Lost In The Woods

The Watchtower asks for more than seven shards now. Reach the stair with all seven and the dark catches you there, three strides from the cradle. What you carried answers for it — a lantern in your pack, a knife, a bolt. So does the ground you covered: come back up out of the Cave or the Pit and you hold an answer you did not have before. The longer nights ask more, and let the River and the Den answer too. Carrying nothing, there is still a way through. It costs blood, and on Moonless it can cost you the run. Below ground • A wolf roams the Cave and the Pit, a bear the River. You meet them deep, not at the door. • Each delve names what it wants on the banner and counts it up — braziers, rope, planks, cages. • In the Cave, every brazier you can see is one you can light. In the woods • A second campfire, set well out from where you wake. A rest worth walking to. • The trail map turns with you now, and keeps a tick for north. • Rain falls like rain. And a long list of quieter repairs — pickups that speak again, hazards that finally bite, panels that no longer print over one another. New achievement: Last Stair. Keep a light. Keep walking.