It's been disassembled. Seems like it was done in an orderly fashion, not a violent one.

He wanders back in the street preacher's direction eventually.

The central pillars of Faithkeeper ideology appear to be:

1. Humankind has dominion over nature, and is meant to reshape the world to its will via invention and machines.

2. All souls stand equal before the Divine, who commands that we tend to every member of the flock.

3. The proper ordering of society is to continue the ancient traditions- Marriage, ceremonial funerals, and the doctor's oath of 'first, do no harm' are mentioned as examples.

Arodenism mixed with... Erastil? Or he's reading way too much into it. He doesn't have a copy of History and Future, anyway. And the gods have been mighty quiet on this planet.

Toward the end of the day he goes up to his snow shelter, eats the frozen pies - they're slightly awkward to eat but not uncomfortable really, with Endure Elements up - and reads to himself from the Acts till he can sleep.

The next time he bugs someone in the bureaucracy to check case statuses they will tell him that a motion to summary acquittal has been filed and will be executed some time in the next three days if substantial objections do not materialize.

Well, it's an inconvenient amount of time to be sleeping in a makeshift igloo and hoping nobody asks how he's eating, but it's not like it's actually hard.

He can observe hunters carrying kills in from the wild and bartering them; That's likely a viable explanation.

Regardless, the rest of his party is released that evening and hikes their way to their old campsite, looking solemn. Or pissed off. One of the two.

"Are you all right? The food's all frozen but should be fine to eat with Endure Elements on, I can do those now -" He holds out his hand.

"They broke my theodolite," Nuts grouses. "It's a precision instrument, not a boot. Chucking it in a pile, for Christ's sake..."

"Aside from the theodolite we are unharmed," June drawls. "I think the Endure was starting to make me soft. Not that I'll turn it down."

Taps ensue.

"I didn't prepare a Mending today but I can see about it tomorrow."

"We don't need it on the way back, we know the path already. So there's no rush."

"Are we going back, now?" Leon asks quietly. "I think so, but it ought be asked."

"...I don't think I have the power to solve their problems and with them unsolved they do not seem to have created a place it is wise to stay."

"I think they're gonna find us," June says. "Gossip says thousands of people are newly employed as scouts. Even if they all strike out in random directions and half of them freeze to death, the valley isn't that far away and is kind of obviously noteworthy."

"...they might. And they seem willing to resort to conquest, since they're in such dire fuel straits. I could probably hold off small numbers of them but not the force that revealing my magic would probably summon."

Leon sighs. "There are four fuel cars that I know about. And there are three major oil seeps in the area. That is - a lot of oil. More than our small community would ever use or be able to extract. More than New London can possibly use in decades. As for conquest- I wouldn't blame them much, if that is the only path they see to survive."

"Can't fight 'em. Join 'em," June opines. "One of us talky types rah-rah it up, get some sort of deal worked out. A big, well-fitted expedition, or a snow-crawler, new tools, supplies, for us all to seek fortune elsewhere. Maybe threaten to light the oil ablaze if they don't play ball?"

"That would be such a damned waste," Nuts says. "I don't like that idea at all. Burning the oil, I mean, not negotiations."

Leon adds, "We should also consider... Joseph. He went to New London. I asked him to promise that he wouldn't reveal the location of the Old Dreadnought, and he did promise. I've never known him to break promises or lie. But the temptation must be great."

"Can we sell the location of the oil we can't use?"

June nods at him. "Yeah, that's basically my idea. Except my thought was we'd immediately turn around and buy expedition kit, or take such kit in barter- Well, maybe. We probably ought to discuss it with the folks back home. D'you think they'd go for it? You were out and about longer than we were."

"I have a mixed impression of their Law. It would be... a lot of strain on their virtue to ask them to leave the community alone even through a change of leadership or any of the many possible disasters that could affect a place this size."

June nods rapidly. "Which is why we leave. You're right. I trust the cold a lot more than New London."

"But, if we aren't likely to actually use the fuel we know about, it seems a great tragedy to condemn them to the cold."

"If only we could trust them. I do get a sense that they're- That they're trying, some of them, to be a decent government, but you cannot trust the starving dog and I won't hold out my arm for the biting."

June is pacing.

"We don't need the fuel. They do. We don't trust them to keep to a deal when things are so desperate- Or at least June doesn't..." Leon muses.

"I think we should go back, talk to everyone, and consider - sending a better informed delegation, or preparing a response for scouts."

"We might want to find the right person in New London to talk to. Someone whose job it is, I suppose, and who's known to be trustworthy?"

"Could we try to get a message to Joseph and ask him to find someone?"

"I don't know much about how New London... Works." Leon admits.

June shrugs. "Me neither. There's too many people. If there's not a nice neat official post office, maybe we find someone who says they'll send a package or message and just fucks off and laughs at the stupid outsiders when we turn our backs."