Echoes of the Ninth

Back in the cathedral city, "sent to the Ninth" is what people say about anyone the church has thrown away.

Milo was banished under the Ninth Article for stepping between his sister and the Archdeacon who abused her. While he stood on a bridge outside the city, a flash flood broke it and carried him downriver. He woke up on damp straw in a stranger's shed, in a ruined town where other exiles have been scraping by for years.

A massive storm arrives in seven days. Milo has his late father's plumb line on his belt and knows how to frame a wall. Out here, though, timber and pegs are only half of what keeps people alive.

SAY IT OUT LOUD

You talk to the exiles with your own voice.

When Milo sits down by the fire, you don't pick a line from a dialogue tree. You speak into your microphone, in your own words, for as long as you need. Nobody interrupts. The game isn't scoring what you say or listening for keywords. The person across the fire just listens, and you can see it in their face, in how they sit, and in how they react to your tone and your pauses.

(Your voice is processed on your own machine when you play certain activities in the game and is discarded when your session ends. It's never uploaded or saved.)

CHEAP COMFORT PUSHES PEOPLE AWAY

The people here have heard every platitude there is. Say "Everything happens for a reason" or "Just pray about it," and they close up.

Trust comes back slowly with people who were burned by their community. You might earn it by asking an honest question, by holding the beam and asking where they want the pegs, or by sitting by the fire without saying anything until they're ready to talk.

FIX THE ROOF. THEN SIT DOWN.

You haul timber up from the riverbank, check every post with your father's plumb line, cut the joints and brace the rafters by hand.

Finishing the walls only gets a shelter most of the way. The rest happens when you stay: share a meal, split some firewood, let the person talk if they want to. Leave as soon as the last peg goes in, and the damp creeps back, the timber rots and the shelter start to fail.

NINE EXILES

• Elias: A master builder who lost his arm when the cathedral's beams gave way, then took the blame for it.

• Clara: A mother who was told her grief for her child was proof of weak faith.

• Wilbur: Stole from the cathedral to feed his family. Nobody asked why.

• Marcus: A hunter raised to believe that touching an exile would curse him.

• Vincent: A nobleman exiled for beating the guard who beat his friend, and still unsure he was right.

• Rowan: A monastery scribe who kept working until his body gave out.

• Beatrice: A convent treasurer who kept a hidden record of everything the Archdeacon stole.

• Ellon: A physician condemned for healing people without the Church's permission.

• Carolyn: A tailor arrested for clothing the poor when the guild masters wanted her hands for themselves.

None of them are waiting for someone to save them. As they come to trust you, they help in their own ways: herbal remedies, warm coats, safe paths through the mud and tunnels under the town.

RHEA'S NIGHTS

At the end of some days, you play as Milo's sister, Rhea, locked in a cell in the cathedral province. A mouse won't come near her at first. If she's patient, it starts fetching keys and scouting ahead. Slip past the guards, find out what the Archdeacon is hiding, and get back to your cell before the next round.

SEVEN DAYS UNTIL THE STORM

Each morning the clouds sit lower over the ridge. Floods wash out the paths, wind tears through unfinished frames, and there aren't enough daylight hours to fix every shelter.

Choosing who to help first means choosing who waits out the storm in a drafty one. If a home collapses, that person goes missing. Their stool sits empty at dinner, their work stays unfinished on the bench, and the others take on what they used to do.

DETAILS

• Length: About 10–12 hours

• Setting: A grounded 12th-century world about community, spiritual burnout and recovery

• Faith: Left to your interpretation

• After the story: Keep exploring and rebuilding the town once the storm has passed

You can't argue people out of their grief, and good intentions don't fix anyone.

Light the fire. Pull up a stool.