Beowulf trumps up to the castle.

Beowulf heads over to the Library, keeping an eye out for Thoric and
the Siamese ambassador, and staying away from the various diplomatic
offices along the way.

Beowulf is considerate of his relatives, and doesn't want to cause
Aunt Nanami any more trouble. ^_^

The_Prof pages, "Will be interested in seeing what's happening in the
other room." to you. You page, "prolly won't see it anytime soon, myself,
byt hey." to The_Prof.

Okay, Beowulf trumps up to the castle and heads for the library.

On the way there, you encounter Thoric and two servants hauling a
matress down the hallway.

Beowulf smiles. "Ah, Thoric." He blinks at the mattress. "What's up?"

"My bed got burnt to a crisp by Jackie.  But Matress Mac just
delivered my new mattress.

Beowulf says, "Jacqui... what did she -- never mind, I think. Unless
you want to talk about it."

Beowulf says, "Anyway, I was just wondering how that bracelet was
working out for you."

Thoric says, "It's been working out great"

Thoric says, "Helped save my butt when I went to Lipun and there was
an assassination attempt."

Beowulf smiles. "Good, good -- well." He blinks. "I'm glad I gave it
to you, then."

Thoric asks, "So what's up with you?"

Beowulf says, "Oh, nothing much, just getting ready to pay a visit to
CAFAM before going on a little jungle expedition."

Beowulf asks, "Care to come along?"

Beowulf looks inquiringly at Thoric.

Thoric says, "Jungle rot has never been my thing."

Beowulf says, "Ah. Pity, that... there are really some most
interesting specimens there. Well, have a good day, and good luck
getting your quarters put back together."

Beowulf continues on to the Library.

You reach the library.  Mitsune and Lily are there.  Mitsune is
wearing the garb of an Egyptian priestess and looks quite amused.

Beowulf blinks at Mitsune.

Beowulf says, "And whyfor do you look so amused?"

Mitsune exclaims, "Heyo!"

Kanna OOCly says, "and gotta bail, but leaving connection up."
Kanna OOCly waves.
Beowulf exclaims, "OOC Seeya, Phil!"

Beowulf says, "You know, that's not going to be terribly practical
where we're going, I expect."

Lily smiles at you.  "Hello, Beowulf."  She's wearing a green bustier and
a knee length green skirt today, with high hiking boots.

Beowulf says, "Jewelry tends to snag on jungle vines, after all."

Mitsune says, "Oh, I can always change it if I need to."

Beowulf observes Lily's outfit. "I take it you've decided to come
along?" Somehow, the prospect doesn't seem to bother him as much as it
would have before last night. ^_^

Lily nods.  "I'm not needed immediately."

Beowulf says, "All right, then. Plan is, I'd like to talk to your
mother quickly; Nanami said she'd probably know enough to take care of a
spikard safely. Then head over to Anthy and see if she can translate the
runes, go to Panopticon if she can't, then head over to CAFAM."

Beowulf asks, "Is she in?"

Lily nods.  "I think Mother is trying to soothe the Siamese
ambassador's nerves right now."

Beowulf says, "Ah. Then we won't disturb her." He looks embarrassed.

Beowulf looks at Mitsune. "Did Lily go over what we found out last
night?"

Mitsune nods.  "Yep."

Beowulf asks, "Right, then. What did you find out from the map?"

Mitsune says, "Well, I tried exposing the map to Moonlight."

Mitsune says, "Like you suggested."

Mitsune says, "And a bunch of dancing undead appeared."

Lily looks at her dubiously.

Beowulf nods. "Well, I'm not sure how serious I was, but it sounded
like you found something... oh."

Mitsune exclaims, "Hey, they did!"

Beowulf murmurs, "How many undead can dance on the head of a pin?"

Mitsune says, "Anyway, they started singing in some language I don't
know."

Beowulf asks, "What were these undead like?"

Beowulf says, "Physically, that is."

Mitsune says, "Human.  Mostly skeletons and zombies, but there was
this guy in a red jacket leading them."

Beowulf says, "Red... jacket. All right."

Beowulf says, "Given that you live in a library, I presume you looked them
up?" He grins.

Mitsune says, "They were too generic to look up, really."

Mitsune says, "Except for the red jacket guy, who I identified as
'Michael Jackson', shadow earth singer."

Beowulf covers his eyes. "Oh, no. I still remember when Panopticon
took us on that trip to see his 1984 concert tour..." He
shudders. "Half the class had to undergo psychiatric counseling."

Beowulf asks, "So did they actually do anything, besides singing a bad pop
song?"

Mitsune says, "Apparently, his dancing has the power to raise the
dead."

Mitsune says, "No, not really."

Mitsune says, "But still, it might be a clue."

Lily says, "Or you might have gotten drunk and imagined it all."

Mitsune hmphs.

Beowulf refrains from commenting, though he has a slight smile on his
face.

Beowulf asks, "Anything else happen?"

Mitsune says, "That was all."

Beowulf says, "Suppose we should go see Queen Anthy, then. Where was
your mother soothing the Siamese ambassador? We might want to avoid
him."

Mitsune says, "She's in her office, I think."

Mitsune says, "I think Anthy's down in the gardens again."

Beowulf says, "All right, then... let's head to the gardens, and keep an
eye out for him."

Beowulf makes an 'After you' gesture to the ladies, then heads down to the
gardens.

Beowulf avoids Yumi's office and the diplomatic offices as they go.

You find Mutsumi in the gardens instead of Anthy.  She's talking to a
honeybee.  She straightens up and smiles.  "Hello!"

Beowulf asks, "Ah, Mutsumi!" He gives her a quick hug. "How're you
doing?"

She smiles.  "I'm okay.  Lucien finished his pattern walk a little
while ago, so I decided to come get some sun before lunch."

Beowulf asks, "How'd he do?"

Beowulf says, "I've heard a bit about him, but I admit I'm still
curious about our new relative."

Mitsune says, "He made it to the center okay and teleported out into
shadow somewhere."

Beowulf asks, "Hm. What's he like?"

Mutsumi says, "He seems like a very nice guy.  He's very sweet and
charming and polite and gracious."

Beowulf nods, and smiles. "That's good to hear. I hope everyone's
treating him well? I know I had a little difficulty fitting in when I
first came to Amber."

Mutsumi says, "Well, I heard Uncle Saionji whispering 'Trip, trip,
trip' the whole time."  She sighs.

Beowulf looks puzzled. "I wonder why that was? Oh, well."

Beowulf says, "Hopefully that won't be too much of a damper on things for
him."

"Well, he's gone into Shadow now."

Beowulf nods. "True. Anyway, have you seen Queen Anthy around?"

"I think she's getting ready to go down to the city to buy some
stuff."

Beowulf asks, "Ah. I was hoping to see her this morning, if she had a
moment. Speaking of buying some things... I'd heard you had wanted some
paints from CAFAM?"

Mutsumi nods.  "I'd really appreciate that!"

Beowulf asks, "Anything in particular you'd like?"

Beowulf asks, "Oh, and how long ago did Queen Anthy leave?"

"She probably is just up in her room right now.  She went up a few
minutes ago."

Beowulf nods. "All right... I'll see if I can catch her there."

Beowulf says, "So, was there anything in particular? Or would you like to
come along? I'm planning on going this afternoon."

She smiles.  "Sure, I'm not busy."

Beowulf asks, "All right, then." He smiles. "Suppose I trump you after we
see if we can find Queen Anthy?"

Beowulf asks, "Is that all right with you, or would you rather come
along when we go talk to her?"

She says, "Oh, I'll just tag along."

Beowulf nods, and goes up to Queen Anthy's quarters.

You reach Queen Anthy's quarters.  One of her handmaids lets you in.

She's in the process of writing out a shopping list.  "Hello," she
says.

Beowulf bows to the Queen. "Hello, your Majesty. How are you doing
today?" He straightens up and smiles.

She curtseys.  "I'm doing well.  Just getting ready to go buy some
plants and cloth and spices."

Beowulf smiles. "Ah. We're planning on heading over to CAFAM later
this afternoon... is there anything we can pick up for you?"

Anthy looks thoughtful.

Anthy says. "Some fertilizers which work here would be nice."

Beowulf smiles. "I'll see what we can do, then."

Beowulf asks, "I did have a question for you... I'd recently come
across some Sidar runes in connection with a possible spikard, out in
shadow. I was wondering if you might be able to translate them?"

"I can certainly try," she says.

Beowulf thanks her and hands her the collection of map runes. "This
batch appears to form a map when it's assembled," he says. He hands
over the 10 leftover runes. "And this is the group that's leftover."

Beowulf says, "I think three of the leftover group mean 'Dragon,'
'Sleep,' and 'Temple,' but that's all I could figure."

She begins playing aruond with them, then says, "Greetings, oh lucky
traveller.  You have found a key to the Hoard of the Dragon, a
Spikard.  Within this temple, you will find many things once hidden
beyond the Wall of Sleep.  Inside each urn is a clue to one of the
three keys which will unlock the chest."

Beowulf blinks. "Inside? Hmmm."

Beowulf says, "Hm. Well, all I found inside them was dust. I hope that
wasn't paper that the clues were written on." He grins wryly.

Lily says, "Perhaps they had concealed compartments or something."

Beowulf asks, "OOC Was that for the entire set of runes?"
Mitsune says, "OOC Yep."
Mitsune says, "OOC if you count, fifty words :)"
Beowulf says, "OOC Well, many symbol-based writing systems have
symbols that can mean multiple words, ne? :)"
Mitsune says, "OOC Yep."

Beowulf says, "I hope not... then I'd have to recover them. Bother."

Beowulf asks, "And the ten that were left over?"

Anthy says, "Hmm?  Oh, that's all of them put together.  These extra
ones just repeat some words.

Beowulf says, "Hm, yes. I'd just be curious to see if they might mean
anything by themselves." He smiles at her.

"Hoard.  Wall.  Lucky.  Sleep.  Spikard.  Dragon.  The.  Of.  Temple.
Traveller. "

Beowulf thinks about it for a moment, then shrugs. "Oh, well. I was
hoping that it might have something like the name of the spikard
that's supposed to be stored there." He shrugs.

Beowulf asks, "Are you familiar with any spikards with Dragon in the
name?"

Anthy points to 'You have found a key to the Hoard of the Dragon, a
Spikard. '  "It's called 'The Hoard of the Dragon'"

Beowulf says, "Oh." He shakes his head ruefully. "I was thinking it
simply meant hoard, as in place where treasure is stored." He
sighs. "Spikard-makers could be punny people, at times."

Beowulf asks, "Is that a spikard you've heard of?"

Anthy says, "I'd thought it destroyed."

Beowulf blinks. "Well, well. How was it supposed to have been
destroyed?"

She continues, "But when it existed, it was very good for finding and
identifying and creating precious things.  Oh, it's last known wearer was
hurled in pieces into the Abyss."

Beowulf says, "...oh." He blinks. "Well, I suppose there might be a
way to return things from the Abyss... of course, that means whoever
did it decided to set this up as some kind of test." He pauses. "Or
trap."

Anthy nods. "Likely an Abyss Diver caught it."

Beowulf says, "OOC If Anthy looks reluctant at any point, Bey's going to
break off there; he doesn't want Anthy upset at him."

Beowulf says, "I'm curious... I've heard there were supposed to be
Dragon spikards, just as there were Lion spikards." He looks
embarrassed for a moment. "Are you familiar with any of them besides
Hoard?  I've heard Hiko's is called Breath of the Dragon..."

Anthy says, "There's seven of them.  The Eye of the Dragon, The Claw
of the Dragon, The Wings of the Dragon, The Hide of the Dragon, The
Breath of the Dragon, The Hoard of the Dragon, The Mind of the Dragon"

"Hiko's used to be the Breath of the Dragon.  Now it is the Worm
Ourobous, no longer a Dragon Spikard, but a unicorn spikard.  I
believe Magnus is the Eye of the Dragon.  And father possesses the
Mind of the Dragon."

Beowulf hmmms. "Some of those names sound a bit ominous." He blinks
for a moment. "How did Breath of the Dragon change into a unicorn
spikard?"

Anthy says, "I don't know.  The Unicorn seems to have intervened."

Beowulf says, "We can always be grateful when that happens, I think."

Mitsune nods

Beowulf bows again. "Thank you for your time. I'm sorry... you're
going out to shop, and I keep you tied up with questions. Is there
anything I can do to help you besides the fertilizer at CAFAM?"

Anthy shakes her head.  "Not right now, really."

Beowulf smiles. "Well, I'd best let you get to your shopping, then."

Beowulf looks at the ladies. "Ready to go to CAFAM?"

They nods.  Mutsumi says, "Let's go!"

Beowulf trumps them to CAFAM.