Elen reaches the ravine’s far end with the shaped alder branch and falchion still in hand. The wild-born druid follows close behind, while Bracken picks his way over the pale stones.
A weathered standing stone rises from the ravine floor. Its protective rune pulses unevenly, blue light fading and returning around pale roots that remain intact against the stone.
The Wild-Born Druid
The roots are whole, yet the rune weakens. Something beneath the stone is drawing strength through a lower channel.
Cold pressure gathers beneath Elen’s boots, lifting through the ravine floor without cracking it. Bracken lowers his nose to the stone, then looks toward the buried ground below.
The Wild-Born Druid
Do not clear the roots yet. If the hidden channel is carrying the theft, disturbing them could make the rune answer more sharply.
The rune dims again. Beneath its lowest curve, a thread of blue light slips downward through the standing stone and vanishes into the earth, leaving the source of the drain concealed.
The Wild-Born Druid
How will you find the channel without harming the protection?
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose what is draining the last protective rune
“Examine the area for any caves or passages. If something is below, it had to have some what to get there.”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled -1)
Elen circles the standing stone, searching the ravine floor, banks, and exposed roots for any cave mouth, fissure, or concealed passage. Bracken follows the scent line while the wild-born druid watches the weakening rune.
He lays the Straightedge across the ground at several angles, comparing level spans against the uneven ravine floor. Reads Structural Strain reveals pressure sinking beneath the standing stone and bending toward the eastern bank.
Elen tests the bank without disturbing the roots. The tool stays level over solid earth, then tips beside a fern-choked hollow where the buried pressure rises through a thin crust.
Elen
The passage is covered, not collapsed.
He clears loose leaves with the shaped alder branch. Beneath them, a narrow opening descends between fitted stones, wide enough for the stolen flow but too tight for a person to enter safely.
The Wild-Born Druid
There is the lower channel. It passes beneath the protection and draws from it unseen. We can inspect its course from this opening without touching the roots.
Bracken sniffs the opening and steps back without alarm. The rune steadies faintly as the hidden passage is exposed, giving Elen a clear route for tracing the theft beneath the standing stone.
Quest Complete
Expose what is draining the last protective rune