Time for another thrilling installment of the MK RPG campaign of The Watch!

Time for another thrilling installment of the MK RPG campaign of The Watch! PCs are Commander Ruvac (Wolf), Cpl Liasa (Lioness), Warden Teka (Fox), and Warden Maega (Raven).

I rolled forward time a few weeks, to signal we’re now in Phase 2 of the war. Ruvac got her promotion to Commander, but… she’s shown great competence and tenacity in achieving objectives, justifying her new rank. On the other hand, she’s shown just about no real ability to lead soldiers without maiming them and causing desertions. To square that circle, she’s been given command of a half-platoon of “special forces” for unusual missions. To keep things simple, most of the members of Ruvac’s squad are members of her previous platoon. Sgt Preny leads one squad, newly-promoted Cpl Liasa leads the other.

We started with a mission to support the retaking of Raish Ruins from the shadow, the homeland of Ruvac’s clan. Before that kicked off, Maega asked to share Pera’s dream to gain insight into what was to come. Pera offered to share her bed as well. Maega got flustered and blurted out something about virginal priestesses, but still read Pera’s dreams and understood the Shadow forces were getting very angry about something. Teka read Ruvac’s fortune and discovered that Warden Reidi was modelling her behaviour on Ruvac’s.

Then the mission. It was to find an old herbalist’s garden, extract some herbs, and dump them into the Shadow’s water supply. That would poison the Shadow soldiers enough to slow them down, giving the rest of the Watch a better chance in the fight to come. The mission went off incredibly smoothly, with no additional Complications collected. On the way to the herbalist garden, the PCs noticed more problems with distances and directions being off, but eventually got near. They could oversee the assembled Shadow legions, all in very ordered ranks. In front of each legion was a raised platform, and above the platform were pillars. Women were standing on the pedestals, and Shadow soldiers were duelling on the platforms. (Subtle symbolism there.)

While Liasa was leading the final approach to the garden, she was approached by Otet (her brother-in-law, Maega’s cousin) who had been taken and altered by the Shadow. He was injured and wanted help to escape the Shadow. He said he’d been fighting on the platforms and lost, now had to flee for his life. On questioning, he revealed he was fighting for the right to breed with the priestesses on the pedestals.

Ruvac’s player quipped “We’ve got a priestess here,” (pointing to Maegra) “you can shag her.” Good-natured laughing around the table. I asked, “Is Ruvac really saying that?” After a bit of discussion, we decided that the game would be more interesting if she did, but I called for her to Resist the Shadow. She did, so managed to keep her mouth shut. But when Ruvac’s player chose the Complication “You lose control to the Shadow”… it turns out she said it after all.

In the end, they bound Otet and led him back to camp. Meaga asked him to remember his son; Otet lunged at Maega then broke down in tears. Ruvac apologised to Maegra about her comments. Teka praised Liasa’s performance, Liasa asked for Teka’s help in eliminating Ruvac as her commander.

The squad returning to camp, Ruvac went to the medical tent for treatment (she Took Great Harm on the mission) and asked Liasa to hold her down during the painful stitching-up to come. Ruvac also started confessing that she was feeling overwhemed by the pressure of command. Teka intervened and told Ruvac to “woman up”, that her soldiers needed her. Ruvac replied by saying she just wanted to go back to being a squaddie.

After that, Liasa was eating her lunch and Osho threw some flash powder into the fire to scare Liasa. (Liasa panicked while covered in fire in first mission; Osho is clan-sister to Toha, who was cripped by Ruvac last session.) Liasa opened up about how her brother was burnt as a child. Osho was moved and the pair went to bed together.

Ealle and Eive approached Maega, asking her to marry them. Maega agreed, despite it being against standing orders. She said to wait until night, when they could get a witness through dreams. Ealle refused to say why she had a black eye and swollen lip. The three of them asked Teka to read their fortunes; it came out that Reidi (Ealle’s sister) had done the beating, they had a history of competition in their family, and Reidi’s action was Shadow-influenced.

Meanwhile, Preny asked Ruvac for advice on how to deal with Reidi. Preny isn’t good with discipline and appreciated Reidi’s support in keeping soldiers in line. But Preny is concerned Reidi’s going too far.

We ended the session with everyone descending on Reidi’s tent to have a word with her…