In February 1886, a world once defined by Industry and Enlightenment has descended into “sheer Terror” following a catastrophic event four weeks prior. Somewhere near Lake Erie, three strangers—John Wilson, Josiah Reubenson, and Katya Blackheart—trudge through a storm of wet snow mixed with Green Ash that clings to them like wet concrete. Driven by a hunger that has lasted many days, their minds drift back to the night reality fractured.

John, an unshaven and jittery fraudulent medium with greasy long hair and a cloak, was in his parlor in New York performing a scam seance for a couple seeking their lost son, George. As he pretended to channel the boy, a low rumble shook the house, and the room was flooded with a blinding green-tinged light. Suddenly, hundreds of humanoid spectral wisps appeared, magnetically attracted to him. He fled outside to find a green trail across the sky and an earthquake swaying buildings. A ghostly young girl grabbed his hand, asking if she could “go where George Went”. Terrified, John retreated back inside, salting his doors and windows as hundreds of ghosts packed into his home, pawing at him.

Josiah, a tall military cadet, was in a damp cellar studying a decrepit book written in blood that he had found in the Arizona territories. When an emergency bugle sounded, he emerged to see a massive meteor streaking across the sky. Chaos erupted as green-tinged shadows swallowed soldiers whole or caused them to convulse with mutations, their bones jutting from their skin. As shadow tendrils crawled toward him, Josiah set his book on the ground, and it flooded with green light. A voice filled his head, claiming: *“Mine is the edge that cuts the shadow… tonight I am your salvation”*.

Katya, a six-foot-tall athletic woman in black leathers and a half-cape, was at her home in Atlanta when a brick smashed through the window. Outside, robed riders in white proclaimed a “day of reckoning” as they set her house on fire. Katya fought with a kitchen knife and her dog, Reginald (a blue heeler), but was eventually kicked in the face by a horse. As she lay unconscious, her blood mixed with her mother's in the snow, and she saw a green slimy thing weaving through the red before a surge of power blinded her.

Returning to the present, the three survivors find a tipped covered wagon splattered with red. They discover human bones picked mirror-clean, marked by flat, humanoid teeth marks rather than those of a beast. Every scrap of food, including the sauce inside cans, has been licked dry.

The party scavenges essential tools:

• John: A military saber, dynamite, and a leather blacksmith’s apron.
• Josiah: Morphine (opium), whiskey, and a spear.
• Katya: A shovel, charcoal, rum, and a wide-brimmed witchy hat.

While investigating, John touches a bone and experiences a vision of an attack where an inhuman strength swats a face; he wakes to find a red welt in the shape of a human hand on his own face. Reginald catches a scent, leading them to misshapen paw prints 20 inches across.

The trail leads onto a frozen lake where they are charged by a 1,200-pound mutant grizzly bear covered in bone spurs, jiggling water-balloon-like sores, and exposed ribs. During the fight, John assails the bear's mind with “whispers of the dead,” while Josiah infuses Katya's revolver with elemental fire. Katya fires a radiant shot that rips away the bear’s jaw, binding the creature in its own coagulated blood.

As the ice shatters, Josiah casts Thunderstep to teleport himself and Katya to safety. The resulting shockwave proves fatal to Reginald, whose small frame is crushed by the arcane pressure.

Refusing to let the dog die, John pulls Reginald’s spirit back from the entourage of ghosts following him. Using a mixture of magic and a Wild Magic surge, he revives Reginald. The dog returns “changed,” possessing a deep, estranged intelligence and the ability to mimic human mouth movements as if trying to speak.

Josiah finishes the bear and discovers a green glowing crystal in its chest. At a makeshift shelter, John recalls that “belief makes it real”. As the party unifies their thoughts on a meal, the crystal crumbles into dust and manifests a succulent feast of slow-roasted beef, caramelized onions, buns, butter, and ale.

The episode ends as the blizzard clears and the party wakes to see a trail of dark smoke rising from a settlement within a mile.