The chase quickens. A scream off the trail, four bears in the mud, and a stranger who bleeds out before names can be exchanged. Pelts packed, nerves raw, the road leads to a smoking shrine—wagon, platform, and an iron-etched cage that won’t yield to gold fire.

Winged kobolds wheel, cultists conjure grasping arms, and the lock has no key to pick. Nilar drops, Kolut follows, Cliff sprints through flying stone to drag breath back, and Mecoo’s axe writes the line. Then the clearing shakes as a vast white shadow falls and a voice of ice asks: Who’s invaded my space? The rescue has become a reckoning.

Music: Street Skirmish (City Battle Theme) by Supernova Collective https://supernovacollective.bandcamp.comLicensed under Scrybe Quill Context Licensehttps://www.scrybequill.com/license