Session 1

We begin with Eileen Quint

. She has brought The Sixth Tinwheel, a Tinwheel that her father, Enzo Quint created just before his sudden disappearance, to the Saetorim Institute. She has hired the founder of the Institute, Corrin Fane to find her father and shed light on the mystery of his supposed kidnapping.

Corrin Fane

enlists the help of Arlo Livingston, a new hire to the Institute, Lucian Cullpepper, a professor at The Basentia who was a close colleague of Enzo's, and Sulazar Stillwater, an old partner of Corrin's who has familiarity with the Msanti down in the Bathysward.

This intrepid and equally unlikely crew decide to head to Ari Vochard's

house, Eileen's other father. There, as they discuss their plan, a Protoxy from the Argentia showed up. Emere Renguard brought Eileen's brother, Vytas Quint, back from the steps of the Pal Tenach, higher than the Luminary on none other than Lotus, a new drug that has been circulating the streets of Meripol. Emere warns them that Vytas is on his last straw, and will be disavowed of his position in the Argentia if he does not get it together. He also notifies the crew that the Vigil are currently on their way to Enzo's house to begin their investigation into his disappearance (clearly Vytas must have slipped the lid, as Eileen and Ari were trying to go through the Institute to prevent the "official" authorities from getting involved).

Vytas, in his stupor, also talks to Eileen about getting more money from their father, specifically talking about Enzo. This sparks the idea that perhaps Enzo had left some clues as to what he was doing in his safety deposit box at the bank.

The crew decides to head to the Central Bank of Meripol

to check it out, as Vytas is able to give Eileen a key. On the way, they stop by Enzo's house, hoping to beat the Vigil there. Unfortunately, a group of detectives has already set up a crime scene and has begun going through all of Enzo's things, looking for clues.

Estelle Sartere

notices Arlo walking past, and stalks over to him, loosely accusing him of scoping out his own crime scene, insinuating towards his criminal endeavors. The conversation does not go well, but Eileen is able to talk to her instead, and gleans that the Vigil have in fact discovered and taken possession of The Second Tinwheel (though it is not known which it is at the time).

With nothing to do about it in the moment, they decide to head to towards the bank. Arlo tells the group he may have a way of getting the Tinwheel from the Vigil, and separates from the group to meet with his contact in the criminal underworld, Jax

. Sully heads to a food vendor while Lucian and Eileen head into the bank. While waiting in line, Roz Daras enters the bank and begins a bank robbery.

While waiting for food, Sully

receives a call from Henry Wulverstone that he has a job waiting for him back in the Bathysward.

Session 2

Arlo meets with Jax

, and asks if he can procure evidence from lockups at the Vigil. Jax says he can do it, but in return Arlo must go to a Sonxai warehouse and attempt to steal any information they have on how Lotus is produced. Arlo agrees, and the two part ways.

Meanwhile, Eileen and Lucian deal with a hostage situation. Roz Daras

takes Gerod Farrault, the Bank's manager, hostage, and orders him down into the vaults. Sully sneaks into the Bank from an alleyway, grabbing a piece of Rebar (that's narratively significant Rebar!). Inside, he meets up with Lucian and Eileen, and the three of them decide to go down into the vaults and attempt to stop the robbery.

The discover that the robbers are after Enzo's vault as well, though it is unclear whether that is of Roz's own accord, or if he was hired by someone. Sully manages to knock Roz unconscious with the Rebar, saving the day. The three of them convince Gerod to let them open Enzo's box and flee with the contents before the Vigil

could arrive.

They make their way back to the institute and reconvene with Corrin

.

Session 3

The contents of Enzo's safe included The First Tinwheel

and a number of purchase documents.

The crew listens to the Tinwheel with Corrin, and learn that Enzo

was looking in to some historical records detailing the The Church of Aphothis, a cult that operated in the ruin city of Mehnateruna many centuries ago. The cult supposedly enacted sacrifices that involved severing the Thread of their victims. Enzo postulates that perhaps the cult was somehow utilizing some power generated by the severing process.

The documents show that Enzo

was receiving money from Rikkart Lauten of the Lauten Family, one of Aljieudum's greatest Noble Houses. Rikkart himself, however, has been somewhat of a recluse for the last twenty years, as noted by Corrin. Enzo was also making purchases to a corporation called Crimson, which Sully recognizes as a different name used for the Sonxai. Enzo also had purchase orders for goods transported from the town of Gris by the Prisma Travel Corporation.

The team decides to go home for the day, and Sully

heads back to the Bathysward to take care of his job. He meets up with his assistant, Henry Wulverstone, who informs him that one of a few bathysphere's that had gone missing in the Ward a few months ago was discovered as wreckage a few miles offshore, and that Sully has been tasked with investigating.

Sully goes alone, taking a small single-personnel bathysphere out to the wreckage and investigates. He finds... nothing at first. Nothing in Engineering seems out of place, but there also seem to be no crew about. He heads to the bridge, needing to break out his welding equipment to do so. Inside, he discovers a shadowy figure, wearing an engineer's uniform standing atop a pile of bodies, all of their eyes removed, including the figure's. The figure calls out to Sully, who runs. The figure gives chase, but Sully manages to escape in his bathysphere and abandon the wreckage.

When he returns, he tells Henry

to call Vigil, then leaves, heading to Corrin's.

Session 4

Arlo meets with Jax

for a second time, retrieving the The Second Tinwheel. Jax tells Arlo that he must complete the job regarding the Sonxai warehouse and Lotus today, because they got wind of something and are currently in the process of going dark.

Arlo heads to the warehouse and sneaks in through the roof, discovering a warehouse full of row upon row of Lotus flowers, along with a Msanti

tasked with guarding the warehouse. Arlo manages to give the Deep Dweller the slip using his Space magic, locking himself in a small office-like room in the back of the warehouse. There, he discovers a bathymetric map of the ocean outside of Meripol, a spot far out into the ocean conspicuously marked, though there is no indication as to what it is. Arlo again uses the Aspect of Space to escape the warehouse.

The crew reconvenes at the Saetorim Institute

, and Corrin tells them that he has found a way to get them into one of the Lauten Family's galas as serving staff, which would allow them to snoop around the place.

A few days later, the crew head to the Gala. Sully

, Eileen, and Arlo attend posing as waitstaff, but Luci managed to get his own invitation through The Basentia.

During the commotion of the party, Arlo sneaks off and discovers a small courtyard with numerous plants. A man is in the middle of the courtyard, painting on the canvas. As Arlo approaches, he notices what the man is painting. A hollowed out eye in the clutches of black tendrils. The man notices Arlo, and turns to run.

Session 5

Arlo runs after the man, and catches up to him. When the man turns, Arlo notices that he is now a different person. Realization dawns that the man must be a Shifter

. He befriends the man, whose name is Elijah. Elijah admits that he has been hired by the Lauten Family for the last fifteen years to pose as Rikkart Lauten.

Back at the party, Eileen meets Vera Lauten

. Shortly after, Speaker of the High Authority, Rysha Tan Mei shows up unexpectedly. She finds a place for her and her entourage and begins questioning anyone who ventures close. Lucian approaches and she beckons him over. They chat, and he learns that she is also investigating the Lauten Family. She says that she met Enzo briefly when he came to Mehnateruna (during The Second Tinwheel) and that she wants to get to the bottom of what's going on. She tells Luci that she was there twenty years ago when Adam La Cour took students, including her and Rikkart Lauten, to the city, where they accidentally enacted a ritual in the Spirit Sanctum which caused Rikkart to lose his Thread.

She tells Luci that she will be in touch, and wants to help in whatever way she can.

Elijah

shows Arlo Rikkart's old room. Elijah notes that the room has been untouched since he started posing as Rikkart, none of the staff will go into the room, claiming that it is haunted. Inside the room, Arlo discovers a journal, supposedly written by the real Rikkart. The journal seems to document Rikkart's descent into madness after having his thread severed in Mehnateruna. The last words of the journal are "There is no light that I can see, down in the Dark Between."

The party wraps up, and the crew regroups on the way back to the train station to the city. They get on the train, discussing everything that they had learned, when further up in the train car a mysterious woman wearing a cloak attacks a man, placing a device on his chest. The device causes him to collapse to the ground. From it, a pool of black dripping smoke emerges, coalescing into the form of a large slug-like creature with spikes.

Session 6

The mysterious women disappears through the front of the train car. The crew is attacked by the slug monster and is overwhelmed. Arlo

attempts to escape towards the back of the train, but one of the creature's tendrils grasps on to him before he gets a chance. The creature's thrashing threatens to disrupt the train and send it careening a hundred feet from the tracks to the icy ravine below.

The team is overwhelmed by the creature's attacks, and Sully

is knocked unconscious by the creature, until Lucian creates a barricade using Material, and uses Gravity to launch the creature at the ceiling. Eileen uses Shape to shift into a Firehawk, and she launches flames at the creature, causing its sludge-like body to catch fire. Together, the crew defeats the creature, and its body begins to dissolve into a black ichor, evaporating into the air. Before it completely disappears, Lucian manages to bottle a small bit of the ichor. Arlo takes the strange brass device from the victim's chest.

The train slows to a stop, and Beron

, the conductor of the Grav-rail, bursts into the rear car, demanding to know what is going on. The crew explain, and after seeing the dead body, Beron is understandably upset at the prospect of filling out a report for this incident. He ushers the crew towards the front of the train, asking them to stick around once they return to the station to be questioned by the Vigil. They do, except Sully hides the device and the ichor away and steals from the train before the Vigil arrive.

None other than Estelle Sartere

shows up with two other members of the Vigil. She is surprised, and notes that she was actually on the way to the Saetorim Institute to speak with them when she got the call to investigate an incident at the train station.

She escorts the crew back to the institute, and questions Sully

on the events that took place in the bathyscaphe wreckage. She tells them that they should stop meddling in the investigation, and to let the Vigil handle it. The crew deduces that there is more than she is letting on, and after some convincing it is revealed that her niece, a scion of the Primal Spirit of Soul, along with many other Acronists in the city, have gone missing over the last few weeks. She believes it to be related to what the Institute has been investigating. They convince Estelle to trust them to continue their investigation so long as they keep her up-to-date, and a mutual partnership is opened between the crew and the Vigil.

After the Vigil

leave, the crew discuss with Corrin their discoveries. It is decided that the next course of action is to investigate the location out in the Sejun Sea, marked on the map retrieved from the Sonxai Lotus warehouse.