Session 27: Last Days in Belleville

The players return to the jungle to find Sable. She is where they left her — or nearby. The Wild Things know the party now and do not threaten them, but they watch. Sable is sitting with the largest of them, a creature the size of a draft horse with horns and golden eyes, who she has named Maurice. She is braiding something into his fur.

What Sable needs (and what she won’t ask for)

• She knows the deal with Dagon didn’t fix anything. She says this first, preemptively, before anyone can tell her: ‘I know he’s not done. I’m not stupid. I thought — I thought if I gave him something he’d take it and stop. That’s not how it works, is it.’ She has already figured this out. She doesn’t need the players to explain it.
• She killed her mother. She does not regret it in the way people expect — she regrets that it was necessary, not that it happened. ‘She was going to give me to him. She sat there and told me it would be a honor. For Grimm. For the family line.’ A pause. ‘She wasn’t wrong about what Dagon wanted. She was just wrong that it was fine.’
• She doesn’t know what to do next. This is the real vulnerability. She has been surviving, not planning. She stayed with the Wild Things because they don’t want anything from her. She hasn’t thought past tomorrow.
• She has something. She produces it reluctantly: a folded piece of the same weightless paper as the envelope Cassidy found, sealed with the same open-hand mark. She found it pressed into the bark of a tree three days ago. It has her name on it. She hasn’t opened it because she doesn’t want to know what it says.

Back at the Coconut Grove Inn. Cassidy has given them the private room — no charge, no questions. The party and Sable have a moment of relative safety. This is where both envelopes — Cassidy’s find and the one Sable has been carrying — get opened.

The envelope Cassidy found opens when any Germonian bloodline heir touches it — meaning Sable. Sable’s own envelope opens the moment she picks it up. The wax doesn’t break; it simply releases, as if it was always open and only the expectation of a seal kept it shut.

INSTRUMENT NO. 7,441 — THE HOUSE OF GERMONIA  Be it recorded that the following obligation, originally contracted between Dagon, Prince of the Darkened Deep, and a named heir of the Germonian bloodline, has been purchased, consolidated, and transferred in full to the holder of the present instrument.  The debt remains outstanding. The terms remain unchanged. One daughter of the Germonian bloodline, freely given, in exchange for dominion over the fractured kingdom of Grimm.  Notice is hereby served that this instrument is now held by The Ledger. Collection will proceed at The Ledger’s discretion. The debtor is advised that all prior arrangements with the original creditor are superseded. This debt is no longer Dagon’s to collect.  Presented in good faith and perfect record. — The Ledger

PERSONAL NOTICE — SABLE OF GERMONIA  You did not make a contract. You made an offering. There is a difference.  What you gave Dagon was a gift, not a payment. Gifts do not close debts. The debt of your bloodline predates you, and it predates your mother. It is not your fault. It is also not resolved.  I am not your enemy. I am also not your friend. I am the record.  If you wish to know more about the nature of this debt and whether it can be voided, you should ask the people you are traveling with to take you where the compass points.  — The Ledger

As soon as Sable finishes reading her letter, the person holding the buoy feels a cold pulse of energy.

• Buoy Hazard: The buoy pulses cold, necrotic energy dealing 2D6 damage. It will do it again as it finishes it’s code.
• The Discovery: Disarming or destroying the buoy causes the surrounding sea to clear immediately. Pry open the brass core to reveal a tracking relay: bronze mechanisms imbued with an unknown magic that pulses out Sable’s name, and an enchanted brass compass whose needle spins and pulses toward four distinct bearings.

The Four Pathways

Using the buoy’s brass compass and local nautical charts the party maps out four distinct routes forward.

Destination Briefings

1. Northeast to Wonderland
   • The Route: Sailing around the head of the Dragon past the island nations.
   • The Situation: The Queen of Hearts is enforcing tyrannical rule, and the Ledger-Keeper holds her original contract with the Red Queen. Resolving this debt requires navigating Wonderland’s surreal legal logic.
   • Sable’s Take: Wonderland’s bizarre rules might allow her to legally void her blood contract through non-linear logic.
2. North to The Highlands
   • The Route: A short sail north across the Cerulean sea or a airship ride.
   • The Situation: McGonagall has been actively investigating the Ledger-Keeper and the Beldam’s creeping expansion. She offers safety, arcane research, and political backing against Germonia.
   • Sable’s Take: The Highland academies offer protection behind heavy wards and distance from Dagon’s sea agents.
3. Direct East to The Lowlands
   • The Route: Another sea voyage across the Cerulean sea, heading east to the widely unknown Lowlands.
   • The Situation: The Beldam is actively expanding, creating Buttoned Ones, and using the Stitched King as her puppet.
   • Sable’s Take: A high-risk option—the Beldam feeds on desperate souls seeking safety, but confronting her domain head-on takes the fight to the enemy.
4. South East to Micchu
   • The Route: A merchant vessel is heading south toward the independent empire ruled by Emperor Kuzco.
   • The Situation: Micchu is one of the few realms whose royal line is purely mortal, descending strictly from Adam and Eve without divine or fey bloodline deals. It is entirely isolated from the Western Wing’s civil wars.
   • Sable’s Take: It is the farthest possible landmass from Germonia, Dagon’s primary trench networks, and Western European fairytale politics.