01/14/2024 -- Operation Civic Surge

• Date: 39th Lionnir 715AR. Starring Talisman (commander), Varos (marshal), Thomas (quartermaster), Bloom (lorekeeper).
• We start at 10am, another meh day in the Brigade. Talisman, you have a mission – how would you like to begin assembling your crew?
• Talis goes to find Bloom first, says he knows they’re not exactly on the best of terms, but wants to know if he’d help him with something – he was approached by the leadership of the church, and told to meet them somewhere, and bring an unspecified amount of soldiers, building materials, and weapons.
• Bloom agrees, and Talis asks if he knows of any other people who could help – Bloom says he’ll go get Varos, and he goes to do that, while Talis goes to talk to Thomas. Varos is chilling in his tent, hiding from everyone who doesn’t like him. When he asks who’s there and is told Bloom, he asks if Bloom is lying, and Bloom says he’s technically always lying when he says he’s Bloom. Varos allows him to come in.
• Bloom gives Varos the run-down, and he agrees to come with. Bloom also tells him Margaux was looking for him, but Varos asks him to not tell Margaux where he is. Bloom agrees.
• Meanwhile, Thomas is going around trying to help people. Talis approaches him, and gives him the rundown – Thomas also agrees to come. Talis asks how Philip is doing, and Thomas says good as he can be, but no one’s doing great. Before the mission, Thomas visits Philip. Philip offers to come along, but Thomas declines.
• Bloom and Talisman go to Lucky Eight’s, and Thomas goes to the Rat Races.
  • King Cheddar is doing well, but a new rat is here, dipped in red dye. His name is Hotshot, and he’s the fastest Thomas has ever seen. There’s a brief out-of-character debate on if Hotshot is a real rat.
• Talisman tries to lead the group to the church, but gets 0 successes searching. Bloom eventually speaks up and leads the group there, and we approach the church. A line of beggars is wrapped around the building, looking for alms, and a sole initiate is passing out small boxes of food and other materials, flanked by 4-5 guards. We walk to the entrance, and some of the beggars start to yell at us for cutting the line.
• We see the initiate – they’re a half-elf, with long, dark hair, and a uniform similar to Talisman’s. They ask if we have business here, and when Talisman shows the letter he was given, we’re led inside. The beggars get even angrier that the person giving out food is leaving, and Varos tells them to calm down and pray more. He purposefully fails his spirit check, and incites a riot.
• The interior is beautiful, with ornate tapestries. Clerics and guards are eating food, and we smell fresh, roasted chicken as we walk by. We’re taken to an office room, and see a gruff-looking older man praying before an altar. Talisman immediately recognizes the hard stare of Master Zhret Tatnai.
  • “Initiate. You’re alive.”
• Talis gives an awkward half-bow, and Tatnai gives a formal bow in return. He asks if we’re soldiers for the cause – Talis says yes, but we’re not sure what the cause is. Tatnai says there’s a rebel group threatening the church. He wants Talis to take some soldiers and root out the rebels. He’s divined and seen futures where the rebels have taken over the camp. There’s a thief named Dark-Eye Brenn who wears a medallion around his neck; we’re to destroy the rebel group and bring him the medallion.
• They also require as many building materials as possible, because they’re at a great loss of housing for the clerics/guards. He refers to Talis’s being sent to the Brigade as a banishment, which is news to Talisman. Bloom asks why the clerics/guards aren’t in tents like everyone else, and Tatnai says disease would spread, that he’s seen futures of it. Bloom says their doctors must not be very good, and Tatnai is pissed, saying that he expects some degree of courtesy in his home.
• Bloom says our supplies are running very thin, and we have to allocate them carefully. When Tatnai says the church has been helping the Brigade and the displaced peoples, Bloom says they really haven’t been, and that their church is too extravagant; when Tatnai says it’s what their goddess requires, he says their goddess is too demanding.
• Tatnai makes a remark about Bloom’s lack of faith, and Bloom says he used to have faith. Tatnai says Bloom must have placed his faith in the wrong thing, and Bloom says he placed it in a much higher being than a god who’d only been around for a few hundred years. This majorly pisses Tatnai off, and after demanding to know from Talisman who Bloom is (Talisman says Bloom is one of the best soldiers in the Brigade ♡), threatens to kick Bloom out. The rest of the party reassures him that that’s not necessary, and he says this is our second warning, and he won’t give a third.
• We don’t give them any materials, but we agree to go on the mission to get the stolen supplies and medicine back. Because of the rioting beggars outside, we take an underground exit, though Varos is unnervingly enthused about assaulting the rioters.
• We start the actual mission. The commander spends 1 intel to ask what a useful item would be, and is told a supply wagon. We choose to bring one wagon, with the intent to bring it back intact. We get to roll 1d6 for the engagement roll, and get a 5 – risky position.
• Varos leads us across the grasslands, away from Alstride Camp. It’s a monotonous march, and we head along a sunken road with a bit of tree cover. We’re walking in peace and quiet. Varos picks up a bully club-sized branch, and starts talking about beating the shit out of people in the name of the church. Talis tells Bloom not to take what Tatnai says too seriously, and Bloom replies that he doesn’t respect Tatnai at all, so he doesn’t care what Tatnai says.
• As Varos is saying more awful things, dozens and dozens of arrows rain down on us, and we all take 6 dmg – it’s an ambush. We see a group of people with bows and cudgels. Some people have massive shields, and others have clerical vestments. We roll for order.
• Thomas tries to tell them that we’re peaceful, and is prompted to make a spirit check at detriment ii, but can’t make it. He nonlethally punches one rebel in the jaw, knocking them unconscious. Talis recognizes the uniforms of the clerics as being from the lost sect, and shouts for a ceasefire, but fails – the Speaker he’s near laughs, and makes fun of the idea of a church member advocating for peace, saying the church is corrupt all the way down. They draw a symbol in the air, and a giant hand explodes from the dirt, attempting to crush him.
• The combat continues, and Dark-Eye Brenn appears on the battlefield, a darker hooded figure trying to slide a dagger into Thomas’s armor. Meanwhile, Talis is surrounded by rebels, and loses 2 health blocks (he gets the tired condition, and is knocked prone).
• Varos drops his spear and draws his dagger, telling the Speaker he’s fighting that “Mother sends her regards,” before promptly grabbing them by the shirt and pulling them into the knife, giving them a nasty chest wound. On his next turn, he kills them.
• Thomas knocks out another rebel, telling them to stay down. Brenn looks to him, and tells him to stop working with the clerics – if Thomas can stop Varos, they’ll consider talking. Thomas runs to the rest of us, telling us to stand down. Varos almost keeps going, but after reading the room and seeing the rest of us intend to surrender, he stands down.
• Brenn looks to Varos, and fishes out some rope, telling Varos to extend his hands – he restrains Varos, followed by Bloom (who also killed people), and Talisman. All 3 consent to this. Talis asks Brenn what’s going on, and Brenn says they were waiting, and heard us talking about attacking the rebels. When asked if they’re from the church, he says they’re just mercenaries, and that the church stole their medicine. They ran into the Speakers along the way.
  • He further explains that he led the Dark-Eye mercenary band, and that after the fall of Tpres, they booked it and came across a town of sick people afflicted with Garret’s Rot. They kept moving to Alstride, where things were shitty but survivable, until the church came around asking for donations. They gave what they could, but couldn’t part with their medicine, and that pissed the church off.
• He points out they have 3 dead now – 2 of his own people, and one of the good Speakers. He asks how we intend to remedy this, saying the law is usually blood for blood. Thomas does apologize for the bloodshed. Bloom is defensive, saying they attacked first, but offers a safe place in the Brigade for the people to recover, promising we won’t tell the church they’re there. He makes a spirit check [3 successes, after a full reroll], and Brenn agrees, but says they want Varos as a hostage.
• We ask if we can give Tatnai his medallion, as proof we took care of the rebels – Brenn pulls out the medallion, says it was given by a friend on the road long ago, who found them again recently. He feels it’s important, and asks if we’d be able to get it back. We say we’ll try, but can’t guarantee it. We ask who his friend is, and he thinks for a moment, saying he’s not sure if the name is real. His friend’s a weird guy (at least, he thinks he’s a guy), some kind of scholarly, bookish type.
• Bloom asks for the false name, and Brenn says he’ll let us meet the friend, and his friend will decide if they give their name. We agree to this. Brenn asks Thomas to help with the dead, and Thomas agrees, loading the dead into our cart as respectfully as he can. We’re taken to a small camp, with most of the people in cots – they’re pale and sweating profusely, reminding Varos of his squadmates marching across the Black Sands on a hot day. They definitely have fevers.
  • We also see a supply depot – 2-3 carts worth of materials, scrap, woods, nails, etc. There are relics, maps, and even a large wooden barrel marked “grey oil”. There are also boxes with medical symbols.
• We see a large, almost freakishly tall figure (close to 7’). They appear humanoid from the back, but when they turn, we see constantly-shifting star-like constellation tattoos across the body. They have jet-black eyes with no pupils, and moss growing along their body, sometimes obscuring the constellation patterns. “Who have you brought for us, Brenn?”
• Brenn takes the individual aside, and they begin speaking. The living Speaker taps Varos on the back, saying he killed a good one of them – they ask what that Speaker ever did to him. Varos says “Nothin’,” and they call him a monster, an attack dog waiting to be let off the leash. He more or less agrees, saying that with the Blossomed and everything, you can’t just sit back and chat things out in a fight. They say he doesn’t know the power of words, but as Speakers, they know the power of those little chats.
  • Varos says chatting doesn’t bring back the dead, and they say that if it wouldn’t endanger the mission, they’d kill him right now. He says he wouldn’t blame them. They turn to Thomas, saying, “This is the company you keep?” Thomas says he’s questioning that now, and the Speaker tells him he must listen to the words monsters say.
• The taller man walks over, and greets us as members of the Brigade. He says he’d been hoping to find our group for some time now, and asks where we’re located. Thomas asks why he’s looking for us. He says he’s here as a witness, an observer. He wants to meet an associate of Raymond Shivo’s apparently in/near our camp, and is also performing a favor to get back a grimoire that was last seen more than 100 years ago.
• Bloom asks for his name, and he introduces himself as the Stargazer. Bloom says they won’t be able to hand over the book, and he asks if we’re responsible enough to watch the book, before asking if 70k gold pieces would be enough. Bloom says he doesn’t have any use for money besides buying booze, and the Stargazer encouragingly says he could get lots of booze. Bloom still refuses, saying he’s friends with the book, and won’t make that decision on its behalf.
• The Stargazer is surprised the book can speak, and asks further about the book, until Thomas asks which book we’re talking about. Bloom says Charon, at the same time Stargazer says the book goes by Unravel. No one in the group knows anything about Unravel (besides Varos, who does not speak up), and we tell him this. He’s still interested in Charon, too, but is still told no.
• He tells us we make bad choices, but is pleased with this, saying you have to have a bit of spice. Things are boring when they go as they should. He asks if anything has changed with the sky above us, and Varos asks if it’s changed for him – and he says yes, it’s very fortuitous. He’s been observing them for many years. He was around when the blood of Sin was spilled the first time, and those stars were very interesting, but these stars are the most interesting.
  • Varos tells him the sky did change, when an angel died. He seems entertained by this.
• He also asks if we know two people, by the names of Koilos Sky and Ari. He likes to witness, and they are very interesting – with a last name like Sky, and him being the Stargazer, it’s a perfect fit. He says he and Ki have the same eyes, and as we peer closer, we see within his jet-black eyes appear to be tiny constellations moving within.
• He says he’s doing favors here and there, trying to bring Brenn’s people along to meet with the rest of the Speakers. He’ll allow Brenn to give us his medallion if we provide the camp with a few extra medical supplies (3 recovery), and give him free access to the camp, so he can pop in and out. We ask to discuss among ourselves, and he agrees, though he doesn’t move away. Varos decides to hang out and talk to him as a distraction, while the rest of us move off to the side.
• After some debate, we decide to offer him an audience with the Archfey instead of recovery. He asks which Archfey, and declines when he finds out it’s Zetian and Cordell. We offer instead 2 recovery, and he says the camp will need the medicine for the trek, though he declines to tell us how long the trek is, instead offering to throw in a map to the Speakers’ camp if we give 3 recovery.
• The final deal he offers is 3 recovery and entrance into the camp, in exchange for the map and Brenn’s medallion. He’ll convince Brenn to stick around for a time to make sure things are going in his people’s favor, and says we should probably take back a few of the things they nicked, to look less suspicious. We agree to this. He gives over the map, but says he’s not responsible for what the Speakers think of us when we arrive – we are murderers, after all. We gain +3 intel, +10 scrap, and +4 relics. No grey oil.
• We return to camp, with Bloom helping take Brenn’s wagons in through the Brigade’s entrance [away from Alstride Camp and the church]. Talisman, Varos, and Thomas go to the church, and Talis hands over the medallion. Tatnai is very pleased with him, and isn’t even mad when Thomas tells him we didn’t recover any supplies. He says he’ll have more work for Talis in the future, and Talis may not be an initiate for much longer.
• Talis declines staying for dinner, but asks for resources for the Brigade, to help keep the cover up – Tatnai agrees to send additional supplies, and have his clerics preach word about the joint victories of the church and the Brigade. We get +1 supply +1 morale.
• The session ends here, with everyone getting a level-up.