in: Story, Side stories, Quests, Recruitment quests
Who Takes the New Road?
Approved Quest · facts checked 2 November 2026
Who Takes the New Road? is the side story of Fen. It asks which kinds of work fit a resident who likes to move. The answer depends on the layout and the task, not on Fen's personality. The story is about spatial route coverage, while Mote's is about evidence and Pip's is about handing off duty.
Opening rule#
The story opens only when Hearth grows a new connection. A player who never grows the home never meets Fen, and nothing in the main story is missing. Supply pays for new infrastructure, never for a living cell.
Steps#
| Step | Title | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| F0 | The extra connection isn't free | A newcomer arrives along a real road as the new connection is built. |
| F1 | A job that fits, briefly | Fen tries a temporary home assignment: a mobile loop or a fixed watch. |
| F2 | The wrong road on paper | Optional. A marked "shortcut" turns out not to connect. A sign is not a path. |
| F3 | The path behind you is still there | Two home plans are compared using real route data. |
| F4 | No universal assignment | A new task on a different segment tests the plan again. |
| F5 | The unclaimed stretch | Fen settles on a stable arrangement. Completes the story. |
| F5a | An invitation onto the road | Optional field invitation, offered only after F5. |
| F6 | An outing with Fen, if chosen | First field outing, only if Fen joined. |
| F7 | Who takes the new road? (coda) | Presents the Imprint already earned at F5. |
| F8 | New road after the storm | Ambient, after Act V. |
“I can reach both bends.” “You can reach them. That's not the same as being at both.”
Recruitment#
Step F5a is Fen's recruitment step, fen:F5a. It needs F5, the III6 milestone and the home growth. If Mote was never recruited, Fen can be the first recruit and unlock the Coordinator there. See Recruitment.
Reward#
F5 unlocks the Imprint Known Turns once. The dossier describes a small efficiency on known, open routes. It never opens closed passages.
Development#
- Design: dossier Part V. The user approved Fen's placement on 31 October.
- Step ids: the dossier puts the invitation inside F5. Claude B's catalog splits it into its own step, F5a; the lead's audit cites
fen:F5aas the recruitment step. - Rooms: Claude A's
marked-shortcut(F2) andtwo-routes(F6) layouts were approved on 31 October. - In the alpha In the Placeholder alpha, Fen appears only after home growth, and the alpha keeps growth gated. The story does not start there.
See also#
Sources#
- .GAME_PLAN/ARBORWAKE_COMPANIONS_NARRATIVE_AND_SYSTEMS_DOSSIER_v0.5.md (working copy, not in Git)
- .GAME_PLAN/ARBORWAKE_THE_LONG_WAKE_v0.5_CHANGE_HANDOFF.md (working copy, not in Git)
b89f778c2:src/main-game/game/vendor/services/sidequests/catalog.js- docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-02-lead-full-project-reconciliation-audit.md (working copy, not in Git)
What links here (24)
- Act I: The Long Wake
- Act II: The Boundary Is Not a Wall
- Act III: What Stays After the Signal
- Act IV: The Interval
- Act V: The Break
- An Errand That Was Already Underway
- An Hour Without a Request
- Arborwake: The Long Wake
- Ensemble scenes
- Epilogue: The Next Ordinary Day
- Evening Pair
- Fen
- Imprints
- Known Turns
- Prologue: The Last Regular Evening
- Recruitment
- Someone Else's Shift
- The Border of an Agreement
- The Five Stretches
- The Names at the Edge
- The Part Between
- The Stretch Between Neighbours
- The Uninteresting Ones
- Withdrawn story directions