vault backup: 2025-12-10 15:56:45

.obsidian/workspace.json

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
               "type": "markdown",
               "state": {
                 "file": "Avalon/02_Sessions/session 6.md",
-                "mode": "preview",
+                "mode": "source",
                 "source": true
               },
               "icon": "lucide-file",

Avalon/02_Sessions/session 6.md

@@ -1037,3 +1037,226 @@ Let Joe and Ben have a quiet beat:
 - Ben can double down (“I got this under control”) or admit he’s in over his head.
 
 Fade back to campus / home with that hanging over them.
+
+# Soren – The Dry River Calls
+
+>[!quote] Narration
+>School spits everyone out in different directions.
+>
+>Ben and Joe drift off toward the Circle, Pip’s shadow hanging over them.
+>
+>You should go home.
+>
+>Instead, you find your feet taking you toward the bus stop. Then the transfer. Then the dirt road that leads out toward the **real** river – the one that actually matters.
+
+Remind the player what this place is without saying “corpse” out loud yet:
+
+>[!quote] Narration
+>By the time you crest the last low rise, the sun’s dragging itself down toward the mountains. The **riverbed** stretches out below – wide, cracked, and dry, a pale scar through the scrubland.
+>
+>There hasn’t been real water here in weeks.
+>
+>But you feel it the second you see it:
+>
+>That tiny pull in your chest. Familiar. Hungry.
+>
+>Your **friend** misses you.
+
+Let Soren pick how she comes down – slow, cautious, or like she owns the place.
+
+>[!quote] Narration
+>You pick your way down the slope, boots crunching on loose rock. The air is hot and still. No birds. No wind. Just the soft grit of your footsteps.
+>
+>You know exactly where to go.  
+>Past the sun-bleached branch that looks like a hand.  
+>Past the half-buried tire.  
+>Down to the little hollow where the dust is just slightly… wrong.
+
+If you want a roll, call for a **DC 12 Wisdom (Insight)** to gauge how much she’s in denial:
+
+- **On Success (she’s self-aware):**
+
+  >You know how messed up this is.
+  >
+  >You know that coming back here doesn’t “fix” anything.  
+  >But it doesn’t stop the feeling that you *owe* them this. At least a visit. At least a hello.
+
+- **On Fail (she rationalizes it):**
+
+  >Your brain spins you a better story.
+  >
+  >You’re just checking. Making sure nothing’s moved. Making sure no one else found them. Making sure your secret is still yours.
+  >
+  >That’s responsible, right? That’s what a *good* friend would do.
+
+Now, lean into the “calling” and the corpse without being graphic:
+
+>[!quote] The Friend
+>When you reach the hollow, the heat feels heavier. The air tastes like dust and copper.
+>
+>You can’t see much – just a hint of fabric in the shade of the overhang, a shape your eyes have learned to slide around.
+>
+>You don’t have to see them.
+>
+>You know exactly where **they** are.
+>
+>And for a heartbeat, you swear you hear it:
+>
+>“You’re late.”
+>
+>Not out loud. Not in your ears. Just… in the same place the **Root** has been rattling around since B2. But softer. Familiar. Annoyed.
+
+Let Soren respond however the player wants – out loud or in her head. Give a couple of prompts if they freeze:
+
+- “What do you say when your only reliable friend is a corpse in a ditch?”
+- “What’s the first thing you apologize for?”
+
+Then:
+
+>[!quote] The Friend
+>The presence sulks around the edges of your thoughts.
+>
+>“You went somewhere,” it murmurs. “Somewhere loud. Somewhere with screaming. Didn’t take me.”
+>
+>There’s a smear of trench – wrong sky, tower on the horizon, that frozen moment of the man being torn in half – and then it folds back into the dry riverbed.
+>
+>“You like *them* better?” it asks. “The new ghosts?”
+
+You can give her a quick **DC 13 Wisdom save** here if you want stakes:
+
+- **On Success:** she keeps it together, steers the conversation.
+  
+  >You feel the pull, but you don’t tip. You stay standing, stay in your own skin.
+  >
+  >You remember Pappy’s warning. The heartbeat. *Run up, not down.*
+  >
+  >You’re already as “down” as it gets.
+
+- **On Fail:** lean into the obsession, not violence:
+
+  >You sink down onto your haunches without quite deciding to. The dry dirt stains your knees.
+  >
+  >For a moment, the world contracts to this hollow, this secret, this little knot of rot in the sun.
+  >
+  >Home doesn’t matter. School doesn’t matter. Only the fact that you left them here alone for **weeks**, and now the Root is whispering in places they never told you existed.
+
+Give her one small act:
+
+- Does she tell the friend about the field?  
+- Promise to bring them “a piece of Korrin” next time?  
+- Draw the Convergence Engine in the dirt and then scuff it out?
+
+Finish light(-ish):
+
+>[!quote] Narration
+>Eventually, the light starts to go. The sky shifts from blazing blue to gold to that ugly sodium orange that means the streetlamps are waking up back in town.
+>
+>The presence fades with the heat.
+>
+>“Don’t stay away so long next time,” it whispers, dusty and fond and wrong. “I get lonely.”
+>
+>You climb back up the bank.
+>
+>Behind you, in the hollow, nothing moves.
+>
+>But you can’t shake the feeling that when the **Root** reaches for you, it knows this place now too.
+>
+>It knows where you keep your friends.
+
+# Session End – Group Drift & Root Stinger
+
+## Walk Home / Split Screen
+
+>[!quote] Narration
+>The day doesn’t end all at once. It frays.
+>
+>Ben and Joe peel away from the Circle, streetlights flicking on overhead as the sedan’s taillights disappear down the road.
+>
+>Soren leaves the riverbed behind and cuts through side streets toward a house that never seems quite happy to see her.
+
+Give each player a quick, focused beat as they walk / ride home.
+
+### Ben – Bad Deal, Good View
+
+>[!quote] Narration
+>Ben – your mom’s SUV is a dark rectangle waiting at the end of the block, expensive paint catching the last bit of sun.
+>
+>Every step you take toward it, Pip’s “Madera Canyon” line crawls up your spine.
+
+Optionally call for a **DC 12 Wisdom or Insight**:
+
+- **On Success:** he clocks how close he is to being *useful* vs being a target.
+- **On Fail:** just anxiety, no clarity.
+
+Let Joe poke him here if you want a last little RP exchange:
+
+- “You really gonna work for that guy?”
+- “Dude, you heard him.”
+
+Button:
+
+>[!quote] Narration
+>Your mom waves from the driver’s seat, all smiles and soft music. Inside the car, the air smells like leather and vanilla.
+>
+>Outside, the Circle sign flickers. For half a second, it glitches – the O’s stutter into a jagged ring of purple before snapping back.
+
+### Joe – Legacy
+
+>[!quote] Narration
+>Joe – by the time you get home, your pockets are full of handouts and your head is full of someone else’s war.
+>
+>The house smells like grill smoke and laundry soap. Your sisters are arguing over who gets the couch. Your dad is watching a rerun of some old Mageball final with the volume too loud.
+>
+>The action figure in your pocket is *heavy*.
+
+Let him decide:
+
+- Does he pull Pappy out and stare at him?
+- Chuck him in a drawer?
+- Go straight to the backyard to hit the tackling dummy until his knuckles hurt?
+
+If you want a light roll: **DC 11 Wisdom** to see if Pappy “bleeds in” again. On fail, the toy stays quiet – which might be creepier.
+
+### Soren – Home Front
+
+>[!quote] Narration
+>Soren – the front door to your house is unlocked. It always is. Nobody here worries about strangers getting in; they worry about you getting out.
+>
+>There’s laughter from the kitchen. Your parents. Elise. Plates clink. Someone mentions “first impressions” and “scholarship committee” and “Elise’s potential.”
+>
+>Your name doesn’t come up.
+
+If the player wants to go in and mix it up, let them. If not:
+
+>[!quote] Narration
+>You slip past the doorway noise and retreat to your room.
+>
+>The jar of fingernails on your shelf hasn’t moved. Your diary is right where you left it.
+>
+>For the first time today, the house hum drowns out the Root’s heartbeat.
+>
+>It doesn’t feel better. Just… different.
+
+---
+
+## Button – The Root Watches
+
+>[!quote] Stinger
+>Somewhere far below Avalon, beneath the Mageball field and the Circle and the quiet middle-class houses, the **Root** groans.
+>
+>Where B2 used to be, raw magic flows through fresh stone, forced into a new path. Runes blink in the dark like irritated eyes.
+>
+>On a maintenance relay buried in a forgotten junction box, glyphs flicker to life one by one:
+>
+>**[SIGNAL RESTORED]**  
+>**[ECHO PATTERN: KORRIN]**  
+>**[LOCAL ANCHORS: SILVERSONG–MULKERBERG–FOOTBALL]**  
+>**[FLAG: POINTS OF INTEREST]**
+>
+>For a heartbeat, the glyphs glitch – characters stuttering, rearranging themselves into something that almost spells a name you don’t quite see.
+>
+>Then the lights go out. The hum continues.
+>
+>Above, three teenagers try very hard to have a normal evening.
+
+>**SESSION 6 END**