Night settles beneath the Mountain Pass Entrance. Issac rests near a small fire, his shoulder still tender, while Lillia, Mikka, Marcus, and Siegfried gather close. The fresh mountain footprints remain visible beyond the firelight.
Issac Rivendohr
The crest appeared after I was lost in the countryside forest. I nearly died there, but a female eagle swathed in starlight and light saved me.
Issac Rivendohr
When I awoke, I was near my village. My injuries were healed, and I felt a strange power sleeping within me.
The fire cracks softly. Mikka lowers her gaze, Marcus studies Issac in silence, and Siegfried shifts closer without interrupting. Lillia keeps one hand on her closed journal.
Lillia Rhen
A female eagle surrounded by starlight... That sounds connected to the Aesir, though I cannot identify which one from vision alone.
Lillia Rhen
You are really lucky, Issac. To catch the attention of an Aesir in this age is almost impossible. You must be really special if one was willing to impart their blessing upon you.
Lillia opens the journal to jot down this new information. Beyond the fire, the footprints disappear into the mountain shadow, waiting for morning and Issac’s decision.
Director's note
I pull out my status plate from my utility pouch and show them, in small green luminescent text underneath my current stats and Skills list, reads: FORTITUDE (DIVINE BLESSING) LV. 2
“Marcus and Siegfried ask me if I would happen to know what my Blessing is. I explain the basics of the skill, making me nigh impervious to physical pain, immune to charges and intimidation from monsters and other humans, and can convert my own willpower to restore my health, and should I be near death's door, I gain a massive adrenaline boost that can keep me fighting for days, even with severe injuries.”
FAILURE (Good Reasoning, rolled -2)
Marcus Rhen
You described the eagle and the power within you. Do you know what your blessing actually does?
Siegfried Taloss
Anything that let you stand against a Diomede Mare is worth understanding. Tell us what you can.
Issac Rivendohr
I think it is called Fortitude. It makes me nearly impervious to physical pain, and monsters or people cannot drive me back through intimidation or a charge.
Issac Rivendohr
I can turn my own willpower into healing. If I am near death, the blessing may flood me with strength and keep me fighting for days, even with severe injuries.
Issac draws his status plate from the utility pouch. Beneath his ordinary stats and skills, small green luminescent letters read: FORTITUDE (DIVINE BLESSING) LV. 2.
The explanation leaves gaps he cannot fill. The plate confirms the blessing's name and level, but offers no proof that every remembered effect belongs to it.
Lillia Rhen
That is a dangerous amount of certainty to place in an untested blessing. The plate confirms Fortitude, but not its limits or its source.
Director's note
Mikka speaks up, her face having a serious expression
Director's note
She faces Issac
“Mikka explains that Aesir Crests, unlike Family or Uni Crests, have no limitation, only the limitation the wielder poses upon it; even then, the crest must first accept the wielder for the wielder to call on its power, requiring a connection to be forged between the two.”
SUCCESS (Great Arcana, rolled -2)
Mikka Rosethorn
Family Crests and Uni Crests have defined limits. Aesir Crests do not. Their only limit is the wielder’s own capacity to call upon them.
Mikka faces Issac with a serious expression, her attention fixed on the green letters beneath his skills. The firelight trembles across the status plate.
Mikka Rosethorn
But the crest must accept you first. Power does not answer merely because you possess the mark. A connection must be forged between you and the Aesir behind it.
Lillia Rhen
Then Fortitude’s strength may expand as that connection deepens. Its level records what answers you now, not necessarily all it could become.
As Issac studies the explanation, the plate flares hot in his hand. The green text sharpens, then briefly vanishes, leaving his fingers tingling and the surface dark.
Marcus Rhen
That reaction was not subtle. Whatever the blessing is, it recognized the question.
Mikka Rosethorn
So do not force it. Learn what it accepts, and let the connection form on its own terms. Then its power will be yours to wield.
“Mikki asks if this was My first time using my crest. I flinched, but silently nod. Mikki assumed that was the case, as looking over Issac's injured body earlier, the injuries were deeper than they appeared.”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +0)
Mikka Rosethorn
Was that your first time using the crest?
Issac flinches at the question, then silently nods. The movement is small, but Mikka catches it immediately.
Mikka Rosethorn
I thought so. When I examined you earlier, your injuries were deeper than they appeared.
Her serious gaze remains fixed on Issac. Firelight glints across the dark status plate in his hand, where Fortitude’s green letters have vanished.
Lillia Rhen
Then the blessing answered under pressure, before you understood how to call upon it.
Marcus Rhen
That makes learning its limits more important, not less. We should not assume the next use will behave identically.
The party grows quiet around the fire. Beyond them, the mountain footprints wait in shadow, while Mikka keeps studying Issac with guarded concern.
Director's note
known as the Mjorgahahr
“I nervously ask Mikka how she knows about my crest, with a similar question coming from both Siegfried and Lillia. Mikka sighs, but reveals that she is an Einherjar, a mortal warrior bound by family oath to protect the Chosen of the Aesir. Mikka's family made this vow hundreds of years ago, and she is just its recent inheritor. She also explains that I must keep my crest secret, the fading of the crest is only a single safeguard; Entire kingdoms once went to war for control of the Mjorgahahr, it was thankfully stopped by the Aesir descending from the World Tree to cease the fighting”
FAILURE (Mediocre Persuasion, rolled +0)
Issac Rivendohr
Mikka... how do you know about my crest?
Issac’s question comes out haltingly, and the fire briefly fills the silence afterward. Mikka faces him, her serious expression softening before she sighs.
Mikka Rosethorn
Because I am an Einherjar, a mortal warrior bound by my family oath to protect the Chosen of the Aesir. My family made that vow hundreds of years ago. I am only its latest inheritor.
Siegfried Taloss
You kept that from us? How much does your family know about these crests?
Lillia Rhen
And what exactly is the mark called? Your answer may determine how we protect Issac.
Mikka Rosethorn
The fading crest is only one safeguard. Keep it secret, Issac. Kingdoms once went to war over the Mjorgahahr, until the Aesir descended from the World Tree and stopped the fighting.
Mikka Rosethorn
I cannot tell you which Aesir chose you, but I can help you learn what Fortitude accepts. That is my oath, and I cannot abandon it.