The faint smell of smoke still clings to the air as Yuno kneels near the firepit, her keen senses cutting through the forest musk of pine and damp earth. She can pick out the clear trace of a single traveler — the scent distinct and fresh, though already fading with the breeze. Following it is simple enough: it trails directly back to the narrow line of the ranger’s trail and continues northeast, the same direction as the pull that tugs at all of you. The prints are well-defined in the softer earth near the camp and Yuno has no trouble spotting them. A single set of boots. A single person. No beast of burden, no companions. Whoever it was, they left no more than an hour ago.
Trythia studies the edges of the trail with practiced focus, her eyes sweeping for broken branches, disturbed brush, or signs of lurking danger. Nothing threatens from the shadows here — the forest feels no different than it did before, alive but not hostile. Her attention shifts to the faint traces of passage and she confirms Yuno’s findings: one traveler, heading along the same path as the pull, their steps steady and purposeful. The coincidence is hard to ignore.
Mal’s words hang over the group as Haluth steps up beside them, flask in hand, his eyes scanning the ground with a more casual focus. He catches the edges of a few boot prints but Yuno’s sharp instincts have already made the trail clear. He lowers the flask with a faint shake of his head, the earthy burn of drink lingering as he weighs Mal’s suspicion against his own pragmatism.
The evidence is unmistakable: someone else is ahead of you on the same trail, no more than an hour’s lead. Whether they are connected to the pull or merely another wanderer cannot yet be known — but their trail is plain, and it runs true with the direction you must already travel.
As the traveler was moving in the same direction as they, the moment of decision could be delayed. "The traveler follows the same path. Indeed, he or she or it may well be subject to the same urge. Let us proceed." Suiting actions to words, the half-elf paladin moves out, her senses alert to danger, particularly the divine sense which seems to tell her of otherworldly things nearby.
Divine Sense: The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears. As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity (the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, for instance). Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the hallow spell.
"Well well... this is interesting." Yuno comments. "I can smell them. Whoever was here headed off in the same direction as the annoying magic object (referring to the direction of the tug) about an hour ago. I say we pick up the pace and give them a pleasant surprise."
Cygnan, impressed by his companions keen observations, joins the group in picking up the pace. "It is unlikely to be coincidence. Perhaps another of our... kind". His own investigation (12) finds little to add.
Haluth just shurgs in response to his traveling companions musings before following on towards the pull. As they walk, he does keep an eye out on the tracks to ensure that they don't double back or show signs of the individual laying a trap ahead.
Gedyr smiles at the dance as again his blade whips through the air as he attempts to slash the beast but misses. He immediately foresees the counter attack and steps lightly away. He refocuses, watching the wolves paws for signs of movement, and sweeps his blade low again.
The beast’s tentacle had struck hard, yet the sting of pain dulled beneath the genasi’s smoldering resilience. Though her armor had been pierced, the wound felt muted, the edge of its brutality blunted by the strange warding power within her soul.
Fueled by defiance, she thrust her arms outward, flame bursting in a sudden wave of searing heat. The inferno rolled across the clearing, catching the beast full in its path. The predator twisted and writhed, but the fire clung to its sleek form, scorching hide and flesh alike.
Above, the fire beetle companion dove through the canopy’s broken light, loosing another jet of flame at the beast below. The bolt struck true, searing into its side and drawing a guttural roar of pain as the predator buckled but held its ground.
Snarling, the beast crouched low, then lunged forward once more. Its twin tentacles lashed out with deadly precision, their barbed ends striking in quick succession as the shimmer of displacement flickered around its body.
DM Notes
Volkanica’s Action: Reach to the Blaze (Burning Hands, 1st level). DC 15 DEX save. Beast rolled 7 → fail → 6 fire damage.
Volkanica’s Bonus Action: Flame Seed attack roll 14 → hit → 5 fire damage.
The displacer beast’s tentacle attacks are nonmagical. Resistance from the Mortal Soul Shard applies, halving bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from these attacks.
The clash had become a rhythm—blade and fang, strike and counter. Gedyr moved with it, a faint smile tugging at his lips despite the strain. His first swing cut only through air, the wolf twisting aside with bestial quickness. But Gedyr was ready, feet already shifting, eyes fixed not on the wolf’s snarling jaws but on the subtle flex of its legs.
As the beast lunged, Gedyr swept his sword low. Steel met flesh this time, carving across the wolf’s flank in a clean strike. Arcane energy flared outward with the blow, the resonant hum of Booming Blade threatening to punish any further movement.
The dire wolf reeled from the impact but did not retreat. Its eyes burned with feral resolve as it lashed back, jaws snapping forward in a savage attempt to drag Gedyr down beneath its weight.
DM Notes
Gedyr’s Action: Booming Blade + melee attack. Attack roll 21 → hit (Dire Wolf AC 14). Damage 11 slashing applied.
Gedyr’s Bonus Action: Bladesong remains active.
Total Damage Dealt This Round: 11.
Dire Wolf’s Turn:
Action: Bite attack. Rolled 13 + 5 = 18 → would hit AC 18 or lower. On hit: 2d6 + 3 piercing damage, and DC 13 STR save or be knocked prone.
Bonus Action: None.
Movement: Holds its ground, unwilling to yield space.
You press forward along the ranger’s trail, your pace quickening as the conversation fades into the steady rhythm of boots on earth and the unyielding tug in your chests. The tracks ahead remain easy to follow — no attempt at misdirection, no doubling back, only the purposeful stride of someone moving steadily ahead of you. Haluth’s careful watch confirms it: the trail is clean, the traveler had no intent to hide, and if they mean you harm, it is not by ambush.
But the forest soon tells a different story. Less than a mile further, the smell hits first — copper and musk, sharp on the air, carried on the faintest breeze. Yuno catches it before the others, but it isn’t long before all of you see the signs: churned earth on the trail, claw marks gouged into roots, and dark patches of blood spattered across the leaves. A struggle happened here, violent and recent.
Lying just off the path is the hulking body of a dire wolf, its massive frame collapsed into the undergrowth. The beast’s fur is matted with blood, its throat torn open in a fatal wound, eyes glazed and lifeless. The ground around it shows the chaos of a fight — bootprints mixing with paw marks, the scuff of a blade through soil and leaf, the desperate thrash of the wolf’s final moments.
Trythia’s Divine Sense reaches out into the still air of the clearing, but nothing stirs in response. No celestial, no fiend, no undead lingers here. The corpse is only a corpse, and the violence left behind carries no greater stain of consecration or desecration. Still, the sense of wrongness lies in its timing — this fight was recent, no more than an hour past. Likely no more than minutes after the lone traveler broke camp.
The trail of bootprints continues on, unbroken and undeterred, the traveler moving forward after leaving the dire wolf slain at the roadside.
The evidence is clear: you are following close in the footsteps of someone strong enough to kill a dire wolf single-handedly. The pull presses you onward still.
Volkanica roars. She hated this, but this was what nature came to sometimes - two strong beings fighting for survival. Another wave of fire jets out from her hands, and another flame seed shoots from the beetle.
Volkanica: Burning hands at lv 1 - dc 15 dex save vs 11 fire dmg, half on success.
Gedyr whispers a small prayer to the Greater unknown for the beast, alas recognizing there is only the final mercy to be given, and no less than he would expect if the reverse were true.
Mal moves over to the dead dire wolf examining it, "Impressive. Seems like our trailblazer might be close by, shall we continue our hurried pace and catch up to them."
The roar tore from her throat like a volcanic eruption, flame answering her fury as it surged outward once again. A sheet of fire blossomed before her, crackling across the clearing and engulfing the beast in its searing path. The predator snarled and writhed as the blaze rolled over it, its sleek form burning under the relentless heat.
The fire beetle companion joined in the assault, its wings buzzing angrily as it launched another bolt of molten flame. The shot found its mark, striking the beast’s flank with a sizzling crack and filling the air with the stench of scorched hide.
The displacer beast staggered, growling low, but its predatory focus did not waver. Shaking itself violently, it pressed forward, tentacles whipping through the air as the shimmer of its displacement flickered around it once more. One barbed appendage lashed wide, while the other came driving straight toward her with brutal force.
DM Notes
Volkanica’s Action: Burning Hands (1st level). DC 15 DEX save. Beast rolled 12 → fail → 11 fire damage.
Volkanica’s Bonus Action: Flame Seed attack roll 14 → hit → 8 fire damage.
Total Damage This Round: 19 fire damage.
Beast’s Current HP: 5 / 82.
Displacer Beast’s Turn:
Movement: Already in melee.
Action: Two tentacle attacks.
Attack 1: rolled 10 → miss.
Attack 2: rolled 20 → hit → 12 damage (7 bludgeoning + 5 piercing, halved by resistance → 6 total).
Bonus Action: None.
Displacement: Remains active.
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Cygnan, Haluth, Mal, Trythia, and Yuno
The faint smell of smoke still clings to the air as Yuno kneels near the firepit, her keen senses cutting through the forest musk of pine and damp earth. She can pick out the clear trace of a single traveler — the scent distinct and fresh, though already fading with the breeze. Following it is simple enough: it trails directly back to the narrow line of the ranger’s trail and continues northeast, the same direction as the pull that tugs at all of you. The prints are well-defined in the softer earth near the camp and Yuno has no trouble spotting them. A single set of boots. A single person. No beast of burden, no companions. Whoever it was, they left no more than an hour ago.
Trythia studies the edges of the trail with practiced focus, her eyes sweeping for broken branches, disturbed brush, or signs of lurking danger. Nothing threatens from the shadows here — the forest feels no different than it did before, alive but not hostile. Her attention shifts to the faint traces of passage and she confirms Yuno’s findings: one traveler, heading along the same path as the pull, their steps steady and purposeful. The coincidence is hard to ignore.
Mal’s words hang over the group as Haluth steps up beside them, flask in hand, his eyes scanning the ground with a more casual focus. He catches the edges of a few boot prints but Yuno’s sharp instincts have already made the trail clear. He lowers the flask with a faint shake of his head, the earthy burn of drink lingering as he weighs Mal’s suspicion against his own pragmatism.
The evidence is unmistakable: someone else is ahead of you on the same trail, no more than an hour’s lead. Whether they are connected to the pull or merely another wanderer cannot yet be known — but their trail is plain, and it runs true with the direction you must already travel.
As the traveler was moving in the same direction as they, the moment of decision could be delayed. "The traveler follows the same path. Indeed, he or she or it may well be subject to the same urge. Let us proceed." Suiting actions to words, the half-elf paladin moves out, her senses alert to danger, particularly the divine sense which seems to tell her of otherworldly things nearby.
Divine Sense: The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears. As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity (the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, for instance). Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the hallow spell.
Tandor the White, Human Life Cleric
"Well well... this is interesting." Yuno comments. "I can smell them. Whoever was here headed off in the same direction as the annoying magic object (referring to the direction of the tug) about an hour ago. I say we pick up the pace and give them a pleasant surprise."
"Works for me, lets pick up the pace, maybe we can catch them before they get to the pull." Mal says as she quickly starts to jog down the trail.
Volkanica braces for the attack. She finds that even though it pierced her armor, it... doesn't hurt as much as she had expected.
(DM, is displacer beast magical? Mortal soul shard gives resistance to nonmagical BPS damage.)
"Haaaghhh!!!!"
Still roaring with flame, she launches a wave of fire at the beast, followed by another attack from the sky-bound beetle.
Volkanica: Reach to the Blaze (Free burning hands at 1st level) - DC 15 DEX save vs 6 fire damage, half on success.
Beetle: Flame spit. Attack: 14 Damage: 5
Cygnan, impressed by his companions keen observations, joins the group in picking up the pace. "It is unlikely to be coincidence. Perhaps another of our... kind". His own investigation (12) finds little to add.
Haluth just shurgs in response to his traveling companions musings before following on towards the pull. As they walk, he does keep an eye out on the tracks to ensure that they don't double back or show signs of the individual laying a trap ahead.
Perception: 20 (Dirty 20)
“The mark of a successful DM is when you have caused more player deaths with doors than dragons, demons, or devils.”
Gedyr,
Gedyr smiles at the dance as again his blade whips through the air as he attempts to slash the beast but misses. He immediately foresees the counter attack and steps lightly away. He refocuses, watching the wolves paws for signs of movement, and sweeps his blade low again.
Attack: 21 Damage: 11
Volkanica
The beast’s tentacle had struck hard, yet the sting of pain dulled beneath the genasi’s smoldering resilience. Though her armor had been pierced, the wound felt muted, the edge of its brutality blunted by the strange warding power within her soul.
Fueled by defiance, she thrust her arms outward, flame bursting in a sudden wave of searing heat. The inferno rolled across the clearing, catching the beast full in its path. The predator twisted and writhed, but the fire clung to its sleek form, scorching hide and flesh alike.
Above, the fire beetle companion dove through the canopy’s broken light, loosing another jet of flame at the beast below. The bolt struck true, searing into its side and drawing a guttural roar of pain as the predator buckled but held its ground.
Snarling, the beast crouched low, then lunged forward once more. Its twin tentacles lashed out with deadly precision, their barbed ends striking in quick succession as the shimmer of displacement flickered around its body.
DM Notes
Gedyr
The clash had become a rhythm—blade and fang, strike and counter. Gedyr moved with it, a faint smile tugging at his lips despite the strain. His first swing cut only through air, the wolf twisting aside with bestial quickness. But Gedyr was ready, feet already shifting, eyes fixed not on the wolf’s snarling jaws but on the subtle flex of its legs.
As the beast lunged, Gedyr swept his sword low. Steel met flesh this time, carving across the wolf’s flank in a clean strike. Arcane energy flared outward with the blow, the resonant hum of Booming Blade threatening to punish any further movement.
The dire wolf reeled from the impact but did not retreat. Its eyes burned with feral resolve as it lashed back, jaws snapping forward in a savage attempt to drag Gedyr down beneath its weight.
DM Notes
Cygnan, Haluth, Mal, Trythia, and Yuno
You press forward along the ranger’s trail, your pace quickening as the conversation fades into the steady rhythm of boots on earth and the unyielding tug in your chests. The tracks ahead remain easy to follow — no attempt at misdirection, no doubling back, only the purposeful stride of someone moving steadily ahead of you. Haluth’s careful watch confirms it: the trail is clean, the traveler had no intent to hide, and if they mean you harm, it is not by ambush.
But the forest soon tells a different story. Less than a mile further, the smell hits first — copper and musk, sharp on the air, carried on the faintest breeze. Yuno catches it before the others, but it isn’t long before all of you see the signs: churned earth on the trail, claw marks gouged into roots, and dark patches of blood spattered across the leaves. A struggle happened here, violent and recent.
Lying just off the path is the hulking body of a dire wolf, its massive frame collapsed into the undergrowth. The beast’s fur is matted with blood, its throat torn open in a fatal wound, eyes glazed and lifeless. The ground around it shows the chaos of a fight — bootprints mixing with paw marks, the scuff of a blade through soil and leaf, the desperate thrash of the wolf’s final moments.
Trythia’s Divine Sense reaches out into the still air of the clearing, but nothing stirs in response. No celestial, no fiend, no undead lingers here. The corpse is only a corpse, and the violence left behind carries no greater stain of consecration or desecration. Still, the sense of wrongness lies in its timing — this fight was recent, no more than an hour past. Likely no more than minutes after the lone traveler broke camp.
The trail of bootprints continues on, unbroken and undeterred, the traveler moving forward after leaving the dire wolf slain at the roadside.
The evidence is clear: you are following close in the footsteps of someone strong enough to kill a dire wolf single-handedly. The pull presses you onward still.
Volkanica roars. She hated this, but this was what nature came to sometimes - two strong beings fighting for survival. Another wave of fire jets out from her hands, and another flame seed shoots from the beetle.
Volkanica: Burning hands at lv 1 - dc 15 dex save vs 11 fire dmg, half on success.
Beetle: Flame Seed. Attack: 14 Damage: 8
Gedyr whispers a small prayer to the Greater unknown for the beast, alas recognizing there is only the final mercy to be given, and no less than he would expect if the reverse were true.
Booming blade attack....
Attack: 15 Damage: 7
Mal moves over to the dead dire wolf examining it, "Impressive. Seems like our trailblazer might be close by, shall we continue our hurried pace and catch up to them."
Yuno comments, "Not bad if they took down a dire wolf solo. Yeah let's keep moving."
Volkanica
The roar tore from her throat like a volcanic eruption, flame answering her fury as it surged outward once again. A sheet of fire blossomed before her, crackling across the clearing and engulfing the beast in its searing path. The predator snarled and writhed as the blaze rolled over it, its sleek form burning under the relentless heat.
The fire beetle companion joined in the assault, its wings buzzing angrily as it launched another bolt of molten flame. The shot found its mark, striking the beast’s flank with a sizzling crack and filling the air with the stench of scorched hide.
The displacer beast staggered, growling low, but its predatory focus did not waver. Shaking itself violently, it pressed forward, tentacles whipping through the air as the shimmer of its displacement flickered around it once more. One barbed appendage lashed wide, while the other came driving straight toward her with brutal force.
DM Notes