Session 01

• Intros
  • People who spend lots of time at the cottage: Devlin + Bran
• Block schedule, all progressing together until break times
• Lowerclass homeroom on the 2nd floor, southwest side.
• Library between 3rd and 4th floors.
• Chip tried to commiserate w/ Devlin on day 1, told everyone about the fire, everybody hates him
• “isn’t that a breach of privacy” — Chip: “you’re all family! get used to it”
• Jonathan and Caiomhe bond over music.
• Shiv loves chess
• Bran seeks help from Caoimhe for classes like Theater, helps her with the more physical activities
• Devlin gets some penny novels through Shiv
• Devlin helps folks with maths
• No winged animals on Sunday
• Chapel on the 1st floor
• Dumbwaiter 1st to 2nd floor

Break

• Start of semester: everybody except Devlin
• A week late: Devlin
• Class arrivals: early end of the crowd
• Mr. Rancourt gets them to debate, exactly No3 blue ink, every-other-rule
• Point to O’Rourke. (this is to annoy Jonathan)
• Rancourt impressed w/ Burke
• 4th floor drawing room next to his office.
• then Theater, 1st floor ballroom
• Berwyn smoking by the window
• Orders everyone to take off shoes and socks, follow them outside
• Emotions and feeling
• Devlin doesn’t remind Prof B about the homework
• 15m extra passing period
  • Devlin washes his feet
  • Caoimhe says to do homework
  • Shiv also does homework outside
  • Devlin realized he’s heard of Prof Berwyn from Ballyswan.
  • Bran gives the half-smoked clove cigarette to the Ravens, White-spot male juvenile takes it, dancing circle before flying off
  • Devlin much further through the plato
• Devlin is allergic to blackberries
• Gardening, meet Mrs. K
• Ravens give Bran a brass old dirty flower locket, its stuck
• Brown tabby cat named Haberdash, also Domino
  • Scrappy
• LUNCH!
• 2nd floor mess hall
• Book wolves aren’t a thing, they can’t hurt you
• Shiv brings out a shaving razor from Mr. Pondry
• Bran bleeds on the grass a little bit
• Shiv bleeds on the grass a little bit
• Potato stew for lunch
  • “you chose a good day to start here” to Devlin

Session 02

Recap

• Went to some classes (Monday)
• Chip revealed that Devlin’s parents are dead, everybody hates him
• Rhetoric, Devlin is new (first day!) and keeps getting traumatized, read too much book
• Argument about the philosopher, then Devlin had a presentation
• (Theater) Berwyn made everyone walk barefoot around the campus
• Gardening: Bran traded Berwyn’s cigarette for an old stuck locket, and then both Bran and Shiv cut themselves while trying to open.
• Lunch: chip almost sat with them, preyed on other students instead

Actual

• Headed to language class w/ Ms. Venkatesh — 2nd floor east
• Early side arrivals as usual
• Chapel bell as passing bell
• Chai handed out — broadly palatable
• Slightly mixed class, a couple foundlings and one newer upperclassmen
• Jonathan had a french au pair, has some background
• Bran good memory for vocab and pronounciation
• Caoimhe mimics Ms. Venkatesh well
• Devlin, long term, can read it but super struggles with pronouncing anything. Spelling trips him up really bad.
• Industrial education (Mrs. K) next — 10m break
• Mrs K. is very flustered by the fact that children are not just smaller less capable adults.
• Activity is overall building a mini house, today is adding a chimney
• She accidentally triggers Devlin by saying “oh but you don’t have a house”
• Bran wants to open the locket, Devlin helps bring a group together towards a common goal to help.
• Camden kicks Haberdash during shop class
• Locket scuffed left eye portrait of a girl their age in the school uniform

Break

• “Mrs. K they’re not doing the assignment!” —Camden
• Jonathan slaps Camden
• Camden punts Haberdash after being sent off.
• Mrs K. helps Caoimhe re-attach her chimney.
• Bran lies about a side project to go see Haberdash
• Next on to Social studies (Mr. Fitzpatrick) — 5th floor north
• They stop along the hallway of students (4th) between classes to look for the locket picture
• They don’t find it this time
• Mirabelle Laurent 46 years ago, present as foundling, not later. Caoimhe marks it. / she’s with Tarin Marks
• 8 year gap, 20 years before Mirabelle.
• Beaty gives Devlin a travelogue of a silk road merchant.
• Jonathan goes out to do some fencing practice to work off anger. A raven watches him for a while.
• Bran doing math homework, getting into a bad mood, before dinner
• Caoimhe finds Bran, tries to help with homework but fails
• DINNER bell
• Deer stew for dinner
• They all try to help Bran with math homework.
• After dinner projects: look at the pictures.
• Plan to get the glass out on Weds.
• Quick run through Tues/Thurs classes.
• Devlin in recreation, seems to always be standing in the right place. His natural deference works well in the team sport. He’s also more physically competent than he’d expected. Conveniently tall and lanky, some luck.
• Jokes about the deck — the artifact could be Shroud related
• Next shop class, Bran works on the locket. Note from TM
• Single briar thorn behind Mirabelle’s photo

Session 03

Recap

• Opened the locket! Figured out whose picture it was. Boyfriend. Writing. Is dead.
• Drowned in a lake.
• Finished first two days of classes to get preview of everything.
• Going to time jump to the field trip.
• Jonathan did math tutoring.
• Camden Worthwort kicked Haberdash.
• Scratched glass over eye + thorn in locket
• 8 year discontinuity in class portraits

Time jump

• Shiv buddies up more with the kitchen staff and supplies to the school.
  • Daily milk deliveries
  • Random farm deliveries
  • Twice weekly wagon from big city
  • Duncan the younger driver will trade with the kids, Shiv considers him a business partner
• Devlin works his way through the library.
  • Locked back quarter
  • Academic fiction on one side e.g. “Collected tales of the Sami people”
  • Asks Beaty about it, he seems uncomfortable and says to ask Edmund (MR Rancourt)
  • Beaty says to read all the books in the library and come back then
• Bran trying to keep up on homework
  • Writes a letter home every week
  • Letters from and to students come in the wagon train
• Jonathan does his best to do his best
  • Keeps and eye on Camden to make sure he doesn’t pull anything
  • Waging slow social war, spreading bad rumors etc
  • Jonathan is a little nicer to everyone nearby him
• Shiv does digging on Chip for Jonathan
  • Telling random stories to Chip to see his reaction, finding what makes him uncomfortable then asking around other teachers
  • He seems un-embarressable
  • Spreads some rumors but nothing good yet

Field trip

M Rancourt: Overnight into the Twins, “prep an overnight bag” — camping equipment will be provided in the theater

• Shiv tells scary bug stories
• Devlin packs a book and his homework
• Shiv brings a needle+thread, also candy to barter
• Bran brings gloves
• No Chip this morning, everyone woken by the house bell, first time without him after a month
• Bell goes at 7:30am
• Sinead, Chip, chaperones for the trip
• Breakfast is sausage and eggs

“A day of unusual activity” Creepy birds would be good

• Bran takes the bag with Haberdash
• Group gets good quality packs
• Devlin loses a pemican stick to a raven
• “If you hear singing, don’t follow it” - from Jim, cut off by Sinead

Break

• Bran making sure the cat is ok
• Devlin unhappy about the forest
• Jonathan really unsettled
• Shiv feeling fine, humming
• Where in the column of students are they?
  • Middle-back
• Chip catches up, starts to whistle along with Bran.
• Bird sings along. Doubled harmony, second joins. 6 harmonies into a voice: “tonight, tonight we shall speak”
• Shiv throws candy at the bush, no birds fly out
• The rivulets + toads + clearing. Devlin hears croaked “Devlin” in the ribbits.
• Haberdash stirs
• The Wash
• To the Pine Rise next
• Devlin catches the grave marker behind the pines
• Bran: “I’ll give you a secret to touch the grave” to Shiv
• Churned ground on the Pine Rise, freshly
• Corroded tin sewing case, inner cairn of thimbles, some doll
• Shiv leaves candy
• Cormac Scoth
• Cigarettes, necklace setting w/o gem (burnished from lots of touch), some sewing supplies

• “Maybe it was a boar grave… no that’s dumb” — Shiv

• No, student admittance!
• Haberdash freaks out when Bran goes behind the sign and fins the paper

Session 04

Recap

• Went on a hike
• Woke up late b/c Chip didn’t wake them up. All got scared but it was fine.
• Sang to some birds, they sang back, the teachers seemed stressed out
• Crossed a river
• Found a grave (churned earth)
• Heard names, but not Jonathan
• Bran told Shiv he was carrying Haberdash
• Vandalized the sign
• Found a piece of paper on the back
• Might be boars in the forest, Mrs S has the rifle

The sixth voice makes the harmony

Instructions for a flower crown

thorn fruit tree (at the twins)

What’s really happening:

• Chip did a small blood sacrifice to keep the trip safe.
• Shiv hallucinated a wolf attack.
• Devlin found the chrysanthemum of thorns in the lower twin bank

Cormac Scoth

• Cigarettes, necklace setting w/o gem (burnished from lots of touch), some sewing supplies

• Haberdash freaking out
• Back drop on ground, try to prevent haberdasher getting out

Riker Googling: how to sooth cat

• Cat angry down the path, nothing to see
• Group covering for the cat
• Bran keeps a hold on the note while retreating with Haberdash
• Camden does a double-take down the scary path as if he heard something.
• Shiv expresses that she’s scared of Mrs. S’s gun to Chip.
• Lunch break at The Shed.
• Bran’s pillow is shredded.
• Jonathan discovers The Dam of natural logs upriver, before their path met the river.
• Mrs S mentions she teaches an elective with more expeditioning in the woods when Jonathan asks her about the dam. She didn’t know it existed.
• Shiv starts spreading a rumor that giant squirrels built it to drown children in.
• Mrs S promising to try to bring the class to the dam on the way back
• Twins risks
  • mud
  • drowning
  • thorns
  • don’t drink the water
• Upper twin: 20x30, 30x200ft
• Jonathan + Bran help with tents
• Devlin + Shiv want to help cook later
  • join impromptu football game
• Chip goes jogging off with only his canteen, back up the path
• Shiv follows Chip into the woods, loses a rock paper scissors
• Shiv runs into a gaunt juvenile wolf, 2x more attack her
• Hallucination! Covered in sap and scrapes, Chip arrives. His hand is bandaged.
• Gives Shiv a compass, but takes her shaving razor
• Back at camp, soccer ball goes into the lower twin, Devlin goes after it
• ~4 feet of gentle shelf, then a drop into deeper lake
• Devlin notices the chrysanthemum of thorns hidden in the reeds when swimming back
• Shiv returns, Chip says she can keep the compass (its just a normal compass)
• Jonathan very concerned about the forest
• Bran puts Haberdash in the tent. The cat promptly establishes a piss corner.
• “First hallucination we KNOW about.”

Session 05

Recap

• Birds talking to folks
• Found the grave of Cormac w/ the necklace setting
• Defaced the sign more at the fork
• Cat freaked out, slightly mauled Bran
• Stopped for lunch next to the river
• Chip lied to Jonathan about everything being ok
• Both teachers being suspicious
• Shiv got mauled by wolves, but its a hallucination! Chip “comes to the rescue”
• Devlin jumped into the lower Twin to save a football, saw the thorn fruit

My additions

• Tents set up, soccer game played
• Haberdash in the group tent, peed in the corner

Go

• Rain moving in. Mrs. S tells everyone to explore for an hour.
• Devlin muddy legged and soggy. Heads to upper twin to wash off. Stares into the swirling of the pool. Sees something twirling in the central whirlpool.
  • THOUGHTS: a long red ribbon, emblematic of the previous entrance to the tree
• Jonathan helps Shiv clean up from the sap. She seems embarrassed about the help.
• Shiv remains pretty out of it.
• Caoimhe helps Bran clean up cat pee.
• Dinner, then fire ring for stories
• Doggedly advancing wood -> Doggerwood
• Rain gets worse
• Folks move to tents
• Caoimhe waits by the fire keeping an eye out for birds—misses pick a number
• The Botanists Guide to Yornian Myth — BGYM · Flower Rites p85. p86 outside/destroyed
  • Flower crown weaving, dahlia, bindweed small white flower, some third unknown flower
  • Devlin recognizes it as from a book in the restricted area
  • THIS BOOK SHOULD HAVE BEEN CHECKED OUT BY MIRABELLE too, talks about the thorn flower
• This prompts Devlin to share about the thorn flower
• Birds landing around the fire.
• “We can…” to Caoimhe, before she steps far enough away
• “It was them, they know the story” — “I need to know how the story ends”
• Caoimhe leaves the fire circle, only Emily listening.
• “Runny” silhouette from the fire for Emily
• The birds are telling Emily the story of the wizard in the tower.
• Shiv wears Cormac’s ring — rambles a story about its past
  • “its buried buried buried buried” croak to Shiv
  • Sees the shadows of wolves in the firelight

HALFWAY

• Jonathan talks to the teachers, they seem unworried
• Everybody hanging out in the main tent
• Jonathan confronting the others about hearing words in the birdsong
• Confronting each other about aural hallucinatory effects
• They’re worried about sleeping, set up a watch schedule
• Its 8pm, sun-up at 6am
  • Shiv — 8–10
    • Chip telling people to go to bed
  • Jonathan — 10-12
    • Worthwort echo in toads
    • Small footsteps go by Jonathan in the last 5min of his shift
  • Caoimhe — 12-2
    • Jonathan tells Caoimhe about the footsteps
    • She goes to check
    • Foggy, quiet, waxing crescent
    • There were three canoes at the boat launch, now there are two
    • She returns to the tent
    • Michelle is so manipulative! lol
    • “You’re going to help Emily with talking birds but not investigate this?!”
    • Haberdash leaves the tent
    • Jostling for the light wakes everyone but Bran (missing today)
    • Boat trail slick into water, no footprints leading up to it
    • Some small tracks to the boat from the tents
    • Caoimhe and Shiv track the boat, Shiv gets a feelings its wrong, hunts into the forest with C in tow
    • Find the gravesite
    • “I was supposed to have more time”
    • Camden slashes Caoimhe with the dagger he dug out from the grave
  • Devlin
  • Bran
  • 2 hour rotations

Session 06

Recap

Beat: Camden Worthwort slicing Caoimhe’s hand because Jonathan arrived at the graveyard w/ Chip. Shiv there too.

Player recap:

• All the boat stuff
• Camden lured away by frogs
• Cat is missing
• Slicey slice
• The page from the book
• Something spinning in the upper twin whirlpool
• Devlin hearing frogs tempting him to the waterfall

Go

• Violence begins
• Jonathan sprinting in, Caoimhe
• Chip revolver into air
• Caiomhe stabbed in the gut
  • Idea: this should give her a level up
  • Her performance on this has been SUPER good
• “it was all red, I was in the room again, what did I do, what did I do”

BREAK

• Mrs S helping do first aid on Caoimhe
• Bran checks out the grave
  • Bishop Higgins head of the church of Aberdeen
  • Grave smells like canine piss, somewhat fresh
  • Angel wing necklace, pipe, bible, broken lock
• Shiv: “its hard to have a knife fight without a knife”
• Boots retrieved
• “its too early, we haven’t even had the fall festival”
• Jonathan does know people who’ve graduated from here
• Class photos are only the students, no teachers
• Only staff photos are previous headmasters
• They want to find out if any previous students are now staff

Session 07

Recap

• Caoimhe got slashed and then stabbed in the graveyard.
• Shiv also got stabbed a bit in the legs.
• Finally got Camden down.
• Chip shot a gun in the air.
• Mrs S showed up too, rendered aid.
• Got back to camp, Caoimhe with the teachers.
• Chip took Camden away, not clear what he did with them.
• Chip saying “too much too early, they won’t want to come back to the forest”.
• Wanting to check out whirlpool in the upper twin.
• Knife has been recovered.
• Camden came out of a fugue state: “it was all red, I was in the room, what did I do”
  • Josh: much like our own Shiv’s other experience with the wolves
• Haberdash had tracked them to the graveyard, returned to them.

What clues do we have:

• Flower crown note

• Name of book about flowers (from the note)

• Bog thorn flower

• Whirlpool red ribbon

• A love note never delivered OR

• The skull of an animal no smaller than an adult hare OR

• A pair of boots that will be missed

Start: predawn twilight, bold and foggy.

• Chip quietly setting up the firepit. Came from teacher’s tent.
• Jonathan loitering by the teacher’s tent waiting for Mrs S.
• Devlin heads to the fire pit, turns right around after offered a washing up task.
• Bran and Shiv both sleeping.
• Caoimhe sleeping off injury.
• Breakfast crew setting up.
• Michelle notices: Grass cutting smell, Mrs S stained fingers / table.
• Mrs S gives an herbal painkiller that is a slight dissociative.
• Repaired tent.
• Table+chairs from woodshop 40 years prior, cots newer, 10 years.
• Circumference of tent had something resewn many times.
• Shiv asks about volume of flowers. Considering if the “crown” is actually the tent-wrap.
• Ogleighrel Canvas Company - OCC
  • also 40 years old, both kinds
  • Teacher: large canvas utility
  • Student: medium canvas utility
  • Taylor: its the teacher fuck tent
• Head to the upper twin whirlpool, too much fog to see whatever Devlin caught last time. He brought a tent guy-wire.
• Devlin catches the red ribbon, its anchored, pulls him downward when he yanks on it.
• They wait a few seconds, then reel him back. He sees something shiny of the anchor before the ribbon tears out.
• 9 foot red ribbon from the whirlpool

Session 08

Recap

• Caoimhe freaked Jonathan out
• Devlin almost drowned
• No scout medal on knots and ropework
• Got a ribbon, it was attached to something at the bottom of the upper twin.
• Chip said he took Camden back to Russel Hall overnight, and returned
• Teacher’s tent was same age as others, but had some significant more repairs and a weird crown of repairs[
• Dog pee on the grave

Bank of stuff

• Flower crown note
• Name of book about flowers (from the note)
• Bog thorn flower
• Whirlpool red ribbon
• The Botanists Guide to Yornian Myth — BGYM · Flower Rites p85. p86 outside/destroyed
  • Flower crown weaving, dahlia, bindweed small white flower, some third unknown flower
  • THIS BOOK SHOULD HAVE BEEN CHECKED OUT BY MIRABELLE too, talks about the thorn flower

Passages:

• A love note never delivered OR
• The skull of an animal no smaller than an adult hare OR
• A pair of boots that will be missed

The Visage aka Her Once Wondrous Visage

Start

• Devlin wearing the ribbon as a bandana.
• Camp being broken down behind them, roll call starts.
• Sean and Liam (upperclassmen) jogging up to the camp to help chaperone.
• Shiv: “what if the lake lets out into a cave system below?”
• They surprise Sean with the info about the attempted murder. He offers to help with their bags.
• Chip in the lead this time, Mrs S at back. Keeping the group together more this time.
• Group settles into the middle of the student pack.
• Bran keeping an eye out for wolf stuff, flowers from the crown, and animals.
• Jonathan looking out for others experiencing things he doesn’t.
• Devlin starts a game passing a ball back and forth.
• The crown bindweed growing about 20ft down the fork path into deeper forest.
• Soccer ball down the fork, Bran and Shiv go after it to get the bindweed. Bran finds the shrike bush.
• Shiv gets a wad of the bindweed, stuffs into backpack.
• Haberdash doesn’t follow.
• Back through the paths to Russel Hall.
• Midway break!
• Dhalias growing in Jim Harran’s planters.
• Saturday, just before lunch.
• Jonathan asks Mrs S loudly if the constables have been called about Camden. She defers him to the headmaster.
• After Caoimhe drops stuff off upstairs, she wants to check out the hall of portraits. Shiv comes along to help.
• Bran taking stuff to the ravens. The broken lock from the Bishop’s grave.
• “Take it to The Visage, it has to be today, a letter”
• Mr. Rancourt gives Jonathan a general magisterial complain form.
• Devlin looking for Beaty to leave.
• One of the missing blocks coincides with the year the camping equipment was purchased (40 years ago).
• No teachers names appear in the logs of graduates.
• Bran: does Haberdash appear in any of the photos?
• There are Sinead Fenerty and Sinead Daniels.
• Bran gives the lock to the raven, leaves on the roots. -> It’ll give her a key!
• Bran gets the Walsh key from the ravens, made by Delance & Sons. (this is to a safe in the burned house)
• Devlin gets the library key from Mr. Fitzpatrick!
• Shiv: “does the school have a secret jail?”
• SECRET Sinead Fenerty is Sinead Laravell, snuck back to the school by changing maiden name.
• Lunch bell rings. No teachers in attendance. Camden also missing.
• Beaty takes the Deer Path inward.
• Jonathan filling out the magisterial complaint form at lunch. Somewhat embellished.
• Retcon: Daniel O’Neill (foundling) is a noble kid.
• Devlin gets The Botanists Guide to Yornian Myth — BGYM · Flower Rites p85. p86 outside/destroyed
• Lights on the restricted side w/ lock/unclock.
• DOESN’T sign out the book, just takes it.
• Dono thinks they’re screening the mail.

Group stored resources:

• The Walsh key.
• The library restricted side key.
• The library restricted side key (copy).
• Mirabelle Laurent’s locket w/ thorn and photo.
• 1x red ribbon.
• Cormac Scoth’s necklace setting w/o gem.
• The Botanists Guide to Yornian Myth.

Session 09

The Botanists Guide to Yornian Myth lending log:

• Derrick O’Park, fall 14 years ago
• Lyric McDoud, spring 23 years ago
• Sinead Fenerty, fall 25 years ago — RETURNED DAMAGED
• Mirabelle Laurent, fall 46 years ago
• Kenton Proudlen, fall 58 years ago
• A notice about changing log formats

BGYM · Flower Rites p85. p86 outside/destroyed Dhalias growing in Jim Harran’s planters.

Appeasements:

• A love note never delivered OR
• The skull of a pet animal no smaller than an adult hare OR
• A pair of boots that will be missed OR
• The cherished stone from a piece of inherited jewelry

Recap!

• Went down the side path, found the Shrikes, got some bind weed.
• Bran got dripped on by freshly dead mice.
• We got back to the school.
• Jonathan Karen-ed at the headmaster. Overheard him discussing sketchy stuff with Beaty. “The Visage”.
• Beaty went north, probably to the deer path (but only Bran would know).
• Bran gifted the lock to the Ravens, got the Walsh key.
• Devlin intercepted Beaty, got the key to the library.
• Caoimhe portrait review, looking for students that might be Mrs S. They want to figure out her maiden name.
• Went to make a copy of the library key, in the workshop.

75 years ago is the mysterious gap in portraits. 8 years of portraits gap. 40 years ago camping equipment 12 years ago cots Mirabelle must have died approx 46 years ago

Go!

• “Oaken gift” flower that grows in water in hollows of trees. Rare, short blooming. Blooms in the first cold snap of the fall. First of the three crown flowers. Labels a serious officiant of any fall/winter ritual.
• Harvest festival mid fall, fire bringer late fall. Feast of St Martin’s, flower crown on the abbot.
• Ritual after is a prep for winter ritual of burning dry grasses and the seeds of fruit left to rot.
• Scientific name for thorn flower. Passion’s Trap. See p 31.
• Aphrodesiac tea, love “potion” (prick -> love), execution love of the sea
• Thorn found in locket pretty clearly scratched the glass over the eye, maddened scratching
• Shiv makes a key in the shop while everyone investigates the book.
• Bran sketches the oaken gift, indents the paper underneath, slightly rips the page from the binding.
• Devlin wants to: return key to Beaty, read the whole book.
• Shiv looking for Mrs S’s maiden name.
• Jonathan would have been lurking waiting for Beaty to return, returns late at night (3am) covered in mud from digging and drunk.
• Looking out for signs of Camden.
• Jonathan sends the magisterial complaint through Daniel O’Neill (foundling) (noble kid).
• Devlin discovers the chapter on appeasements. They think Beaty buried a stolen love note.
• Bran going to watch Mrs S for if she’s chatting with the Ravens.
• Broad scale tasks:
  • Jonathan wants to watch Emily Walsh, the girl who talked the the Nightjars.
  • Looking out for Camden.
  • Bran wants to see if the Ravens can help get an Oaken Gift. — tries by showing them the drawing and then giving various small stuff — how do they communicate “too small” hmm. Hides this behavior from Mrs S.
  • Caoimhe wants to look into Tarin Marks. Passive investigation, no talking to teachers. Could do student rumor mills.
• BREAK
• Shiv sneaking into the Laravell’s residence in the carriage house. Haberdash is inside.
• Hutch up against this back door, but successful lock picking. Pushes the hutch back, keeping haberdasher inside.
• Mrs S’s tool roll. Custom shovel, dowsing rod, edited compasses
• 3 uncrossed out lines of numbers: ex 101 16 28 3 107
• Shiv uses the string to move the hutch back into place.
• Runs into Beaty trying to free the cat.
• Emily somewhat withdrawn. Jonathan starts building rapport with her, to try to ask her about her stories later.
• Tarin Marks appears the next two years, seemed haunted year 1, recovered by year 2.
  • Tarin next to Francesca, she’s also in the friend group
• Theory: Mirabelle checked out the book, learned about the thorn. Later, unrelated, Mrs. S tore out the flower crown page.
• They put the Walsh key and Emily Walsh together.
• SECRET: Emily' parents were teachers, died in the fire. The key is to a buried vault in the basement.
• The Ravens give back small gifts for Bran’s small gifts. Decides to step it up by stealing a love note and delivering them an appeasement.
• The ribbons mark the thresholds to “thin places”—as said in the Safe(r) passage section
• Crows clearly express their displeasure at the appeasement.

Tuesday

• Constable shows up with the mail wagon after lunch.
• 3 voices in conversation in Rancourt’s office, two male one female.
• Constable leaves while they’re in Maths w/ Chip.
• Jonathan catches up with Sergeant

Session 10

Recap

• Jonathon was chasing a constable, game down right then
• Went to the library
• Shiv broke into Mrs. S and Mrs. K’s place, got the tool roll and the numbers
• Theory is that Mrs. S was a student.
• Book lending log: Sinead Fenerty and Mirabelle Laurent
• Ravens gave Bran the Walsh key, they matched that with Emily Walsh
• Storm coming in the next few days.
• More sus info in the year photos, next year boyfriend haunted, year after seeming fine and with a new girl.
• Camden still missing.

Start

Assigned Waluigi At Birth

• Sergeant Mansfield, assured corrective behaviors are underway, psychological conditioning
• Tuesday afternoon, storm arrives Thurs/Fri
• Paired numbers from Mrs S’s tool roll reminds Devlin of pirate treasure maps
• Devlin has good intuition on three hidden things being moved
• After dinner head to the tree to start, begin in the garden
• Path directions:
  • One into the boar path
  • One towards the bay
  • Another further south
• They’re correct about the boar path one, but they don’t know what the second number means
• Head into the boar path, Bran leading.
• Caoimhe with an angle idea
• Eventual discovery of the system
• They decide to head on the “short” away-from-forest path

Session 11

Sinead sea cache:

• Portraits of the mysterious lady
• Note from Vincent about taking the deer path to the old dead tree because he’s seen fresh flowers grow and things “she’s” there.
• Old name change paperwork, diploma

Sinead mountain stream cache:

• Notes about the wolf path, need fire for wolves
• Notes across years about wolf spread, worry about entrance to the deeper forest being inaccessible
• “how will I get to the glade”
• NO PORTRAITS IN THE FOREST — SHE KNOWS SOMEHOW

Sinead wolf den cache:

• Snake bones
• A lock of someone’s hair (Mrs K)
• Dried pressed flowers, for the crown and others

Start

• They want to check the portraits for other names they have

• They want to look for Walsh names

• Devlin looking closely at the portraits. Sees the interlocking chain.

• It’s Wednesday, storm arrives in force tomorrow.

• Siobhan takes a page out of the book or portraits.

• Close up the stash, rebury it, dip.

• Head back towards the hall. Get in past midnight, everyone shivering soaked and cold.

• Someone has been tending the fire. They’re not there right now.

• Devlin hears a scream for help from the fire wind howl.

• They head upstairs. Bran and Caoimhe stay on the landing to watch.

• Chip enters after, takes off rain gear, puts down gun and trowel, takes a sip of the whiskey.

• Folks except Caoimhe and Bran and Siobhan go to sleep. The former goes to the portrait hallway, the latter copies the sketch of Her.

• Siobhan goes looking for Haberdash.

• Portrait hallway:

  • Anyone named walsh: Emily, last year.
  • Tracking Sinead Fenerty, notes of others in those years. Vincent present her junior year, not the next.
  • Looking for haunting beauty.
  • Emily looks like she arrived at the school early.

• Bran finds a muse in the portrait of the lady.

• Siobhan looking for the cat. Finds him in the dumbwaiter, hears a scream, takes him past Chip.

Thursday morning

• Grounded through the weekend by Chip.
• Raven watching through the window.
• Emily Walsh: “I don’t need to be babied by the whole staff here”
• “Oh my parents died too, also in a fire, want to see?” points at the burned building on campus
• Dad died in the fire here, was a prof, mom died later (-3 years from today) in Ballyswan of being sick
• Devlin gets the restricted library key from Beaty again, is encouraged to rule break more because its “good for the soul”
• Grabs a random interesting book from the restricted library
• Where are people at the EXPLOSION
  • Devlin: homeroom
  • Bran: art room
  • Caoimhe: carriage house workshop
    • Henry
    • Met in Ballyswan, Sinead was forceful
    • Saber incident
    • Defend against men -> I’ll teach you stuff, I’ll have something built for you
  • Jonathan: trying to appear nonplussed about things that have happened, keeping an eye on teachers. entry way fire
    • Hears the help scream from the fire—yes even with his quirk
  • Shiv: traditional reaction to detention: pestering teachers so much that they want to set her free—in the homeroom
• EXPLOSION!
• Devlin and Shiv share a sip of the flask, cough
• All teachers involved EXCEPT: Berwyn, Groundskeeper
• Mr. Rancourt staying, other teachers going on the wagon.

Session 12

Where we ended: the storm is happening, the teachers have left except Mr. Rancourt trawling the halls.

Recap:

• Returned to the house
• Chip was waiting up, came in with muddy trowel
• Shiv established an alibi, but the group gets grounded for the weekend
• Learned Emily’s Dad died in the burned building on the grounds. Her dad was the sciences teacher. Moved to Ballyswan w/ Mom who then died later, moved back here. Headmaster owed her dad, let her live at the school early.
• Devlin got the library key again for the weekend
• Caoimhe learning something from Mrs K.
• Thursday night, middle of storm, big boom windows shatter on south eastern side, green/yellow flame like a chemical explosion.
• Profs except Rancourt headed out to investigate. Rancourt doing cursory wellness checks.
• Jonathan headed to the roof to see what’s happening.

Start:

• Jonathan and Bran headed to the roof, watch from out in the rain.
• 3/4mi away down the path, still some flame
• Shiv rifles through Chip’s desk. Finds some stuff from the next exam. Throws some stuff away. Adds rumors to the whisper network forming.
• Lightning begins to the south, over/around the mountains.
• The kid shakes the southern door, heads around chased by Jonathan.
• The others see the pursuit as shadows.
• Jonathan tackles the newcomer, its a young girl in dirty clothes
• 3 wolves and an adult in pursuit.
• Group catches up with the fight, locks the front door.
• Looking from above, Bran sees only one wolf left, circling in the courtyard.
• Group arms themselves with the fire tools.
• The wolves are scared of fire.
• Mr. Rancourt finally joining, coming downstairs in chain mail. He has a naval lantern.
• “welcome the dawn” -> fáilte roimh breacadh an lae
• Rheesa Kolkarn
• Parlor window pane simply gone, some sand left over, Caoimhe keeps some of the sand that hasn’t blown away
• The Fall of Saint Samuel — ribs replaced with bells, blinded
• Ravens tore the art to pieces, but the young one White Spot took pity and gave her a small constrictor snake skull

Session 13

Recap:

• Shiv made friends with a stray (Rheesa)
• There were wolves and a dude who disappeared
• Defended selves against wolves
• Headmaster put on chainmail, did a scholar level lantern miracle
• Devlin read book about Fall of St. Samuel — sure the guy isn’t that guy

“If he used activation words then it can’t be arcanistry” — Devlin

Start: 8am Friday, storm dreggs continue to dump water

• Chip wakes folks up early, tells them to move some stuff around for window fixes, tells people to go to breakfast
• Bran takes some glass shards sneakily
• Shiv and Rheesa talk about hijacks
• Rheesa has heard bells, south of here
• Ms. Venkatesh seems sick.
• Assembly in the main hall for all students.
• Few answers
• Devlin talks with Beaty
• Mention of two initial survivors, but then one died, they’re taking the other to the ferry
• 2nd floor “infirmary”
  • toe pocket of a burnt away sock, smells chemical
  • janitorial closet nearby is locked, with a pretty nice lock
  • bigger/nicer room than it should be: fireplane, exterior windows, dumbwaiter
• Devlin to the restricted side of the library, looking for books that might have info about Russel Hall
• Jonathan sleeping to the sound of hammering
• What book to find?
  • Info about the hall’s construction
• A Mutiny from Within
• Devlin learns about the history of Russel’s business, artifact shipping, into broad shipping, death of family, back into artifacts, then sold his business suddenly, made the trust, then disappeared
• Western dumbwaiter floor 3, 2, NOT 1, maybe cellar
• Bran working on repairs, gossiping — upperclassmen saw the person with the wolves from their homeroom on the western 3rd floor — a wolf-whistle to control them?
• Mrs. K unlocks cellar to store new repair tools.
• Sunday
• Devlin spending curfew in the library looking for books. New book on St Samuel, learns he retired to a tower in northern Yornian wilderness
• Bran sharing out about the wolf-flute-man, asks Devlin to look for books on it.
• Ryan Hayes the new language teacher
• Broke into a cellar

Session 14

Recap:

• Venkatesh is sick
• Beaty taking the carriage into the nearby town with her and injured folks
• Biography of Tiebalt
• Jonathan and Devlin established a signal for mind control stuff: “MUTINY”
• Mrs K has a key to the cellar.
• Venkatesh is taking a sabbatical
• The wolf-person had an instrument
• St. Samuel retired to a tower in northern Yornia, tower in a forest
• New adult, Ryan Hayes, youthful 20s local, teaching old Yornian
• Shiv picked the lock on the cellar
• Steam core for the building is down here
• They found a secret door in the cellar

For later

Maintain the pact, maintain the tether.

Start: Saturday mid afternoon

• In the cellar checking out the door
• Shiv finds a slightly warm half-geode
• Unlatches the secret room
• “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”
• Weapon locker for 6 people, one armor missing (Rancourt’s)
• Super old ship’s medical kits: ampules of health potion in rice for shock absorbtion, tournekits,
• Chasm under the broken circle
• IDEA: Rivers and the tree are a consistent theme of access
• Shiv ties off the climbing rope to the cage and Bran puts on a harness
• Bag of weird coins and a knife

• a casual stroll on the farthest shore with a metal detector

• Coins
  • Crescent moon over square
  • Crescent moon over circle that surrounds a squiggly dot
  • Two interlocked swirls
• Cedric’s samshir (2nd guard)
• Who are the group: Tiebalt (leader), Martin, — the dead ones: Cedric, Laura, Dominic, Genevieve
• 2x sets of climbing gear taken, 4x remain. 6x of many adventuring gear remain.
• Only through their sacrifice is this endeavor possible. Do not forget. Maintain the pact, maintain the tether.
• Chest by: Franklyn Luggage and Leatherworking, Ballyswan, Yornia
• SECRET for now: Tiebalt sold off some of his business to his longtime Luggage-maker Franklyn
• Shiv takes a warm 2x pair of adventuring gloves, Devlin takes 1x pair
• Jonathan steals Cedric’s samshir, hides in oilcloth. — hides in a storm gutter on the roof in oilcloth.
• Martin Hallar, longtime bodyguard, also disappeared with Tiebalt

Session 15

Mrs. S’s notes near the boar path:

• The door in the wood, past the wolves, never could figure out how to open it
• The belltower with the statue garden, seen her marks, but the area felt wrong
• Avoid Her visage

Recap by players:

• Basement, opened secret door

• 5x armors, 6x swords (Jonathan stole one), 6x muskets, 4x climbing gear

• Melted disk hole, down to an underground rill

• Footlocker w/ TR, note

• Bran recovered weird coines

• Shiv got a little paring knife

• “maintain the pact, maintain the tether”

• Chest made by person who bought up shipping business in the sell-off

• Disappeared with longtime bodyguard Martin Haller

• Damage ascending through the house above the disk, diminishing each higher floor

• Coins

  • Crescent moon over square to Jonathan, then given to Devlin
  • Crescent moon over circle that surrounds a squiggly dot to Caoimhe
  • Two interlocked swirls to Devlin
  • (Bran’s one) Leaf+dragonfly
  • Knife to Shiv

Start:

• Bran gives her coin to the ravens, specifically one of the elders. Takes a rubbing first.
• Devlin finds Numismatists' Atlases, vol I.–VIII. Starts looking through for coins.
• Going for 108 – Bran 777, 82 / Devlin 149, 522, 902
• Vol IV, non circulatory metallic coins.
• Caoimhe goes back to Mrs. K for self defense lessons.
  • Mrs. K has been upset / crying. Seems upset with Mrs. S.
  • Their apartment is disheveled from looking for something.
  • Caoimhe makes tea.
  • Teaches her how to make a flash-bang with an overcharged set of arcane batteries and a light glass.
  • She accidentally reveals the Laravells are fighting to Jonathon.
• Khiri wonders if pond is related to the rill.
• Rheesa asks Shiv about running away from Russel Hall to somewhere you can travel faster without the ferry crossing.
  • Shiv suggests her taking the cart, passes on the supply schedule
  • Rheesa hates moving water
  • Shiv gets a seed
• Ryan Hayes is the lang teacher
• Confrontation between the Laravells during lunch
• Bran going to follow, other folks cover for Bran being “sick”. Shiv going with Bran. The others going to class.
• Mrs. S looking around for her cache, getting exasperated.

• “Why won’t you let me see you again. I burned all my notebooks, not like him.”

• WHAT HAPPENED TO VINCENT

Session 16

Main things:

• Penarddun ferch Aneir
• She appears!
• “and now you bring these children into a dance they do not understand, you threaten the pact, and for what”
• Saps Sinead’s emotion, and then age? Regrows part of the forest around them. Then the wolves.
• The 4 elder ravens (map to the dead retinue) Cedric, Laura, Dominic, Genevieve

Player recap:

• At the end, went into the woods, followed their teacher, melt down about her ex-fairy-girlfriend.
• Rheesa sketched out about Shiv’s knife, intending to run away. Asked if Shiv had traded info about her for it. Got a seed from her.
• Upset the teachers with their candid teacher-ness. Mostly Caoimhe.
• Caoimhe learned how to make a flash bomb. Has one.
• Exonumia not Numismatics.
• Caoimhe, Bran, Shiv in the woods following Sinead.
• Jonathon and Devlin stay in class. Devlin fucks up the pop quiz, Jonathon aces it.

Start:

• Penarddun appears, yellow sundress, ivory necklace + wrist chain, black hair w/ twigs and leaves. Barefoot, growth around each step.
• The Wolves get jealous when the forest feeds
• Warmed hearth feeling near her
• Shiv and Caoimhe trying to free Sinead, Caoimhe slaps her.
• The wolves arrive, then the ravens. More howls in the distance.
• “Maybe Vincent was the wrong choice”
• Caoimhe recovers the compasses
• Emerge into the daylight
• Bran still has the lit stick, hides it in the pond
• Bran is an honorary raven
• Drop old-Sinead back w/ Katherine
• Khiri becomes an honorary raven
• Devlin heading to ask Beaty’s advice, gets him to come downstairs
• Beaty helping Mrs K try to see to Sinead after sending away the students.
• ~a month until the choosing (SELECTION)

Session 17

Player recap:

• Met Mrs S' long lost obsession
• She got aged, 40s–60s
• Took her back to Mrs K
• Met the queen fae bitch
• Bran can talk to the ravens
• The ravens came to help
• The elder ravens are the founder’s merc squad
• In particular, Dominic stabbed Bran with a feather
• They’re going to take a single child each year for the pact, if they reveal they know they might all die
• Curious who this year’s child will be: maybe Emily, maybe Devlin, maybe Camden
• Weird stuff in the forest is testing who’s the most compatible
• Turn human life force into tree growth, like what happened to Mrs S
• St. Samuel be real—blinded with bells
• Bran has the ever burning stick, its stored in the pond mud
• “wolves are jealous when the forest feeds”
• The fae cannot enter the hall.
• Discussion over if the wolves are working for the fae or a separate faction.
• Forest is “Delogorud ferch Aneir, the traveler” aka “The Doggerwood”
• Shiv, Bran, and Caoimhe have a makeup test to take in language.
• Homework for social studies is to plan a naval battle in the azores

Twice weekly wagon from big city Duncan the younger driver will trade with the kids, Shiv considers him a business partner —Session03

Start

Its Monday evening, during the late afternoon break.

• Devlin reminds people that they have a makeup test.
• Jonathan shares his test notes.
• Devlin also reminds them of the homework for fleet maneuvers.
• Caoimhe looks up what actual naval moves happened and reverse justifies them.
• Bran: “are we still sick? we should act sick”
• Devlin + Jonathan grab dinner for everyone else who act sick and go to homeroom.
• Devlin wants to go to the library. Demarkation between myth and reality is blending.
• Shiv comes along, looking for books on infectious disease symptoms. Aiming to mimic something that would get them sent to town for a doctor.
• Caoimhe hiding in bed w/ her dinner. Waiting for Chip to show up. Had an idea for another portrait hall exploration, but have now forgotten. Trying to figure if there are groupings of the missing children.
• **They want to know who went missing last year. ** — Luca Gleeson, lower class
• Jonathan wants to bribe Duncan the young driver. Older driver hates kids, never talked to them.
• Chip headed to Rancourt’s office to plan the next field trip (this Friday)
• Hearing about the staff meeting, Jonathan wants to spy on it.
• Find Luca Gleeson, between Emily Walsh and Liam Gallagher.
• Furniture moving about inside Rancourt’s room.
• Devlin looking for books that have been checked out a lot.
• Shiv looking for diseases
• Edwin’s Guide to Northern Rockpool Species vI–vIV, vIII missing, lent out in H.A. 95
  • Copyright H.A. 52
  • Snails with hypohydrophilia as drying defense mechanism
  • The excoriated pools, coordinate only
• Shiv finds most useful is a wasting rash, uber-poison-oak
• Anemone that leaves dangerous looking lesions
• Jonathan over hears things. A nightjar watches. It gets slayed.
• Beaty, Rancourt, Katherine, Berwyn, Jim Harrans, Chip all in the convo.
• Some snake thing living under the Rogenden river.
• Learn about the visage from Rheesa. Vincent “made an example of” “turned into a chair of roots to look upon his works”

Tuesday

• Luminous gray day, dewey but not raining, some fog.
• Bran talks to Dominic-raven again, key from burned building, prof Walsh got too curious.
• Bran wants to check out the burned barn, Devlin and Caomihe don’t want to.
• Chip takes over for Sinead’s botany, makes it into “gym class as dirt moving”
• Rift in teachers growing over the stress, making snippy statements about each other.

Session 18

• Ranking amongst peers:
  • Jonathan
  • Bran
  • Shiv
  • Caoimhe
  • Devlin

Player Recap:

• Teachers are in on it
• There’s a new trip on Friday
• Makeup language test
• Learned about more missing kids — Emily might have been friends w/ Luca
• Devlin found the Edwin’s book, checked out by Luca + Cormac
• Bran wants to search for graves
• Snail w/ Hydrophilia
• Rheesa wants to escape, big snek under the Rogendon
• Oaken gifts, in tree pools, bloom in first cold snap — last thing necessary for the flower crown
• Teachers clearly under stress

Start:

Goals:

• Look into the burned building
• Talk to Emily about Luca (last year’s missing person)

Cool rain, Tuesday midday

• Not wanting to draw suspicion, goes to classes
• Keep sassing Chip
• Applied sciences, lab exercises
• Caoimhe and Jonathan sitting with Emily
• Luca fascinated by animals, friendly with everything
• Luca went missing near winter holiday, Emily thinks she might have scared her only friend off
• Got obsessed with snails
• Emily says she’s share some of her book with Caiomhe Weds evening on the quay of the small pond
• Caiomhe asks Ryan about letters to Venkatesh
• Devlin “lookout”
• Spear
• Drawings of HER
• Three thorns
• Specimens of forest stuff
• Typewriter w/ Crown note written on it
• “Ask rheese about paying to cross water” — good way to mention snakes are bound to service

Break

• Shiv looking for lost, lost things
  • Should find his map notebook, fallen behind a locker
  • References the lower bridge (past the fork), its need for the fresh coat of a hare
  • St. Samuel’s tower to the south
  • Her Once Wonderous Visage
  • Past the low bridge, the briar road entrance
• Secret: Rancourt told Pennardun about Walsh, so she took him out
• Photo: no Berwyn, No chip, Yes beaty
• Photos: the low bridge, the twins, the visage (burnt), her (burnt), the tower, the teachers, Cormac’s grave
• Broom Gae Bulg
• Locking door behind them
• Riddle: dead shrike, crushed holly, fresh skin of hare (worked)

Session 19

Player recap:

• Caoimhe talked to Ryan, thinks maybe not part of the conspiracy

• Found the Walsh lab, learned he was a crown agent.

• Found Gae Bulg equivalent.

• Pennardun burned the building, but maybe because of Mr Rancourt.

• Learned about coins, payment for passage

• Photos of her crisp and burn

  • Active or passive, unsure.

• She doesn’t seem to automatically know

• Shiv has a fancy new spear broom

• Portrait day is in 2 weeks, field trip Friday

• Riddle: dead shrike, crushed holly, fresh skin of hare (worked)

Start: Tuesday evening bedtime.

• Had questions for the ravens (about the coins), and Rheesa (ask about snek — mention the hunt/game is part of what they want)
• Wanted to know if Emily had done any drawing of her
• Shiv wondering if Berwyn is sus. They would know the most about the art.
• Weds morning
• Chip is chipper, waking them early
• They all have super subtle lingering campfire.
• Breakfast
• Bran talks with Genevieve-raven
  • Lots of doors
  • Doors marked with ribbon
  • Snake is slave, banished from tree
  • Coins are guests
  • “Link sustain T-” cannot say full word
• Returns to breakfast, shares info
• Shiv notes mention of a boar with a ribbon on one of its tusks.
  • Notebook also makes mention of “Briar road / briar door / briar path”
• Rheesa: “I was one of three—I don’t know what happened to my sisters”

Red rooms:

Jonathan:

• You were wounded 3 times.
• You did not reveal Rheesa.
• You avoided blaming another innocent child.

Bran:

• You were wounded 7 times.
• You did not reveal Rheesa.
• You avoided blaming another innocent child.

Jump back to lunch:

• Jonathan talking to Emily. Trying to figure out if she’s drawn Her. “bad at art, paint picture with words”.
• Puts something in her book bag dropped off by a bird earlier.
• Shiv wondering how big the room is to figure out where in the house
• Ryan, Chip, Beaty getting started on a wine bottle, Emily at hearth

We must, in that case, kill Mr. Hayes.

• Ryan re-studying the younglings test scores afterwards.
• Rheesa trying to break into Mr. Rancourt’s office. Something was weird with her hand. Tunnel behind painting, not done.
• Dinner, Shiv steals food incase they have to hide in the vault
• FOOOOOD FIGHT
• Jonathan trying to ruin the tests
• Shiv steals more rolls
• Devlin leading the food fight
• Caoimhe bleeds on the rest of the papers, heads to Mr. Rancourt’s office to “get bandages”
• Jonathan sneaks out

Session 20

Recap:

• Food fight damaged Hayes' grading, hopefully to hide Rheesa longer.
• Emily was given something by a bird outside the window.
• Ryan had key to red room.

Red rooms:

• The Red Room, Bran and Jonathan.
• Ryan Hayes is an elder / fae.
• Gotta mess with his test results to avoid others being found.
• FOOD FIGHT
• “Why Caoimhe’s blood?” — Bran
• Caught Rheesa trying to break into Rancourt’s room from the drawing room next door. Hoping to get time alone in the office.

Self harm is always an option — Caoimhe

Start:

• Shiv hiding tray of goods in supply closet.
• Caoimhe heading to Rancourt’s office.
• Jonathan following Ryan as he leaves.
• Bilton & Jad Patented Life Extender™ Lot 2 32/60
• Wolves fighting Jonathan, Bran comes to rescue
• Bran learns from ravens that maybe Pact is getting overextended/broken by the latest stuff
• Dono: Should focus on finding the pact to understand it, think Rancourt should have a copy.

Idea: Only a heartless man can journey to the land of the dead. To avoid being chained one must have their own chains. 80 year ago graduation Kendall Berwyn

Jonathan steals a vigor potion

Hidden north side of the cellar (behind boiler) Full separate south-side cellar under the extension

Next steps:

• Finish searching office
• Caoimhe looking for diaries/journals/ledgers
• Shiv more communing to try to find the Pact — if it is lost
• Wanting to follow ribbons to door, if that’s the right vibe or not
• Trying to protect Rheesa
• Searching new cellars
• Shiv collecting acorns, notices hoof tracks, bristled short haired leavings.

Session 21

Recap:

• Jonathan got messed up by wolves after following Ryan Hayes northward.
• Bran talked to Ravens, learned Ryan’s attack was an overstep of the Pact.
• Caoimhe discovered Rancourt has super good healing potions and is super old.
• Broke into Rancourt’s office. Bransacking the office.
• Found all the files of the sacrificed children. The banality of evil.
• Jonathan stole some “potion of vigor” which is just vat 5.
• Someone named Kendall Berwyn also graduated with Rancourt.
• Two more secret rooms, a whole different cellar, and another room in the main cellar behind the boiler.
• Found: preserved dry flower crown, taxidermied shrikes, unknown goat-like hoof (could be in boar path tracks).

Appeasements:

• A love note never delivered OR
• The skull of an animal no smaller than an adult hare OR
• A pair of boots that will be missed

Let’s go

• Pass on Emily’s story.
• Their read is that its a metaphor for St Samuel.
• No useful ledgers/diaries.
• Shiv and Jonathan looking for “where student agency went”. Don’t turn up anything.
• Window is a crank-arm, doesn’t officially “lock” but is very hard to open from the outside.
• Get Bran to draw the weave of the example flower crown so they have a good reproduction. Also makes a sketch of the cellar diagram.
• Actually taken: two vials (vigor/health), oldest child’s file.
• Bran nails the 6/6 check for the replacement of the hutch.
• 4:30am, 7am official waking time. That was Weds, now its Thurs.
• Plan to keep Rheesa safe during her language class in 1st period. But HOW?
  • Caoimhe, Shiv, Jonathan
  • New pop quiz
  • Sunday night as the break out deadline, Rheesa wants to go south in the carriage.
• Recreation is just doing housework, making a scaffolding.
• Lunch: Rancourt eating his lunch elsewhere.
• Afternoon chill
• GOING ON FIELDTRIP TOMORROW OHNO
  • Saved Rheesa for now
  • wanting to prepare for shit to go down in the forest, transfer their fancy new potions to better bottles, bring the spear, Jonathan steals some containers. Caoimhe to bring a flashbang.
• Shiv asks Bran to ask the Ravens to do something: wants them to attack her as an excuse to carry a broom around. Or it could be a walking stick. Could also be in a bag of cricket bats.
• Hard to bring the fire stick.
• Caoimhe gets some help from Mrs K on improving the flashbomb. She’s listless, but helpful. Lost routine, including the routine of locking up. Makes a strobe. Strangely tender moment between two very broken people.
• Mrs K has a key similar to what Ryan had w/ the ribbon. Steal that key and the carriage room one.
• Trip going to be Chip, Beaty, Ryan — whole student body.
• How to bring the fire stick: dirt/sand/peat in oilcloth, in with cricket bats.
• They leave Rheesa the carriage key and wish her luck. She refuses to re-enter the forest.
• Devlin: we need a raven attack to cause chaos cover for Rheesa to leave at the beginning of the field trip.
• Shiv could take Rheesa’s place cause they’re both smol.
• Ravens: if it helps break the pact, we’re in, we’ll make a game of it. Dono: “oh right they’re children oh god”
• Shiv leaves the stashed food with the carraige.
• Retcon: Rancourt has a drawer of screened mail, includes love letters and Jonathan’s complaint letter.
• They head into the north cellar via the dumbwaiter. Bringing Rheesa along.
• Find the red room
  • Chai experimentation, noting needing to hide the bitter sleeping powder flavor
  • A letter, no envelope
  • Super healing potion, 3/4 left
  • Powdered sleeping poison jar w/ spoon, fungal dust clumps
  • Sedated Camden
• They get some of the powdered poison into a snuff box.
• Dono + Khiri remember the loomed mushroom man from Wellspring.
• Bran stays outside, they don’t tell her about Camden.
• Group argues about putting Camden in the carriage w/ Rheesa.

Keep him alive, do NOT breach the pact. Keep him quiet. They’ve heard him upstairs though they do not know.

• Letter lets group in on what they heard through the fire places.
• Suspecting Haberdash. Wondering if he’s a fae or like a raven has a kid-soul.

And so I leave upon my quest. 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.

Rules of the pact

• The Choosing
• One a year
• The games and the hunt
• No trespass without invitation
• Fae allow the tether
• Fae get the vitality (its half the teacher’s moral pain, half the actual student taking)
• Turmoil in the hearts of men

Session 22

Recap

• Found a red room — wow.
• Debated about contriving Camden’s murder via a 3rd party.
• Made a plan of bringing stuff along on the field trip.
  • Duffle w/ spear, basement saber, cricket bats, the fire stick.
  • Healing and vigor potions.
  • Love letters lost.
  • Recharged flashbang.
  • Shiv w/ Shiv’s knife.
  • NOT bring Haberdash, can’t be trusted.
  • Some sleeping poison in a snuff box w/ vague dosage instructions. Bitter+metallic taste.
• Plan to possibly have ravens distract the teachers to help Rheesa sneak away before. Shiv dressed same.

Start:

• Curious about Ms. Venkatesh, was she actually sick? In on it? Still don’t know what happened out at the alchemy cart. Rheesa confirms it was collateral damage.
• Head down into the south cellar.
• Heart with tiny-tiny spectral chains.
• Knife (secret: that cut out haller’s heart) in the tree chunk.
• When pact ends, they can come into the house and kill Rheesa. so folks want to wait through this trip
• “The human signatories and their agents”
• Devlon wants to find out the doubts of each teacher
• Teachers: Chip, Beaty, Ryan Hayes
• Raven attack
• Devlin hits Liam with a bat while “aiming to hit a raven”
• Ryan kills some ravens
• Find the riddle/poem
  • Shiv’s idea: squirrels, shrikes

Session 23

My recap:

• Ravens!
• Forest!
• Bridge!
• Riddle!
• Unknown hoofed animal path

Player recap:

• Found the room, w/ squirrels stashing acorns
• Found the heart in the room w/ the chains
• Found the pact
• Talked about smashing the jar, but didn’t to try to give Rheesa more time
• Field trip, distracted crow attack to get Rheesa away. Ryan Hayes slew some ravens.
  • “he’s very familiar with how to use the blade against more than immobilized children” —Michelle
• Chip cleaned up mice off the shrike bush / pantry before the students went by
• The bridge and the riddle
• Upperclass leaving to make camp on the rise

Start

• Bran amped up looking around for the hoofed dogs.
• Devlin using most of his energy on keeping the duffle safe / hidden.
• Shiv: “getting across the bridge correctly leads to the Briar Path / Door”.
• Nightjar watching from across the river.
• South uphill next to ravine, come to rock overlook. If they summited they could see the tower to the south. Can see the upper class setting up tents.
• Jonathan working on gaining support from other students for going to the top.
• The Hollow Grove, w/ a ribbon. Very quiet, hushing vibe.
• Jonathan watching Emily.
• Rock of offering. Cormac’s gemstone, Shiv takes gives a lost loveletter instead.
• 7–9 on check for lodestone.
• Emily also puts paper in, some inorganic/geometric form. Digs in the roots.
• Hunting squirrels and hoofed dogs.
• Chip encouraging leaving things among the stone. “its a tradition”
• Caoimhe leaves a quick sketch of Pennardun in the stone.
• Caoimhe puts her coin back in. A random one.

Half-session

(likely short session Black Friday evening)

• Coins
  • Crescent moon over square
  • Crescent moon over circle that surrounds a squiggly dot
  • Two interlocked swirls

South of here, not far by the wings of raven or sparrow, lies the ruin of a statue garden surrounding a tall lonesome tower. Much has been lost there, but in particular a small out-of-the-way room has been forgotten through years of madness and destruction. Its builder knew of it, but she has long been in the grave. Servants once came and went from it, but this tower has held no servants since before the forest reached out to surround it. Its owner—if he ever knew of it—no longer gives it even the smallest of considerations. There, in the depths below ground where rearrangements are rare, an explosion of roots has broken through the foundation and brought with it an altar of sorts. This altar, of make dissimilar to the one you find before you and yet also somehow linked, has lost the very coin Caoimhe just placed.

Later…

He means you violence. All of you. All of everyone. There is nothing left but anger amongst those stones and yet that anger endures so strongly that it is tangible even here miles in the distance.

• Went to the woods
• Weird altar thing that was very quiet
• Bran got tricked by silence squirrel-beaver-bats and the hoofed beakdog
• Devlin went in to help, Jonathan also
• Emily put a thing in the altar stone, Jonathan was going to go after it
• Caoimhe put in her coin
• Upward from river bridge, wanting to summit it to see the tower

Session

• Just returning to the clearing when Caoimhe puts the coin in.
• Roots mean violence
• Shiv realized the missing coin elsewhere
• “Wrong coin wrong coin”
• The welling up of water and mud
• Caoimhe on the altar
• Shiv backs up, falls in mud
• Jonathan uses one of his prosaic-additions to make a path
• Jonathan then grabs Emily’s paper out
• The hollow grove fills up with water, nothing floats out from the altar
• “That coin, it goes with the tower”
• “its good the forest isn’t on fire”
• Chip trying to keep things together, noticed lack of Rheesa.
• Emily: “not like the stories, somebody messed it up” — “you’ve seen her too?!”
• Pencil drawing of a crescent moon over hexagon containing dragonfly
• “These coins are produced all around the world” — simple designs create-able elsewhere
• Bran looking for haberdash
• Caoimhe and Emily talk, she has coin info from the nightjars.
• Arguing on if they need to use a coin to visit the tree for the tether or just break one end.
• Chip being sketchy, checking his watch, then saying they should actually head up to the view point.

Session 24

Recap:

• Caoimhe fucked around and found out.
• SWAMP TIME.
• Jonathan gaslit the forest to get a path.
• Emily had given drawing of coin to the altar to try to get onto the tree like an idiot. The nightjars told her, she’s met Pennardun. In the fan club.
• Agreed squirrels were probably answers to the riddle. J has a Squirrel-beaver-rider thing.
• Chip knows Rheesa is missing now.

Start:

• Chip says Ryan will stay back with anyone who doesn’t want to go.
• Jonathan volunteers for back watch.
• This path less maintained, weren’t planning on bringing people up here.
• 1 mile in, the riven falls away in the ravine. Just upslope erosion.
• Clear night.
• 1/50, 35 — Shiv 37, Caoimhe 13, Jonathan 2, Devlin 24 — tower first
• Lookin at paths
• The evidence of their fire — a name for a romance novel about detectives, Josh + Dono
• Caoimhe takes over back-watch for the route back
• Jonathan keeping a closer eye on Chip
• Back past the low bridge
• Jonathan up front with Chip
• Rest near the back
• Bonfire and tents up top, no teachers, no upperclass
• Rope ladder off the back
• Devlin starts up a game of “Cricket” and hands out cricket bats to everyone. And the hidden equipment.
• Use it or lose it—ring to Jonathan
• 2 woodsman’s axes, 3 chef’s knives, 1 hatchet
• 2 bottles of scotch, an empty pistol holster, a camera, a book of bawdy poetry, 2 loose bullets
  • SECRET: emily has the gun now
• 3 floating flower lights
• Fighting the plant as it scoops of Jonathan and Tara
• Shiv collects up the bladed objects
• Burn away the plant, heal up Tara, feel like being watched
• Tara takes an axe
• Wolves howl south east of here, stops the game
• Jonathan organizes two more trees cut down, Devlin supervises. Tara’s team wins, gets the tree down and up the bank.
• Caoimhe supervising food, making low proof hot toddies with the scotch.
• Shiv storytelling to keep the foundlings engaged. Gets Emily to takeover storytelling to keep her busy. Lulls people in a trance with a story of the first war of the forests.
• “If you have a sword in your pants then Caoimhe should definitely be the one to deal with the younglings”
• 5 younglings, Emily walking them away 2 o’clock, nightjars on each tent
• Emily points Beaty’s gun at Caoimhe.

Session 25

Recap

• Started at the rise. Saw the tower.
• Back down, Chip was worried about time. Got to camp, Chip and Ryan snuck off. Abandoned with a full camp of supplies and a fire.
• Minicricket, two bottles of nice scotch, some bullets and an empty holster in Beaty’s bag
• Found rope ladder remnants off the back of the boulder.
• Emily found Beaty’s holster w/ empty gun holster.
• Theory: upper class think they’re hazing the rest of them.
• Tara wants to run off. Jonathan goes with, they get attacked by carnivorous plants.
• Emily entrances the younglings with her story
• Emily pulls a gun on Caoimhe when taking kids away
• “I really wished you wouldn’t interfere”

Start

• Two nightjars, tents 3/4
• “take them somewhere safe”
• Bran and Jonathan sneak up
• Jonathan bops Emily’s wrist with sheathed sword, gun goes off into the woods
• “Something is coming”
• Screaming from tent 1
• Tara missing
• Tents 1 and 9 appear on fire (Devlin in 9)
• Bran rocks a nightjar, the other flies away
• “The dance begins”
• Jonathan heading to cut tent 9 down to stop the fire from spreading
• Caoimhe deposits Emily at bonfire, grabs a canvas bag from cooking supply, gets it wet
• Bran comes along
• “Terra (sp) was a misleading name”
• “what you give for her” — its a demand, you cannot kill me that violates the pact
• Bran: “everyone gather behind me!”
• Caoimhe stands between the flame and Emily, puts a hand in her pocket, bows to it
• Devlin on the ground
• “How do you have that, this is a trap!”
• Shiv stabs it with the fancy thing
• Tara-face and Rheesa-face.
• Emily wants to leave into the deep forest, Jonathan hates it.
• Jonathan takes tents 1 and 9 to make a pile to light at the ramp.
• Younglings crash out asleep near the fire
• Others awoken by the dancers are too scared to sleep
• Kids make a pact to not tell the upperclass or adults
• Wolves closing distance over next few hours
• Feeding fire, watching for wolves
• Devlin processing his fire-trauma
• Caoimhe retrieves the revolver with Tara’s help
• Bran helps a second shift of food.
• Around 330 some wolves approach
• Caoimhe makes spears for people
• The sun rises, the wolves away
• Cookfire seen ~1mile north — “that’s probably the teachers”
• They convince the rest to abandon camp and leave through the woods
• 1/3 mile away up the cliff
• Trusting the hunch, heading to the wrong grave site.

Session 26

Start at Keogan’s Folly, on the far side. They are pursued by Ryan Hayes, though they are unaware of it. It is still morning, and relatively clear. They lead a group of rebelling students on their way back to the hall after a night alone in the woods.

Recap!

• Caoimhe didn’t die
• Devlin has weapons
• Bran sanest of all somehow
• Bran+Shiv = mostly functional compass
• There was a fire
• People argued about Emily being an idiot
• Hallucinated some firewater monsters (Dancers amongst the trees)
  • Had the faces of Rheesa and Tara
• Nightjars being spooky
• Wolves being spooky
• Caoimhe has a gun

Every worm tries to become the emperor or dies trying

Devlin’s message:

One thing that’s been troubling Devlin is the bit in the Pact about how the teachers must wish they were kind of people who would refuse, but not actually do so. Devlin sees Beaty as who he once was (or claimed to be in his stories, at least), not who he is now, and this confuses Devlin - he doesn’t understand why Beaty would only wish he would refuse (there’s some hero-worship there for sure). There’s a part of Devlin that feels betrayed by Beaty, and us not being there when they come back to pick us up is emotional payback in some form. But the thing underlying that is a hunch: that with the proper motivating event, Beaty could be the person he wishes he was (or that he lies about being, or aspires/once aspired to be). Beaty might be ok with leaving the kids alone in the forest for the Fae to mess with in a somewhat-planned way, but how does he react when we go off-script and all end up in serious danger? The hunch is that this might push him over the edge, especially if he thinks about the bright young kid who likes all his stories and who surely wasn’t going to be chosen, so was in no real danger at all…

I’m not 100% sure I want to spend it on this, but I wanted to plant the thought - will keep thinking about it on my end.

My response

One area I’d push on: if he’s going to have such an important change of heart, it should ideally happen on screen, and so his finding the camp empty is an awesome nudge in this direction but I’d love (if you commit to this as the plan) so finale moment of the turn in his decision can be a scene

• One discarded bottle of scotch

Start

• Bran wants to chop down a tree, Tara helps, still meth-ed up.
• Jonathan trying to win over dissenting students
• Caoimhe trying to take a nap, hiding the gun
• Shiv kicking rocks
• Devlin helping w/ tree
• Shiv finds an underwater ivy “sleeping” under the river
• Devlin smashes with rocks
• It wakes up, thrashes, and “burps”
• Devlin makes it across, finds the little hangout spot
• Keoghan M-, died 148 H.A. 2nd missing kid that year
• Plant disgorges its feedbag contents when shiv kills it, some body parts and things from the kid who died
• 5 goodbye letters, 5 trinkets: 3 knives, compass, sextant — Shiv takes both nav tools, leaves one new knife
• Half-mile on come to the southern edge of the clearing from PvsMrS, near Boar path
• Devlin finds his boots-offering, covered in leafs with new growth
• Have some extra oaken-gift collected from the older-growth forest
• Out of the forest!
• Smoke from russel hall
• Liam had run ahead, Mr Rancourt surprised to see them.
• Mrs. K cooking lunch, Berwyn missing.
• Tara stashes her Axe elsewhere.
• A minor confrontation with Beaty. He gets embarressed and makes weird porridge
• Saturday after lunch time
• Rancourt lies to Shiv that Rheesa left to find next-of-kin in town, Berwyn took them.
• Jonathan and Devlin to the Library, nap
• Devlin makes a fire in the library, BREAKTHROUGH!
• Caoimhe talking with Emily — she’s coming around to “forest is evil”
• Shiv finding more fake-broom
• Teachers having some conference, one on “duty” to keep an eye on students.
• Night falls (it is Saturday into Sunday).

Plan:

• Wake up at some night (Sunday), try to sneak into the heart room and break it. Going to bring lots of weaponry that they have.
• If that doesn’t work, have to try to get to the tree. Maybe try to go the tower and get St. Samuel onto the tree.
• St. Samuel redemption arc. 100s of years of crazy tower solitude = more power.

Session 27

Recap:

• We got home.
• There were some conflicts with teachers. Gaslighting on both sides.
• Rancourt somewhat worried about Emily’s wellbeing. Concerning but probably won’t get purged.
• Evidence Rheesa departed in the steamwagon.

Start:

• Devlin + Jonathan asleep in the library. Bran sleeps under The Oak.

• Everyone else in the normal dorm.

• Shiv acting normal, trying not to raise suspicion.

• Devlin sleep walking through the day. Processing, resting, going through the motions.

• Jonathan sleeps way in.

• Bran awakes to the ravens having tried to keep him warm with new blankets and things.

• Berwyn arrives around noon, on foot, with a travelsac. Unaccompanied. Shiv engages, finds out little.

• Warning from a raven: “The teachers take congress with the nightjars!”

• Mr Hayes hasn’t been seen on Sunday

• Shiv spying: Mrs K chap, Beaty loud, Male (chip), (quietly) Berwyn, Mr Rancourt.

• Argument, bird leaves, Beaty storms out.

• Group worried they’ll poison everyone.

• Talking about intentionally ruin the kitchen food.

• Shiv wants to replace the poison from the red room.

• Decide to move up the timetable, get all their gear.

• Cricket bat explodes upon the jar.

• Jonathan feels it, its body temp and reverberates with the beat.

• He places the flame stick against it.

• It explodes, the interlude.

• Juvenile ravens flying away, south and east.

• “But what of the other twinned half?”

• “You must flee! The other life’s debt is no longer paid!”

• Bring Tara along cause she’s a chopper.

• Caoimhe ransacking the workshop, more power cells, any bullets she finds.

• Shiv to underclass: “don’t eat the food”

• A Goodbye to the Ravens, they are free to die finally

• An overview of weapons

• Shiv notices a culvert.

• The forest is angry, exists here out of spite.

• Small doses of the potion of vigor for everyone.

• The broken statuary garden.

• The jangle of bells from the upper floor.

• Caoimhe knows there’s anger.

• An intro to St. Samuel. His dinner is delivered.

Session 28

Recap

• Everything is fucked and we’re going to die — Michelle
• Nightjar brought food
• He means everyone harm
• Tara with them

Start

• Discussing how to distract the saint.
• Some debris embedded in tree line.
• Devlin worried about the blind-bishop blindsight.
• Shiv’s plan of maybe poisoning him.
• Back around to sneaking in and making a distraction.
• Maybe a fire?
• Stick the everburning torch into a hollow in a tree on the far side. Wait for him to do something and then go.
• Water+statue.
• Binds to the tree-flame, torches alight.
• Flight downward, pull door closed behind
• Find the root cellar.
• Find the workshop.
• Find the altar. Red ribbons!

Break

• Onto the tree, into the tangles.
• Crescent moon over circle that surrounds a squiggly dot coin
• Chumsley the “pika”
• Trellace of ivy, flowers within
• Down to the briar path door
• The jar amongst the eggs
• Dead egg, bird cry
• Attempting to open the briar path
• Caoimhe aiming at the bird
• Bird smashing up everything
• Flight into the briar path