The iridescent mist swirls, coalescing into a jagged, humanoid silhouette. A man with skin like weathered bark and eyes glowing with a sickly, bruised violet emerges from behind a twisted ash. He does not breathe, yet he reeks of wet iron.
Haldor
The scent of his fear is intoxicating.
Haldor
Careful, Eolsi. This one is not a memory, but a harvester of them.
Grendel
You think your stolen sight makes you clever, little thief? You are just a stray dog, wandering into a wolf den that has long since forgotten your name.
Eolsi
My memories might be gone, but my steel remembers how to bite.
Eolsi
Who sent you?
Grendel
The flames that scarred your chest are still hungry, boy. I am merely the one who ensures you never leave this thicket alive.
“Do I engage in a fight”
YES (VeryLikely, rolled 78)
Grendel shifts his weight, and the violet glow in his eyes pulses in rhythm with the rustling leaves, revealing a slight tremor in his stance that suggests he is bracing for a strike.
Eolsi
He is overextending his reach to intimidate me, leaving his left flank completely exposed to a quick draw.
Haldor
Strike now, Eolsi, before the mist swallows his opening.
“You attack the enemy”
Critical hit for 3 damage — Grendel struck back but missed
I lunged forward, my daggers slicing through the swirling mist to find a gap in Grendel’s armor, drawing a sharp hiss of pain from him as he staggered backward clutching his side.
Grendel
You little wretch, you have no idea what you are tearing apart!
Grendel
He lunged wildly, his fist slashing through the air where my throat had been a second before, but the force of his own strike sent him reeling, his knees buckling under the weight of his injury.
Eolsi
He is broken, yet the mist begins to grow denser and hungrier around his feet, as if the forest itself is eager to consume the memories leaking from his wounds.
Haldor
Do not let him gather his strength, Eolsi, the threads of his reality are unraveling!
“You finish the enemy”
Critical hit for 6 damage — Grendel is down
I drive my blades deep into Grendel’s chest, the metal biting through leather and bone as the demon fairy’s energy pulses through my arms.
Grendel
So this... is how the shadow... ends.
Grendel
He shudders, his hands weakly grasping at my sleeves before his grip fails and he collapses into the shifting mist. The iridescent lights flare brightly, then vanish, leaving the forest unnaturally silent as the Harvester’s body begins to dissolve into gray ash.
Eolsi
He is gone, yet the memory of his final, hollow gaze clings to my mind like smoke.
Haldor
You have ended a nightmare, boy, but look at your hands.
Haldor
I look down to see my skin glowing with a faint, ghostly orange hue, the same color as the stolen essence swirling into the ground from Grendel’s remains.
Quest Complete
Survive the ambush in the Weald
New Gift: Weald Attunement