A Tree Grows in Jabar

Reconnaissance of the Slith

Suvatra and the Captain contemplate options– take a few extra days and try to go around the slith; try to skirt the slith, which will likely cause them to engage with us with smaller units, but we’ll be more likely to be on their terms; we attack them at a place and time of our choosing, giving us tactical advantage.

Scout is confused, wait why are we going to go into an army of terrible slith? Hmm. We offer to do some aerial recon, which might help give some more data as to what the best plan is.

Army Combat!

We engage in a small army combat. There are two infantry units and two cavalry units, defending the merchant unit. The army combat goes about as well as can be expected, losing one cavalry unit and taking damage to both infantry units, but destroying all six slith forces.

Jabril and Vidan notice that there are character actions happening outside of the Army Combat, which is unusual. An assassination attempt is underway! Jabril activates Diomarche, asking what the heck. Vidan activates the PCs, one at a time. Scout decides he is SEEING THE ASSASSIN, DARN IT, and drops all his DI and Fortune. He gets past the assassin’s DI defenses and can see her sneaking into the camp over the wall that Managaratha has created.

The fight is on. Scout calls out Invader Invading! and shoots the assassin– a single human woman. She decides she was not well-configured for this number of awake people, so tries to flee.

We refuse to give up the chase, going after her through several battle maps. Eventually she decides to She uses her Lucky Break schtick, but collectively we beat her, so she runs into Jabril as she goes to the next battlemap. We finish her off.

Combat Aftermath

We find a white and black circular thing that is probably loot. Also +1 dagger. Also, she is dead.

Oh hey, look, Jabril is a priest of Jord. That’s probably why he was activating Diomarche.

We go to search her tent. Vidan gets 14 successes with Detective. There is less Merchant stuff than you’d expect; it was just a cover. There’s a locked, probably trapped chest. Scout takes a look– it’s definitely trapped, more than 6 successes. We enlist Jabril, who is able to open it,

Ninja loot! Several poisons, a few non-magic daggers, a blowgun, a few throwing moons, a strangling cord. Vidan takes the throwing moons; Scout takes the poisons. Some of them are inhaleable things.

Managaratha analyzes her blood. (eww.) A human female corpse who was… last alive five years ago? That’s weird. Ah, maybe she’s been unscryable for 5 years? Hmm.

The Centaurs lost 1 of two units, so quite a few centaurs, the infantry took damage but not as much. For killing six slith units, that’s not bad.

Managaratha looks at the disc– he gets 2 Detect Magic but doesn’t notice anything. Scout can’t see it at all. That’s suspicious. Stella takes a look– it seems more ceramic than metal.

Eventually we ask Suvatra– it’s an anti-scrying Talisman. Probably divine. It would need to be attuned to make you unscryable, rather than just being unscryable yourself. It’s not un-common.

In the Capital

We get into the capital, but the Maharani is not here. We are put up at the palace. Vidan thinks about whether there’s enough time to do his seed-Purple-teleport-anchors here. It looks like we have a few days.

Vidan enlists a realtor, but decides the Priest district would be more likely to draw attention; he goes to the Servant district instead.

Stella spends a few days healing the wounded soldiers.

Diomarche noodles around in historic areas. Many of them are in the palace.

Managaratha tries to Gather Information about Feelings magic. Are there quantifiable ways of doing feelings? That seems hard. Anger Fear Love Jealousy, but you could also have Suspicion, say. You could have a Feeling about what’s behind the door, which is Clairvoyance-ish. There seem to be a lot of Mages here– people just learn Magic in a way they don’t many other places. (Maybe except in Purple.) Ah, he’s mostly interacting with the top three Varna, that probably concentrates the magical talent more. Servants with Magic dice probably get funneled into another Varna…

Scout goes to the Elf district, and Gale tags along. Gale is also interested in getting a “don’t be anxious” Yellow trinket for Dalin. Gale flirts a bit, but decides maybe that’s rude if she already has a date. Wait, what? Scout is confused. Gale finds lots of people who are happy to Adventure. Some elves tell Scout about the Tree Network– there’s a Tree in the district, yeah. They don’t really know how it works.

Scout goes to check it out. There’s a courtyard with columns, open to the sky. A high elf asks if she can be of assistance. Scout hopes so. He wanted to learn about the Trees. They allow a certain amount of travel, but it is not easy. Am I in need of a Tree?

Gale tries to come along, but seems to have gotten distracted.

The area with the tree in it is a different environment– it is grassy, not scrub and desert. It is holy to spirits, not the Goddess. Weirdly, Middlesea is confident that this is a place that is a Spirit– but it is not just the spirit of this place, it is the Spirit of the Tree places. Scout’s friend is clear that it is/was quite large. It’s been split up? It’s not all here? That’s very weird. It doesn’t feel violent that it is not all here, but it was definitely… yeah. Weird.

“Have their been troubles?”

“Messalani’s opinions not withstanding, the network is perfectly usable. It is somewhat more difficult than it has been in the past, but it is not Broken or Shattered in any way.”

The ecology of the area is hard to read, as it is poorly defined. It’s not in Yellow; it’s not in Green. Scout could, if he chose to, go to the Tree, and be in the area proper, rather than this part of the tree that is protruding. Scout spends 5 DI and takes a look at the Tree. That is definitely part of a very big spirit. Scout could make it an offering, and travel through the spirit to another Tree, or use Green magic without an offering, but that might be… not quite rude, but. Scout is fairly clear stepping into it without the rest of the group is not a good idea.

This point of contact is shrinking– very slowly. It’s smaller than when it was made, and will probably keep shrinking. By next Comet it may not survive; it needs reinforcing or it will get kicked out. Scout can’t tell clearly whether the shrinking is making it work less well. It’s definitely bigger than 20 DI, but I can’t see it all from here. It’s probably not as big as the Oasis? But it’s hard to tell from here.

Looking at where the Green goes, it looks like you could use Green Magic to cast passplant even if you don’t know passplant, to go to one of a number of places. It goes out of the country, but maybe not as far as Green? I don’t think so? Not exactly? 3 Analyze Green for 10s– it is mostly Nature rather than Alchemy. There is some… there was some Essence in the original creation, that has changed the Spirit? But the Green that is still active is mostly Nature.

Loot

• +9 EPs
• +9 SPs
• one talisman of anti-scrying
• one +1 Dagger
• one chest of ninja gear