Children at a mysterious and remote boarding school seek to unearth the origins of their home.
1. The Residence
Students are welcomed to Russel House. They settle into classes, form friendships, and strike up rivalries. A locket with a mysterious past emerges.
2. Rills & Ribits
A field trip to the Twins bring many students to the forest for the first time.
3. A Rending
Caoimhe is stabbed by Camden.
4. Red Ribbons
Devlin goes diving in the Upper Twin and finds a red ribbon. Later, the group finds a page from The Botanist’s Guide to Yornian Myth at the fork.
5. Reconnoiter
The group investigates the grounds and their teachers. They find Mrs S’s secret compass and adventure to her caches to learn that she was once a student of the school under a different last name.
6. Rheesa
An explosion in the night heralds the introduction of Rheesa, a strange girl hiding among the students. A wolf attack is rebutted.
7. The Recondrite Cellar
Exploring the house yields a major secret: behind a hidden trick door in the cellar, a room containing exploration equipment, mysterious messages, and a set of unique antique coins.
To my friends and trustees. I’m sorry for the abruptness of this, and any reconstruction you may face. Do not follow. Your’s truly, now and forever, T
Maintain the pact, maintain the tether.
Tiebalt Russel and his bodyguard Martin Haller sacrificed their mercenary crew in efforts towards some unknown goal.
8. A Row Between Lovers
…and the ones whom they love.
Sinead and Katherine have been fighting. As a student, Sinead became enamored with a mysterious lady in the woods: Penarddun ferch Aneir. Her whole life since has been a contrivance to return. The group follows her into the forest, and a confrontation with the object of her affections. It goes poorly, and the forest takes many years from Mrs. S' life.
…and now you bring these children into a dance they do not understand, you threaten the pact, and for what…
The wolves grow jealous when the forest feeds.
In the scuffle, Penarddun grabs a stick used by Bran to attack her. It catches fire, and remains so hereafter.
9. The Ravens and the Oak
The Ravens induct Bran into their ranks, and in doing so grant him the ability to understand their speech. They explain that their elder quartet were the once-mercenaries of Russel sacrificed in the making of the pact. Furthermore, the pact guarantees a single child’s life each year to be sacrificed to the forest.
10. The Red Room
Jonathan and Bran are drugged and interrogated by Ryan Hayes, revealing himself to be an agent of Penarddun invited into the school to look for their lost “weapon” Rheesa. Neither give her up. This advances their timeline, worrying that direct actions will ramp up. The group stages a food fight to cover up damaging Mr. Hayes' gradebook to hide Rheesa’s scores.
11. Remnants of Ritual
The discovery of the second cellar and the heart in the jar.
Only heartless men can walk dead lands. In this pair we bind our tether strong, one here among the land of men; its twin in the faer lands. We leave expecting not to return, but hoping against hope that we do.
12. Reprobate Chaperones
A second trip into the forest occurs. The group visits the Hollow Grove, and a few are attacked by strange sonic-weapon-wielding creatures from the deep forest. Caoimhe places the wrong coin in the altar and causes a flood. They return to camp to find themselves—and the rest of the lowerclass and foundlings—bereft of supervision through a dark night.
13. Renunciation
Worrying about the teachers staging a second purge, the group decides they must break the pact and destroy the heart in the basement at haste. They use the everburning spear to boil and detonate the jar. This breaks the formal pact, freeing the ravens. Dominic thanks them and mentions that the other heart still beats, and the fae may come looking for the debt it incurs, compelling the children to flee. Instead, they commit to breaking all ties and freeing the rest of the students from any lingering obligation.
The group heads to the entrance they know they hold a coin for: the tower to the south. (alt title: Resonant Ribs) Within, they distract the resident—an accursed St. Samuel—and enter Aneir through a long forgotten basement altar. Once on the world tree they seek out Russel’s heart. It has been placed amongst a Roc’s nest between some giant bird eggs. Shiv destroys it with the mythic spear and they flee through the briar path from the Roc-mother’s rage.