Austrian Avian Association

December 11th, 1898 — something nasty is happening in Austria-Hungary. In the Alps, the Schnabelperchten are a community of bundled-up birds who estivate through the warmer months and wake each fall to carry out their ancient tradition: reward hardworking townsfolk with gifts, or disembowel slackers and stuff them with straw. It has worked for hundreds of years. Until now. You are Trina Berger, the 56-year-old doctor and herbalist of the Perchts — the last to fall asleep and the last to awaken. You emerge to find signs of a battle, ransacked houses, and injured guards. A beam of dark light from Grossglockner launched an invasion of bone hounds, tatzelwurms, and harpies while you slept. The matriarch organized an evacuation. Nobody woke you because they thought you had died. You grab your map, your basket, your rations, and your throwing axes. Time for some aggressive alpinism.