Coal:Session/4 Illegal Pamphlets
← Prev: Coal:Session/3 King of the Coal Ticks |
Starring: Stoat-at-Neck, Wyl Haversham, Efrey
Guest Starring: Raye, 2nd Lieutenant Pine, Genovia "The Ropewalker", that one First Claimer undesirable who ran away
Challenge: Finding the source of the seditious pamphlets; First Claimers attack; rehabilitating a street urchin
Location: The Iron Maw (gate to the mountain city); The Flare Cairns
Date Played: 21 August 2025
Interviewing 2nd Lieutenant Pine while he provides security to the Iron Maw work team
Efrey: So, there are a few candidates for rabble rousers, and for some reason, Pine is high on the list. It's a little hard to square that circle, but it's true that he is in a good position for it- above reproach, and all. While the rest talk, I sniff around. I get a few things for my trouble: knowledge that Pine has shed someone's blood recently, that he smells like ink, that he whittles (useful for making printing blocks), and I get a bear claw. The bear claw is certainly the best part, though annoying Beauregard certainly helps.
Stoat talks us into shit work, and adopts an urchin. But I get it- the urchin has a lot to learn. It's fine to get spotted when picking a pocket, I'm certainly not good at it, but you've got to have your escape route planned! You can't improvise your escape route.
I spot a frozen-but-moving pigeon. That's concerning.
Guard duty in the arctic wastelands among the Flare Cairns
Efrey: Out along the line of Flare Cairns, we set up camp. Wyl makes some material improvements. Our urchin is being a pain, but so it goes. The cairns glow, and it echoes the bioluminescence of living things- and when I reach out, I find that the Cairns are alive. I make note of that, especially knowing that with the right touch, I can awaken them. What would that do? I don't know, and I'm not ready to find out. Though I get close to trying it- Genovia and a band of First Claimers show up.
I don't dislike Genovia. Again, I'm far less invested in picking fights with the First Claimers than my fellows. But I also don't owe them anything either. So all in all, I'm happy to just be polite. Not all of the First Claimers agree- a chunk of them decide to try poisoning our tea, and when they get caught, they attack us.
It does not go well for them. The polar bear inside me gets a nice snack out of it, anyway. It's not cannibalism if you're a polar bear.
We also spot an undead fox, undead elk, and one of the deceased First Claimers also tries to rise from the dead.
Notes
- The Flare Cairns are bioluminescent
- Ice rabies is animating some dead
- Herd of Glacier-Spined Elk—A majestic herd crosses into the outskirts of Skarnheim. Something about them is… wrong. Their antlers drip icicles, and their breath comes in unnerving rhythms.
