In the morning, amidst breakfast served by The Travail’s incredible cooks, a Helper named Tabitha came and enlisted help cleaning up the remnants of a research area. Among destroyed books a number of documents were found, including some indicating that some of the Heroes of The Travail had been transformed into monsters as a result of experiments they were conducting during The Interdiction Age.
Another Helper named Simon found a “leak in reality” in The Travail and recruited some individuals to help with maintenance to “plug the leak”. The location where the repairs needed to be made was adjacent to a section of The Skeleton Engine.
Two Junior Managers from a world named Ordination came to The Travail to solicit future business connections.
Gwendolyn led a walk through the woods retrieving various flora to be concentrated into infused dyes for communal magic.
The Hunters’ Guild took a group to Aburu to investigate Thornweaver Vine. They found that the areas where there were Thornweaver Vine that was cut back were found to be completely devoid of Aburu’s native primal magic.
A representative of the Scalewatch, Commander Richait, came to discuss Aburu’s ongoing issue regarding the imbalance of the world’s inherent primal magical energies. This imbalance is caused by Thornweaver Vine sapping the primal magic from the world while there are wildlife on Aburu, specifically the Velocara, that have their own well of primal magic. The imbalance between the Velocara and the world itself was causing the Velocara to become uncharacteristically violent and to wander outside of their normal territories. He asked that a way be found to, ideally, balance the level of primal magic between the Velocara and Aburu. He also mentioned that it was unnervingly easy to open a Portal from the Scalewatch headquarters to The Travail. This would later be revealed to be because The Travail had “docked” at Aburu, overlapping itself with the other world and facilitating Portal and mundane travel between the two worlds.
Members of the Navigators’ Guild came looking for old friends among The Heroes of the Travail and were surprised to find them missing. They engaged in some musical performance and briefly chatted with some folks. The new residents of The Travail seemed overwhelmed by their current situation at the time but would do well to remember that guild and the two prominent figures that visited, Captain J.H. Windy (whose sundial was found at the site of the destroyed Hedgewinx) and Swabbie Salvamarro.
Helper informed everyone that The Travail had docked at Aburu because there was a Source Storm that would take place in the overlap between Aburu and The Travail. The request was made for everyone to either venture into the area to retrieve unrefined Source or station themselves to help The Travail process the Source into the world. There are facets of The Travail’s power that use Source as a fuel and the world had not been refueled in this capacity in a long time, assumedly since The Interdiction.
Between the Scalewatch and the Navigators’ Guild, word is slowly spreading across the universe that the Heroes of the Travail are missing.
A disheveled Helper came running into town raving about a terrifying looking crowd heading into a cave. From the looks of the flashes coming from the scene, there probably wasn't anything good that could come of it. A ritual was found in progress being conducted by flesh constructs and scarecrow constructs. Luckily this process was interrupted and more clues regarding the missing Hedgewinx were found. It seemed this nefarious group, after much research, found a way to destroy a Hedgewinx: a powerful and terrible feat. Attempting to bind a creation of their own in its place, the destruction of the Hedgewinx seemed to begin the destabilization of the flow of magic in the surrounding area.
After dinner Mortimer informed everyone that one of The Travail’s World Beasts wanted to meet them. On the field they met The Watcher of Thresholds, who was referenced in the documents found that morning. The World Beast immediately malfunctioned Mortimer and attacked, aided by skeletal undead created by The Skeleton Engine. While Mortimer led some to The Dark Waters, a phenomenon of The Travail, others engaged it and the undead. Amidst the melee, the World Beast was able to telepathically communicate that its mind needed to be removed in pieces, soaked in The Dark Waters, and returned to it to restore its lucidity. Once this feat was accomplished, it banished the undead and began heading to The Dark Waters. It paused before entering and asked if it had permission to enter. With permission, it entered and absorbed some of The Dark Waters into itself, becoming a fully lucid World Beast of The Travail once more.
The Watcher of Thresholds then informed everyone that the world itself recognized them as the Heroes of The Travail now. It answered what questions it was able to, but it did not have memories during the time it was locked away from The Dark Waters. It knew of the early years of The Travail, before The Interdiction, and that other World Beasts existed then but that they may be different now. It was able to sense The Travail being “docked” at Aburu and, when asked, provided a ceremony that could balance a world’s magical energies, provided at least one of that world’s World Beasts agreed to assist. The Watcher assumed the mantle of keeper of the Dark Waters and spoke of their design: a place in The Travail that could become places that don’t exist. It agreed to help in any way it could, but needed time to recover from its decades-long ordeal. It thanked the new Heroes for what they did and bid them farewell for the time being.
