A high ranking member of the Wayfinders' Guild has not been heard from in several weeks and the Guild is becoming increasingly anxious. The Guild requests the aid of competent individuals to find out what has happened to her. Pay is 20 Riel in the first instance for finding out the information, with bonuses for resolving any complications that might arise.
Walker Chill - Joe
Silvio Pastore - Dave
Rodrigo Robertson - Alex
The party reach the village to find various stories have come to life following the arrival of a strange red-skinned man and his entourage. Lorretta seems to have died as a result of being forced to play out a part in a story. Walker looks through some of Lorretta's notes for a clue of who may have wanted vengence on her and finds that she was doing experiments on behalf of the Guild. The party take the corpse, along with some of the storybook characters back to Acryn. On the way back they meet the local anomaly, who tells them that they met a red-skinned man, who claimed to be a devotee of the Pivot of the World.
There Walker is debriefed by Councillor James Walker, who explains that the Pivot of the World was obsessed with someone called Leaf, a Wayfinder who Lorretta was involved in experimenting on. He speculates that the god has somehow created a new version of Leaf. He offers an extra 50 riel to the party to stop whatever it is Leaf is up to.
The party track Leaf down, who has a group of wizards trying to unmake and then rewrite a bit of reality. Rodrigo, who has been affected by the unstable reality, is having trouble distinguishing reality and fiction and starts going along with Leaf's plan. Silvio and Walker find themselves unable to defeat Leaf and his group but Walker persuades Leaf in to a duel of their Worldshaping abilities. Leaf's ritual is significantly pushed back but not stopped altogether. As Silvio tries to kill Leaf he disappears and the Pivot of the World reanimates his fallen servants, which eventually the party push back. Walker shapes a barrier around the damaged reality, which is holding it back… for now.
As they return to the Wayfinder's Guild the party tell James Walker what happened. Although they did nt manage to capture Leaf, he is satisfied that they did as much as they could and arranges their payment. Wayfinders are sent to investigate the ritual site. On further study Walker finds out that the storybook creatures appear to have souls and also that some of the villagers are missing. He is horrified by the implications. Rodrigo reports to the Watch, who place a bounty on Leaf's head and put out a call for anyone with information on red-skinned individuals to come forward.
The Guild speaks to some of the red-skinned people that the party captured, who are able to explain something of the recent events in Skira. In particular the disappearance of their god, the Crimson Mother; the ascendancy of the Pivot of the World and the fact that the Pivot appears to be in league with Frederick Dines. The Guild is trying to control the flow of this information to only those who need to know but it is obvious they are in a state of some panic.
All
Rodrigo