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Jean is already there.
Cailin is arriving. Neville is arriving.
The ex-Vlad Ilk (Yuri) is not there yet.
Cassandra, Princess Chandra, and Jenoir are on the receiving line.
Cailin turns down the spell monitoring magic in the area that is touching him when he goes through the receiving line. Jenoir gives him a magical pat on the head for doing so.
Osric is in his lizard shape. On the receiving line, Jenoir slips Osric a note. He absorbs it and pops an eyeball. It reads, "Meet me later at your convenience, please."
Amberite-style forms have been popular more recently, but cat-like forms have been becoming more prominent, possibly due to the fact that the Beastmaster has been much more in evidence lately.
Lord Talos shows up on the line. He seems somewhat nervous about shaking Cassandra's master's hand, but she doesn't seem to mind. Cassandra smiles at him. He slips her a note.
One of the people passing food around approaches Jean and asks if he would consult the Lady Flora regarding an incident in the kitchen. Jean says that she isn't currently available, but he would be willing to ask an etiquette guild member. The waiter leads him into a back room to "show him the problem", where a bag falls down on his head and ropes start wrapping around him. Jean starts unracking, primarily shielding magic. Cailin is aware of major magic going on in back.
Jenoir turns to Cassandra and says, "Someone is being tasteless enough to cast magic in the back, and poorly." She delegates two master-level mages to go check it out. They never make it past the door.
Jean's shields popped the ropes, and then his shield goes down. "If that was your question, it isn't polite." He tries to re-establish the shield, and fails. Cailin's sight to that room just went away.
The Realms Lord mob --- Savior of Chaos, Suhuy, Shiryu, Marial, and Benedict --- walks in the door.
["The really powerful folk, and Benedict." -- da GM]
When Benedict shakes Cassandra's hand, he says, "I can see that you have picked a different teacher." Cassandra's smile fails to touch her eyes. When Shiryu shakes her hand, the world is a wonderful place. Everything is right around her. She smiles at him. The people around Jean seem to be confused. He pushes on the door, but it fails to open. They are talking to each other in a panicked fashion.
One of the mages comes over and bows to Cassandra and Princess Chandra, "Excuse me", and turns to Jenoir. He says something very compact to her. Cailin can tell that he has just described the lack of magic in the back room, and how deeply it runs.
Jean knocks on the door. There's a greasy-magic feel, as if power is running through it. He tries to tap the power, and it hurts him.
Something that Osric ate or drank seems to be giving his problems. Some of the people that are not as good at shapeshifting seem to be losing control. It feels like his stomach is trying to digest him. Osric tries to eject it, and it starts growing. Osric goes over to Jenoir. "I hate to trouble you a little bit more, but I think that someone introduced a shifter virus into some of the hors d'oerves."
Princess Chandra looks at him and says, rhetorically, "Could it be Bronelle? Excuse me... I should deal with this. May I borrow you for a moment?"
Princess Chandra places a hand on Osric's shoulder, and conducts the fastest gate that he's ever seen. He's in the strangest medical lab he's ever seen. He seems to be moving a lot slower than she is. He leans back into a nice relaxing field. At one point, Princess Chandra opens his mid-section, removes something, and re-seals it. His scales are not quite true. He can see, moving rapidly, this piece of him moving more and more rapidly until it wears itself out by it's own elasticity and turns into goo. She then turns to a board and writes, "Please stay here, I'm off to get the Beastmaster." She exits, leaving the door open behind her. A few moments later, she returns with a cat. The cat sniffs at the goo, climbs up the field, and sniffs at Osric. Snarsht then puts a paw outside his belly, there is a twist inside Osric, and it feels like there is a bubble encasing what was wrong. The cat walks out.
Princess Chandra writes on the board, "Did he do anything?"
Osric speaks out loud. "Can you hear me?"
Princess Chandra writes, "Yes"
"He encased it."
"Can you eject it?"
"I was about to try."
Osric ejects the bubble, which goes bouncing across the floor. It appears to be about half-way through the transition to goo.
Cassandra notices that Darhyse has anchovy-breath, and stops her from eating.
Snarsht walks into the party. He's housecat sized, and strops himself against the legs of those in the receiving line. They are each aware in turn who he is, and his apologies for not paying them more attention upon his entrance.
Princess Chandra gates herself and Osric back into the party.
Snarsht is wandering around. People are still falling over.
Osric asks for Jenoir's permission, then grabs someone, takes him to a Fringe gate, and passes him through. When he goes through, the disease accelerated, and he goos almost instantly. A cute little bunny rabbit on the Fringe comes over, sniffs at the goo, and hops off. Osric is thankful that Snarsht took care of his problem before he tested his solution on himself.
The Beastmaster wanders back, looks at Princess Chandra and Jenoir, and then wanders off. Jenoir pales.
Princess Chandra beckons to Lord Talos. "I have an idea. Lord Talos - a word in your ear."
Lord Talos wanders over. "May I assist you?"
"I find that this party that I am throwing for my new apprentice is lacking in some entertainment... Those people serving the wine --- entertainment!"
"Shiryu? Suhuy? Would you do me the honor of asking Melchizedik to do me a favor here?"
Shiryu turns to Suhuy and says, "Good lord? I shall deal with it."
Melk appears, and points at each of the afflicted people, who appear to stop moving when he points. The people with high warfare can tell that he hasn't frozen them, he's just made them very, very slow.
Lord Talos has wandered over to a corner and is setting up a stage, pulling things through a gate.
Jean has gone out the back door. "Stop him!", they yell. Jean's heard that often enough not to be distracted. Jean's in an apothecary, where people are adding things to the wine and canapes that Jean doesn't recognize.
"What'cha doing?"
"Aah! It's him! Kill him!"
Jean tries to unrack something and it doesn't work, so he whales them. When Jean pulls out the whale, a donkey gallops out of the whale, looking chagrined, and is closely followed by Sir Erik, calling, "Come back here, you!"
Sir Erik turns to Jean. "Good to see you, Jean. Have you seen a donkey around?" Jean notices that the donkey is hiding from Sir Erik. Sir Erik continues. "Nice place you have here."
"It's not mine. It belongs to these people who say they are going to kill me."
Sir Erik pulls out a knife and looks at it. Jean send the whale out for a sword in Swayville.
Jean turns to the bad guys. "Have you stopped?" The bad guys confer.
["Who so ever pulls this sword from this whale shall be the rightful king of Chaos"]
Sir Erik acquires a sword, whaled from Swayville.
One of the guys manifests a combat form. Sir Erik looks at it. "Ah-ah! I've figured out the weakness!" Slash-slash-slash-slash-stab. The guy falls over. "That was fun! Next!"
The poisoners start backing up.
Sir Erik acquires a second sword, also whaled from Swayville.
The poisoners are now staying far away from the group, who have gone into the kitchen to look at the impenetrable door. Those in the kitchen have retreated back to the apothecary.
Sir Erik says that he was supposed to be at a party for Cassandra, and is told that it is just over there, but he can't get the door open.
Jean notices that the donkey has a hurt expression because it wasn't being chased. Jean beckons at it to follow them.
Sir Erik starts banging at the door and wall, with negligible effect. The donkey eats the debris, and seems to really enjoy the texture of the counters.
Lord Talos has managed to back one of the waiters onto the equipment. The others notice, drop their trays, and bolt for the door. They fail to open it.
Cailin says something to them, and one of them pulls a knife on him. Cailin backs up. Benedict asks if he can help, is told to get them out of the way without killing them, and he does so with a touch on each of them, leaving them undamaged and unconscious.
Lord Talos has gone through about four layers of story before the waiter admits that he was a member of the ex-Poisoners' Guild.
Benedict joins Cailin in poking at the door.
Benedict goes over to Shiryu and says, "Someone seems to have made that door something not under your control."
Shiryu turns to the Savior of Chaos. "Shall we?"
"Gladly."
Shiryu and Ilk head towards the door.
Neville hasn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. The wine seems to have a slightly sharp taste.
Sir Erik is still poking at the door. The donkey is occasionally getting bored and eating serving implements.
Benedict sends a Warriors' Guild member off to find a Jean and invite him to join them. A saucer-Jean in Swayville is approached, and decides to ask at the door if he can enter. Jean torques.
The torc tells Jenoir about the situation on the other side of the door.
Jenoir sends all of the food and drink that came from the kitchens away and starts gating food in. Those who have ever guested with Jenoir notice that the food gated in has the distinctive touch of Andron's cooking.
Ilk can notice that there is a non-Logrus power on the door and wall. He comes to the conclusion that it's a Real power, but has no way to be definite about it.
Shiryu places his hand on the door, pushes slightly, then pulls, but the door fails to open. He tries again on the wall, then scratches his chin.
Ilk considers tossing Logrus through the wall.
Jean offers to get Sir Erik to the party. He refuses. Sir Erik suggests that they place a lolly-pop on the other side of the door and then tell Cassandra --- she'll get the door open. Jean notes this for future reference.
Ilk raises an eyebrow at Shiryu and then tosses a ball of Logrus energy at the wall. The ball slows, twists, then passes through.
A ball of something flies by Jean and explodes a few kettles, one of which turns into a bird and flies off.
Ilk passes a good number of tendrils through and can now perceive the other side of the door. He communicates with the people there via a bag of frosting that he splatters on the wall.
Jean goes into the back room and notices lots of people mixing something while wearing masks. He feels queasy, and backs out. Jean asks Ilk to kill everyone in the back room. Ilk pokes a tendril through, and alarms start going off. Ilk starts killing the people. Meanwhile, Ilk turns to Shiryu and describes the situation to him.
Shiryu turns to Ilk and says, "I'll be right back", steps sideways, and steps back onto the other side of the wall. He then says that the people have been preserved for later interrogation, and advises that the door can not be opened.
Jean explains to Shiryu that there were more people in that room than there were before. Shiryu asks Ilk to examine the room with Logrus, but not touch anything organic. Ilk does so, and finds several ways exiting the room, as well as all of the Logrus alarms going off.
Shiryu eliminates the wall. The door is still there. Benedict and Sir Erik continue poking at the door, but Sir Erik is now invisible.
Princess Chandra taps the servants that were left in the party room and says, "Lord Talos will be with you shortly."
Cassandra reads the note. It's a mushy love note.
Lord Talos is describing the details of some of his techniques to the bystanders.
Ilk checks out the Logrus alarms. They seem to be mostly mechanical in nature, and were manufactured by some company called Maidenformosa.
Cailin plays with true names and the non-magic zone. Nothing happens.
Ilk tells Princess Chandra about the back room. She thanks him for the information, and recommends that he check out this Maidenformosa company. He sends out some tendri, which don't turn up anything in Chaos.
Cassandra is doing party-things during the party. Darhyse is given leave to continue eating, so continues eating anchovies and mint.
Ilk tries to get Sir Erik to poke at the door with Pattern so he can observe the interactions.
Osric wanders by and joins in the group investigating the door. His Fringe crystal doesn't want to approach the door. Osric tosses a Fringe marble at the door. It bounces off shortly before touching the door. Ilk can press the marble against the door with significant power. When the marble is released, it rockets away at slingshot-velocity.
According to the guy being tortured, the poisoners are disrupting Cassandra's party because it is her fault and her father's fault and her Guild's fault that their Guild has lost status.
Ilk asks Lord Talos to find out why they were after Jean.
The wall was put up specifically to get Jean because they wanted him as leverage against his father.
Cailin mind-fries a poisoner, and Jean buds into it. The body starts tearing itself apart now that the mind is no longer holding it together. Jean closes his eyes and thinks of England. Or some other boring place that he doesn't mind forgetting.
Nobody is currently manipulating the power; it was set up as a direct connect to the center of the power itself. The center of the power is at a specified location in shadow.
Cailin sets up a permanent tap on the power in the door.
Ilk looks for Maidenformosa alarms in Chaos and sets them all off simultaneously. Darbin has one or two, Chanicut has a bunch of them, and there is one in Mandor's house over the main door. Ilk creates signs next to the alarms, "Sorry for the inconvenience; just testing. -- Savior of Chaos"
Cailin starts examining Poisoners' brains. They start to collapse as soon as he crashes their outermost layer of shields.
Ilk asks Osric if he could acquire information about Maidenformosa for him, since his House, Chanicut, had lots of their alarms.
Ilk tracks back the ways in the back room; the end location appears to be abandoned. It's out in shadow somewhere.
The Beastmaster has left the party to presumably start working on the cure.
Rainbow has wandered in. He walks up to Jean. "You should be careful, son. There are nasty people about."
"I know. They tried to use me as leverage against you."
"Then you seem to be up to date."
Rainbow has a short exchange with Lord Talos, nods to Sir Erik, and joins the group poking at the door. Jean tells Rainbow that it is a new power; Rainbow says that it's not new, it's just new to Jean.
Sir Erik seems to be annoyed at the vast number of people who can notice him.
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