A villager from the distant northern hamlet of Parrin's Field comes to Acryn seeking hunters to bring down the beasts that took their child.
They cannot offer much, just a small purse pulled together by their neighbours and the thanks of a grateful community.
The party travel to Parrin's Field, seeing off a group of deserters and managing not to offend Green Thomas and his band as they go. There they learn that whilst unknown in Acryn, the village is actually relatively well known in Margush as the subject of a bawdy ballad 'The Flowers of Parrin's Field'. It seems it was also incorrectly placed on the map by the lovestruck cartographer who penned the song, following his short fling with the villager mystic Tanya, an adherent of the Dreaming Ocean.
Looking for the child snatching clawfiend the party make their way to the monastery of the Balancing Monks, whereupon whilst Haydn is busy earning the chief monk's respect with his sure footing in battle, Ragnar attempts to study the Monk's methods of personal perfection and ends up getting pushed off a cliff!
Saved by a hastily quaffed Death Ward and healing from Anabel, Ragnar is shortly joined by the Traitor Priestess as she is overwhelmed by hallucinations leaking from the misty clouds covering the valley below. Haydn gets everyone back on their feet and they set off looking for the Fiend.
Instead they find themselves coming to another, more idealised version of Parrin's Field, and visiting the tower erected there they discover that the cartographer Anwe is responsible for the kidnapping. Slightly mad and obssessed with the Flux-version of Tanya he found here, he has been using his own powers to try to stabilise the region, however the strain has grown too much, and he has stolen the child Haley, in the hope of creating a permanent guardian for the village he inadvertently created.
The party persuade him to come back with them to the real village, and try to find a consenting individual to shoulder the burden with him. In the meantime whilst he is away, Ragnar will take on the role of dreaming observer through the flux-Tanya's faux miracles.
Anbael and Hayden return with Anwe, fighting off a pack of genuine claw fiends as the top the cliff. Despite his best efforts however Anwe isn't able to persuade anyone in Parrin's Field that they want to abandon their lives to watch over an imaginary village. Having prevented the truth from coming out they persuade Anwe to stick to his word and see the child returned to her parents. Anabel consults the Traitor on what to do and is instructed to rescue the child and destroy Flux-Tanya.
Meanwhile Ragnar has been hard at work dream indoctinating Haley and the villagers with his objectivist-esque ideology. When they return they find the locals rather less friendly, but shoulder past and into Anwe's tower, there Anabel attacks Tanya and drives the flux entity away. They manage to wrest Haley from the enchanted crib above, barely surviving her dream guardians and then head outside only to be confronted by the rest of the village. They strike down the flux villagers and apparently finish off Tanya, before leaving with the babe in their arms. Anwe is left behind, his mind seemingly broken by seeing his love cut down and his nostalgic dream shattered.
Back at Parrin's Field once again the real Tanya notes that Haley's mind is still stuck in its dreams by the ritual. She performs her own rite to send in the adventurers to rouse the child and they find themselves within a Parrin's Field now dominated by a vast regal citadel. Phantom defenders sally out to drive the party off, but they overcome the first wave and as more arrive Haydn stalls them with his diplomatic skills whilst Ragnar uses his Leader Imbued voice to drive Haley from he dreams to achieve true power in reality.
The child awakes and the party are jumped by a grateful Denny who bundles the meagre reward (18R) into their hands and tries to persuade them to take some of his cows as extra conpensation. They nobly refuse, with Ragnar simply asking that on her 11th Birthday Haley be given a letter encouraging her to seek out the Leader Temple and fulfil her grand destiny.
The party go their separate ways, Ragnar returning to train with the Balancing Monks and managing to master the Way of the Raptor without sustaining any permanent injuries. Haydn and Anabel return to Acryn and there the government functionary is cautioned not to waste department resources unless she is sure that actual dangerous wildlife is involved.
Ragnar has mastered the Way of the Raptor and gains the Greater Forms skill, along a single RESIST STRIKEDOWN per adventure
Anabel and Hayden have impressed the anomaly Green Thomas with their charity.