Swamped

Your view isn't that great here at ground level; there are a lot of trees in the way. You can still make out some interesting rock formations, and for that matter, some of the trees stand out as well. These are probably landmarks the knights use to navigate.

Then you stumble onto a little knob. By turning it, you find that the goggles let you see even further. You still mostly see trees, but you can make out a few more things now.

Like a strange purple shack. You've never heard of purple wood, but it doesn't look like paint - although, perhaps you just can't tell from this distance. But you can see enough to realize that it's the same shade as the Marshguards' armor.

Is this one of their outposts? And just how far away is it?

While trying to get a better look at the place, you spot a splash in the water. That's when you freeze up.

You'd heard about the beast. You knew it was the same one, but seeing it is another matter. It's nowhere near you, and there's no way it could know you're looking at it, but you feel the same sense of terror you did when you saw it so long ago.

Did that creature take your father here?

You barely have time to process your emotions, though, when you spot a tall figure stepping out of the shack, his armor covering him entirely. He carries a massive spear on his back, and the first thing you see him do is motion to the beast.

Even before you see the beast swim to him, and watch him climb onto its back, you realize that this must be the Rider.

But what is he doing? What is that place?

Has Walter seen him, too?

Your train of thought is interrupted as Nathan arrives in the boat.

"Doing some sightseeing, eh?" he laughs. "Can't say I blame you, I didn't do anything too exciting. I'll go and call down Walter..."

"IT'S THE RIDER!"

Walter's voice echoes from the treetop. It seems he's seen the Rider as well. Nathan seems a little unnerved.

"I need to have a talk with Walter. Excuse me."

Nathan climbs up, and a bit later, Walter climbs down. He looks more shaken than he did after you rescued him.

"Fuckin' Rider," he says. "Fuckin' Rider."

You think you have some idea what's bothering him. Maybe you should ask him some questions before you head back to base.

perhaps share the fact that you have seen the beast before to establish common ground on the subject

What do you think rider was doing in that shack?

"I saw him too," you say, holding up the long goggles. "At the shack, right? What do you suppose he was he doing there?"

"Nathan thinks he was letting his beast feed. Says he usually sees Rider alone at the meeting ground in the days just after the rain. Can't believe he's so calm about it, though. That's the fuckin' Rider out there."

"Meeting ground? That's the shack?"

"No, there's an open space there. Hard to see from this level, I suppose. It's where we go for negotiations. That's probably the Marshguard side you saw; we each have a building there, in case negotiations run long. Neither is good enough to wait out the rain, though."

"Why's it purple?"

Walter shrugs.

"Don't know. The Marsh Fortress is made of the same stuff. But I've never seen a tree that color, and it doesn't seem to be paint. Best guess I have is they go deeper into the swamp and find something there."

He seems to be a bit calmer now that he has someone to talk to. He hops in the boat and motions for you to follow, then begins rowing back to base.

You sit there for a while. Having only one arm isn't very good for rowing, so you don't have a lot to do except think. About the Rider. About your father. About how good Walter looks right now, and about Sandra.

You aren't ready to say anything to Walter about those last two points just yet. But there is something on your mind.

"I've seen Rider's beast before," you say. "Years ago. Far from the swamp. It turned up the night my father disappeared."

Walter doesn't seem that surprised.

"So you're the one that story's about. Huh, figured it was just another of those silly rumors floating around."

"It's spread that far? I didn't talk about it that much."

"Yeah, well, we do a lot of talking when we're not on duty. Any scrap of news, no matter how unreliable, tends to go around the whole base pretty fast. If you want to keep something secret, you need to keep really quiet about it. But then again, that's more of how the Marshguards do things. Anyhow, yeah, there's this story going around about someone whose father got captured by the Rider years ago. Not that anyone really knows more than that."

It's not that surprising, in retrospect; you've heard plenty of rumors in your short time here. In fact, quite a few people have heard about your arm before you'd met them.

But you only mentioned that to Mary yesterday. Has it really spread that far?

You don't have much time to reflect on it, because Walter's pulled into the dock. You're back at base. You go with Walter to the infirmary, where Eve looks like she's about to collapse.

"Got the boat back, good," she mutters. "Anything else?"

"Yeah," Walter says. "Two things. I was on lookout duty while Nathan grabbed the boat, and I saw Rider at the meeting grounds. Nathan says that's normal, but, it's Rider. I can't just let that go."

"I'll let the Captain deal with that," Eve groans. "Hopefully he'll wake up soon. What's the other thing?"

"I got into a fight with a greatrat in the water," Walter says. "Got caught in some muckweed. Probably fine, but, y'know. Gotta be careful. Probably got a bunch of fly eggs on me, if nothing else."

"Right. Cindy, take a look at him. I'll need to put someone else on patrol... were you assigned long goggles, Marshall?"

"Oh! These are Nathan's. He never took them back."

"Yeah, I gave him mine," Walter says. "Patrollers get them too. Figured it wasn't worth the trouble for him to climb down and back up again."

"Right, well. Those goggles should be given to whoever's taking your shift... which I've got written down somewhere." She glances through her notebook. "Okay, Tom Fifth is the first on the reserve list for enough. He'll be by soon, so just leave the long goggles here."

You put them down on the desk.

"And, urgh, you're still looking for orders, aren't you. You know, Marshall, I don't think I have anything for you to do right now. Or if I do, I'm in no state to think of it. If you're hoping to make yourself useful, I suggest you go see another officer. Though I wouldn't blame you for taking a break, honestly."

"Thank you, ma'am. I hope you can get some sleep soon."

You could go see if Tom First or John Recordkeeper has any jobs for you, or you could just take a break and go to the lounge or something. What are you going to do?

Keep at it, you have a reputation to maintain! You dont want to be known as the one armed slacker after all.

(go see john recordkeeper)

yeah!!! john recordkeeper!

You decide to pay a visit to John Recordkeeper. Maybe he's got something for you to do.

When you arrive at the archives, you find that it's quite a bit busier than the infirmary. There are several knights going through boxes, or filling out forms.

John himself doesn't seem that busy at the moment, though. He's just reading something. You walk over to him and ask if there's any work he has for you.

"Ah, you're looking for things to do, hmm?" He glances at you long enough to notice the missing arm. "Well, I can probably put you to work here. That shouldn't be too physically demanding."

"What would I be doing?"

"Inventory! Between the early rain and the greatrat infestation, we're lower on supplies than we'd like to be. So we have to figure out just what we're short on, and the sooner the better. If we don't send out a crow by tomorrow with a list, it won't arrive in time for the next shipment. And we're already probably going to have to hire a second wagon with the equipment we need for the burrowers..."

"Burrowers? We've got burrowers?"

"They hollowed out the hill, it seems, and that's where the rats made their nest. We haven't actually seen them yet, but there were clear signs of burrower tunnels. And we're not really prepared for them."

"Is that what the emergency meeting was about?"

"Don't know. Might be. I wasn't there, and I haven't been briefed on it yet. I know about the burrowers because I had an equipment request from Pest Control sitting on my desk when I woke up. But that's beside the point! You were looking for something to do, well, I need you to start by writing down anything missing from your room... oh, actually."

He takes another look at you and looks thoughtful for a moment.

"You'd probably appreciate some equipment to help you with your condition. You should make a note of that while you're documenting your personal needs... oh, wait, do you have trouble with writing?"

"I haven't really practiced it since I lost the arm," you say awkwardly.

"Well. Just tell me, then. Don't worry if you don't know about any specific gear, just tell me what sort of activities you'd like help with and I'll ask the medic what options there are. I suppose I can put writing aids down immediately... what else can you think of?"

a prosthetic?

a prosthetic?

Combat arm! (im thinking like wooden ironmail hahaha)

Climbing has been a pain, swimming as well. A clumsy, heavy prosthesis would just make those worse.

An arm with a retractable grappling hook though...

You think back to a wandering man you saw once with a wooden leg. You wonder if there's an equivalent for arms, so you decide to ask about that.

"Wooden arms or the like? Well, as I recall it's simple enough to put something where the arm used to be. But it would just be a post - useful as a brace, and perhaps for balance. Getting it to grasp things, or even to bend at the elbow when you wanted it, though - those are tricks that, last I heard, haven't been worked out."

His eyes brighten suddenly.

"But now that I think of it, Flame was putting his mind to that problem. The man's studied the human hand extensively, you know. And he donates gear to us... We might even have something of use already that's just lying around in storage. I'll send someone to look into that."

"Wait, really?"

"I can't make any promises, but we haven't really catalogued his devices that we couldn't immediately identify. And he has donated prototypes before. Ah, perfect, here's someone now."

You turn and see Mary Baker has walked in.

"Mary Thirteenth, I believe? Could you go to storage and bring the box with Flame's things here. I don't think I need to remind you not to directly touch any of the actual inventions."

"Yes, sir. Right away."

"Now, again, I can't promise anything, as I can't say for sure what's in there. So tell me what particular things are giving you trouble."

"Climbing, sir. I was able to make it up a ladder, with some effort, but getting back down wasn't so easy." You think for a moment. "Swimming, too. I haven't had swimming lessons in days, but I was having enough trouble with it when I had both arms."

"Hmm, yes," John Recordkeeper muses, writing something down. "Perhaps we can get you some sort of flotation device to help with the swimming... the climbing is trickier, though. Well, I'll talk to one of the medics about it when I have a chance. Is that all?"

"Other than general inconvenience, yeah. At least, it's all that's come up so far."

"And what about your room? Did the greatrats get at any of your things?"

"No, seems they didn't get into my room. That's fine, nothing that needs replacement."

"All right, then. Hmm, now, what can I have you do if writing is troublesome... moving things around probably wouldn't work too well, either." He looks thoughtful. "Oh, I know. We've covered personal equipment needs for most of the knights now, but there's a few squads that haven't told us what they need replaced. Pest Control's submitted full reports, unsurprisingly, but some of the others haven't yet. So I'll send you over to find out what they need."

Messenger duty again. Well, it's simple enough, you suppose. John writes out a short list and hands it to you.

"It doesn't particularly matter where you go, so pick any of those squads. Just let me know which one it is."

So which squad will you pay a visit to?

What is...Squib Squad?

"What's this, 'Squib Squad' you have here at the bottom?"

"Ah, that's one of our reserve squads. The ones that aren't assigned to any particular task, so we just call them out when we have more work than the regular squads can handle. The squads don't tend to last long, as they're mostly newer recruits waiting to be assigned to one of the main squads, so we just call them by the name of their most senior member."

"If they don't have a particular task, how can they be short on equipment?"

"We keep them stocked with general-purpose gear. I need you to head over and find out if they're short on anything. They were working during last night's infestation, so they might have used up some supplies."

"All right, I'll go and see them, then. Where would I find them?"

"Reserve squads generally stay in a waiting room near the docks, in case they need to use the boat. It shouldn't be too hard to find."

You thank him and head over to take a look. He's right, it isn't too hard to find; there aren't a lot of rooms near the docks, after all.

You see a few squads composed of people you recognize from training. You head over to Riley and ask them where Squib's squad is.

"It's over there," Riley says, pointing to a few slightly older and bulkier knights. "Gotta warn you, they don't really like being bossed around by junior knights. Be careful what you say to them, okay?"

You nod, and walk over to the Squib Squad.

What are you going to say to them?

Put on your most disarming smile and say, "Hey fellows! Can I get you blokes anything? I've come from the recordkeepers office and they thought you might need some extra supplies or assistance."

Just hope that Squib Squad doesn't have any weird hazing rituals for junior knights.

Put on your most disarming smile and say, "Hey fellows! Can I get you blokes anything? I've come from the recordkeepers office and they thought you might need some extra supplies or assistance."

Just hope that Squib Squad doesn't have any weird hazing rituals for junior knights.

Or anything heavy enough that it might require two arms.

Tell them, "Hi, John recordkeeper sent me to ask you what kind of supplies you need to be restocked with."

Dont be awkward! Go up with extra confidence! "Yo bro hows it hangin on the flipside!"

You figure this shouldn't be too difficult - you're just asking what they need, after all, so they're unlikely to get too upset. You approach them as confidently as you can.

"You're the new recruit, right?" one of them says as you get near. Judging by the fact that the others are hanging back and letting him do the talking, if you had to guess you'd say this is Squib.

"That's me," you say, sounding less confident than you hoped. "I'm just here on a job from the archives. I, ah, need to know if you're short on any supplies. So we can order replacements."

You hope that didn't sound demanding. It probably didn't, given your current mood.

Squib gives you a look-over, then grumbles and turns to one of the others.

"Clancy! Did the rats get anything of ours?"

"Nah, Squib, I checked our gear locker ten minutes ago, everything's fine. But, uh. There was that business we had to take care of last night, during the infestation."

"Oh. Right. What'd we end up using?"

Clancy looks nervous.

"Well, you may recall the rat chewed through one of our ropes, shit all over the tarp, and crashed into one of the water barrels. Y'know, the one we were still trying to figure out how the hell we were going to tell the officers about, because clean water's kind of important."

"Right," Squib grumbles, giving Clancy a glare. He looks around to convince himself that no one else in the room heard. "So here's the story, newmuck. What Clancy there just said? Doesn't get told to the officers. You're going to give them some other explanation about the barrel, and if you don't, we'll know about it. You understand?"

You understand him quite well.

"So, a rope, a tarp, and a story about a broken water barrel," you say. "That's what you want me to pass along."

"You're smart, newmuck. Hopefully smart enough to keep staying out of our way."

You consider whether to confront them about the barrels, report it to an officer, or just go along with their intimidation. And if the last, what sort of story will you pass along?

You werent even there! You could probably just go with the easy half truth of sloppily telling the story with even fewer details than you already had, "Bad news, a water barrel got broken by a greatrat, so that needs replacing. And a rope and a tarp. Thats all!"

"Maybe you should consider staying out of MY way. Or an officer might just hear a story about how squib squad is hoarding a barrel of water for themselves." They must have a shady rep if they pull this kind of shit, so turn it around at them.

You don't like the idea of hiding the details. Honestly, from what they've told you, you can't even see a reason why they need to hide it. If it was genuinely an accident, there shouldn't be much of a problem...

...unless, perhaps, the barrel wasn't where it was supposed to be in the first place.

"Why's the barrel a problem?" you ask, trying to sound curious more than suspicious. At least for the moment. "The rats broke lots of stuff. And if one got too close to the other barrels, well, I think there's way more trouble coming your way if they don't hear about it."

"Nah, they're checking the water anyhow," Clancy says. "Just in case. The problem with the barrel is, uh..." He looks at Squib, probably for permission to continue. "Well, we kind of baited the rat in there in the first place. Not the best idea, but we, um. We've got enough minor disputes with the officers that we can't risk another one."

You definitely get the sense that there's something he's not telling you.

"If they're checking the water, won't they find the broken barrel? Or at least notice there's one missing."

Judging by the dirty looks the squad is giving you, you get the distinct impression there's something more going on.

You also get the feeling that you may have asked more questions than they were willing to answer. Squib, in particular, is clenching his fists and you don't think it's going to take much to set him off.

"Well, uh, yeah," Clancy says hurriedly. "But they'd be poking around trying to find out what happened, and, um, it's better for us if they don't do that. So just say you found something out about how it broke and it's all good. You'd be doing us a big favor. And Squib Squad always keeps track of who does them favors."

"And who doesn't," Squib adds.

The decision suddenly seems more pressing. You could back off and just do what they want. Or, you could confront them... but in that case, you should probably have a plan for what you're doing next.

"Alright, got it. Do you think it would work if I said that the barrel broke while you were getting the greatrat OUT of the barrel room?"

"what's in it for me?" and dont let them pull any threats, it's not like they can do worse to you than what you've been through, what with losing an arm and all.

These guys are scared.

What would they stuff in a tarp, tie up with a rope, and shove into a barrel?

Maybe they were trying to catch the greatrat instead of kill it. Not sure why they'd want a live greatrat though. You heard stories of some circus performers keeping live greatrats for shows, like a more feral lion taming...maybe Squib wanted to ride it?

It's just a hunch, but this could be interesting.

"I'll cover for ya."

and then

"You know there's still some greatrats around here that pest control hasn't got to yet. I saw one just earlier today actually. Apparently you can subdue them easier while swimming, but you have to know the right location."

If Squib seems interested continue with details, otherwise just leave and tell John Recordkeeper that it looks like one of the rats chewed through a support rope and toppled over a loose barrel.

Honestly, you find it hard to be all that intimidated. You've seen worse in this swamp than a band of overgrown bullies. And even if they do come after you, it's not as if you haven't spent plenty of time in the infirmary already.

But you're also not reckless. You want to know just what they did, and you'll probably be able to learn more about that if you're on their good side.

You wonder if perhaps they were trying to catch a greatrat alive. A tarp, a rope, and a barrel could be used to keep it bound... but on the other hand, it would be hard to get the barrel out without drawing attention, considering how important the water is.

"I just wanted to be clear on what the problem was, that's all," you say. "So it's just about staying out of trouble with the officers? No problem."

Squib's still not looking too happy, but he seems to be scowling a little less. You turn around as if to leave, then turn back as if you've just thought of something.

"Oh, yeah. You should be careful when you next go out. Seems there's still greatrats on the loose outside."

Squib raises an eyebrow.

"Really."

"Yeah. I was just out there - didn't see any, but I helped one of the patrollers out of the water. He said he'd strangled one."

"What, one knight alone? Strangled it?"

"Seems they don't do too well at fighting and swimming at the same time. Though it was a close match, since, well, I had to help him out of the water. Anyways, with all that's going on, you might get called out on patrol, so it's probably best you're prepared."

"Thanks," Squib says, looking strangely thoughtful. It's almost more unsettling than when he was angry. "We appreciate you telling us that, newmuck."

Well, that got an interesting reaction. Now what?