The following is a recap of a session I ran today. Player names have been changed to protect the innocent.
This session was part of my therapist duties with Affirming Care Services Pty Ltd
It serves as a prequel to a group session we are building for this client based on their social preferences and world building ideas.
If you have a person between 16 and 18 (this year) who likes anime, manga, and fantasy please reach out. Australia wide.
—
Wilhelmina and Dawn set out on a hunt together, leaving the safety of their homegrounds and travelling into a nearby region known for its abundance of game during this time of year.
However, something was wrong.
The hunting grounds were silent. There were no bird calls, no rustling animals, and no sounds of life moving through the forest. The bonded pair of Tiefling and Wolf soon came across a small copse of trees bordering an empty field. In the centre of the field, a deer rested with its head hanging low, appearing weak and vulnerable.
Dawn immediately recognised an easy opportunity for a hunt, but Wilhelmina felt a deep sense of foreboding.
Before allowing Dawn to approach, Wilhelmina warned her of possible danger. Perhaps enemies were hiding nearby, using the deer as bait for a trap. Dawn carefully searched the area, looking for signs of ambush or hidden threats.
There were no enemies.
Instead, Wilhelmina noticed something far stranger. The trees themselves were bleeding. Dark sap flowed from their trunks as the trees continuously pumped their strange nectar into the earth below.
The sight disturbed them both. Without hesitation, Wilhelmina and Dawn turned away from the unnatural grove and began to leave.
Behind them, the deer lowered its head to the ground and became still.
They continued their hunt, but the once familiar and safe hunting grounds had changed. Despite it being the height of summer, leaves fell from the trees. The forest grew unnaturally still, and when Wilhelmina looked through the canopy, she saw the night sky had taken on a deep, unnatural purple hue.
The darkness above the trees felt heavy and wrong, as though the sky itself had been stained by the grief spreading through the land.
As they rounded a bend, they saw something standing atop a crest.
A giant buck stood silhouetted against the rising moon, its body cast in deep purple shadow.
It did not charge. It did not stamp its hooves or lower its antlers in challenge. It simply stood there, watching them.
Wilhelmina and Dawn instinctively prepared themselves for a fight. A creature this large could provide enough food to sustain their entire pack, including the younglings.
Yet again, Wilhelmina felt that terrible warning deep within her.
Before Dawn could strike, the buck spoke.
One word.
“Rowan.”
Wilhelmina had a special bond with wolves and could communicate with them naturally, but speaking with other animals required magic. She should not have been able to understand this creature. A buck speaking without the aid of Speak with Animals was unheard of.
“Rowan,” was the only thing it seemed capable of saying.
Wilhelmina cast Speak with Animals herself, and the buck finally addressed them.
“Rowan mourns his wife.”
Still uncertain of its intentions, she attempted to intimidate it.
The mighty buck lowered itself to the ground and knelt before her.
Even Dawn sensed the significance of the act. A creature of such pride had humbled itself before natural enemies. A wolf and a buck were not meant to stand together in peace, yet this creature had willingly broken that ancient divide.
Through their bond, Wilhelmina shared what she saw with Dawn.
The wolf looked upon the buck with new understanding.
A vast darkness clung to the creature’s shoulders. Tendrils of shadow pushed against its body, attempting to invade it, just as they had infected the deer and the trees. The buck resisted, but the weight upon it was immense.
Wherever the dark tendrils touched the ground, flowers withered and grass died.
The buck spoke again.
“Rowan mourns his wife. The forest cries his tears. You MUST kill Rowan.”
The words filled Wilhelmina with terror. Without hesitation, she unfurled her barely used wings and carried herself and Dawn far away from the cursed hunting grounds.
She landed at the river crossing that marked the natural border between their homegrounds and the corrupted forest.
There stood an old wooden bridge, built decades earlier by hunters who had long since vanished. On Wilhelmina’s side of the bridge, four stone tablets had been erected. Each displayed the image of an animal and a single word carved into the stone in Druidic.
Rowena.
Across the river, Wilhelmina sensed her pack.
They were badly wounded, barely able to stand.
Floating in the water were the bodies of two humans with grievous wounds.
Wilhelmina rushed to cross the bridge, but as she flew forward, an overwhelming emotional force struck her. Something was trying to frighten her, to drive her away and send her back toward the corrupted hunting grounds.
She resisted.
She crossed the river by air and cast Healing Word upon her pack, restoring their strength. The wolves gathered together, forming a defensive formation as the river around them began to rage.
The water rose violently, breaking against the riverbanks and reaching toward the shore like grasping hands.
From above, Wilhelmina saw the river change.
The water turned the same unnatural purple colour as the sky above the hunting grounds. It twisted and gathered, forming a shifting shape that began to create a perfect circle around the crossing.
A Twilight Circle.
The bodies of the two humans rose from the water, transformed into undead servants of the dark force.
Wilhelmina could feel the source of the corruption.
The stone tablets.
From them poured an overwhelming wave of negative energy, shaped by grief and loss.
She destroyed several of the tablets, but she faced an impossible choice. Should she focus on protecting her pack from the undead, or should she destroy the remaining stones that fed the darkness?
Then she found the answer.
Wilhelmina summoned beasts.
A ghostly wolf appeared beside her, a massive spectral creature that carried the spirit and strength of the pack. While Wilhelmina attacked the undead with her Sprout Weapon cantrip, taking the form of a magical javelin, the ghost wolf tore through the remaining tablets.
One by one, the stones shattered.
The Twilight Circle weakened.
But as it died, it became desperate.
The purple vortex expanded violently, consuming everything around it. The bridge, the river, the undead, and Wilhelmina’s beloved pack were all dragged toward the hungry void.
The ghost wolf leapt into the dying circle, carrying the wounded pack members upon its back and pulling them to safety.
Then the Twilight Circle vanished.
The river returned to normal, but the land was forever changed. Where the circle had existed, there remained only an unnatural barren patch of earth where no water flowed and nothing grew.
Wilhelmina and Dawn returned to their homegrounds, carrying with them a warning of what they had witnessed.
The next morning, as they rested and shared the tale with the others, a sound echoed from the direction of the river.
A deep, sorrowful cry filled the forest.
“Row-ena…”