The following advertisement is passed around Acryn:

Professor Acorn of the Wayfinders' Guild is looking for competent adventurers to assist him with the refinement and testing of his new device. Applicants must be willing to travel and preferably have no personal qualm with issues of confinement. A payment of 90R will be made to any who successfully return as well as a negotiable bonus for the completed device Present yourself at the Wayfinders' Guild at 11:00am on the 2nd Saturday of this month for consideration

• Hugh Branch
• Man of Many Means
• Unit 03
• Senta Fernbach
• Richter
• Andrea Graves
• Xavier Octavio Sarmandastra

The Party are briefed about about Professor Acorn’s request to gain the assistance of a certain anomaly in creating some sort of prison involving some metallic spheres. They then set off along the main road to Caul….

….in a boat.

After rescuing some drowning innocents the party arrive at a small village that is believed to be near the location of the anomaly. They hear tales of “bad people” going missing in the nearby woods. The party ingeniously decides to adorn themselves with spikes and scowls and heads off into the woods.

Before too long a tunnel opens up beneath them and they are transported through the dark and are deposited in a cage inside a stone gaol. With them is an innocent missing villager who the Man of Many Means suddenly has an urge to consume. At the end of the fracas, with the villager’s, brain safely harvested. the party delve deeper into the gaol. They solve the puzzle of the Warden’s door before meeting the anomaly himself. He is convinced that the party are escaped convicts and attempts to entrap them as he flees down the twisting passageways. However the party manage instead to capture the Warden in a box and take him to the local village.

At the village they receive further instructions from Acorn’s assistant. They are to travel to the Lost Spaces so that entities captured in the metallic spheres can be transported to a safe location. During lunch the party talk to some children from the local orphange. Apart from one villager who Brother Tarkus is taking making to the Church of the Machine the party do not think anyone survived. Luckily Xavier remembers that actually the orphanage master DID return and was there all along. And so he was (as long as nobody looks too closely at his soul). The party then set off to the Lost Spaces…

…in a boat!

A short while into the trip the boat is boarded by a swarm of mirror creatures that attempt to entrance the party. Half the party commence staring contests however they are all outdone by Hugh who uses “identity theft” on the identity altering creature. Many of the player party find themselves taking on parts of nearby people’s appearance or character. After some heated discussions and some therapeutic trepanning by Unit 03 the party start a ritual to bind the prison location.

The party succeed to a degree. The prison is formed (although it may not contain entities of great metaphysical power), the Warden agrees to guard the entrance, and the party emerge from the Lost Spaces.

They see a small lizard nearby in the flux and attempt to catch it in the metallic sphere. However as they do there is a great rumbling around them. The world seems to reject the usage of the passage between the sphere and the Lost Places. The small lizard fades away and is replaced by a great dragon-like beast. The party eventually beat it down and it disappears into nothing. The sphere shakes once…. Twice… and becomes still.

The party return to the Wayfinder’s Guild and returned the device to Professor Acorn. He is pleased with the results even if some of the adventures are acting a bit strange and so pays the party 125R each. One of the two party members who look like Xavier throws the sphere at a Wayfinder guard but nothing happens. The two Xaviers are taken to a “calm room” until they settle down whilst the rest of the party leave. After a while one of the Xaviers has calmed down and is released. However one now looks and acts like one of the Wayfinder guards. From the reports of the party the Guild deduce that this must be Hugh. They decide to send him to work in the deep vaults as the only people nearby for him to take the personality of are the most loyal guild members. Meanwhile many party members attempt to rid themselves of their acquired “soul poison”. The Man of Many Means uses his alchemical skills to try to identify the posion and eventually uses alchemical manipulation to mitigate most of the symptoms.

Unit 03 seeks the aid of Jimmy Hoskins who agrees to rid him of the poison in exchange for a small promise - To help Jimmy take over the organisation of “Two Knife”. After this he stores his recently obtained brain in the church of the machine and welcomes a new cultist (a child from the village) to the fold.

Senta takes a child back to her old orphanage where she spends some time playing with the children. She seems happy and is left here to her own devices. Nothing bad could possibly occur due to this.

Haydn didn’t find himself particularly afflicted by the identity poison but gets the Man of Many Means’ address so he can pass on his payment from the guild.

Andrea seeks out the church of the Splintered Man where he explains his current affliction. The kindly man recommends some night classes being held at the church. Andrea attends one sessions only to find that the focus is on accepting the new identities rather than removing them. Andrea decides to try wounding magic instead. After getting in touch with a mid level wounding mage he pays 101R (most of this is to replace dissolved knives) to be the subject of a wounding ritual. This removes the affliction from his soul and Andrea convinces the Wayfinders Guild to reimburse part of the cost.

After several weeks of working in the deep vaults Hugh is left alone for too long and enough of him returns to decide that he wants to leave now. He shapes his way out of the basement through the flux and back to his ship where he feels a bit more like his old self for now.

• Gain 125R

• Mild Mirror Poisoning - Each adventure Senta takes on one characteristic from another party member for that adventure

• Loses 101R to wounding mage
• Gains 51 reimbursement

• Horrendous Mirror Poisoning - Each encounter Hugh takes on the appearance and personality of a random party member. He remains himself when he is either alone for 5 minutes or on his boat.
• Gains Truly Favoured by the Splintered Man quirk