Session Zero: What Happens in Therapy Stays in Therapy

WHO WENT: Harper, A Crow named Catwy, Caine, Sheherazade, Helen.
NPCS: Mia, Asif, Donnie, Adelaide, Gio

WHAT HAPPENED: Mia, helpful as ever, decided to run a free group therapy session for any interested folks in the community center. The group all talked a little about depression and dealing with feelings of loss and emptiness; Mia herself had gone through low periods in her past. After everyone took turns talking, Adelaide, a slightly bedraggled looking blonde, spoke for herself after Gio, her boyfriend, was shushed. She explained how when she was a child, she was kidnapped, and every since then, she'd struggled with feelings of loss...

And as she spoke, the room faded away, leaving our party (and Asif and Donnie) in a forest of memory. That was jarring enough but a crow, which was eating cookies left by an open window, appeared to be transformed into a human-sized crow person. Which spoke! Which was very jarring indeed. Catwy thankfully knew they were in a memory, so onward they went into the mind.

The therapy members used what they remembered from Adelaide's description to walk into the ever darkening woods to try to find her, fighting non-Euclidean landscapes that defied reason. Eventually, they found a hut in the near pitch blackness. Inside, they found a crying child that resembled, in a vague way, Adelaide. The child was picked up and removed by Sheherazade, which caused the guardian and kidnapper, a huge bat-like monster, to attack and attempt to get her back. Despite lots of panic, the party managed to get their act together, delay the shoving and howling monster, and cause the memory to dissolve once the child was rescued.

The awoke, panicked and unharmed, in the therapy room. Adelaide was still talking. She said she felt better. The meeting ended. Catwy flew off with a cookie.

The End.