Meadow's Rules for the Patrol

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Meadow's Rules for the Patrol
Sagebrush Scouting Corps



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To my fellow mutineers, misfits, renegades and true blues, past, present and future.

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~1~

"Never leave a man behind."


Simple sounding, but there's a reason its number one. The most important thing a patrol can have to survive is trust. Without trust, once things get dicey, it falls apart and people get picked off alone, scared, and useless.  Think anyone whose seen a rout knows that feeling, and for that reason knows damn well it is to be avoided. So that's why this is your rule. If everyone knows that no matter what happens, you're leaving together, and its everyone's responsibility to ensure that's the outcome, then the patrol will work from the premise that it must cooperate. Make this a habit of the whole group, and overtime they'll be able to do things that the same or greater size group just couldn't.

Scout Garwan will remember this, but few months ago back in the old company, I was taking a patrol out to the Mountain. It was Anais, Garwan, Mari, and this other girl. We were deep in the old mining shafts, when we go into this offshoot and find a group of orcs all huddled around a torch, chanting together. Well, turns out it was some sort of orc reunion, and these five orcs were all Blood Poets - some of the most dangerous orcs around. Mind yourself picking a fight with one of the Blood Poets. Five in one place I've never seen before or since.

Well they come at us, mad as a shook jar of wasps. Won't sugarcoat it, me and Mari, we got tangled up with ONE of these killers, and we broke, turned tail and run. Guess in my terror, I thought we all might. Didn't tell them that though. So there me and Mari are, panting, backs to the door we just run out of. Five seconds pass. Ten seconds. Twenty. Its clear the rest of the patrol didn't break. So look at each other. We break a few bottles, and head back in, guilt now growing alongside our terror.

You know what we saw in there? Fucking pandemonium. The one girl's having a sneezing fit in a cloud of gas, bleeding about a gallon a second. Garwan's somersaulting over strokes from two greatswords, either one is heavy as he is in hammered steel. And Anais is like some vision out of a fever dream. Smoke coming off her from all her magic, limbs moving faster than a humming birds wings, fencing with these three great brutes, at least a dozen wounds, but not giving an inch.

Well we got it righted, but barely, from there. I'm also positive Garwan kept Anais alive long enough for me and Mari to get over chicken-hearted retreat. I'm also certain had we not come back by the time we did, it'd have been us dragging three bodies out of there whenever we did finally find our courage. Point isn't whether we fought or ran, point is whatever we did, we need to do it together. If we're fighting, the Patrol Leader needs to make that call, and make it loud and clear. If we're running, same thing. If everyone knows its their responsibility to make sure we all leave, then it doesn't need to be more complicated then that.

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~2~

"Captain eats last."


It isn't some big mystery where this company came from or why it did. Starting at the beginning, we had a different captain, different officers, different colors. I could tell you a list of reasons I had for our mutiny; I'm guessing you'd even find those pretty smart reasons, but they wouldn't necessarily tell you the harder to spot, harder to learn, harder to talk about things that go into making a person from a stranger to a true blue. Or what passes between followers and good leaders.

I'll tell you a little story instead. Once, I saw one of our former officers ask Garwan for some money, because she wanted something. Something for herself. You know what he did? Gave her every single coin he had in his pocket, no questions asked. Of course he would, if you think about. What happened next almost isn't important, but the officer gambled and lost it. Now that's not _really_ some unforgivable sin; but you got to think about the principle of the thing.

Put it another way, if, as a leader, you've done your job right up until now, the people you lead will follow and trust you. Go into danger on your say so. Maybe even die for you. It is extremely, extremely, important that you earn this, and also - and this is just as important - you'll stop being their leader if you ever ask for it. Don't matter if you're polite in asking or not.

Some people get it confused and think being in charge means those below you owe you something. They don't. In terms of what they're giving you and you are giving them; trust me, the leader is given a lot more from the followers than the other way around.

So that's why you have this rule. If you're going to be in charge of people, and keep it that way, you need to make sure they're well and good taken care of when it comes to all the things you can give back to them. Its the leader that's the one in the follower's debt if we're counting up what's given and what's taken. This is how you let them know you understand the score.

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~3~

"You can be in charge of at most three people. If you do have more than three people, you are not in charge. Chaos is in charge."


A patrol needs direction, purpose, and a goal they can understand. Ain't as easy as it sounds; warriors need to know where to attack, what to hold, when to retreat. Mages want to know what spells should work best, when to lay it on, and when to conserve. Scouts need time to watch, count and report back. People aren't wind-up Qaimmi machines, and things can change quickly out on a patrol. I've seen shopping trips of six people turn into chaos, never mind battles with a dozen men. So this one's pretty simple. Three people or less, that's what you can be directly in charge of. When its more than that, the Patrol Leader needs to break things down into teams and put people in charge of those. That's why we have our Corporals, and its also why everyone has got to be ready to take charge. Add a few more to the patrol or Captain takes a bolt to the eye, then the whole thing doesn't come apart.

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~4~

"You don't find true blues, you make 'em."

The most valuable thing I've found since my dad and I started putting roots down in Ephia's Well wasn't the toga. Wasn't the money from all the work. Wasn't the palaces in the plaza or the treasures taken from the hoard's of warlords. It's the people who you make bonds with. There's no shortcuts for that either; the sort of person you want to be around and trust isn't something you can just buy or cast a spell. And you can't make them out of thin air the moment you realize you need them; that never works. Shared hardship and danger helps. So that's why this is your rule. If Zauzar is going to have a Halberdier in his corps who'll pull his weight, keep our secrets, and stick around when the going gets hard, it'll be because we put the time and effort into making it that way. Get to know people. Bring them on patrols. Show them the tradecraft you've learned. Be open handed. There is no one thing you can do that'll make a proper true blue out of a stranger; it can't be rushed and it doesn't happen for nothing. Trust me though, one true blue when your back is to the wall is worth a thousand fair weather friends.

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~5~

"Buy an antidote potion before you need an antidote potion."

Damn near any place you want to get to, or new thing you want to do has some kind of risk that goes along with it. There are so many things we want to find in the desert, so that's why were out there. I am not pretty or rich enough to wait around and have things come to me. Yet on the other side of every dune you climb, could be your end. A cat you didn't see soon enough. A bandit with a well laid ambush. A spider bite on your ankle. Now, if you didn't think it through or plan ahead, that'll be it. All those places you wanted to see, things you wanted to do; gone like mist at dawn. But there's a difference between taking chances you're ready for and taking chances you aren't. That's what all the plans are for. The careful spell work. The equipment. The money. The practice. Thats what goes into turning that early grave into a story you can tell back at the camp instead. So this is your rule. If Zauzar is asking about seeing your kit, and how many potions you have, or where we're camping next, you best listen and pay attention. There's a reason he's got grey in his beard.