Rumors that one of Rennala's adult children, Rykard, still being alive drew the Carian Knight to Mount Gelmir, nor for glory or the Great Runes but out of reconciliation. By dying during the Shattering, he had failed his Queen, her family, and her kingdom. And with strange, new life as a Tarnished, he had to know what befell them. It felt like ages has passed since being put six feet under, and it might as well have with everything that changed. Already having seen some of Liurnia, he found himself cautiously optimistic about finding Rykard.
That was, of course, until he found the Bridge of Inquiry, the only bridge between Altus Plateau and the jagged, teeth-like craggy heights of Mount Gelmir. Plumes of black smoke from the volcano at its center began to cloud the otherwise open skies until the sky looked positively furious.
The moment he crossed that rickety, precarious bridge, the stench of burning bodies, brimstone, and iron stung his nostrils. Crows scattered in a remarkable cacophony of squawking protest as he ambled forward, knowing little of what to expect. Once the murder of crows left, the area went completely silent and still in a way tense and unnatural. He knew the area held a dangerous reputation, but he had assumed the volcanic activity and how it attracted serpents and dragons caused it. But that alone could not explain the overwhelming presence of death that hung in the air there like a thick fog.
He stepped forward as he drew both falchions as his heartbeat drummed hard in his ears until he could see a group of palisades behind a group of sharp crags. Beyond that, white smoke emerging from something burning obscured the sight of what awaited behind the stakewall.