As the carriers pass beneath the western trees, green light drains from the protective bands and streams into the soil ahead. No wagon or sack is harmed, but nearby leaves gray at once.
The pack animals halt together, hooves planted and ears rigid. They refuse the eastern road, while the coalition’s hidden banners disappear among the trunks behind Aldren, Elaris, and the ash-bough chief.
Elaris
The ward is not failing. It is drawing strength from the forest itself, and something beneath these roots is calling the provisions onward.
The green current thickens beneath the path, flowing eastward through root and loam. It gathers beyond the coalition’s planned position, where no scout has reported a road, camp, or clearing.
Clan Leader 1
A hidden root nexus? Then the ward has chosen a destination for our food without asking the clans that must defend it.
Elaris
Yes. If we force the animals forward, the ward may tighten. If we follow its current, we may find what the eastern host sought beneath these trees.
Ahead, the soil rises in a long, subtle ridge, and pale green motes drift above it like sparks beneath water. The provisions remain secure, but the retreat has acquired an unmarked destination.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reveal the accomplice’s hidden staging place
“Can I trace this ward-current to the hidden staging place?”
YES, AND MORE (Likely, rolled 6)
The green current can be traced. It threads beneath the raised ridge, and each buried root carries its direction clearly eastward toward a concealed hollow beyond the coalition’s planned position.
Elaris
There is the staging place. The ward remembers every provision drawn there, and it leads us by the safest ground beneath the trees.
The ridge opens into a narrow green-lit cleft hidden beneath hanging roots. Beyond it lies a dry hollow large enough for the coalition’s stores, screened from the eastern road by ancient trees.
Clan Leader 1
That hollow is no mere refuge. From there, our supplies can feed the western line while the enemy searches the road we abandoned.
The current reveals more than the staging place: pale marks appear along the hollow’s far wall, showing an old forest path that reaches the ridge above the eastern approach. The coalition can watch the host without exposing its stores.
Elaris
The path was hidden from every recent map. Whoever holds this hollow can see the eastern advance first, and move warning through the roots before the host reaches the trees.
The pack animals ease forward as the ward-current settles into the cleft. Their burden has found shelter, and the coalition gains both a concealed staging place and an unseen watchway over the enemy’s approach.
“Is the eastern host targeting the living wards?”
YES (Likely, rolled 34)
The green current abruptly divides beneath the hollow, reaching toward every living ward-line that shelters the western trees. Far off, those roots answer with a dull, synchronized shudder.
Elaris
The host is not merely seeking our stores. Their work is aimed at the wards themselves, wherever living roots still guard the forest.
Pale stains appear along the hollow wall, matching the ancient ward geometry. Several points have been marked from the eastern side, each positioned to weaken a living line rather than reach the provisions behind it.
Clan Leader 1
Then the poisoned grove was only a trial. They mean to blind the forest’s protections, so every hidden path and sheltered clan becomes exposed at once.
The pack animals press close together as green light withdraws from the hollow’s edge. The wards are still holding, but their answering tremor travels beneath the coalition’s feet toward the eastern approach.
Elaris
They will follow the ward-lines, not the roads. This hollow remains concealed because the roots are still strong here, but the enemy now knows what must be broken to reach it.
The discovery changes the retreat’s purpose. The coalition has found a refuge and watchway, while the eastern host’s advance reveals a broader aim: strip the Old Forest of its living defenses before confronting its people.
“I examine the marked ward points”
SUCCESS (Superb Perception, rolled +1)
Aldren kneels beside the marked ward points, following their pale geometry across the hollow wall and into the living roots beneath the soil. His first glance fixes on the ash-bough chief’s path, suspicion narrowing the search toward his clan.
He rejects that inherited judgment and compares every mark instead. His noble bloodline recognizes the older ward script: the points form a sequence, not scattered breaches, and each one faces the eastern approach.
Aldren Thornvale
The marked points are placed to turn the wards against one another.
Aldren traces the sequence without touching it. The first marks would draw strength from the western trees, while the final one would sever the hollow’s protection from the wider forest ward.
Elaris
You have read the pattern correctly. They are not trying to break each ward separately. They mean to make the forest’s own defenses drain one another.
The ash-bough chief studies the revealed sequence, then looks toward the eastern path. The six Pack Animals shift uneasily as the roots answer with another muted tremor.
Clan Leader 1
Then we know where to stand. Guard the final mark, and the enemy cannot turn these wards against the hollow or the western line.
“I guard the final ward mark”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +1)
Aldren takes position at the final ward mark, longsword grounded across his knees. The eastern sequence stirs beneath the soil, but his Noble Bloodline answers with older authority, keeping the mark aligned.
Oath-Bound resistance catches in his stance, demanding he hold every promise without yielding to haste. His Racial Prejudice narrows his first judgment toward the ash-bough chief, then discipline forces him to read the whole coalition instead.
Reads Clan Loyalties reveals which roots each clan can reinforce, while Steady Coalition Builder turns those separate strengths into one living defense. Aldren shifts the blade’s point across the sequence, assigning each current its proper bearer.
The six pack animals settle as the ward answers. Green force surges toward the final mark, carrying the eastern corruption with it, but Aldren’s longsword cuts a clean boundary through the luminous soil.
Elaris
Hold there. The mark is accepting your command. The western wards are drawing together instead of draining one another.
Aldren holds the final mark. The hostile sequence breaks against the joined defense, its corrupting current dispersing into harmless gray dust while the hollow’s protection reconnects with the wider forest ward.
Clan Leader 1
Then this ground stands. The host cannot turn our wards against us here, and every clan can defend the line we have chosen.
The final mark shines steadily beneath Aldren’s guard. The hollow is secured, the western line remains protected, and the coalition now holds a defensible position from which to watch the eastern advance.
Quest Complete
Reveal the accomplice’s hidden staging place
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Superb→Legendary