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Artificer-Forager deck (Constructed at beginning of campaign)
Deck as Amand has progressed in the campaign (Note, this is current to my latest progress in the campaign, not necessarily the Day you are reading. In other words if you are reading Day 6 but I’ve played to Day 22, you will see the deck from Day 22.)
Campaign Log

1. Day 1
2. Day 2
3. Breaking the 4th Wall

Day 1

Once I crested a wooded hill and Lone Tree Station came into view, my long months of training were officially over. my Ranger training complete, I could now begin my work as a Ranger and my research into flora-fauna hybridization. I was eager to begin, but also content to wait for the ideal conditions for experimentation. Given how controversial this research was, the last thing I needed was a hasty beginning and a highly public failure. It would be the final seal of disapproval, from Rangers and valley dwellers alike, and the thin thread of trust I nurtured through my training with my superiors and the Elders would be broken, probably irreparably. No, what I needed to do was first demonstrate I could be trusted with the responsibility of my position.

What better opportunity than faithfully delivering Hy Pimpot’s biscuits to White Sky? Nobody likes a rogue ranger dabbling in dangerous experimentation, but everybody loves juniper biscuits. Also, after so many months sequestered away with the other Ranger recruits during the final stages of training I was ready to be out on my own again and back among others in the Valley but now as a full Ranger. It was unfortunate that Kal had to be here at this pivotal moment in my life. Kal Iver had done nothing but bother and harass me during my training, framing me as a mad scientist, an outcast, and a deviant. At seeming every turn I had been forced to explain or apologize for myself. It had been exhausting. And now here was Kal’s big dumb gloating face hovering over Calypsa’s shoulder.

I didn’t resent Calypsa for the lecture of brotherhood and camaraderie after I took Kal’s bait and snapped back at me. A punch on the shoulder from Calypsa was worth sending Kal a message to kindly fuck off.

I made a quick tour of Lone Tree Station, encountering briefly Kordo, Nal, and Quisi while admiring the Top Mast and Hanging Gardens. But where was Hy? While I looked, or rather sniffed, my way around the base of the giga-redwood, he crossed paths with the numerous deer and wolhounds of the woods. It was so tempting to equip my Darter and Puffercrawler Spores and inoculate one of them. Just to see what happened. Just as I was about to the unmistakable smell of the biscuits wrenched my head away and I had to set down my Darter to carry the Biscuit Basket. Oh well, biscuit delivery duty calls.

The people of White Sky must have anticipated my arrival because I was barely in the village before Ar Tel and Vira had sniffed out the biscuits. I looked a long while to give the final biscuit to the Elder. I surveyed the kelp and muckets of the lake shore and made mental notes for further study. I also found a Carnivorous Naiad before finding the Elder and it took a great deal of restraint not to eat the final biscuit and equip my Darter and Spores. Amand begrudgingly held onto the basket, wrestled myself free, and continued looking for that elusive Elder Murtok Gal. As it was getting dark (and the biscuit completely cold) I finally found the man and finished my mission.

It gave I no small pleasure to learn that Kal had bet against my integrity and bet Calypsa that I would eat at least one biscuit. “No, Kal, I am not the person you think me to be,” I thought as I camped outside White Sky, on route to Lone Tree Station, for the night.

Day 2

The sun had barely spilled onto the lake before I was back at Lone Tree Station. I wasted no time in seeking out the veteran Rangers I had come back to Lone Tree to find. Carnivorous Naiads, Kelp, and Muckets could wait until another day.

The two people I most wanted to meet were Nal and Kordo. I had heard legendary tales of Kordo’s hunts and thought I might learn valuable insights into animal behavior and the role of predators in an ecosystem that could come in useful into my own research.

Nal’s spiritual connection to life in the valley intrigued me. I had always been more of a tinkerer than a spiritualist, but in the tales of Nal’s spiritspeaking I had felt a kind of kinship with her. I had a hunch that she was not a mystic or religious figure, but a scientist just like me; intent on understanding the connections between things that eluded or scared other people.

It didn’t take long before I found them engaged in a debate about the Caustic Mulcher. I had never seen the Caustic Mulcher, or any biomeld for that matter, but I had heard about it, and shuddered with nervous excitement every time. To see a biomeld in the flesh was one of my highest priorities. Just as the ancients had explored bridging the divide between animal and machine, so I aspired to do the same for animal and plant. Because there simply wasn’t much available by way of academic study into biomelds, Amand knew that I would have to find these strange creatures on my own to begin to divine the methods of the ancients.

Listening to Nal and Kordo, I found that I quickly and decisively came down on Nal’s side of the argument. Hers was a perspective of compassion, curiosity, and, above all, humility. To simply excise the Mulcher from the Valley, as Kordo would have, was exercising human ignorance and arrogance. I didn’t doubt that Kordo would do so out a desire to protect Valley dwellers, but Nal felt (as did I) that the greatest protection is knowledge, not physical strength and the potential of violence.

To my surprise the two Rangers turned to me. I , a freshly minted Ranger! I , the pariah of my Ranger class! I softened my opinion of Kordo and carefully agreed with Nal that attempting to learn more about the Mulcher in order to accommodate it was the better choice. Killing it always remained an option if studying it proved impossible or turned up a reality that the Mulcher presented an excessive danger to other life. In further conversation with Nal, I learned she needed to visit with a friend in Kobo’s Market. What luck! I could search for and study the Mulcher and learn more from Nal at the same time. My second day as a Ranger could not have gotten off to a better start.

I eagerly equipped my Darter, Spores, and Canteen and dove into the Woods. Nal laughed at my exuberance and cautioned me that the Mulcher very while might eat me alive if her theory proved incorrect. But I didn’t care. This is what I had dreamed of for all those years of Ranger training. The abandon of the intellectually curious is among the most unstoppable forces in humankind.

It took the majority of the day before they found it. They watched awestruck as it vacuumed up a deer and a wolhound. Then, it turned towards them. I slathered the paste all over my body and stepped towards the creature. He no longer felt at peace with my decision to help Nal. Intellectual curiosity was one thing, dying on your second day as a Ranger was something else. I fumbled with my Darter, my only weapon, prepared to begin a slow assault on the creature when I heard Nal’s voice, or, more accurately, felt her presence.

I turned to look for her only to see her on a far hillside, out of harm’s way. I realized she was using her spiritspeaking to assure and soothe me. The effect was instantaneous and far from being manipulated, I felt she was revealing to me my core purpose and inspiration. I didn’t want to kill, I wanted to explore, and we was willing to put myself in harms way. The Mulcher’s sharp and pointy embrace felt strangely comforting. And, later, I barely remembered Nal’s excitement when the Mulcher spat me out, proving her theory correct that the creature helped manage the ecosystem and was not a marauding murder machine.

Cleaned up and still high on endorphins, I floated the rest of the way to Kobo’s Market. I was blissed out while Nal found her friend and communed with the spirit of the Verdessa. What was happening to me? Where was my scientific rigor and critical thought? No matter. The carefully cordoned world of Ranger training was disintegrating around me. There was a vast world to be explored and infinite ways to do it. I parted ways with Nal and camped on my way to Spire.

Breaking the 4th Wall

I’ll keep these sections brief, but I want to make a spot for any thoughts or observations I have that are a bit awkward to try to include in the story.

• I really want to do some Gear and Moment swaps to progress this deck. Local Fare and Nature’s Abundance are fairly dead cards for me. With Camoweave Cloak I can avoid most fatigue and any fatigue I do take I can quickly soothe with Favorite Gear. So the fatigue avoidance of Local Fare isn’t all that helpful and Nature’s Abundance is duplicative of Favorite Gear and Infusion Canteen (for the energy gain). I also want to get some Pocketed Belt Pouches to improve my gear cycling.
• I’m going to try to do better at taking pictures of critical board states to include in the story write-up.