The Gathering

I've never heard silence be so loud before, a few hours travel with a few hundred wayward souls and barely a few words are spoken. An occasional cough, the sound of livestock or a pet, a conversation between folk ending as quickly as it started. I hear Killian speaking with Sera and Lairion assisting the injured and the weak.
-Note-I run through it countless times. Why did this happen ? What did we do wrong ? What did we miss ? Why were we too late to stop this ? What could've we done better ? How can we fix this ? I can't help but pour over the blueprints and journal to find any clue to answer these question. The items recovered, specifically the fragment of the time core could be the key. I need more answers before I simulate anymore theories.
Another concern plagues my mind. During the travel to the gathering I saw an image of myself shouting at me, no sound just pleading. Trauma from the temple perhaps or a splinter of Krod from a different time foreshadowing events of yet to come ?

Over the next hill, nestled in the valley below is a simple but ancient structure. Similar to that of an amphitheatre or the bones of a colosseum. An enormous grey circular stone at the centre, crowds of people from different part of the land already there waiting for an explanation and solution. Sera leads us to the grey stone and the gathering begins. Anger, fear and confusion spread across the people at the gathering. Shouts of distress and a call for blame is soon pointed at the three of us. Sera thankfully interjects and calls for the three of us to plea our case.
I decide to lay out the facts, no story just the series of events that lead up to this point. The evidence and information we've collected and what had we were confronted with.
Thankfully my explanation seems to have had a positive effect, the group are in muttered discussion and questioning... Then the other two speak...
 
Killian and Lairion between them decide that religion is the reason behind all of this. Killian opens up with the honest truth of what's happened has happened people need to look forward and if they don't remain strong in the eyes of his god they will suffer further... Lairion decides to add to the despair and tells all that they should embrace death and the death of their loved ones because in the eyes of his god that's how it should be...
Why do I bother ?! I'm only trying to save our lives but you know what's more important. Spreading the good word about the god of conflict and the goddess of death ! That's a great idea !...
 
Debates continue and finally our fate is decided. We are to be sent out to fix the brake in time. Two thirds of the various peoples at the gathering do not believe it is our fault directly but are responsible to repair what is broken, a fair assessment but I can't help knowing that there is a group who oppose us. They will pose a problem in our investigations and now we have the quandary of fighting them causing more harm in our already rocky relation with the whole region.
The evening that follows is quiet, even though we are given hospitality it feels forced. We all wonder around speaking to various representatives of the gathering itself before reconvening and deciding where to start.
-Note-We are given three investigations.
1. A new rift has opened to the south — a deep wound in the landscape where the earth seems to breathe in slow, unsettling pulses. Those who approached swear they heard voices echoing from within… voices that sounded eerily like their own. Tracks lead to the edge but never return, and strange lights flicker deep below as if something — or someone — is trying to communicate across fractured time. Entering the chasm could reveal truths the Temple never meant you to learn… but it might also show you things you were never meant to see.
2. The Vanishing Settlement, A once-bustling hamlet has fallen silent. Doors are left open, fires burn low in hearths, and meals sit half-eaten on tables — but there isn’t a single person to be found. No signs of struggle. No footprints leaving town. Even animals seem to have been neatly erased. Those who discovered the settlement say it feels wrong to speak there… as if the air itself is listening. Something in that silence is waiting. Maybe watching. And the empty houses may be holding on to memories that don’t belong to anyone alive.
3. The Echo of the Artificer, Strange visions have begun flickering at the edges of waking sight — a figure in cracked glass, a hand reaching from a place between moments, glimpses of impossible mechanisms turning in the sky. Scholars believe these echoes may be remnants of the Temple’s master… or warnings from someone caught in a loop outside of time. Following these visions may lead you across broken memories, forgotten timelines, and truths that refuse to stay still. But if the Artificer is truly reaching out to you… they may not be the only thing trying to make contact.
 
I know which of these leads I would like to follow up first but we decide as a group. The Vanishing Settlement is our first objective in the hope that putting the people first they will see our sincerity in repairing the damage that has been wrought on them. We leave in the morning.