Discussion
Currently, all of the characters PC or not, do not have all the basic abilities normally associated with an 'Amberite' ala the books because everyone in the books has had a couple of thousand years to acquire those 'god like' skills and abilities.
Yes I do have a story, and a lot of the story depends on the characters at least being able to do certain basic things, such as being able use the Pattern and to Shadow Walk.
All of the characters are completely 'New' to the concept of being members of a 'Royal Family' and what that may imply.
The 'Balls' were just an 'introduction' to one of the things being a member of the Royal Family brings. Other than that it had no more importance to the story, hence there were no 'romantic' plot lines, but I said at the time that any body who wanted to write their own liason was free to do so.
As with a lot of what I write, there were elements in that scenario that were also potential plot hooks or which introduced characters that may be useful.
What if anything becomes of any of those is again down to what the PCs choose to do.
The current story-line around Ghostwheel introduces a significant plot element but is also the basis for everyone gaining the basic knowledge to be able to learn to Shadow Walk.
When the party left Carnelian, you left with 2 days of food for both yourselves and your horses. The Lord Kylestenson scenario and the way it was played meant you didn't need to use any of those supplies. It also deliberately leaves a whole lot of threads open.
In the current scenario, you have no choice but to expend the resources you left Carnelian with. If Charlie hadn't directed the use of half rations, then you'd all be out of food already. Just because she is an NPC does not mean she is omnipotent or knows anything about what is going to happen, or how long it is going to take, or what the reasons behind anything happening are. For all intents and purposes in a scenario she knows as much about what is going on as the PCs do. She might know things about the PCs but there are reasons why she does, some of which have been hinted at, at least to everyone other than Sarah (a chunk of that was in the Pattern demonstration scenario which Sarah wasn't around for).
AS characters you know from your stay in the village they have very little food, which means they are not likely to share it with anyone (and that likely means even within the village). In the same way they have no specific reason to go with Sarah just on her say so.
People can do the maths on how long it will take to get back to the village in the same way as I can, based on how long it took you to get here. Assuming you use the trail you created to get here, and hence don't have to break a trail, it will take about half the time it took you to get here in the first place, which means it will take 10 to 11 hours to get back to the village. It's already the best part of 12 hours since you all last ate.
Even after getting back to the village Sarah would then have to get out of the shadow, either with or without the villagers. She has the basic precepts of how to Shadow Walk, but no 'unsupervised' experience and no experience of manifesting the Pattern in a Pattern Locked Shadow - Charlie didn't either but she does have a couple of years of experience of using it. As I posted elsewhere using the path you created to get to/from the village would complicates getting out of the Shadow, hence needing to use a 'new' path but that is inherently slower in terms of walking because walking through 'fresh' snow is much harder than walking across 'old snow'. Sarah would then have to get to somewhere where she can get food and shelter. Sarah does not have Pattern Search so she can't use the Pattern to find anywhere, so it would be down to 'luck'.
All of the constraints are therefore both circumstantial and to Sarah not having the necessary skills to make her life easier.
From a scenario perspective, if one of the characters were a 'conjurer' who understood how magic operates across Shadow then things would be different, but nobody opted to play a conjurer, and Cormac doesn't currently understand the constraints of how magic works across Shadow, so can't use his sorcery to help (assuming he knows any spells which would be of use).
In the same way as Sarah used the Pattern in the first scenario, she could have chosen to do the same research in the village that Cathal and Rhiannon did.
There was a point to it all..
Everything in the plot line is intended to allow the characters to gain the skills they need whilst giving them things they can do, as Cordelia put it 'to learn on the job'.
A lot of the scenarios are also designed to reveal chunks of the background history, and other things that are and have been going on, but they are also designed to educate the characters to the reality of what being able to wander about in Shadow means, and the dangers that can come about as a result.
The vast majority of Shadow is not 21st Century Earth with all it's conveniences.
Charlie does not carry her Bergen full of stuff around for no reason.
Also bear in mind that as per the game advert/introduction the game is designed for at least 5 characters with a broad spread of skills. In terms of PCs you do not have that spread.
Once you get out of this shadow, then as Charlie has already indicated both she and Alana have exams (note for achmed_the_mad.. Alana in her original conception was very keen not to waste her 2 years in the sixth form and therefore very very intent on sitting her exams. I believe her exam timetable is on the website, if not I can forward it to you), so Charlie will be around a lot less, but she does have a key role to play in the rescue of survivors from Xantigra (that's the name of this Shadow by-the-way). But so potentially do the PCs, but that you will like everything else, have to find out for yourselves, and how that pans out is completely down to what the PCs do.
This means a lot of what happens next is down to what the characters do.. at least for some while..
The gap, such as it exists, is there for couple reasons
1) To allow Cordelia to get to the point where she can attempt to fix Ghostwheel - that will become clearer in a while..
2) Probably more importantly from a character perspective to give them an opportunity to develop some of their skills, and spend some of those 'spare' CPs.
3) Do something or nothing in relation to Xantigra - Natsuki will drive this if nobody else does and NPCs not involved with what ever the PCs choose to do will end up doing this by default.
Without (2) then the next scenario just can't happen, because you all need to be able to Shadow walk, so you can learn to Hell Ride.
Ideally the Trump artists need to be able to create Shadow spanning Trumps, at least as durable sketches, and having Trumps of each other would be really useful as well. And these all take time to produce.