Elemental Water

AX.GAN.08.05

Lore

The water elementals the Mirelen served were patient beings. They did not project force. They worked through accumulated presence, persistent welling that filled available space, followed the lowest path, and arrived where it was going with or without urgency. Generations of service in those places produced people for whom that logic became instinct. The Mirelen's tradition is not about what water can do to something. It is about what water already knows.

Elemental Water as a Resonance tradition is about the medium, not the projectile. Water carries information, everything that passes through it leaves a trace, and the tradition teaches practitioners to read those traces. Water restores flow, bodies and systems blocked by injury, toxin, or trauma can be returned to their natural patterns by removing what is in the way. And water moves through existing paths, in ways the practitioner can guide without generating new water, directing pressure and current to change the behavior of what is already there.

For non-Mirelen practitioners, this tradition is among the harder to understand intuitively because its most powerful applications are invisible. A Fire practitioner's work is immediately obvious. An Elemental Water practitioner who has just removed a lethal toxin from a patient, read the emotional undercurrent of a political negotiation, and directed information through a waterway to a contact forty miles upstream, none of that looks like power. This is by design. The Mirelen concept of the Long Current holds that anything done with great force usually indicates that something went badly earlier, when a lighter touch would have worked. The most practiced Water tradition work is quiet, precise, and complete before other participants know it has occurred.

The three Expressions of Elemental Water correspond to what water does:

Current, water as information and perception; reading what flows through it, what it carries, what it connects. The water that knows.
Flow, water as restoration; healing, unblocking disrupted systems, returning what was interrupted to its natural movement. The water that heals.
Tide, water as directed force; shaping and redirecting existing water through pressure and movement. The water that moves.

Most practitioners develop Current or Flow deeply and use Tide situationally. The Deep Voice archetype centers Flow as their defining practice. Mirelen scouts and informants often develop Current almost exclusively. Windcaster practitioners who come to the tradition typically emphasize Tide, the kinetic expression is closest to their existing practice. All three Expressions draw on the same Odd Talent pool.

System Integration

Elemental Water as an Odd Talent

Elemental Water functions as an Odd Talent per Core Part 4. All standard Odd Talent rules apply:

The roll is: Governing Attribute + Elemental Water (+ Focus if applicable)
Elemental Water dice are purchased from the Talent budget at character creation, or improved through Advancement at the standard Odd Talent cost (Governing Attribute × 2 XP for a new Tradition at 1D; current value × 2 XP to improve)
Maximum Tradition rating: 5D. Maximum Focus rating: 3D
A character may use any of the three Expressions with the same Odd Talent pool

Governing Attribute

The governing Attribute is chosen at character creation and is permanent.

Expression	Common Choice	Reasoning
Current	Wit (default)	Wit for perceptual and informational reading, the tradition's natural character
Flow	Wit or Body	Wit for knowledge-based healing; Body for those who channel restoration through physical contact
Tide	Wit or Speed	Wit for precise directional control; Speed for kinetic applications (Windcaster archetype)

A practitioner who chooses Speed governs all three Expressions with Speed, the kinetic water practitioner who reads current through movement and heals by placing themselves in the path of disruption. This is the rarest governing Attribute choice and produces a genuinely unusual practitioner.

Most Mirelen choose Wit, matching the Deep Voice tradition. Speed-governed Water (Windcaster + Water) is the second most common configuration. Body-governed Water practitioners exist, those who channel healing through physical presence rather than analytical precision, but are uncommon enough to be individually notable.

Access

Mirelen Lineage: Elemental Water is granted at 1D at character creation through the Mirelen Lineage Power Access perk. Choose governing Attribute at that time.

Deep Voice Profession: Non-Mirelen who choose the Deep Voice Profession receive Elemental Water access at 1D through their Profession Power Access. The Deep Voice profession abilities (Current Read diagnosis, Unblocking, The Long Current Speaks) are mastered Flow Expression applications that do not require separate Elemental Water rolls and are not subject to Elemental Strain. Independent Elemental Water rolls represent the same domain used improvisationally, at scales the profession framework does not cover, or by non-Deep Voice practitioners who have developed the tradition.

Windcaster / Scholar Professions: These universal Mystic professions provide access to any Resonance or Form tradition. A Windcaster or Scholar who selects Elemental Water gains access at 1D. The Windcaster's kinetic practice emphasizes Tide; the Scholar's analytical approach tends toward Current.

Independent Study: Any character may pursue Elemental Water access outside of Lineage or Profession. Requires a Mirelen mentor with at least 3D in Elemental Water, sustained practice in aquatic environments over a minimum of two weeks, and costs Governing Attribute × 2 XP for the initial 1D. The Mirelen are among the more willing of the Kin to teach, a student who approaches with genuine intent and follows through is generally given the chance.

Duplicate Access: If a character is Mirelen and selects a Profession granting Water access, they begin with 2D in Elemental Water at no additional cost.

Mechanics Summary

Feature	Detail
Tradition Category	Resonance, perception, transmission, and redirection through an existing medium
Default Attribute	Wit (most common; Deep Voice archetype); Speed (Windcaster/kinetic variant)
Action Type	Primary Action (most effects); Minor Action (Stabilize as initial hold; Sense Current initiation); Free Action (Read the Room, Water Walk); Extended work (Current Speech at distance, Control Water)
Signature Feel	Indirect and adaptive; most powerful effects are invisible; effectiveness scales with environmental water
Power Access	Mirelen Lineage; Deep Voice Profession; Windcaster or Scholar (universal Mystics); Independent Study
Signature Focus	The Tidal Vessel
Expressions	Current (perception/information), Flow (healing/restoration), Tide (movement/direction)

Threshold Scale for Elemental Water:

Threshold	Scale of Effect
1	Minor; immediate perception or brief stabilization; self-applicable or Touch range; reads surface-level information
2	Standard; single target healing or condition removal; Near range current-reading; directed movement using a contained water source
3	Significant; multiple targets or extended perception; reads a waterway's recent history; sustained directional effects
4	Major; large-scale healing or condition clearing; watershed-level information reading; commanding a significant body of water
5+	Profound; fundamental restoration; reading the Long Current (probability and direction of future events); landscape-scale water command

Excess Successes: On any non-attack roll that exceeds the Threshold, each excess success may be allocated to: extend duration by one step; increase range by one Band; include one additional target; or enhance a secondary effect as noted under the specific application.

Expression: Current

The water that knows.

Current is the perceptual face of Elemental Water. It governs what the practitioner can read, receive, and transmit through water as a medium, the extension of the Mirelen's biological Current Read into active, deliberate practice. Where the lineage perk provides passive awareness, Current Expression is the practitioner asking specific questions and receiving specific answers.

The Resonance category makes this expression different in kind from Shape (Earth) or Motion (Fire). Current does not move things or change them. It reads them. Water carries information about everything that passes through it, and a practitioner trained in Current Expression can extract that record with varying degrees of depth and precision.

Most Current applications require water to be physically present in the environment. The Tidal Vessel handles the minimum-water condition (see Focus section). A practitioner near a river or in rain can reach considerably farther and in greater detail than one in a dry space working from only the vessel.

The Deep Voice profession ability (Current Read) is a mastered diagnostic application that doesn't require a separate Elemental Water roll. Independent Current Expression rolls represent the tradition used in broader or more specific ways than the profession skill covers.

Current, Challenge Applications

Sense Current (Minor Action to initiate, Threshold 1–3) The practitioner reads the information carried by water at their contact point, what has passed through it, in what direction, and with what character. Requires physical contact with water or a water-saturated surface; the Tidal Vessel provides minimum effective contact in dry environments.

Threshold 1 (instantaneous): Detect recent creature movement through the water at the contact point, direction, approximate number, approximate timing within the past hour. Matches and slightly extends the biological Current Read perk.

Threshold 2 (one round of focus): Read the emotional and physical quality of the water, what events occurred in or near this water within the past day, what creatures spent time in it, what they brought with them (injury, fear, urgency). Impressionistic rather than precise, but reliable for identifying that something significant happened here.

Threshold 3 (one minute of focus): Extend sense along a connected waterway, upstream or downstream, to a distance of up to Far range. What is at that point now. Who is there. What their approximate state is (moving quickly, at rest, in conflict). Specific individuals cannot be identified unless the practitioner already knows their elemental signature.

Scaling: Excess successes at Threshold 2 push the readable timeframe back further (1 excess = past week; 2 excess = past month). Excess at Threshold 3 extend range by one Band per excess or increase precision of the distant read.

Read the Room (Free Action, Threshold 1–2) In any enclosed space where moisture is present, or outdoors in rain or near water, the practitioner reads the collective emotional current of a gathering, not individual thoughts, but the aggregate state of the group.

Threshold 1: dominant emotional state of the group (tense, grieving, deliberately cheerful, genuinely relaxed).

Threshold 2: identify specific individuals whose surface presentation misaligns with their actual state, someone presenting calm who is frightened, someone presenting agreement who has already decided to leave. The practitioner cannot read why, only that the misalignment exists. This is precise intelligence, not a vague impression, a successful Threshold 2 Read the Room tells the practitioner something specific and true.

Current Speech (Extended work, Primary Action to initiate, Threshold 2–3) Send a message through connected water to a recipient at a distance. Both sender and recipient must have access to the same waterway, the same river system, the same underground aquifer, or the ocean if both parties have ocean access. The message travels at the water's natural current speed and arrives as sensory impression.

Threshold 2: send a simple emotional message (urgency, safety, danger, need) plus one piece of specific information (a location, a name, an image). The recipient experiences it as a strong impression rather than words. A recipient with no training will find the impression confusing; teaching a non-practitioner to receive requires one week of willing practice. They do not need Elemental Water access to receive, only to send.

Threshold 3: send a complete statement of information with emotional context. A practitioner with Current Speech can maintain a slow dialogue across a watershed, one exchange per Primary Action on each end, response arriving as fast as the return current.

Scaling: Excess successes at Threshold 2 upgrade the message clarity to Threshold 3 quality.

Backlash: - Minor: The reading overwhelms, too much information, arriving too fast. Practitioner becomes Shaken until end of their next Turn (the current spoke at volume rather than depth). - Moderate: Resonance flood. Practitioner takes 3 cold damage (internal; cold resistance does not apply) and becomes Shaken. Their biological Current Read perk additionally provides only confused information until Short Rest, as the Backlash disrupts baseline sense alongside the tradition. - Severe: Current severs. Practitioner cannot use Current Expression for the remainder of the scene. The disconnection deals 5 cold damage (internal). Practitioner becomes Slowed (Speed condition, Speed Save Threshold 2 each Turn to end) as the water they are of momentarily withdraws from their body's circulation.

Expression: Flow

The water that heals.

Flow is the restorative face of Elemental Water. It governs healing, condition removal, and the restoration of natural function to systems that have been blocked, damaged, or disrupted. The Mirelen elemental philosophy is present in every application: something is wrong because something is blocked. The practitioner's role is to find the blockage and remove it. The body, or the relationship, or the system, knows how to function correctly. Flow Expression restores that knowledge to practice.

The Deep Voice profession's Progression Track abilities (Current Read diagnosis, Unblocking, The Long Current Speaks) are mastered Flow applications that do not require separate Elemental Water rolls and are not subject to Elemental Strain. Independent Flow rolls represent the same domain used improvisationally, at scales the profession framework doesn't cover, or by non-Deep Voice practitioners who have developed the tradition.

Flow applications almost always require physical contact with the target. The practitioner is directing water through the target's system; connection requires proximity. In fully aquatic environments or when the practitioner is immersed with the target, the surrounding water itself provides the connection and Touch range can extend to Close. In standard conditions, Touch applies.

Flow, Challenge Applications

Stabilize (Minor Action, Threshold 1, Touch) Stabilize a creature at 0 Health, no damage to the practitioner, no Kit consumed. The creature remains unconscious and injured, but the immediate crisis is halted. As a Minor Action at Threshold 1, the stabilization is a minimum hold; the creature's condition will deteriorate without further treatment. As a Primary Action at Threshold 2, the stabilization is thorough, the creature will not deteriorate for at least one Long Rest without additional trauma.

Restore (Primary Action, Threshold 2, Touch) Remove one physical blockage from a willing or unconscious target, one condition of the Body or Speed type currently affecting them: Hindered, Slowed, a toxin-origin Body condition (Poisoned), or equivalent. The practitioner identifies the blockage and clears it by restoring disrupted flow.

This is the improvisational equivalent of the Deep Voice's Unblocking profession perk. Where Unblocking is a mastered application (once per Long Rest, no Strain cost), Restore can be used repeatedly but each use triggers Elemental Strain normally.

Scaling: 2 excess successes above Threshold allow a second condition to be removed simultaneously. Each additional condition removed costs the practitioner 1 Health, the Flow expression requires somewhere to discharge what was removed; the practitioner absorbs the briefly.

Accelerate Recovery (Primary Action, Threshold 2, Touch) Channel healing flow through a willing or unconscious target. The target immediately recovers Health equal to the practitioner's Elemental Water die value (the integer before the D, e.g., Water 3D restores 3 Health). This is direct restoration, it functions regardless of other healing occurring and does not replace conventional medical care. A target receiving both Accelerate Recovery and standard Medicine rolls benefits from both.

Scaling: Each excess success above Threshold restores 1 additional Health.

Expel (Primary Action, Threshold 3, Touch) Forcibly remove a significant physical intrusion from a target's system, a major toxin, an active disease in early progression, or a Major Body Health condition caused by a toxin source. The practitioner drives the intrusion out through its own pathway rather than neutralizing it. The process is effective but not comfortable: the target takes 2 damage from the expulsion as an unavoidable cost.

For Mirelen targets, this expulsion damage is external (an outside force applied to the body), Tidal Body's cold resistance does not apply, but it is Bludgeoning, not cold, damage.

This application cannot remove conditions that are supernatural in origin, magical curses, enchantments, or equivalent. Flow works on what water understands: physical intrusion and biological disruption. Expel that targets a supernatural condition fails automatically but does not trigger Backlash, the current finds nothing to work against.

Scaling: 2 excess successes above Threshold allow the expulsion to occur without the 2-damage cost, the practitioner's precision is sufficient to remove the blockage cleanly.

Backlash: - Minor: The healing current reverses direction. Practitioner loses Health equal to their Elemental Water die value (minimum 1) as the restorative energy they were channeling briefly drains them instead. This damage cannot be reduced or resisted. - Moderate: Channel collapse. Practitioner takes 1D3 cold damage (internal; cold resistance does not apply) and cannot use Flow Expression again until they successfully complete a Strain recovery action (Primary Action, Governing Attribute + Resolve vs Threshold 3; this clears Strain and restores Flow Expression access simultaneously). - Severe: Full reversal. Any condition the Flow Expression was attempting to remove is instead inflicted on the practitioner. Additionally takes 2D3 cold damage (internal). Practitioner gains Staggered until next Long Rest.

Expression: Tide

The water that moves.

Tide is the kinetic face of Elemental Water. It governs the direction and movement of existing water, creating currents, redirecting pressure, using water's physical force to affect the environment and what moves through it. Where Current reads and Flow heals, Tide acts.

The most important constraint of Tide Expression is that it works only with water already present. The practitioner cannot create water from nothing; they direct a river, intensify rainfall, work with a flooded chamber, or use the Tidal Vessel's minimum presence. In dry environments, Tide Expression is significantly limited. In maritime, coastal, wetland, or storm environments, it is the tradition's most powerful face.

The Windcaster who selects Elemental Water almost universally emphasizes Tide, the kinetic application fits their motion-based practice. A Speed-governed Tide practitioner working near a substantial water source (a harbor, a river crossing, a heavy rainstorm) is a significant tactical presence. The same practitioner in a desert works from their vessel's minimum and is considerably more limited.

Tide, Challenge Applications

Direct Current (Primary Action, Threshold 2, Near range) In environments with accessible water, create a directed current toward or away from a target. The target must make a Speed Save vs Threshold 2 or be moved one range band in the current's direction (pushed away from the practitioner or pulled toward them). Targets moved by Direct Current may collide with obstacles in their path, at GM discretion, striking a wall or solid surface deals 1 Bludgeoning damage.

Requirements: requires accessible water of at least a shallow pool's volume in the immediate environment. The Tidal Vessel provides minimum effective presence but GMs may limit the push/pull distance to Touch range when the vessel alone is the water source.

Scaling: Excess successes may move the target an additional range band (1 excess), apply Hindered from the disorientation of involuntary movement (1 excess), or extend the current's effect to a second target in the same direction (2 excess).

Rising Tide (Primary Action, Threshold 2–3, Close radius centered on a point within Near range) In aquatic or water-present environments, rain, flooded terrain, any waterway, cause the water level or pressure in a Close radius area to surge. All creatures in the area who are not aquatic must make a Speed Save vs Threshold 2 or become Slowed (per catalog condition, movement reduced to Close range, −1D to Speed pools; Speed Save Threshold 2 each Turn to end). The surge additionally creates difficult terrain in the affected area until it subsides.

At Threshold 3, the affected area expands to Near radius and the Speed Save Threshold to avoid Slowed increases to 3.

This application requires significant water. Shallow fog or atmospheric moisture is insufficient. Rain, flooded terrain, or a nearby waterway provides adequate source material. Deep water is ideal.

Water Walk (Free Action, Threshold 1) Allow the practitioner to move across calm or moderate water surface as if it were solid ground at normal movement speed. Turbulent water requires Threshold 2 and a sustained roll each Turn the effect must continue. Duration: until the practitioner voluntarily ends it or until the scene ends.

Scaling: 1 excess success extends the effect to one adjacent willing ally. 2 excess successes extend to all allies within Close range.

Control Water (Extended work, Threshold 3–5) Actively direct, part, redirect, or contain a body of water over an extended period. Not applicable in combat without severe Disadvantage conditions; this is planning and engineering work, not a rapid action.

Threshold 3 (1 hour): redirect a stream or small waterway within a limited area, a new course of up to Near range length.

Threshold 4 (several hours): command a substantial waterway, hold a river ford open for passage, redirect a significant underground aquifer, drain a flooded zone.

Threshold 5 (extended): move, contain, or command a large body of water, a lake's tidal response, a harbor's depth, a flood event in progress.

Effects are durable once established, a redirected stream stays redirected. Water returns to its natural course only when no longer commanded or when the practitioner explicitly releases it.

Scaling: Excess successes reduce work time by half (1 excess) or extend the area of effect.

Backlash: - Minor: The current escapes control, water in the environment lurches unpredictably. Practitioner falls Prone. All creatures within Close range (including allies) must make a Speed Save vs Threshold 1 or also fall Prone. - Moderate: Tidal surge turns back. Practitioner takes 3 Bludgeoning damage and becomes Slowed (Speed condition, Speed Save Threshold 2 each Turn to end) as water pressure closes around them. An uncontrolled surge additionally pushes one ally within Close range one range band away (GM chooses most appropriate direction; Speed Save vs Threshold 2 to resist). - Severe: Full surge. Practitioner is hurled one range band, lands Prone at the new position, and takes 5 Bludgeoning damage. Tide Expression is unavailable for the remainder of the scene, all water in the immediate environment becomes actively unresponsive to the practitioner until Short Rest.

The Tidal Vessel (Elemental Water Focus)

A small, sealed container, a worked-stone vial, a watertight shell-flask, a copper tube capped at both ends, filled with water from a site of significance in the practitioner's home current: headwaters, a sacred deep pool, the confluence of two waterways that the current considers home. The water is sealed once filled. It does not evaporate or go stale; the seal is elemental, not physical. An old Tidal Vessel from a practitioner's teacher may have passed through three generations of healing work, the water inside carrying resonance from each. What makes the vessel valuable is not the water's chemistry; it is what the water remembers.

Tidal Vessel | Focus | Elemental Water
Mechanical Effect:
  +2D to all Flow Expression rolls (the vessel's water carries
  healing resonance from the practitioner's home current;
  it was drawn in a place of restoration and amplifies
  restorative power in proportion to that origin).

  Current Expression: Sense Current and Current Speech do not
  trigger Elemental Strain. These uses are listening, not
  projecting, the vessel holds a continuous thread to the
  practitioner's home water, and reading through that thread
  costs nothing.

  Environmental presence: The Tidal Vessel counts as sufficient
  water presence for any Elemental Water application that
  requires water to be present. The effective scale is minimal
 , a practitioner using Tide Expression from the vessel alone
  in a dry environment is working with a small amount of water.
  GMs should reduce large-scale Tide effects proportionally
  when the vessel is the only available source. Current and
  Flow Expression are not affected by water volume.

Acquisition: Filled at a site of significance in the
  practitioner's home current, done at dawn or dusk, with
  at least one other Mirelen present as witness. Not a formal
  ceremony like the Dura'Kai lodgestone, but witnessed: the
  filling done with intention, the water drawn consciously.
  A practitioner whose home water no longer exists, or who has
  been separated from their current, can bond a new vessel at
  any substantial water source after one week of immersed
  practice (one night fully submerged for Mirelen,
  the efficient path for those with the biology to do it safely).

  Non-Mirelen practitioners bond a vessel over one month of
  daily practice in aquatic environments or sustained daily
  physical contact with the vessel. A non-Mirelen vessel
  provides +1D to Flow Expression rather than +2D and does
  not suppress Elemental Strain on Current Expression uses.
  The environmental presence effect functions identically.

Improvised Focuses: A container of water from a personally significant source, a river where the practitioner trained, a pool where something important happened, may serve as an improvised Water Focus at GM discretion, providing +1D to one Expression (chosen when improvised). A dried or empty vessel provides no focus benefit.

Access and Cross-Lineage Notes

Other Kin practitioners: The four Kin traditions are distinct. The Mirelen-Ashari relationship is the defining Kin-internal tension, and it produces the most culturally charged Independent Study context: an Ashari who studies Elemental Water is doing so because they believe fire is incomplete without understanding what opposes and complements it, or because a Mirelen mentor gave them the specific chance. These practitioners exist. They tend to be the most self-aware and the most interesting to talk to about their practice.

Anima practitioners: Anima lineages do not carry lineage Power Access to any tradition. Daza practitioners, given their water-adjacent culture and long partnership with Mirelen communities, are the most likely Anima lineage to develop Elemental Water through Independent Study. The Daza oral memory tradition and the Mirelen water-memory tradition have been in productive contact long enough to produce hybrid practitioners: rare, documented, and deeply knowledgeable about both.

Human practitioners: Sereindal practitioners are in a natural position to pursue Water access; they are a maritime people and the tradition is water-based. The Mirelen find Sereindal students approachable; the Sereindal have long-standing trade and navigational relationships with Mirelen currents. A Sereindal practitioner with Elemental Water is not unusual in a coastal or maritime campaign. Kyne Daas carries its own Resonance tradition (Scar Reading); some Kyne Daas practitioners develop Elemental Water as a second tradition, though the Talent investment required is substantial and such practitioners are genuinely rare.

Example Rolls

Ondra is a Mirelen Deep Voice: Wit 3D, Elemental Water 2D, Flow Focus 2D, Tidal Vessel (+2D to Flow). Her party's Rogue has taken significant damage and is suffering a Minor toxin-origin Body condition from a Kasia application.

Situation: Ondra wants to restore the Rogue's Health and then remove the toxin condition.

Roll 1, Accelerate Recovery (Flow, Threshold 2): Pool: Wit 3D + Elemental Water 2D + Flow Focus 2D + Tidal Vessel +2D = 9D. Status: Clear. Result: 5 successes. Exceeds Threshold by 3. Target immediately recovers 2 Health (Ondra's Elemental Water die value) + 3 additional Health from excess successes. Total: 5 Health restored. Status after: Strained.

Situation: The toxin condition remains. Ondra wants to Restore it.

Roll 2, Restore (Flow, Threshold 2): Pool: 9D at Disadvantage (only 6s count). Status: Strained. Result: 2 successes (two 6s). Meets Threshold. The Minor toxin-origin Body condition is removed, the blockage identified and cleared. Ondra spends her following Primary Action on Strain recovery ("Ondra exhales slowly, fingers still on her patient's arm, finding the place below the disruption where the current runs clean again"): Wit 3D + Resolve vs Threshold 3. Result: 3 successes. Strain clears.

Cascavel is a Mirelen Windcaster who chose Elemental Water as her tradition: Speed 3D, Elemental Water 2D. She lost her Tidal Vessel crossing the Spill Margins and has not replaced it. She is fighting on a dock over open harbor water, substantial water available.

Situation: Two enemies are advancing across the dock toward her allies. Cascavel wants to use the harbor water below to push them back.

Roll 1, Direct Current (Tide, Threshold 2): Pool: Speed 3D + Elemental Water 2D = 5D. Environmental water: open harbor immediately below, abundant. Status: Clear. Result: 3 successes. Exceeds Threshold by 1. The first target must make Speed Save vs Threshold 2 or be pushed one range band back. Cascavel allocates her excess success to apply Hindered to the target on a failed Save, the surge hit their footing even as it moved them. Status after: Strained.

Situation: The second enemy has reached Cascavel's ally. She wants to use Rising Tide to create difficult terrain and potentially Slow both remaining enemies.

Roll 2, Rising Tide (Tide, Threshold 2): Pool: 5D at Disadvantage (only 6s count). Status: Strained. Result: 1 success. Does not meet Threshold, the surge fails to organize. The Wild Die shows a 4 (no explosion, no implosion). No Backlash, Backlash requires Wild Die implosion AND zero total successes; she achieved one success despite Disadvantage. The tide doesn't surge. Status remains Strained.

Cascavel uses her movement to reposition near the dock edge, then attempts Strain recovery as a Primary Action: Speed 3D + Resolve vs Threshold 3. Result: 1 success. Fails; she remains Strained and cannot attempt recovery again until after a Short Rest. She has exhausted her reliable Water access for this scene and shifts to conventional combat.