Teal
Also known as: Melly (a Foundry VTT bookkeeping error, not a name anyone in-fiction has ever used — see A Note on the Second Name, below) Status: Alive. Bleeding occasionally, but alive. Origin: Shin — truthless, bound to whoever currently holds her Oath Stone. Affiliation: Bound to Keth, her current master by right of the Oath Stone. Companion-in-arms to the party by extension.
Overview
Teal is a truthless Shin swordswoman, which in practice means she is an extremely competent fighter who will not say a word to you unless her current master says she can. She travels with Keth — himself truthless, which makes the two of them a matched, deeply quiet set — and has fought at the party’s side in every engagement she’s shown up for, usually without comment, occasionally with a great sword swing that makes everyone else’s turn look slow by comparison.
The mechanic underpinning all of this is the Oath Stone: whoever currently possesses it is, as far as Shin custom and Teal’s own compulsion are concerned, her master, full stop. It’s the same bind that governs truthless swordsmen generally, just on the other side of the arrangement — and it does not care about consent, affection, or how the stone changed hands. As the table itself pointed out, citing the books: a truthless swordsman’s Oath Stone can change hands eight times over in a single story, sometimes because a master dies and sometimes because a master just gives it away, and there is no in-fiction consequence for it — “they just take the Oath Stone and go on.” Keth, notably, does not share that table’s casual attitude about it. Asked what would happen if someone stole Teal’s Oath Stone out from under him, his answer was immediate: “there would be consequence for this.”
That threat was not hypothetical. Within the same conversation, Mel — evidently charmed by a woman who has never once spoken to him — announced flat out that he intends to get his hands on that stone specifically so Teal will finally have to talk to him. Keth’s reaction was equally immediate: “Get away from my truth list right now.” This wiki considers the matter open, ongoing, and extremely likely to end in violence that isn’t Teal’s fault.
A Note on the Second Name
For at least one full session, the VTT itself apparently disagreed with the table about what Teal’s name was — her token was still labeled “Melly” behind the scenes even after everyone had been calling her Teal for a while, a bookkeeping leftover from before the character was renamed. Nobody in-fiction has ever called her Melly, and this is unrelated to the party’s Mel, who is a different person entirely. This wiki mentions it only so nobody goes looking for a second Shin swordswoman who doesn’t exist.
Key Moments
The Silent Treatment
- When Mel tried to make conversation with her directly, Teal didn’t even make eye contact — she stared straight ahead and said only, “I have not been commanded to speak with you, and thus I will not.” This is, as far as the record shows, the single most words Teal has said on her own initiative in either session.
- Keth uses her the way her binding implies: as a standing order, not a conversation partner. Told to guard a door — “stand by this door to make sure nobody comes in… don’t let anyone out without my approval” — she simply took up position and stayed there without a word, and later, mid-scene elsewhere, was posted to “walk up and take a seat on this bench” and did exactly that.
Combat, Competent and Quiet
- Present and fighting through the Session A showdown at the church command building — the fight against Veth, Shifty, and the “heavenly one” — mostly holding position exactly where Keth put her rather than freelancing.
- Held her own through the Odium/Ervel ambush: made an athletics check to close distance, ate a brutal 19-point reactive strike off the back of a natural 1, and kept fighting anyway — later landing what the table itself called “a great roll” against Ervel once he’d broken free of an adhesion bind, using her free Graze talent to press the advantage.
- Has, per Keth, a sweep ability the party has actively called on in a fight — told outright, “Teal, sweep them,” and she did.
Relationships
- Keth — her current master by the Oath Stone, and visibly protective of the arrangement in both directions: he commands her without hesitation and reacts to any threat against her bond as a serious offense, not a joke.
- Mel — has openly stated an intention to acquire Teal’s Oath Stone purely so she’ll be forced to talk to him. Teal has not reacted to this because she is not permitted to react to things Keth hasn’t commanded her to react to. Keth has reacted plenty on her behalf.
- The party generally — fights alongside them as an extension of Keth’s presence, without independent commentary on any of it.