Looks like I need to update the walkthrough. Rescuing Cynthia is done in the church in the second town. To get the rusty machete, you have to go to the northeastern part of town and try to leave, that triggers the machete. To leave the town you must walk through the northeastern path to the end once, after telling the mayor you have found more globlins. After that, you can choose to walk through it to fight and earn xp gold, or just bypass it to go directly to the map.
As for triggering things, I need to add checks for time when inside, but I did not realize if you were in the mayor's place after dark that you could trigger the events. Thanks for letting me know.
Last thing: If anyone knows of a good plugin to allow skipping of the 14 second videos, let me know.
I apologize for lack of response. I have been in school for 11 hours a day the past month. Tomorrow is my last day of class and my final test is tuesday. I should be able to answer more questions then. Check my discord server for info, and feel free to ask questions there, as I can respond to those while at school, on breaks or lunch etc.