Session One
The children all froze as they came upon each other at the river’s edge. Ash, Celia, and Yara were astounded at the sight of the strange youths before them. Wend and Vesper, though startled, were optimistic at the visage of people other than the red-clad cultists who captured them.
“Please,” Vesper says. “We need food and shelter. We’re trying to get away from the people who grabbed us.”
Celia is moved at the plight of the pair and hands over what provisions she has quickly. In between mouthfuls of bread and gulps of water, the strange travelers ask the trio where they are.
It quickly becomes apparent that Wend and Vesper are not from the forest, and possibly not even from Zemlya. Hearing the strange travelers yelling in the background, Ash ushers the group to his home to hide. Celia, to give the group cover, marches through the town square. She fools one of the robed figures to direct their search party to the south of the village.
Once inside his home, Ash begins to yell out for his father but gets no response. He motions for the group to rest while he searches the home. Once Celia arrives, Vesper shares strange tales of a “world machine” and ships flying in the air. Wend comments that the realm around her doesn’t “smell right.”
Ash returns without finding his father, and Wend compliments him on his “threat display.” She asks, “Is that normal for your tribe?” and when he affirms it so, she immediately screams out, “Daaaaaad!” She beams at him afterward, looking for his approval.
Wend and Vesper try to explain where they came from, but the group cannot figure out where the pair came from. Yara is intrigued by Wend’s comment that her forest is “where the purple and yellow berries grow.” Yara had not heard of berries like that anywhere near End’s Meet.
“Our forest grows red berries,” Yara says.
Taking in the home and people around here, Vesper notices Celia’s armor and ponders it for a moment. Eventually, she realizes that the armor and equipment of the teens who saved her are from a much older era.
Hearing screams coming from outside, Ash tells Vesper and Wend to stay hidden while the rest of the teens rush out. They catch sight of the last of the traveler’s caravan’s pulling away at the south gate, and Ash notices his father may have been inside.
Before they can give chase, Old Father Skot runs out of the temple and pulls the trio aside. “You’re no match for them on horseback,” he exclaims. “Let our foresters track them, and we’ll get our people back. This is an adult’s responsibility.”
Meanwhile, Wend discovers a cache of red berries inside Ash’s home. Sharing them with Vesper, they are overcome with joy at the flavor of the berries. The berries taste of cherry, but instead of a pit, the fruits have tiny crunchy seeds in the middle and are the size of a kumquat. Such delicacies are few and far between in their forest home.
As they walk back to his home, Ash learns that his father was among those taken by the strangers. He vows to find his father and rescue the villagers. Informed of the tragedy, Vesper says she’s worried the villagers will be taken far away just as she and Wend were.
“This is all your fault!” Ash yells in response. “Those strangers only took our families because they were looking for you!”
Celia stands up and puts herself between Ash and the girls.
“That’s not fair Ash,” she says. “They didn’t ask to be taken. None of this is their fault.”
She says if Wend and Vesper were trying to escape the travelers, and the travelers took their families, “doesn’t that make the enemy of my enemy, my friend?”
Meanwhile, Yara and Wend are becoming fast friends and trade promises of a seed exchange once the ordeal is over.
Gearing up at their respective homes, the quintet prepares to leave the village and track down the kidnappers. Old Father Skot implores them to stay, but Ash pointedly reminds him that the town needs all the help it can get.
Yara stealthily leads the group through the deep forest around the village. She guides them past other foresters who might force them to turn back. Eventually, they come to the base of a large hill and find the traveler’s horses and wagons. They find evidence the villagers were taken from the carts and led up a pathway to the hill’s top. Near the top, the adventurers see smoke rising skyward like a dark snake.
Carefully traversing the pathway, the teens make it to the base of a set of ruins. Hiding among the trees, they witness the robed travelers uttering strange chants. Using her magick, Vesper determines the group is praying to “the great machine” and imploring it to “give them coordinates” or the location of the next “gate” in thanks for their sacrifice.
“The world machine is benevolent,” she says. “It’s not a twisted, evil thing like they make it seem.”
Ash climbs a tree and spots the cultists guarding the villagers among the ruins. Toward one end, a man who appears to be their leader is chanting, holding a dark scythe aloft. With a cackle, the robed man brings the scythe down on a villager, killing him instantly.
Wend races over stealthily to a wall near the ceremony to attempt to free the villagers. Meanwhile, the rest of the party prepares for combat and lures a cultist over toward them. Celia tries to bluff her way into the ruins, but the cultist sees through her graft. At that point, Ash lets loose his arrow, impaling the cultist in his shoulder.
Wend frees three villagers before being spotted by the cult’s leader.
“Ahh, my dear Wend,” he says. “So good of you to find us first. It saves us so much trouble. I hope you brought Vesper too.”
“Who are you, and how do you know are names,” Wend screams in response.
“We are adherents of the Great Machine,” the cackling cultists says. “The Great Machine has access to the ship’s log, and it has records of all the colonists.”
While Wend deals with the leader, the rest of the party are engaged with the cultist underlings. Ash takes aim from his perch, and Vesper calls out to the weave of reality, giving what aid she can to her compatriots. Celia valiantly fights off two of the cultists.
Summoning the sacred energy of the earth around her, Wend points her staff and yells out to the cult leader, “No matter how you twist and turn, the light will always find you.”
With that, a crackling burst of radiant light flows into the leader, catching him on fire. The energy arcs through him, causing more tiny blasts as metallic devices on his body overload as he bursts into flame. The sight of their leader being burnt to crisp causes some cultists to cower while others give in to blood lust. One cultist lunges at Celia with a scimitar and slices clean through the girl’s armor, leaving her on the brink of death.
The villagers join the fray at this point, attacking the cultists with their iron manacles and stones. The tide of battle quickly turns, and all but one of the cultists is killed. The final one is gripped in hand-to-hand combat with Ashe’s father. With the last of his strength, the cultist pulls Ash’s arrow at and stabs the boy’s father in the heart before collapsing.
“Damn you, old man!” Ash yells as he leaps down from his tree. “You always do this.”
Ash’s father looks up at his son, and with his last breaths, whispers, “I feared this day would come. All you need is with the ciphers in my workshop. They will show you the way.”
Overwrought with emotion, Ash berates his father. “You always do this! You won’t tell me of mom, we have no family, and now you’re leaving me. Why?!”
The boy’s father looks tearfully at his son and says, “Ash, there are so many more mysteries out there. It’s up to you to solve them.” With that, Ash’s father passes peacefully.
Looking around at the carnage before them, the party is left pondering what to do next…
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