Gascar sits where the last sensible field meets the first thoughtful tree. It is not a grand place; that is its strength. The roofs lean into one another as if sharing a joke about wind. The square is a practical invention-four corners, a well, a post where messages and lost gloves go to find their opposite numbers. On ordinary weeks the sounds braid together: fishmongers teasing sailors, the clack of a loom in a doorway, children discovering how far a pebble will skip if the puddle is new. This is not an ordinary week. The fog did not arrive so much as refuse to leave. It presses the color out of banners and makes lanterns into small moons with tired halos.
The village still functions because villages like Gascar learned long ago that fear cannot be fed or it will ask for a chair at the table. Bread is baked. Boats are mended. The mastiff's patrol along the cobbles is not bravado; it is habit wearing a brave face. What Rowan notices first is the absence behind the noise: no wing-flick of sparrows trading gutter for eave, no tick-chatter of insects in the hedges. The wood beyond the last fence groans as if a ship were turning in a harbor only the trees can see. When the square goes quiet, people glance toward the sound and then, almost as one, decide not to speak of it.
Gascar is held together by anchors rather than leaders. The House of Fate is a small room with a large job; the Yawning Mastiff is a large room with a subtle one. Guillaume's shop is a hinge on which small dignities swing. Between them, the village continues to behave like itself, which is a strategy older than any monster. Rowan writes the map not as streets but as habits: where people pause to exchange news, where they cut across the square when rain begins, where they choose the long way home when they have said the wrong thing and wish to pass a window without being seen.
In storm seasons elsewhere, men shout themselves into importance. Gascar's importance is quieter. If the village wins through this, it will be by outlasting dread with decency-by adding another bowl to the pot, by walking a neighbor to a door even when that neighbor owes you a debt, by lighting a second lantern and putting it where someone else will think they were the one who had the idea. A map like that is worth more than any wall. Rowan keeps it in his head and, more carefully, in the way he speaks to the next person who stops him with a question.
New information obtained during session 2
Gascar's mood in Session 2 was observed as diminished, with decorations fading in the Yawning Mastiff and villagers subdued. The fog's pressure continued to shape the atmosphere.
New information obtained during session 2
The inn was explored thoroughly. Its atmosphere was described as diminished, decorations faded, and conversation subdued. Hugo clarified his role as landlord, with Baptiste as innkeeper. Pierre's room within became a focal point of Rowan's investigation.
New information obtained during session 3
Pierre's chamber at the Yawning Mastiff underwent a thorough second search. Confirmed elements remained (dismantled bow, marsh-mud boots, damp shutters), and new canonical clues were captured: desk-pressed ink impressions (now rubbed) and a journal recovered from the bedframe gap. Overlapping cup rings indicate a prior visitor. The fog's pressure and moisture were noted as unusually intrusive indoors.
Continuity Card (Location-relevant flags): . Room status = searched again (thorough). . Desk impressions = recorded; rubbing stored. . Journal = retrieved; last_seen = Rowan's pack. . Cup stains = observed; visitor implied. . Fog = encroaching indoors (shutters damp).
Continuity Change Log excerpts affecting the Yawning Mastiff:
[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 | [S3-00:18] Fog (condition): notes updated 'encroaches indoors; shutters damp; muffled sound' | inn interior