Mist hangs low between black trunks. Marcus steps into a clearing where a hollow oak yawns open like a mouth.
An old hermit strains at a bound figure, dragging them over roots toward the tree. The figure kicks once, helpless in the mud.
Brann
Quiet, please. If it hears us, we all die.
He jerks his head toward the fog. Somewhere beyond it, heavy footsteps thud closer, slow and unnatural.
Brann
I know how this looks. I had no other choice. Their family is already taken by the curse.
The bound figure twists against the ropes, eyes wide with rage and fear. The oak’s dark hollow seems to breathe with the wind.
Brann
Help me hide them, or tell me to run. Just do not shout.
✓ Quest Accepted
Hide the hermit and the captive from the approaching threat
“I ask them to step inside the tree and then I ask the tree to close up and hide them temporarily.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +0)
Marcus lowers his staff and speaks softly, pointing to the oak. The hermit hesitates only a breath, then urges the captive toward the hollow. The fog thickens around their ankles as the tree’s dark opening seems to widen.
Brann
Inside. Now. Please, just move.
The bound figure stumbles into the hollow first, and the hermit follows close behind, one hand braced on the bark, one hand guiding them past the lip of the trunk.
Marcus
Close around them and keep them hidden.
At Marcus’s call, the oak answers. Bark shivers, roots tighten, and the opening narrows like a blinking eye. The mist swallows the last clear outline of both figures.
From deeper in the fog, the heavy footsteps stop. A low, searching breath drifts through the clearing, then turns away, confused by the silence.
The hollow oak stands closed and still, its surface seamless now, with only a faint tremor in the bark betraying what it hides.
Quest Complete
Hide the hermit and the captive from the approaching threat
Director's note
I ask the man
“What is this all about?”
SUCCESS (Great Reasoning, rolled +0)
Marcus
What is this about?
Brann
About a debt I could not pay in any cleaner way. The thing in the fog hunts names, not bodies, and I had none of my own left to spare.
Brann
That captive is its bait, or its leash, depending on who catches whom first.
The Bound Figure
He lies. He dragged me here for the oak. For whatever sleeps in it.
The hermit flinches at that, but he does not deny it. The bark under his hand gives a tiny shudder, as if the tree itself is listening.
Brann
Listen to me, Marcus. The oak was sealed because you helped. But it does not stay sealed forever unless something is fed to it, or bargained with.
Brann
If you want the whole truth, ask quickly. I have very little time before it decides to come back.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the truth about the hermit and the oak
Director's note
I lay my hand upon the bark of the tree to commune with it and request it's wisdom in the truth
Brann
You ask the tree, then. Good. It remembers older truths than I do.
He lifts his hand from the bark, and the oak gives a slow, listening tremor. Marcus lays his palm against the trunk, and the fog at its roots seems to draw inward, as if making room for words.
“What's going on here, who are you and what was that creature?”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +1)
The oak answers first, a dry hush moving through the grain beneath Marcus’s palm. The hermit turns from the hollow, shoulders tight, and studies Marcus like a man measuring a fault line.
Brann
I am called Brann. I keep this place, and I feed its old hunger so it does not wake wider than it must.
Brann
That thing in the fog is not beast, not fully. It hunts names, then follows the scent of what a name leaves behind.
Brann
If he understands the bargain, he may yet choose mercy over judgment.
Inside the trunk, a faint knock answers, then the oak settles again. The bound figure holds still, listening hard from the shadows.
Brann
I hid them because the creature wanted a path to the wood. I gave it a decoy, and the tree took the strain instead of the both of us.
Brann’s hand hovers over the bark, not touching now. The fog at the roots loosens, as if the clearing itself is waiting for Marcus’s next question.
Quest Complete
Learn the truth about the hermit and the oak