11/6/2025, 10:27 PM
Rune Discovery : 「 Success - for a price 」
Sarge -
The pulse within the stone crevice beat deeply and steady as a heart. You follow that rhythm to its source; yes, the rune has to be there. You could feel its pull grow ever stronger as you approach - like a tremor in the bones, a soft whisper in the shadow of your mind.
You press into the crevice, searching. Then came the hiss - low, coiled, warning. A flash of copper surging through the mist.
The strike was faster than perception. Fangs sank into flesh, and a jolt of pain like lightning lit up through your paw and forelimb; you jerk back, snarling, but the copperhead had already vanished. Somehow in that moment of stunned surprise it had slipped back through the shadows, mist closing around the snake's sinuous form like a fist. You are left with only the burning throb of venom and the faint, eerie glow of the rune that now shone from where the crevice's former occupant had lain.
The bite pulses painfully with each heartbeat. You recognized the serpent as a Copperhead, but their venom, from what knowledge you had, was very rarely fatal - so why were your symptoms worsening, and so rapidly? A fire sears through the blood beneath your fur, racing up your forelimb like molten wire. The wound had already swollen, skin tight, what flesh not obstructed by fur now glistening with an ugly sheen.
Your breathing becomes shallow - ragged. A concerning numbing sensation takes hold in your mouth and tongue, and your heart rate has soared to an unsustainable pace, beating frantically like a panicked bird in a cage as your vision blurs.
You realize are dying.
---
WormWisp -
The sound of your companion's snarl and sudden recoil gives you the realization that something is wrong. As your paws plunge into the crevice, a quick flash of copper in your peripheral means the snake has already fled, disappearing into the surrounding fog like an apparition.
You touch stone, but it is warm - warm, pulsing, comforting. You bask in its glow, momentarily distracted. A feeling of strength surges through you with each thrum of its etched surface, and finally you pull the runestone out of its crevice; you sense your own success as the stone reponds with a final, triumphant hum, and then falls quiet.
Save for your friend.
You turn, hearing a strangled sound from his throat; whatever had bitten him was certainly no regular Copperhead, but you don't have time to think. You flit around him, distress creasing your features as you struggle to find something, anything to do to help him, but his eyes tell you what you already feared.
The rune has been retrieved, but at a cost.
Sarge -
The pulse within the stone crevice beat deeply and steady as a heart. You follow that rhythm to its source; yes, the rune has to be there. You could feel its pull grow ever stronger as you approach - like a tremor in the bones, a soft whisper in the shadow of your mind.
You press into the crevice, searching. Then came the hiss - low, coiled, warning. A flash of copper surging through the mist.
The strike was faster than perception. Fangs sank into flesh, and a jolt of pain like lightning lit up through your paw and forelimb; you jerk back, snarling, but the copperhead had already vanished. Somehow in that moment of stunned surprise it had slipped back through the shadows, mist closing around the snake's sinuous form like a fist. You are left with only the burning throb of venom and the faint, eerie glow of the rune that now shone from where the crevice's former occupant had lain.
The bite pulses painfully with each heartbeat. You recognized the serpent as a Copperhead, but their venom, from what knowledge you had, was very rarely fatal - so why were your symptoms worsening, and so rapidly? A fire sears through the blood beneath your fur, racing up your forelimb like molten wire. The wound had already swollen, skin tight, what flesh not obstructed by fur now glistening with an ugly sheen.
Your breathing becomes shallow - ragged. A concerning numbing sensation takes hold in your mouth and tongue, and your heart rate has soared to an unsustainable pace, beating frantically like a panicked bird in a cage as your vision blurs.
You realize are dying.
---
WormWisp -
The sound of your companion's snarl and sudden recoil gives you the realization that something is wrong. As your paws plunge into the crevice, a quick flash of copper in your peripheral means the snake has already fled, disappearing into the surrounding fog like an apparition.
You touch stone, but it is warm - warm, pulsing, comforting. You bask in its glow, momentarily distracted. A feeling of strength surges through you with each thrum of its etched surface, and finally you pull the runestone out of its crevice; you sense your own success as the stone reponds with a final, triumphant hum, and then falls quiet.
Save for your friend.
You turn, hearing a strangled sound from his throat; whatever had bitten him was certainly no regular Copperhead, but you don't have time to think. You flit around him, distress creasing your features as you struggle to find something, anything to do to help him, but his eyes tell you what you already feared.
The rune has been retrieved, but at a cost.