Session 3
Played on September 15, 2026.
Estimated duration: about 2 hours.
Jonstown first presents Tal with an archival dispute over the legacy of a dead Sage. He tries to resolve it, grows irritated, and eventually leaves the affair to Hendrik. That refusal becomes the session's real movement: Tal leaves the Library, rediscovers his taste for roads and news from the wider world, then chooses for himself what he wants to seek.
His curiosity leads him from Tarsh and the Lunar Empire to Sartar, the history of the Royal Roads, and finally to a tradition claiming that some still secretly maintain the founder's strength. In the margin of a text, a sign catches his eye: the Rune of Sartar.
The session is also a particularly instructive playtest: the prepared Situation does not match the kind of breath the players are looking for, an ambiguity in how Enastina's position is framed creates friction, and yet play continues because Tal can move his own gaze — and with it, the story.
Four ways to read the session
- Transcript — the game in its real order, including
Off:exchanges, Focuses, Bets and dice; - Story — the story alone, with the consolidation retcon replacing the explicit marginal note with the Rune of Sartar;
- Time Backstage — the prepared Situation, what emerged, what was improvised, and what the Debrief revealed;
- Living Portrait — Talimar exactly as he exists at the end of this session.
Time Backstage reveals the preparation, consolidation retcons, and improvisations of this session. It does not reveal secrets that remain active for future sessions.