Episode 1

Rutcranna knows Maeriks, like she knows almost all of the Bat Hannocs, whether they know what she knows about them or not. But to Maeriks, he is not that familiar with Rutcranna in a personal way. He has seen her like everyone else, she advises the clan, does expositions, leads ceremonies, etc. But on-on-one attention from her , not normal at all. With her fame and importance historically, plus people mostly being afraid of her, I think he would feel to a degree like he should do what she says, at least for now sort of as a default traditional stance.

Rutcranna knows that she needs to break Maeriks out of his extreme introvert passive nature though because she does need him to step up, be an asset instead of a burden, and dig into some of the very real potential that she knows he has. Important: she knows that Maeriks has the druid connection. She's likely the only one in the world who knows right now. She tells him something like:

... etc etc.

With that she makes a big breakthrough, same goal, two ways to help:

Goal: To boost Maeriks' morale, confidence, self-worth, and feeling of autonomy

Techniques:
1) Make him face it that he can talk just fine and that he doesn't have to live a life of silence and continue to isolate himself because of a perceived difficulty in speaking. Rutcranna tells him that she know his mother Bithela was cruel to him and put some severe hexes over his speech. Maeriks believes this because his mother told him so. She did not want Maeriks talking, was frustrated with his foolishness, and embarassed by his way of annoying and showing his low INT to the community. She said it was best for him to just be quiet. Rutcranna tells Maeriks that though a mother has a right to control their children, that was a long time ago, there is no more need for that nonsense, and Bithela has been dead for a long time. So Rutcranna is going to get rid of those hexes right here and now forever. She lights a candle, tells him to breathe in the smoke, say his name 3 times and his father and mothers names 3 times right in the line of the smoke. She says now she has all of the hexes pulled out and into the flame of the candle. Then she puts the candle out with a pinch of her fingers. They are gone. Now he is fine and can move on with his life, don't act foolish and waste his words on foolish idle talk, endless questions, and arguments that annoys people, but say what is on his mind - say what you mean and mean what you say.
2) Tell him that she knows what Rigin (Phantom) did to him and that she will protect him from that now, and that they are going to kill Rigin - get rid of him once and for all. Rigin, as he converted from man to monster gradually, got increasing mental powers, including telepathy (more like mind raping). He and Cealwin (Goat) had bullied Maeriks into acting as their informant and early warning (remember the tin alarm he rang?) since early on in the change which started in the fall, about 6 months ago, but then continued on after the raid on Driftwood that wiped out almost all of the men and left stragglers struggling through the winter. The Hive used Maeriks to monitor Driftwood while they were away, and tell them where any resistors were, inform them if any came through. If he tried to withhold info, Cealwin would wrestle him down into submission and Rigin would raid through his thoughts and memories. Even Maeriks understands that the info he shared, willingly or otherwise, was used by the Hive to lure in, hunt down, or otherwise eliminate the pockets of Bat Hannocs who tried to evade, sabotage, and resist the domination of The Neighbors and Nahrooma. Maeriks hated it, but The Hive told him that they would torture him forever (using whatever his worst fear is) if he resisted or exposed them. All the while they disrespected him and told him he was unfit to join their superior race because of his weak mind. Rutcranna says that she is going to make marks on his head and do a ritual for him that will protect him from the mental assault of Rigin for 1/2 moon (2 weeks). Rigin will not be able to hurt him or get into his head no matter how hard he tries. By the time the spell is over, they will have confronted Rigin and he will be dead. Rutcranna says that she thinks it will be Maeriks who kills Rigin son of Felin, who was always Maeriks' enemy since childhood. He was a monster as a child and his true nature was exposed and realized once he became a man. Maeriks must strike that monster down and now he can do it. He was very brave to take the first step on his own by coming out here. Now he will not have to fight alone or unprepared. She will be with him and she will give him the weapons and protection he needs to go to battle like a true warrior.

So Rutcranna does this talk and interchange with Maeriks, just between the two of them let's say. She has already done the thing about knocking down his mom's hexes, already talked to him about she understands what Rigin and Cealwin did to him. She tells him now to go get the shoes. When he comes back, he is supposed to put them on along with the armor you described. When he comes out, she gives him the weaponry. Tonight she will do the mental protection ritual for him.

So Maeriks is going to be ready to rock.

Ivor last saw the net with Phantom, who hopped onto the roof and disappeared onto the other side. He was injured pretty bad at that time.

Around the back of the house, at an outdoor shed in the back yard, Ivor saw a site where it looked likes someone was injured and threw up.

Thorn saw Phantom out at the old sick-o nasty tree flesh station with tentacles plugged into the back of his neck. At that time, Thorn did not see Phantom holding a net.

Maybe Thorn and Ivor could take a stroll along a possible route that they would piece together with shared stories, see if that net got dropped or put away somewhere along the way.

Also Maeriks is on assignment from Rutcrana to go get something off of Fingol's body down by the pier.

A short stroll again through the backyard swamp woods for Ivor, Thorn, and Maeriks?
Net hunting and body looting?
(X, Maeriks is supposed to get something NOT in the stuff Thorn already has btw.)

Yo, Ez. Heavy stuff, right? I want to continue this by PM over the weekend if you are willing. As it turned out, this is a very strange but important opportunity that I want to jump on. Convo that happens b/t Rutcranna and Kray while everyone else is out in the woods. Lot to write, but I think it will be worth it.

He comes just short of doing a fist pump/pull "YISSS!!!"