You wake on black rocks as the tide climbs around you. Veins of glowing aetherstone pulse beneath the surf, casting cold light across the Shardreach Coast.
Argona, a young adult elf woman with wind-tossed dark hair and a travel-stained blue cloak, kneels beside you. One hand clamps a bleeding wound beneath her ribs; the other grips your cursed great sword.
Argona
Do not reach for it yet. The sea is pulling harder than the current.
Your sword shudders in her grasp, its edge scraping stone. Beneath the water, something unseen drags at the shore, drawing pebbles and broken shells into a widening spiral.
the voice beneath the water
Tojiro.
Argona
It has been calling you since I found you. I brought you here to keep you alive, and now it knows your name.
Another wave surges over the rocks, nearly wrenching the sword from Argona's hand. The aetherstone flares below, and the dark water reaches toward you.
✓ Quest Accepted
Save Argona from the hungry tide
✓ Quest Accepted
Discover what calls Tojiro beneath the water
Director's notewhole tale
I bring Argona away from the tides, then I heal her
Tojiro hauls Argona up the black rocks and away from the advancing tide. She keeps hold of the cursed great sword as the water claws uselessly at their heels.
Argona
Careful. I can walk.
He settles her against a dry shelf above the spray. Her blue cloak is soaked through, and blood darkens the fabric beneath her ribs.
Argona
He came back for me. Of course he did. Stubborn, reckless idiot.
Tojiro presses cloth firmly to the wound, cleans the salt from its edges, and binds it tight. The bleeding slows beneath his practiced care.
Argona
That is better than I expected from you.
The wound seals enough for her to breathe without wincing. Below, the spiral collapses, but the voice beneath the water continues calling Tojiro's name.
Quest Complete
Save Argona from the hungry tide
Director's note
I look back to the ocean, then I look at her
“what happened before I was out?”
SUCCESS (Great Persuasion, rolled -1)
Tojiro
What happened before I was out?
Tojiro looks back toward the ocean. The retreating water leaves aetherstone gleaming between the rocks, while Argona watches him from beneath her soaked blue cloak.
Argona
You came ashore alone, face down in the surf. The tide dragged you toward that spiral, and your sword was pulling with it.
Argona
I reached you before it took you under. When I seized the blade, it showed me the voice beneath the water calling your name.
A thin tremor passes through the great sword in Argona's grip. Far below, something answers with a muffled knock against the submerged rocks.
Argona
You woke once. You asked me whether I had heard it. Then the sea surged, and you struck the rocks hard enough to lose consciousness again.
Argona
If I tell him what the water offered, he will go back. He always goes back.
Director's note
the yutz that I am, I start to get curious
“hmm. why did it surge? and why my sword?”
SUCCESS (Great Persuasion, rolled +1)
Tojiro
Why did it surge? And why my sword?
Argona studies the retreating tide, then the great sword in her hand. Its trembling has slowed, but faint blue light crawls along the cursed edge.
Argona
The surge began when your sword touched the aetherstone beneath the water. It answered the blade, and the blade answered something below.
She turns the sword slightly. Saltwater slips from its black length, carrying sparks that vanish before they reach the stone.
Argona
Your curse is not the whole reason. The thing beneath the coast recognized the tether inside you. Your sword gave it a path to call through.
Argona
If he understands that, curiosity will pull him toward the water faster than any tide.
Argona
It surged because the sea was trying to draw you back. The sword was not merely being dragged, Tojiro. It was trying to return.
“Is the thing beneath the coast a wisp?”
NO (Likely, rolled 85)
Argona
No. It is not a wisp.
Argona’s fingers tighten around the great sword. The blue light along its cursed edge fades, leaving only the dark water and the aetherstone glow beneath it.
Argona
It is not a creature formed by a mage’s tether breaking. Whatever waits below existed before this calling, and it reached through your sword.
Tojiro looks back toward the ocean, where the widening spiral has become a slow, ordinary swell. Then he turns his mismatched eyes toward Argona.
Tojiro
The voice came through the blade, but the thing beneath the coast is not a wisp.
Argona
Do not mistake that for safety. A wisp is what a mage becomes after spending too much of their tether. This thing has another nature entirely.
Far below the surface, something knocks once against the submerged stone. Argona’s wounded breath catches, and the sword answers with a faint tremor.
“I grab the blade, and used my dragonic heritage”
SUCCESS (Good Strength, rolled -2)
Tojiro reaches for the great sword. Heat gathers beneath his skin, and faint crimson scales shimmer over his fingers as his draconic heritage answers.
His hand closes around the cursed grip. The blade bucks once, then settles into his grasp, blue fire threading between his knuckles and the dark metal.
Argona
Tojiro, release it. That blade is answering you too quickly.
The heritage anchors him against the sword’s pull, but the contact bites through scale and flesh. A narrow burn opens across his palm, smoking in the sea air.
Argona
You took it from me, but the cost is already written on your hand.
Below, the ocean’s surface dimples around the submerged aetherstone. The sword’s blue light turns toward that darkness, as though listening for another knock.
Argona
He has the blade now. If the thing below calls again, it will reach him directly.
“I listen through the blade for its caller, then I dived into the water”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled -1)
Tojiro stills his grip and listens through the cursed blade. The blue fire sinks beneath the metal, carrying a deep rhythm from the aetherstone below.
the voice beneath the water
Bearer of the tether, return what was divided. The sea remembers the hand that broke it.
The message settles clearly in Tojiro’s mind: the caller is an ancient presence bound to the coast, seeking a fragment separated from his tether through the sword.
Argona
Tojiro, do not listen any longer. Whatever it promises, it has already found a way inside your guard.
Tojiro dives from the black rocks. Cold seawater closes over him, and the blade’s blue glow cuts a narrow path toward the submerged aetherstone.
The descent succeeds, but the sword’s pull tears the burn across his palm wider. Blood threads into the water, and each drop vanishes into the waiting blue light.
Argona
Tojiro!
Recover the fragment separated from Tojiro's tether
Quest Complete
Discover what calls Tojiro beneath the water
Skill Upgrade: Persuasion Great→Superb