Outpost Traumatic Stress

## Synopsis

In Season 2, Chapter 6: Outpost Traumatic Stress, a volley of magical attacks against the Recondite Timber quickly revealed that the tree was capable of using our own power against us – but the arcane energy it absorbed did prevent it from absorbing our trinkets that had sunk into the soil.

Physical attacks, while safer, weren't wearing the tree down fast enough – so Erland and Safira focused on keeping our belongings safe and throwing out healing spirits while the others doled out as much fire and necrotic damage as they could muster.

With the Recondite Timber doing its best to keep us close with raging winds, the reflected spells packed quite a punch – but our willingness to endure the hits and end the fight quickly meant that none of our items had been lost for good… which was a tremendous relief to us all as we vacated the area and returned to the road.

At this point we were practically within spitting distance of the Freerun River bridge, but we also weren't the only ones looking to use it – someone was coming our way on horseback with a torch in hand, and when they got close enough for us to make out the details of their uniform we found they bore the black and purple colors of the Broken Crown.

Immediately we suspected that this could be one of the bandits from the captured outpost and we hatched a plan to ambush him – at the very least, we'd have one less person to contend with later on… and maybe we could squeeze a bit of information from him about what the bandits were looking for.

With his back turned, Safira used her Animus bow to great effect as she both hit her target and blocked the way forward in tortoise form – but the rider had some unexpected magic up his sleeve, pelting Erland with several unavoidable Magic Missiles that sent him tumbling to the ground.

Sprinting back in the direction of the bridge, Graven and Orba cut off his escape route and knocked him from his horse.  For a moment we thought we'd nabbed ourselves a prisoner – but similar to those devout few back at the Mycrawl Den near Leopold's Garrison, this man had no intention of cooperating.  After firing off a few more shots, he used his last bit of energy to end his own life – leaving us only with some mysterious clues about what was going on at the outpost.

Back-to-back fights had left us feeling a little spent so we took a break to gather our strength – and from there it was time to finally get a look at this out-of-the-way operation that had vexed both Raymond Massif and Lieutenant Colonel Warber as to why it was the target of an attack.

Just beyond the bridge, we followed a small path branching off from the main road that led us to a kind of narrow watchtower – its layout accurately predicted by the injured soldier we had met just after leaving Navika-Pura.  Perhaps most importantly, the reinforced ivy was firmly in place on the back of the building – providing an alternate way into the living quarters on the second floor.

After some initial scouting, we determined that an entirely stealth-based operation was not in the cards: getting into the records room without being seen seemed virtually impossible, and rather than get discovered in a compromising position we thought we could quietly pick off a few guards using Graven's ability to create a dome of silence.

The first kill was clean and after sneaking inside we nearly took out a second without issue – but unfortunately a rogue arrow clattered against the stone outside of the Silence spell's radius.  Fearing this might have alerted someone downstairs, we scrambled to decide on our next course of action and ultimately headed for the staircase that led to the holding cells.

If a larger conflict was about to break out, any bit of assistance that the prisoners could provide would be greatly appreciated.

## Trivia

* Natural one count: five natural ones were rolled in this Chapter. 1 by Riley, and 4 by John.