The smoke from the courtyard battle still clings to the air, filtering through the wooden slats of Seth’s home. His boots track gray ash across the floorboards. He drops his modified prosthetic blade onto the table with a heavy thud, the metal ringing in the quiet room.
Seth
The Whisperers are learning. They aren't just herding the dead anymore. They are watching the gates. If Ezekiel doesn't let me take the fight to them, this home will be a coffin by month's end.
Miller enters the room abruptly, his face pale and eyes darting toward the window. He grips a crumpled report so hard his knuckles are white.
Miller
Seth, we have a problem. The scouts found tracks inside the inner perimeter. Not scavengers. It's the same signature we saw near the drainage pipe last week. They are already inside the walls.
Seth
My home is not a fortress, it is a target. I need to move the armory supplies to the inner keep before they find the ventilation bypass. If they burn this place down with us in it, there will be no one left to lead the defense.
+ Scene Quest Added
Secure the armory supplies within the inner keep.
“But he hands me a note that was stabbed to the gate walls and says it's from Gareth for me he says I wonder what the bastard wants”
SUCCESS (Superb Perception, rolled +0)
Seth slides the blade aside, his eyes narrowing as he takes the scrap of paper from the trembling scout. It is pierced by a jagged steel splinter, the handwriting on the blood-stained parchment unmistakably arrogant.
Seth
Gareth. The man lives under a rock only to crawl out when the scent of ruin gets strong enough. He wants me to know he is watching, and he wants me to know he can strike anywhere.
Miller wipes sweat from his brow, his gaze fixed on the door as if expecting the shadows to breach it.
Miller
It gets worse, Seth. The note was pinned to the main gate with a bolt from an crossbow. It was clean. Professional. They didn't just want us to find it, they wanted to show us they were standing right under our sentries' noses when they left it.
Seth
A challenge, then. If they think a piece of paper and a few tracks will make me abandon the Forge, they don't know the first thing about me. Let them come.