The passage opens into a low chamber beneath the bank. Hadrik Voss’s angular cuts end around a collapsed shelter, where cold air moves through scattered cord, old ash, and one freshly disturbed patch of earth.
Seren enters first and kneels beside the debris without touching the marks. Behind them, the buried watercourse fades into darkness; Tarin remains at the lower ravine, guarding the crossing from his promised distance.
Seren Vale
This was shelter, not a marker station. The cord was tied for weight or support, and the ash belonged to a small fire that burned here more than once.
She shifts loose fragments with the end of her knife, careful not to disturb the angular cuts. Beneath a fallen slab, the cord disappears into the earth beside a narrow scrape.
Seren Vale
Someone dragged something beneath this slab, then covered the place in a hurry. I see no body, no blood, and no sign that Hadrik left willingly.
Mara
The disturbed earth is newer than the shelter, but older than Veyra’s concealed marks.
Seren Vale
If this was Hadrik’s last shelter, he may have hidden evidence here before moving on. I will search for what he left, not invent another instruction from the stones.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish Hadrik Voss’s fate
“I tap into the necrotic energies of the area to try to get a sense of this place.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled -2)
Mara draws the chamber’s necrotic residue through a controlled channel. Cold gathers beneath the ash, and the old shelter answers with impressions instead of voices.
She senses repeated arrivals, a small fire tended by several hands, and one later disturbance: someone alive was pulled beneath the fallen slab, then covered carefully.
Mara
The shelter held more than one traveler, and the latest passage carried someone who was still alive.
The reading separates Hadrik’s departure from the dragging. Hadrik left eastward by choice, while the later movement followed the buried watercourse and avoided his marks.
The channel snaps cold across Mara’s scarred forearm. Two fingers stiffen, and a thread of necrotic energy bleeds into the earth before she closes the working.
Seren Vale
You found something. The shelter was used by several people, but the dragging happened later, and it was not Hadrik leaving.
Seren Vale
Then we uncover the slab carefully. If someone was carried beneath it, the earth may still hold where they went.
“I draw on the necrotic energy to heal my hand and to better understand the reading”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +1)
Mara draws the leaking necrotic energy back through her scarred forearm, cooling it into a controlled current. Stiffness leaves her fingers, and sensation returns without disturbing the shelter.
Mara
The dragging followed the buried watercourse, and the carried person was alive.
With her hand restored, Mara reopens the reading more gently. The residue clarifies into layered impressions: several travelers used the shelter, but only one later passage crossed beneath the slab.
The carried person resisted enough to leave shallow scrapes in the earth. No second set of footprints follows, suggesting the bearer entered from the watercourse rather than the eastern trail.
Seren Vale
Then the slab conceals a route, not a grave. Someone brought a living person through the channel and covered the passage behind them.
The reading yields one final distinction: Hadrik’s departure remains voluntary and eastward, while the later bearer avoided his marks entirely. The residue holds no active will or summons.
Seren Vale
We can lift it now, carefully. Whatever lies beneath belongs to the evidence, not to the story Hadrik or Veyra wanted us to believe.
“I telekineticlly lift and move the slab”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +0)
Mara extends her hand. Invisible force gathers beneath the fallen slab and lifts it cleanly from the earth, shifting it aside without scraping the angular marks.
A narrow shaft opens beneath the shelter, descending beside the buried watercourse. Fresh scrape marks line its packed walls, and a discarded strip of red cloth clings to one root.
Mara
The passage was covered recently, and the carried person went down alive.
Seren Vale
There is no grave here. The shaft continues, and someone tried to conceal its entrance after passing through.
Mara’s telekinetic grip holds the slab suspended while Seren lowers a lantern into the opening. The light reveals a hand-sized charm embedded in the wall, its surface scratched by repeated use.
Seren Vale
That charm is a waymarker, not Hadrik’s work. It points beneath the bank, but its face has been deliberately turned toward the watercourse.
Seren marks the shaft’s edge with charcoal and steps back. The route stands open, its evidence undisturbed, while the lifted slab rests safely beyond the shelter.
“" well which way dear, eastwards, or in the hole?" I ask plainly”
SUCCESS (Legendary Persuasion, rolled +1)
Mara
Well, which way, dear? Eastward, or in the hole?
Seren Vale
Into the hole first. The living traveler went down here, and the shaft is the fresher evidence. Hadrik’s eastern trail can wait.
Seren turns the lantern toward the shaft. Its light catches fresh scrapes, the red cloth, and the repeatedly scratched charm embedded in the wall.
Seren Vale
We descend carefully, without touching the waymarker. If the passage divides, we record both paths before choosing.
Mara lowers the suspended slab fully aside, leaving the shaft unobstructed. Cold air rises from below, carrying damp earth and the faint mineral scent of the buried watercourse.
Seren Vale
I will go first with the lantern. Follow when you are ready, and keep the eastern trail in sight behind us.
“" first things first" I draw soulcatcher, and do the chant of the passing, a necrotic spell to tell if someone is alive or dead, and I direct it to Hadrik Voss”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +1)
Mara draws Soulcatcher and descends no farther. The blade’s dark edge catches the lantern light as she steadies herself beside the open shaft.
She speaks the Chant of the Passing, directing its necrotic current toward Hadrik Voss rather than the buried passage, the charm, or the carried stranger.
The spell travels through old traces and broken observations. Hadrik’s preserved voice answers first, hollow and fixed, but beneath it the chant finds a living pulse far beyond the bank.
The pulse is faint, strained, and unmistakably present. Hadrik Voss is alive. His life does not cling to the bundle, the waymarker, or any active claim within the shaft.
Seren Vale
Alive. After all this time, he is alive. Then the message was not merely a mask for a dead man’s warning.
The chant releases cleanly. Soulcatcher holds no tether back, and the shaft remains unchanged, its fresh scrapes descending into darkness beside the buried watercourse.
Seren Vale
We follow the living trail now, but we do not let his survival turn evidence into instruction.
Quest Complete
Establish Hadrik Voss’s fate
New Gift: Unerring Fate Tracing