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Jean is having a fudge-sicle problem... there are fudge-sicles throughout shadow that are seeking him out and worshipping him, not Verra. They're only seeking out the homoculi Jeans. They claim that his god-status has been written in the book of fudge-sicles, and present a black puddle of goo as this "proof". Jean is disbelieving. This is also happening at the same time as the snow across Chaos.
Jean asks for a trump of Julian. Various people refuse or look at him in horror; Caine hands him one. Caine and Jean get into a technical discussion of god-hood. Caine's definition includes all decendents of Oberon and Rainbow, thus making Jean doubly a god. Caine finally accepts Jean's argument that being a god is dangerous and a distinct power when he is told about Verra, and that Rainbow confirmed Verra as his sister.
[Vlad is submerged in beer in order to keep him from drowning]
Jean tries to convert the fudge-sicle to worship Julian and shows them the trump. They complain that Julian is the evil one, and one smears itself across the trump, dying in the process, leaving the stick lying forlornely across the card.
Jean tries to have a minion write down the book of fudge-sicle, but the fudge-sicles refuse to tell him the book, because it is a secret book and they don't want the sacrifice to be vain.
Jean demonstrates "smite" to the fudge-sicles. The fudge-sicles claim that Jean isn't a prophet -- the profit is 4.3c each.
Jean asks Cailin to rack an illusion of a fudge-sicle on him. Cailin is confused, so Natasha conjures an exploding fudgesicle.
Jean asks Verra for advice, and doesn't get anything very helpful back. She recommends that he eat them.
Jean tries to convince the fudge-sicles that Natasha's bomb should be read the book. He smites that group and tries again somewhere else, where he talks about being a prophet of Bam the fudgesicle-god, who wears his armor of plastic and rides in a fish-chariot. It works a little bit better.
Jean starts distributing pamphlets in an attempt to convert the people in the seventeen-power shadow to Verra.
Neville has realized that his other magic-eating Morganti has also disappeared, and contemplates going in search of the missing weapons.
Jean notices that the Temple of the Unicorn in Amber is currently dressed for a Unicorn, and tells his mother. There are no people or recent caskets in the temple, but lots of old-ish cenotaphs for various people, many of whom are actually alive.
Jean tells Zack about the funeral in the Temple of the Unicorn. Zack is un-helpful. Jean looks for a newspaper in Amber. There are several old yellowed issues of "The Town Crier" about, but nothing recent. Jean hangs out around the temple to see if anybody shows up, calling out, "Hello? Mr. Unicorn? I have an invitation for you."
[The Sea of Chance is swap space!]
Neville pulls out one of his booby-trapped trumps of the Morganti and tries to get an impression of where his Morganti are. The one that struck the thing's tail is in a place where the trump is warm, and the other is over thataway.
Neville gives a few simple instructions to the Dancer and and goes off towards the knife. He finds it stuck in a granite wall a few shadows over, still quivering from the force of the impact. Neville tries to pull out the dagger, with minimal success - it's really stuck.
Neville cuts a chunk of granite off the wall with lasers on the Frogdallorian armor and hauls it over to one of the labs under the mountain, where he uses the reality engine to unmake the granite.
When the Suhuy and Ilk tendrils enter the room, Ferethyn starts talking. He starts filling in everyone that there seems to be a snow-based magical indicator of people's location in Chaos. Not sure yet why those people have been picked; the snow is apparently only visible by lower level mages; the high level ones cannot see it. Those without magical training cannot see it either.
Relay questions from Ferethyn to Jean. The snow is only in Chaos, and locations are displayed on the map. Cailin has moved and the snow is following him. There is still a howling blizzard at House Moonlight.
Ferethyn: "This is going to be a trap"
Marial raises an eyebrow.
Ferethyn: "Yes, I know. I am going to lower my magical ability down so that I can perceive the snow."
Marial sighs, picks up a dagger, walks up to him, draws most of a circle around him leaving a gap, and says, "How come nobody does it my way?" Shiryu seems somewhat disgusted that Marial etched on his floor.
Ilk asks Marial if he should leave a gap corresponding to hers, and she advises him to do so.
Ferethyn lowers his magical ability.
The Serpent, in the Serpent's Apprentice's ear, says, "See if you can recreate that later on him."
It begins to snow outside Thelbane. Not just a few flakes - that thick, wet, New England snow. Jean relocates nearby Jeans, and discovers that he cannot enter the building. There is no indication of the snow from inside Thelbane.
Ilk sticks a thread outside Thelbane, and opens a magical viewscreen to display the snow. Ferethyn falls over and Marial parries a dagger that comes right through the gap that had been left open.
Ilk pulls back the tendril and drops the viewscreen.
On replay of his memory, Ilk notices a very particular color flash as the dagger appeared.
The dagger has a light coating of the white dust. Ilk warns the others.
Ilk replays that spell and realizes that the viewscreen wasn't his spell, somebody else wrote it. The signature is known to him -- it's Julian. Ilk speculates out loud.
Marial agrees with Ilk's estimation of the scenario that Julian is nearby and speculates that nobody has cleaned up Toram's lands yet. She points out that Dara had a connection to several Houses, any of which are also nearby.
Marial mentions that Ilk should probabaly sic the internal guards on the task of finding Julian, right now.
Ilk sends a tendril out and has Suhuy monitor for eavesdroppers, signal distortion, or other intrusions. The tendril going out and the monitor both notice a carrier wave, magically based. It seems to be magically based, not psionically based, and is on Ilk.
Ilk asks Jean to ask Jenoir if she could remove any magical traces on him. Relay happens. Jenoir tries, aand says that she cannot get into Thelbane at this time. Jean blames the snow.
Jean relays information back. Ilk asks how much of him would be necessary, and Jenoir asks for a thimble-full of Logrus.
Ilk points out that Send Jenoir a spoonful of Logrus.
They decide to do it in front of House Xartys.
Ilk sends a spoonful of Logrus to House Xartys. Jenoir gates there, picks it up magically, caresses it a bit, then does something to it and Ilk feels a wrench and the carrier wave is over.
As soon as Jenoir appeared, it started snowing in front of House Xartys. Jenoir looks around, grins, and gates out grandiously. Jean has no idea where she went. The snow escalates into a blizzard as she gates out.
Ilk updates Marial and sends a new bundle of tendrils to Cassandra, and relays Marial's message that Julian is in or near Chaos, and should be immediately located. Cassandra complains that she is not currently allowed to kill, and Jean offers to ask Princess Chandra.
Jean trundles into the Assassins' Guild and fails to impress the doorman with the importance of his message. Jean mentions his rabbit infestation, and asks if there is an Exterminator's Guild.
Cassandra has broken her group out into teams and has them heading towards the indicated location.
Jean tells Benedict about Marial's message, and Benedict heads off to leave Julian some nasty surprises for when he retreats back here. Benedict gives Jean an egg timer and asks him to notify Marial if the sand is all in the bottom before he returns. Benedict leaves. Benedict returns. Jean tells Benedict about the altercation under the mountain.
Benedict asks Jean if he can get his hands on a certain design, and sketches out the requirements for it. He asks Jean to bring several to him, and scatter no more than two in any of the places where the reinforcements might emerge.
Ilk plays information relay between Marial and Cassandra.
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