Hilmir Enters The Wood

As the others get to rest, Elara goes through the book occasionally checking in with Dreli for portions where the diagrams or drawings seemed like they had information about the pedestal, the crystals, the Sweepers, or anything else of note. With Dreli's translation efforts, by the end of their watch they have the following snippets of information:

- Sweepers can only follow one command at a time. When it is satisfied, they fall back on the previous command given (and if that is satisfied the previous, etc).

- Commands can only be given by those who reach a certain rank within The Order. (There is no additional info about the method of command, so you don't know if it is a keyword, magic item, spell, etc)

- Unless given explicit command not to, Sweepers stick to specific paths through the woods and valley over and over again. These "routes" (as the book calls them). There are charts of these paths in this book.

- The book includes a list of spells that are "banned" by use of The Order, their books to be destroyed if any members encounter them to prevent "falling into the wrong hands". All of them seem to be tied to "cold" or "ice".

- The Order seems to believe that those who do not follow their path are angering the spirits of the woods, who will only be satisfied when all inhabitants are sufficiently faithful. In their eyes, when the Sweepers are not needed (because everyone is compliant), the crystals can be returned to the pedestal and the temple finally rebuilt for The Order's use.


The rest of the evening is quiet, and early in the morning you all begin your march back to Dani (Elara's ally) so that you can catch her up on all of this new information (which Elara also shares with the others on the way). By consulting with the maps of the Routes, she is also able to navigate back without running into any of the patrols. The way back is surprisingly smooth after everything you have been through in recent days.

Dani is extremely excited with the results of the mission, and calls all of you into a huddle to decide on where to go from here. She opens up the informal meeting bluntly, "Things are about to get pretty dangerous, if anyone wants out right now, I fully understand. But I fully intend to take these bastards down. After suffering those sorts of losses, they're going to come after us hard so it's now or never."

Tanya agrees as well, and Dani is encouraged by everyone's agreement. Visibly excited to have you all on board, she continues. "The Order doesn't know who attacked the temple, but they'll probably retaliate against us anyway to assert their authority. Wouldn't want our collective getting any big ideas if word of their casualties got out. We move our sites around so they don't know exactly where we are, but they'll comb the entire area over the next few days."

Tanya chimes in, offering her perspective as someone from Valleyview, a town controlled by The Order. "There aren't a ton of them, less than a hundred total I'd say. The only reason they've been able to maintain control is the Sweepers. The majority go out in patrols during the day, but they all guard the town at night."

Elara thinks for a moment, then shakes her head. "There might be some kind of pocket like that up near the mountain to the north, but nothing I've seen that would handle that many. There's swamps near the frogman village so might be something up there... I'm not very familiar with that area though."

Dani rubs her chin and thinks aloud, "It's not often you see Robes together out here. You only ever see more than three in a group at night when they go into the valley all at once and guard their town, Valleyview. I know there are others who are sympathetic who would join us if they knew we were going for it. I might be able to get thirty, it's long odds but I think we'd have a chance. Not while they have the Sweepers on their side..." An idea comes to her mind, she turns her attention to Dreli. "We might be able to lure a Sweeper to a sink hole or pit though... "

Elara flips the notebook to the pages with the Sweeper routes on it and studies for a moment before speaking. "That... could work. There’s a few areas not too far from these we could trick them into, but they're strong enough to dig themselves out. We'd need to restrain it or immobilize it, at least until we can figure out how to control it. Wait a second..."

She puts the book down, and grabs one of the pots in the campsite putting a few inches of water in the bottom. Then takes out the Guide Stone she picked up earlier and drops it in.

The stone surprisingly floats in the water, and the arrow engraved into the top glows. It rotates until it points towards the south and then stops moving.

"At least finding one won't be a problem."

Elara flips the book open to the page with the Sweeper routes, and makes a small mark on two parts of the map. "In this area to the south-west, there's sort of a sudden crater in the ground that would work. There are also some small mountains north of the valley, there are lots of rockfaces there that drop off suddenly into pits." Hilmir would realize that the area in the north is close to where he met Korban.

Dani turns her attention to Dreli, and answers her question. "If you get close enough to a Sweeper you can see the crystal, but hard to get close enough for long enough without getting flattened. We'd need to beat it down pretty good, or slow it down somehow." Then looking at Hilmir and Wenlan, "Getting control of one though... that would change things. That would make this a real war." Her face darkens for a moment, and she quiets as the weight of that implication dawns upon her.

The others agree as well, and additional details get ironed out as the conversation continues. It's decided that three groups will be formed each responsible for execution on different parts of the plan.

Group A will be led by Elara, and focus on warning others in their collective that The Order will retaliate soon. This will also be a recruitment drive for anyone sympathetic to their cause.

Group B will be led by Dani, and focus on setting up the crater site. They will attempt to loosen some of the ground near the edge so that it breaks away sooner than one would expect, and prepare traps to help knock the Sweeper in and restrain it afterwards.

Group C will be led by Hilmir, and focus on luring a Sweeper to the crater location. The Order will be looking for groups after the temple attack, not individuals, so at least a couple others will be needed to ensure they give chase.

The different groups will continue in different Threads for a bit, unless of course you all pick the same one. Don't worry about balance or numbers or anything, any gaps will be filled with NPCs. Pick what you/your character would be most interested in pursuing.