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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 5
2. Day 6
3. Day 7
4. Breaking the 4th Wall

Day 5

White Sky

I awoke to the downpour that never seemed to end and lay in my tent listening to the rain. It mostly fell in a deep thrumming on the roof above although the gusty wind blew staccato drops onto my thin tent like two different drum sections in an orchestra. I lolled around in half-sleep mesmerized, but also avoiding what I knew I had to confront today: my failure to help control the floods the day before.

Before I could muster the energy and nerve to pull myself up, nature provided the impetus. I heard the unmistakable padding of large feet and low growl of a prowling atrox. I fumbled around in my tent in the dim early dawn light and found my Gauzeblade and a vial of Puffercrawler spores. The atrox had caught the scent of me and my food and was not going to leave. I had too much to do today to carefully bide my time. I carefully spread the spores on the blade and unzipped the tent.

The flood waters were closer than I imagined and I realized the atrox wasn’t stalking me, but forced into the village because of the rising flood. Distressed, it had gotten cornered in the village and now saw me as a threat preventing its escape from the flood. I circled away to give it room to pass but it lunged. I was still fresh (and adrenalized) and dodged while nicking it with the spore-coated blade. The atrox collapsed as the spores took effect.

I needed to press on. I couldn’t nurse the atrox back to health or examine the wound. Again, before I could make a decision, nature made it for me. The flood waters, which had kept rising, reached the atrox and lapped into the wound on its left flank. It convulsed in a kind of seizure, and died. Perhaps the spores had made the cat vulnerable to some microorganism in the water. I made a note in my research journal.

This tragic beginning to the day left me feeling sorry and miserable. Nevertheless the flooding lake wasn’t going to wait for me to feel better. I pressed on. The flood was destabilizing the base of a scree slope, threatening the village with mudslides. I diverted the waters and, in a scary moment, narrowly avoided a slide myself. I found Elder Murtok surveying the opposite shore, which frankly seemed odd given the danger of the flood. He told me about the threat that Quiet posed to the village. I promised to return later if I had the chance to observe the predator.

It took a long time for me to make my way to the last flooded area of White Sky. Another atrox and an irix began tailing me and with the flood forcing me from the paths I landed in a tangle of fractalwire. I was bleeding, lost, surrounded by predators, and watching the sun slip slowly down the sky. Any hope I had of clearing the flood from Golden Shore or Kobo’s Market was gone. I would be lucky to make it out of White Sky without any permanent injuries. With this more realistic and narrow focus, I pieced together a trail out of the fractalwire and reinforced a final section of hillside from the flood. White Sky was safe!

During a break in the rain I saw a spiderline stanchion high on the slope above. Heavily fatigued I scrambled up the slope and readied myself to travel on the zipline. It was back to The Fractured Wall for me to find Silaro again and return with him to White Sky.

Day 6

The Fractured Wall

I did not sleep well that night. Between the gash on my leg from the fractalwire and demoralizing failure to control the floods, I wanted to crawl deep into a scree pile and never come out. I was likely the laughing stock of the Ranger corps. Kal was probably a leading voice. “I told you he wasn’t ready. I told you he was more interested in his pet projects than the well-being of the Valley.” The ever-present rain did nothing to help my spirits.

Although I was more familiar with The Fractured Wall, I had not approached it from the direction of Mt. Nim and immediately regretted the mountainous trail. An Irix spotted me and, as if I were a beacon of death and decay, circled closer and closer. It clawed my arm and knocked me flat on my back before an Atrox gashed it and chased it away. For a moment I thought this atrox was forgiving me for the killing in White Sky, but then it turned toward me drawn by the same stench as the irix. I couldn’t bear to injury another animal. Utterly defeated, I laid down my weapons and prepared to die.

But then, a voice, or a memory, pierced through my despair. Nal’s voice, a beacon of hope. I may never know whether she found me through spiritspeaking or I was remembering my few moments with her on the trail. I perceived the atrox clearly, not with my eyes but with my heart. It was not a vengeful spirit sent to excoriate me. It didn’t seem interested in eating me. Instead it was drawn to my fear and reflected it back to me, chasing me the more I tried to outrun it. It taught me a valuable lesson: when we try to master nature, even for knowledge, it fights back. The atrox bared its teeth one last time as if taking the final word before it vanished back into the mountains.

I don’t remember much else of the day. The afternoon passed quickly. I never found Silaro. I collapsed in the meager shelter of shallow cave into the deep sleep of the nearly dead.

Day 7

Fractured Wall

I gasped myself awake as if I had been sleeping deep underwater. My entire body was still, immobile, like it was wrapped in a heavy blanket. My eyes flitted across the dripping interior of the cave and out to the sunrise. My hastily chosen campsite proved auspicious: from here the sun rose through the gap in The Fractured Wall and I felt the column of sunlight warmed my chilled and aching bones. I prayed for an easier day than my last two.

Prayer answered, Silaro came bounding through the forest like a perky sun creature. I think he knew I was there but had the decency not to tell me. I apologized for dragging him all the way to White Sky three days prior but he brushed my apology aside. He was happy for the trip, and he would happily join me again to White Sky. He showed much more confidence in me than I had in myself.

We set out soon after breakfast and were immediately driven into some fractalwire by another irix. Slowed by the razor bushes, the irix swooped closely but I swung the gauzeblade menacingly and it retreated. I was shocked at my own effectiveness. Silaro chuckled at me, telling me he wouldn’t want to mess with me either. Of note, I was not afraid of the irix, unlike the atrox the day before.

We began carefully traversed the fractalwire when an atrox ambushed us. Silaro jumped in front to distract the predator while I broke free the last strands of the devilish plant. Once free of the fractalwire, a wounded Silaro and I faced off against an Atrox and wounded Irix. I told Silaro to sit back and avoid any confrontation as I made a determined push past the predators for the summit. The camoweave cloak allowed me to slip past unnoticed and from the heights of the wall I found the path to Mt. Nim.

Mt. Nim

Mt. Nim was thankfully easier. I knew the trail from the multiple times I’d crossed this peak the last few days. Again, an Atrox and Irix found us. I resolved to myself after this journey to White Sky I would not set foot in another Mountain Pass for at least a week. I protected Silaro and we skirted around the cat and bird. The Irix swooped closely, perhaps drawn by Silaro’s wounds (which he insisted were no big deal), but the atrox leapt on it, killing it. If I had not had my fill of atroxes and irixes I might have marveled at the sight.

White Sky

Limping and tired we landed in White Sky. Silaro shrugged off his wounds and commenced to examining the soil for calcium deposits to prove his theory. After several minutes hunched over his devices he straightened up with an ecstatic look. It was true. The flood had surpassed his previous estimations and must have eradicated most life and civilization in the valley.

The reward, unfortunately, was mostly his. Perhaps it was the long day, or days, or perhaps something more innate, but I somehow couldn’t keep all the threads of his hypothesis focused in my mind. As happy as I was for him, and as much as I trusted his scientific intuition, I knew i wouldn’t be able to put it to practical use in my travels.

Silaro did remind me that when we spoke several days ago in Spire he had tasked me with a mission to explore more thoroughly the ruins of the Valley. I had spent a good bit of time around the Megadam and so as evening fell we discussed that experience. I still had more research to do, but the Estian ruins were full of clues that were slowly beginning to form a cohesive picture.

In my haste to leave White Sky before I hadn’t heard the news about the strange creatures washed up in the flood of White Sky lake. Biomelds, eyeless and pale, of unknown origin. Calypsa asked me to make my way to Spire in a few days. I agreed and solemnly swore to myself not to mess this task up as I had the Flood.

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.

• Unfortunately the Silaro’s Insight reward card requires 2 Focus. Drat! It would be nice to have!!
• What a miserable series of days. Full of injuries, fatigue, and failures. I’m not sure if the deck itself is flawed or if I’ve had a run of bad luck, but I’m finished in the Mountains for a while. I feel like I’ve been spinning my wheels without much to gain.
• I realized that when I cleared the Arcology Threshold in Spire several days ago, I read the wrong entry and had erroneously not acquired the Arcology Archaeology mission. Since then I had cleared the Megadam ruin twice, so I gave myself two check marks for that mission. One to go.
• For my deck, I need more ways to interact with Flora cards and am considering trading a Gauzeblade for a Carbon-forged Trowel. Then, situationally, I can equip either the weapon or the trowel.