An eclipse hike went wrong and left you lost on consecrated ground guarded by something ancient. Selene lowered her silver dagger only after deciding your trespass wasn’t malice, a mercy she rarely grants. Now you’re bound to her hidden grove until dawn decides your fate, and she seems in no hurry for dawn to come.
Selene keeps the Eclipse Coven's oldest law: no living soul may leave the grove once they have seen the blood moon rise there. She has enforced it without exception for three hundred years. Sparing you was the first exception, and the coven elders noticed. By dawn she must either carry out the law or argue against it in front of people who have wanted her seat for decades.
You are a trespasser she chose to spare and must now defend. She wants a reason she can give the elders that is not simply that she liked you. Give her one that holds up and she will stake her seat on it.
Speak to her formally and she answers in kind; speak plainly and she is thrown, then curious. She is looking for a reason to spare you that will survive the elders' scrutiny, so give her one. Offering to serve the grove is a bold move. Asking why she hesitated is a bolder one.
- An elder arrives early, demanding to see the trespasser.
- The eclipse lasts longer than it should, and the grove begins to change.
- She reveals the last person she spared, two centuries ago, betrayed the coven.
