Events in two nights of offline sessions: * Explored Annadil's workshop. Very large place, filled to the brim with material components, work in progress, and other things like the molds to be used for the final six Lion Spikards. Among other things there was a logbook, which went over the projects he had completed, up to the point when it stopped 40 years ago. Two recent items of note in it: * A giant underwater battleship that appears to have been completed in an 'underwater base' in another shadow -- many major parts made here and assembled in the remote shadow. Could be a *very* nasty threat if found and activated, although surprisingly there was no hint of it in the events surrounding the Second Day of Darkness. While some of the weapons systems used Outsider sorcery, many of them used normal magic and would be safe to duplicate. * The Abyss Sub that Mamiya used during the Second Day of Darkness, to little effect. There is enough info there to duplicate everything about the sub except the Abyss Engine; you'd need an Abyss Master to do that. Destroyed all Outsider-tainted tools and resources; a lot of useful stuff remains, in both materials and facilities. Bey will probably try to move this to a safer location at some point when there is less urgent business. * Explored the rest of the above-ground portion of the Castle. Nothing particularly significant was found, as it was mostly living quarters. * Contacted folks in Amber to warn them to keep an eye out for the battleship, particularly the Amber fleet admirals: * Called Kozue, she seemed glad to have the information. * Called Saionji... got an avatar of the Serpent instead, who thus appeared to be holding Saionji. * Contacted Nanami about this. Decided it might be related to the Merehallow expedition disaster, and suggested calling Thoric to check this Serpent against the shadow Serpent guarding the Tower there -- Morgan and Saionji definitely unavailable, Mutsumi with Jacqui and thus in limbo until the Akashan expedition completed. Updated back and forth about other things, including Annadil's stronghold being found and the results of the Akashan expedition (meaning Bey knows everything that's happened so far, and will know the rest as soon as it's played). I'm pretty sure there was something else, but don't remember what it was. * Beowulf tries contacting Thoric. He's not taking trump calls. He tries contacting two or three of Thoric's friends around the castle to see if they've heard from him and can ask him to call Bey. Misato hasn't seen him, but Bey updates her on Saionji kidnapping. Makoto hasn't seen him either, and notes that he's available for a quick expedition to help rescue Saionji. * Beowulf tries contacting Michelle to see if she's seen Thoric, as one or two folks thought he might have gone out to visit her estate... and gets the same Serpent as with Saionji. * Now really worried, he contacts one or two more people in Amber to see what might be going on, getting the word from two or three other people that he was last seen heading out to his mother's. Putting two and two together, Serpent's Horn involvement is starting to look very likely. * Contacted Yumi as part of this, who turns out to be down in Chaos helping Miki's diplomatic party. I remember one or two interesting things came up in the course of this, but not what they were. x.x * Also asked her to have Miki call me about helping to explore the basement, disarm trump traps there and seal the Trump Font. Miki agrees to help that evening, when he's free from diplomatic duties. * Finally someone suggests having Aeris do a trump scan for Thoric's surroundings; Thoric is found hellriding towards Amber from the direction of his mother's estates, but Aeris still can't trump-contact him or trump him to us as he's still resisting trump (and has apparently lost his trumps, or he wouldn't be hellriding). Contact Nanami to let her know about Michelle and Thoric's coming in, ask her to intercept him as soon as possible so we can find out what's going on and start operations. * While waiting, Bey contacts King Tylor to update him on Saionji/Michelle and let him know about Annadil's stronghold. Tylor says he'll send a squad of Amber Elders to ward the shadow against intrusion. He suggests doing a Patternwalk/teleport to Thoric so we can pull him out and find out what happened; Bey suggests Makoto, since he's said he's free at the moment. * Bey also contacts Anno and let him know about finding Castle of Night. Anno immediately asks to come through, and starts frantically molding the shadow to prevent anyone but Bey's group or the incoming Amber Elder team from entering. * Bey and Anno talk while this goes on. Bey tells great-grandfather about the trump he used to get here, and the other trumps that mysteriously appeared in his deck at Gainax; Anno says it wasn't him, gives Bey the name of some Chaosian trump masters who might have made them. * Bey also talks with Anno a bit about the Master Spikard expedition, confirms what he learned in the library about using a logrus or Pattern suit to protect the group in the Void, and gets some hints about using a Lion Spikard to track the Master Spikard through its link to the Master (either directly while holding one, or indirectly through enough study of a Lion Spikard to make a link). Also find out that the Master was made by Morgoth/Melkor, and can be cleaned of Outsider taint relatively easily. * This leads Bey to inquire about Kuonji and whether s/he did contact Anno and turn over the Lion Spikard s/he had. Kuonji did talk with Anno, did turn over the LS to be destroyed; Anno notes that Kuonji has an incredibly risky plan to recover the Master Spikard, and says s/he's one of the most reckless grandchildren he has. (!!!) * Talked about the Gloom Device; Anno notes that it should be able to protect against powers as suggested in the library research, that there apparently was a manual, but that it was lost in the universe of the Logrusfall war; it might be possible to retrieve it from there, but the Cave of Worlds couldn't be used to get there as the Logrus was destroyed in that universe. Perhaps the Knife? * Discussed Hel and the Day of the Dead, and his visit to Hel's universe via Tir'na'nog. He noted that the Hel prophecy Bey found in Annadil's Library is from the Red Book of Malin, which means that Motoko has probably already seen it and it wasn't as important then as Bey'd thought. Though now he definitely wants a copy of the Red Book, and will probably ask after it when he goes back to Chaos. (And OOCly, after reading the excerpt of it on the Wiki, Bey's going to be rather startled at the passage on the Castle of Night...) * Discussed Daffyl and the Serpent's Horn, gets descs of four of the five leaders of the group that follow Daffyl. Gets more detail on what Motoko said in passing, about getting Daffyl's Eye back from the head Yellow Priest in Leng. Anno estimates that Touga and Lily together should probably be able to match the Yellow Priest's sorcery skills. [Note: did he clarify whether this was the Yellow Priest with a flawed JoJ, or without?] * I'm thinking there was one other thing they talked about, but can't remember it. :( Oh, I think they talked about the Abyss monks, but don't remember anything significant coming out of it. * Does a temporal scry at Nanami's suggestion while waiting for Amber Elders, to see who visited since Annadil's departure. Only apparent visit was the five elemental priestesses, who took some books and other items from Annadil's workshop. * At some point in the discussions with Elders and/or Anno, Bey learns that House Darios is suspected of being involved with the Rebmaquois; given their apparent marriage to the Water Priestess, and that she was at the stronghold and could have found out about the battleship, this concerns him. * Also has some concerns about the priestess who married into House Tremere, given what he's found out about their involvement in the Akashan adventure. * Decides he needs to talk to Kodachi about this, if it can be managed without hurting/disturbing her too badly. * Also wants to talk to her about the Serpent's Horn attack on House Alars -- see if she can add anything to their behavior, let her know he's going after the people who attacked her House, and see what to do with Merehallow if it's recovered. * Amber Elders arrive, and ward the shadow. Not much else happens, IIRC. * Bey does check with Mother or Nanami about the rings the dragon was wearing, to confirm that they'd be safe to use; verdict was yes. One goes to Naru, one to Utena, since they're focused on protecting from psychic/magic attacks; other two we're considering to see who in Amber can get the most use out of them. Bey makes similar rings for Touga to fill with similar spells, for the rest of the folk; not nearly as powerful as the mindbolts Annadil racked, but better than nothing. * Thoric arrives; confirms that the Serpent's Horn group that follows Daffyl attacked Michelle's estates and kidnapped her, Thoric losing his trumps and having to shadowwalk back. Goes over the events at Daffyl's Tower, noting that Morgan decided to go in and take the sword because there were several other groups in the shadow trying to get it. Bey tells him about the plan to get Daffyl's Eye back from the head Yellow Priest, and Thoric agrees to come along to help rescue his mother and grandfather (and help get Daffyl off *his* back ^_^). * Explore the Garden, while waiting for Miki to arrive. Bey notices a power build-up as they walk through it; Lily is able to determine through Logrus sight that there are are a number of traps that will go off with Pattern use, and that the Garden is set up with a magical construction that will go off if enough of the paths are walked, if someone reaches the gazebo at the center of the Garden, or if simply enough time is spent walking in the Garden. The group retreats, retracing their path to the castle to avoid building up any more charge; Lily and Touga work on unraveling the enchantment, with Bey helping by conjuring Pattern-based devices to wander the paths and discharge some of the Pattern-hostile enchantments. They finally determine that completing the buildup would summon part of Shub-Niggurath's mind into the plants in the garden; Annadil apparently used it to commune with her, but it would also serve quite nicely as a trap for someone hostile, as even a small part of her mind would make the plants very nasty customers to fight. * Miki arrives, and they get ready to clean out the basement. * Preparation beforehand: Discuss what hazards they're likely to face and make countermeasures. Worst threat looks like Trump Elementals. Also talk about what they might actually find at the Font, and how to seal it off. A lot will depend on what they find, but talk with Kafuin and get an Elder Sign device ready to bring in. * Bey and Miki compare notes a little about Aeris' Font, and Miki notes that it was almost certainly artificially created as well. Which leaves the question of who created it... Bey starts to wonder if it might be the same person who made the mysterious trumps. * Start down into the basement. Get through the first level with trump traps without much trouble, Aeris and Miki disarming them fairly easily. * Further down, start encountering Trump Elementals. Naru is in the center of the group but still gets attacked the worst, as they trump in around her; Bey's ring with intelligent Power Words helps protect him, and as soon as they beat off the first batch, he ducks in the bag and makes ones for Naru (and the others?) * After beating them off (Bey's trump-enhanced whip works well here), they arrive at the Font itself. It appears to be an artificial creation, with Annadil linking this site to various sources of trump energy in shadow, over an Outsider pinhole. * Miki's investigations set off something inside the Font, which starts building up energy to do something nasty like trump the whole Font/whole Castle (wasn't sure about this) to a Bad Place. There's enough time to try and bring in someone to help; Bey considers and then rejects bringing in Corrine, as she's too important to risk, though he does ask her if Gabrielle can help. Gaby may have helped Aeris, but it's hard to tell since she couldn't manifest there. * Miki, Touga and Lily put full effort in trying to shut down the Font, Touga and Lily feeding Miki power. The Font starts summoning in winged beasts (probably Bykahee) that Bey, Naru and Thoric are able to keep away from the trio working on Font shutdown. * Bey analyzes the situation and realizes at this rate, the Font will eventually be able to wear them down (as it's also slowly working on the nasty trump-away). * Lily breaks away from the Font effort and forms a Logrus shield over the Font to fry the beasts as it tries to trump them in. This works -- too well, as it irritates the Font enough to send out a burst of trump energy that strikes the Logrus in a powerful explosion. Thoric, Touga and Lily are knocked out; Miki uses his trump skills to come out unharmed, and power words from Bey's rings protect Bey and Naru. * Fortunately, the explosion also stuns the Font and stops the power-building. Bey bundles Lily, Touga and Thoric into the bag for some fast-time recovery, and Miki manages to get the Font temporarily sealed. An Elder Sign device is brought in from Kafuin, temporarily powered by an Aeris manifestation until Miki can cut the various Shadow sources of trump energy and use them to power the Seal instead (as they seem to be clean); Miki will be doing that over the next several nights, and said he didn't need any help from Bey or the rest of the group. * Bey leaves another Aeris manifestation behind so she can keep an eye on the place, and on the guards -- Bey talks some of the people from Screwtape's World into guarding. ^_^ As they hate Outsiders, and create their bureaucratic stultification as a form of Order to lock out the Outsiders. :)