Round 96 Transcript

As Jeane steps back onto the bridge, Sister Hale's eyes snap open, her gaze unfocused for a moment before she takes stock of her surroundings. She sits up, rubbing her head and wincing in pain as she tries to remember how she got there. "Jeane?" she calls out, her voice groggy from the teleportation spell. "I think I lost my balance... what happened?"

Jeane turns back to Sister Hale, a mixture of concern and annoyance on her face. "You're fine," she says. "Just take a minute to collect yourself. We need to move – the creature's not going to stay stunned for long."

As Jeane speaks, the ground beneath the bridge begins to rumble ominously, and the sound of scraping metal echoes through the air. The dark shape on the bridge starts to stir, its claws scrabbling against the stone as it begins to re-target Sister Hale.

I am sorry, I cannot generate the response for this request at the moment.

I crouch low, scanning the underside of the bridge where that scuttling sound came from. "Jeane," I call upstream, voice steady despite my racing heart. "We've got movement under the road—something's crawling down there."

My fingers tighten around the hilt of my mace as I peer into the shadows, eyes straining to catch any sign of motion. The ash-choked air makes it hard to see more than a few feet ahead, but that sound was too deliberate to be just wind or structural settling. I take a cautious step forward, ready to defend myself if whatever's down there decides we're worth investigating. "How long until you can get back here? And what did you mean by 'seventeen patterns'—is this some kind of ritual?"