Anarion

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

[Potential 4. Insecure]

Set walks into the little apartment with minimal fanfare. As with all her travels, she simply arrived here (Étoile provided excellent information for where to fetch Canada, so there was no challenge finding it or arriving safely and quietly). You would not know she had spent the previous night crying, not with her makeup done thickly, her headdress gleaming, her expression calm and composed. Last night, she had time for her problems, but now she has other people to worry about and she is wearing an aura of tranquility. A mild sea-blue, or perhaps the aspect of the unexpected traveler. She may be your water in the desert, Canada. At the very least, she's a ride.

Once she enters properly, her expression drops to a frown, and her aura to a muted blue-purple. "Oh, Canada, what did they do to you? Was it the "god" or Marianne? She had choice words for you last night, I bet it was her." Set kneels down in the cramped little apartment and tentatively looks over the bruises, then turning her attention to Canada's face. "You don't have to do this alone. None of us do. Gods, you're being so dumb. Whatever happened I...I want to help you. So, it's going to be all right. We'll get you wherever you need to go to rest and recover and then we'll come up with a new plan and we'll go get them for real. No running off or trying to do anything else this idiotic, okay?"

[Comfort or support: 2+1-1=2. Marking Anathet's 5th potential and an advance.]

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Robena

As you unceremoniously leave the Azure knight to her wound, with the Duchess's assistants coming out to help remove her from the field, you hear her suddenly start to laugh uproariously before it becomes too much and she faints entirely as she's carried away. What story did the bard Yomdaelar tell that she must have encountered before the effects of her curse set in to cause her to laugh so at seeing you slouch away?

Constance

Cerwen suddenly slumps into you, her wine forgotten. It's all you can do to support her sudden weight, and it's like all the strength has gone out of her. She begins to stammer. "I...I...she's my younger sister, you see, left to squire years ago, I've barely seen her, but she took service with Uther, and I came here, I thought, I thought Robena was going to kill her and...and, oh Father, I didn't know what to do, but she's going to be okay, right? Should I rush to her side, I...I just...I..."

Your hand, holding hers in kindness, is the most adamant stone. As she stay with her and Cerwen lets out her relief in a stream words, she finally realizes the urgency with which she's been clutching you. Sheepishly, shyly, she blushes and gently releases your hand. It's a relief, at the least, the blush brings with it some color to her pale cheeks and she meets your eyes with a sudden honesty that you haven't seen from her before. "Thank you" she says, and smiles genuinely.

With this small crisis in hand and the need for the Azure Knight's removal, if ever there were a time to petition the Duchess, this is it.

Tristan and Nin

You are not ten steps into the forest before you realize that something is immensely wrong here. The soil is damp and rotting, the smell is sickly sweet and cloying and it makes your noses wrinkle in disgust. The damp soil has impressions in it as well, deep, odd-looking hoofprints that seem to sink deep into the ground, yet you cannot perceive any creature nearby. The sound of flying insects is present, but there are no bird calls despite the feast.

Even worse, despite taking a scant ten steps, you cannot see the exit from the woods. It being night, it is as though you've walked for minutes at off angles and now the trees and mossy shrubs surround you on all sides.

Tristan, you may try to understand the unnatural thing you have stumbled into.
Nin, you however, may not try to find your way. The rotting forest is denying you your right to find your way by road or trail. Respond to this denial as you see fit.

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

[Potential 4. Insecure]

Solace, alas, is in short supply. Anathet's talent, the Zhianku's talent is no great magic to control or manipulate one's emotions. Quite the opposite, they feel stronger, more sharply. Anathet's talent is the talent that everyone needs at times, some more often than others. The ability to act, even while hurting. Perhaps especially while hurting.

There are techniques that help of course. Anathet's interpretation of Zhianku meditation is to imagine her emotions as a myriad of colors and to visibly calm them almost as though trying to calm a tempestuous sea. In better times, she can choose her colors and wear them, but in times like this they decide for her what will come out. She has practiced imagining her mind almost like a sailor on the sea of her emotions in such times. The sailor can't calm the whole sea, but she can learn how to ride within it without being capsized. She can focus on a few tasks. Breathing and tying off the ropes where they're needed.

And there are some things that are rote. Using her things is rote. The Zhianku trained Anathet well in their technology and so moving isn't a conscious thought and it has no need of focus. She just has to know where she's going and muscle memory with her jewelry does the rest. There is not even a need for care. This is not Set trying to hide, but rather Set sweeping in with power and glory, opening large portals and ushering the newly released prisoners through them to safety. Or such safety as there is at least. To where the remaining rebels hide and hunker down as Shamash hurls around such awful destruction in their home.

It doesn't occur to her, distracted as she is, to bother alerting the rebels in advance, so they even receive a show from Set in all her glory with light and power transporting all these prisoners for them to take. She has no time for explanations, they are commanded to make space and left as to how to do it. Doing the task is much easier than doing it with care, compassion, and constant focus, and so the aspect of Set tonight is the storm and the outsider, that which is beyond comprehension or reason because the aspect that is Anathet is elsewhere.

It's busy focusing on breathing and holding back tears. It's busy trying to wonder what kind of person she is, and wants to be, and why she came back here, what she hopes to achieve with all this. She has no fire of Marianne, nor shame and the need to prove herself like Canada. She worried for her mother, and can't even find her! Can't ask the Seneschal for that or let the resistance know Set is looking for such a specific person, it would give away far too much, so she's left with nothing. For this she abandoned safety, loved ones, a warm home full of gardens she loved and her pet whale? And yes, for this and a vague sense of doing the right thing, whatever that is.

No, there's no solace tonight. There is a sense of duty, a bare minimum of skills to move about where she's needed, and a focus on merely breathing and continuing to move. There is also a practically accidental spreading of the Phantom Thieves' reputation for being many times their own number by appearing visibly in many places within a few moments, but that's of no mind. And of the destruction and the safety of her friends, for now she can do nothing and so she tries to numb herself to these things and ride through the storm of their safety and that of her family and everyone else.

Later, when everything is still, she will cry, time will pass, and she will go about gathering herself once again. That's all anyone can do.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Robena
[The azure knight, still cursed, spent 2 on position and lost, doing no harm to you, suffering one in return.]

A bundle of long red hair flies loose from beneath the helm, and beneath that a ruddy face not dissimilar in shape to Cerwen's. The woman in this armor is no priest though, and her arm took the full blow of your axe. She is alive through that, which is no mean feat, but her arm is certainly broken near the elbow and she'll have to spend the next season in a splint doing no work so she can recover. She may not even be able to travel from Lostwithiel without risk of great injury. Still, you are victorious and though this is not the outcome you may have sought, it was achieved honorably and all could tell that the azure knight chose to take the blow head on and suffer its consequences.

For a moment, the azure knight looks stunned. The shock of the blow, her helm being wrenched off, the sudden noise of the crowd and the bright light. Then, she looks at you and a torrent of words starts pouring out: "what in bloody blazes? How did I get hre? Who let a great bear like you into the tournament? Ah! My godsforsaken arm! Nobody said anything about this, they didn't! This was supposed to be an easy tournament, gods, who calls this a knight's penance, I want to know?"

She looks weak and like she's near to passing out from the shock. Above the cheers of the audience, you hear a strangled cry from the stands near the Duchess, Cerwen for certain. The resemblance is far too close, they're obviously family. A cousin, maybe even a sister.

What do you do now?

Constance

Cerwen's attention is not closely enough on you to obtain any reassurance. Instead, as the two knights clash you are treated to Cerwen nearly leaping out of her seat. You see her clutching where her cross would have been and then realizing it's not there in a sudden panic. She must not have had time to fetch a more humble one before the tournament. Was she going to try and do something to manipulate the results? No matter though, you see your champion shatter the azure knight's defense and rip off her helm. An explosion of red hair comes loose and she falls backwards into your champion's arms. She's saying something, and Cerwen has let out a loud, strangled cry right next to your ear. You can tell she's full of grief and fear. The Duchess Marianne and her master at arms are looking over in alarm.

What do you do?

Tristan and Nin

The commotion at the castle happened while you were busy traveling overland. Now, as you let it go, you are treated to the sight of the great badger opening a new tunnel. It's a majestic sight. Discarding the remaining wheat stalks, it uses its claws in two great, sweeping motions to rend away a mound of earth. Then, claws before it, it begins to heave the earth to the side. It's magical, even for all its strength, the creature shouldn't be able to part the earth at this speed, yet the sight as it digs is like nothing more than watching a curtain of soil part at its claws. After a brief moment, it digs away at a speed that belies its bulk leaving only small traces of its tunnel line. You would guess that a trotting horse could keep pace with it, but you'd have little chance on foot, so if you continue to track it now, you'll need to rely on your endurance to catch back up to it wherever it stops next.

One thing to observe, it goes no closer to the forest in its tunnel, instead paralleling the fields based on how you saw it enter the ground.

Speaking of the forest, if you don't care to return to the castle, it holds much of what you need. Finding venoms would be a difficult woodcrafting skill, but certainly within the talents of both of you, especially Nin who has particular experience with the woodlands. Honey is even easier, your biggest fear would be a few bee stings, and you can ward most of that off with a couple smoking brands, but it should take only a short time to find. For a second bow, you'd need to return to the castle, where you'd arrive back around the middle of the night if you made a straight shot for it. You could, though, check with the local farmers, see if someone has a hunting bow. The road has scattered villages lining it, you'd easily hit at least a small group of people within a half hour's hiking. Though be careful arriving at night, they'll need some signs that you're safe and not there to hurt them.

The forest at night may also have other dangers, though none you know of so dangerous as the great badger. Still, it refused to approach the forest even though you, Tristan, know that it wants dearly to have such environs as its surroundings, so that too is a reason for caution.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Nin's plan B, if we decide not to attack/trap it right away, is to send Tristan off to get the stuff they need while she keeps an eye on it so it doesn't get away or cause trouble. I'm fine with saying there's a tree or two off in the near distance, though. I just didn't want to assume it, given the description of the landscape.

@stveje

I searched for some images, and this is fairly accurate except the wheat here is too short (it's summer so you're amid tall stalks).

wheat field

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Chalk it up to Tristan getting lost in his own head. Honestly, it's a very in-character mistake.

@Count Numbers

Oh yeah, I can easily see that. Given the misread, does it help to clarify that part of Tristan's vision is that the Badger doesn't want to be here, it wants there to be trees, but there's some reason it's not just going back to the trees that are, like, right over there just a short hike away.

Anyway, you have as many posts as you want to chat and plan in the "talking is a free action sense" but the intent of the timing is that there's time to be like "you hide here and ambush it after I shoot it from here" but not time to go looking for anything or craft anything that takes more than a moment, though letting it go here is perfectly reasonable. You two probably could take it, mechanically, but it might hurt in the process.

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

[Potential 4. Insecure]

Set leans over to the sound of linen gently swishing and slides the tablet out from the Seneschal's bound hands. She looks it over, ensures that the orders are in place, no extra guards or wrong locations to deceive her. When she's done, she nods to herself and replaces it at the other end of the desk, outside of the Seneschal's reach. Though perhaps left alone he could scooch his chair over to get it, as long as he's careful not to knock himself over in the process.

Set steps away for a moment and examines the room. The fight was quick, a series of blows and portals, a sudden and decisive win. His retainers would have finished their falls by now. Perhaps a few were still clinging roughly to the roof, others fallen to the gardens and courtyards and now recovering, but still some distance from this office with its commanding view of the city.

Her gaze strays down to the city in miniature. All that jumping about and neither she nor the Seneschal had damaged it. Set wanders over and stands among the buildings, picks up a few trees and admires them. Even her little waterfall garden is there in miniature, and the tofu stall where she had eaten out. This thing was truly spectacular, not just practical for planning, but truly a work of art. It might well be the unique creation of some Annunaki crafter, one of a kind and irreplaceable in its eye for detail. She looked over at the Seneschal. "Truly spectacular craftsmanship. You had this made for you?" She laughs with the dismissal that the Seneschal might make such a work himself. "Did you pay nothing for it? Claim such a thing as the right of your position on your vaunted chain? Pathetic."

Anathet knew what Marianne would do here. She saw the challenge in the Seneschal's eyes. She knew a man like him wouldn't mourn the suffering of a thousand slaves but his heart would break over the loss of a precious toy. Break him inside, make him hurt, let him feel the pain of the masses in his own heart and be scarred by the revolution to come. That was the way of the Phantom Thieves, wasn't it? Anathet almost lifted her foot and with a great golden sandal crushed the Seneschal's palace in miniature like Godzilla himself had come to rampage in Babylon.

Almost.

Something in her heart stopped her. She just...she couldn't inflict that on the Seneschal, not though he deserved it. That kind of pain, that's what they were fighting to stop, wasn't it? The goal wasn't just to gather it all up and throw it back on the Annunaki. They had to be stopped, but Anathet didn't want to do that by destroying all the beautiful things in Caphtor. Then there wouldn't be anything beautiful left and her heart cried for that.

So instead, with an angry grunt, she turns the Seneschal's chair and flings him into a corner so he can see nothing. No jockeying to his tablet for freedom, his men will find him tied and punished like a child and that will be that. The tree though, is on his desk by the tablet, and Set is already long gone before he can see her cry.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Per my previous answer to Stveje, both immediate sources of poison and trees are not available. The trees aren't that far away (and potentially poisonous insects with them) but you'd need to move away from the badger and let it depart the current location.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Tristan and Nin

You have a short time to quietly set some sort of trap. The creature is nearly finished with its meal of wheat and may rest a bit longer before it moves on. Once it does move, you'll have little difficulty tracking it it from here, but it will likely outpace you before it stops if it leaves before you're ready, resulting in a delay into the night or the need to rest and find it again come morning. At least there's no sign of rain this evening, so that is in your favor.

If you wish to attack it now, tell us about your trap and then take action!

Constance

The Duchess smiles at you in relief. "We'll talk later" she says, quietly so as not to draw attention to herself, then turns and waves to the combatants to continue the joust.

After you are seated, the master at arms (we'll say his name is Timothy) takes his place. He looks rather self-satisfied, you might judge, as though he's done his job properly getting you seated. You may wish at some point to correct his misplaced sense of duty. Cerwen, for her part, turns to you. "Are you well?" She asks, with some real concern, but quietly. "If the ceremony earlier was too much..." she trails off not entirely sure what to offer and covers it up with a sip of her wine. Her gaze drifts nervously to the joust as well, her eyes more for the Azure knight than for your champion.

Robena

What you've seen about this curse is that it blocked out the Azure Knight's senses and at the same time drove her to recklessness. From what you've seen in the wider world, these things are not unconnected. Her reckless behavior is a result of her altered perceptions, an inability to judge correctly perhaps. As such, your best route to break this curse is probably to remove her helm. It's both a literal and symbolic way of blocking out her senses and she has yet to raise her visor this whole time. You'll need to manage this decisively, she'll almost certainly lash out and aggressively wrestle you (quite probably even in defiance of honor) if you attempt to remove it slowly, so one swift and powerful move is your best bet.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

For the hunting party, here are the stats for the badger

My Hider

Monstrous badger. It attacks with claws, horns, or teeth, though they are not the most suited to combat (3 harm)
Its skin is unnaturally armored for a badger's hide (2 armor)
It is twice the size of normal people (inflicts +2 harm, gains +2 armor when fighting normal sized opponents)
It will ruin and destroy fields of crops and the stores of passing travelers
It can tunnel beneath the ground with unnatural speed