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Non-narrative Reference Links

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 8
2. Day 9
3. Breaking the 4th Wall

Day 8

Boulder Field

Finally, the clouds lifted and my dark mood went with them. The days during and after the flooding of White Sky lake had been full of injuries, struggle, and failure but as I watched the sun rise it appeared to be playing hide and seek in the boulder field. The morning had an impish sense of humor and I couldn’t restrain a smile.

The further I got from the difficulties of the previous days, the more I could see clearly my part in creating that difficulty. I was driven by ambition and overconfidence to ignore the immediate need to help the villages of the Valley. I forced myself into a challenging situation and hurt myself, and others (poor Silaro), in the process. Fortunately none of the injuries seemed to be persistent.

From the slight rise of the Boulder Field I could see Kobo’s Market in the distance. I couldn’t make out any details but I knew it had been damaged in the flooding and I resolved my first goal for the day was to clean up the damage. I had 2 days to be at Spire (though I probably would get there sooner) to learn what Elder Mora had to say about the strange biomeld washed up by the flood.

Kobo’s Market

It felt good to clear the damage from the flood. I entered the Market expecting dark looks from the locals but they were as cheerful as always, even helping me clear the streets and stalls. Kal hadn’t advertised to the Valley that I was responsible for failing to contain the flood and I felt a wave of forgiveness. Only for a moment, then that old hatred returned. Kal would have to a lot more to earn my trust. After cleaning up the town I was tempted to stay and trade out some gear, but I didn’t have any readily on hand and decided to press on for Spire and Elder Mora.

Spire

She wasted no time in calling me into the Carbon Forge. The atmosphere around her was brooding and ominous. News of the creatures had already reached her, obviously, and she hurried me through my description of the creatures to recount stories from her mother about the “reclaimers”. Her knowledge of their purpose and nature was spotty, though, and she implored me to keep searching the valley for them. Ben Amon had been lurking at the side of the room and stepped forward to present his idea of a network of sensors to do the hard work of searching the valley for us. Much as with Nal and Kordo a week ago a choice was thrust upon me to seek out the reclaimers with my intuition or to install the sensors at key locations in the valley. I wish they’d just told me what to do.

Under the sobering influence of my recent experience, I sided with Ben’s plan. It seemed efficient, logical, and reassuringly technological. Although I had a budding interest in Nal’s intuitive methods for connecting with nature, I was a tinkerer at heart and felt a rush of the familiar when Ben loaded sensors into my backpack with instructions on how to install them. I could tell Elder Mora was not impressed with my choice, but I didn’t care. Let someone else wander around in the forest, it wouldn’t be me this time.

It wasn’t clear how they expected me to take to deploy the sensors, just a disconcertedly vague “as soon as you can”, so when I bumped into Tollin Lang outside the Carbon Forge I decided to help him transport and install his sculpture to Stoneweaver Bridge. It was more or less on the way to the Mound of the Navigator, one of the sensor locations, so I figured I could help Tollin, camp, and spend tomorrow working at the Mound.

Greenbriar Knoll and Stoneweaver Bridge

And that’s about how the rest of the day went. The journey to the bridge was uneventful. Tollin’s sculpture was very impressive and the little trinket he gave me, almost as a throwaway, I thought would prove pretty useful. It was a rather life-like sculpture of a rabbit made from the same kinetic glass. It would come in really handy distracted any animals I might meet on the trail.

Day 9

Mound of the Navigator

I was up before dawn to get a head start on installing the Sensor Network and was halfway up the Mound of the Navigator before sunrise. The view was breathtaking and I had to sit down unless I might fall off the narrow switchback trail up the column of stone. I could see for miles in every direction, from the haze of White Sky Lake in the north to the mountains and Fractured Wall in the west to the swamp and distant Verdessa in the south. Pride and love for the Valley filled my chest. I also felt a kind of yearning catch in my throat. I couldn’t be content with just pride and love, I now felt a responsibility, an unfulfilled one, to care for this place and make it proud of me.

I cleared a field of Tryptafolium and installed the first sensor on the western face. I kept climbing until I reached the ancient arboretum created by the Estians and from there scouted my journey ahead towards Branch. The Biological Outpost felt like a stone’s throw away from here and I scribbled notes down on the best way to traverse the forests past it to Crossroads Station.

On my way back down I cut down a web wall and put another Sensor on the southern face of the Mound but in doing so scared up a swarm of bats. I tried to scare them off with my Gauzeblade but it turns out a small blade is pretty ineffective against hundreds of bats and all I managed to do was cut myself with the blade. Feeling stupid and thankful bats can’t report my incompetence back to the Ranger Council, I field dressed the wound. It would need a full night’s sleep to really improve.

At the base of the Mound I found a third and final place to install a Sensor when I fortuitously stumbled on an ancient Estian Arcology ruin. While I explored it to find the best Sensor location I also took notes for Silaro and decided it was time to find him again to discuss what I had learned. I shuddered at the thought of returning to the Fractured Wall and then remembered he spends time in White Sky and Spire. Perhaps I could find him there instead.

Biological Outpost to Crossroads Station

I blasted through the Biological Outpost and made my way to Crossroads Station. As though waiting for me, Ol’ Bloody Clicker can scuttling out of the ground right at my feet. What a terrifying mess of claws, jaws, and eyes! I retreated into the trees and found Sil Belai, of all people, painting it. She told me that she’d been searching the entire Valley for the enormous spindlescuttler. I wasn’t sure she totally appreciated the danger she was in, and oblivious to, so I encouraged her to paint more quickly and I’d do what I could to engage and distract it.

I didn’t have any of the handy kinetic glass rabbits so I threw a few rocks down a slope, broke a branch, and generally kind of futzed around in a semi-secretive way. I was even starting to have fun with it when Ol’ Bloody Clicker stopped chasing my distractions and zeroed in on me. It seemed mad, though I’m not an expert on the body language of scuttlers and a happy scuttler might look exactly the same.

All my tech was useless, I couldn’t run, and so I sat down directly in it’s path and reached out to it with my heart, as I imagined Nal might do. I felt its chaos, its hunger for anything, and, surprisingly, a kind of loneliness. Turned loose by its creators to roam the Valley for who knows what purpose, it now kept trying to fulfill that purpose long after they were gone. I opened my eyes and, inches away, saw hundreds looking back at me. The insect-like body heaved like it was catching its breath before scampering back down the slope into its tunnel.

I don’t know how long I sat there stupefied. Eventually Sil’s excited jabbering broke through the daze I was in and I slowly returned to reality. What a heroic standoff against the Clicker! She showed me her painting and I cringed, not because it was bad but because it was too good. There, unmistakably, was me sitting in front of Ol’ Bloody Clicker looking like a complete idiot. She said this was her best work yet and would be the talk of the Valley. She begged me to accompany her to a nearby mountain where she might complete her masterpiece. Needless to say, I demurred and continued on my way to Branch.

Branch

The outskirts of Branch felt like a different world. The massive Dolewoods stood like pillars and the heavy shade of their thick canopy cooled and stilled the air. My senses were sharper and everything felt closer. I climbed one of the majestic trees and scouted out the Hornbranch. Elder Tesoral Hale emerged from one of the twisting passageways speaking rapidly to another villager about a missing person.

It was Vira from White Sky! I’d crossed paths with her many times over the past week and immediately volunteered to help find her. As evening fell I exited Branch and camped on my way to the High Basin, hoping to follow her trail and continue installing the Sensor Network the next day.

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.

• Like a dummy I misread the entry where I gained the Sensor Network mission and failed to also gain the Watcher in the Brush mission. I should have been shuffling the Mysterious Verdessian into the path decks since I left Spire, but I’ll just imagine it was especially Mysterious and I never found it.
• I’m really happy with how these two days went. I felt I was able to accomplish a lot and travel a lot, giving me hope that I hit a run of bad weather, bad terrain, and bad luck.
• Still not good at taking pictures. I get too invested and immersed!