An end-times group named ‘Roots’ has been gaining influence that has been bleeding into Sharn. We are shown many pamphlets they hand out, each appealing to different groups and for different events. One advertises a community building event, one as a business opportunity, and one as a group for youth searching for purpose. We head to the youth group.

While there, we approach a pair of tieflings and converse. They have a friend, Gem, who was part of this group, but went missing a week ago. Before going missing, Gem was making distance since the tieflings were not part of the group. And this friend was in a honeymoon phase with this cult.

Representatives of Roots start to give their presentations. They believe the end of the world is cyclical. Their mission is to understand the cyclical nature of history and embrace it. To enhance oneself and avoid caring about breaking. And they are inching closer to midnight.

Commotion erupts as a woman demanding to see Cara is being taken outside by security. Xander messages her to tell her to meet us at a bar.

We meet the woman, named Mary, at the bar with other parents in a similar situation. All have adopted kids that felt a bit isolated, and Roots preyed upon that isolation, sending them letters repeatedly to recruit them. The parents lead us to Cara’s friend Max, who joined Roots alongside Cara, went to the camp with her, but he returned while she never came back.

Max does not know what happened to Cara. She allegedly said she’d leave using the lightning rail, but hasn’t been seen since. We were allowed to look through his memories, and it genuinely seems he has no clue what happened to her, but knows that some of his other friends are still there. So we decide to head to the camp and make a visit to the general store – the last place that Max remembers visiting.

The town this general store is in is full of partial orcs and shifters. With detect magic, I was able to see that many seams were sewn with the crystal thread that was once used to bind Jeffery’s eyes. We weren’t able to find out much at the general store, unfortunately.

At the camp, we notice that there are still two kids waiting to be picked up by their parents. They tell us that Cara got into a fight. We look into her cabin and don’t see any sign of a struggle, but do see a practice note thrown into a trashcan – “Don’t care what they say, I want you at my 18th party… You’re my real mom.” We also confirm with the two kids that this was in Cara’s handwriting.

After that, we head to the church and are greeted by Father Albery. Looking inside, we notice that the crystal thread is within the floorboards. Xan detects his thoughts and Albery is thinking of the abandoned church in the woods, and that we know more than we let on.

We head to the abandoned church in the woods and detect magic. There is a glowing chamber underground. Going there, we see three people who we assume are being experimented on. A tiefling covered with gauze and with a lizard-like leg but with no thread anywhere on her. A half orc with crystal thread sewing his eyes shut and scales sewn to his back. And Cara, who has part of her face scraped off and a dragonoid face stitched on. We stabilize them and bring them to get help, avoiding the town.