Lazorus limps deeper beneath the pines, carrying Lylith while the scythe bears part of his weight. Blood seeps through the hurried bandage with each strained step.
The trees open into a shallow hollow. A hooded woman steps from its far side, an elderly human woman in a dark wool cloak, with a gaunt build, a deeply lined face, and a white braid escaping her hood, carrying a shuttered oil lantern and watching the woods.
Mara Vey
Stop there, stranger. I am Mara Vey, the local grave tender. I recognized the cold distortion following you.
She keeps the lantern shuttered, leaving the hollow in darkness. Beyond the pines, leaves press and settle where the Unseen Follower waits out of sight.
Mara Vey
There is an old ring of stones behind me. Cross it, and the dead thing may lose your trail, but not while the bundle remains unprepared.
Mara opens one shutter a finger’s width. A thin amber line reveals moss-covered stones circling the hollow, each marked with shallow, weather-worn cuts.
Mara Vey
Bring the child to the stones only when you are ready, Lazorus Kane. Otherwise, whatever follows will cross with you.
✓ Quest Accepted
Bring Lylith to the old stones
“Are not from my village! Everyone there is a necromancer and my father is the church leader who hunts me?”
YES (Even, rolled 17)
Mara’s lantern remains barely open, its amber slit trembling across the stones. Her lined face tightens as she studies Lazorus and the covered child.
Mara Vey
You are not from my village. That much is certain. The people there all serve the dead, even those who pretend otherwise.
The stones seem older than the village, but Mara’s warning gives the distant settlement a darker shape. No ordinary congregation raised the cold thing behind him.
Mara Vey
Your father leads their church, does he not? Marcus Kane. He has sent them hunting you through these woods.
At the name, Mara turns her head toward the pines. The unseen cold remains beyond the hollow, patient and deliberate, while the wounded leg threatens to buckle beneath Lazorus.
Mara Vey
If Marcus finds you here, the stones will not be enough. Cross with the child, and pray your father has not taught that dead thing the old paths.
“Lazorus summons his strength and hobbles across the lamp-light into the stone circle.”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +0)
Lazorus summons what strength remains and hobbles into the lantern’s narrow amber light. His injured leg trembles, blood darkening the bandage as he carries Lylith toward the stones.
The cold distortion presses nearer behind the pines, but Lazorus crosses the ring and steps fully between the weather-worn stones. Lylith remains covered and secure against his chest.
Mara Vey
Good. Keep both feet inside the ring. Do not set the child down until I tell you.
Mara closes the lantern shutter. Darkness folds over the hollow, leaving only the stone circle’s faint, colorless markings and Lazorus’s strained breathing.
Mara Vey
It has reached the edge. The old paths are open to it, but this circle still remembers who belongs among the living.
Beyond the stones, a shape interrupts the trees without making a sound. The cold distortion stops at the boundary, while Mara raises one hand toward Lylith’s blanket.
Quest Complete
Bring Lylith to the old stones