While there, one of the mages undergoes a Seeking and achieves Arete 4, marking a significant personal breakthrough in the middle of an already unstable situation.

Following the lead from the Riverbed Boys, the group heads out toward the Salton Sea. There, they encounter a second entity, distinct from the one they had previously seen. This creature is blue, contrasting with the red one from before, reinforcing the idea that these are not singular anomalies but part of a larger system.

Realizing they are missing critical context, the cabal returns to the aunt’s library to investigate her actions more directly. Using Time magick, they look back to see what she had been studying. What they uncover reframes everything: the aunt had used mind control to influence the entire local mage coalition, pushing them to assist her. Her goal was not to fully break the prison, but to bend it enough to allow something through, specifically the creature’s child.

They also learn a deeper truth about the prison itself. It is not a passive structure. It is maintained by the slow destruction of the land, effectively feeding on the environment to sustain the bindings.

With this knowledge, the session turns into a moral and strategic debate. The creatures are clearly dangerous, but they are also part of a system that has been deliberately maintained, possibly for a reason. The cabal struggles with whether they should oppose the creatures as threats, or consider aiding them given the unnatural and destructive nature of their imprisonment.

The session closes without a final decision, but with the stakes clarified: the cabal now understands that they are not dealing with a single monster, but a broader, deliberate mechanism involving multiple entities, a failing prison, and the legacy of the aunt’s intervention.

The group begins the night still reeling from what they witnessed at East Jesus. After time is taken to recover from the encounter with the television installation, the vision of the conquistador, and the manifestation of the paradox spirit, the cabal chooses to move on rather than dwell on what they saw. As the desert heat breaks, they head toward the music camp.

They arrive to find the largest gathering of people they’ve seen so far in Slab City. Around thirty-five people sit and stand around a makeshift stage, listening to a toothless, cross-eyed guitarist singing a bleak, honest song about loss and endurance. The mood is heavy, but alive.

The cabal disperses into the crowd:

• One member takes over the sound system, shifting the tone from somber reflection to shared experience, energizing the group and drawing people together through music.

• Another moves through the crowd providing medical aid, stabilizing injuries and helping those suffering from dehydration and exhaustion.

• Others begin conversations, including one with Eli and a man called Razor Tom, whose drug-fueled philosophy reveals a deeper truth: many in the Slabs are chasing a spiritual connection they’ve already lost.

Meanwhile, quieter interactions unfold. The guitarist, revealed to be more than human, speaks to one of the cabal about belonging and the necessity of finding a “flock.” He gifts her a feather, which is later revealed to be spiritually significant.

As the group settles into the scene, those sensitive to magical forces begin to notice something wrong.

A working is active in the area.

Through investigation, the cabal discovers:

• Injured, non-awakened people are being further harmed.

• That harm is being converted into quintessence.

• The quintessence is being distributed randomly to Awakened individuals present.

At first, this appears predatory. But deeper analysis reveals a different purpose: the effect acts as a brutal filter. It weakens those who cannot survive the Slabs, pushing them out before they become a larger problem, while simultaneously empowering those who can endure.

The cabal debates intervention, but before acting, they identify the likely source: the guitarist himself.

They confront him.

The Crow

The entity, calling himself “Beak,” admits to what he’s doing, but rejects the cabal’s assumptions. He is not hiding, and he is not apologizing.

His perspective is simple:

• The world is not fair, and survival requires enduring compounded hardship.

• The Slabs are already dangerous; his actions make that truth unavoidable.

• By pushing out the weak early, he prevents greater suffering later.

He frames his role as necessary, not malicious.

During the conversation, several key revelations emerge:

• He is not human, but a spirit-tied being (likely a Corax or similar entity).

• He has a long-standing relationship with the “man in the hat” (the paradox entity encountered previously).

• He knows of Paige Holloway and confirms she was “good,” but died because she stood against forces embedded in the Slabs.

Most importantly, he makes it clear:

• The truth of what happened to Paige cannot be uncovered in the physical world.

• Answers lie in Spirit or Time.

• Salvation Mountain is a place where those paths can be accessed.

He warns them directly: pursuing the truth openly will get them killed, just as it did Paige.

After offering a final piece of aid (the feather as a means of calling him), he transforms into a massive raven and leaves.

Salvation Mountain

The cabal travels to Salvation Mountain, arriving late at night. There, they are stopped by guardians who control access to the site.

The rules are clear:

• The mountain is a node of immense importance.

• No one is allowed to perform major workings there without approval.

• To gain access, they must secure support from the “Sun Court.”

• Four supporters grant entry; six allow them to perform large-scale magic.

The cabal attempts to explain their intentions, but their lack of a clear plan and their openness about using Time and Spirit immediately raises red flags. They are denied access for now.

They leave with two conclusions:

1. If they want to use the mountain, they must play by the system and gather support.

2. They don’t yet know exactly what they intend to do, which will be a problem either way.

The Desert Path

As they regroup, Ian’s stone begins to react again. This time, it does not point toward Salvation Mountain, but away from it.

The group chooses to follow it.

The path is deliberate and indirect:

• It leads them away from the mountain,

• Then loops back from another direction,

• Avoiding obvious lines of sight or detection.

Eventually, it guides them to a buried jeep in the desert.

Before they can investigate further, the tentacled entity from earlier attacks.

The Creature

The entity strikes violently:

• Twilight is nearly killed in the initial hit.

• Others are knocked aside as it attempts to engulf them.

Through magical insight, the cabal learns:

• The creature is not malicious.

• It is a being that was once contained.

• Repeated failed attempts to control it have only made it more dangerous over time.

It behaves like a mistreated predator, not a thinking enemy.

The cabal responds quickly:

• Life magic stabilizes the wounded.

• A portal to the Umbra is opened (after initial failure and complications).

• The group retreats rather than attempting to destroy the creature.

Into the Umbra

Crossing into the spirit world, the environment shifts dramatically:

• The desert becomes shallow, mineral-heavy water.

• The landscape feels alien and fluid.

As they move deeper, a boat approaches them across the water.

The session ends as the figures aboard the boat come into view.

Where Things Stand

By the end of Game 3, the cabal has learned:

• The Slabs are actively regulated by unseen forces and harsh systems of survival.

• Not all harmful effects are malicious; some serve a larger equilibrium.

• Paige Holloway died investigating something real and dangerous.

• The truth cannot be found through normal means.

• Salvation Mountain is key, but access is controlled.

• There are alternative paths into the Umbra, and they have already found one.

And most importantly:

They are no longer just observers. They are now moving directly into whatever killed Paige.

From there, the group chose to move out and investigate further, heading toward East Jesus.

East Jesus – The Broadcast

When they arrived, they found an area filled with old, broken televisions. What initially looked like junk quickly turned into something else when several of the TVs powered on by themselves.

Messages began to come through:

• “We have not forgotten.”

• “When you are in an obullete, you learn to feed on the darkness.”

This was not random static or coincidence. It was directed, coherent, and hostile in tone. The group immediately understood they were being addressed, not just observing something.

The psychological pressure hit almost immediately. One of the characters began vomiting water laced with gold, a physical and symbolic reaction that reinforced that whatever was present was already affecting them directly, not just externally.

The Spirit World and the Beast

At that point, Ian’s blue rock , his separated avatar , forcibly pulled multiple members of the group into the spirit world.

This wasn’t a careful transition. It was abrupt and invasive.

Inside that space, they were able to directly perceive the entity they had only been theorizing about before. It matched the pattern they had been uncovering:

• It was inhuman and multi-formed

• It existed across layers of reality

• It did not behave like a normal predator

Critically, it ignored one of the characters entirely, suggesting either:

• That individual is not readable to it

• Or is outside whatever pattern the entity is feeding on

That detail matters more than it looks at first glance.

The Time Effect and the Mistake

After the encounter, the group attempted to share the experience with those who had not seen it by using a Time effect to replay the moment.

That worked, but it went further than intended.

Instead of only showing the past, the effect also pierced forward, revealing something that had not happened yet.

They saw:

• A man in a trench coat

• Wearing a large, distinctive hat

This wasn’t just a vision. By observing it and reacting to it, the group interfered with the natural course of that event. They didn’t just witness the future, they broke the path that would have led to it.

Old Bones

That interference manifested immediately.

Instead of whatever that future was supposed to be, they encountered a Paradox spirit, referred to as Old Bones.

This wasn’t a random backlash. It had identity and presence, something shaped by the disruption they caused.

The group did not fight it. Instead, they showed it respect, treating it more like an entity to be acknowledged than an enemy to be destroyed.

That mattered.

Because of that approach, the interaction resolved without escalation, and Josh’s character was given the hat that had been seen in the disrupted future.

End State

By the end of the session, several things had fundamentally shifted:

• The entity is now confirmed as active, aware, and capable of reaching through technology and perception

• The group has been directly contacted by something using the TVs

• Ian’s avatar is no longer just a quirk, it is actively dragging people across layers of reality

• The group interfered with fate using Time magic and immediately paid for it

• Old Bones, a Paradox spirit, has now entered their story as a direct consequence

• The hat is not just an item, it is a piece of a broken future now carried in the present

This is where the game changed from investigation into cause-and-effect consequences. They are no longer just uncovering something old. They are now actively altering how it unfolds.

The morning after the sandstorm, the cabal regrouped at the Slab City library. None of you had been in the Slabs more than two weeks, and already things were unraveling. Page is dead. What she was working on is unclear. But it is clear she was digging into something she was not supposed to.

While gathering yourselves, Ian spent time studying the Tome of Spirits and successfully uncovered the true name of a local rock spirit: Gragnock Stoneheart. That knowledge gives him leverage over at least one entity in this desert.

The morning’s talk about survival drifted into action when some of you decided to head out in search of food, joking about hunting pigs. Mark called on his abundance spirit, Rixos, who guided the group north. After about a mile of walking, you found an outlying feeding camp run by a woman everyone calls Grandma.

Grandma’s camp feeds people once for free, then expects work in return, but no one gets turned away hungry. Twilight hit it off with Grandma and her dog Moonlight, and some of you helped out around the camp. You learned that the local wild dogs are fed with scraps to keep them from turning dangerous. You also learned that water is the real currency out here. The inlet is deadly and claims lives every year. Tankline water can be bought or traded for. Some people hike or scavenge their way to Niland for bottled water. Either way, water is harder to secure than food.

While there, Ian played dominoes with an old timer called Pastor. Pastor worked something subtle into the game, and Mark could feel that magic was involved. Pastor deliberately let Ian win, then warned that Page had been asking questions that should not be asked. He suggested the group talk to a man named Eli, someone who helps new people get oriented.

Eli arrived later on a bicycle with a guitar on his back and asked the new arrivals to step aside. He played a slow bluesy song that muffled the area around you, creating a private bubble so you could talk without being overheard. Eli laid out how things work among the Awakened in Slab City. Salvation Mountain is a controlled power site. Sleepers do not go inside, and access is managed by those “in the know.” The Sun Court is where disputes get brought when the community needs mages to weigh in. He also made the rule absolutely clear: you do not use magick to force your will on other mages. Being charming is fine. Compulsion is not.

Eli then explained something more unsettling. Water scarcity is part of what keeps Slab City hidden. If the place becomes too comfortable, too clean, too easy to survive in, it draws attention from the outside, especially the Union. Trying to “fix” Slab City’s scarcity creates its own danger. Eli warned you about a local Paradox spirit called Dry Bones, something that targets people who become too “water fat,” punishing those whose abundance becomes obvious. He spoke like someone who had been hit by it before.

Before you left, Grandma sent you off with thermoses of food, but no water.

Back at the library, while the others were gone, Laura investigated Page’s notes and the basement. She discovered Page had been chasing a real, hidden problem, and she was willing to cross lines to do it. Page appears to have drugged other mages to force information out of them. There are missing books tied to whatever she uncovered, and it looks like she was searching for ways to solve it, not just understand it.

Laura also uncovered what the library itself is doing. The shelves shift and swap books when you aren’t looking, guided by what you are searching for. If you don’t know exactly what you need, the library keeps offering different answers. Books stored in the basement do not change. The whole building is under a permanent, layered enchantment involving Entropy, Mind, Matter, and Prime.

And it is powered by dark magick. The kind that lasts beyond the caster’s lifetime. The implication was simple: someone was sacrificed to keep the library’s effect running for years. Page cast the spell, but Page was not the sacrifice.

Damien, meanwhile, focused on keeping his bees alive in the basement heat, using magick to reinforce the hive and keep it stable.

After regrouping and sharing what you’d learned, the cabal decided to push outward again, aiming for the more tourist-facing side of Slab City where money, trade, and supplies might be easier to extract. On the way, the heat took a toll. A couple of you got banged up and bruised from the trek, and it was made clear you can’t just “walk it off” out here without proper water.

By late afternoon, you reached The Last Cup, the more upscale coffee stop that caters to the richer van crowd. The place had fans, solar panels, music, and the kind of comfort that felt unreal after the walk. Behind the counter was Tasman Quill, openly drug-friendly and blunt, with a crack pipe sitting out like it was nothing.

Twilight immediately started working her as a social angle, looking for an opening to sell, trade, and build a party pipeline. During the first tense exchange, some of you noticed Tasman has a realistic artificial arm that is clearly technomagical. That raised alarms fast, until she cut through it by admitting she used to be Syndicate. She said she ran when she couldn’t meet her quotas and ended up in the one place people only buy overpriced coffee.

The session ended with the cabal inside The Last Cup, establishing a wary relationship with Tasman Quill, and setting up the next beat: turning trade goods, medical help, and drugs into water and influence, while keeping an eye on both the Union and whatever Page had uncovered that got her killed.