The Devoted

The Devoted
Aliases	dvtd102986@forestofdarkeningglass.com
Known Associates	Sacha (leader), Reader (member), Brandon Lachmann (cult icon)

The Devoted were a mysterious cult involved in Fragment Four. Initially seeming to be a helpful group, it soon became clear that they were an enemy of The Mountaineers.

Personality

The Devoted, being a group of many people, referred to themselves in the first person plural ("we"). Their messages were often strange and cryptic, with brief emails signifying whether recruits were on the right track. Most of their messages were delivered in the form of images - black backgrounds with neon green text.

According to Reader, The Devoted were once like a family. However, another group had "spread through [them] like a virus. They're using [The Devoted] to get to Brandon, to get to [the Mountaineers]... to get to the Book"

Biography

The Devoted were a group that appeared in Fragment Four. Hijacking Susan Lachmann's website, The Forest of Darkening Glass, which was devoted to her late son Brandon Lachmann, the Devoted used embedded links on the page to reach out to The Mountaineers. The Devoted claimed to want to complete the Timeline of Brandon's journey to the magical world together with the mountaineers, encouraging teamwork. According to Martin Rank, "that cult still has gullible folks emailing [him] this same thing every year." Recruits would email The Devoted various solutions, with a countdown being maintained on the website to ensure proper adherence to the timeline. As the recruits solved more puzzles, The Devoted would provide new materials.

Recruits were skeptical of the Devoted, but continued to work with them out of necessity for solving the fragment. This continued until the recruits were sent a group private message from Reader, a long time member of The Devoted who believed that the group was planning to betray the Mountaineers. Reader told recruits she believed the Devoted were being controlled by another group, who wanted to use their numbers to get to Brandon and, after learning of the Mountaineers, the Book of Briars. This mysterious group had infected the Devoted, gaining the ear of their leader Sacha, with Reader stating she felt "like she's being led by someone else." In response to the corruption, Reader agreed to assist recruits in private, sharing information when she could, as long as recruits pretended they found the information themselves.

Recruits continued to work in secret, and the Devoted initially seemed to be unaware of the group's knowledge. The countdowns continued and the Devoted provided new materials for recruits. This culminated in a mission that required traveling to the Cloisters to obtain a disk . Recruits planned to meet with Reader, who had been assigned by Sacha to go pick up the disk. She did as she was asked, but secretly met up with recruits and shared the information that was hidden with the disk. Unbeknownst to Reader, she was tailed by another operative who took pictures of the meeting.

Despite being aware that recruits were colluding with Reader, they pretended to be unaware for some time. However, when recruits completed Brandon's second-to-last puzzle - a series of phone booth puzzles, the Devoted were locked out, unable to hear Brandon's message. Afterwards, the Devoted sent a message stating that new materials were provided, with a link to a series of pictures from the Cloister and a message that they had "been betrayed again." Reader gave a final warning that Sacha would attempt to catch up at all costs, although the recruits ultimately triumphed, finding Brandon's final message and obtaining the fourth fragment.

After the fourth fragment was completed, Reader sent one final message to recruits. The Devoted had disbanded . Sacha disappeared on the 29th. Before she left she said she'd been "brought into the fold" and her work with The Devoted was done.

Gallery

The email address recruits used to correspond with The Devoted

The Devoted's final correspondence with The Mountaineers