- Naran returned to where Helios had been, only to find him missing.  Looking around, she noticed Ganthet and Kelon in the camp below her, freeing the worms and fending off a merkadian.  Still invisible, she made her way down the slope to some cover and began zapping the spiked man with sunbeams.

- Ganthet used his electrical affinity to awaken and prod the sedated crag worms, who lunged into the camp, adding to the chaos unfolding there.  Kelon attempted to keep the merkadian's attention, which quickly devided between him, Ganthet, and whatever was searing him with bright yellow light.  The three of them kept him unable to focus on a single target, and Naran was eventually able to finish him off.

- Trying to keep Ravri's quarry from spotting her, Ronin fired a couple of polyp canisters in his direction.  The merkadian spotted him almost immediately and charged up into his hiding place.  Not wanting to be cornered, Ronin leapt away into the darkness, but this turned the merkadian's attention elsewhere and he spotted Ravri just before she was able to backstab him.  Ronin returned and began firing arrows and canisters into the resulting skirmish, but neither he nor Ravri seemed to be able to do much damage to the merkadian threat.

- The warcamp itself was quickly devolving into internal conflict.  The margr gathered there were only loosely held together by merkadian control - and most of them resented the outsiders.  One tribe leader in particular called Glaan, saw and opportunity as things began to unfold and made her move against the one called The Eye.  As the duel began, the margr gathered, uncertain of what to do, waited to see how it would turn out - and thus who to side with.  The resulting struggle was brief and brutal, but Glaan ultimately came out on top, crushing the merkadian's head with a final blow that dislodged its numenera eye.

- After killing the merkadian, Naran, Kelon, and Ganthet had a brief conversation about what to do next.  They had killed a probably leader, but they still needed to do more to reduce the threat posed by this band.  Seeing a large numenera machine powering up and rolling through the camp, they decided that would be their next target.  Though outnumbered dozens to one, the three waded into the camp, fighting off abhumans as they went, until they reached the device.

- Ronin and Ravri, both beaten down signficantly, began to make a retreat to the north, away from the fight.  Ronin used his numenera device to put as many polyp growths between them and the merkadian as possible, but it was only slowing him down.

- Glaan, having wondered through the camp in search of the other oppressors, finally spotted the green numenera discharges of the one called The Fist.  She shoved her way through the intervening chaos, emerging to see the merkadian wading through a growth of red polyps toward some unknown attacker in the darkness...

- +1xp

GM's Note: This situation turned into a rather lengthy and complex encounter.  Because Piper is not present - and is, in fact, weeks further in the timeline than the others - I decided to give Keara an NPC to play in this engagement.  Indicating she wanted to do something a bit different, I decided I would give her one of the margr of the camp - the leader of a sub-tribe who chafed against the merkadian's cowing of the others.  While this character was created just prior to this session, the idea of characters like Glaan present in the warcamp was always there, so it was easy enough to flesh out one of them and hand it off.  Keara really enjoyed the change of pace, and getting a different perspective on the chaos of the encounter was interesting for everyone.