LogThe Watch-Jason-10

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.