How a Crisis Is Handled

When catastrophe strikes, the machine that protects Edrathia moves in measured, orchestrated stages. Understanding this process may reassure you that help is coming, and that when it arrives, it will be prepared.

Stage One: Alert

Every settlement maintains a status-rune — a mechanism attuned to H.E.R.O.'s Continental Registry, reporting condition and threat level back to the Citadel at all hours. These runes vary charmingly by settlement: a pool that clouds when danger rises; a set of tuned bells that chime in specific frequencies; a singing mushroom that changes its song; a weathervane that spins without wind. When a town's rune spikes, the Citadel knows.

Stage Two: The Board

The moment a rune trips, the Active Status Board at the Citadel illuminates — a vast magical map showing the region in question, the threat signature, and the nearest Groups. Dispatchers can read the threat faster than a messenger could ride.

Stage Three: Threat Classification

A Dispatcher grades the incoming signal into one of three categories:

• Supernatural: magical corruption, reality distortion, or thaumaturgic anomaly
• Catastrophic: threats to municipal survival — invasion, plague, structural collapse
• Local-Overwhelmed: crises the local militia can name but cannot contain alone

This classification determines which band is deployed.

Stage Four: Deployment

The appropriate Group is notified. Response Band members (threat level: Local-Overwhelmed) are typically transported by fast mount and established safe routes. Field Band Groups (Catastrophic threats) are deployed via one-way teleportation pad — they are simply there, at the specified location, ready to act. Crisis Band members require senior Citadel briefing before deployment; time may pass before they move.

Stage Five: Field Coordination

Once deployed, the field team maintains contact via Sending Stone — a magical two-way communication device paired with the Dispatcher's desk, colloquially known as "the dog and bone". The team reports initial threat assessment, casualties, perimeter status, and resource requirements. The Dispatcher coordinates reinforcement if needed.

The team acts. They solve the problem.

Stage Six: Resolution

When the threat is contained, the perimeter is secure, and immediate danger has passed, the team confirms resolution to the Dispatcher.

Response Time Expectations by Charter

Most of Edrathia operates under Bronze or unchartered status. Response times are bound by distance, available resources, and the number of simultaneous crises already in motion.

Resolution is logged. Invoice issued.

[Records note — T.W.]: The paperwork side of things has been... complicated, recently. We're working through a backlog.