Recaps

Vanessa struggled to survive after losing her university position, while Elliot used a Difference Engine to influence her actions and watch her life unfold. After surviving a violent encounter and finding the old man’s hidden house, Vanessa began to understand that the force controlling her could reshape events around its instructions.

• Randall dismissed Vanessa from her university position, and after twenty days without work or shelter, she collapsed in the freezing rain.
• Elliot discovered that the Difference Engine showed Vanessa’s desperate condition, while Dr. Norman treated her and offered her a hospital job to pay her medical bills.
• Vanessa began working among the hospital’s corpses, and she showed kindness to a dying old man by sharing her precious bread with him.
• Vanessa befriended Winnie and encountered a crazed attacker, whom she fought with Elliot’s help until she killed him.
• Vanessa learned that a corpse she had retrieved carried Mad Rat Disease, then found a key to the old man’s house at No. 37 Rosin Alley.
• Vanessa searched the house and uncovered a hidden trapdoor and an attic full of chests as the mysterious will repeatedly took control of her body.
• Vanessa realized that the will could make the world cooperate with its prescribed actions and wondered what was controlling her.

Elliot guided Vanessa through dangerous sacrifices and investigations as she uncovered the Mourning Poetry Society and the Mad Rat Disease outbreak. After finding Winnie dead, Vanessa carried her through the ruined district and went to rescue survivors, leaving her and Dorothea surrounded by infected corpses.

• Vanessa discovered that supernatural power came from sacrifice, and Elliot used the Difference Engine to compel her to explore a mansion and later draw a sacrificial array.
• Elliot chose a supernatural Path for Vanessa, but she lost a finger while gaining the Trigger art and other sacrificial cards.
• Vanessa warned Doctor Norman about Mad Rat Disease, while Elliot met Flora Prescott and learned about the Mourning Poetry Society.
• Vanessa visited the society’s hideout, met Damian Graves, and learned that the society was officially registered and had existed for centuries.
• As the plague struck the East District, Vanessa learned that Winnie was believed dead and joined Norman and Dorothea in treating the injured.
• Vanessa found Winnie’s body on a hospital corpse carriage, shot Caldwell, and fought the collection crew before tying Winnie’s body to her back.
• Vanessa turned from the cordon toward Mist Harbor to save people, and Elliot accepted a rescue mission as she and Dorothea reached a building besieged by infected corpses.

After Winnie’s death, Vanessa saved Allen, buried Winnie, and formed a secret society with Dorothea, Allen, and the children to seek revenge and help the poor. Elliot tested the Difference Engine’s sacrifices and discovered that cherished offerings and supernatural creatures carried greater power, ending with Vanessa receiving Restoration +1 and feeling hungry.

• Vanessa used a blood ritual and Elliot’s Difference Engine to heal Allen, then brought Winnie’s body home and vowed to avenge her.
• Vanessa and her companions buried Winnie in the backyard after finding the cemeteries overwhelmed with bodies and blood-eyed dogs.
• Elliot discovered new Difference Engine slots and established an Esoteric Cult with Vanessa, Dorothea, Allen, and the orphans, choosing their house as its base.
• Dorothea investigated the plague and sought a way to heal Elsa, while Flora visited Elliot and explained the dangers and ranks of the Supernatural.
• Flora arranged Holy Communion for the poor with Vanessa’s group and the Mourning Poetry Society, while Dorothea offered to contact the Wild Dog Gang for security.
• Elliot tested offerings through Vanessa and found that cherished possessions and a man-eating stray dog’s corpse advanced the golden thread more than ordinary items.
• Vanessa, Dorothea, and Allen gathered dead feral dogs for the altar, and after the fourth sacrifice Elliot chose the blood icon to produce Restoration +1, leaving Vanessa hungry.

Vanessa and the Mourning Poetry Society faced hunger, corporate violence, and Flora’s bloodline curse, while Elliot investigated the Difference Engine and the societies closing in around him. The arc ended with Flora recovering as a new Supernatural person and the orphan Eli being offered a place with the Theatre Troupe.

• Vanessa controlled her hunger and began regrowing her fingers, while Allen gained a cutting power through sacrifice and Dorothea urged caution.
• Vanessa and the Mourning Poetry Society distributed food in the Harbor District, where Damian confronted the Public Security Bureau and the group later faced Lawrence Clark and United Mining.
• Dorothea and the others forced Lawrence to pay donations and keep United Mining out of the Harbor District, while Elliot sought information about the Troy Society and the Mourning Poetry Society.
• Elliot used cards to occupy the Difference Engine’s [Evil Name] investigation, while Vanessa confessed to Dorothea that she had founded an Esoteric Cult.
• Lillian Rose visited Elliot, danced for him, and secretly gave him a Rose Cross ring and note, while Elliot later asked her about the Mourning Poetry Society.
• Vanessa discovered Flora’s curse and, with Damian’s help, used a Sacrifice Ritual to remove it, though she refused to let Damian claim Flora’s reward without her consent.
• Elliot made Flora a first-tier Supernatural person and chose [Insight into Weakness] for her, after which Flora woke with her wounds healing and confronted Damian.
• Dorothea recognized Eli, the boy whose mother she had killed, and a red-haired girl offered him work with the Theatre Troupe so she could support the children.