Find Bae Han-Sol (never came to walk us home).

Reach town, warn people, find out what happened.

Relight the Everbright, learn the shrine-blessing rite.

Where did Ugly Cute go?

What's driving the wildlife, and where's it coming from (heaviest toward town)?

Woke Suncrest 1 in a hollow east of town, not the festival meadow.

Mats rotted a full season overnight. The forest around them was fine.

No tracks in or out. Not walked, not carried.

Two giant centipedes attacked and spoke. Something outside them drove them.

That force is wide, spiritual, days old, and heavier toward town.

Crossed the Ayuri (east bridge), not Lanternstep. Fog won't lift. Town silent.

Ugly Cute, the stone gate guardian, woke and walked east into the Ayuri on its own. Not stolen, not dead.

The east gate is now unwarded.

Lit the small gate lantern (plain oil, no blessing needed).

Everbright Lantern at Lanternstep Bridge is the town's true light. Relighting it needs a shrine blessing (rite unknown).

Bae Han-Sol never came to walk us home.

The blue creatures are jinkins (gremlin fey, saboteurs, weak to cold iron); their trained snakes' venom killed the two watchtower guards.