The Outpost – The Colipsum Conundrum

By: Patience Kapfer

On this week’s episode of “The Outpost” an elderly couple has the misfortune of finding the body of Gwynn’s (Imogen Waterhouse) handmaid while tending to their garden. As it causes them quite a fright, they call Marshal Withers (Andrew Howard) to investigate, who is clearly aggravated with his guard’s choice to bury the girl where people dig and plant things for a living. After hearing the news, Gwynn rushes to the scene and it’s obvious she knows Withers is responsible for this horrendous crime as she storms away. Gwynn goes to Garret (Jake Stormoen) to tell him that she suspects his father murdered her handmaid, but Garret doesn’t want to believe her, even though we learn that Marshal Withers is responsible for Garret’s brother’s death. Garret is insistent that the law is everything to his father and there is no way he murdered Lilly.

Gwynn has Withers brought to her throne room, wher he tells her that he plans to get to the bottom of this awful business because it’s his job. However, Gwynn confronts Withers, accusing him of murdering Lilly. Withers says that he hopes she has evidence to back up her statement, to which she says that since she is the Queen she doesn’t need evidence. Withers promptly reminds her that this Outpost is under the control of General Calkussar by the Prime Order so she is the Queen of nothing. General Calkussar (Michael Flynn) takes Gwynn’s side and tells Withers that he isn’t going to kill him because Gwynn is upset. Rather, he’s going to kill Withers for his extortion of the Queen. Since the letters to the Prime Order are still in the hands of one of Withers friends to be mailed at his untimely death, Gwynn devises her own solution: to send him to the mines to pay for his crime and subsequently, avoid an untimely death.

Meanwhile, Talon (Jessica Green) and Janzo (Anand Desai-Barochia) continue their trek through the forest to get to Gallows Rock. While walking, Janzo tells Talon what one of the books says that “the Lu-Qiri Overlord mated with a human woman and that’s how there came to be Blackbloods.” Talon is quick to inform Janzo that no human would survive such an encounter. Once they arrive at Gallows Rock, Talon asserts that it “looks like a good place to be murdered” while Janzo prepares himself to wait there until sunset. Talon is sure that whoever the supplier is plans to kill them, but Janzo says if they want to make a trade then they have to follow the instructions that were provided. Janzo is quickly overruled, as Talon tells him to get up and bring the gold, thus taking them to a higher vantage point to wait for the supplier to arrive. As they sit and wait for the supplier, Talon takes the time to ask Janzo about himself and how he got into brewing. It’s obvious that her interest makes Janzo feel that Talon actually cares about him, as he explains that he just wanted to make the Mistress proud. When Talon asks about Janzo’s biological mother, we learn that she was a barmaid who unfortunately died while giving birth to him and his twin sister. After her death, the Mistress thought it would be a good idea to keep Janzo because a son would be “useful,” but she sold his sister to the slavers. Then, the supplier finally arrives. It’s difficult for both Talon and Janzo to believe who the suppliers even are: the Greyskins.

Talon and Janzo move to even higher ground away from the Greyskins, as Talon asks Janzo why the Greyskins would be selling Colipsum to humans. Janzo has no idea other than whatever their reason, it must be bad. Talon decides that they need to stay quiet and hidden until dark when they can make their escape, but Janzo is insistent that they can’t go back without the colipsum. If Janzo goes back empty-handed, the Mistress will make him wish he were dead so Janzo plans to at least try to make a deal with the Greyskins. Janzo goes to meet the Greyskins and tries to tell them that he will trade his gold for their colipsum, but the Greyskins only seem to speak Greyskin. While Janzo is attempting to communicate, Talon sneaks up behind the Greyskins, pointing her sword at their throats. Janzo shoves his bags of gold toward the Greyskins and they throw their bags at him to check their contents. It is, in fact, colipsum, but it’s more than ten brick weights and Janzo tries to tell them to keep one bag and they will take the other. But Talon tells Janzo to take both bags, as the Greyskins walk away. Talon is wary; however, that it was way too easy.

Janzo and Talon set up camp for the night and he sets up an alarm system so that they’ll know if anyone tries to sneak up on them. As Talon sleeps, Janzo is able to find reference to the Book of Names in one of the books. Unfortunately, the reference doesn’t provide any information about where to find the Book of Names. Later, while both Janzo and Talon are asleep, a portal opens and from within it comes a voice telling Talon that “The Dragman comes, not much time. The Dragman comes.” When it appears Talon can finally get some sleep, but Janzo wakes her because he can hear his alarm system. Talon assures him it’s the wind, but all of a sudden a very large beast called a Bone Wolf grabs Talon and throws her out of their shelter. As the Bone Wolf stalks toward Janzo, Talon grabs her sword and stabs it, drawing its attention back to her. But now it’s Janzo’s turn to come to the rescue. The Bone Wolf pins Talon on the ground and Janzo grabs a branch which he lights on fire and uses it as a weapon against the wolf. Janzo is able to successfully scare away the Bone Wolf and save Talon’s life.

To the detriment of The Outpost, a group of three men plan to warn the Prime Order of the war that is being planned. The man who drew the black coin sneaks away from the camp at night with the plan of finding the Prime Order. However, before he can get far, he is shot with an arrow and taken to Garret along with his friends. While trying to get the man to tell Garret which of the friends are working with him, Garret uses pain as a form of incentive to talk. Once Gwynn arrives, she tells them to stop hitting the man because that’s how the Prime Order would treat the men. Gwynn decides that even though the man won’t give up his friends, they are to execute him immediately for his disloyalty and desertion. Gwynn sends the other men back to the camp and tells them to relay what they saw, to tell the others that their Queen is a just queen, and unlike the Prime Order she will not torture or execute without cause. It’s very clear that Gwynn doesn’t like that aspect of being Queen, and having to execute one man caused her distress.

At the camp, one of the prisoners being quarantined begins to cause a disruption, so a guard goes to the cell to tell the prisoners to quiet down. Unfortunately, that prisoner has become a plagueling and attacks the guard, allowing the other prisoner plaguelings to break through the cell door and escape. The plaguelings begin to terrorize the camp and Garret and the others work to save as many people as possible and kill all of the plaguelings, but not before one of the plaugelings stings Garret.

To add even greater misfortune to the Outpost, the Ambassador (Philip Brodie) receives a message from The Outpost informing him the both “Shek and Bones are dead, along with Blackblood stains found, Shek only checked ears of women.” This indicates to the Ambassador that the Blackblood is still alive and most likely at the Outpost, so he plans to go there and kill the Blackblood. Since General Calkussar has failed to send any shipments of armaments and report the Blackblood, the Ambassador plans to march with a hundred Covenant Guard to bring the Outpost under new command and install someone more loyal to the Order.