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Notes:
Jean explains to Dworkin the fact that he's a lot saner here (Ferethyn's place) than he is in their reality, and speculates that the G-person might have been behind it. Dworkin is curious and worried.
Jean asks the Dancers' Guild when he went insane. They claim that he's been insane for as far back as their records go, and that it goes back as far as his argument that resulted in the preferred food of cats being fish. Dworkin asks Jean to check and see if the records extend beyond Oberon's birth, and they don't. Dworkin plans to have this discussion with Oberon and Oberon's father, the Unicorn.
Jean core dumps about the rifts and the meeting of powers to Dworkin. Dworkin seems surprised that he is invited. He isn't sure if that would be wise. Dworkin asks about wandering around.
Jean tells Flora that Dworkin is sane in Ferethyn's ways, and may have been driven so by Oberon -- no records of insanity in Dancers' Guild records.
She sends a note back: "Dancers Guild records are incomplete. Stop."
Dworkin mentions that Jean seems to have channels. Jean mentions his relation to the King of Chaos, his bodyguarding of the regent to the regent of Amber, and so on. The list continues. Part of a growing religion, ransport mechanism for Shiryu and Andron, connected here at Ferethyn's, knows Ilk, connected to the intelligence that seems to be archiving what is going on, not the Dancers' Guild, a fuzzy being, (Augral!)
augral claims to be an initiate of only one power - Jean.
Dworkin's apprentice, head of house swayville, bodyguarding a minor house head so he cannot have bodyguards
flora's son. Dworkin asks if she is still as delighful in bed as she was before.
Dworkin says that memory is an awkward thing - managing it when it gets big, that is.
Jean notices that Dworkin's shape is changing as he walks. The more that he walks, the more that his form resembles Suhuy.
Neville arms himself in Frogdalorrian armor and the big magic-eating Morganti. They head to the location. They are in a uniform based on Julian's colors. They are taking up a defensive position facing back through the picture.
Neville decides to wait and see what comes through the gate. The uniform has attachment points for powered armor. They are slightly shimmering from the apparent afterglow of some kind of magic; only perceptable through the helm of the armor. One of them is bleeding slightly, wound on the upper arm.
There is a soul-rending scream and something starts pouring through the gate. The scream is coming from within the mist; the mist isn't coalescing but is spreading out. The armored guys are powering up their weapons. At the edges of the mist are the hint of claws and a tail.
"What is that and how do you stop it?"
One of them fires a casual shot over his shoulder that goes wide.
Neville pushes Pattern at it; the Pattern goes through with no visible effect. It does not seem to have Pattern of its own.
At this same moment, there is a metaphysical darkness forming at House Cara --- the party is going from happy drunk to maudalin drunk.
Jean and Cailin simultaneously see snow falling at House Moonlight and across many points on Chaos. Cailin does a magical scan -- the snowflakes are magically generated, transported, and targeted at Cailin. The snowflakes are not white statue-dust. They retreat into the House, and Cailin can feel the snow homing on him.
Eyes coalesce out of the mist. The group fires synchronized, three at each eye. The scream becomes more intense, and the eyes desolidify. They eyes were black.
Jean writes a note to his mother mentioning the snow. They walk outside. One of them pats Jean.
Jean gives Jenoir the short form of the description. She notes that it did not trip any of her alarms, becomes worried, and says to wake Ferethyn -- she cannot see any snow.
Jean and Dworkin discuss waking Ferethyn. Jean tries to do it without actually touching anything, and fails to attract Ferethyn's attention.
Cailin discovers that he can repel the snow magically. He can only see the snow around House Moonlight.
There is no snow falling on Swayville, but there is snow falling on the house that Jean is bodyguarding.
Once again eyes coalesce, are fired at, and disembody. Neville tries to throw the knife into one of the eyes, but runs into timing problems.
Several Houses, the Beastmaster's Tower, and a few other non-House non-Guild places are being snowed upon.
Jean tosses a conjured fish into a wolf-head in order to get Ferethyn's attention. Ferethyn gates into the room and says, "Where did Ilk go?"
"Sorry - that was me. I had to wake you up. Jenoir said that there is snow in Chaos that she cannot see."
Ferethyn gates out, saying, "I'll have Ilk's head for this!"
In Chaos, there is a disturbance in the Force. All of the Realms Lords in Chaos notice it, including Suhuy and the Serpent's apprentice. Savior of Chaos is in shadow, so fails to notice. The Ilks look quisically at each other and at the Serpent. The Serpent says, "You have been summoned."
Jean tells Snarsht about the snow on his tower and that Ferethyn is looking into it. The librarian is condecending towards Jean. "You are so delusional."
"I'm not the one stuck in a circle."
Neville works on a plan to confine the mist with the Reality Engine. People worry about the snow.
Suhuy asks the Serpent if one of the other Ilks should answer. The Serpent replies, "You are all summoned. You must go." Ilks search for the summons point, and discover that it is the Realms Lord room in Thelbane. "Forgive my ignorance... I am unfamiliar with this. With your permission?" "You are summoned. You must go." Suhuy and the Serpent's apprentice go, and the Serpent's apprentice tries to remember how to get back to the round room, and realizes that the room is keeping a lock on him.
Jean notices that his latest blucited preaching creature is still preaching. Jean tries to whale a volunteer martyr to Amber, but it refuses. He whales them nearby, and saucers them the rest of the way. The guy walks into the castle, "Hello? Anyone here?" and returns, announcing "I have failed -- I lived." Jean sends the guy to go look around -- he might get lucky yet.
Jean notifies several people that Evil Benedict is on the move.
Cailin generates a wind and blows the snow away. The more he blows, the more it snows. He traces it back, and it keeps going up and up. He's not sure if it's Chaos any more, but the snow is still coming.
Neville is done sketching a trump of one of Julian's men, backs out of the room, and prepares to use it. He sets the Dancer up as backup. Neville trumps, and slides beneath Julian's man's mind through a well-established channel. The guy half-recognizes him as Julian, using him as reconnaisance. Details on the creature are wrapped up in the concentration. Where is Julian? In his stronghold. He's a minion - he doesn't know where it is. Julian is an all-powerful, all-wonderful god. Julian wears a white helmet with a nose guard - nose is not visible. Plan is to hold here until reinforcements arrive. These six were the bait to draw the thing here so it could be destroyed. Vague associations between Julian and Dara and Julian and Gwen. He does not associate this room with Gwen, but they've used it for traps before. The minion doesn't know how to use the painting -- he just steps through a gate. They gates to the inside of a dark pyramid, then gated here. When Neville withdraws, the guy, inside, says, "The general has been updated."
Cailin ramps down the wind, and the snow continues in intensity.
Neville asks the Dancer to have various people notify the Warrior's Guild of the chance to capture some of Julian's men. The guy says that is beyond his purvue, and they go to another room. Neville asks for a Jean, and a wall sconce ripples. The spidery guy says that a message has been sent. The computer issues a warning that the outer door was opened and closed. A visual reveals nothing of note.
A member of the Dancers' Guild approaches Jean in shadow. Jean waves, and is bowed at as Jean, possibly Rainbow. "The individual who asked the favor of the Dancers Guild to surveil a place of the enemy has asked for a Jean, post haste."
Jean asks Osric to do a time check on the backup plan. Osric has no idea how.
Jean says, "Yeah, sure, I guess." "Would you send one?" "I'm not really sure how to move through shadow." The Dancer greets Jean as Jean, and Jean mounts the Dancer and they head back to the undermountain. Neville notices the outer door open.
"Hi, Neville. The bad person isn't back yet, is she?"
"Not yet. But look at this..."
Neville shows Jean the room and the six guys. Neville pulls Jean off to the side and asks Jean if he could relay a message to Corwin. Jean tells Corwin. Corwin determines that this would be a good test for his daughter's new troops, and writes her a note. Jean delivers the note. Cassandra points out five troops --- four Sith Lords and Jasper. Jean exits the mountain; the whale is sent to Cassandra's army. Jean briefs the Sith on rabbit destruction then whales them to the mountain.
The Sith are led down to Neville. Jean considers budding into them, but decides not to after finding out that Julian has a path into their brains.
Cailin prepares to gate out. It's not snowing at Thelbane, according to Jean. Cailin decides that he's not staying in Chaos -- he's leaving Shadow.
Jean notifies Zack that Evil Benedict is no longer in the castle. Zack is shocked when he finds out that Jean sent a martyr into the castle to test for Benedict-ness. Zack refuses to attack the castle - that's Dworkin's job, not his.
Jean received directions to the Temple of the Unicorn.
Cailin and company gates to near Thelbane. There are still natives attacking the spot where Jean drew the Jewel. They see Marial walking towards them. Cailin asks he if she is aware of the magical snowstorms apparently attracted to various people or places. Jean chimes in with news that Jenoir cannot see the snow. Jean tells Marial about the thing with Julian's troops, and tells her that Corwin would like permission to leave briefly to fetch Julian's nose, which Benedict thinks would come in handy.
At this point in time, Silver Lyra and Flora walk out of Thelbane. Cailin bows to Silver Lyra and asks for passage inside, because it is safe from the elements inside.
[Note to Andrew -- Neville wants to use the back door technique on Rudy and see what he can find]
The Sith Lords jump into the room, are ignored, chuckle, and they all reach out and God-Lightning Julian's troops. Of course, the eyes are solid, and some of the nose is becoming more solid.... They god-lightning the mist, and it just splashes off the wall.
Neville is sarcastic. They pull out lightsabers, and they trickle pitifully. They pull swords and start slashing about, stirring the mist only. The eyes and nose dodge. Neville throws the Morganti at the nose. There is an interesting chase for a bit, as the eyes and nose are avoiding the Morganti and the Morganti is following the eyes and nose until they dodge behind a Sith Lord, who eats the Morganti. The other three Sith Lords are looking at him unhappily. "I missed, sorry!"
Jasper expresses discontent, pulls a sword and actually hits the nose. It smokes and bleeds a black blood that smokes and turns back to mist.
["Can I grab the eyes with Pattern?"]
Jasper moves suddenly and the tail which had been insubstantial until now solidifies and is blocked from wrapping around a Sith Lord's neck. Neville considers Morganti'ing the tail, and decides that Jasper is possibly better than he.
Jean doesn't recognize the tail. It looks like a rat's tail. He starts shuttling bodies to a nearby room, opens a gate, and tosses them through to Lord Talos along with a short briefing.
Cailin works on a snow dispel.
Neville continues trying to grab the mist with the Reality Engine through Pattern, with no success. Neville grabs a laser rifle off the ground and shoots the eye successfully. It smokes and the scream grows even louder. The cycle rate on this rifle is about 30 seconds. Jasper has reached down, pulled the Morganti out of the chest of the Sith Lord, struggles with it a bit, stroked the handle, then goes after the thing with the Morganti. The thing starts actively dodging Jasper. Neville switches between three laser guns. One of the Sith Lords notices what he is doing and follows suit.
The Morganti sinks in at Neville's eleventh shot and the Sith's fourth. The room goes dark, even on the monitor. A few heartbeats later, Jasper is lying on the ground not moving, neither of the blades are anywhere in sight, the other two Sith Lords are dead, the one holding the blaster has a horrified look on his face, and Neville has no idea what is going on. Neville prods the Sith, and gets no response.
There is no mist. The room is dead quiet. He opens the visor, and can hear it. His voice sounds oddly flat, the air is acrid. Neville lowers the visor and turns on the air supply. There is no evidence of it being here. Neville checks on Jasper. He's not moving, but has a very rapid pulse.
Jean acquires a minion-ambulance crew. The one that touches the Sith lord dies and god-lightning goes up in flames. Jean fills in Cassandra on the situation. Cassandra wants Jasper brought to her. Jean decides to leave the Sith Lord as a booby trap. Cassandra takes Jasper into her arms and brings him into her tent. She does not seem pleased.
Ingold does not believe that blucite and the power behind Void are related, but he's not sure. Ingold dislikes the politics that lead up to wars, and is annoyed that his father has focuses so strongly on combat that he feels it to be the be-all and end-all of existance.
"Can one like that ever even care?"
void may be cross-reality; he met king laetatio when fleeing from his father.
Ingold says that they have a tail. Ilk looks, and can see an local-pattern nearby. Ingold goes through an evasion process.
Powers being directed, the history of the wars (and lack of communication) between amber and chaos, old lords, suhuy and dworkin siblings, old lords. philosophies vs powers.
"Travelling in the same direction" is considered to be a more accurate term than allies to describe the inter-relation between Ilk and Ingold/Corwin/Cassandra.
Ingold mentions that someone tried to imprison him who was pretending to be Ilk. The imposter was gloating, "You'll never escape me!" when Ingold ripped a hole into the Void and left.
Mr. Suhuy and his apprentice are invited to hang out with Ingold and help with the Pattern-removal and anti-Logrus amulet research.
Two Ilks arrive at Thelbane.... (ya would have thought that the second one would have known better)
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