staging: character-state-chapter-ref.md task=4bcc8719-3329-4e68-9c83-4d06f639d91f

projects/cypress-bend/staging/character-state-chapter-ref.md

@@ -1,59 +1,48 @@
-# Character State: Ch2
+# Character State: Ch3
 
 ## Lena Duval
-Location: The Duval ancestral cabin, Cypress Bend bayou
+Location: The "Widow’s Deep" (secluded swamp interior)
-Physical: Feverish; right hand is bandaged and throbbing from the blood-oath; persistent cough.
+Physical: Heightened fever; tremors; right hand bleeding through bandages from the cypress roots.
-Emotional: Violated and resolute.
+Emotional: Terrified but defiant.
 Active obligations: 
 - Owes the land a "balancing of scales" for the fog (Ch1) -- UNPAID
-- Owes Aunt Maribelle an audience regarding the "inheritance" (Ch1) -- UNPAID
+- Owes Aunt Maribelle an audience regarding the "inheritance" (Ch1) -- PAID
 - Owes Jax Harlan a conversation about the "unnatural" events (Ch2) -- UNPAID
 Open loops: 
-- Lena and the "Whisper": The potential consciousness within the cypress roots (Ch1) -- UNRESOLVED
+- Lena and the "Whisper": The consciousness within the roots (Ch1) -- UNRESOLVED
-- Lena and the surveyors: Physical removal of markers from her property (Ch2) -- UNRESOLVED
+- Lena and the surveyors: Physical removal of markers (Ch2) -- UNRESOLVED
+- Lena and the Rite: The consequences of interrupting the "Rite of the First Sap" (Ch3) -- UNRESOLVED
 Known secrets: 
 - CARRIED (Ch1--unresolved): Knows she intends to flee to New Orleans within the week -- Aunt Maribelle does not know.
-- CARRIED (Ch1--unresolved): Knows the "whisper" in the cypress roots sounded like her mother's voice -- No one else knows.
+- CARRIED (Ch1--unresolved): Knows the "whisper" sounded like her mother's voice -- No one else knows.
-- Knows she found a survey marker labeled "Project Phlegethon" deep in the restricted grove -- Jax and Maribelle do not know. 
+- CARRIED (Ch2--unresolved): Knows she found a survey marker labeled "Project Phlegethon" -- Jax and Maribelle do not know. 
-Arc: 10% -- Lena transitioned from passive avoidance to active resistance by physically removing the developers' markers, though it triggered a spike in her magical sickness.
+Arc: 25% -- Lena confronted Maribelle directly and physically disrupted a coven ritual, choosing to protect the cypress over the coven's traditions.
-Permanent: YES
-
-## Jax Harlan
-Location: The Duval pier / cabin porch
-Physical: Exhausted but stable.
-Emotional: Protective and increasingly suspicious of the town's silence.
-Active obligations: 
-- Owes Lena a "quick exit" (Ch1) -- UNPAID
-Open loops: 
-- Jax and the developers: His discovery of the high-end sonar equipment in the shallows (Ch2) -- UNRESOLVED
-Known secrets: 
-- Knows he took a bribe from a developer contact for "navigation assistance" three months ago -- Lena does not know.
-Arc: 15% -- Jax has moved from a skeptical observer to a co-conspirator by helping Lena hide the evidence of her interference with the survey site.
 Permanent: YES
 
 ## Aunt Maribelle Duval
-Location: The "Widow’s Deep" (secluded swamp interior)
+Location: The "Widow’s Deep" (shores of the black pool)
-Physical: No injuries.
+Physical: No injuries; eyes filmed with ritualistic milky-white haze.
-Emotional: Impatient and ritualistic.
+Emotional: Furiously determined and increasingly authoritarian.
 Active obligations: None.
 Open loops: 
-- Maribelle and the Coven: Preparing the "Rite of the First Sap" (Ch2) -- UNRESOLVED
+- Maribelle and the Coven: Completing the "Rite of the First Sap" (Ch2) -- UNRESOLVED
 Known secrets: 
 - CARRIED (Ch1--unresolved): Knows the exact date the developers plan to clear-cut the Eastern bend -- Lena does not know.
-- Knows the developers are paying the local sheriff to ignore the "swamp fever" cases -- Lena and Jax do not know.
+- CARRIED (Ch2--unresolved): Knows the developers are paying the local sheriff -- Lena and Jax do not know.
-Arc: 5% -- Maribelle has begun the ritual process to "tether" Lena to the land permanently, heightening Lena's fever.
+- Knows the "Blackening" is a defense mechanism she is actively triggering -- Lena does not know.
+Arc: 10% -- Maribelle has dropped her maternal facade, revealing her willingness to sacrifice Lena's health for the land's power.
 Permanent: YES
 
-# World State: Ch2
+# World State: Ch3
 
 ## NPC Memory
-- Sheriff Miller (The Parish Office): DISMISSIVE -- Ignored Lena’s report of trespassing on her land.
+- The Coven (Widow’s Deep): AGITATED -- Witnessed Lena disrupt the ritual; they view her as a "blight" on the lineage.
-- "Gator" Pete (The Docks): TERRIFIED -- Claimed the fish are turning belly-up with "black eyes."
 
 ## Faction Attitudes
-- Terrebonne Development Corp: Escalating -- They have moved from surveying to placing sonar buoys in the bayou.
+- The Duval Coven: Hostile -- Lena’s refusal to complete the Rite has caused a magical backlash that shook the grove.
-- The Duval Coven: Restless -- They are beginning the "humming," a collective magical vibration Lena can feel in her teeth.
+- Terrebonne Development Corp: Threatening -- Their presence is felt through the "unnatural" silence and the acceleration of the Blackening.
 
 ## Active World Events
-- The Blackening: The cypress sap is turning from amber to an oily black, tainting the local water supply.
+- The Humming: The magical vibration has intensified into a physical thrum that makes the swamp water ripple.
-- Project Phlegethon: The codename for the development project discovered on the markers found by Lena.
+- The Blackening: The oily black sap is now weeping from the cypress bark in the Widow’s Deep.
+- Project Phlegethon: Development plans continue; Lena found tangible evidence of their intent to dredge the deep.