Forging the Free Rangers

[Still Salamander 2]

We start with the call of “Incoming!” by a voice that is next to Scout, from something that is vaguely visible.

Our featureless plain seems to have some features– there’s two rings of Large Hexes around Vidan, and then a plain of small hexes. Far off in one direction there is a Desert, with five cataurs. In the other direction is a drow, and a spirit next to her.

Combat starts. In 15, the drow puts up a green wall blocking off the corner she’s in. The drow's (captive?) spirit takes away two of our Greater Hexes, and the desert Greater Hex advances. We realize that’s the Oasis. Oh dear. The cataurs also advance. Scout identifies the drow's spirit as the Spirit of Middlesea, and Scout's friend identifies the drow as "the elf we were following." (Silenalania)

The spirit of Middlesea also drops a tied-up guy (Nesh says he's William, the head butler from Middlesea) into Nesh's hex.

Gale gets thornbushed, gagging her, but between Managaratha, Nesh's knife, and her own Airstep (wild magic) she gets out enough to swear.

The party swears the Oath, using the following names:

• Nesh, son of Ilyana, last of the line of the Oldest.
• Stella, the Goddess's Hammer.
• Managaratha (that's all he says)
• Scout: the Eyes of the Forest
• Gale: Storm’s Queen.
• Vidan: Rolls for 8s, but also knows that it will be less bound to the ritual than he might like. Then he decides that he’ll say the Thing, swearing the oath as “We, now Vidan…”
• Diomarche: Rush’s Hammer

Nesh frees William enough to say "Captured North", and that moves the spirit of Middlesea two towards us, and our hexes towards it.

"I think we should delay the end of this ritual." -Managaratha

The cataurs and Oasis keep closing to grab Nesh, and our large hexes keep melting.

Scout's friend tells him: Middlesea is bound by a green shamanism ritual. Hitting it with a sanctuary or a dispel green should help. It is being held in the Broken Lands; it would have Broken to a demon by now but it is protected by time not passing.

Fifth action, the Oasis is stuck against the red circle.

Next turn - the cataurs have grabbed Nesh; he and Gale and Diomarche are now floating off of the Greater Hexes near the Oasis, as people chop Middlesea's bonds.

Scout's friend notes that we are always on a battlefield with the Oasis demon and the Middlesea spirit.

Stella hammers Middlesea's bonds. It's mostly broken.

Middlesea tells us that he is being held about [a spot on the Mappe now labeled as Spiritbreaker Fortress]. There is a fortress with several goblins - he's seen at least four. They take turns holding him captive. They are all broad green mages. There are a lot of other demons here that used to be spirits that they have kidnapped and done this to. He doesn't know their long term goal but assumes this is bad. He would greatly appreciate it if we could get him out before the timestop ends.

Scout drops a shaman miracle of connecting him to Middlesea. 7 successes, 12 DI. "Are you sure?" He says yes. There is a fast marriage montage between Middlesea and Scout's spirit friend.

Scout realizes (or is told by one of the spirits?) that his eyes are in the same fortress as the goblins.

Vidan tries to get us out again. Managaratha finishes the ritual.

Back in the Real World

People who are on the Greater Hexes are in a ritual room. Everyone else is "somewhere in the castle", including four cataurs holding Nesh. Diomarche ends up in the stables; Nesh and the cataurs are outside the castle.

Gale reappears right outside the ritual room, and drops everyone into a battle location spell, and unfolds the boat. Diomarche runs towards Nesh. Vidan tries to climb out the window, and Stella pushes. "He was going out the window, so I assumed the boat was there."

Diomarche tramples the cataurs. Nesh is pretty badly wounded.

The guards find and take care of the last cataur. The captain of the guards is not pleased by the cataurs.

Post Combat

There’s some talking to the Regent, who, rather dubiously, wants to know why were there cataurs in our ritual? We explain that they took exception to our plans to thwart the Breaker. Ah. Vidan thanks the Regent for the guards' timely assistance. The Regent offers Vidan the ability to stay if he wants, but he’d probably have to learn some Red.

Scout relays some details about what he found out in Middlesea. He wonders about contacting His Majesty to update him about what’s going on. Hmm.

We decide to stay overnight, look for Broken priests in the morning, and then head towards Melmane.

[Salamander 3]

DI in hand, Scout scouts, with Nesh, Gale, and Diomarche. With DI in Sensing Broken Miracles, some scouting, and 2 successes on a Karma check, they find a place where there was a miracle a while ago. On the edge of how long ago that can be noticed, so probably a week or two. But that means it was fairly large. Close to Berenson’s death, which was about 8 days ago, so probably a little before? But maybe the day of, or shortly after. Only a taste of it left. It was probably subtle, so might have been Bent, rather than Broken. It’s in a tavern, not far from Temple Square.

So there’s definitely some evidence of a Broken or Bent priest that’s been around recently. Gale chats up the bartender ( Doyle, who runs The Crimson Flagon), who is happy to chat and flirt. It’s a reasonably upper-class bar– not where nobles stay, they stay with other nobles, but if you have money but not connections it’s a good place to stay. He doesn’t gossip about his clientele, so we don’t get specifics, but he does note that business spiked after the King’s death, as there were many travelers coming to pay respects, etc. The High Priest of the Nameless did come through that week, although not that evening.

Thinking about it further, Scout’s pretty sure it was on the first floor, which has the bar and the dining room and the kitchen and a couple of bedrooms. It wasn’t the kitchen, it probably wasn’t the bar. Probably the private dining room or bedrooms. It was targeting the people in the room, not the room itself.

Stella Brings It, asking What Broke Here? It was a foreign miracle; a bunch of DI was spent, but it’s indirect enough that it’s not going up against their full defenses. Nothing explicitly Broke, but it was part of a Breaking of the Church of the Five.

Vidan gathers information about meetings of priests that happened in the Tavern. The local priest of Jord (Bert) was in for a meeting a week and a half ago, with Greg, and traveling priests of Orellian and Navere. Stephen was the priest of Navere from out of town, Lily was the priest of Orellian.

Vidan feels compelled to tell Violet what we have gleaned; he says that we think the meeting was targeted by a Broken miracle, it’s not clear if the miracle was cast by one of them or someone outside. Violet says she will keep an eye open; she had met Stephen and Lily but didn’t think they were Bent or Broken.

Loot

• We are members of the Middlesea Free Rangers.
• We each get a Creation Schtick, which Charles will tell us about.
• +10 EPs, +30 SPs
• Cake!