The Undertow: Session Twelve

Mikansia: the female elven main character, played by Lena. Mikansia helped bring down Elfharrow and, because she was an exile of the elven nation of Kotae Mah, had joined an elven smuggling ring called The Sword Runners. It's been a year since we last saw her, and she is now headed to Kotae Mah with Akseli and Nomi for a personal mission.

Yngvar: Mikansia's former Firstsword, who had traveled down with Akseli to bring her back to Kotae Mah after Jabez had helped her desert. After the fall of Elfharrow Yngvar returned to Kotae Mah, so that way Mikansia could have someone on the inside of the system.

Jabez: Mikansia's deceased Sword Singer friend. He had been exiled to Elfharrow, which is something that should not have happened. Elfharrow is not a place where any elf is sent, for any reason. And Mikansia wants to find out how that happened.

It was dawn. Dale, with Mikansia, Akseli, and Nom in tow, flew the rickety airship under Kotae Mah, easily slipping past the military patrols. That disturbed Mikansia and Akseli, who had been on these very patrols previously! Nomi, however, found their disturbance hilarious, which made them even more uncomfortable. Dale gave some money to Mikansia as a ladder came down. Mikansia, Akseli, and Nomi climbed up the ladder. There was a male elf at the top of the ladder. Mikansia paid him and they were let up. Dale told them to be back by dawn the next day, or else it would be awhile before they could leave Kotae Mah. They acknowledged and Dale was off.

It was strange, seeing the white and towers of Kotae Mah rising against the infinite black of the Void. There was a nostalgia to seeing these places, as an exile; home, and yet not home. Akseli said he was going to go see Yngvar. Mikansia told him to tell Yngvar she said hello. Akseli laughed and said that wouldn't be necessary; they'd be talking about her most of the afternoon. Mikansia smiled and told Akseli not to wait up for her. He laughed an said if Mikansia got herself in trouble again he was going to come for her, period. Besides, Yngvar would kill Akseli if she was abandoned again. Mikansia laughed and they'd see each other dawn.

Mikansia and Nomi walked on. It had been a year, and over all that time Nomi had refused to tell anyone anything about herself, only that a "Marian" had sent her, and that the now-dead Tyce had contacted this Marian. Mikansia asked who Marian was, again, remarking she really must be someone special, to be able to turn someone from the Lone Keep to defect. Nomi agreed, and then tried to drop the subject. But Mikansia persisted. For a whole year Nomi had told them nothing. Nomi told Mikansia it wasn't her business: she was there to help and destroy the Lone Keep, and that would have to be enough. Mikansia laughed: Nomi wore a Dagger of Betrayal, rode a dragon that was controlled by said Dagger ("His name is Fish!" protested Nomi), she claimed to be sent by some random human woman, and she expected that to fly??? No, this needed to change.

Nomi stared at Mikansia and then began laughing. Genuinely, actually, laughing! Yeah, that sounded pretty ridiculous! She explained she had been one of the Lone Keep's best agents: there was not one elven general that Nomi probably hadn't slept with, not one major human politician who hadn't been threatened by her. So when Nomi's sister, Anneli, had stumbled upon a way to bring the Ring of Tears back to the planet, they sent Nomi to plant a Dagger of Betrayal in Anneli's back. Nomi thought she could do it. She was wrong. The inner confusion almost killed her, leaving her a broken mess.  Anneli, permanently disillusioned with her sister, had left Nomi with Marian for rehabilitation. Marian was a human sorceress and a far better person than anyone had any right to be. She had helped Nomi and Fish regain a sense of self, outside of their own pasts. Marian had sent Nomi to Mikansia because Nomi needed to start living for more than healing or revenge.

Mikansia told Nomi she was familiar with hitting that moral wall, that realization of how far she could go. Nomi asked wryly if that had anything to do with meeting Mikansia when she wasn't wearing any pants. Mikansia blushed, but told Nomi she'd arrived at the just the nick of time, and that Mikansia would be forever grateful for that. Nomi smiled. She said they needed to move on, although if it was one of her ex-marks it would be an awkward reunion.

After asking some questions about General Santeri and his wife Aallotar, Jabez's parents. They found out that Aallotar had sailed a few months ago, into the Void. General Santeri had stayed on, in disgrace over the treason of his son Jabez. He alwasy came out when market convened and stayed there awhile, people watching. So off they went, trying to blend in with the crowd.

They found General Santeri sitting to the side of the market, watching the crowds as some watch ducks in a pond. Mikansia sat down next to him and held out Jabez's sheathed sword for him to see. General  Santeri grew pale and he looked at Mikansia; he asked where she had gotten that sword. Mikansia told General Santeri that she had received it from Jabez himself. General Santeri asked why Jabez didn't have the sword, or why he wasn't with her. Mikansia took a deep breath. She had caught the sword as Jabez had been killed, and then used that sword to gut the monster who had murdered him. But Jabez had died standing tall, proud, defending the values that all Sword Singers were so proud of. He died as a hero and not a day went by that Mikansia wasn't proud to have known him.

General Santeri gently pushed the sword back to Mikansia, telling her she should keep it. He could tell there was more to that story than she let on, and that Mikansia (whom he called by name) had something to do with Jabez going out as well as he did. General Santeri could see why Jabez had thrown it all away for her Mikansia, because he could see it too. Mikansia told him that Jabez had helped lead to the downfall of Elfharrow. Mikansia then confirmed that Jabez had been exiled near Elfharrow. General Santeri asked her to come with him and tell that to the elite of Kotae Mah. That shouldn't have happened to anyone, let alone his son! The elves were always so careful as to where they initially put their exiles, so the system needed to be alerted! Together, the two of them could make a difference! He would pull strings; Mikansia would be reinstated as a Sword Singer. General Santeri would see to that personally.

Mikansia was torn.All this running and sneaking around and being a criminal could end! She could return to the way things had been.. without Jabez. So she couldn't go back, not all the way. But the interior rot in the elven nation was there! And what of Akseli and Nomi? Akseli had given up everything to follow her, and Nomi would never be Maybe, just maybe...

General Santeri gently stroked Mikansia's hand and told her the offer would still stand. He understood.

As Mikansia and Nomi, who had been standing nearby, got ready to leave, General Santeri promised they'd meet again. He was about to sail, he missed his wife so much!

But not yet.

The people who sent his boy to Elfharrow needed to be found.

Mikansia nodded.

She left him there, vanishing from sight, into the crowd.

May the Power Protect You: Kimberly Ann Hart (Ranger Slayer)

There are only two characters I've played that I utterly underestimated upon first sight: Jason Dragonshield, and Ranger Slayer. I'm not saying I've not been wrong about other characters; I've been wrong in evaluating game mechanics before, but man, I felt stupid after playing Ranger Slayer. I've already eaten my crow with Jason Dragonshield earlier, so now it's time to eat crow for Ranger Slayer! There was almost no cards in Ranger Slayer's deck that I liked upon first glance, to the point to where I honestly thought about hiding the character so that way others wouldn't ruin our first few playthroughs with someone so sub-par. And, especially after playing Green Ranger and getting the stuffing kicked out of him I wondered if I had actually misspent my money.

I am such an idiot.

YUMMY

Ranger Slayer is what happens when someone looks at Kimberly and says "I want this but bitter and vengeful." Which, for the record, is me. I am that guy. I am convinced that the dice in HotG are evil and possessed, capable of making all strategies turned to ash in an instant. It's not as bad as Risk, because there are characters who grant rerolls and who do flat damage, but we all know that sinking feeling in the pit of our guts when that reroll does nothing, not at frickin' all, and all good and hopeful in the world dies. And it feels like Ranger Slayer is made to counteract some of those effects. And we should all be happy about that.

Last Shot is perfect. Just, perfect. MMPR Kimberly's ability always feels a little risky to me, because you don't know how the fight is going to shake out. You have to pick and guess and hope. Last Shot, however, takes effect when the battle is over. And there's almost always that one card.

You know the one I'm talking about.

That one.

The one you really needed to take out, but couldn't, cause those damn dice missed by one because of course they would and I usually find myself glaring at my dice and wishing there was a fire I could throw them into and then I find myself making a note to clean out my chimney for just this frickin' situation and then resolving to not tell my wife I'm burning plastic in the house and then realizing that would probably get her mad and then I'd get a restraining order and divorce papers slapped on my dumb ass for putting my children at risk and no one would feel bad for me because I'm just a frickin' adult child sitting around playing all these damn games all the time and who does that and WHY WOULD I SET FIRE TO DICE IN A CHIMNEY ANYWAY IT'S SO UNNECESSARY JUST GO OUTSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Erhem.

Well, with Last Shot no need! Just throw that extra damage on and laugh and get high fives, and move on! The monster goes down, my wife isn't going to divorce me for burning toxic substances in the house, and I get the satisfaction of picking an awesome character! Everyone wins with Last Shot, particularly me, because I'm still married!

I promise this is all OK and normal.

Bow of Darkness is the only card in the game (so far) that gives you a high amount of flat damage. Can Ranger Slayer outdo MMPR Pink's potential? No. But the simple fact of the matter is that five flat damage is much more reliable than six dice, and I would would take that any day, particularly since most Boss cards are sitting at 7 Health at max. You can boost this card with other abilities and whatnot, and know what it is you'll be getting pretty reasonably. Never underestimate a sure thing. It may very well save your bacon later. Dice are more exciting, but flat damage helps with the above screaming panic attack and make it manageable. The Bow of Darkness is a pressure release valve for what is otherwise a very intense game.

Ptera Kick is one of those cards that's incredibly underrated. Being able to recall any card, regardless of any circumstance, is one of the most useful abilities in the game, definitely in the top three things you can do! Hand size is one of the most crucial resources you have to manage, and the ability to keep a card after using it is so, so, so good. Throw Ptera Kick at high Health targets that no one has a single card to take down with, and keep bouncing it back to your hand to whittle it down before someone else pulls out another attack. But make sure everyone else can withstand the onslaught required to do something like this. Not everyone wants an all-out brawl. But when you have to just trade blows with monster? Ptera Kick is the card to do it.

Do I really have to explain the Gravezord? Do I really have to? I mean, isn't it obvious? You get to use another zord again! That's amazing! Your burst power just skyrocketed. But what should it be used for? Which zords do you focus on? I mean, this is a pretty open zord. And I won't pretend to know what you're facing right that moment, when you're looking at it and feeling a bit overwhelmed. But I think I can provide some guidelines I've found useful, namely Always focus on getting energy and cards first. I mean, sure if you have the Tyrannosaurus zord that just looks too awesome for words but, unless you have a clutch play that needs to be made right now, focus on getting your basics first.

Ranger Slayer doesn't see nearly enough time at my table. She's an insurance policy, and people don't like to think of things going wrong. But that is where Ranger Slayer shines: when things go wrong. She's super reliable, does tons of damage, and her zord can either smooth things out in your basic operations or provide some of the most sickeningly large combos in the game. Every time she hits my table I'm glad she did. Ranger Slayer is easily one of my favorite characters in the game. Even with the taste of raw crow in my mouth.

Castlevania Season Three and Anti-Christianity

That God may forgive us, let us forgive men,

We are all on this earth as temporary guests.

Prolonged fasting and prayer is in vain

Without forgiveness and true mercy.

-The Prologue of Ohrid, February 27th, Hymn of Praise (emphasis mine)

If you think that the show Castlevania is anti-Christian, I ask you to consider the above lines. Do any of the Christians in the show do anything like that? Or is the author of the show commenting upon the supposed Christians he sees in the real world? And if he's commenting upon Christians in the real world, is he commenting on you? And, in case you are still telling me you're not like the Christians in the show, I must ask:

Are you forgiving those that offend you, no matter how much they don't deserve it?

Are you feeding the hungry? Clothing the naked? Visiting those in prison? Helping heal the sick, even if it's just sitting there and being with them as they suffer? Are you caring for those less fortunate than you, especially if you don't think they deserve it?

If you're not then please, shut up. Cause Mr. Ellis is talking to you. And you'd do best to listen.

Oh wait, that means me too.

CRAP

The problem is that, without the divine mission of forgiveness (which is at the heart of all real Christians, I wish I was one of them!) the world (interior and exterior) starts to look a lot like the world that's portrayed in Castlevania. The strong prey upon the weak, the broken-hearted cannot heal and grow, and the only comfort you can gain is in tribal ties that only mean as much as they can help you ignore the breaks in your own heart on behalf of THE CAUSE.  Yes, that means your own little personal crusades against evil are useless, because saving the world only means that you are keeping it from burning it down while the actual predators in human hearts continue, unabated. And that means they'll come back, usually right under your nose. No, you will not create conditions where that stops as long as you see the world in terms of who is hurting who. That's what the characters in this show are doing, and it is utterly futile. Mr. Ellis knows it. Forgive or abandon all hope. And no, there is no other way. There are no righteous causes to go for, no action that can be done to redeem your soul.

Because, at the end of the day, if the only thing that matters is who is hurting who, you wind up with a bunch of stakes in your front yard, with all the failed projects of your broken heart serving as reminders that this way just doesn't work. Because it doesn't. THE CAUSE, be it stopping Trump, or stopping Hillary, or stopping abortion, or ending world poverty, or ending globalism or nationalism or any of the other isms that are almost entirely deadly sins to our souls ends with the below picture every time, all the time, without exception, although it's usually your own interior front lawn.

I pray I learn in time.

And, in case it wasn't clear, I highly enjoyed this season. This show just keeps getting better and better, with good and honest character work and some genuinely thought-provoking and soul-tearing stuff. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but man, as it goes on, it continues to be mine. It is dark, without being hopeless, cynical, without losing heart, and the characters are uncompromisingly portrayed in a way I wish more people would start doing. It's a tour de force. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but I'm certainly going to keep watching.

Knives Out

I was going to go see Knives Out with my mom over Thanksgiving... and then I don't know what happened?

Here I am, months later?

I really don't have much of an excuse.

Point is, Knives Out is an amazing movie... and kind of a strange Rian Johnson film. His usual trademarks are here: a young brunette lady and two white dudes who are opposed to each other, with emotional ties between all three of them, sometimes romantic? I mean, it's not, not here, but the triangle is definitely set up. The interesting thing, at least to me, is how Johnson plays the triangle that he's set up.

Martha is the squeakiest cleanest brunette that Johnson has ever made. I wouldn't say she isn't complicated, but every last thing that makes up the character reinforces her innate goodness.Whenever  there is a question of whether Martha does the right thing or not she, invariably, picks the right decision. And it works! She holds faith and she not only gets exonerated from any suspicion, but gets her a nice and shiny house! And I don't hate her! I actually think it's nice to have a character that is just a genuine salt-of-the-earth lady, who just wants to make sure that the right thing is done, even if she can't quite figure out what that may be at times.

Blanc is not the main character. Repeat that with me. Blanc is not the main charater. He is an epically cool antagonist, one that more than deserves a sequel. But, for most of the movie, Blanc is the antagonist to Martha. He is there to get the truth, which could rip apart Martha's family. His goals appear to be utterly the opposite of Martha's, while obviously being affectionate towards our kind-hearted protagonist. The interplay between these two characters is the heart and soul of the movie.

And then there's Hugh. No, I will not call him Ransom.

Asshole.

I was one of the people who, when I saw Evans playing this character in the trailer, laughed. Evans has always been a smartass, and he finally got to return to his roots as someone who openly does not a flying fig whatever you think. As the third corner of the triangle Evans plays his role with a gleefully greasy charm that could only have happened by having to play the only character who could have out good-guyed Martha: Captain America. I mean, I want more of Evans chewing scenery. Please, Hollywood, I beg of thee!

Yes, Hugh is another antagonist. In fact, everyone else in this thing seems to be. Hugh just happens to be the frontman for a sea of wretches and scumbags, all of whom have been using society to feel OK with whatever it is they're doing. Of all protagonists in a Johnson film Martha is the most alone. I mean, even Brendan from Brick at least had Brain! Martha doesn't seem to really have anyone. The pressure is exerted upon her from each and every side, and while she does triumph she is not unscathed.  And this has nothing to do with the politics; trying to put this movie under a political light is just outright stupid. For those of you on the left, your ideology is trashed just as much as the alt-right, if not more. So love of God please get off of the fake moral high horse you think you have. 

Yes, I felt better after that. No, I'm not alt-right. Or liberal. They're all evil bastards, far as I'm concerned.

The only thing that matters, the only thing, is that they're all against Martha at the end. Left, right, it matters little, they all stand against the beacon of light and goodness that the movie has so convincingly erected. Johnson is not known for his comfortable endings. Brick's ending lives up to its name, smashing you in the face with something I find more heartbreaking every time I watch. I still haven't figured out The Brothers' Bloom's ending. Looper's emphasis on suicide to get things done still jumps out at me. And The Last Jedi's showing of Rey shutting out the confused, overwhelmed, and vulnerable villain Kylo Ren still gives me pause. There was a moment, just one moment, where Ben may have come back, and she turned her back on him. 

I do not pretend to have a definitive view on any of those endings. But this ending is the hardest one to watch. It sticks in my head and torments me. Martha won. She stands above them, in white, as they stand in the gathering grey. How much does it matter what their facial expressions are? They all betrayed her, even the ones who you would have figured wouldn't. They all revealed their true colors. Goodness and kindness did, in fact, triumph over evil and greed and self-deception.

But for how long?

I've no bloody idea. And neither does Johnson.

Hallucinations: Session Two

Last time... Zilya, an assassin from Novstrech, and Karel, a barbarian from the northern town of Preyderi, broke into a golden cube which had surfaced outside the town of Novstrech. They had broken into it, but managed to trigger a lockdown. Exhausted and pissed off, they hunkered down for a few hours to try and get some sleep.

When Zilya awoke a few hours later she didn't feel tired anymore, although she was still pretty angry at things. Karel had calmed down but still hadn't slept any. Karel had found a large secured storage locker the previous night. So when she woke up Karel took Zilya over to where he remembered it being. He didn't remember properly. He had mapped it wrong.

So when Zilya opened the locker it spat gas right into her lungs.

Zilya could barely see straight from how nauseous she was. She cussed out Karel as she wretched, trying to throw up. After taking a few minutes to make sure she wasn't getting worse Karel looked through the locker. There wasn't much, just a map. When Karel unrolled it he realized he was looking at the more northerly ranges of the Ledaye Mountains, which his hometown Preyderi was a few days south of the more southerly reaches of of those mountains. The map, which Karel had to dust off, showed what looked like a bunch of different stations, way up in the world. Karel couldn't read the language, however.

They then started scraping off some more gold from the walls, putting it into sacks they'd brought and attached them to their belts. Zilya asked Karel why he was out and adventuring, way down in the south. Karel told her that his friend Arron was wanting to make an inn, but lacked the funds for the initial investment. Karel wanted to fix that. Well, and you know, he wanted to get rich too. Zilya.

They decided to go to the other locker, which Karel elected to bust open, since Zilya still felt really nauseous. It collapsed on him, and cut his arm, about to the bone! Wincing, Karel picked through the remains with Zilya: they found a battleaxe and a dagger, along with a horseshoe that was powerfully magnetic. Karel also showed Zilya the hole in the floor, which allowed her to see the ghoul who was hanging out on the next floor down. Zilya wanted to go down and kill it, not to mention continuing  to loot the place.

They took the elevator, as opposed to the glass tube. They hit the blue button and descended. The walls of the blue tinted room, illumined by a freshly-lit torch, showed rotting furniture. Karel found that there was a secret door behind a bunch of rotting couches; it opened onto a stone tunnel, leading out of the cube. Karel and Zilya investigated the walls on the blue floor. The blue-tinted gold was a higher karat, and thus harder to collect, and even harder to store. 

And then they heard movement from down the stone tunnel. Someone was coming.

The Giggling Dark: Session Twenty-Six

Xellous: the main character, a fifteen year old male played by Ryan. Last session he encountered the first side-effects of the Nameless, who can wipe humans of all their memories.. except these particular humans, who all seem to identify as Charles. Odd. Xellous wields a pair of bracers called Vulcan, which make him phenomenally competent in hand-to-hand combat, give him an understanding of khen-zai anatomy and tech, and set targets struck by him on fire.

Telos: A hero from another place, another time. Telos had gotten stranded on this planet in combating the Nameless, years ago, and is now traveling with Xellous and Kora.

The Khen-Zai: A wicked remnant of the unknown proto-race. They designed humans, elves, and numerous other races, to serve their perverted and twisted ends. When the Nameless manifested the khen-zai abandoned their creations to their own whims. Until now. Now they want their former property and the planets they're on back. One of their top leaders, 7-of-10, has claimed the right of parley with Xellous.

Kora: Xellous's wife. She had been kidnapped and had her memories wiped clean by the khen-zai. She has a baby son, Gerard, who is currently down for his nap. She wields the bow Pyra, which is known for being able to blow up practically anything it hits.



Kora was no longer panicked. She was reaching for Pyra. Xellous calmed her down, telling her this was the first time any khen-zai had come to just talk. That could not be wasted. this was different enough that they needed to find out what was going on. Kora glared at 7-of-10, bu she nodded assent.  Turning to 7-of-10, Xellous graciously thanked him for coming to talk to them, using the full ranger of aura communication that khen-zai used. The black khen-zai was impressed. The rumors about Xellous were all true: Xellous was seriously gifted in aura manipulation. He asked Xellous how he had managed to learn something so sophisticated, given humanity's penchant for rough materialism. Xellous shrugged; he had just picked it up, naturally. 7-of-10 could hardly believe a human could have done it, but the evidence was there before him. Xellous was unique.

7-of-10 told Xellous and Kora that the Nameless were just a bit more to the west, and that he had come to stop them from facing certain doom. that would be a shame, given how unique  and interesting a group they were. They had far exceeded all expectations of their stock, and the khen-zai had gone from annoyed to pleased with their progression. And they wanted to help Xellous continue to evolve. He was a far more valuable asset than enemy, as far as they were concerned.

Xellous asked to talk with Kora a minute, alone. 7-of-10 condescended. Stepping back a bit, Xellous asked Kora if this was she could go along with. Kora was pale and trembling, but she agreed that if the khen-zai could help them get to her mother they needed to follow up on that opportunity. She gave her assent.

Xellous came back to 7-of-10 and was about to-

Telos came along.

His sword rang, raging lighting began to pour out from within the blade.

Xellous and Kora shouted at Telos to stop! Interposing themselves, they explained that 7-of-10 wanted to talk about the problem of the Nameless, of whom they had no idea how to deal with themselves. It might help get to Kora's mother. Telos paused, and then put his sword back in its sheath, the lightning fading as he did so.

Xellous told 7-of-10 they were willing to talk. What did the khen-zai want to discuss? 7-of-10 said the khen-zai wanted to help Xellous develop a device that would allow him to face the Nameless... which had nothing to do with Telos, Kora, and even Ikuinen Lampo. They didn't need to see what the khen-zai had to show Xellous. Xellous needed to come with him, back to the mothership, The Triumph of Thought.

Xellous could see right through that.

They wanted a lot more of him than that. He wasn't being told half the truth.

Channeling as much as he could into his aura Xellous demanded 7-of-10 be honest with him., here and now. He said there was no way they would trust with the khen-zai with something like that, how stupid did he really think they were?? 7-of-10 screamed that that no evolved monkey could speak to him like that! A wave of destructive energy came out of 7-of-10. Xellous pushed Telos and Kora out of the way, covering himself in an aura shield. The blast, which ripped up all the ground around him, merely bruised him, but the effort of making the shield hurt his body more than the blast. He charged 7-of-10, hitting him and setting him on fire with Vulcan. Kora had an arrow flying from Pyra a second later. Xellous breathed a sigh of relief.

The arrow bounced off of 7-of-10's flaming armor, exploding behind him, harmlessly.

There was a jetpack built into 7-of-10's body, which was powered by his own biological aura. 7-of-10 threatened Kora, telling Xellous he needed to surrender, because 7-of-10 was going to kill her. Even now the khen-zai wanted them to work together, on their terms. It wasn't too late.

Xellous redirected the aura flow in 7-of-10's body into the jetpack and winced in pain at the toll it took on him. 7-of-10 fell to the ground, surprised. Xellous grabbed him, holding him in place. Kora screamed at Xellous to get the hell out of the way! Earth beneath 7-of-10 was reaching up, grabbing him, responding to Telos's spell. Xellous jumped, focusing all of his aching aura on keeping 7-of-10 from shifting away.

As he passed out from the pain he saw Pyra's arrow flash.

The Undertow: Session Eleven, Trait Vote the First

So here's the traits Mikansia had that we were voting on:

Impulsive
Dutiful
Watchful

I suggested the following:

Change Impulsive to Noble
Mikansia had willingly surrendered herself to the dark elves because it would end the siege against Elfwatch. If that's not noble then I'm not entirely sure what you would call it.
 
Add Deadly Precision
Mikansia was already an incredible fighter at Sword B6, but she had a number of encounters with Krakeru, who was a G8. She had to learn to see through the noise and horror, and ended with an incredible roll against Krakeru to end his threat, once and for all. She's become one of those rare sword fighters whose skill will probably be talked about for generations to come.
 
Add Fearless
The whole ten sessions saw Mikansia not only face her own inner demons, but quite a number of external ones, with increasing courage. She's been forged into something completely different than she was at the beginning.

Lena laughed and returned:

Change Impulsive to Compassionate Defender
Lena didn't know about nobility, but she did think Mikansia's journey was one of compassion. Of moving from revenge to love. And then, out of love to defending what she loved. It's a part of her now. 
Add Fearless
We both laughed and agreed on this one, full stop.
 
Add Driven
 The resolve to chase down your father, endure the Nameless, and fight back against interior corruption shown by Mikansia was nothing short of extraordinary. Driven was suggested by Lena to represent how much of an interior juggernaut Mikansia had been.

Obviously Fearless is going to stay. I liked Compassionate Defender more than Noble, as it was more descriptive of what Mikansia had become. And Driven certainly described every last thing Mikansia had done, so that was a no-brainer. We were originally going to change a Trait and add two, but we couldn't say no to Driven.

Obviously, Mikansia was exiled from the Sword Singers for desertion. But the General, grateful for single-handedly saving Elfwatch from the siege, made her an Honorary Member of the Fer Militaries (2D), and recommended she go to a criminal organization known as The Sword Runners. Elves are very stingy with their superior weaponry, and so there is a thriving black market for elven arms and armor in the Fer Kingdoms. This demand is met by lots of criminals, humans and elves alike, who have commandeered flying ships and now go between the Ring of Tears and the surface. The Sword Runners are known for their egalitarian and more squeaky-clean nature, as far as criminal organizations were concerned.  And so, after a few months of helping make sure that Elfharrow was completely razed to the ground with the help of the new dragon they had on their side, Mikansia, Nomi, and Akseli went and became members of The Sword Runners as enforcers.

Mikansia's exploits on the surface were legion, and she got four reputations to sum up what she had done. By the dark elves she is still known as the "So-Called Yetekaida", as she is clearly their enemy, but is still destined to channel the Nameless, at least in their minds (1D). The story of her sacrificing herself for Elfwatch has earned her the moniker "The Savior of Elfwatch" (2D) amongst the human societies of the surface world. But to the elves of the Ring of Tears? She is a "Sword Singer Deserter" (2D) and is to be tried and executed for abandoning them in their time of need against the Nameless. And then, to a small section of folks, she is "The Killer of Krakeru" (1D), who was well-known monster in his corners of the world.

The next session's opening situation is that Mikansia, after a year on the surface, has finally gotten the resources to get her back into Kotae Mah. She wants to go and see Jabez's parents, and talk to them, and just... sit. Just for a moment. She and Yngvar are very concerned with the fact that Jabez somehow was exile near Elfharrow, which should not be possible. The elves know what they're doing when they launch people out of the ring; they don't want them just going and joining the dark elves. So the fact that Jabez wound up outside of Elfharrow points to a systemic problem that no one is probably addressing.  So Yngvar went back to the Ring of Tears to begin looking on the inside of the system, prepping for Mikansia to come back and do some digging around herself.