Chapter 1: The Trial of the Tenebrous Bloom

Miscellaneous

While undertaking a sacred errand for the Rite of the Nocturnal Bloom, five children—four bound by kinship and village, one a rootless wanderer—were captured by goblins and caged aboard wagons drawn by monstrous hobgoblins. Their escape came by chance, as a wild boar’s rampage scattered the goblin convoy. Rather than flee to safety, the children pressed deeper into the treacherous Darklight Swamp to rescue their kin and even rival youths from Silten’s Reach. Along the way, they braved quicksand, evaded a monstrous horned ogre, resisted the enchantments of a faerie music box, and faced down the dreaded Goatman of children’s tales. In doing so, they uncovered a dark alliance between the satyr and a hidden witch—hinting at a far more sinister threat stirring in the shadows.