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Runtime	Break start
3h 47m	1h 42m

Episode 5: Branching Paths

Riding out from the gates of Dol-Makjar, into the darkness (Teor Pridesire, Thimble, Kattigan Vale, Tyranny, and Wicander Halovar) begin a journey whose end (at this point in time) we cannot see. Fittingly, it is difficult for any of you to see past even the snouts of your horses or (in Thimble's case) the dim light cast by the fluttering of your pixie wings; for rain falls from the sky overhead, close as you are to the Stormwrack here.
Heading out into the darkness, the gates behind you, time is of the essence.
Somewhere out there, a man who put a knife in the back of your beloved friend is walking free, chasing down the deed to a stronghouse (a fort at some far edge of civilization) a treasure that he was willing to sell your friend's life for. And just ahead of him (you hope) is Teor's brother, if they haven't gotten to him already.
Flying through the night, Thimble, what does it feel like to hold onto this purpose that you have set for yourself?
Already something deadly and burning within your heart is keeping you safe from something that (in its own right) might be even more terrifying.
Teor, it's been a long time since you've seen your brother. As you ride out, does your mind drift to Casimir (the person you're pursuing) or to your brother, whom your prey, now themselves pursue? Rain mats the fur on either side of the bridge of your snout as you lean into the darkness, you've lost so much since the end of the war (and know so many people who seem to have faltered and fallen into losing even themselves).
Wicander, at the last possible moment, riding up the ridge--

At this late hour, there's very few people on the road, but Dol-Makjar is large enough that there's still a handful of stragglers even in the week hours of the morning. Some trundling a cart to get to some early farmers' market by dawn's first light and others that have been trudging weary miles.

--the last moment you look (with the mountain peaks on either side, this is the last place in the road that you will be able to see the lights of the Villa Aurora in the city behind you; one more step of your horse and that home will disappear), do you gaze behind you at this place or not?
Regardless of what you've learned about the nature of your family's creed, there is always some comfort in ritual.
Tyranny, the same is posed to you. You venture forth now having advised boldness and decisive action, and now the rain of this world (a world in which you were not born) falls upon your brow. Do you look back at the city you now leave? Or do your eyes stay fixed in the same direction as Wick's?
"Doing the right thing... that's supposed to come with immediate rewards, right? Otherwise, what makes it the right thing? Certainly your material conditions having immediately deteriorated past the point of familiarity, that can't be what good deeds are rewarded with. If that were the case, then people would be behaving selfishly all the time. Your ears slick to the sides of your head (so soaked with rain, drooping down, matching the verticality of your horns like a giant middle finger pointing into the sky over your head).
Kattigan, you're returning to Timmony. What's on your mind as you make your way back to where you have so long dwelled? This is the very beginning of our Soldiers' table, and this is where big decisions and big rolls happen. I'm going to need a Survival Check.