"What does that do?"

"Retreat... rapidly?" He shrugs. "Makes your soldiers move faster when retreating, I guess."

"I should definitely find people to play chess against here."

"I think there are clubs for that. We can check the city hall board when we get there."

Which they're almost at.

What's the city hall board say?

Amateur chess club! Moondays, Wealdays and Stardays at 5 to 7 pm, following address. (Dross looks vaguely confused as he translates the days of the week.) All levels welcome, walk-ins welcome.

Chess study group, intended for intermediate players. Sunday afternoons, tactical class required, but no class level requirement. Here's a recommended reading list, available at major bookstores, including specific issues of a chess newsletter. List of valid classes, disclaimed as non-exhaustive: [Leader], [Captain], [Tactician], [Strategist], [Logistician].

"Is there a way to find out if 'cleric' is a 'tactical class'?"

"I don't think that's a real classification. Or maybe it's a classification by the army? Probably what they're trying for is 'any class benefited by chess', as a way to filter for... people motivated to do well and take a strategic approach to the game? Or maybe just 'classes in a vague category with [Tactician]'. I don't think [Cleric] would count unless I'm missing a lot.

"But are you sure you don't already have some kind of class like that, if you were a fort commander before?"

"I wouldn't know. Is there a way to check?"

"I don't know of any... I think usually people use a truth stone to check someone's not lying about their classes and levels, but if you just don't know that doesn't help. You could try playing chess and seeing if you get a level? That might get you something even if you didn't have it before, if you're playing against someone really good, I heard."

"I guess I'll go to the amateur group. I don't know what the standard of play here is anyway."

Dross shrugs.

"Er, things I heard which might not actually be true: it helps if you explicitly imagine the game as a metaphor for battle, it helps if the game is challenging and very close, it helps if you're thinking of it as—something you do as a [Tactician], not something you do to become one or level as one—even if you're not one yet? But, like, most of the people passing around these tips don't actually manage to get the class, so, y'know, take it with a grain of salt."

"I'll keep it in mind anyway, thank you."

Well, if they rush slightly they can finish up putting up the flyers before it's too late for lunch.

"I'm eating at my inn, I don't know if it makes sense for you to join me or not."

"Don't really have anything else to do, and it'll be inconvenient to arrange meeting back up."

So to Blai's inn they go.

Dross will splurge on dessert because he's feeling happy today.

And after that they can amble back to the reserved field to be on time for the scheduled channel.

A few people have showed up in advance. As the appointed time draws near, more trickle into the field. It's a pretty even mix of adventurers, Watch and commoners. Many but not all of them are visibly injured, some with blood still soaking through makeshift bandages. No one is actively dying or unable to stay on their feet.

The Watch office is luckily able to lend them chalk and a tape measure, which Dross had not planned adequately ahead for. He tried to corral the attendees out of the healing half of the field he's marked out, and into a payment queue, to... not great success. A Gnoll Guardsman with some kind of shoulder injury steps up to help yell at people, which Dross is thankful for but also VERY EMBARRASSED about.

It transpires, once they start collecting payment, that a lot of these people are not actually here to be healed, but to watch the show. It's still enough to sparsely fill up the channel radius, though very far from maximum density. 63 paying customers.

There are some questions about the healing, but nothing hard to answer. There's a sense that half these people are here for the novelty, though they're not exactly scoffing at the savings; everyone agrees it's a good deal.

When they're all ready he stands in the center and lets loose a burst to the sound of the bell for two o'clock.

And everyone in a 36-foot radius is healed!

If he doesn't have any subjective feedback on this he will not notice in what way exactly his channeling has been enhanced, since no one should be standing between 30 and 36 feet away! It looks normal to him! And it doesn't look like anyone will need a second go, but hopefully they tell all their friends.

Well, it looks like the nature of the enhancement will have to remain a mystery for now.

The mood of the crowd is buoyant as it breaks up. There's a lot of talking and comparing ex-injuries and unwrapping bandages. A few people come up to thank him and ask if he'll doing this again after today.

Someone from the Watch comes by with a request that Blai drop by the office after they're done here.

Yes, he expects to be doing this on a daily basis logistics permitting. "I have an appointment at three."