Book One Timeline

This is the public-facing Book One spine.

Act I: Departure and first consequence

1. The Young Traveler leaves home.
2. A few days later, frog-men attack him in the forest.
3. Vaelis intervenes and drives them away.
4. The Young Traveler and Vaelis travel together.
5. They reach the swamp village.
6. They meet Renn, a boy from the swamp village.
7. They leave the boy and the village behind.

Act II: Growers and the wound

1. The party encounters the Growers above ground.
2. Vaelis explains that Growers are underground vegetarian night farmers.
3. The Growers reveal that something has gone wrong below.
4. Seraphicsa and nearby forest elves become involved.
5. The party enters the Growers cave system.
6. The Young Traveler is mortally wounded or poisoned.
7. He is unconscious for days in town.
8. Dawneblade heals him and joins the party.
9. The Wayfarer, enters after the healing.
10. Vaelis eventually returns to the council to address his damaged arm.

Act III: Delay and locked endings

1. The party learns of the Wasteland portal.
2. The Young Traveler learns that the swamp village and the boy were not saved.
3. He returns too late.
4. Renn has been consumed by one of the Five Demons.
5. Renn moves north with the Necromancer.
6. The portal is locked.
7. The cost of delay becomes visible.

Act IV: Famine city

1. The party reaches a city collapsing under famine.
2. Crops die, then water fails, then people break.
3. The Veilkeeper Cult watches from hidden places.
4. The Young Traveler has money, but there is no food to buy.
5. The Wayfarer signals the elves.
6. The elves stabilize the refugees, not the city.

Act V: Finale

1. The Young Traveler enters the final choice.
2. Dawneblade warns him: if he does this, there is no going back.
3. He proceeds.
4. He becomes Finale, the Tier 0 Architect of Endings.
5. Dawneblade asks if it was worth it.
6. Finale answers: No.