LogThe Watch-Jason-10: Difference between revisions

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(Created page with "{{Gamelog |Session Date=2020-07-12 |Campaign=The Watch |Author=Jason |Session Title=Load-bearing stick }} Tovy returns to the healers' tent and sees {{npcref|Ealle}} again. Th...")
 
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{{Gamelog
{{Gamelog
|Session Date=2020-07-12
|Session Date=2020-07-19
|Campaign=The Watch
|Campaign=The Watch
|Author=Jason
|Author=Jason
|Session Title=Load-bearing stick
|Session Title=Some were born to rock the boat
}}
}}
Tovy returns to the healers' tent and sees {{npcref|Ealle}} again. The healer starts talking about a change in leadership and asks if she can count on Tovy's help. Tovy is not enthusiastic. She and Ealle agree not to discuss this topic again.
Lomo and Tovy spend a little time sparring. It's a bit of a shambles, but they've been through so much together that they enjoy it anyway. During one of Lomo's lapses of concentration, she realizes that Dirdu is probably planning to position Dolthas to fill the inevitable post-war power vacuum, either by changing the way they relate to the rest of the clans, or simply by being the ones who won the war. That seems to fit with what Ealle has been telling her.


Tovy goes to report in to {{npcref|Dirdu}} and sees that the command tent is more crowded than last time. There's a senior Molthas officer she hasn't seen before, and a variety of functionaries. Tovy reports and then comes right out and assures the Commander that she's welcome to spy on Tovy's squad in any way she likes. Tovy then asks to speak to her in confidence, and reports that she was recently solicited to help change the leadership of the Watch. She tries to thread the needle and avoid naming names, and oversteps her bounds enough for Dirdu to bring her up short. The Commander makes it clear that her plans may be deliberately opaque but her only goal is victory. Tovy ends up naming Ealle and also mentioning that Ealle had tried to recruit Lomo. The stick up Tovy's ass is load-bearing. Dirdu dismisses the Sergeant and asks her to send Risoc.
Risoc goes to the Healers' Tent to get treatment, and notices that Ealle isn't there. When she asks one of the other healers what happened to her, all she gets is a look.


Tovy returns to the camp, tells Risoc to report to Dirdu, and tells Lomo to stay the hell away from Ealle's treasonous plots. Lomo seems to listen, and on request, promises that she'll stay out of Ealle's plots.
The squad gets a summons to {{npcref|Dirdu}}'s command tent. When they arrive, the Commander seems expectant, and explains that the Watch has identified a Shadow stronghold beyond the old border. Taking it would be the prelude to victory. The scouts reported Shadow forces incoming, and the Watch will send Tovy's squad as part of a platoon to head the Shadow off and sever their supply line. Tovy asks to be shown exactly where the mision will take them. When the briefing ends, Dirdu tells Tovy that Marro is gathering the rest of the force.


By the time Risoc arrives, Dirdu's tent is empty except for a couple attendants. Dirdu removes her veil and asks the Recruit to sit down. Risoc cheerfully announces that the squad is totally loyal. Dirdu wonders how hard her field agent is really trying, and also says that given that Tovy already announced Risoc's mission to everyone in earshot, she's done kind of a terrible job of spying. On the other hand, if she pulls Risoc out, Dirdu will lose face. She tells Risoc to focus on rooting out sedition, and that she can tell the squad whatever she wants about her meeting with the Watch Commander.
{{npcref|Marro}} has three squads gathered, including another Lt. Commander, {{npcref|Payli}} of clan Charsa. Marro compliments Tovy on her promotion and asks what Tovy thinks of the odds. Tovy doesn't. She believes in speed, surprise, and extreme violence. Payli's OK with that. She tells Tovy and Marro that the Shadow supplies all seem to be wagons and stuff, not people, nor monsters.


Yeli Lets the Shadow In to see if it's possible to rescue Loisa. She finds a shadowed pool of water to stare into, one where the previous Shadow influence killed off the flora and let a dead spot. She thinks about what she could do and sees a silhouette of a prisoner chain, backlight by the sun on a ridgeline, and sort of pans over to an observation post that she recognizes as being not too far off. Yeli rushes to go talk to Lomo.
We hear out. Risoc watches our backs, and gets a partial success by dint of getting help from Lomo. Lomo gets a full success on navigation. Yeli gets a full success on scouting. Tovy gets a full success on point. Complication: Tovy and Yeli are both hurt during the mission.


The Corporal's willing to see her. Yeli describes her vision. Lomo's on board with the idea of a rescue and suggests they both go to Tovy.
The land they have to pass through is... strange. The Shadow's withering effect gets stronger as they penetrate deeper into hostile territory. The water of the river smells bad. No animals can be heard, and the wind seems unnaturally still. Payli's nervous that nothing other than four squads of the Watch are moving out here - it may make them too easy to spot.


Yeli outlines things to Tovy and says they have to leave now to have a hope of getting the job done. Tovy's interested but doesn't want to act without orders, so she decides to try to involve Risoc in her effort to get those orders issued.
The Shadow citadel is a grey stone structure, around which a sort of tent city has sprouted. Lomo volunteers to use the spirits to scout the enemy stronghold, using her pet squirrel. Tovy takes that intel to Payli and Marro and uses it to plan an ambush of the inevitable pursuit that will follow their mission. Marro would rather take a more aggressive tack, but Tovy thinks that's pushing their luck too far, and she has rank.


Risoc had been trying to pray to settle her spirit, but it's not working. She's still got some guilt from the events at the graveyard. Tovy finds her and gets her cooperation to request orders from Dirdu to execute Yeli's plan. At Dirdu's tent, things are quiet as Dirdu eats, with just some attendants there. Dirdu's not veiled, since she's eating. Tovy lays out the situation, the location, etc, and Dirdu's iffy. Visions are not intelligence, and Tovy knows it, but the Sergeant is worried that if she ignores Yeli's vision, she'll forfeit Yeli's respect and lose more combat effectiveness. Dirdu approves but tells Tovy that it's just her squad with necessary supplies.
The platoon has no problem finding the road being used to move supplies. The wagons are rolling in a long train and making a lot of noise. They're going both ways. Payli orders a squad to attack one of the biggest wagons and attack it to turn it into a roadblock, and asks Tovy to have her squad disable one at the other end. Tovy does so.


As the squad prepares to fight, Lomo explains to Risoc that Tovy's a consumate professional, torn between doing what's right and following orders. Risoc might want to do what's right, but Tovy's going to take shelter in following orders. Lomo reminds the Recruit that the squad supports Tovy, but they also support each other. She offers to be the bad girl if Risoc needs someone to carry that weight.
Tovy gets hurt when she and a Shadow sentry almost collide in the dark and stab each other before they even realize what's what. Lomo gets hurt trying to protect Risoc, and has a meaningful moment with Yeli when the two of them end up being the ones to take the wagon, which they light on fire, and by which illumination they go on to kill a whole ton of bad guys. Yeli gets hurt as they're trying to flip the wagon over into a roadblock. She'd missed one of the Shadow creatures inside that she'd overlooked. She shares a meaningful moment with Risoc when the Recruit kills that same little Shadow bastard. Risoc got hurt in pitched battle with the Shadow just before that, and shares a moment with Yeli when she goes running over to help protect Yeli after she's wounded.


During the mission, Risoc watches the squad's backs. She fails the roll and adds +1 Complication. Lomo navigates and gets a full success. Yeli scouts and gets a full success. Tovy fails her point roll but gets help from Yeli that makes it a partial. For complications, Risoc chooses "We lost a pivotal asset or territory (We all mark an additional Jaded)" and Tovy chooses "Risoc was wounded during the fighting (mark 2 harm)". The GM chooses "This mission was particularly hard on Yeli (I mark Weary and Jaded)".
The platoon has turned the supply road into a disaster scene. At the other end of the killbox, the other three squads have made a huge mess. Payli comes running over and tells Tovy that there are a whole lot of Shadow forces coming down the road, and now is the time to start their retreat. Lomo, based on her scouting, advises Tovy on which way to retreat and how to spring their ambush.


Yeli and Lomo have no trouble getting the squad, now down to only four soldiers, into position. The recent battle has reduced local Shadow strength quite a bit and also left them disorganized. The squad takes extra hours catching up with the prisoner train, but it's not hard to track a column of prisoners. They're not trying to be stealthy, after all. The prisoners are guarded by the armored red-mawed figure that the squad has seen before. The creature is whispering to the prisoners, and those he talks to immediately break down in tears, or panic, or otherwise reveal that they've been emotionally crushed.
The scheme works, but not everyone in the platoon entirely understood their hastily-contrived plan on uncertain ground, and the squad ends up having to fight through to an alternate exfiltration route. When the fighting ends, the platoon gets away, with everyone tired, a few casualties, and a full day of marching left to go. It's going to be a forced march to make sure we stay ahead of the Shadow.


Tovy and Yeli have a bonding moment during the approach when Yeli looks nervous right before we engage the enemy. Tovy tells her she did a great job getting them this far, and that the plan is going to be a success because of her. Lomo and Tovy share a moment when the Corporal notices that her Sergeant might be distracted by politics. Lomo's worried that Tovy's not entirely focused on the squad anymore, and she's nervous. Yeli has a moment where Risoc's been wounded, and the odds are turning against the squad, and Tovy has to order them to retreat even though only have the prisoners have been rescued. Risoc sees a Shadow soldier trying to backstab Lomo, tries to rush to her defense, and gets injured herself. She and Yeli share a moment when Yeli rushes to help her up and keep her safe.
Payli calls for a 30 minute pause to hydrate and rest our legs while we're still in Shadow territory. Tovy has a quick chat with Marro to make sure there are no hard feelings, which there aren't. Risoc goes to talk to Yeli about whether they're doing the right thing by fighting the war. Is it winnable? Are they getting themselves killed for nothing? Yeli tells her that she's doing the wrong thing by talking philosophy when she ought to be napping. Yeli then goes back to sleeping. Lomo meditates and checks in with the local spirits.


The {{npcref|Crimson Grin}} and his forces fight hard, and it's only help from the freed prisoners that tips the odds in favor of the Watch. The prisoners that the Shadow monster spoke to do not help - they're unable to help themselves, even. Of the Watch forces, only Risoc gets significantly hurt. The squad rescues {{npcref|Loisa}} and many other prisoners, but others are killed by the Shadow to stop them escaping, and some others are simply stuck in the coffle. At least one Northern Legion command who had been a prisoner is killed in the fighting. The squad escapes and makes it to friendly lines with about half the prisoners.
The platoon makes it back to camp after a hard march, and Payli and Tovy go to report into Dirdu. Tovy releases the rest of the squad to eat, sleep, or whatever. As they get closer to the tent, they hear a lot of yelling and shouting, and then they see a body get kicked out of the front of the tent. It's a soldier with a bloody sword in her hand. Tovy goes running in and finds Dirdu dead on the floor, a Lt Cmdr bleeding, and Dirdu's attendants fighting. The attackers, or mutineers, wear blue handkerchiefs around their necks, which is not a familiar symbol for Tovy. Tovy calls out that the mutineers must surrender, but they ignore her, so she joins the fray. She's apparently a better fighter than an orator, and she and Payli kill all the mutineers except one. The prisoner tells Tovy to do her worst because they've already done what they set out to do. Tovy wants to root out the conspiracy. Payli wants to hang them all, but she seems willing to have trials.


Returning to the camp, Tovy reports to the officer of the day ({{npcref|Lorru}} and hands over the rescued prisoners. Lt Cmd Lorru's pretty confused at first but she sends for healers, food, water, etc. It also turns out that she had no idea that Commander Dirdu had authorized any such mission. Tovy goes to report in.
Tovy quietly reminds the prisoner that they swore an oath, which they have just disgraced. Cooperation, she says, is their only road to redemption. The prison names many names, which include some senior officers.


Yeli finds that {{npcref|Loisa}} is among the rescued, and is not among those that the Crimson Grin broke down, but she's shaken and might need some medical attention. She admits to Yeli that she was afraid to even pray for rescue, and Yeli reminds her that the squad looks out for one another, and she means it.
Yeli's grabbing some hot chow before her eagerly anticipated sleep, and she notices that there seems to be an extremely tense mood. A solder wearing a blue handerchief walks over, confirms that she's on Tovy's squad, and tells here there have been some new developments, about which they hope Yeli will share their opinions. Yeli asks if she's going to sell her something, and the soldier says no, this is where you're with us or against us, and tries to stab her. Yeli's a harderned combat vet and manages to toss her food into the air, backhand her assailant with the plate, and then catch the food. She looks around and sees other blue-wearing soldiers attacking other soldiers. A melee breaks out.


One of the healers approaches Risoc and examines her. The healer asks if she really was part of a raid on a prisoner column. She's amazed at this turn. So many people have died that she'd stopped hoping to see people return from captivity. She's about to dress Risoc's wounds when Ealle tells her that she'll take over. Ealle tells Risoc that it was brave of her to fight on this rescue attempt, and then tells her to watch her back with Sergeant Tovy. Risoc asks what she has against Tovy, and the healer says that it's clear, from all the times Tovy and her squad members have reported to her tent, that Tovy's trying to win glory on her squad's backs. Risoc doesn't see it that way.
Risoc, who's followed her in, rushes to her aid and ends up in a two-on-one fight all of her own. She prevails but takes another wound.


On the way to report to Dirdu, Tovy tries to figure out how to prove to Dirdu that she is loyal and not under Shadow influence. She knows this is proving a negative, which is a tricky proposition, so maybe she needs to figure out what happened to Rezi and explain it to Dirdu. Unfortunately, that probably means letting the Shadow in. Dirdu's not in her tent, but one of her attendants tells Tovy where to find her. She's meeting with Northern Legion command elsewhere in the fort, and seems surprised to see Tovy. She's pleased but also maybe a little concern that Yeli had such a useful vision. Tovy reports on the Northern Legion Commander she saw killed, and one of the other Northern Legion officers recognizes her and says that her loss puts them behind. Dirdu tells Tovy this was good work.
Lomo heads for the healing tent and finds it deserted, except for another wounded trooper looking for help. She looks around and realizes there's a lot of fighting going on in this here camp. She grabs the other soldier, tells him they're under attack, and goes rushing for the command tent. She arrives in time to see Tovy interrogating the captive.


Lomo gets a little drunk and introspective, and ends up in a one-sided conversation with a squirrel.
She tells Tovy what's happening elsewhere, and they quickly confer. Payli will hold the tent along with Dirdu's remaining attendant. Tovy and Lomo will find Marro and send her to the command tent, then start rallying loyal forces. She and Lomo set about their work with a will. They find Marro fighting against 3 rebels and holding her own, and the aid of Tovy and Lomo turns it into a rout. Marro's been fighting to wound rather than kill, but Tovy doesn't necessarily feel the same way. With the brawl over, Marro runs to the command tent.


Risoc leaves the healers' tent and starts thinking about how to be accepted by the squad. The subject really weighs on her mind. No promising answers come to mind.  
Yeli carries on fighting with her culinary instruments, and ends up the controller of the chow hall. She sends Risoc to the command tent to get orders. Risoc finds Payli in charge, sees Dirdu's dead body, and starts laughing uncontrollably. All her struggles with her divided loyalties have led up to this. Fantastic. Payli does not understand why Tovy's Recruit is breaking down and tells her to get it together. Payli gives her a list of names to track down and kill if found.


By the time Tovy returns, Lomo's having her squirrel conversation. Tovy asks if they can talk person to person, not Sergeant to Corporal, and dumps all over her about how Dirdu's suspicion makes her doubt herself and the value of all her success. Lomo's a little taken aback by this expression of doubt, but realizes that Tovy's still commited to the watch, she's just not used to not being admired and appreciated for her success. She needs Lomo to be a rock for her so that she doesn't have to worry about the squad's loyalty.
Tovy and Lomo get to the squad area and find {{npcref|Loisa}} sleeping. They wake her and the three of them head to the chow hall, with Loisa carrying Yeli's gear.


That night, a runner summons the squad to Dirdu's command tent. She announces that she had a chance to talk to the rescued prisoners, and she's impressed. The squad seems to be good at mission planning, so maybe they need to be given more opportunities to do so. She promotes Tovy to Lt Cmdr. She then asks Yeli if it's true that she planned the mission, and Yeli confirms, saying that it was probably her close bond with Loisa that gave her insight into the situation. Dirdu says that she was hoping for more insight into how the mission happened, but she can believe that the bond between squad mates might do it. Dirdu then tells Tovy that if she has more ideas for missions, Dirdu is all ears, and that they should rest up and get ready for more combat.
Risoc arrives back at the chow hall and shares the list with Yeli. She's not interested in killing prisoners, so she's going to leave them tied up while she finishes eating. Risoc goes to get some food too. When Tovy and Lomo arrive, Risoc shows Tovy the death list Payli gave her.
 
Tovy orders the squad to form up and start quelling the fighting. She hopes that by turning up to a brawl as a formed squad, they'll be able to overawe the mutineers and avoid further bloodshed. She also tells her squad to protect themselves first, take prisoners second, regardless of who might be on the list.
 
They get their job done. The fighting was already dying down because the mutineers had surprise but not numbers. Eventually Field Marshall {{npcref|Paemo}} shows up. {{npcref|Lorru}} turns out to have survived. The Field Marshall announces that there will be a tribunal for the mutineers. Payli's promoted to Commander and made a part of the tribunal.
 
Tovy gets Payli alone and tries to figure out whether she always meant to double-cross her by having the mutineers killed, or if things got out of hand. Unfortunately she can't quite tell, so she tells Payli that she'll find Tovy to be a loyal subordinate, and accepts her dismissal. She then goes to get healing.
 
Risoc goes to where they're preparing Dirdu's body for burial. She examines the body and users her mystic skills to see what secret Dirdu took to her grave. It was that she was related to a Northern Legion Warden who died in the siege of the Aerie, and though she heard Tovy had something to do with that, she never held it against Tovy. Right before she died, she was planning a siege of the enemy stronghold.
 
Yeli tries to find some distraction. Tovy, heartbroken by the sight of so many members of the Watch fighting one another, finds a place where she can be completely alone, and just breaks down in tears, sobbing herself senseless. She feels better when she's done, though, and also realizes that she's been totally focused on being strong since the war started. Maybe her determination not to be vulnerable has been making it hard for people to relate to her; maybe she can use this moment to become a better leader.
 
Once that's done, Risoc finds Tovy and tells her what she found out about Dirdu. Tovy's glad to hear it but yet not concerned; she accepted Dirdu as her commander no matter what, grudges or no grudges. She also reminds Risoc that the Watch should be loyal regardless of personal concerns, and that they're all going to need to adhere to that ideal if the Watch is to recover from the mutiny.
 
Lomo finds a place to retreat into nature and uses the spirits to temporarily shatter the Shadow's control over that place. The spirits warn her that the Shadow is very powerful there and will take control back shortly, but there will be a brief interval of relative chaos. She reports as much to Tovy, who points out that if the Shadow wasn't strong there, they wouldn't call it a stronghold.
 
Tovy reports to Payli, who tells her to take control of Marro's platoon. She wants to take the stronghold, and part of that will be wiping out the tent city around it. Tovy then finds Marro, who has made herself a lamb stew breadbowl. Tovy tells her about her new command, and then asks her about how she feels about the mutiny. (At this point, Tovy gets an advance and changes playbooks to Bear.) Toy then fetches Lomo and the three of them start planning an assault on the Shadow tent city.

Latest revision as of 17:38, 20 July 2020

Some were born to rock the boat

Game log for the 2020-07-19 session of The Watch, as taken by Jason

Lomo and Tovy spend a little time sparring. It's a bit of a shambles, but they've been through so much together that they enjoy it anyway. During one of Lomo's lapses of concentration, she realizes that Dirdu is probably planning to position Dolthas to fill the inevitable post-war power vacuum, either by changing the way they relate to the rest of the clans, or simply by being the ones who won the war. That seems to fit with what Ealle has been telling her.

Risoc goes to the Healers' Tent to get treatment, and notices that Ealle isn't there. When she asks one of the other healers what happened to her, all she gets is a look.

The squad gets a summons to Dirdu's command tent. When they arrive, the Commander seems expectant, and explains that the Watch has identified a Shadow stronghold beyond the old border. Taking it would be the prelude to victory. The scouts reported Shadow forces incoming, and the Watch will send Tovy's squad as part of a platoon to head the Shadow off and sever their supply line. Tovy asks to be shown exactly where the mision will take them. When the briefing ends, Dirdu tells Tovy that Marro is gathering the rest of the force.

Marro has three squads gathered, including another Lt. Commander, Payli of clan Charsa. Marro compliments Tovy on her promotion and asks what Tovy thinks of the odds. Tovy doesn't. She believes in speed, surprise, and extreme violence. Payli's OK with that. She tells Tovy and Marro that the Shadow supplies all seem to be wagons and stuff, not people, nor monsters.

We hear out. Risoc watches our backs, and gets a partial success by dint of getting help from Lomo. Lomo gets a full success on navigation. Yeli gets a full success on scouting. Tovy gets a full success on point. Complication: Tovy and Yeli are both hurt during the mission.

The land they have to pass through is... strange. The Shadow's withering effect gets stronger as they penetrate deeper into hostile territory. The water of the river smells bad. No animals can be heard, and the wind seems unnaturally still. Payli's nervous that nothing other than four squads of the Watch are moving out here - it may make them too easy to spot.

The Shadow citadel is a grey stone structure, around which a sort of tent city has sprouted. Lomo volunteers to use the spirits to scout the enemy stronghold, using her pet squirrel. Tovy takes that intel to Payli and Marro and uses it to plan an ambush of the inevitable pursuit that will follow their mission. Marro would rather take a more aggressive tack, but Tovy thinks that's pushing their luck too far, and she has rank.

The platoon has no problem finding the road being used to move supplies. The wagons are rolling in a long train and making a lot of noise. They're going both ways. Payli orders a squad to attack one of the biggest wagons and attack it to turn it into a roadblock, and asks Tovy to have her squad disable one at the other end. Tovy does so.

Tovy gets hurt when she and a Shadow sentry almost collide in the dark and stab each other before they even realize what's what. Lomo gets hurt trying to protect Risoc, and has a meaningful moment with Yeli when the two of them end up being the ones to take the wagon, which they light on fire, and by which illumination they go on to kill a whole ton of bad guys. Yeli gets hurt as they're trying to flip the wagon over into a roadblock. She'd missed one of the Shadow creatures inside that she'd overlooked. She shares a meaningful moment with Risoc when the Recruit kills that same little Shadow bastard. Risoc got hurt in pitched battle with the Shadow just before that, and shares a moment with Yeli when she goes running over to help protect Yeli after she's wounded.

The platoon has turned the supply road into a disaster scene. At the other end of the killbox, the other three squads have made a huge mess. Payli comes running over and tells Tovy that there are a whole lot of Shadow forces coming down the road, and now is the time to start their retreat. Lomo, based on her scouting, advises Tovy on which way to retreat and how to spring their ambush.

The scheme works, but not everyone in the platoon entirely understood their hastily-contrived plan on uncertain ground, and the squad ends up having to fight through to an alternate exfiltration route. When the fighting ends, the platoon gets away, with everyone tired, a few casualties, and a full day of marching left to go. It's going to be a forced march to make sure we stay ahead of the Shadow.

Payli calls for a 30 minute pause to hydrate and rest our legs while we're still in Shadow territory. Tovy has a quick chat with Marro to make sure there are no hard feelings, which there aren't. Risoc goes to talk to Yeli about whether they're doing the right thing by fighting the war. Is it winnable? Are they getting themselves killed for nothing? Yeli tells her that she's doing the wrong thing by talking philosophy when she ought to be napping. Yeli then goes back to sleeping. Lomo meditates and checks in with the local spirits.

The platoon makes it back to camp after a hard march, and Payli and Tovy go to report into Dirdu. Tovy releases the rest of the squad to eat, sleep, or whatever. As they get closer to the tent, they hear a lot of yelling and shouting, and then they see a body get kicked out of the front of the tent. It's a soldier with a bloody sword in her hand. Tovy goes running in and finds Dirdu dead on the floor, a Lt Cmdr bleeding, and Dirdu's attendants fighting. The attackers, or mutineers, wear blue handkerchiefs around their necks, which is not a familiar symbol for Tovy. Tovy calls out that the mutineers must surrender, but they ignore her, so she joins the fray. She's apparently a better fighter than an orator, and she and Payli kill all the mutineers except one. The prisoner tells Tovy to do her worst because they've already done what they set out to do. Tovy wants to root out the conspiracy. Payli wants to hang them all, but she seems willing to have trials.

Tovy quietly reminds the prisoner that they swore an oath, which they have just disgraced. Cooperation, she says, is their only road to redemption. The prison names many names, which include some senior officers.

Yeli's grabbing some hot chow before her eagerly anticipated sleep, and she notices that there seems to be an extremely tense mood. A solder wearing a blue handerchief walks over, confirms that she's on Tovy's squad, and tells here there have been some new developments, about which they hope Yeli will share their opinions. Yeli asks if she's going to sell her something, and the soldier says no, this is where you're with us or against us, and tries to stab her. Yeli's a harderned combat vet and manages to toss her food into the air, backhand her assailant with the plate, and then catch the food. She looks around and sees other blue-wearing soldiers attacking other soldiers. A melee breaks out.

Risoc, who's followed her in, rushes to her aid and ends up in a two-on-one fight all of her own. She prevails but takes another wound.

Lomo heads for the healing tent and finds it deserted, except for another wounded trooper looking for help. She looks around and realizes there's a lot of fighting going on in this here camp. She grabs the other soldier, tells him they're under attack, and goes rushing for the command tent. She arrives in time to see Tovy interrogating the captive.

She tells Tovy what's happening elsewhere, and they quickly confer. Payli will hold the tent along with Dirdu's remaining attendant. Tovy and Lomo will find Marro and send her to the command tent, then start rallying loyal forces. She and Lomo set about their work with a will. They find Marro fighting against 3 rebels and holding her own, and the aid of Tovy and Lomo turns it into a rout. Marro's been fighting to wound rather than kill, but Tovy doesn't necessarily feel the same way. With the brawl over, Marro runs to the command tent.

Yeli carries on fighting with her culinary instruments, and ends up the controller of the chow hall. She sends Risoc to the command tent to get orders. Risoc finds Payli in charge, sees Dirdu's dead body, and starts laughing uncontrollably. All her struggles with her divided loyalties have led up to this. Fantastic. Payli does not understand why Tovy's Recruit is breaking down and tells her to get it together. Payli gives her a list of names to track down and kill if found.

Tovy and Lomo get to the squad area and find Loisa sleeping. They wake her and the three of them head to the chow hall, with Loisa carrying Yeli's gear.

Risoc arrives back at the chow hall and shares the list with Yeli. She's not interested in killing prisoners, so she's going to leave them tied up while she finishes eating. Risoc goes to get some food too. When Tovy and Lomo arrive, Risoc shows Tovy the death list Payli gave her.

Tovy orders the squad to form up and start quelling the fighting. She hopes that by turning up to a brawl as a formed squad, they'll be able to overawe the mutineers and avoid further bloodshed. She also tells her squad to protect themselves first, take prisoners second, regardless of who might be on the list.

They get their job done. The fighting was already dying down because the mutineers had surprise but not numbers. Eventually Field Marshall Paemo shows up. Lorru turns out to have survived. The Field Marshall announces that there will be a tribunal for the mutineers. Payli's promoted to Commander and made a part of the tribunal.

Tovy gets Payli alone and tries to figure out whether she always meant to double-cross her by having the mutineers killed, or if things got out of hand. Unfortunately she can't quite tell, so she tells Payli that she'll find Tovy to be a loyal subordinate, and accepts her dismissal. She then goes to get healing.

Risoc goes to where they're preparing Dirdu's body for burial. She examines the body and users her mystic skills to see what secret Dirdu took to her grave. It was that she was related to a Northern Legion Warden who died in the siege of the Aerie, and though she heard Tovy had something to do with that, she never held it against Tovy. Right before she died, she was planning a siege of the enemy stronghold.

Yeli tries to find some distraction. Tovy, heartbroken by the sight of so many members of the Watch fighting one another, finds a place where she can be completely alone, and just breaks down in tears, sobbing herself senseless. She feels better when she's done, though, and also realizes that she's been totally focused on being strong since the war started. Maybe her determination not to be vulnerable has been making it hard for people to relate to her; maybe she can use this moment to become a better leader.

Once that's done, Risoc finds Tovy and tells her what she found out about Dirdu. Tovy's glad to hear it but yet not concerned; she accepted Dirdu as her commander no matter what, grudges or no grudges. She also reminds Risoc that the Watch should be loyal regardless of personal concerns, and that they're all going to need to adhere to that ideal if the Watch is to recover from the mutiny.

Lomo finds a place to retreat into nature and uses the spirits to temporarily shatter the Shadow's control over that place. The spirits warn her that the Shadow is very powerful there and will take control back shortly, but there will be a brief interval of relative chaos. She reports as much to Tovy, who points out that if the Shadow wasn't strong there, they wouldn't call it a stronghold.

Tovy reports to Payli, who tells her to take control of Marro's platoon. She wants to take the stronghold, and part of that will be wiping out the tent city around it. Tovy then finds Marro, who has made herself a lamb stew breadbowl. Tovy tells her about her new command, and then asks her about how she feels about the mutiny. (At this point, Tovy gets an advance and changes playbooks to Bear.) Toy then fetches Lomo and the three of them start planning an assault on the Shadow tent city.