9/3/2025, 4:34 AM
Rune Discovery : 「 Success - Parasite present 」
The canyon's high cliffs burn for several moments like fire, then slip into shades of copper and deep umber as the sun gradually dips lower and at last out of sight. While the air still holds some of the suffocating heat from earlier, lengthening shadows offer what respite they can as the stone around you quickly cools into a more tolerable - and traversable - temperature.
As night sets in, the canyon grows stranger, and when you look up you could swear something moved in the darkness as the last of the light fades to a dim, formless grey; an unsettling sensation ripples up the length of your spine, but perhaps it was just the oncoming chill. The Wastes had turned into a veritable hellscape beneath the relentless plague-sun, but once the stars emerged and the world had fallen into a quiet hush, the air became frigid, the ground growing as cold as the ice-sheets of the Alpines until you could see your breath coming out in plumes of steam until the chill seeped into your bones.
Yet you remain undeterred.
Frolicking carelessly through a canyon now wreathed in shadow, you fling yourself off of the next rock - but your ankle twists - and you yelp out in surprise as you tumble down, down, falling head over paws until you find yourself in a small crevice wedged against the base of one of the cliffs. You quickly assess yourself for damage, determining you're mostly unharmed (if bruised) - then something twinkles and catches your eye, a stone slab partially submerged in a small pool of water in an alcove further ahead. You're surprised to see any water this far into the canyon, but then again, natural springs could form anywhere; even the desert.
Do you fetch it out?
As night sets in, the canyon grows stranger, and when you look up you could swear something moved in the darkness as the last of the light fades to a dim, formless grey; an unsettling sensation ripples up the length of your spine, but perhaps it was just the oncoming chill. The Wastes had turned into a veritable hellscape beneath the relentless plague-sun, but once the stars emerged and the world had fallen into a quiet hush, the air became frigid, the ground growing as cold as the ice-sheets of the Alpines until you could see your breath coming out in plumes of steam until the chill seeped into your bones.
Yet you remain undeterred.
Frolicking carelessly through a canyon now wreathed in shadow, you fling yourself off of the next rock - but your ankle twists - and you yelp out in surprise as you tumble down, down, falling head over paws until you find yourself in a small crevice wedged against the base of one of the cliffs. You quickly assess yourself for damage, determining you're mostly unharmed (if bruised) - then something twinkles and catches your eye, a stone slab partially submerged in a small pool of water in an alcove further ahead. You're surprised to see any water this far into the canyon, but then again, natural springs could form anywhere; even the desert.
Even here...a soft voice whispers pensively in your mind, although you don't think it's talking about the pool.
Do you fetch it out?