The College of the Stars has put out a request for adventurers to look into a potentially awkward situation. Professor Litmus Runes of the Department of Prophecies Past, Present and Future seeks adventurers to investigate stories of a ‘Dark Beast Rising’ some way distant in the forest to the west of Acryn. Pay will be ten Riel, with a twenty Riel bonus danger money if any unexpected, expected or semi-expected dangers are encountered.

• Henrietta Sawyer
• Jeremy Fitzwilliam
• Dauntless
• Colin Fletcher
• Samuel Skye

The party head out to the patch of flux where the stories claim the “beast” will soon rise. On their way they bandits, man-eating goats, and shadowy fingers who warn that the players must not pass beyond the next village. In the village of Hamun, the party discover that this (and several other vilages) are protected by the Guardians of the Gate in exchange for a small amount of food and a guarantee that no-one will pass beyond the village. They've all heard of the prophecy, but consider it a silly story. The party decide not to violate the Guardian's no-entry zone until they feel an event which appears to combine magic, the consensus, and flux, at which point they race towards the source at the centre of the Guardian's no-entry zone. The party manage to convince the Guardians to allow them through to the ritual in order to end it, they are allowed past and destroy the creature at the centre of the ritual. They are then required to swear on an artefact that they will ensure that the beast can never arise again. An oath one of them does not successfully pass (entirely due to a malfunctioning artefact).

Eventually the party head to the centre of the Guardian's territory, losing Jeremy to some voracious topiary, his soul barely survives within some unusual alchemical goo which was once a gleam. Nearby the party discover a deep cavern complex inhabited by an ancient order of mages. It turns out that the mages had come here over a hundred years ago, creating the Guardians and the story of the Beast to scare people away, only at some point the Guardians forgot their real mission, remembering only the cover story. Discovering abundant mana reserves here, they had delved deeper and deeper, until at some point they discovered a real beast deep underground. They attempted to enslave it to their will, but the best they managed was to contain it. That was until 4 years ago when their powers greatly strengthened and they discovered a fake beast had been created in the lands above them. They slowly started siphoning power from the real beast to the fake, with the aim of being able to fully control the fake. With the fake destroyed, the real beast will be awakening and freeing itself from its bonds.

With little time left to them, the party head deeper into the complex, fighting their way past dangerous magical dogs, and coming upon the High Magus (who appears to have lost their mind). The party defeat the High Magus, then with the aid of the other mages fight their way to the Beast and keep it occupied while the mages attempt to siphon off its power again. They eventually manage to subdue and rebind the beast, with most of its power siphoned off to the mages.

With the mages new power they are able to restore Jeremy to something akin to alive (although he is now a gleam). They are also happy to stay within their caves, keeping the beast from arising again, and investigating the limits of their new power.