Pyra, Tristan and Wei Wuxian, all heading out to find the hen, will soon find themselves shuffled together. It doesn’t even matter if they didn’t go in at the same time, or if they headed out with other people — somehow, through the magic of the woods, this is how it ended up. They may as well travel together!

And, of course, it wouldn’t be a fairy tale without tests. After traversing treacherous ground, fighting off the trees that are still very, very aggressive (not all of the trees are, but some will attack without warning while they walk through the woods), they will eventually come upon the first of their tests.

test 1. The first test involves their bonds. They will suddenly come across a horribly, intensely foggy path. This fog will be so thick that they can’t even see their hands in front of their faces. They will be separated from each other… and from within the fog, they will hear each other’s voices.

There will be fakes. There will be many fakes, trying to lead them astray. They will have to use their knowledge of each other in order to follow the real voices — or not follow the fake voices, as the situation may be. If they can find each other again in the fog, it will disperse, and allow them to proceed forward. If they do not… they will either be led more deeply into the woods, into the path of a monster, or back to the Town, where they will be stuck, unable to proceed into the woods again for another day. This test can be redone as many times as necessary, but they will be unable to find the path again unless all three of them go together.

test 2. Presuming they pass the first test, the second test is a bit more physical, but still nonetheless deals with them trusting each other. They will suddenly be faced with this sheer cliffside, one that they cannot go around. They can’t use magic, they can’t use weaponry, they can’t fly — all of those abilities will fade away in the face of this cliff.

No, of course they have to climb. It wouldn’t be a test if it was easy.

Not only do they have to climb, but they have to trust each other. There will be places in this sheer cliff where the only way they can continue upward is by giving each other a boost, or reaching back to pull someone up. They can only climb this cliff if they put their lives in each other’s hands, even as they go up and up and up, to the point where a wrong move will mean almost certain death —

But if they can do it… if they can trust each other? They will make it to the top, and to the final test.

test 3. Once they successfully make it to the third test, there will appear a small, but very ornate, carefully engraved chest. It’s locked, of course — this is the third test. If they reach out to touch the chest, or even just get very near to it, they will be suddenly granted the understanding that to open it, they have to sacrifice.

They have a choice — they can sacrifice one meaningful memory from their time in the Town, or they can sacrifice one relationship (but not the memory of it) from their time in the Town. (Naturally, please get permission from the other player involved with said CR if that’s the route you go down!) If they sacrifice a memory, it will be permanently gone. If they sacrifice a relationship, the characters will both feel like strangers once again, even though your character will remember the relationship. They do not get to ICly choose which relationship or which memory, but OOCly naturally that is entirely up to you! And once they’ve each sacrificed something…?

They can now open it easily. It seems they’ve earned their reward.

They find, in the ornate chest, a stash of character pages for the book of each of the remaining characters in the Town. They can only bring back one each (their own page), but they can guide others to the pages so they can grab their own.  Each time a character heads out into the woods to find a page, they will face the exact same three trials. Please note that if your character guides someone to the chest, they will have to pass the first two tests, but will not have to sacrifice something again for the third.

Characters will have to retrieve their own pages and place them into the book to go home, so this is very important!

They did not find the hen, it seems — but they did find something very pivotal and very important to the remaining characters in the Town.