Pierre Vercher arrived on a day when rain stitched the road into the square and the fog wore every lantern like a dull medal. He stepped from the gray with the assurance of a man used to being the loudest story in any room. His coat had the shine of hard use, his laugh came quick, and his eyes flitted not to people first but to exits, rafters, vantage-habits that speak of hunts better than boasts ever could. He bought drink before he bought lodging and took his measure of the Yawning Mastiff the way a carpenter tests a beam: two knocks, a lean, a private conclusion. What followed was performance. He traded seasons of claims in a single evening: boar that turned at the knife, eels hauled from black water with bare hands, a stag whose breath he felt like winter on his cheek. The villagers listened; Gascar is too polite to do otherwise; but belief folded its arms and stood a pace behind him.
When Sylvie explained the Institute's oath-witness first, protection without possession-he called it pretty language for walking away from opportunity. He wanted paths, not prayers; maps, not meanings. He asked fishermen where reeds stand like soldiers, asked children which puddles never emptied, asked Baptiste which guests kept early hours. To Rowan's ear the questions stacked into a trap no one had seen yet: not a cage of iron, perhaps, but of certainty-the most dangerous kind. He spoke of the so-called Root and Branch thing with a hunter's shorthand, reducing rumor to angles and weight. He dismissed warnings about quiet in the Wilds with that same quick laugh, a sound that made respect retreat under the tables like a shy dog.
And then he was gone in the way that draws more questions than footprints. Morning came. The latch on his door sat tidy. A bow leaned near the hearth, its string slack as a tired eyelid. Boots waited by warm ash, little crescents of dried mud flaking from their seams. No scuff, no overturned stool, no signed witness. Gascar does not have the appetite for scandal; it has the appetite for explanations that can hold soup. Pierre offered none. Theories took his place: he wandered drunk and wrong-footed into marsh; he followed his own bait into fog and found something older waiting; he heard the night speak and, for once, listened too late. Rowan keeps those theories where they belong-in the margin-while noting that the week of Pierre's arrival, the fog felt heavier in the throat, and tempers grew thin enough to see light through.
What is known, and only this: a man came boasting that the wood could be measured, that fear could be fitted with teeth and therefore tamed, and the wood replied with silence. Rowan reads in that silence neither punishment nor proof, merely a boundary. If the hunter returns, he will return with a different voice. If he does not, the village will remember him by the weight of his empty boots and the way they kept drying long after they should have been walking.
New information obtained during session 2
Rowan's search of Pierre's room revealed clues: boots carrying marsh mud, a bow marked by tense hands, cider laced with balm-mint, and damp shutters. The scene was one of unfinished story rather than struggle. These details complicate Gascar's theories of Pierre's disappearance.
New information obtained during session 3
A follow-up search of Pierre's rented room yielded concrete traces of his last inquiries. Ink impressions on the desk-now preserved by Rowan's rubbing-depict a circle crowned with branching lines, suggesting symbolic or diagrammatic significance tied to the Root and Branch mystery. A journal recovered from behind the bed records notes on swamp gas, bogs, and a remote lake in the Azura Wood. The entries are fragmentary, implying Pierre was mid-pursuit when he vanished.
Additional physical evidence includes overlapping cup rings indicating a second vessel. This points to a likely visitor in the room before Pierre disappeared. No direct witness was identified during this session.
Continuity Card (Pierre-adjacent flags): . Journal: status = retrieved (by Rowan); last_seen = Rowan's pack. . Desk impressions: status = recorded; integrity = preserved via rubbing. . Cup stains: status = observed; notes = evidence of visitor. . Bow: integrity = dismantled (unchanged).
Continuity Change Log excerpts affecting Pierre:
[S3-00:01] Pierre's room: status searched?searched again (thorough) | Yawning Mastiff - morning revisit | [S3-00:07] Desk impressions: status unknown?recorded; integrity n/a?'circle with branching lines'; medium charcoal rubbing created | desk surface | [S3-00:09] Journal: status hidden?retrieved by Rowan; last_seen room?Rowan's pack | bedframe gap | [S3-00:11] Cup stains: status unobserved?observed; notes set 'implies second vessel/visitor' | table | [S3-00:15] Baptiste: trust neutral?conditional_trust (share findings, avoid secrecy) | common room discussion | [S3-00:18] Fog (condition): notes updated 'encroaches indoors; shutters damp; muffled sound' | inn interior