
Clan Leader 1
Then the central wagon holds the whole line. If it moves first, can the others follow without losing the ward?
“Can the central wagon move without breaking the ward?”
NO, BUT (Likely, rolled 72)
The central wagon shifts a finger’s breadth, then the living bands flare across every axle. The whole line groans, and the wheels settle back into the earth.
Elaris
No. The central wagon cannot move while the ward remains joined. Its weight is the knot that keeps every store protected.
A pale line withdraws from the central axle and travels upward, tracing the wagon’s empty frame before dividing toward the sealed grain sacks.
Clan Leader 1
Then the ward guards the stores, not the timber. Can we lift the sacks free and leave the wagons bound?
Elaris
Yes, but only if each sack remains within the bands’ reach. The grain may travel by hand, pack frame, or sled while the wagons stay rooted.
The luminous bands tighten around the wagons but leave a narrow path between them, wide enough for carriers to pass. The coalition’s food cannot roll to the road, yet it can be divided and borne there without breaking the ward.
“I bargain with the chief for pack animals”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled -1)
Aldren faces the ash-bough chief beside the immobilized wagons. His old prejudice first makes him distrust the chief’s animals and handlers, but Reads Clan Loyalties redirects him toward the clan’s need to protect its stores and people.
Aldren Thornvale
Give us pack animals for the grain, and your clan’s stores will reach the road with the others. I will promise only what I can keep: your provisions remain part of the coalition’s guarded supply.
Noble bloodline lends the bargain ancestral weight, while Steady Coalition Builder binds the chief’s welfare to every clan’s march. Aldren’s Oath-Bound nature leaves no grand guarantee to exploit, making the offer precise rather than flattering.
Clan Leader 1
You ask my animals to carry food that will feed every banner, not merely mine. That is a burden I can name honestly. Take the mules and the sure-footed ponies.
The chief signals toward the ash grove. Handlers lead out pack mules and small hill ponies, fitting them with empty frames while the luminous wagon ward remains undisturbed.
Clan Leader 1
Load the cleansed grain by clan mark. My animals will carry it to the road, and my people will walk beside the other stores. Let no house claim this burden alone.
The bargain is accepted. The grain can leave the bound wagons by pack animal, preserving the ward while putting the coalition’s food on the road.
Quest Complete
Make the coalition’s provisions movable for the mustering
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Great→Superb