The Vale captain and his riders remain on the shrine road, carrying Lord Edran’s renunciation toward the northern courts. Illith, Windsteel, Bubblegum, and Edran descend to a roofed stone wayhouse below the hill.
Inside, a cold hearth, rough benches, and a rain barrel offer shelter. Windsteel sits beneath a narrow window while pale celestial light seals the last of his wound.
Bubblegum
I found this place because the shrine called me. In my dream, roots crawled beneath black stone, and green fire burned where a doorway should be.
Bubblegum tears bread beside a steaming pot, her mushroom dress dusted from the road. She gestures with one hand while gripping her spoon like a tiny battle standard.
Windsteel
That sounds less like a welcome and more like an invitation written by something that dislikes ordinary doors.
Lord Edran Vale
The shrine reacted before she spoke. If the covenant knows her, I fear my family’s bargain reached farther than any record admitted.
Bubblegum
Maybe it knows Illith too. The dream ended when a great shadow stood beside the roots, holding fire in its hands.
““Me? Why? I’m just around. It was a shadow.. it could be anything. Like a Dragonborn breathing his fiery breath. You know like.. what was his name.. *I struggle to remember his name.* “Bubblegum! You remember that guy you had with you when we first met? Eddard? Uh.. Steward?? Uh.. rizzler?””
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled -1)
Illith Storm
Me? Why? I’m just around. It was a shadow. It could have been anything, like a Dragonborn breathing fire. Bubblegum, you remember that fellow from when we first met? Eddard? Steward? Rizzler?
Illith searches her memory, sapphire eyes narrowing with effort. Her elbow nudges the table, tipping Bubblegum’s steaming bowl; broth spills across the bread and soaks into the halfling’s mushroom dress.
Bubblegum
Eddard! You mean Eddard Stewheart, the dragonborn with the red scales and the terrible jokes. He traveled with me for three whole weeks.
Windsteel
Stewheart. Yes, I remember the name now. He breathed fire at a locked gate and claimed the hinges insulted his ancestry.
Lord Edran Vale
If this shadow resembled a fire-breathing dragonborn, then the image may be memory, metaphor, or warning. But Bubblegum’s dream still points toward something beneath the shrine.
Bubblegum
It was not Eddard, though. His scales were bright red, and the shadow had no face at all. Still, I can ask what the roots wanted from us.
“Come on.. Winston you know it’s not me. *I clean up the table feeling bad about the mess. Then try to help Bubblegum with her dress.*”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +1)
Illith Storm
Come on, Windsteel. You know it isn't me.
Illith gathers the soaked bread and wipes the broth from the table, setting the bowl upright. Her broad hands make quick, careful work of restoring the rough surface.
Windsteel
I know, Illith. I was teasing. Though I admit, the table looked more threatened than any shrine we faced today.
Illith turns to Bubblegum and helps lift the damp mushroom fabric clear of the halfling’s legs. A clean cloth and warm water remove the worst of the spill without tearing the dress.
Bubblegum
There. Much better. You clean up trouble almost as fiercely as you charge into it, snow mountain.
Lord Edran Vale
The table is restored, Bubblegum is unharmed, and the wayhouse remains standing. A small victory, perhaps, but an honest one.
Windsteel
Then let us count it before the roots, the shadow, or House Vale offers us another kind of mess.
“I ask Windsteel to compare the dream’s signs”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +0)
Illith Storm
Windsteel, compare the dream’s signs. The roots, black stone, green fire, and faceless shadow must mean something together.
Windsteel’s expression sobers. He turns toward the narrow window, where rain threads the glass, and traces the dream’s pattern against the shrine’s behavior.
Windsteel
The roots and black stone suggest something buried or bound. Green fire marks a covenant. The faceless shadow is not a person, but a role without a name.
Windsteel
The fire in its hands means it carries power from the oath, not ordinary flame. Bubblegum’s dream was showing the shrine’s keeper, or what remains when the keeper is erased.
As Windsteel finishes, pale light gutters beneath his coat. His healing wound opens a finger’s breadth, staining the bandage, and the wayhouse fills with the sharp scent of rain.
Windsteel
That cost me more than it should. Still, the comparison is clear: the shrine recognized Bubblegum as connected to the buried covenant, and it recognizes you as its challenger.
Bubblegum
Then the dream was a warning, not an invitation. Something beneath that shrine knows our names, and it wants us to answer.
Discover what the buried covenant wants from Bubblegum
Protect Bubblegum from the covenant’s claim
Quest Complete
Learn why the covenant recognizes Bubblegum
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Good→Great