The cabal begins by traveling to the Riverbed Boys at the Saltwind Line, looking for answers about the creature they believe is loose. During the conversation, they learn something that immediately throws off their assumptions: the Riverbed Boys claim they know exactly where the creature is. This contradicts the cabal’s understanding and introduces the possibility that either the creature is not as free as they thought, or there is more than one.
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.
