LogThe Watch-Jason-7

Game log for the 2020-06-28 session of The Watch, as taken by Jason

Rezi, fresh from counseling and a little meddling with the powers of darkness, lies down and Lets the Shadow In, and then hits The Tipping Point, and then falls to the Shadow. She hears a rustle at the flap of her tent, and opens her eyes to see Thin Boy standing over her.

The rest of the squad isn't awakened the way they usually would be. Tovy wakes up, decides the Lt Cmdr dropped the ball, and goes to find Yeli and her tentmate Loisa and order them to start morning business. Loisa starts cooking, leaving Yeli to wake Lomo and Erda. Lomo is already up, meditating, but is happy to join the squad. Tovy then goes to Rezi's tent and finds her missing, though all her possessions are there. Even her clothing is still there. It's like she took all her clothes off and then disappeared.

Lomo joins Tovy in the tent and surveys the scene to see what happened. She seems to have left of her own volition. Tovy looks for tracks and sees signs that Tovy walked right out the tent flap and headed out in her bare feet, headed northwest into the woods. The two of them agree that Rezi probably fell. Tovy volunteers to report this to higher command.

Loisa tells Yeli she's "almost surprised." Yeli admits to a small sense of vindication.

Tovy goes to find Dirdu and report the problem. She finds the Commander consulting a map with Roena and Marro. One of Dirdu's veiled attendants positions herself to keep Tovy away from the Commander. Tovy blurts out that Lt Cmdr is missing and presumed fallen, and Roena mutters that she knew it. Marro wants to search the camp and raise a general alarm. Tovy looks to an officer to see if that order's confirmed. It takes a minute for Dirdu to say, "That's fine, do it." Roana and Marro leave the tent and issue the alert. Soon horns are blowing to alert the command, and people start going into action.

Lomo orders Yeli and the rest of the squad to get ready. Tovy leads Dirdu to the squad area and shows her the signs that she and Lomo found. Tovy also urges Dirdu to talk to Lomo about the "shadow tendrils" and the Thin Boy, which the Commander does. Dirdu listens impassively - she rarely reacts much - and then puts Tovy in charge of the squad, reporting solely to Dirdu, and to keep all mission details to herself. She also commits to reinforcing the squad. She promotes Tovy to Sergeant as she does so.

Lomo asks Tovy what she knows about Dirdu that drove her to show a little less respect than usual, and Tovy's non-commital. Lomo can tell that she's not saying everything she knows. "Paranoia strikes deep." Tovy takes a moment to talk to Yeli

Three hours later, a new squad member appears. Welcome, Initiate Risoc! Unsurprisingly, the new team member is a Dothas, like Dirdu's putting a mole in the squad. Exactly like. She carries a bone sword and her shield once belonged to Janice the Unyielding.

An hour before that...

Risoc is called to Dirdu's tent. The Commander dismisses everyone else from the tent and pulls down her veil, showing her clansman her bare face. The makes a Dolthas gesture of greeting and offers Risoc refreshment, which she herself serves. She gives the new Initiate a special assignment: watch the squad for signs they might lose someone to the Shadow. She'll have the Commander's full support. Dirdu offers her a chance to back out if she can't handle it, but Risoc says she comes from a strong family and thinks she'll be able to sense it if anything is amiss. Someone will come check on Risoc in a few days.

Tovy arranges a service for Rezi that evening, the search having failed.

In the morning, Tovy suspends the normal training and has squad games as a getting acquainted routine. There's a moment where Risoc beats Tovy and the Sergeant almost gets pissed about it, but Lomo cracks a joke and defuses the situation. Lomo herself has a high old time, but Yeli just can't seem to relax enough to enjoy it.

That night, a runner comes for the squad, saying Dirdu wants to see them. Tovy forms up the squad to report in directly. Dirdu says she hopes everyone's rested, because it may be a while before they can sleep again. There's an old graveyard atop a promontory that we need to capture so our forces can approach a Shadow fortress. The squad will receive nitre and tar, and is to burn everything it finds there. The Commander has good high-level maps that show the line of approach, but nothing that shows the topography. Lomo looks beyond and realizes the squad has gotten this mission because they're all expendable.

After they're dismissed, Lomo asks Tovy why they're getting a suicide mission right after losing the Lt Cmdr. Tovy, disgusted, tells Lomo it's only a suicide mission if everyone gets killed, which isn't going to happen. She also tells Lomo to stow that talk because of the new recruits. Somewhere in there, Lomo gets promoted to Corporal.

Back in the tent, as they pack their gear, Risoc asks Lomo about the rest of the squad members. She concludes that Yeli's the squaddie most likely to level with her about things.

For this next mission, Tovy decides she shouldn't be on point, so she watches backs with Lomo navigating, Yeli scouting, and Risoc on point. Tovy fails and gets a complication. She lends Lomo a hand to get her a full success. Yeli gets a full success. Risoc needs a hand from Yeli to get a partial success and takes a complication. Complications: This mission was particularly hard on Tovy, who marks Weary and Jaded, and Risoc panicked at a critical moment and everyone saw it. Bonus complication: Tovy and Risoc both get wounded. Tovy's got her eyes open to see what it was about this particular place that makes Dirdu want it so badly.

The graveyard really is atop the best observation point for miles, because the promontory is surrounded by flattish farmland. Clan Toltho once held this ground. The Shadow forces are using the high ground for observation but haven't built anything, but the Tolto graveyard includes a pedestal holding a Toltho idol. The squad easily routs the Shadow forces. Lomo thinks long and hard about this and suspects this is in service of some agenda of Dirdu's for after the war. From atop the hill, Yeli sees a prisoner train being led into Shadow territory.

Tovy asks whether anyone knows the protocols for proper handling of the Toltho idol. Risoc tries to discourage the squad from blowing up the graveyard at all, but Tovy shuts that down hard. As it becomes clear that Risoc's just lost it, Tovy orders Lomo to get her in hand. Yeli jokingly yells Loisa that the new Initiate should have realized that talking back to the NCOs is her gimmick. Risoc tries to look busy and avoid actively participating in what's going on. Unfortunately one of the things she doesn't do is fix a mistake Erda made with a nitre pack, and when it detonates early, Risoc and Tovy get burned. The icon gets burned with everything else.

Once back in camp, Lomo goes out into nature and goes for a spirit walk. She tries to sever the Shadow's connection to the graveyard, and asks what the Shadow's purpose in that place was. The spirits tell her that the Shadow doesn't see all, in fact it sees less than people think, and it needs to use its eyes where it can. The fire will keep them away for now, and the spirits will keep them away later.

Yeli goes to bed early. Tovy writes up her mission report. Risoc begins her prayers. She tries to use her prayers to make her feel better, but instead they just make her feel worse about destroying that graveyard. She wants foregiveness from Demona, god of death and dreams, but she doesn't get it.

Tovy comes to report in to Dirdu. She presents her report and then asks the Commander whether she meant for the idol to be destroyed. The Commander did. She assures Tovy that she has a plan and that this will lead to victory. Tovy does not tell her that she's keeping duplicate mission reports of everything Dirdu asks eher to do.

Tovy then reports to the medical tent and finds {npcref|Ealle}} the healer there. She tries to ask the Sergeant how the mission went, and Tovy's just nasty to her. As a result, when Risoc shows up later, Ealle barely bothers to treat her, she just slaps a poultice on it and says "You're done, get out of here."

The squad arrives in midday but needs rest, so everyone gets a little sleep and then wakes up at dusk. Tovy gives Risoc and Lomo a long lecture about following orders and the importance of discipline, dismisses Risoc, and then tells Lomo that this never happened... but if it happens again, Lomo's going to be shadowing Risoc on every pace of her punishment run.

Lomo goes to talk to Risoc and see what happened to her in the graveyard. The Initiate explains that graveyards are important aspects of her faith, and the idea of despoiling one just seems heinous to her. Lomo tries to find a nice way to tell her to toughen the hell up. Risoc listens and thanks her for trying.

Two days later, word comes down the chain that the scouts are returning and there's an assault happening soon. Dirdu summons Tovy and tells her that the fort Yeli spotted is an obstacle that must be removed for the Watch's plans to go forward. Multiple squads will be involved in the attack. Tovy's squad in particular will secure and hold a rendezvous / fallback point until the plan is done. The position is beyond the fort itself, but there will be reinforcements coming through.

Before departing, Tovy stops by Lomo and Risoc's tent and apoligizes for putting the Initiate on point during her first mission. She tells Risoc to watch her and learn. Risoc tries to prey before setting out, but just can't focus.

Risoc misses her Watch Their Backs roll, but gets a hand from ol' sarge about how to fly right and gets enough help to make it a weak success. Lomo navigates and gets a strong success. Yeli gets a weak success but a hand from Risoc makes it a strong success. Tovy gets a strong success. Our only complication: something followed us home.

It's a long march to get to this rally point, since it is after all actually beyind the fortress and we need to sneak in there. Lomo and Yeli do a strong job scouting the way. As we're skirting around, Yeli spots a secondary OP supporting the fort, which we hadn't previously known about. Tovy initially thinks to bypass it, but Yeli talks her out of it. We take it as a bonus objective but Erda doesn't make it back alive. With no secondary OP, this suppresses any alarm that might have come from this direction.

The attack on the fortress succeeds, and the counterattack Dirdu expected never arrived. The squad has a tense time holding the strongpoint but no action until recalled by forces from the newly captured fortress. Marro was involved in the attack on the fortress and congratulates the squad on their success. The Watch will stay here and use it as a base for renewed attacks.