Dawn bleeds across the salt flats. Shan reaches the ridge as a dark-armored sellsword hauls a chained figure from beneath the crusted white earth.
The salt breaks with a hollow crack. Pale dust coils around the figure, and something beneath the chains gives a slow, waking twitch.
The Sellsword
You there. Stop, and listen. The warlord betrayed a wizard, then buried the wizard's soul in this salt.
The Sellsword
I was his knight once. Now I sell my sword, and I have no army left to hold this thing down.
He thrusts the broken end of the chain toward Shan. Beyond him, black banners rise through the glare, moving closer with the wind.
The Chained Figure
The chain is cold. The sky is opening. When the banners reach us, I will remember how to wake.
The sellsword plants his boots, one hand gripping the chain, the other hovering near his sword. The salt beneath the chained figure swells again.
The Sellsword
Choose quickly, armored one. Help me bind it, or run before the warlord's riders arrive.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the chained figure contained
“I brace my boots and hold the swelling salt crust down.”
SUCCESS (Superb Strength, rolled +1)
Shan drives his boots into the salt and throws his weight against the swelling crust. The white ground bucks once beneath his armored grip.
The surge collapses under Shan's strength. Cracks stitch shut around the chained figure, and the waking pressure sinks below the flats.
The Sellsword
Hold there. Yes, keep it buried. The chain answers your strength.
The Chained Figure
Not a wizard's soul. A hunger wearing a wizard's memory. Your iron has denied it a body.
The figure's twisting stops. Beneath the salt, a vast shadow folds inward, and the black iron chain draws taut without breaking.
The Sellsword
The riders see us now. If they reach this pit, they will cut the chain and call the thing their weapon. Do we flee, or face them here?
Prevent the riders from cutting the chain
Quest Complete
Keep the chained figure contained