staging: character-state-chapter-ref.md task=dbadc113-4988-47ba-90a4-c76eb9e727cb

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

@@ -1,54 +1,59 @@
-# Character State: Ch1
+# Character State: Ch2
 
 ## Lena Duval
 Location: The Duval ancestral cabin, Cypress Bend bayou
-Physical: Feverish and exhausted; palm is raw and sliced from a blood-oath casting.
-Emotional: Defiant but deeply unsettled.
+Physical: Feverish; right hand is bandaged and throbbing from the blood-oath; persistent cough.
+Emotional: Violated and resolute.
 Active obligations: 
-- Owes the land a "balancing of scales" for the fog she summoned (Ch1) -- UNPAID
+- Owes the land a "balancing of scales" for the fog (Ch1) -- UNPAID
 - Owes Aunt Maribelle an audience regarding the "inheritance" (Ch1) -- UNPAID
+- Owes Jax Harlan a conversation about the "unnatural" events (Ch2) -- UNPAID
 Open loops: 
-- Lena and Aunt Maribelle: The struggle over Lena’s refusal to join the coven (Ch1) -- UNRESOLVED
-- Lena and the encroaching developers: The physical presence of survey markers in the grove (Ch1) -- UNRESOLVED
+- Lena and the "Whisper": The potential consciousness within the cypress roots (Ch1) -- UNRESOLVED
+- Lena and the surveyors: Physical removal of markers from her property (Ch2) -- UNRESOLVED
 Known secrets: 
-- Knows she intends to flee to New Orleans within the week -- Aunt Maribelle does not know.
-- Knows the "whisper" in the cypress roots sounded like her mother's voice -- No one else knows.
-Arc: 5% -- Lena successfully uses her magic to protect her home but realizes the "land-debt" is tightening its grip on her, making escape harder.
-Permanent: YES
-
-## Aunt Maribelle Duval
-Location: The porch of the Duval ancestral cabin, departing toward the deeper swamp.
-Physical: No injuries; moves with an unnatural, fluid grace despite her age.
-Emotional: Calculating and patient.
-Active obligations: None.
-Open loops: 
-- Aunt Maribelle and Lena: Grooming Lena to take the mantle of "Grove Keeper" (Ch1) -- UNRESOLVED
-Known secrets: 
-- Knows the exact date the developers plan to clear-cut the Eastern bend -- Lena does not know.
-Arc: 2% -- Reasserted her dominance over the family narrative by forcing Lena to use blood magic.
+- 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.
+- Knows she found a survey marker labeled "Project Phlegethon" deep in the restricted grove -- 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.
 Permanent: YES
 
 ## Jax Harlan
-Location: The Blackwater skiff, docked at the Duval pier.
-Physical: Soaked from the unnatural fog; no injuries.
-Emotional: Skeptical but protective.
+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" if she decides to leave (Ch1) -- UNPAID
+- Owes Lena a "quick exit" (Ch1) -- UNPAID
 Open loops: 
-- Jax and Lena: The tension between his "outsider" logic and her "insider" magic (Ch1) -- UNRESOLVED
-Known secrets: None.
-Arc: 1% -- Witnessed the bayou react to Lena’s blood for the first time, cracking his shell of skepticism.
+- 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
 
-# World State: Ch1
+## Aunt Maribelle Duval
+Location: The "Widow’s Deep" (secluded swamp interior)
+Physical: No injuries.
+Emotional: Impatient and ritualistic.
+Active obligations: None.
+Open loops: 
+- Maribelle and the Coven: Preparing 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.
+Arc: 5% -- Maribelle has begun the ritual process to "tether" Lena to the land permanently, heightening Lena's fever.
+Permanent: YES
+
+# World State: Ch2
 
 ## NPC Memory
-- Remy LeBlanc (The Bait Shop): AFRAID -- Witnessed the "black-water" rising earlier that morning -- Warned Lena to stay inside.
+- Sheriff Miller (The Parish Office): DISMISSIVE -- Ignored Lena’s report of trespassing on her land.
+- "Gator" Pete (The Docks): TERRIFIED -- Claimed the fish are turning belly-up with "black eyes."
 
 ## Faction Attitudes
-- Swamp Witches (Duval Coven): Insistent -- They view Lena as a vital, missing battery for their waning power.
-- Developers (Terrebonne Development Corp): Aggressive -- They have begun placing physical markers on protected land, ignoring historical pacts.
+- Terrebonne Development Corp: Escalating -- They have moved from surveying to placing sonar buoys in the bayou.
+- The Duval Coven: Restless -- They are beginning the "humming," a collective magical vibration Lena can feel in her teeth.
 
 ## Active World Events
-- The Awakening: The cypress trees are "weeping" sap at an accelerated rate, a sign of magical instability in the Bend.
-- The Encroachment: Surveyors are moving closer to the Duval property line.
+- The Blackening: The cypress sap is turning from amber to an oily black, tainting the local water supply.
+- Project Phlegethon: The codename for the development project discovered on the markers found by Lena.